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Friday November 13, 2009

Catholic Hardball 2: DC Responds

Updates on yesterday's blog about the fight between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the DC City Council:

According to the Washington Post, the DC city council has responded to the Catholic Archdiocese by "digging in its heels" on gay marriage.  The Council tried to reach a compromise but now doubts that it is possible.

Local DC columnist, Petula Dvorak, a Roman Catholic calls her church to account and says that the Catholic Church has left her--and countless other DC Catholics--"heartbroken."

The Right Rev. John Chane, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, pretty much says that his church will help pick up the slack if the Catholic Church walks away (seems like a return volley in the ongoing Vatican-Anglican argument, too).  

Whatever happens in this case could, according to several news sources, set a national precedent for other states that adopt same-sex marriage as they try to work out accommodations with religious organizations.  

Thursday November 12, 2009

New Catholic Hardball: Trading the Poor for Doctrinal Purity

This morning's Washington Post made me choke on my coffee:  "Catholic Church Gives D.C. Ultimatum."  The Catholic Archdiocese is playing political hardball by threatening to cut off social services to the city's poor--including the homeless, the hungry, the sick, and children--if D.C. expands gay and lesbian civil rights and recognizes same-sex marriage.

That's right.  The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is holding poor people hostage in order to keep gay and lesbian persons from getting married.  They are willing to trade the indigent for getting their theological way.  

I don't like to criticize other people's religious faiths or churches.  There's plenty enough to criticize in my own Protestant tradition.  In the last year, however, we have witnessed a new authoritarian activism on the part of the Roman Church hierarchy that has an impact well beyond the Catholic Church.  This new coercive Catholicism is akin to the development of the Christian Right in evangelical churches in the early 1980s--a religious-political movement that reshaped American culture.  This is everybody's business.

In the last year, new Catholic politics emerged in the Prop 8 campaign in California where the church invested vast resources of money and leadership to overturn gay marriage; and then did the same in Maine.  Last week, in a political maneuver worthy of Tom DeLay, authoritarian Catholic bishops forced a Democratic Congress to adopt the Stupak Amendment undermining the legal right to choice by threatening to torpedo health reform.  Now they threaten the D.C. City Council?  Using the lives of poor people as a political tool?

I don't want to be alarmist about this.  Nor, in this ecumenical age, do I wish to be seen as a nativist calling for a new anti-Catholic crusade.  That would be a terrible misrepresentation of these concerns.  Nor do I want to offend Catholic friends and family.  But it is profoundly disturbing that the Roman Catholic Church appears to be using threats and fear to manipulate a democratic political process to enforce Catholic doctrine regarding abortion and human sexuality.  There seems to be a political pattern developing that should cause broad-minded citizens--Catholics included--to ask some serious questions regarding what is happening within the Catholic hierarchy.

Recently, Congressman Patrick Kennedy did just that.  In an argument with his own bishop about health care, Kennedy reminded the Bishop of Rhode Island that American Catholics have a long history of diversity and dissent regarding formal Catholic teaching.  Disagreement with the Catholic Church was, Kennedy argued, part of the dynamic of being Catholic in a democratic society.  Here's the bishop's answer:

"The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic." Well, in fact, Congressman, in a way it does. Although I wouldn't choose those particular words, when someone rejects the teachings of the Church, especially on a grave matter, a life-and-death issue like abortion, it certainly does diminish their ecclesial communion, their unity with the Church. This principle is based on the Sacred Scripture and Tradition of the Church and is made more explicit in recent documents.

For example, the "Code of Canon Law" says, "Lay persons are bound by an obligation and possess the right to acquire a knowledge of Christian doctrine adapted to their capacity and condition so that they can live in accord with that doctrine." (Canon 229, #1)

The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" says this: "Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles, 'He who hears you, hears me,' the faithful receive with docility the teaching and directives that their pastors give them in different forms." (#87)

 

It is worrisome that a Roman Catholic bishop would remind a member of the Kennedy political family that "docility" is the primary calling of faithful Catholic laity.  What about courage, compassion, and creativity?  

