So often, we see the issue of same-sex marriage, as being a civil issue, and the DC Marriage ordinance is a prime example of that. However, it is also a spiritual matter, and the debate exists within the church as well as within the civil society. And that brings us to Dunbarton United Methodist Church in DC.

Clergy at Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Georgetown said they will conduct same-sex weddings despite the denomination’s ban against the practice. ”As a pastor, I am called to extend care and grace to all people even as Jesus did,” said Rev. Mary Kay Totty, pastor of Dumbarton, in a statement Wednesday. “We celebrate love and loyalty wherever it is found.” Dumbarton’s Church Council had voted last month to “honor and celebrate the wedding of any couple, licensed in the District of Columbia, who seek to commit their lives to one another in marriage.” No other Methodist congregation in Washington is sanctioning gay and lesbian weddings, according to Dumbarton.

This is a very big deal because the United Methodist Church does not allow same-sex marriage and forbids its pastors from performing these ceremonies. Will the paster, like Jimmy Creech and others before, be let go, and removed from the ministry, or will the congregation, which feels it is acting on the right side of Faith prevail?

Without much difficulty, it is possible to find people who fall on either side of that issue. John Meunier sees the congregation’s actions from the perspective of ethics, and deems them acting in relation to a conflict of error:

Error – We have a duty to teach what the church teaches, but our conscience – after much painful trial – is convinced the church is wrong. Here we have a case of error. Either the church or the individual is wrong. Both cannot be right.

By “church” here, he means the denomination, and by individual, he means the congregation.

However, Ray McDonald takes a very different approach. He sees the Hebrew Scripture story of Daniel as offering the answer, and summerizes:

I believe that the law of God is far superior to the law of the state…

For McDonald, no distinction is drawn for Church Law as if it has any potential to be different than God’s Law. Like many Christians, McDonald is too caught up in the Old Testament to remember that the followers of Jesus are not bound to the Laws of Moses, but he likes the easiness of condemnation of homosexuals. I believe that the congregation at Dunbarton believe they are aligned with God’s Law as well as the Law of the government, and see the Church law as unaligned with the Will of God. McDonald concludes:

Those who call themselves after Christ will face persecution from within and from outside the church.  We will be held in contempt in the courts of the land for standing up for Jesus and Biblical truth.

And while I don’t agree with him on much, I do agree that the real issue here is Biblical truth.

From the time, about 30 years after the death of Jesus, the point of it all has been Faith in Christ, but for today’s fundamentalists, Faith is not enough, and they are holding out and pushing for a “Biblical truth” that does not and can not exist. Truth is a product of Science and the evaluation of facts. Where as the very notion of the Christian Faith is Faith and belief where no facts exist or matter, and thus, there can be no single truth. Biblical truth is the position that the Bible is factual as written, a position that can not hold up to any real investigation.

So , this is the discussion or debate that Dunbarton has entered in a bigger way than ever before.

Peace and Love to this brave congregation.

Read more:

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100303/high-court-denies-request-to-block-d-c-gay-marriage/print.html

http://www.umaffirm.org/cornews/dumbart.html

http://johnmeunier.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/duty-and-dumbarton/

http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2010/03/04/setting-itself-apart-georgetown-church-will-celebrate-same-sex-marriages/

http://www.religiondispatches.org/blog/2325/religious_conservatives_fight_rash_of_gay_marriages/

Like some of her other pieces, I wasn’t originally going to write about it. I enthusiastically, take her text in and ponder it, allowing it to ferment and give rise to thoughts and ideas. But then, I started reading the comments. A number of them, are the standard, evangelical defensiveness and victim posturing, as if fundamentalists are the poor abused minorities. They wonder what they have done to deserve such scorn, whereas Janet’s op-ed doesn’t attack evangelicals in general at all, at least in my opinion. And there were the comments made by Bible thumpers, who characteristically pull out a few Bible passages, and offer them as if they are the answer to everything. Frighteningly, these seemed to be placed there as if they support the Ugandan move towards the execution of gays. But one caught my eye, and propelled me into this post:

Clearly, the idiots like Janet Edwards are spreading lies. I don’t think you understand that you are doing the work of the devil by spreading LIES. Jesus Christ was crucified because of lies. I hope you understand the punishment of God for liars.

