An internal conflict of values.

September 24, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Love keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other men’s sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance.” – 1 Corinthians 13:5–7 [New English Bible]I do not like to gloat over other people’s sins, and yet the news keep putting them in front of my nose. They wind up in this blog for pretty much the same reason each time — not because another person’s failings make such delicious gossip, but because the people whose failings and egregious acts catch my eye are the ones who have claimed to be so sanctimonious. They have in fact been the enemies of the truth, especially in areas of sexual truth.

“Bishop” Eddie Long in Atlanta is making news today not for pastoring an independent mega-church of 25,000 (hence his self-appointed status as bishop), and not for wearing expensive jewelry and claiming that God wants such wealth for his followers, but because of allegations from some young men in his congregation that he seduced them into sexual acts. As of this afternoon, four men have stepped forward, and I think each of them was 18 or younger at the time the sexual incidents took place. As of today, two lawsuits have been filed against him.

According to the Associated Press coverage, Long has preached against same-sex marriage and prodded his youth to be sexually responsible. If the allegations are true, the word hypocrisy comes to mind once again.

“Bishop Eddie Long’s boys’ academy guided teens through their “masculine journey” with lessons on financial discipline and sexual control, right down to a little card the students had to carry in their wallets reminding them why they shouldn’t have sex.”Long himself, though, has been accused of contradicting those virtues. The bishop — who’s been an outspoken opponent of gay marriage in the past — is being sued by two young men who attended the LongFellows Youth Academy and say Long used the program to groom them for sexual relationships.”I wrote this on February 2: “But what are the credentials of Christian ministers, period? Many well-known preachers have run through Bible colleges while others have advanced degrees. The procedure by which any particular local church, or national denomination, certifies one to be competent to lead Christian churches and to speak for God, are vastly different form place to place, denomination to denomination. The lack of a uniform high standard doesn’t merely allow the wing nuts to use the title “Reverend” with their name. It has also allowed unqualified people who are also sexual predators to gain access to the vulnerabilities of innocent people, and who are manipulators and thieves to help themselves to huge sums of money.”Okay.  I would guess that most conservative religious figures who rant and work against gay and lesbian people are not sexual hypocrites.  They probably are heterosexuals who live in stable heterosexual marriages. But there are a lot of prominent figures who keep popping into the news, and this is because of “contradicting the virtues” they publicly preach. Hypocrisy.

These particular religious leaders who turn out to be closeted homosexuals or bisexuals “on the down low” may feel compelled to preach the evangelical, right-wing party line about homosexuality, and preach it more loudly to keep the veil of respectability pulled taught over internal conflicts which are badly frayed.

But if I am loving toward others, and do not “gloat over” their sins, yet delight in the truth, how should I or any other thoughtful LGBT Christian react to this? (It would be easy to ignore; Georgia is a long way from Los Angeles.) What is truth, spiritually, when it can be manipulated by respectable appearances? When it can be “handled” through publicists and attorneys? When it can be explained away, as Ted Haggard tried to do when his homosexual hypocrisy was exposed?

Most important, as I raised on February 2, is the palpable lack of accountability in many “indynondy” (yes, I coined this for independent non-denominational) churches the first slip on the slippery slope of truth?

 Long is not the first indynondy pastor who has lived lavishly without the financial accountability of a parent denomination or a genuine bishop overseeing what the congregation and its leaders are up to.

The bigger problem—obfuscating the truth—is when clergy found and cultivate a personality cult. Rev. Long must have some strong personality traits to take a congregation from a few hundred to 25,000 in two decades. But when you have a significant following which hangs on your magnetic personality, then almost anything you seek to do will get an enthusiastic “yes” out of your fan club. After all, you built your congregation out of those who admire or are drawn to your personality.

But this is where truth becomes difficult to discern. Long’s parishioners who really support him are now questioning what is the real truth of his personality. charges of hypocrisy is only one facet of these questions. It is one thing to set high values and then fail to achieve them, such as preaching generosity and then being greedy. It is quite another to preach heterosexuality and sexual responsibility and then live a secret life. That is more than mere hypocrisy, it is a Lie. Who is the real Rev. Eddie Long?

One AP news story quotes someone from Long’s church:

“I wish the bishop would come out and make a comment and speak to us,” said Lance Robertson, a longtime church member. “We want to hear from him. I think the world wants to hear from him. Right now, in the court of public opinion, it does not look good.”

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in "The Closet", Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Public Affairs, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

Osama bin Jones.

September 11, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Jones deserves the title because he is the latest extremist of the “Christian” faith who is trying to incite global conflict in the same way that Osama bin Laden has done with his plotting.

ObJ wants to make a name for himself. How else to explain his arrogance to think he can lay down an ultimatum for the imam of New York City, ten states away, with an “or else” condition that he will start burning the Muslim holy scriptures?

