ReligionDispatches.org

For years, James Dobson has been the voice and face of Focus on the Family. Now, as he steps aside, his successor on FoF’s daily radio show, Jim Daly, will be bringing a softer voice, and a wider agenda, to the program and the organization:

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At the 58th annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington today, President Barack Obama finally spoke about the pending "kill the gays" bill in Uganda, calling it "odious."

We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are, whether it is here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.

Gay and lesbian groups and straight allies have been quick to praise him for it.

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The religious right is wetting itself over a new study that showed an program promoting abstinence for teenagers is showing some success:

"Finally, a study that proves what those of us who have been teaching abstinence have known for years," [Leslee Unruh, president and founder of National Abstinence Clearinghouse] said, "these programs help develop self-control and self-esteem, teaching kids they do not need to fall prey to the game of Russian Roulette with condoms."

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Rabbi Yehuda Levin knows how to get press – emulate Pat Robertson. Levin, the spokesman of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, issued a press release today warning that lifting the military ban on gays and lesbians serving open in the military is equivalent to the “spiritual rape” of the military:

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At the risk of being branded un-American, or a hater of the troops, I must confess that I have never understood why anyone would join the military, no matter what your sexual orientation. Even my earliest understandings of the Bible and the Christianity in which I was raised, seemed to warn against warring — and definitely against killing.

As a high school student I was heavily recruited by the several branches of the service and finally told the recruiters that I was a conscientious objector who would have nothing to do with guns, no matter what kind of sweet job they wanted to offer me to get my signature on their papers. Learning to shoot a gun at other people in the hope of wounding or killing them made no sense to me. I've always believed that there are better alternatives to war or killing your enemy. I agree with Clement of Alexandria who wrote: "As simple and quiet sisters, peace and love require no arms. For it is not in war, but in peace, that we are trained."

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When you live in South Carolina, you get used to being embarrassed when local politicians open their mouths. From yelling at the president, a la Joe Wilson, to hiking the Appalachian Trail all the way to Argentina, like Gov. Mark Sanford, the Palmetto State has seen its share of political head shakers. Not to be outdone by either Wilson or Sanford, Lt. Governor Andre Bauer had to display his own version of foot-in-mouth disease over the weekend, comparing the state’s poor children and their parents to “stray animals”:

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better,” Bauer said.

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"I'm gay. I'm short and half Hispanic those things aren't going to change."

Those are the words Ryan Kendall uttered in a federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday as the trial over whether or not to overturn Proposition 8 that stripped gays and lesbians of their right to marry in California, got into its second week.

Kendall took the stand to recount his harsh treatment in an "ex-gay ministry." His deeply religious parents forced him into so-called "reparative therapy" after finding a note that Kendall had written to himself confessing his sexual orientation at the age of 13. Kendall said his parents "flipped out, (they were) very upset, yelling. I don't remember a lot of what they said, but it was pretty scary the level of their reaction. I remember my mother telling me I was going to burn in hell."

From there, Kendall was shipped off to a Christian therapist for treatment to become a heterosexual. When that therapy didn't work, Kendall was turned over to Joseph Nicolosi with NARTH, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

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When Proposition 8 was fought at the ballot box in California to deny the newly-minted right to marry for gay and lesbian couples, those leading the charge were mainly religious. The Mormon Church gave more than $180,000 in efforts to repeal the new marriage law. That was peanuts though compared to the nearly $730,000 in cash and services provided by Colorado-based Focus on the Family and the $1.275 million given by the Catholic Church group the Knights of Columbus.

The religious argument against marriage equality for gays and lesbians may have won the round at the ballot box, but in the San Francisco courtroom where the legal battle to overturn Prop. 8 wraps up its first week, religion has been largely absent. Religious arguments don’t hold a lot of legal water, so anti-marriage equality proponents are forced to use their secular arguments, and reading reports from the courtroom (since the U.S. Supreme Court nixed video coverage of the trial), they’re leaking fairly badly as well.

Without being able to argue that God ordained one man and one woman for life (never mind all that Old Testament polygamy) and so we cannot deviate from that pattern, those opposed to same-gender marriage are instead focusing on issues like parenting, economic impact, discrimination, and child rearing.