A Ugandan pastor is showing gay pornography at church to try to garner support for a proposed law that would impose the death penalty for some gays.

Martin Ssempa showed the videos to some 100 adults during a church service Wednesday in Uganda’s capital.

He says he plans to show the films regularly to educate churchgoers on gay sex and also plans to show the videos to parliamentarians. He says some churchgoers cried after watching the videos, which he said he downloaded from the Internet.

This seems so outlandish, it is hard to fathom that it is for real. but it is. Ssempa goal is to “educate” his captive audience in what he says is “Gay.” without any care if that is true or not. Personally, I’m not a big fan of porn, but without a doubt, it isn’t hard to find on the web. That said, I’m sure I could find porn out there that turned my stomach. but this guy has a mission: he wants to show only that which will upset and shock. I’m sure it is not too difficult to find straight porn that his church goes would see as equally offensive.

And for him, this is Church.

Makes you wonder, is he following God, or some other god (or personal demon)…

via Ugandan anti-gay pastor airs gay porn in church :: EDGE on the Net.

Conservative activists on the Texas Board of Education say that the authors of the Constitution intended the United States to be a Christian nation. And they want America’s history textbooks to say so.

It is withouth a doubt, one of the most frightening things I’ve read in a while.

Our real enemies in the world tend to be ultra religious crazies willing to blow themselves up over what they believe is a holy war of US Christians trying to kill their religion. Our government doesn’t see it that way. To us, we are trying to make ourselves safe from these extremists. So what is a little Bible verse have to do with that? What it does is give the message that this really is a religious battle of Christians trying to kill them. All that can do is add fuel to the fire, and make the crazies feel justified in their craziness. And who loses? Our soldiers and their loved ones.

The linked story is from a far right web site, and I chose it specifically so that you can read the comments left by these far right Christians. Truly insane.

Now, not all Christians feel this way (Thank Heavens) but we have to start to name things as they are. We all have to wake up and recognize that while faith can be a powerful tool of much help to many, religious zealotry isn’t good for anyone.

Christianity has failed when it makes us into the exact enemy that other religious zealots are claiming that we are. Where are the real Christians to save Faith from the destruction being caused by the fringe?

CNSNews.com – Group That Alerted Media to Biblical Markings on Rifle Sights Wants Congress to Investigate ‘Military Religious Extremism’.

I doubt that there is anyone who hasn’t heard about Pat Robertson’s comments following the unbelievable catastrophe that hit Haiti this past week. If you aren’t aware, the link below includes the video clip. While a number of blogs, news sources and others have chastised Roberston for the comment, there has been little real exploration of what he said or the historical record behind it.

I can’t find any positive perspective from which to view his comment, and I’ve thought a lot about this. In some regard, his remarks are the standard evangelical conservative response to everything: “Turn to God.” To homosexuals they say, turn to God. To the confused and hurting youth they say, turn to God. To the victims of one of the worst natural disasters to hit the Western Hemisphere they say, turn to God.

And he harms the people of Haiti, as well as all who listen to him, by trying to shroud his Christian arrogance with a pretend compassion for the people of Haiti. Much like the ex-gay ministries claim to love the men and women who seek guidance there, when in reality the very actions taken are harmful and soul-killing.

Robertson traces the problem of Haiti back to what he calls a true story, yet nothing could be further from the truth. For Robertson, it includes a pact with Satan, an idea meant to inspire fear and titillation. How exotic it sounds. How taboo! Few have tried to unpack this “true story”, except some have claimed it isn’t true. Most have simply expressed outrage that he said it.

