The elephant of privilege.

November 26, 2011 by Pastor Dan.

One of the ELCA blogs caught my eye because of this single word:  “privilege.”  It is about time that it gets called out in public discussion. 

RE: Hunger Rumblings http://blogs.elca.org/hungerrumblings/post/privilege-22112011/

I was surprised that this post, while taking two paragraphs to set a context for his observation, never connected the dots between lack of privilege, hunger and justice. People with privilege— certainly a group larger than “the 1%” identified by the Occupy Movement—actively resist not only the loss of their privilege but even the identification of their privilege as such. They rationalize what they have as necessity, or earned, or in their contract or as the result of doing “nothing illegal.”

There are many voices in the current strident partisanship in America who decry the sense of “entitlement” in programs for people at the bottom of society, and from that argument they are earnestly trying to unweave our badly-frayed safety net for the poor/elderly/hungry/vulnerable. Ironically, the most strident voices are themselves coming from the most privileged segment of our society.

Privilege itself has balkanized our society. It is the “elephant in the room” of political discourse on many hotly-debated matters, including federal bail-out programs, immigration reform, and access to health care, education, jobs, and criminal justice. Even the sexuality wars of our times stem from the sense of entitlement which heterosexual people typically feel gives them the right to deny equality before the law to LGBT people.

Unfortunately, a sense of privilege has long since permeated the mainline church, especially in those denominations and congregations that cater to suburban upper/middle class (and mostly white) people. This sense of privilege is a cancer which continues to attack the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus. Need we look any further than the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12, the Parable of the Judgment (Mt. 25:31–46), or the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19–31) to see where privilege or lack of privilege is found in Christ’s teachings?

But privileged Christians can begin the “critical self-reflection and repentance” to which Creech refers, and hopefully resist the corrosive power of privilege by seeing what we have not as privilege but as gift. It is easy to rationalize our privilege as entitlement. Before God none of us has, or deserves, privileges. But that truth should not be easily “spiritualized” as simply a matter of forgiveness or justification by grace (gift) alone. All that we are, and have, and hope to do with our lives, are gifts of God. Even that we can get up every day, and use our health and wealth productively, is a gift. We do not deserve life itself. Life is a gift.

We have all heard the lame jokes about a family sitting down to a table of leftovers where someone who thinks it is unnecessary to give thanks says “This food was already blessed once before!” But when I give thanks at each meal, it is not the food which is blessed. I am blessed that I am able, once again, to eat. So recognizing that our whole lives are gifts may help us to begin to see those all around us for whom food, health, shelter, safety, dignity and justice are all still deeply felt hungers.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in LGBT Rights, Bible & Interpretation, Living by Grace, Health, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

We are a Sanctuary.

June 2, 2011 by Pastor Dan.

As our church polishes us and celebrates the recent completion of new things in our sanctuary (such as flooring and pipe organ), my mind turns to the significance of the sacred space, what it has meant historically as a place of prayer and sacrament for nearly 90 years, and what it should mean in the lives of Christians—not just here but everywhere.

The idea of Sanctuary is an ancient one. A sanctuary is not merely a sacred space where we can pray to God, but a safe space from the anxieties, terrors and violence of the world around us.

From time to time, churches also serve as a refuge or sanctuary for illegal immigrants, for runaways and for the hungry and homeless. Battered wives have fled to the church as a place of safety, hiding and understanding. After natural disasters, many people who have been displaced by fire or flood have come to churches seeking help and temporary shelter.

Hollywood Lutheran Church is a sanctuary for sexual minorities (LGBTQ etc.), people in recovery from alcohol, drugs and other addictions, people living with HIV/AIDS, people of color and everybody else who suffers discrimination, and even inmates and parolees who are shunned even after they have “paid their debt to society.”

We don’t just sit in a Sanctuary to pray! The purpose of the Christian Church everywhere should be to enlarge the Sanctuary of God’s love and compassion, and to become a living sanctuary of people committed to mercy, safety, healing and wholeness.

There is no place in our church for judgmentalism, rejection, hatred, prejudice or fear. The Christ we know in faith—who on the Cross gave up his life for our sake and took away the sins of the world—is a Lord who seeks the lost, upholds the weak, feeds those who hunger and thirst, and reveals the light of God to anyone who struggles against the darkness.

If that sounds over-dramatic, it shouldn’t. Christians are in a life-and-death struggle with evil in the world. Every day I see the ruins and results of evil—broken lives, fearful people, indifference or hatred. In the midst of this world, there is no reason to be “religious” if not to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ. And if we follow Christ, we must be the change we want to see in the world. We must be the sanctuary to which others may come and rest and pray and feel safe. This is true religion . This is the life of faith.

—Pastor Dan

P.S. If you’re curious, here are some key Bible passages about sanctuary: Psalm 20:1–5, Psalm 28:1–3; Isaiah 8:13–14; Ezekiel 37:26–27; Hebrews 10:19–24.

Posted in Bible & Interpretation, LGBT Christian, Doctrine, HIV and AIDS, Violence, Homophobia, Faith, Living by Grace, Recovery, Ministry, Spirituality, PRAYERS, History, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

They don’t want my blood.

April 14, 2011 by Dan Hooper.

The news that the British ban on gay blood donation is being lifted is a mixed bag for us. The 365Gay.com story explains that the ban is being lifted because “the rule could be discriminatory and might breach equality legislation.”

My husband and I used to be serious blood donors (he more than I). When the AIDS pandemic hit and our blood was no longer wanted for fear we had HIV in our veins, we kept on donating for awhile by simply lying about never having sex with another male.

The truth was that we were entirely monogamous had had been for years, but that didn’t seem to matter to the rules governing the American Red Cross demand for our blood. It assumed that gay men were promiscuous or possibly had the virus, even at low levels, in our systems. America could not distinguish between monogamy and promiscuity.