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As a Christian who happens to also be a lesbian, one of the phrases I hear a lot from those who believe homosexuality is a sin is that they don’t hate me as a person, but they hate my “behavior”—in short, they love the “sinner” but hate the “sin.” No matter what they say, however, hatred is hatred, and their hatred for my “sin” tends to overwhelm any manner of love they may feel for me. All I seem to feel is their hatred, rejection, and wrath over my “sin.”

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Houston is the home of Lakewood Church – the mega-church that meets in an old sports arena that seats tens of thousands every Sunday. The leader of that church, televangelist and best-selling author Joel Osteen, gave the opening prayer as Houston inaugurated Annise Parker as mayor last week. Parker took the oath on her grandmother's Bible, held by her partner, Kathy Hubbard.

That's right, Mayor Parker is a lesbian.

Osteen blessed the new mayor, praying at her inauguration: "God, we just thank you for raising her up. We honor her today and other elected officials . . . We count it a joy and an honor to be here."

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Amanda Simpson is now working for the federal government. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the Senior Technical Adviser to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Simpson is eminently qualified for the position with a background as a test pilot, degrees in physics, engineering, business administration, and years of experience in the aerospace industry.

The religious right though is up in arms over her appointment. The Family Research Council pulled out their best purple prose to announce this affront to decency:

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Apparently, I have crossed a line. I didn’t realize there was a line, but apparently my last post about Rick Warren was a bridge too far for some folks.

Even though I clearly stated that everything I said about Warren was pure conjecture - meaning an opinion not based in fact - I have been lambasted by Warren defenders. It’s puzzling to me. A while back I wrote a fairly critical piece on Joel Osteen, questioning the motives of his ministry and his low opinion of gays and lesbians as not being “God’s best.” No one took me to task for criticizing Osteen. No one claimed I was way off base, didn’t know my facts, or professed disappointment in me. For some reason, though, Warren appears to be off limits. Criticizing Warren is apparently somewhat akin to badmouthing Gandhi, King, or even Jesus Christ.

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Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church has ended its year in the black, thanks to some last minute begging by the head pastor. Just as the 2009 drew to a close, Warren sent out an urgent message to his “Saddleback Family,” informing them that the church budget was some $900,000 shy of its goal.

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The religious right is worried about Barack Obama and his family. Specifically, they worry that the First Family is not going to church. Well, actually, they're worried that President Obama has "misled" them about his commitment to warming a pew every Sunday.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama made his Christian faith and involvement in a local church community with regular church attendance a key component of his campaign. Once he was elected President, there has been no relationship with a local church and he did not even attend any Christmas services celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ with his family.

The issue is not if a person has to attend church to be an effective President. They do not. The issue for Mr. Obama is one of integrity and honesty with the American people.

It's refreshing that Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney from the Christian Defense Coalition realizes that going to church doesn't make one a good or bad president, but this is just the tip of the iceberg on a litany of complaints about Obama's "misleading" of the "Christian community." Mahoney goes on to list "other troubling signs regarding the depth of his Christian faith."

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The annual “conservative-palooza” commonly known as CPAC, or the Conservative Political Action Conference, will be co-sponsored in 2010 by an unlikely group called “GOProud” – a group of gay and lesbian Republicans.

If that sounds like strange bedfellows, it’s not really.  In many ways, GOProud is an ideological fit for the CPAC crowd – if they can get past the whole gay thing. GOProud was formed by a group of gay Republicans, like Christopher Barron, who found the traditional gay Republican group, the Log Cabin Republicans, to be far too liberal for their tastes:

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Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her husband Joseph have been attacked and killed by a knife-wielding Christian in New Zealand. The holy couple were in New Zealand to appear on a billboard (right) in Auckland on behalf of a church there:

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While the world's attention has been sharply focused on the anti-homosexuality bill now pending before the legislature in Uganda, no one has seemed to notice that Rwanda is not far behind its continental cousin.

The Rwandan parliament is set to vote on a measure to criminalize homosexuality:

On December 16, 2009, the lower house of the Rwandan Parliament will hold its final debate on a draft revision of the penal code that will, for the first time, make homosexuality a crime in Rwanda. A vote on this draft code will occur before the end of the week. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has learned that the proposed Article 217 of the draft Penal Code Act will criminalize "[a]ny person who practices, encourages or sensitizes people of the same sex, to sexual relation or any sexual practice." If the Chamber of Deputies approves, the draft code will go before the Rwandan Senate most likely in early 2010.