And similar to the  portrayal of homosexuals, Roberston fails to offer a true context and presentation of the reality for his “true story.” He begins, “They were under the heel of the French.” As if the people were the indigenous people under the control of a foreign power. Robertson fails to acknowledge, that the people being discussed were Africans brought by force to the area, as slaves. This is a critical point as simple as it may seem. The conservative Christian movement uses half-truths like this upon which it builds the judgements and conclusions they cast upon others.

But what of this pact with Satan?  Historically, there does appear to be a story that a houngon (vodou priest) named Bookman led a ceremony where the people asked for assistance against the French and this is often labeled as the start of the revolution that ended slavery allowing the slaves to achieve freedom fort themselves.

Missing are a few facts however. First is the fact that Satan doesn’t really play a role in Vodou despite the Hollywood portrayal of the religion. Vodou, like Santaria, is a syncretic faith born from the melding of ancient African practices and belief systems with Catholicism. More likely, Bookman was calling upon the ancestors, not Satan, to make the people strong, and for that strength to allow them to rebuke their French oppressors.

For Robertson, the Catholics may be every bit as Evil as the pagans from which these people’s religion was formed. But it is still ironic that the very faith tradition Robertston slanders, grew out of the forced conversion to Christianity (even if it was Catholicism). Today, he calls on the Haitians to turn to God, but today’s invocation is no less damaging that the forced conversion of that earlier era.

How Religion has failed, or more correctly, how Christianity has failed, when this is all that such a public face of evangelicalism has to offer to a country where 85% of the population are Catholic.

If all of this wasn’t enough, there is a darker and more sinister side to Robertson’s comments. It is almost as if he was suggesting that the people were better off as slaves, than to rise up and cast off their oppressors. For Robertson, that religious ceremony conducted by Bookman was the start of the Haitian peoples’ problems. Many might argue it wasn’t that event but rather it was the forced enslavement of these people, originally from Africa, that could be deemed the start of their problems. The enslavement of these black tribes, at the hands of the rich white Europeans, who did it, with the blessings if their contemporary church. But Robertson urges the people of Haiti to turn to God.

Now, as then, the will ands desires of the people are unimportant. Some white man knows what is best for the black people of Haiti.

Robertson’s “true story”: Haiti “swore a pact to the devil” to get “free from the French” and “ever since, they have been cursed” | Media Matters for America.

“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its Gifts, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”

– Black Elk (1863-1950)

Exhibit A, Book Review by Nicolas Wade:

Dawkins invites the reader to share the frustration of an imaginary history teacher, some of whose students refuse to accept that the Roman Empire ever existed, or that Latin is the mother tongue from which the Romance languages evolved. Instead of concentrating on how Western culture emerged from the institutions of the Roman state, the teacher must spend time combating a school board that insists he give equal time to their alternative view that French has been spoken from time immemorial and that Caesar never came or saw or conquered. This is exactly analogous to the plight of the biology teacher trying to acquaint students with the richness of modern biology in states where fundamentalist opponents of evolution hold sway.

From exhibit B, letter by Daniel Dennett:

What is going on at The New York Times? Why is it so bizarrely respectful of those who doubt evolution? In recent years The Times has published three preposterous Op-Ed articles by evolution-doubters (Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Michael J. Behe and Senator Sam Brownback). These no more deserved space in The Times than the opinions of flat-earthers or trance- channelers. In the wake of Judge John E. Jones III’s decision in the Dover, Pa., case that intelligent design is a religious viewpoint that may not be taught in public schools, one would think The Times would finally recognize that the intelligent design campaign is a hoax and dishonest to the core, and stop giving it respectability in its pages.

from Exhibit C, Letter by Alex Rosenberg:

Evolution is a fact, natural selection is a process and Darwin’s theory is that the fact is explained by the process. The facts of evolution are as evident as any facts about the past can be. So is the fact that blind variation and natural selection can produce a lot of adaptational change. Darwin’s theory about how it does so is indeed a work in progress, but one whose basic correctness is no more open to doubt that General Relativity. In “The Greatest Show on Earth,” and in a couple of other books, including “The Ancestor’s Tale” and “The Blind Watchmaker,” Dawkins has shown us how this process, which is entirely free from purpose, goal, intention or design, results in the overwhelming appearance of all four. Processes, of course, are facts. No twist in Dawkins’s knickers.

from Exhibit C, Letter by Eric Delson:

In his otherwise excellent review, Nicholas Wade draws a distinction among theory, law and fact in science. He notes that Dawkins, in reaction to “creationists, who like to dismiss evolution as ‘just a theory,’ ” insists that evolution is a fact. Wade correctly recognizes that in science a theory is more than a supposition, as does Dawkins, but while criticizing Dawkins for calling evolution a fact, Wade falls back on using the term “theory,” which surely connotes uncertainty to the nonscientist. Both authors ignore the third option, to refer to evolution as a “law” in the same sense that most people speak of the “law of gravity.”

Yes, this may appear to be simply all about evolution and creationism, but my purposes are different, so bear with me. This debate about evolution, is simply an illustration of the line drawn in the sand. And, if I’m honest from the start, my premise and ideas have nothing to do with God, except I thought the title sounded catchy. God is not gasping for air, or dying, or fading from relevancy. However, I believe it true to say that those humans who refuse to accept Science and the fact of Evolution are afraid that this is the case. To them, Science is an attempt to kill God. Their insistence to hold so tightly to a disproved myth, and develop ideas like Intelligent Design, at all costs, suggests that without it, they have no ability to believe in God.

How else can you explain the construction of a Museum of Creationism, where robotronic dinosaurs frolic with humans, in a way that scientifically could never exist, but must be constructed and sold as undeniably true so that the myth of the great flood can be aligned with scientific fact? Why else work so hard to hold the Bible as ultimate history, except that without it, they are afraid that God will cease to exist, or more accurately, never had existed in the first place. Personally, I don’t think the existence of God is up for grabs, and any discussion of it, is a red herring, designed to shift focus away from the bigger question: what is the validity of Religion, or more specifically- what is the validity of seeing a Judeo-Christian perspective as the only accurate and true expression of Religion. The Christian religion (lower-case “r”) is what is at stake of being disproved.

My intentional splitting of Christianity from the whole Judeo-Christian branch of history should not be minimized. Philosophers and theologians within the Hebrew tradition have, since the dawn of their faith tradition and ancestral beginnings, seen the value of interpretation. Volumes upon volumes exist as different individuals have chosen to explore sometimes subtle, and sometimes drastic explanations for scripture, practice, and belief. It has only been the comparatively recent Christians who seek to mold an understanding of fact into something that might fit within their locked-down scriptural words. In other words, only the Christian Church works so to declare the fact of the Holy Bible as more important and above all other fact, and even above the importance of Faith.

So, what the heck does this have to do with anything Queer, or Gay, or whatever words you choose? Can you believe I just wrote 1000 words as a set up to what I really want to say? Yes, I guess I did.

Virtually all of the backlash and opposition to full equality for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgenders, is rooted in a religious objection to homosexuality. While Christianity isn’t the only faith tradition to oppose homosexuality, it does hold a singular spot as the predominant religion of the advanced Western Culture. The attack on homosexuality from the Christian extremists is completely an effort to support their fallacy of the Holy Bible as Fact, and plays the same role in the perpetuation of this fallacious fact, as the attack on evolution. While in practical terms, the opposition to full equality for LGBT’s is the oppression of actual people, the goal of any of the Christian Far Right isn’t to harm people, but rather to defend their stronghold on the Fact of the Holy Bible, and thus, their own sole connection to God. This is partly how these Christians can claim to love the sinner but hate the sin, because to them, it isn’t about real people, but about actions and behaviors. They don’t set out to cause harm, even if for them, the ends justify the means. Not all Christians operate that way. Even some denominations articulate that Faith and Experience play key roles in understanding God’s plan. But in moments of fear, even the most moderate Christians can fall into the trap of the Bible as Fact.