Oddly enough, Roman Catholic leaders have adopted a strategy of authoritarian engagement with the body politic at the very moment at which their church is declining. One in ten Americans is now an ex-Roman Catholic, with numbers dwindling, churches closing, a decline in the number of priests and religious, and with only immigration holding the number of communicants steady. With the church clearly in crisis, the bishops apparently have chosen to use the sick, poor, homeless, children, the faithful laity, and marginal as tools to increase their public power and influence by coercing public policy to fit their theology.  You'd think that they would be looking inward to see what is eroding Catholic congregations instead of lobbying Congress and threatening politicians. 

This is not what John F. Kennedy would have imagined for his beloved church when he so courageously broke through the boundaries of anti-Catholic prejudice to become the nation's first Catholic president.  The eternal flame at his grave in Arlington witnesses to the ancient Catholic vision of universal peace, justice, and love. The new authoritarian Catholicism is not only playing politics but it is replacing a more generous vision of historic Catholic faith--the traditional one that sides with the poor, the oppressed, and the outcast--with a vision of political power.  For that, I am deeply sad.  Coercive religion should have no place in a church or a pluralistic, democratic nation--much less in City Hall or the halls of the United States Congress.

 

Thursday October 22, 2009

Bill Donohue is Angry at Radical Secularists...Again

By John Gehring
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Just in time for Halloween, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is once again spooked about all those "radical secularists" lurking ominously behind ever corner. In case you didn't notice, these godless heathens are "waging war" against American culture and plotting to "smash the last vestiges of Christianity in America." So argues the irrepressible cultural warrior in a recent On Faith commentary and in his new book, "Secular Sabatoge: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America."

 

You have to hand it to the guy. Donohue makes righteous indignation and throwing rhetorical bombs into an art form. He is about as subtle as a fist in your face. If you are looking for reasoned and sensible analysis turn on PBS, Donohue seems to snarl. His latest depiction of cultural doom probably elicits a yawn from most religious Americans who are not obsessed with the bogeymen of multiculturalism, secularism, homosexuality and Hollywood hedonism that Donohue rails against with a bullying style.

 

Everyday in our churches, mosques and synagogues people of faith gather humbly to pray for wisdom, compassion and justice. We give public expression to this faith by comforting the sick, welcoming the strangers among us and seeking peace in a world torn by violence. We lobby Congress to pass health-care reform, fix a broken immigration system and address global climate change as profound moral issues. Even on difficult issues, we reject culture-war showdowns by encouraging pro-choice and pro-life elected officials to find common ground and reduce abortions by increasing support for pregnant women, expanding adoption opportunities and preventing unintended pregnancies.

 

Keeping track of Donohue's latest offensive comment keeps the watchdogs at Media Matters for America busy. Here's a few of his signature gems:

 

▪ "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular...Hollywood likes anal sex." MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 12/8/04

 

▪ "A lot of these people are gold diggers looking to get money from the Catholic Church."  -Speaking about the clergy sex abuse scandal. The Last Word with Matt Cooper 5/29/2009

 

At least when he gets to feeling down about things, Donohue raises his chin and cheers himself up with this comforting thought:

 

▪ "The culture war is up for grabs. The good news is that religious conservatives continue to breed like rabbits, while secular saboteurs have shut down: they're too busy walking their dogs, going to bathhouses and aborting their kids. Time, it seems, is on the side of the angels."  On Faith, Washington Post, 10/19/09

 

It's sad, if unsurprising, that the media regularly turns to Donohue for a "Catholic view" on issues. While Donohue's bluster makes for sensational television, he rarely raises his voice to speak about issues at the heart of Catholic social teaching. While the U.S. Catholic bishops' 2008 election-year statement on political responsibility emphasized a consistent ethic of life tradition that recognizes torture, unjust war, the death penalty, genocide, racism and poverty as "direct assaults on innocent human life," Donohue is uncharacteristically mute on these points. Abortion is not the only "life issue" for Catholics. As Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of Los Angeles told the Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr. last year: "We are not a one-issue Church...but that's not what always comes out."

 

We live in an age where the shrillest voices often drown out sober debate and thoughtful insights. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh watch their ratings soar with every outrageous remark. Bill Donohue gets invited on TV because he bellows and bloviates with the best of them. While some enjoy the antics, most of us are tired of the noise machine. Faith and reason are not enemies, but together help illuminate our path through the dark forests of fear, ignorance and injustice. Sometimes we just need to turn down the volume and tune out the shouters to find our way.

