Religion and Faith vs. "The Church"

Some recent discussions on my Facebook wall have had me thinking a lot about this topic, and so I have decided the time is now to blog about it a bit.  What is the topic?  Religion, faith, and The Church.  First things first, let me clarify that when I say things negative about a religion, those things are about the doctrine or practices of the religion, not the people who follow it.  The same goes for when I say things about a Church.

I believe strongly that there are very big differences between religion, faith, and The Church.  Webster's  defines faith as "unquestioning belief, specifically in God, religion, etc".  Faith is a wonderful thing, and most of us have faith in some form or another (even us Humanists and Atheists).  Religion is defined as "a specific system of belief or worship built around God or gods, a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, etc."  Religion can be a wonderful thing, and can also, because we are human, be corrupt and used for evil.  Church is defined as "a particular Christian denomination."  When I refer to The Church, I refer to those who run said denomination, not the denomination itself (ie, the Pope, deacons, presidents of denominations, etc).

Now, the recent heated discussions have mostly come from posts or memes I have posted criticizing either religion in general or the Catholic Church (and this is using my view of what Church means).  Catholics can be some of the most passionate people about their faith, and I admire that passion.  The problem is, most people have problems separating the ideals of faith and religion from The Church.  My criticisms of the Catholic Church are primarily over those in power.  Bishops, bureaucrats, and, of course, the Pope.  I feel that the time for rational discussion and "changing the Church from within" has passed (if it ever existed) when it comes to the Catholic church and many others.  While I admire people who stand strong in their faith, I can no longer admire or hold high the act of supporting a Church whose doctrine and rules or bylaws denigrate women and LGBT persons.  To stand by such a Church; to remain a member in good standing who not only supports the Church by attending and speaking out in support, but also by giving money to it, is, however indirectly, supporting misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, and all the other ills these Churches propagate. 

Another thing that has been bothering me is the use of the bible to condemn LGBT people and our lives as sinful and wrong, while only using the portions they see fit to harm others.  Take Leviticus, for example.  Do not use that book to condemn my life unless you follow every directive in that book, which very few people in society are able and willing to do.  No tattoos, no speaking to women while they're on the period, guys, no mixed fiber clothing, etc.  IF you follow each and every one of those to a T, then we'll talk, if not, then shut up with your Leviticus condemnations.  Even more than that though is the fact that IF you want to say that my life as a gay man is sinful and wrong because your bible says so, then YOU (or your Church for those who support such Churches) are condemning me and other LGBT people to death.  Period.  Leviticus 20:13 states "And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."  I no longer accept any argument against homosexuality based on biblical principal from people unless they are willing to own the fact that the same bible also calls for death for homosexual acts. 

So, in a nutshell, if you are a member of a Church organization who has policies or doctrine against women or LGBT people, you are indirectly supporting that hate, especially if you give money to your church.  I know it is not your intent, and I know that most of you do not directly support of believe such things, but again, if you support the organizations that do, then you are helping them to do their harm.  If you are among those who say homosexuality is a sin, and you are using the bible as basis for your assertion, then you are calling for the death of LGBT people... you can't pick just the pieces you like and forget the rest (sure, Christians do it all the time).  I'm sorry, but I'm calling bullshit on this one, folks.

Onward!

Chapters

I feel the need to write a bit as I close one chapter of my life and embark on a new one.  Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, we will be leaving NM, our possessions crammed in a Uhaul, as we drive across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for our new home in the Tampa Bay area!

To say I will miss New Mexico would be a gross understatement. I will miss so much about.this state, including some incredible friends!  I have high hopes for the things GetEQUAL NM will be able to do (especially after a successful fundraiser), and I think Brittany will do an amazing job as state lead!

So what is next for me? First and foremost, getting this move over and done with! Then a week of relaxing (with some networking thrown in, of course) before I have to get back to work at my job. I look forward to starting up a GetEQUAL group in central Florida and getting to meet new activists (both seasoned and new to the game). It will be a test of the skills I have learned over the past couple of years, but I look forward to it!  Florida, are you ready for me? I hope so because here I come!

