United Church of Christ and Same-Sex Unions

{NOTE: July 4, 2005, After reading this enty, please move to the beginning of my blog to read more.}

Very soon we could have the first mainstream Christian denomination church, the United Church of Christ, to endorse the recognition of same-sex marriages.

This from news in Atlanta:

The Rev. John H. Thomas said Tuesday that the church’s General Synod "should affirm the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender persons to have their covenanted relationships recognized by the state as marriages equal in name, privileges and responsibilities to married heterosexual couples."

Perhaps it will become increasingly difficult to pass a Constitutional Amendment on marriage if a mainstream church is supporting it. What’s really exciting about this is that the head of the denomination is making a public statement of support.

Oh Canada!

It looks like our neighbors to the north took a giant step into the history books. Canada passed same-sex marriage legislation with a 158 – 133 vote. Congratulations! Makes me wish I was a Canadian.

Pride Encounter

I'm a sucker for chachies at Pride. I don't know why but I feel I have to accept everyone's bag of useless plastic toys and ads, most of which I throw away when I get home. Perhaps its just my inner pack rat coming out. I see an opportunity to horde more stuff so I seize the moment.

In my exuberance to collect as much as possible I approached a woman passing out fliers. I asked her what she had. She handed me a pamplet and said it is a free conference. I took it, stepped away, glanced at the front of the flier, read
Exodus International, turned to her, handed it back. "No thanks," I replied the best look of disgust I could make.

Damn, I was too polite. Why was I polite to her? What I wanted to do was shout at her. I wanted to show my anger. I wanted her to feel uncomfortable. I wanted everyone's eyes to turn to this woman and know exactly what kind of fink she was. Sheneeded to know the pain she and her cohorts cause.

Standing beside her was another "Exodus-flier-passer-outer". It was a man that was neatly dressed with a coordinated outfit, stylish glasses, and a well manicured coif. It was apparent he had spent more than a fleeting straight-man moment on
his hair, taking a moment to admire himself in the bathroom mirror this morning. But his overall appearance was stuck in limbo between the gay man that he really was and the "straight" man that Exodus taught him to be. He wanted to go all out with attention to detail. At the same time, though, he wanted to leave some edges rough and unkempt. It showed. He needed liberation.

As I stood off to the side looking back at them, I played out several scenarios of response in my mind. I wanted to go up to her and give her a thoughtful, articulate explanation of why she was wrong. I wanted to tell her that she should feel ashamed and to leave. I wanted to tell her the man standing next to her pretending to be straight was the next John Paulk. I wanted to ask her about the investigation of abuse by the state of Tennessee at Love In Action. But I couldn't. I was so angry that I couldn't formulate a coherent argument in my mind. After all this was my day – our day - to celebrate our lives. Why couldn't she just leave us alone for once? Give us one weekend of fun to be ourselves, to be left alone by the deafening noise of contempt from the outside world. She had come to my party covertly, uninvited, unwanted.

As my friends and I walked away I looked back over my shoulder and locked eyes with her in a cold, long, uncomfortable stare. That was the only response I could
formulate without going into a blind range. Afterall a response like that accomplishes nothing. Somehow, I felt that I conveyed my message. Something in her stare back showed that she registered the rage I felt.

Mission accomplished.

Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener.

That is what I'd truly like to be.
'Cause if I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener,
Ev'ryone would be in love with me.

It looks as those my efforts to eat healthy, fresh foods is going to be tanked for
the next few months. Instead I'll be buying boxes of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese, Oscar
Mayer wieners, countless boxes of Post cereal and downing Maxwell House coffee.

For my transgressions, I blame Donald E. Wilmon, Chairman of the American
Family Association, and Jerry Falwell (we all know this gluttonous ballooning man).
It seems they aren't pleased with Kraft Foods' support of the Gay Games. (Something
about being anti-family or something.) The AFA is encouraging they're drones
to send emails (from their website) and call Kraft foods asking them to oppose the
Gay Games.

So I decided to launch my own mini boycott. I used the AFA's own tools to send an
email of support to Kraft. I encourage you to do the same. Go to the American
Family Association 's
Take Action Page. They have a standard letter that you can sign your
name to and send. These Right Wing Wackos are so stupid they let me edit the email
to say whatever I wanted. Well, I mischieviously changed the email from their
wording:

I am greatly disappointed to learn of Kraft's sponsorship of the Gay Games.
I ask that Kraft withdraw its sponsorship. If Kraft does not withdraw its
sponsorship of the Gay Games, and if American Family Association calls for
a boycott of Kraft, I will participate.

TO MY wording:

I am very pleased to learn of Kraft's sponsorship of the Gay Games.
I ask that Kraft continue its sponsorship. If Kraft does not withdraw its
sponsorship of the Gay Games, and if American Family Association calls for
a boycott of Kraft, I WILL BUY MORE KRAFT PRODUCTS.