Even now, the distinction in this British announcement is missing. According to journalist Andy Bloxham, “However, gay men will only be permitted to donate if they have not had sexual intercourse for a decade. Homosexuals who are or have recently been sexually active will continue to be barred from giving blood.”

Well I admit I have had sexual intercourse in the last decade. But the new policy apparently wouldn’t care that it has been with the same partner for the last three decades plus. And for the record, I have never had any STD in my lifetime. But I won’t be flying to Britain to be generous with my blood.

The real oddity of our own American blood policy (I haven’t looked into British law or policy) is that it seems to be crafted to give assurances to heterosexuals that they can’t get HIV from gay blood. Are we doing that for white supremacists to assure them they won’t ever be given a transfusion of African-American blood? Truthfully, assurances of purity really can’t be 100% ever.

Blood banks do not and cannot guarantee the purity of their blood supply. Although blood products are screened carefully, but HIV takes awhile to show itself in an infected person. You would think in the 30 years since this terrible pandemic began (June 1981) that blood-screening science would have improved as dramatically as the medicines to control HIV/AIDS.

Of greater concern is that America can’t seem to convince our youth that getting HIV/AIDS is a serious health problem, even while the older generations still fear getting it from blood transfusions. We have much work to do, for example, to educate people who engage in risky behavior. (Keep your eye on www.HollywoodRemembers.org).

I still believe that donating blood is a worthy cause and that it saves lives. As a generous person, I would still donate blood, but they don’t want it. Even as the science of blood purity struggles to improve itself, I don’t see American homophobia declining rapidly enough or law and public policy keeping pace with the change of either. And although our national blood supply is amazingly safe, too much bigotry still seems to flow in America’s veins.

— Dan Hooper

Posted in Homophobia, International, Sex, HIV and AIDS, Health, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Some thoughts about generalizing and particularizing.

August 31, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

People tend to generalize. (That’s a generalization, of course, so forgive me in advance.) The human mind cannot contain and process every nuance on the thousands of bits of information that come at us, and the brain’s natural wiring is to look for and create patterns. Over time, patterns of thought are reinforced, not eroded, by additional evidence.

On the good side, we are able to get through the day without becoming paralyzed by every stimulus and input. On the bad side, we stereotype, we form prejudices, we cling to bigotry (which can highly individualized or as broad as a social and community or cultural prejudice that resists re-examination at all costs!). And we generalize about things somewhat indiscriminately. We take a particular bit of evidence—a news report, a bad experience, a friend passing on hearsay, and we turn it into a generality. For example:

• One Bernie Madoff allows a new generation to blame and despise Jewish people for their greedy and crooked ways.
• One Willie Horton allows a generation of people to fear and despise African-Americans as criminal and violent (and the electorate to assume that Michael Dukakis wasn’t fit to be President).
• There are voices out there still saying, and influencing thousands of others to believe, that all homosexuals have AIDS. Even the CDC has published generalizations which are particularly damaging.
• Sensational gossip about NAMBLA—a fringe group—allows a broad swath of people to think that all homosexuals are child molesters.
• A few Republican lawmakers who are corrupt allows Democrats to say that all Republicans are evil. Depending on which party you belong to, if any, you may be highly susceptible to believing that.
• A few Democratic lawmakers who are corrupt allows Republicans to say that all Democrats are evil. Depending on which party you belong to, if any, you may be highly susceptible to believing that.
• A handful of high-profile Christian evangelists, or the Pope, doing something hypocritical leads a generation of people to reject the Christian faith because they generalize that ” Christians are hypocrites.”

It is really difficult to reverse this pattern because of another generality: that people are drawn toward bad news, selfish motivations, etc..

St. Paul certainly was given to generalities, and because of his enormous influence, his particular comments have had power over human thinking for centuries. For example, in his letter to the Romans, 3:23, he generalizes about the human race: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In Paul’s thinking, all human beings are deficient in God’s eyes. In other words, Paul’s God is given to generalities. What part of “all” don’t we understand?

Here’s what bothers me. I am most troubled that the faith I live by, and teach, is tainted, through the process of corporate generalization, with the stains that other Christian faith groups have left behind. Recently novelist Anne Rice left the Catholic Church. “Today I quit being a Christian,” she said, for the sake of Jesus. Yes, Rice was generalizing from her particular experiences and her perceptions of the church’s dark side. But other Catholics I know —who see and hear the same problems and issues such as the present Pope’s medieval clericalism and sexist, homophobic views, or priestly sexual abuse, etc., see those problems as specific problems and not as evidence that God does not exist or that all Christians are hypocrites or the Church has nothing to offer.

Also recently, the documentary film “8: The Mormon Proposition” detailed the role of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in covertly promoting and raising funds to ensure the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Along with other right-wing fundamentalist groups— and the Catholic Church— the Mormons generalized about what opening civil marriage to gay or lesbian couples might do to destroy marriage as an institution. “Save Marriage!” became the highly generalized battle cry. And on the side of tolerance, thousands more people who have seen the film will go away with another generalization fixed in their brains: Organized religion sucks!

We have joked in our local congregation that we’re okay because we’re not that organized. But the truth is, Christ’s message is damaged by Christians who are hypocritical, unethical, abusive, manipulative, and prejudiced. It is harder to put the positive message out there that we, and thousands of other local churches, are doing good things in the name of God, when those good things usually are that new or news-worthy, when a few things which grab the news headlines show that some bad things are also being done in the name of God.

This is where particularizing comes in. Most human beings can’t do much about bad generalizations (although Benedict XVI could go a long way by moving his own thinking into the 21^st century). But we can particularize the grace of God, one life at a time. We can clean up our own acts. We can show kindness and compassion to one other individual. And we can even save the institution of marriage by attending to the quality of our own marriage rather than blaming it on generalizations about society.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Homophobia, Catholic matters, HIV and AIDS, Bible & Interpretation, LGBT Christian, Fundamentalism, Public Affairs | Print | 1 Comment »

Oh my God, when?