Onward!

A long month full of organizing

This past month has been a whirlwind for my family and for myself.  On top of preparing for our move from NM to FL, lots of crazy overtime at work, school stuff for our daughter, we have been involved in some very important organizing on both local and national levels for Equality.  Since the Easter Egg Roll trip to DC, I have worked with my great group at NM GetEQUAL on organizing a series of visits to OFA offices in our area, particularly the state headquarters located in Albuquerque, .  GetEQUAL groups around the country have been paying visit to campaign offices to have dialogue about the executive order, and demonstrate in creative ways.  In NM, during the first week, we had a prepared statement about the EO and the need for a signature (and the lack of a valid reason for not signing from the White House).  Our second visit to OFA NM's office included an open letter to OFA. the letter was delivered with more pens, a spine, and the mock thank you card.  We then engaged our local OFA LGBT liaison in discussion about the executive order and about Obama's LGBT advocacy record.

Week three consisted of nearly two dozen activists from around the country traveling to DC to further escalate our issue.  We had things planned out pretty well, but as we were all heading to DC on Wednesday, news broke about the President announcing his support for equality (I will write more on my own views on that later).  So when everyone arrived that night, we had a long, difficult planning session on how to proceed.  In the end, the decision was made to forgo a pre-planned arrestable action at the White House and instead, picket with messaging of "Thank you" to the President, "AND.... sign the executive order, AND... stop LGBT bullying, AND... stop deporting our families".  So we picketed the White House Thursday morning with those signs.  It was important to give thanks for the support the President gave while reminding him of things that still need to be done, some of which he can do TODAY rather than next year.  The picket went well, and we all felt great about the work we had done.   

The next morning, we pulled together another action out of thin air.  Stories were going around the media about Mitt Romney's bullying activities (holding a kid down and cutting his long hair) in school.  Our managing director, Heather Cronk set out to hunt down scissors at some stores, while others worked on messsaging and signs.  Then we marched a mile to the RNC headquarters and protested just outside their door.  Great chants, like "Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Mitt Romney has got to go", and signage insisting that the RNC "cut out" bullyiing of LGBT people.  We received a lot of support from the public on this one, way more than I can remember receiving at any action ever!  It was a great action, and we got our messaging across just fine.  

What a month!  I've had a couple days of complete down time, and now time to get up and regroup, so much more work to be done (including packing for our move at the end of this month)! 

Onward!

Open letter to OFA NM

Dated May 3, 2012:


Dear OFA NM,

In the spring of 2008, then candidate Obama made an important promise to LGBT people.  He promised that, if elected president, he would sign an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.  Four years later, President Obama has yet to live up to that promise.  The White House has announced that this order will not be signed at this time and is not a priority.  No valid reason has been given as to why the President will not sign this order.  With an overwhelming majority of voters supporting it, signing the order is not a risky move in an election year, nor is it very controversial.  Last week, we visited your office and brought you pens, thinking that perhaps the President needed a pen to sign the Executive Order.  There still has not been a signing.  This is of great concern to us.  We bring today a mock thank you card to the President from Albuquerque’s anti-LGBT Pastor Steve Smothermon, thanking the President for not standing up for LGBT people this year.  We are also bringing you some spines, because clearly it seems like our President could use a little backbone to do what is right.  The President recently told Rolling Stone Magazine, when presented with pairs of pink socks as a symbol of support and action for the LGBT community that those are “second term socks”.  We also bring pink socks in hopes that the backbones help the President to wear the socks now!

Sincerely,

New Mexico GetEQUAL

Did I Piss You Off?

A poem by me. (comments or discussion of the issue welcome)

Did I piss you off?

I'm sorry, but you see --

       Hold on!  Wait!