And it seems ObJ wants to compete for a place in the pantheon of arrogance, hubris and wacko Christianity with people like Fred Phelps—who wasn’t outrageous enough with his God Hates Fags routine and escalated his own rhetoric to God Hates America (for tolerating fags).

Aglow with the joy of knowing I’m right.

People have been sending him death threats, Korans to burn–and, I suspect, contributions, so this looks like quite a gimmick for his own institutional survival. According to the ABC News story, the congregation’s bank recently demanded repayment of their $140,000 mortgage. And also this from the same story: “According to the Gainesville Sun, Alachua County officials revoked part of the church’s tax-exempt status earlier this year, saying portions of the 20-acre campus are used in for-profit businesses. The property is valued at more than $1.6 million, but the 1,700-square-foot taxable portion is worth only $135,000, according to the Gainsville Sun.” ABC gave no link to the Gainsville Sun story.

Perhaps the most laughable thing is that ObJ heads the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainsville. A dove, I thought, would be a symbol of peace (doves are a very calm bird) as much as a symbol of the Divine Spirit— but ObJ apparently has a pistol strapped to his hip while on church property. And “World Outreach” is quite ambitious for a congregation of about 50 people.

So ObJ is milking his 15 seconds of fame for all its worth. It’s also possible that the feeble-minded wants to become a martyr to his own imaginary god. Meanwhile, local Gainsville Muslims are praying for Jones’ safety. According to this Gainsville Sun article, “‘I pray that nothing happens to him,’ Rizwan Mansoor said at the Hoda Center on Monday.”

This is classic Fundamentalism, of course. Fundamentalism is more than comfortable with religious grand-standing, and in fact seeks it. The fundamentalist Christian movement for more than a century has been trying to draw lines in the sand for what it considers orthodox. Unfortunately for all Christians, the lines they continue to draw are the least defensible lines one could draw—things such as the verbal inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, etc.

It isn’t enough to say very strongly that ObJ and I would disagree profoundly on many things. As far as I am concerned, his version of Christian truth has virtually nothing in it that resembles the faith I live by. If he can find chapter and verse from the Christian bible to support the idea of inciting riot, stoking the fires of interreligious and inter-ethnic violence, endangering U.S. troops abroad, I am certain he would have to twist such verses entirely out of reality.

But the underlying issue here deserves to be mentioned. ObJ’s “World Outreach” flock is a charismatic independent non-denominational thing. I call them “Indy-Nondies” for short. While being “non-denominational” is touted as important in this era when mainstream (at least Protestant) denominations seems to be in decline, Indy-Nondies are in fact accountable to no one. Any partly-educated wack job can start his or her own “ministry” and claim some particular trait to emphasize in order to grab “market share” from other churches. People are gullible, and with the media’s help, will be drawn to the latest craze, even in the world of religion.

In the Dove World Outreach case, according to Wikipedia, it was founded in 1985 by Donald O. Northrup of the now-defunct Maranatha Campus Ministries. “Maranatha came under considerable fire during the 1970s and 1980s, largely due to its highly authoritarian structure. There were accusations of MCM being a cult with some former members reporting behavior similar to cults that frequently recruited college students during that time.”

The real cult here is the cult of personality. ObJ’s picture that keeps cropping up on the internet seems to indicate that he doesn’t have any personality, but looks can be deceiving. The fact that ObJ’ name is plastered all over the media but you have to dig to find out anything about his church (it’s web site is simply “under construction”) confirms that ObJ is trying to cultivate his own importance over the mission of his flock.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Bible & Interpretation, Doctrine, Ecumenical Issues, Fundamentalism, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Ask. Tell. Call your Senator.

September 10, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

I was both surprised and dumbfounded by the news in this morning’s Los Angeles Times that another domino has fallen in the war against reality. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has been dealt another significant blow, certainly equal to the House of Representatives’ vote to repeal the idiotic 1993 law. You can read the decision here.

The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Act, signed by President Clinton, was supposed to stop the witch-hunts in the U.S. Armed Forces by saying, basically, if you keep your mouth shut about your private life we will ignore your sexuality. The problem was the homophobic witch hunters are still homophobic, and DADT simply gave them a slicker way to guarantee the expulsion of “openly” gay/lesbian service members—who were “open” often only because they were pried out of their closets by the homophobic witch hunters. Since 1994, according to some sources, more than 13,000 personnel have been discharged.

Did anybody mention that the falling dominos also represent “circular reasoning”? The bottom line is that DADT didn’t “work” for anybody, and Judge Virginia Phillips’ decision yesterday illustrates this very well. Not only does the law treat gay/lesbian service members unfairly by denying them equal protection of the laws of this nation, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t protect our national security or combat readiness or unit cohesion or anything.

Judge Phillips, according to ABC News, will issue a permanent injunction against enforcing DADT in about two weeks.