 

 

Saturday October 10, 2009

Religious Voices for Gay Rights at the National Equality March

Timothy Palmer is the Director of Communication and Outreach at the Religious Institute: Faith Voices on Sexuality and Religion


People of faith will be conspicuous at the National Equality March in Washington this weekend.  I don't remember hearing religious voices at my first March on Washington in 1993, so I consider this a sign of progress.  But no matter how many more of the faithful may be marching with us this year, the Church, writ large, is late to the party. 

 

With the exception of the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalists and the Jewish Reform and Reconstructionist movements, much of organized religion still struggles to shed its homophobic past and to liberate its sexual ethic from moralism and shame.  No wonder growing numbers of Americans find the Church irrelevant to their lives, particularly their sexual lives.

 

This is not to say the Church is a hopeless case.  Far from it.  As this summer's actions at the Episcopal and Lutheran general assemblies demonstrated, our religious communities are finding their way forward on the long journey from "sexuality is sinful" to "sexuality is holy," and from "God created sex for procreation" to "God created sex for pleasure."  That journey requires a transformation in religious thinking, followed by a transformation in religious teaching. 

 

This week I attended the annual alumni gathering at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where the workshops and panels centered on the theme of "Sex and the Church."  Marvin Ellison, professor of ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary, pointed out that much of contemporary heterosexual sex is "queer sex" in the eyes of traditionalists.  Contracepted sex, non-marital sex and casual sex challenge centuries of religious moralism, yet progressives are finding the theological grounds for defining queer sex as sinful increasingly shaky.

 

Ellen Armour, a feminist theologian from Vanderbilt, noted how feminist and queer theory has helped break the shackles of sexual and gender binaries (straight or gay, male or female) and opened our eyes to the diversity of sexualities and genders in the human population.  What queer people themselves have learned, though, is that even the broader array of new identities we have created - gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer - do not nearly define human experience, which can be remarkably fluid over time.  Sexuality and gender is not only diverse across humanity, but within individual lifetimes as well. 

 

Debra Haffner, executive director of the Religious Institute, said the attention paid to gay and lesbian issues has created space for organized religion to rethink its relationship with sexuality more broadly.  How do we break the silence surrounding sexuality in our congregations, how do we raise children to be sexually healthy and make ethical decisions, how do we recognize the connections between sexuality and spirituality? 

 

David Carr, a Biblical scholar at Union, concluded that "affirming human erotic connection is a central, if not the central, human vocation." 

 

Religious progressives marching in D.C. this weekend are taking a stand for equality and social justice.  May their activism awaken the larger Church to its responsibility, long overdue, to shed outdated moralism and embrace humanity it all of its queer, sexual, spiritual glory. 

Thursday September 24, 2009

Categories: Abortion, Gender, Homosexuality

Dear Imam, Rabbi or Pastor: The Wrong Embryo Was Implanted, Can We Talk?

Kate M. Ott, Ph.D. is the Associate Director of The Religious Institute: Faithful Voices on Sexuality and Religion

 

On Monday, Carolyn and Sean Savage of Sylvania, Ohio, told the national audience of the Today Show that Carolyn was implanted with the wrong embryo during an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure.  What if she were to come into your church or synagogue or mosque to tell her story, instead of the Today Show? 

 

For millennia, religious traditions have provided direction, discernment and doctrine on issues of fertility and childbirth, family and kinship.  These themes resound in the sacred texts and historical traditions of every major faith.  Yet most faith leaders and communities are unprepared to deal with issues raised by use of assisted reproductive technologies, or ARTs.

 

The Savages explained they were hoping for a fourth child from the embryos they had created from previous IVF cycles.  Although their two sons were conceived through heterosexual intercourse, their daughter was conceived through IVF after the couple experienced secondary infertility, including 10 years of persistent attempts and miscarriages.  The Savages, upon learning of the misplaced embryo, faced two choices:  terminate the pregnancy, or carry the fetus to term and give the child back to his/her biological parents.  They chose not only to continue this pregnancy, but also to continue to use IVF and a gestational surrogate to have more children.