       No, I am not sorry,

       I refuse to

                    apologize

                    compromise

         because that serves only to legitimize

                     those who hate,

               and those who say

     "I'm on your side, but you have 

       to understand that there is too much at stake.

       If we stand strong for 'you gays' we could 

       lose it all for heaven's sake!"

  With friends like these

   Who needs

                            Romneys               Santorums         Bachmanns        NOM                  FRC      or the Neo-Nazzis!

For too many decades we have

        picketed, marched, fought,

        asked nicely, ran for office,

        taken beatings, been slandered, 

        been demonized, and DIED.

  You've heard us saying #wecantwait

  Well now I say #wewontwait !

              Why is our community content to 

               take crumbs of equality while

               being asked to give, give, and

               give some more?

     We're better than that

           We're stronger than that 

                 We're smarter than that

Stand up today

                 and say

     I AM Somebody!

     I AM a force to be reckoned with

  I deserve equality

                     Right here!

                     Right now!

       Not just when its convenient for the

       political games of our leadrers.

                  NOW!

Did I piss you off?

      Good!  That means you're listening.

  The game is changing -- equality is possible

        evolve or get the fuck

          out of the way!  

Onward!

Queers meet with "DOMA DAVE" in NM!

Today, myself and fellow activist Janice Devereaux met with Rep. David C Chavez to have discussion about his "Super-DOMA", legislation he introduced in New Mexico this year that would have let the voters decide on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.  Having heard that he was very set in his views, I really did not go into this expecting much.  As a matter of fact, I expected to be asked to be fed rhetoric and anti-gay crap before being asked to leave.  On that, he did surprise me, but not in a good way.  Mr. Chavez actually refused to give us any of his own opinions or views on why he thought marriage was not for same sex couples.  He said that he expressed his opinion during the committee hearing and would not go into that today.  Instead, he wanted to hear our views on it.  We both expressed our views about discrimination, separating church and state, the immorality of a majority voting on the civil rights of a majority.  We continued to press him for a reason why he is championing this legislation.  He told us it was something some of his constituents asked him to do, so he did it.  He then went on to say that this is nothing new since other legislators have introduced similar legislation in the state for years.  When I asked him how many constituents asked him to do this, he backslid a bit and said it wasn't about numbers, and that some constituents asked for it as well as colleagues of his.  I then asked if a group of his constituents asked him to introduce legislation that would repeal key aspects of the Civil Rights act, would he introduce it just because he was asked to?  He refused to answer on grounds that it was a hypothetical.  We spent just over 10 minutes in his office discussing this, but it was clear that all he would give us was procedural talk about how legislation comes about, and how it is voted on, which we already knew.  We ended it since there was not going to be any chance of any type of intelligent (or otherwise) debate on the issue itself.  Janice actually ended by stating she wanted the right to have as many ex spouses as any heterosexual person (a direct jab at Mr. Hypocrite himself, a two time divorcee)!

This was one of the most frustrating meetings I have been a part of.  I would have preferred the anti-LGBT rhetoric to him simply refusing to state his opinion.  It is widely known how homophobic this man is, and insiders in Santa Fe say he rarely holds back on expressing his views or opinions on any issue!  With that being said, one can only surmise that he was intimidated by having two queers sitting in his office, and didn't have the gall to give us his own views.  In wrapping things up, he said that we will simply have to agree to disagree on this.  I told him that would be completely OK with me if we were talking "red or green", however, when it comes to my basic civil rights, that is an inexcusable comment.  He shrugged.  Meeting over.  Did we accomplish anything today?  On the surface, no.  Ultimately, though I hope we were able to show him that the LGBT community is not going to sit quietly and continue to let him try and harm us.  I do hope he loses his bid for state senate, and also sincerely hope that others in this great state will continue to call him on his shit if and when he is in office again!

Onward!