July 10, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Blythe, California

“I was in prison, and you visited me.” – Matthew 25:36

I used to think that we could paraphrase Jesus from this parable, “I was gay/lesbian, and you did not reject me.” Wouldn’t that suffice for my social conscience purposes? To identify with the oppressed because I too was one of the oppressed.

And after all, the “I was hungry/thirsty” thing we have covered okay with church pot-lucks—nobody goes hungry or thirsty. (Well, I personally never did really do much of the cooking, but, … you know what I mean.)

And then there is “I was naked…” But, c’mon, Jesus, when did we see you or anybody else really naked because they didn’t have any clothes? . . .   I remember one mentally ill man with incredibly thick and dirty blond hair, who used to wander the streets of Silverlake barefoot, winter and summer.  I actually saw him, repeatedly (”When did we see you?”) so I am guilty of not having done a damn thing abut it.  I wonder what ever became of him.

But, Lord, he was mentally ill, after all. What do I know about any of that?

Last winter, the conservative folks over at Silverlake Presbyterian found the frozen body of a homeless man on their front lawn one extremely cold January Sunday morning. He was naked. They guess that he gave up, and took his clothes off to make an unmistakable statement.  And it did.

Oh my God, where was I? We’ve tried to take care of homeless people for years–living in our church parking lot, under the front porch, even in the Narthex, the Tower landing, the Library and an unused choir room. But Silverlake Presbyterian Church is within sight of my own home. I mighty have seen him. “Lord, when did we see you?” I didn’t see him, and knew nothing about this until I read it in the newspaper.  Was it the man with the bare feet?

Of course, we visit the sick. We bring flowers and communion, and get well cards. We try to do all the right things, well—some of the right things— as often as we can, with our consciences reminding us how important these merciful acts are to a Christian. But there is one thing that almost all of us overlook—the part that says “I was in prison, and you visited me.” No, I can’t say I ever pictured Jesus or anybody else in prison. Prison just wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t know any prisoners.

Jeffrey’s court date was February 12 several years ago.  I sat with his parents and the public defender attorney when, because of a parole violation, he was sent up for another 3½ years in state prison. This was a man who was homeless when I met him at the gay A.A. meeting in our church basement. We tried to help him and his partner over the course of many months. So I was there when the bailiff took him away in handcuffs.

“I saw you, Lord.” I saw him. I saw the injustice. I prayed and counseled with his family outside the courthouse that day. But what else could I do? I am just one person, and one without a lot of “street smarts” at that.

Last night, four of us from the church came to Blythe, on the edge of the state line with Arizona. After weeks of paperwork, letters and delays to get our security clearances, and then a 240-mile drive into this God-forsaken piece of arid real estate, we waited in three different lines for nearly two hours just to get into the Visiting Room. It was 115 degrees under a relentless July sun.

You can see the guard tower and 16′ foot high razor-wire encrusted fences more clearly here.

I started to get weepy when I saw him coming in.  Thank God Jeffrey was in a good mood or I would have been a basket case. “Only 267 days left,” he said, “but who’s counting?”

The food is terrible, he admitted. Medical care is poor, and delayed as long as they can do it.  He has to defend himself from slurs and innuendos for being gay in an overwhelmingly heterosexual cell block. It’s a pressure cooker environment (he’s lucky to be over 6′–1″) with 360 men stacked in triple-high bunks in a “cube.” The whole prison has 3,600 men – it was designed for a capacity about half that number — and the courts and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are still arguing about the overcrowding. Chuckawalla Valley State Prison is only one of 33 prisons up and down this great Golden State that are nowhere near anybody’s “back yard.” Remember NIMBY? It’s another way of saying “Lord, when did we see you? We sent you as far away as we possibly could!”

What little money we’ve sent to him in prison Jeffrey uses for cosmetics from the prison store.  The state doesn’t provide deodorant.

It also doesn’t provide any hope for a better life. The rehabilitation part is extremely limited. California spends an average $42,000 per inmate per year and over 95% of it is used just to lock them up and guard them.  The California prison guards union is a potent political force.

Jeffrey said he hadn’t had a visitor since January when his grandmother came to visit. I don’t even remember January anymore. It flew by like every other month when you’re busy. I felt shame that it had taken me over two years to get over my fears or blindness and come out here to see him. “Lord, when did we see you?”

And did I mention it was 115 outside? Doesn’t that constitute “cruel and unusual punishment? Lord, when did we notice how hard NIMBY makes it for families to see their loved ones? When did we see the inhumanity in our justice system? When did we see the real people? When did we go blind?

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in LGBT Christian, Bible & Interpretation, Faith, Health, Public Affairs, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

More professional misleaders.

April 18, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

These are threads of dialogue based on an article link forwarded by Billy Glover from the Bilarico Project.

Posted: 07 Apr 2010 12:00 PM PDT

“With the far right and the professional Christian set all in a dither about the possible upcoming vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, I guess it is no surprise that the faux experts at the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) - a Christian right affiliate intended to dupe the unwary - are stepping up a new campaign based on the old “choice myth” as I call it. Desperate to convince voters - and more members of Congress - that sexual orientation is a choice and changeable, a new webpage with purported ‘facts’ has been trotted out that regurgitates the same old worn out lies. In a letter to school superintendents ACP endeavors to frighten school administrators into resisting any sort of gay affirming policies or programs. The propaganda piece starts out in part as follows:

Continue reading The Only “Choice”: Coming Out of “Situational Heterosexuality” …

“In this regard, former ‘ex-gay’ evangelical minister Anthony Venn-Brown calls it like it is. Brown, now one of Australia’s leading LGBT activists, has a much more honest approach to the issue of changing one’s sexual orientation. Namely, that it is impossible unless one is engaged in ‘situational heterosexuality’ which he equates with gay men in heterosexual marriages. The phenomenon is the opposite of the situational homosexuality found in prisons and other all same gender settings.”