I hit send. Hehehehehe....I turned the AFA's gun around and pointed it back
at them. You should give it a try to. Write whatever you want.

My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R.
My bologna has a second name, it's M-A-Y-E-R.
Oh, I love to eat it everyday, and if you ask me why, I'll say,
"'Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A."

Tenn. investigates ex-gay camp Teen's blog leads to outcry, charges of abuse at unlicensed facility

Ah, yes, at last the state of Tennessee takes notice. The Washington Blade reports that the protests in front of the Love In Action torture facility in Memphis, TN caught the attention of the Tennessee Departments of Health, Mental Health, Human Services, Child Services and Education.

Perhaps the real atrocities will be revealed. Now, I can go to bed happy.

Those "Loving" Southern Baptists

It seems the Bush needs to scare up some poll numbers for himself. Apparently, there isn't much action from the "terrists" out there. When the "terrists" fail you do the next best thing....bring up the unConstitutional Marriage Amendment chatter again.

This was publish on WVLT Volunteer TV:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. President Bush today praised Southern Baptists for their strong family values and again proclaimed his support for a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.

Bush told the 11-thousand Southern Baptists convening in Nashville that they are practicing compassion by defending the family and the sacred institution of marriage.

It's the fourth time the president has addressed the convention, which boasts about 16-point-3 (m) million members and more than 43-thousand churches.

The conservative Southern Baptists heavily supported the president in last year's election.

The group adheres strictly to conservative theological positions.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

hmmmmm.....

Love In Action

I'm completely revolted after reading about Love In Action "ministries" in Memphis, TN. By the way, their web site is down right now, probably because they have received so much traffic. Or they're further cutting themselves off from the rest of the world.

Love In Action, Inc. is a hate group that psychologically abuses teenagers and young gays and lesbians by holding them against their will in order to "turn them straight". They have received lots of press recently in part because one courageous young man (Zach) blogged about his pending incarceration.

"They [Zach's parents] tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they 'raised me wrong.' I'm a big screw up to them, who isn't on the path God wants me to be on. So I'm sitting here in tears, joinin [sic] the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs and I can't help it," Zach wrote. "I've been through hell. I've been emotionally torn apart for three days... I can't remember which days they were ... time's not what it used to be," the teen wrote in his last blog entry on June 3.

Let's hope he comes out ok and that he can continue on with his life. Zach also posts pages and pages of Love In Action rules on his website. The rules are so long, detailed and full of "don'ts" that anyone would eventually break one even without trying. The entire "ministry" sets up their abusees for failure.

The one rule that stands out as particularly ironic if not abusive: 1. Be honest, authentic, and real.

How can these prisoners be true to themselves when told they are lowly scum?

Snowflake Babies

"Taking the life of a human for the hope of treatment for another is wrong," Mason said. "Human embryos are not leftovers and invaluable clusters of cells. Human embryos are human and have value because of this." No, I'm not condoning such opinions here. Its from an article from the wackos at Focus on The Family.

This entire debate over freezer burned blastocysts seems completely absurd to me. In fact there should be no debate at all. After all, what's more noble than giving up one's life for the betterment of humanity. That is if you consider a freezer burned lump of cells sitting in a petri dish for years a "quality life". Everyday we honor nobler soldiers who have given their lives for the cause of Bush Democracy. Why not just say these cells gave their potential lives for the advancement of all society? That seems a pretty noble cause to me.

I can see it now. Twenty or thirty years in the future, Right Wing Christian (RWC for short) groups will be lining up outside cancer treatment facilities chastising patients cured of cancer. They'll chant,"10,000 babies gave their lives so that you could live one more day." What a bad nightmare!

Bush et al. twist and mangle the facts (actually, just make up untruths) to pass their shameful agenda. They parade "snowflake" babies in front of the cameras, kiss them and claim that this child would not be alive today if it hadn't been for some unintelligible Bush agenda. They use the innocent children. But the RWC has been known to "use" innocent people to push their own agenda in the past. By the way, what ever happened to their grandstanding beside Teri Schiavo's hospital bed?

Why not use these flecks of human material to solve larger puzzles? Why not do something useful with them? Yes, useful. After a certain time in the freezer the cells are tossed out, in the trash, to the landfill (sorta). They don't even get the honor of a funeral!

Where are these RWC groups going to find 300,000+ willing wombs to carry these children to full term? That's where my idea comes in. Why not allow gay couples to adopt the embryos? If its two women, perfect!...one can carry the baby in her womb. If its two men then use the services of a surrogacy firm to find a willing mother. There are plenty of eager gay couples to have their own child. What a perfect match! How ironic! The gays help the RWC and the RWC help the gays.