"Gay couple wants to question Obama at Easter Egg Roll" -- my side of things

This week, my family had the honor of attending the annual White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington, D.C.  While we were honored to be invited to such an amazing and diversely attended event, we also felt it was very important to use this as a platform to bring much needed attention to an executive order that is floating around the White House waiting to be signed by President Obama.  We worked with GetEQUAL and Freedom To Work on messaging and other logistics.  A press release went out Friday morning spelling out the message we wanted to push, that the LGBT community can't wait for job protections, and the time is now for President Obama to sign this executive order barring workplace discrimination against LGBT people by companies contracting with the federal government (more details on the order can be found here).  Several media outlets quickly picked up the story running headlines indicating that my partner Les and I would be at the Easter Egg Roll following the President around in order to confront him face to face.  What a firestorm of criticism that caused!  It was interesting to watch how quickly it spread throughout the blogosphere throughout the day.   Realistically, we did not expect to have any access to the President, especially considering this is an event with 30,000 plus people in attendance throughout the day.  I was prepared, in the highly unlikely event that I did have a few seconds to shake his hand, with just how I would phrase my messaging, but to be clear, I did not expect to even see him, much less have any kind of access.  My whole reason for wanting to do this was to put pressure on the President via a media blitz about the need for this order to be signed.  As far as I'm concerned, the media hype did just that, and then some.  We saw a lot of media coverage, both LGBT and mainstream, about this order.  The order has been around for a long time, and was actually a campaign promise by then candidate Obama in March of 2008.

So my family took advantage of a political event (the Easter Egg Roll is, as any event at the White House is, a political event) focused on families, to help open up dialogue about this executive order and the impact it could have on thousands and thousands of families.  It is not perfect, and it only covers federal contractors, but until Congress changes hands, it is an important and necessary step.  We've received a lot of criticism about choosing to use this event for a political message.  As I've said before, this is a political event from the start.  If it weren't a political event, then for years the White House would not be in the habit of giving out tickets to organizations as either a thank you, or to make them "go away".  That politicizes it, as does the fact that it takes place at the White House.  What we did was take advantage of important press time to bring about awareness to this issue.  When we actually went to the South Lawn for the Egg Roll, we did have our "We Can't Wait" shirts on, and discussed the issue with some other people, but were primarily focused on allowing our daughter to have a blast watching two of her favorite musicians perform!

Was it inappropriate to do what we did?  Not at all!  What better time than a family event to bring up the fact that with the stroke of a pen, President Obama could protect thousands of LGBT families and workers from discrimination.  We were invited, we didn't "crash" the event, nor did we do anything that was in any way disruptive to the festivities or the White House.   What we accomplished was a lot.  Later that day, at the White House press conference, an NBC reporter grilled the Press Secretary about our visit and message, and asked several questions about the executive order.  This was the first time mainstream media has questioned the Obama Administration about this executive order, so for me, that was a huge win!

Are we the "self-iportant" media whores many have accused us of being?  Far from it.  Sure, we got a lot of press, and even had a live interview on MSNBC, but honestly, I'm never comfortable in front of cameras.  I'll do this as long as I have to for our equality, but to be clear, I don't do it to have attention directed at me.  My intent is to direct attention to the issue at hand, not myself.

So what's next?  Pressure needs to be kept on the President to get this order signed.  He has signed at least 7 executive orders in the past 6 months, so it's not like we're asking him to step above and beyond his duty as President.  We can all play a part in this.  You can email, write, or call the White House asking that this order be signed as quickly as possible, we simply can't wait for job protections!  Beyond that, we should be looking at our community and having discussions with one another about why so many LGBT people and our allies think it is still acceptable to sit back and wait for it to be politically convenient, or for public opinion to be in the "right place" for us to ask for, or demand our rights!  I believe it is far from acceptable to continue to think and act this way.   We may also want to ask ourselves how it is that we can see support for this issue on conservative christian sites, but on certain LGBT blogs the focus is almost completely about the color of someone's hair, which is a sad and petty commentary. 

Onward!