Nice phrase, “situational heterosexuality.” As a “vocational extrovert” I can testify that people can fake pretty much anything —including sexual attraction and even sexual performance. After generations of homosexuals who, when entrapped or blackmailed would vehemently insist they were not homosexual, is it any wonder than social conservatives would take that at face value because it would seem to confirm their prejudice that everybody is/has to be/should be heterosexual? One comment posted in response to the above quotes:

I will say that while I think sexual orientation as well as gender identity are not changeable for most or at least many of us (neither were or are for me), I do think it is a mistake to think that LGBT rights should stand or fall on the mutability / changeability issue. Religion is mutable / changeable, clearly a “lifestyle choice,” yet is protected.

To me the mutability issue is an utter red herring and it would be a serious mistake to frame the debate in those terms.

very respectfully, ~mina

Mina [who posted the comment April 8] is absolutely point on! This “change/can’t change” argument was something I always tried to engage sincerely until somebody pointed out the obvious that religion is a choice. Why should “choice” be considered a deal-breaker for civil rights? Need we be reminded of the First Amendment to the Federal constitution?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [Wikipedia has a good solid entry on this amendment and all its legal case history; see especially the gay angle under Freedom of Association.]

Religion is a personal choice in America. Freedom of religion in this country is therefore freedom of choice. Speech is also a choice, and free speech is protected. Ditto on freedom of association. If the constitution protects these freedoms to choose, why should not gender identity and sexual orientation — indeed sexual preference be another choice that one can make with complete freedom and enjoy the equal right to make that choice?

The American College of Pediatricians, by the way, seems to be a bonafide organization of doctors, established only 7 ½ years ago.  (See the Right Wing watch Infopedia page above.)  It is not a sham organization or front for social conservatives. It’s just a bunch of social conservatives who view the world through lenses twisted sharply to the right. And yes, it seems as if the ACP’s professional label was calculated to confuse and co-opt the name of the more highly respected American Academy of Pediatrics. Certainly, the ACP letter to educators seems calculated to deflect professional educators from doing their own search for authoritative facts and research on homosexuality.

The ACP is not in step with the mainstream of professionals who know and work with children. For example, Pediatrics in Review has an abstract of published research that would completely counter the right-wing view (but we knew that already) that children raised by gay parents are not going to come out as well as with heterosexual parents:

There are no data to suggest that children who have gay or lesbian parents are different in any aspects of psychological, social, and sexual development from children in heterosexual families. There has been fear that children raised in gay or lesbian households will grow up to be homosexual, develop improper sex-role behavior or sexual conflicts, and may be sexually abused. There has been concern that children raised by gay or lesbian parents will be stigmatized and have conflicts with their peer group, thus threatening their psychological health, self-esteem, and social relationships. These fears and concerns have not been substantiated by research. Pediatricians can facilitate the health care and development of these children by being aware of these and their own attitudes, by educating themselves about special concerns of gay or lesbian parents, and by being a resource and an advocate for children who have homosexual parents.

Sadly, the ACP’s “fact sheet” called “What You Should Know About Sexual Orientation of Youth” is a one-page bulleted list of unsubstantiated opinions and misrepresentations. The worst three: the homosexual lifestyle, especially for males, carries grave health risks; sexual reorientation therapy has proven effective for those with unwanted homosexual attractions; regardless of an individual’s sexual orientation, sexual activity is a conscious choice.”

Again, we’re all entitled to our own opinions, but we’re not entitled to our own facts.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Health, Public Affairs, Ex-Gay, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

A sign of genuine progress.

March 26, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

This story would have been much more welcome news if it had come in 1985 or even 1995 or 2000. But the full story is encouraging because it moves away from blame to compassion, and from asking “who sinned?” toward “how can we show compassion?” – D.H.

Religious groups pledge to end AIDS stigma

By The Associated Press
03.25.2010 1:00pm EDT(The Hague, Netherlands) Religious groups from around the globe pledged Tuesday to prevent the stigmatization of people living with HIV and AIDS, in a joint statement welcomed by a senior U.N. official as a sea change in attitudes.Representatives of some 40 religions and faith groups including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism ended a two-day retreat in the Netherlands by signing a “personal commitment to action” in which they vowed to “be clear in my words and actions that stigma and discrimination towards people living with or affected by HIV is unacceptable.”  Read entire story here.

Posted in HIV and AIDS, Ecumenical Issues, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Did you think you’d ever see the day?

March 17, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

When my parents were “getting up there,” fifty years ago the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) was in its infancy, but it was obvious that among other things the organization was a national union for conservatives and elderly poor who wanted a better break on insurance. So when I hit the Big Five-Oh! and started getting membership invitations from AARP, I did what any boomer generation member would do: I shredded their mailing immediately.

Maybe it’s time to revisit that decision.

This morning’s Los Angeles Times had a prominent article on LGBT seniors and the efforts of mainstream advocacy organizations such as AARP to get our elders a better deal. See: “Medicaid and Social Security changes urged to help gay seniors.”

Of course I’m still not comfortable counting myself among them,but stay tuned.

In following the Times story, I was actually quite amazed at the links I found.

Did you ever think you’d see the AARP web site covered with stuff about Stonewall, gay, and faith? This entire page has stories and information on point.

The AARP web site: Did you ever think you would see the day?