The decision, from yet another California-based federal court, sounds amazingly like Judge Walker’s decision in the Perry v. Schwarzeneggar federal suit against California’s Proposition 8. Maybe it’s because it is attacking the same circularly-reasoned homophobic point of view of the original framers of DADT.

The government’s attorney, Paul G. Freeborne, apparently argued (in court?) that the whole issue is a political one that should be decided in Congress. The House already voted to repeal it. And now the court has said that matters of civil rights are not to be left to the political winds. According to the Times, we can thank backward-thinking Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) for blocking the Senate from debating DADT.

There is another parallel. The U.S. Justice Department mounted a pathetically weak defense in the lawsuit (because the law is nearly indefensible). In the Perry Propo 8 case, the defense called only two witnesses to speak on behalf of Prop 8, one of whom sort of caved in under cross-examination. In this case, Freeborne called none.  So while the public chatter about why we need to keep homosexuals out of the military—or at least why we need to stall making any big shocking changes within our military—went on and on among the homophobic conservatives, they could not actually produce witnesses to demonstrate, show or prove how exactly the presence of a gay or lesbian person who wants to serve his or her country in uniform was causing the downfall of our armed services.

Maybe they could have called Rev. Fred Phelps as a witness. He has tons of experience running around the country and telling everyone with his megaphone that God has damned America because we tolerate homosexuals, and that’s why our troops are being killed in two simultaneous wars. Hey, I didn’t say he would be a credible witness, but at least he has his testimony all prepped!

Seriously, this is the moment for the Obama administration to prove it wants to dump DADT. Could not Mr. Obama, for example, instruct the Department of Justice not to appeal the federal court ruling? According to 365Gay.com, attorney Freeborne has not commented on his loss in court. And according to Associated Press, the DOJ is “reviewing” the decision before it says what it will do next. We must wait and see whether the Department of Justice wants to press on with its official homophobia.

And timing is everything. According to the Washington Post Robert M. Gates, Obama’s Secretary of Defense (and the official defendant in this case in his official capacity for the United States of America), has wanted to wait for the Pentagon itself to complete its internal review of whether it could get by without DADT. But their report is not due until December, and that’s long after the November elections, in which it is possible that the Democrats will lose their grip on Congress. Hey, I have an idea: repeal it now, or don’t appeal the ruling at all, and let the law die for its own sins.

I said I was also dumfounded by the news, and that’s because the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay political organization [oxymoron not withstanding] was the plaintiff in the lawsuit. Like many so-called activists, I have long disregarded the Log Cabin Club as a powerless bunch of privileged/moneyed oppressees who cannot bring themselves to admit that they are feeding the mouth that bites them. Maybe now, after a six year lawsuit, some of the oxymoronic homosexuals will clearly see how hard it is to stop the homophobes when you have already gotten into bed with them.

But attorney Emma Ruby-Sachs, writing for the invariably liberal Huffington Post, doesn’t think that this win can save the Log Cabin Republicans. “They support a party that doesn’t support their equal treatment under the law. Despite claims to work within the party for socially progressive change, lending any support to Republicans in this day and age simply undermines equal rights and constitutional protections in this country.” In fact, Ruby-Sachs is pretty withering in her criticism, and she has some interesting factlets about the case itself.  And you can read LCR’s own comments about its victory here.

— Dan Hooper

Posted in Homophobia, LGBT Rights, History, Public Affairs, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

My bombard for Thursday.

September 9, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

From 365Gay.com on Wednesday, September 8, by Ray Hunt, blogger, 365gay.com:

• Gays Worse Than Terrorists. Who remembers Oklahoma State Rep Sally Kern? Well if you need a refresher, in 2008 she was recorded (without her knowledge) giving a rabidly anti-gay speech.  Among the choice quotes were: “Not everybody’s lifestyle is equal, like not all religions are equal,” and “I honestly think it’s (gays) the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.”Them’s fightin’ words.

Well Ms. Sally wants to clear up the record: “Here in America we’ve had what, three known real big terrorist attacks on our nation.  But every day our young people are in a sense bombarded with the message that homosexuality is normal and natural.” Gays = Terrorists, before. Gays = Terrorists, after.

Well I guess you cleared that up.

I had forgotten about Sally, perhaps thinking that her 15 seconds of fame were so over.  I had to Google her to refresh my mind, and found this site, Party of Jesus, where Sally’s own words from February 2009 are there to haunt her forever (nothing ever goes away on the internet), if she’s intelligent enough to use Google.  Ray Hunt’s blog relies on an entry at Towle Road last week. you can watch the video.