 

The Savages' circumstances are not an everyday occurrence.  But there is no doubt that the use of ARTs has begun to shift the way we think about reproduction, family structure and children.  More than 3 million babies worldwide have been born using ARTs, and approximately 12% of women of child-bearing age in the U.S. have used an infertility service. 

 

Chances are someone in your faith community has used ARTs.  Clergy and religious professionals must be prepared to deal pastorally with couples and individuals who may use ARTs for genetic screening, acquire donated sperm, egg or embryos, hire a surrogate, or preserve their own sperm or eggs in the case of a severe illness, such as cancer. 

 

These technologies raise ethical issues and moral questions for religious leaders and the families they serve.  ARTs give new hope to those who have been unable to conceive - but at what price?  The technologies often impose unreasonable health risks and an extraordinary financial burden.  High costs restrict the use of ARTs to the well-off and well-insured (and so far there has been no mention of assisted reproduction in the debate over healthcare reform).  

 

The Savages cite religious beliefs for their decisions, but religious beliefs related to ARTs range from complete opposition to caution to encouragement.  What does your faith tradition say about use of ARTs, and what are those teachings based on? Long-held belief in the "blessing of fertility," coupled with an inherent bias for biological children, can lead to repeated attempts at assisted reproduction, when there are other ways of creating family.  It is time to lift up religious perspectives that value diverse family structures and expand our understanding of creativity and generativity in order to guide ethical discernment and inform compassionate counseling.

 

Today the Religious Institute released A Time to Be Born: A Faith-Based Guide to Assisted Reproductive Technologies to help clergy and other religious professionals address the complex pastoral, moral and ethical issues raised by assisted reproductive technologies.  The manual provides an overview of the technologies and how they are used; examines traditional religious perspectives on reproduction and fertility; and outlines a model of pastoral care and counseling that will enable religious leaders to effectively minister to the individuals and communities seeking their help. 

 

Reproductive technologies are sophisticated and ever changing.  By no means can any clergy member or religious professional be expected to know how all of them work or what makes someone a candidate for various technologies.  But clergy and religious professionals do need to know how their faith traditions view ARTs.  The Today Show gave the Savages a forum to tell their story, but couples and individuals choosing to use ARTs should be able to turn to their faith communities for moral discernment, compassionate counseling and support.   

 

Monday August 24, 2009

Categories: Christians, Homosexuality

Lutheran Gay Rights!

Timothy Palmer is the Director of Policy and Communication at the Religious Institute: Faithful Voices on Sexuality and ReligionThose of us who are both openly gay and openly Christian (and happily reconciled in the two) are used to the deliberate pace...

Wednesday July 15, 2009

Not Angels, but Anglicans

For the last month, I've been in Australia and only occasionally heard news from the United States.  I haven't minded too much missing arguments over health care and the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.  But I have fretted about missing...

Tuesday July 14, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Gay Bishops and the New Orthodoxy of the Episcopal Church

It looks like the Episcopal Church is going to lift its ban on gay bishops.This is great news for those of us who support equal rights of gays and lesbians to serve at the highest office in any political or...

Thursday July 9, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality, Race

Gay People Should Celebrate and Support the NAACP at 100!

Gay people and their allies should take the occasion of the NAACP's centennial to celebrate the NAACP's century of accomplishments and recommit to supporting the organization and its objectives of ending racism in America.  Why?I'll give you three reasons.1) The NAACP provides an example...

Wednesday July 1, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

President Obama holds White House Gay Pride Reception

If you haven't seen this it will hopefully give you confidence that no matter what people say, our President is on the side of the LGBT communities.  The President's great line was about Stonewall in 1969 saying "That night, nobody...

Friday June 26, 2009

Mark Sanford v. Elliot Spitzer- the Hypocrisy (and faith) Factor

Alec Baldwin wants me to move on and not pay attention to the Mark Sanford fandango.  I basically agree.  But over the last couple of days I have been wondering why the Mark Sanford affair rankles me more than, say,...

Tuesday June 2, 2009

Was Tiller's Murder Justice?

(cross posted from Faithfuldemocrats.com)             Last week, I had the honor of sitting next to a group of Gold Star Moms during the National Memorial Day concert.  We talked about their sons and exchanged some tearful hugs during the extremely...