With something like 40 million members, AARP is becoming one of the champions for equal rights for LGBT people because there are millions of us over 50. All the discrimination we’ve faced earlier in life is morphing into forms of elder discrimination. If you haven’t paid attention yet, it may be the time to start realizing how the lack of equal rights in this nation is going to hurt you big time as you age. If you’ve never been an activist for LGBT causes, your own aging may change you.

The Times writer mentions three issues as examples: Social Security and Medicare rules, survivor benefits, and making medical and end-of-life decisions for your partner. The SAGE report, which is being released today, also draws attention to another flashpoint issue in our society: “It calls on federal and state lawmakers to consider ways to legally recognize same-sex relationships so aging partners in a committed relationship can have access to the same support systems that benefit heterosexual seniors.”

I guess I never thought I’d live to see the day that senior citizens’ organizations would basically be calling for same-gender marriage rights. My hunch as to why it is happening is three-fold: boomers are becoming elders; older lesbian/gay people who were resistant to coming out earlier in life are gradually doing so as social acceptance of LGBT people continues to improve; and younger sexual minority persons who are coming out are more and more likely to come out to their entire family, including grandparents. So (heterosexual) elders who become sensitized and supportive of an LGBT grand child are also on the rise.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Links: AARP and gay seniors issues • Wisdom of the Elders • American Society on Aging • SAGE USA

Posted in "The Closet", LGBT Rights, Health, Public Affairs, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

Three cheers for change.

February 20, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

I got an e-mail a few days ago, a “Special Edition” from the interfaith Religious Institute based in Westport, Connecticut. Yes, we’ve been saying that human sexuality and homosexuality have been balkanizing America and preoccupying both religious and secular organizations and institutions. At least this crowd has decided not to be reactive but proactive in pressing for sexual health and sexual justice.

The e-mail announces the release of a new report, Sexuality and Religion 2020: Goals for the Next Decade, in an audio press conference. Rev. Debra Hafner was joined at this audio news conference by “the esteemed religious historian, Dr. Martin Marty; the director of women’s ministry for the National Council of Churches, the Rev. Ann Tiemeyer; and the president of the National Council of Jewish Women, Nancy Ratzan (left to right below).

 

(Dr. Marty’s presence is notable to me because I can remember less than a few decades ago when he was saying some pretty homophobic things and wishing that “the love that dare not speak its name” would just learn to be quiet. No, I can’t find that actual quote — I think I have it in paper files somewhere, because it was uttered by Marty before everything in the cosmos was on line. But the homophobia and the name of Martin Marty stuck in my consciousness. Thank God he has grown on this issue like millions of others.)

Here is an excerpt of the e-mail announcing the 51-page Report:

The report opens with a new vision: By the year 2020, all faith communities will be sexually healthy, just and prophetic. It goes on to outline 10 goals for the next 10 years that will help to achieve that vision. The goals, listed below, are fully articulated in the report. They call on religious leaders and institutions to

• break the silence around sexuality in congregations and faith communities;
• improve ministerial training in sexuality issues;
• provide better pastoral care on sexuality-related issues and sexuality education for youth and adults;
• forge multifaith coalitions to promote sexual health and justice;
• become more effective advocates for sexuality education, sexual and reproductive health, and the full inclusion of women and LGBT persons;
• include sexuality in movements addressing poverty, the environment and other social justice concerns; and
• mobilize people of faith to advocate for an increased commitment to sexual health, education and justice in religious communities.

Whether the goals are even slightly realistic and attainable is anyone’s guess. But remember that ten years ago Bill Clinton was President, there were twin towers in New York City, gay marriage wasn’t legal anywhere in the United States, Proposition 22 was not yet on the books in California, and Lawrence v. Texas had not reached the Supreme Court (Bowers v. Hardwick was still the supreme sexual law of the land concerning same-gender consensual acts). In 2000, the Roman Catholic Church and its insurance underwriters were still billions of dollars ahead, before the onslaught of lawsuits and settlements of priestly sexual abuse. So in terms of the movement we’re a part of, a decade may see a lifetime of change.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Sex, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, HIV and AIDS, Ecumenical Issues, Public Affairs, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

Living and fighting AIDS, Hollywood remembers.

December 1, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

Here we are again at another World AIDS Day (begun in 1987), and 25 million people have died of this disease. Progress in fighting it has been so remarkable that people don’t use the term “pandemic” any more, which is good.

But the burden and the horror of AIDS has shifted — from white homosexual males who transported HIV around like so much airline baggage, and shared freely if unwittingly — to the third world, to women, to children, and to minorities. The bad side of this generation-long struggle against AIDS is that access to health care is not fair, justice or equal. Those who can afford health care have gotten access to today’s wonderful medications which allow them to manage the immune deficiency and get on with their lives.

Those who cannot get access to such medications (including the millions in third world nations who can’t even get clean water) still suffer the same pain and the same potential future as those whose names are on the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

I am proud to be on the Board of Directors of a fairly new local non-profit entity here in Los Angeles, Hollywood Remembers. Two nights ago, in anticipation of World AIDS Day, Hollywood Remembers staged its third annual consciousness– and fund-raising event, premiering the new rock/blues musical “Red Ribbon,” conceived and written by Joe Lawrence and directed by Jerry Craig. It tells the courageous story of six people whose lives were so heavily impacted by HIV and AIDS in the early 1990s just as the red AIDS ribbon was becoming a national symbol of the fight.

At the end of the evening our Board present $2,500 to Women Alive L.A., a grass-roots organization helping mostly minority women in their struggle against HIV and AIDS. Executive Director Carrie Broadus was here to speak to the audience—preach, really, about the fight we will not give up until AIDS is conquered—and to receive the check. I am hopeful that when our annual accounting is done, we’ll be able to send Women Alive even more. Much of our work has been generously underwritten by corporate and other non-profit sponsors, including Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Lutherans Concerned/Los Angeles, but many small donations at the door provided more than a thousand dollars and proof that people still care.