Ex-Gay Watch has more background on Kern, including the shocking revelation that “gays are infiltrating city councils.”  Geez, what will they think of next? Even more entertaining is the site http://sallykern.com.  She apparently wasn’t quick enough to buy her own name’s URLs to prevent this.  Oh well.  And over two years ago Queerty uncovered interesting stuff that alleges Kern has a (disowned) gay son named Jesse. Shades of Pete Knight all over again!

Kern appears to be a bumbling but highly religious legislator.  It was her proposal last January to amend Oklahoma’s divorce laws to restrict divorce, or as Yahoo news put it, “Sally Kern divorce law forces big religion on Oklahomans.”  I don’t think this ever passed , but her legislation “would make divorce illegal under these conditions:

• There are living minor children of the marriage
• The parties have been married 10 years or longer
• Either party files a written objection to the granting of a divorce

Sally Kern has been vocal about her belief that divorce is one of the issues causing problems in America. She also blames Obama and gays.” Kern may try to outdo Palin with rhetoric intended to offend virtually every segment of society.  Coming at the same time as that nut job in Gainsville, Florida who wants to burn the Koran and pick a fight which is not his to pick—all apparently just to take control of his 15 seconds of fame and probably pick up some extra cash contributions to keep his tiny church afloat— it is more obvious what kind of folks are causing problems in America.So if you are a minor and you’re reading this, I guess you have been “bombarded” again with the “gay agenda!”

– Dan Hooper

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New language, not a new message.

September 2, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I was reading an August issue of Christian Century this morning, and was drawn back twice to read the comments of Rev. Geoffrey Black, the new national president of the United Church of Christ. You may remember the UCC as that denomination that has run interesting TV and print ads with the “God is still speaking” slogan. It’s probably the most compelling answer to the fundamentalist”God said it, I believe it, that settles it” drivel.

If God is still speaking in our world—still creating, still controlling our world, then nothing is “settled.” The Word of God is not fixed like an oversize rock we can’t get around, but a living word which God’s people must constantly understand and interpret for themselves. And the ongoing religion wars that drive the so-called Culture War are an attempt to frame the discussion of a changing world through a fixed lens. In my own ministry, I remind people that we must often re-question, and re-answer many of faith’s big issues not because the holy Word has changed but because we human beings have changed. Our language has changed, so we cannot use the old language to speak to the world today.

Geoffrey Black articulates this very well. When asked how he interprets the declining membership of the UCC and other mainline Protestant denominations, his answer is thoughtful and very much on point:

“The Protestant mainline and the UCC are going through a period of rediscovering what makes us committed to and enthusiastic about the Gospel. We have to dig deeper. We cannot rely on the props of the past. America is changing, and we have lost the language that conveys the centrality and the compelling message of Christian faith. We have to find a new language that speaks to the realities that human beings are facing.”

The contrast with right wingnut Christian couldn’t be sharper. They clung tightly to the King James Version of the Bible (published in 1611) until nobody could understand it anymore, and only switched to new versions when the realized that they could manipulate the Bible to say what they want said, a la The Living Bible, and the New American Standard Bible, etc., which put the word “homosexual” on the lips of St. Paul even though the original Greek doesn’t say that.

President Geoffrey Black, I think, speaks to the real point for progressive Christians in 2010. We can’t go back to the past. We have to speak to the realities which humanity lives with today, in a language that can be understood. If mainstream churches are in decline it is, in part, because those who are disaffected and leaving may have been in church for the wrong reasons (the comfort of civil sanctity rather than the discomfort of following Jesus to all the difficult places he leads us), and the younger generation is not interested in picking up their tired old pious rhetoric. Religious forms with deeply-held conviction and passion for truth and purpose are simply dead. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that conventional churches are emptying out.

But there is reason to be passionate about the gospel, because it is the news of God’s reconciling with humanity as we are—often lost, broken or hurting–especially from self-inflicted wounds—sometimes depraved but sometimes noble, not disembodied angelic spirits but embodied human beings with dreams and energy, capable almost at the same time of compassion and creativity and stupidity and cruelty. But in the story of Jesus, we are accepted by God as fully human, and we are given an example of the highest purpose of human life. As Christians, our “righteousness” is neither pretense nor fake, nor is it piety and religion. Our “rightness” with God is grace, an undeserved gift which comes alive in our faithfulness.

In place of searching and striving for the divine in our lives, we often make the mistake of settling for piety and religion. The Gospel, however, includes the news that God seeks us, even when we are off-track, lost and oblivious.

Black goes on to say, “More than ever we need voices of reason and deep spirituality. The voices of intolerance and hatred are loud. We need to articulate an alternative.”

But talk is cheap, and the din of media, internet, twitter has made it even cheaper. Over and over I realize that more Christian energy needs to go into our faithful actions and much less into religious talk. The people who are being drawn to our church, I think, are more interested in what we do that tells the Gospel in our neighborhood than what we say. Actions speak louder than words, it is said. Actions also speak more truthfully than words.

— Pastor Dan Hooper

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