Friday May 29, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Sexual Orientation and the Pursuit of Happiness

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.... These values are enshrined in our Declaration of Independence as inalienable rights of every American. Generation after generation, people have fought to get rid of the "....except for"s: except for blacks, except for...

Sunday May 24, 2009

A Memorial Day Salute to my Partner's Father

John Glenn Gooch's military stone had only recently been placed in the cemetery when we arrived to plant flowers to honor him this Memorial Day weekend.  Glenn died this winter and is now buried near the town where he...

Tuesday May 12, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Lesbian Justice on the Supreme Court

Soon after Justice Souter announced his retirement from the Supreme Court the nomination speculation game began.  Two of the names that quickly surfaced were Kathleen Sullivan and Pam Karlan and either one of them would represent the first lesbian on...

Thursday April 30, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Hate Crimes Legislation and the Pulpit

The Hate Crimes Bill passed the house yesterday 249-175 and so we have taken another step towards decency in our country and respect for all of our citizens.  This has been seen as a threat by conservative religious and legal...

Tuesday April 21, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Gotcha Miss California

This morning, Miss California USA told an MSNBC anchor that she prays for celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. Not unsolicited charity, her prayers are a response to an unexpected controversy from Sunday's night Miss USA competition.  Miss California was one...

Sunday April 19, 2009

The Gathering Storm - Colbert Strikes Back

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Colbert Coalition's Anti-Gay Marriage Ad colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest There were a lot of good spoofs of the National Organization for Marriage's video...

Wednesday April 8, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Gay Marriage and the New Improved Rick Warren

Rick Warren is now pro-gay marriage. Or, he never was against gay marriage. (video 1)Except that of course, he was against gay marriage.  (video 2)Rick Warren doesn't equate gay marriage with incest or pedophilia.  (video 1)Except, or course, he did...

Sunday April 5, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Iowa Blesses Gay Marriage

The Iowa Supreme Court did the just thing last Thursday when it found laws prohibiting marriage between people of the same gender unconstitutional.   The court gave a UNANIMOUS opinion displaying a moral clarity on the subject which other states and ultimately the...

Saturday March 21, 2009

Julian Bond: Black Rights and Gay Rights - A Common Struggle

This is a wonderful video for anyone who cars about the civil rights of all people.  It puts to rest the false idea that African Americans are more homophobic than other Americans.   Homophobia has no race and bigotry towards gay people...

Thursday March 5, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Marriage Matters: Why California Must Overturn Prop 8

Guest Post by Rev. Debra W. Haffner, Director, Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing - a multifaith organization with more than 4400 religious leaders in its networkThe California Supreme Court will hear arguments today to invalidate Prop 8...

Thursday February 12, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Milk: Best Spiritual Film of the Year

  Belierfnet has nominated five fine films for best spiritual film of the year.  But the list leaves out the winner:  Milk. The movie tells the story of Harvey Milk, the gay San Francisco superintendent who died a martyr for the...

Tuesday February 3, 2009

Ted Haggard, The Trials of a Gay Evangelical

HBO will be airing a new documentary about Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor and former President of the National Association of Evangelicals who fell from prominance when it was discovered that he was having extra-marital gay sex with a male...

Wednesday January 21, 2009

Categories: Christians, Homosexuality

The Inauguration According to Westboro Baptist Church

Just our own little bit of American Christian fundamentalism at the inauguration.  (I think they are secretly a radical pro-gay group doing street theater)...

Monday January 19, 2009

CHANGING LEADERS AND ENDURING VALUES

Just as I seek to protect appropriate boundaries between religion and government, I also protect appropriate boundaries between my work as President of Interfaith Alliance and my role as Pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Monroe, LA. That is not...

Thursday January 15, 2009

Gene and Rick: Post-Partisan Parable 2

A few days ago, the Obama team announced that Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop who is an openly partnered gay man, will pray at Sunday's Inauguration rock concert on the National Mall.    On the Rachel Maddow Show, Bishop...

Monday January 12, 2009

Bishop Gene Robinson to Give Prayer at Pre-Inaugural Event

The New Hampshire gay Episcopal Bishop, Gene Robinson will offer a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial on the Sunday before the inauguration.  This is really great news and seems to me to be an appropriate and brave gesture by the...