During the intermission, ushers collected scribe tickets on which people in the audience wrote the names of loved ones they have lost to AIDS. Every year I get teary just jotting down a few of the names of those friends I lost, but I was overwhelmed again this year to see that the enormous red ribbon on the banner (pictured above) being hoisted to the ceiling was not big enough to hold the names. Perhaps the heart of God is bigger than our banners, bigger even that the AIDS Memorial Quilt itself, which is the largest work of folk art in the world (nearly 1.3 million square feet).

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, the 576 square feet on exhibit at Hollywood Lutheran Church will be up through Sunday, December 6. Come and pay your respects, light a candle, and make a donation. It will be well used to help people with HIV/AIDS continue living and fighting.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Hollywood, HIV and AIDS, Living by Grace, History, PRAYERS, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

I lift your names prayerfully.

August 21, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

I am still trying to grasp the enormity of this action in Minneapolis today, where one of the major Protestant churches in the United States reached its “tipping point” about the presence of lesbian and gay pastors in its churches, not just lesbian and gay people.

The tipping points, plural, were four resolutions on “Ministry Policies.” (Votes were taken in a different order than originally proposed, so if you’re following these from the original “Recommendation on Ministry Policies” published months ago, the resolutions were addressed today in this order: 3, 1 , 2, 4.) And the tipping points were 77%, 60%, 55% and 69%.

The actions essentially readdressed policy change that came before the prior biennial Assembly in Chicago in 2007, when the vote went ever-so-slightly in favor of the status quo (celibacy as a life sentence for LGBT clergy). Sociologists and historians will chart today’s actions when they write the ful story of how a homophobic society has continually and inexorably liberalized about homosexuality to the degree that every institution in it will eventually find a way to recognize and get in sync with the change.

But because this issue affects me so personally and specifically, I am sort of in a daze right now. Earlier in the day, I met with another gay pastor who has felt compelled to leave the Lutheran ministry, but has been waiting to see whether the ELCA will finally welcome his gifts and his energies. Now I am thinking and feeling—with a kind of stunned quietude—of the efforts and the sacrifices of countless people for nearly 40 years who would have rejoiced to see this day.

Joel, Don, Marc, Bryan, especially, I remember you and salute you in your heavenly place where you can fully know the heart and mind of God while we in this world struggle to discern what is right and where we are being led. Of these friends, the youngest of whom has been gone 14 years, all died of HIV/AIDS. One was a Lutheran pastor, two were seminarians never ordained, and one was a layman of extraordinary faithfulness to a church that had rejected him.

From the ELCA news release late today:

“Allison Guttu of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod said, ‘I have seen congregations flourish while engaging these issues; I have seen congregations grow recognizing the gifts of gay and lesbian pastors.’”

Now the church lately begins to recognize the gifts of gay and lesbian pastors, and I thank God for their insight. But I am mindful of the decades (including those long before my time) when the validity of ministry on behalf of sexual minorities was scarcely even thought of. For years and years, gay pastors quietly and often secretly ministered to gay Christians while the institution ignored and despised both. The Word was proclaimed, confessions were offered and absolutions pronounced, the bread and wine were blessed and given, and all of us quietly, faithfully continued to hope for this day.

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Recap of the 4 resolutions on Ministry Policies:

In the order considered today and voted upon . . .

Resolution # For/Against Total Votes Cast Percentage of Majority

3                      771 – 230                  1001                    77%

1                       619 – 402                 1021                     60%

2                        559 – 451                 1010                     55%

4                       667 – 307                   974                     69%

Posted in LGBT Christian, Ecumenical Issues, HIV and AIDS, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Faith, History, ELCA, Ministry, PRAYERS, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Perception and deception, hype and hypocrisy.

August 12, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

Flipping through some papers I had saved from months ago, I came across a “Naked City” column by Christopher Lisotta from Frontiers Newsmagazine last January—an interview with publicist Howard Bragman, who recently wrote the book on P.R., “Where’s My Fifteen Minutes?”. There was an interesting comment:

Frontiers: “You write PR no longer means “public relations.” What does PR mean?”

Bragman: “PR stands for the concepts of perception and reality. We live in a society where perception has become more important than reality.”

No kidding? But never mind the fact that the advertising and P.R. industry has made this true. We are a nation of plastic, imitation, phoney, lights and mirrors, “truthiness.” I once read the fine print on a 0 calories soft drink can, and it admitted to “artificial imitation flavors” on the ingredients list. Not just imitation flavors, but artificial imitation flavors. How much more phoney could you want? How American!

It is true that “perception” and “reality” are the defining elements in a public world made transparent by Google, Twitter, Facebook, and IP addresses.

When it comes to LGBT people, the reality of our lives still doesn’t really matter to the public. Their perception is that we are weird, sex-crazed, pleasure-loving creatures with no ethics but huge wads of discretionary income. We are muscle-bound girlie men –both gays and lesbians. We all carry the AIDS virus, we hate heterosexual marriage, we all molest children and we are bringing God’s judgment down on America, a nation of “fag enablers.”

That’s the stereotype. That’s the perception. Never mind that we work and pay taxes, that we make decent (and tasteful) homes, raise the best kids, volunteer for everything and donate to all kinds of causes; that we serve our nation both in uniform and in every kind of job and profession. Never mind that we are often care-givers for the elderly and those with HIV.

And never mind that millions of us go to church, for God’s sake. (If it weren’t for gay organists, choir directors and florists, the church would be a dreary and silent box of self-righteous people.)

But the perception is that we shake our naked boobs and butts on pride parade floats, and secretly want to sodomize our neighbor’s pre-teen children.

