ReligionDispatches.org

Back in 2003, former Senator Rick Santorum came under ridicule after warning that allowing same-sex marriage would lead to "man on dog" relationships.

Seven years later, former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging Senator John McCain in the primary in Arizona, has taken up the Santorum mantle, asserting in an interview on Orlando, Florida's WORL that gay unions could lead to "man-horse" wedding ceremonies:

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Poor Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell - he just can’t win. After issuing an executive order removing sexual orientation as a protected class in the state’s anti-discrimination policy, he has been forced to issue a “directive” that takes it back, sort of, after his attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, issued a letter informing the state’s colleges and universities that their non-discrimination policies protecting gays and lesbians are illegal.

McDonnell’s “directive” clarified his “position that hiring, promotion, compensation, treatment, discipline and termination of state employees can be based only on an individual’s job qualifications, merit and performance.”

The Washington Post quoted McDonnell:

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When Bob McDonnell became the governor of Virginia earlier this year, one of his first official acts was to strip gay and lesbian state workers of their job security by rolling back a non-discrimination policy that specifically included a category for sexual orientation.

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The world at large had never heard of John Smid before 2005. That’s when the ex-gay operation he ran, Love in Action, became the target of protests after a teenager named Zach began posting on the Internet about how his parents forced him into LIA’s youth program, "Refuge."  The controversy led to court battles with the state of Tennessee, where LIA is located, over whether or not it was properly licensed to deliver "treatment" to youth.  The legal issues were resolved in 2006, and Refuge eventually closed its doors. In 2008, Smid resigned from LIA.

Now, Smid is back with a new ministry called “Grace Rivers” that affirms “the sinfulness of any sexual act outside of the scriptural context of Holy Matrimony between a man and a woman,” and still upholds an offer of “redemption,” even though Smid claims to be out of the “ex-gay” making business. The new ministry also comes with an apology from Smid for his past actions:

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It's not even June, the traditional month of weddings, and gay marriages are busting out all over.

This week, gay and lesbian couples were allowed to get married in the District of Columbia, despite anti-equality activists challenging the new law all the way to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts put the kibosh on the challenge Tuesday, calling the issue one of "exclusively local concern." Gay and lesbian couples in Mexico City, meanwhile, are getting ready to walk down the aisle after a new law there legalizing marriage equality and adoption takes effect.

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If we listen to some religious leaders, natural disasters don’t just happen—there is a supernatural reason for them. In short, God is angry, and natural disasters are God’s way of helping us to see the light and repent, repent, repent, before it’s too late. (Well, for those who survived the hurricane, or flood, or earthquake, anyway. For those who didn’t, it’s presumably, already too late.)

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Virginia may have swung from red to blue in 2008, but its new governor has taken action via executive order that revised the state’s anti-discrimination policy to explicitly remove “sexual orientation” from the list—now putting the jobs of state gay and lesbian workers at risk.

The order rescinds the policy of his predecessor Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who promised to be “fair and inclusive” in his inaugural address and then—as one of his first actions—added veterans and sexual orientation to the state’s non-discrimination policy.

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Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is the lead sponsor of a measure to repeal the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue policy that has barred openly gay and lesbian people from serving in the military. Lieberman, who has been a thorn in the side of many liberals over issues of healthcare and Iraq, may now be hailed by some liberals for this bold move:

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A few years ago, my mother delightedly told me that the Baptist church in my Georgia hometown had raised more than $3 million to build a new state-of-the-art sanctuary. The sanctuary campaign came on the heels of another several million dollar fundraiser to move from a downtown location to the outskirts of town, to build a state-of-the-art worship center and gymnasium.

My mother was proud of her hometown church, where I spent most of my early teen years. I wasn't all that impressed and asked, "So, there were no poor people in town that may have needed help?"

My mother sighed impatiently and began to talk about her tomato plants.

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In the late 1980s, a man named Arthur Abba Goldberg was busy making a unique name for himself on Wall Street. The man some saw as an "investment guru" was known as "Abba Dabba Do" and "Abba Cadabra" in honor of his investing skills. Turns out those skills were not so much mad, as they were fraudulent.

In 1989, Goldberg pled guilty in federal court in California and Illinois to three counts of wire and mail fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The accusations he admitted to include his participation as the engineer of a phony bond and investment scheme, which netted his Wall Street investment firm nearly $11 million in illegal fees.

The U.S. Attorney who handled the case at the time, K. William O’Connor, told the court at his sentencing that Goldberg’s crime was "a fraud of spectacular scope."

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Christianity Today has put its two cents in on the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda, telling gays and lesbians to unwad their knickers over the law and instead exercise “patience as Ugandan leaders sort out among themselves the best way to preserve their culture’s sexual mores.” Instead of strongly condemning this legislation, which President Barack Obama has called “odious,” CT tells us we need to understand the culture and give the Ugandans a fair hearing on their homophobia, reasoned arguments against gays and lesbians:

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When is an apology not really an apology? When the behavior that provoked the apology continues after the, “I’m sorry.” A case in point is Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams “apology” to gay and lesbian people in an address to the General Synod of the Church of England, meeting this week in London:

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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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