Sunday January 11, 2009

Categories: Homosexuality

Rick Warren Gives Sanctuary to Anti-Gay Episcopal Churches

This is just a bit more grist for the Rick Warren debate.   Just as he took the side of the anti-gay bishops in Africa, Rick Warren has welcomed the anti-gay churches in America who are choosing to leave the...

Wednesday January 7, 2009

The Truth About Rick Warren In Africa

Max Blumenthal on Daily Beast digs deeper into the work of Rick Warren in Africa.  "Team Obama likes to cite Warren's work on AIDS in Africa to combat criticism about the controversial pastor. But how does burning condoms in...

Tuesday December 23, 2008

Rick Warren and the Inauguration: Why You Should be Concerned As Well

Guest Post by Rev. Debra W. Haffner, Director, Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing a multifaith organization with more than 4400 religious leaders in its network. First, you need to know who I am. I am a Jewish Unitarian...

Tuesday December 23, 2008

Melissa Etheridge gets it right ...

In the ongoing controversy over Rick Warren as the "invocator" at the inauguration, the wisest words I've heard so far have come from Melissa Etheridge. I especially love what happens when she uses the word "maybe." You can read her...

Friday December 19, 2008

The Power of Prayer

Sure, Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren for the inaugural prayer proves nothing more probably than that Obama is a consummate politician. Obama will do what he has to do to win over voters. And he's probably figured out that...

Friday December 19, 2008

Warren, Cizik, Obama, left, right, pro, anti, etc.

What a fascinating time to be alive. Here we are ... about to celebrate the 2008th anniversary of Jesus' birth, and a whole bunch of us are still squabbling like cats and dogs about what it means to be a...

Thursday December 18, 2008

SOME ADVOCACY

Somebody needs to explain this to me, because I must be dumb: Rick Warren was somehow an inclusive choice to deliver the Invocation at the Inauguration?     Let's look for a moment at what an invocation is. It's that moment...

Thursday December 18, 2008

Rich and Rick: A Post-Partisan Parable

This week's two major religion stories revolved around Rich and Rick--Rich Cizik and Rick Warren--and point out the uncomfortable but spiritually challenging direction President-elect Obama may be pushing religious communities with his post-partisan vision for America.For more than a century,...

Friday December 12, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality, Muslims

muslims and proposition 8

As this is my first post on Progressive Revival, let me take a moment to thank the Powers that Be at Beliefnet for inviting me to participate here. It's an honor to be blogging alongside the rest of you! My...

Friday December 12, 2008

Cizik & Civil Unions: Evangelical leader ousted over supportive comments

An earthquake is rocking the Evangelical world as the longtime spokesman and Washington leader of the National Association of Evangelicals has resigned over comments he made to NPR revealing that he voted for Barack Obama (heresy) and he could support...

Tuesday December 9, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality

The Religious Case for Gay Marriage

Lisa Miller at Newsweek writes this provocative, excellent case for gay marriageLet's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who...

Friday December 5, 2008

Will Actions Follow the Ad?

Did you see this ad in the "A" section of today's New York Times? After reading it, I am pleased to see the newfound commitment of some of my friends on the right to fight against anti-religious bigotry and violence...

Thursday December 4, 2008

Categories: Christians, Homosexuality

The Episcopal Split: A Battle Over Purity, not Orthodoxy

In his Letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul describes his frustration with members of "the circumcision faction"-an early group of conserative Jewish-Christians from Jerusalem who refused to eat with the Gentile converts in St. Paul's community in Antioch.What might...

Thursday December 4, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality

Prop 8 - The Musical!

With Jack Black as Jesus, this anti-prop 8 mini-musical is worth a watch. See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die...

Monday November 17, 2008

Progressive Revival Poll

What is the most pressing moral issue facing the Obama Administration? ( surveys)...

Monday November 10, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality

Prop 8 Sunday Protests

AP has this report on the first Sunday after the Prop 8 vote:On the first Sunday after a gay marriage ban passed in California, activists rallied in defiance, including hundreds of protesters outside an Orange County megachurch whose pastor brought...