So how do we change the public’s idiotic perception and derail the lying machine which cranks out hateful speech and packages it as truth? In my view, probably not by hiring P.R. firms. They did that the fight Proposition 8 a year ago, and gay/lesbian coupledom was so sanitized for the public that we ceased to exist.

The best thing any of us can do is to come out—because unlike Hollywood’s movie stars and publicity seekers, we won’t get photos in People magazine. Most of us just come out to friends, families and close neighbors. Since the already know us, we have enormous influence over their perception of other lesbian/gay people and will actually change their perception by bringing it into line with the reality of what they know in our lives.

Bragman talks about clients who come to his firm because they believe their reality is better than the public perception, so they want to improve the perception. There is, in my words, a perception deficit which good publicity and solid integrity can correct.

Not so with “truthiness,” a word minted by friends of the Bush administration. All something needs is the “look and feel” of truth whether or not it is true. In short, public perception is more important than deception of the public. This month’s Advocate, for example, questions whether the LGBT community has been deceived by the Obama administration. Our perception before last November was that he was our hope for solid, systemic change. But have we been deceived, because we’re now seven months into Obama’s 48 months and we have nothing to show for it: not DOMA, not the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and only a gutted Hate Crimes legislation. Of course, Congress is only concerned with the public’s perception, not with systemic change, not with a new reality.

What about people who have a public perception which is better than the reality? You mean like many heterosexuals? Like family values? Bragman calls this “hype.” Like anybody or anything that claims to be the biggest, best, hottest, or most important in the world, for example. Like everybody on Facebook or in those chat rooms and personals.

Frontiers: “What was your perspective as a PR guy on the No on 8 campaign?”

Bragman: “My number one mantra in PR is if you do not define yourself somebody else is going to define you. And you’re not going to be as happy about them defining you as you are about defining yourself. So I think we committed the PR sin of letting our opponents define us. . . ”

My take on being Christian, of course, is that Jesus used to have good PR, good perception. But many of his followers, who puffed themselves up on hype (I would call it hyp-ocrisy), their reality has nearly destroyed his perception by the public.

And my take on being LGBT/Christian is that since countless other (heterosexual) Christians don’t worry too much about integrity and truth (they tell facile lies about us with no qualms), or bringing disgrace on the name of Jesus (think televangelists), it may well be up to us to restore the public perception of what a follower of Jesus Christ is like with traits like: honesty (come out), integrity (not a patchwork, but made of whole cloth), generosity, sacrifice, and the readiness to “turn the other cheek” to false perceptions. For example, Matthew 5:11 from the Beatitudes: “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” In other words, walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Sex, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Homophobia, HIV and AIDS, Hollywood, Public Affairs, LGBT Rights, LGBT Christian, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

Praise God: Two Years!

June 22, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

“Where have you been?” the accusing voice in my head says. There’s a legit explanation, of course. I was inundated with nine days running of house guests and all that entails (cleaning house, for one thing), and then playing catch up on my own duties. Each time I thought about blogging, I just gave up.

I don’t want to dwell on this (who would?) but it is two years today since I had cancer surgery. Thank God there is no sign that it has come back.

A blog is a personal thing, but I don’t find blogs which are diaries, or verbal web cams, to be very compelling. I usually draw from my own experience, but I hope what is written here always has the element of something more universal.

But maybe that’s why I am musing about this personal anniversary. In the last 28 months since I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, I have met numerous men who are struggling with the same reality, or the fear of it. And I have said the last rites for one of them, and tried to comfort his partner of nearly 50 years, who is also fighting prostrate cancer.

If you are male and even close to being forty, find out your PSA. Ask questions, and monitor the numbers. Prostate cancer affects a huge percentage of men, but there are a number of treatment options and each one of them is getting better all the time.  And they do not dictate the end of your sex life!  (In all honesty, there are some men who think that is worse than death. It sounds irrational, but it is a very real fear.) 

 The only thing that doesn’t get better with the passing of time is your chance of survival if you don’t even know you have it.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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Jesus is not the only one despised and rejected.

April 10, 2009 by Dan Hooper.

About a year ago a young Muslim man came to my office to learn more about the Christian faith. (I blogged about this once before~ June 3, 2008) I was taken by surprise, and thought to myself, “Oh God, where to begin?” But we have several deep conversations. He helped me begin by asking me, “How did Jesus die?”—something which many Muslims have never been told about.

Today is Maundy Thursday. In this Holy Week, Christians recall the events of the final days of Jesus’ life, and especially his betrayal, arrest, mock trial and condemnation to death. Those events are fully told in the Gospels. But in the ancient prophesies, there are a series of “Servant Songs” in the book of Isaiah which Christians have recognized since the earliest times as prophetic of the suffering and death of Jesus.

In reading this passage from Isaiah 53:1–9, I began to imagine some parallels between the rejection and hatred of Jesus and the rejection (and secret suffering) of lesbian, gay or transgender people who also feel despised and hurt —especially young people who don’t have enough perspective on life yet to be able to stand up to homophobia and hatred:

1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?I am going nuts, Lord. How do I know if you are with me or not, because my friends and my family think I am evil and sick, and people say I will go to hell for being gay.

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

I can feel the hatred in their eyes, because they look at my like I’m some kind of freak. I’m only a teenager, and already my life is a mess!

3 He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

This torture inside of me has been going on for a long time. I just knew I was different since I was a little kid. And no matter how I have tried to be good or to conform or “fit in,” people either disliked me or completely ignored me, like I’m not even a human being.

4 Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

When they find out you’re queer, the first thing they think is like, “He’s got AIDS! Get away from me you fag!” And, “God is punishing you for being so gay!” Sometimes I have been hit or shoved into the wall. Once they kicked me.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.