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First it was Rick Warren, who under pressure from many sides, finally spoke out against the anti-homosexuality bill still pending in the Ugandan legislature. Now, joining Warren on the "better-late-than-never" bandwagon is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph over the weekend, Williams spoke against the bill:

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The leader of an "ex-gay" organization whose books and other material has been used to bolster support for the anti-gay bill now pending before Uganda lawmakers has voiced his opposition to the bill.

Richard Cohen, leader of the International Healing Center, told Rachel Maddow this week:

"We do not believe in this legislation. We had no knowledge of it and we disavow all relationship to it. We are promoting loving people, loving all homosexual people."

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As passage of a new law in Uganda requiring jail time and possibly a death sentence for gays and lesbians, or those who aid and abet them, seems inevitable, a group comprised of both conservative and liberal U.S. Christians has issued statement opposing the measure:

As followers of the teachings of Christ, we must express profound dismay at a bill currently before the Parliament in Uganda. […]  As Americans, some may wonder why we are raising our voices to oppose a measure proposed in a nation so far away from home. We do so to bear witness to our Christian values, and to express our condemnation of an injustice in which groups and leaders within the American Christian community are being implicated. We appeal to all Christian leaders in our own country to speak out against this unjust legislation.

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I sure hope Cody Sanders has thick skin. He’s in for one heck of a beating after publishing an op-ed over at the Associated Baptist Press asking if common ground can be found on the issue of homosexuality.

The common ground he proposes? Liberal and conservative churches joining forces to end violence against gays and lesbians:

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Just this week, the New York state legislature handed the gay and lesbian community another defeat in their battle for marriage equality. This is another in a long line of defeats for gays and lesbians, despite bright spots like the passage of such a measure in Washington, DC.

When I begin to get depressed about the afflictions faced by gays and lesbians in the United States, my thoughts turn to my brothers and sisters in Uganda who soon will face jail, and possibly death, for simply existing. Fighting, and even losing, a battle for marriage equality would be a welcome luxury for them.

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In three of the gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — Jesus is quite clear about his feelings on divorce: it's a sin. Those who divorce and remarry commit adultery. Divorce is the breaking of a covenant meant to be a lifetime bond — or "'til death do us part," as the traditional vow goes.

Those who claim to follow Christ, however, seem to disregard this little bit of legalism from Jesus. Apparently the son of God didn't understand that sometimes it just doesn't work out between humans and they're better off parting ways than remaining in a relationship that makes them miserable or may turn out to be abusive. What did Jesus know, anyway? He didn't have a nagging wife to worry about!

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My sister is the queen of something known as “friendship evangelism.” While my brother-in-law completely rejected the Muslim my niece dated for awhile—refusing to stay with them when they visited, lest he be seen as endorsing the relationship—my sister took a different tack. She was very kind to her daughter’s boyfriend, staying in their home and participating in their lives.

“How will he come to know Jesus if no one will share it with him?” was my sister’s logic. By being friendly, she was certain, at some point, her daughter’s boyfriend would come around and accept Jesus and leave behind his “false religion” of Islam.

I found her tactic offensive. To their credit, so did my niece and her boyfriend. Neither of them were fooled. They saw right through my sister’s veiled attempts at evangelism.

A new book by two pastors with a ministry focus on traditional sexual “sinners” like those in the porn industry and those who “struggle” with pornography, is seeking to revive this sort of “friendship evangelism.” They’re traveling the country, attending gay pride parades, handing out “Jesus Loves You” water bottles and wrist bracelets apologizing for how the church has treated “sinners” like gays and lesbians.

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You can lead a person to a Bible, but you can't make him read it, much less act on what it says. Last year, the American Bible Society shipped out three more tons of Bibles than they shipped out last year, yet as ABS president R. Lamar Vest bemoaned to Gordon Robertson on the 700 Club, "Bible literacy continues to go down."

To prove that statement, ABS commissioned a poll by Harris Interactive asking some simple questions, including finding out if people knew who said this: "You must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless."

Fifty four percent of those asked got it wrong. Hint: It's not President Obama, which is what 16 percent thought. It's not the Dalai Lama who got 9 percent, or event Martin Luther King Jr. at 8 percent, or Oprah at 4 percent, or even U2 singer Bono who got a 3 percent response.

Instead, it's a verse from the Bible, Proverbs 31:8-9 to be exact.

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