Sunday November 9, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality

Liberty, America and Prop 8

Several years ago, I was asked to appear on the Larry King Show to discuss the legalization of gay marriage. I don't know why they chose me exactly, except that I was a straight person who would vote PRO. In...

Sunday November 2, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality

Going Against Mormon Leadership, Brigham Young's Descendant Opposes Prop 8

The signs on the front lawn of former 49er quarterback Steve Young's Peninsula home say "No on Prop. 8," which normally wouldn't be much of a story in the Bay Area, a gay-friendly region which is the center of opposition...

Sunday October 26, 2008

Rick Warren & Proposition 8

I have a great deal of respect for Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.  I would even go so far as to count him as a friend, and I suspect that he might say the...

Tuesday October 21, 2008

God, Marriage and Proposition 8

Given war, hunger, and the world-wide economic meltdown, it's hard for me to have a lot of patience with the ideologues who, once again, have dragged the issue of gay marriage onto my state's ballot as if it were the...

Friday October 17, 2008

Republican Earmarks for Gay Porn: Part II

The Danville Register and Bee--the paper that originally broke the story about Rep. Virgil Goode's connections with the "gay coming of age" movie, Eden's Curve, and Goode's earmarks to its producer--just released a very good editorial explaining their reasons for...

Wednesday October 15, 2008

Conservative GOP Congressman + his earmark for gay porn flick = interesting times in VA

OK, I'm not making this up.  But it just came out that Rep. Virgil Goode, notorious for leading the protest against Rep. Ellison's desire to be sworn in on the Koran and for being an outspoken opponent of gay rights,...

Friday October 10, 2008

Faith of their Fathers? Not When it Comes to the Culture Wars

Given the divisive role religion played in the 2004 election, many progressives have been waiting for a resumption of the culture wars in this election season.  Yet despite the addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket, (a Pentecostal governor...

Monday September 29, 2008

Paying For Prophecy

As most politically active Americans focused on the financial system bailout legislation over the weekend, 33 Christian ministers took the occasion of Sunday sermons to defy federal tax regulations prohibiting endorsement of political candidates by churches and other tax-exempt organizations. ...

Friday September 19, 2008

Abortion? Gay marriage? It's the (stupid) economy--again!

Do the hot-button culture war issues like abortion and gay marriage matter? If you read only blogs or the news coverage (such as this NYTimes story, "Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholics") you might get the impression that these are the...

Friday August 29, 2008

Picking Palin: McCain's Folly, or "crazy like a fox"?

John McCain has certainly revived his maverick label by picking--or plucking from obscurity--freshman Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. (WaPo coverage here, and NYT coverage here.) Like every candidate, there are pluses and minuses with her. On the plus side,...

Friday August 15, 2008

Barack Obama and the (surprise!) Mainline Vote

A new poll by the Barna group finds that Obama is leading in 18 of 19 different religious faith communities defined by the survey's strict standards. McCain leads in only one--evangelicals. This is good news for Senator Obama and should...

Monday August 4, 2008

More high jinks from those jokesters on the Religious Right...

This time the hilarity is from Stuart Shepard, correspondent for the Focus on the Family network (that's run by that guy, whatsiname, who said he'd never ever endorse McCain--ecxept he might), who muses on bothering God about prayers for some...

Thursday July 31, 2008

Election 2008: My Radical Gay Agenda (by Sara Miles)

When people talk about radical homosexuals, they mean me. When they talk about left-wing, socialist feminists, that would be me. And when they talk about Christian voters, that's  me, too.    So I'm driving along yesterday with my friend and...

Wednesday July 30, 2008

A Poignant Dispatch from Gene Robinson at Lambeth

Rev. Gene Robinson, the gay Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, was pointedly not to attend Lambeth Conference. But he has been there and posted this poignant dispatch on his blog.   Since arriving in Canterbury, I had not yet visited the...

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About Progressive Revival

Diana Butler Bass and Paul Raushenbush both stand firmly within the Mainline Protestant tradition and, along with guest bloggers of all religious backgrounds are dedicated to the revival of religious progressivism and its influence in American politics.

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Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass is a commentator and scholar in American religion. She is the author of seven books including A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009).
» Posts by Diana Butler Bass
Paul Raushenbush
Moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University.
» Posts by Paul Raushenbush
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