They think that by treating me with hate they are somehow better, like “holier-than-thou.” They think that by beating up on me or shouting obscenities, somehow they are more human that I am. Like, the guys are insecure about their masculinity, so they want to hurt me to prove they are “real” men.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

I can’t help it, Lord, but I feel like you have let all this hatred come down on me. I cannot carry this load, Lord. People say you never give us a load we cannot carry, but I can’t carry the load of hatred that has been put on my back.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

So how am I supposed to remain quiet, and be nice to people who talk about me behind my back? Am I supposed to just let them hate me, be cruel, abuse me and kill me like they did to Matthew Shepard and Lawrence King and Gwen Araujo?

8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away.  Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

I’ve heard about guys who went to jail “on a morals charge” just because they were gay! And anti-gay violence is getting worse. We are being killed just for being who we are!

9 They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

O God, I feel like I could die. I mean, I feel dead, because people wish I was dead!! Protect me, and help me to not to go crazy. I want to live. you gave me life. Help me to go one living until there is better day, and not to hate those people back because they hate me.  Help me to survive!!

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Homophobia, Gay Catechism, Violence, HIV and AIDS, Bible & Interpretation, PRAYERS, Faith, LGBT Christian, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

Scientific Distortion and Four Lies

November 14, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

In late October Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out that another researcher has announced that the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) “grossly and deliberately distorted” her research regarding sexual orientation. I have mentioned Besen’s own research and credentials in this blog several times, and his book Anything But Straight here).

Dr. Lisa Diamond, Associate professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of Utah, is interviewed by Besen here (5 minute video).

Diamond also comments in the video interview about so-called “reparative therapy.” “The [reparative] therapists are saying, “We can change your orientation,’when in fact all of the data—all of the data suggest that that’s not the case.” She is also particularly blunt about the willful misuse of published scientific findings by organizations who rely on the public’s gullibility. 

“There are a lot of scientists who would say, ‘you know what? I just produce the data, and then how it’s used is not my problem.’ But I think knowing that we have a culture that actually treats scientific findings very seriously in terms of support for public policy, that would be inappropriate. We have to be very vocal about what constitutes an unscientific use of the data and, that’s why I think it’s important to speak out. … I’m pretty accustomed at this point to the fact that these sorts of distortions will occur. My hope is that by doing something like this we can hopefully have a more scientifically-literate society and consumer culture that will get better at recognizing distortions when they occur, and will not simply take the citation of a scientific paper as evidence that that paper has been appropriately used.”

Besen has another web site which is very helpful, www.respectmyresearch.org, which names the distorters of scientific research. Among them, says Besen, are Dr. James Dobson who heads Focus on the Family (a multi-million dollar power house of right-wing rhetoric) and Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, former president of NARTH. “Nicolosi recently stepped aside after a member of his “Scientific Advisory Board” penned an article for NARTH’s website that justified slavery.”

Alongside the willful distortion of scientific research, NARTH has been known to use pseudo-science to prop up its persuasions. Although entirely discredited for his unscientific science, the views of Dr. Paul Cameron still pop up in NARTH’s archives. For example, Dr. Ross Olson cites a Cameron winner, “Gay Foster Parents More Apt to Molest,” by Paul Cameron, Journal of the Family Research Institute, Vol. 17 No. 7, Nov 2002, ). According to Respect My Research, Cameron “was dropped from the American Psychological Association for his shoddy and anti-gay work, such as claiming mosquitoes spread AIDS and gay people should be exterminated.”

 

Cameron and Nicolosi

(A week ago, NARTH held a convention. For one view of that, see Daniel Gonzales’ article, “Hair You can Straighten, Gays Not So Much” in the Box Turtle Bulletin here.)

It is to easy to suppose that the right wing nuts are simply crazy. There is a chilling consistency to their logic, a consistency for which they keep finding ways to misuse information and scientific studies. The consistency is what I called the Four Lies.

A few years ago I started writing a longer paper—but the longer research required and longer hours at my day job stopped me from finishing it—about the Four Lies I see behind the right-wing manipulation of public attitudes and public policy about homosexuality. The Four Lies are these: that we are child molesters, that we “recruit”, that we “choose the gay life style, and that we can simply change. These are not merely misunderstandings, they are Lies.

Change is the underlying issue, because it implies that there is a “right choice” and a “wrong choice.” Sexual reactionaries have themselves convinced that the chose heterosexuality, and take credit for making the “right choice,” in spite of the fact that credible academic research has yet to find a cause of heterosexuality or homosexuality, and increasingly supports the idea that no one chooses his or her sexual orientation.

The screwball doctrine that people choose be lesbian or gay supports the idea that impressionable young children must be protected from our influence. They encourage the public to fear the “bad influence” we supposed exert on the young so that they will seek to control us. Homosexuality must never be “taught in the schools” for example — which figured prominently in the “Yes on 8″ television ads in California. Conservatives in the African-American community, during the same Proposition 8 battle, insisted that black people do not choose to be black, but that homosexuals choose to be homosexual, and thus ours is not a civil rights issue. For conservatives who buy this Lie, since homosexual behavior is a choice, then we deserve no protected status and no civil rights.

The Lie about child molestation—which has been responsibly refuted over and over—is that any kind of an “experience” between a homosexual and a young person could influence that young person to become homosexual, as if it is such an attractive “lifestyle” that impressionable kids would choose homosexuality the way some kids choose to join a gang or get their navels pierced or their biceps tattooed. The whole thesis of “reparative therapy” is to fix the supposed damage to a young person’s gender identity to keep him from slipping or jumping into “the gay lifestyle.” On the so-called “gay lifestyle,” see my brief article “Two Gay Lifestyles” here.

After a while, I get so tired of arguing for truth over b.s. that like many others I tend to just make jokes about them. For example, the reason that heterosexuals have children is that since they can’t recruit they have to reproduce. But making jokes does not make Lies and misinformed public opinion go away. The Yes on Proposition 8 victory is evidence of that.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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