The issues of the Fact of Evolution and the Fact of Homosexuality are both, at the core, issues of biology and science. The war raging between the Christian extremists and Science concerning evolution has been going on for some time, so it is easier to see and analyze a history for that struggle. It follows other similar battles with Science such as the struggle of the Church to condemn Galileo because his astrologic observations did not match their literal Biblical reading. The Battle against the science of homosexuality is relatively new. Previously the Church used only a moral argument against homosexuality, but in reality, it didn’t care if homosexuality was going on, as long as it was secret and hidden. However, as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people have become more visible, and want the rights that everyone else has, as out visible and happy people, this acceptance of secrets no longer functions, and the Church has lost most if not all of it’s moral authority.

So, The Christian extremists have nowhere else to turn except to their Holy Bible as fact.

The Holy Bible’s Last Gasps for Air

Therefore, the battle against Homosexuality is really the battle to save the authority of the Holy Bible. If they give in on this one, they have nothing left that they can see to justify the need for their religion. The rest of the things that they could possibly grab hold of as justification for Christianity have long since passed away. Greed and Coveting rule- look at how the Banking industry or the Health Care industry work to shore up their profits over the well being of our society as a whole. Gambling is everywhere; Divorce is prevalent; Lying almost the default behavior. The Golden Rule is tarnished and appears to look more like plastic that a precious gem.

Unlike the fact of evolution, the Science of Homosexuality isn’t as well understood. Not yet. Still so much that we don’t understand about genes, and proteins and hormones, and all of the various things that play into the biology of it. And we understand far more of the Biology, than we do of the sociology of Homosexuality- how culture and environment affect the Biology as well. In time these too will be well understood. But for now, we must accept that there is still much that we do not yet know as fact in the same way as we know about the fact of evolution.  This isn’t really any different than the process by which the fact of Astronomy and the solar system came about. It just takes time.

If I am right however, that this is the last big stand that the Far Right Christians have to support their Holy Bible as fact, then, the fact of homosexuality is likely to be even more dismissed than the fact of evolution. This last attack on the fallacy will be fought with greater blindness and zeal. So we have a real battle to look forward to.

Letters – The Fact of Evolution – NYTimes.com.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajBR0dq0XXk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Event: Screening of ‘For the Bible Tells Me So’ by NW PA NOW

What: Exhibit

Start Time: Wednesday, November 18 at 7:00pm

End Time: Wednesday, November 18 at 9:00pm

Where: Frank G Pogue Student Center, Edinboro University, Edinboro PA

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=153971228410&mid=14245b2Gd90731G3deab98G7

Website for the movie and book: http://www.forthebibletellsmeso.org/indexb.htm

This is an especially interesting passage, considering how the Bible is used as justification why gays and lesbians should not be allowed to marry. Imagine our society if every woman who was not a virgin was stoned to death, in front of her parent’s home. Is that what the radical Christian right is meaning when they want to protect the sanctity of marriage? There is little alternative to the interpretation: a requirement for marriage is that the woman is a virgin, and the Bible offers the punishment for a man who falsely accuses his wife as well as punishment for the wife is isn’t a virgin.

Why isn’t the National Organization for Marriage on top of this? They could be handing out the stones if they are so intent on protecting marriage.

Deuteronomy 22:13-21 (New International Version)

Marriage Violations

13 If a man takes a wife and, after lying with her, dislikes her 14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” 15 then the girl’s father and mother shall bring proof that she was a virgin to the town elders at the gate. 16 The girl’s father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18 and the elders shall take the man and punish him. 19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver [a] and give them to the girl’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

Dan Leveille.