Protestants

German Protestants


From 16th century Hamburg.


I took my camera to the Met Museum again and photographed a painting by an anonymous artist of my nightmare of my German ancestors (mine were never this prosperous).


My! What a ferocious looking bunch!




A painting of the whole family with Jesus and surrounded by verses from Luther's Bible written here in northern German dialect.







How would like to see these faces looking back at you from a jury box as you go on trial for your life?





The women look just as ferocious. Dippy looking Jesus.














"A mighty fortress" indeed!

We've Come A Long Way Baby

... and in a remarkably short period of time.

Former head of the LGTF, Matt Foreman points out just how much progress we've made in barely 10 years in a splendid essay published on Huff Post.

He points out that what makes these achievements doubly remarkable is that by all the logic of power, our enemies should be burying us now.

What makes this ongoing progress even more remarkable is that the LGBT-rights movement has been outnumbered and outfunded at virtually every turn and in every arena, even in comparison to other progressive movements. Opponents of LGBT rights operate hundreds of radio stations, they run huge (and hugely influential) national advocacy organizations, and they are enmeshed in enormous faith communities and able to deliver their anti-equality message to millions every weekend.

While opponents of LGBT rights have at least eight national advocacy organizations with budgets of more than $10 million, the LGBT movement has just one. In fact, the annual budget of just one of the biggest opponents of LGBT rights, Focus on the Family/CitizenLink, is greater than the budgets of the 39 largest LGBT advocacy, legal and research organizations, combined.

I would also add that our enemies have the backing of one of the two political parties and its bottomless corporate funds, together with that powerful ideological megaphone called Fox News.

So what accounts for this unexpected and tremendous success by gay folk? Foreman is quite clear about that.

There are a lot of related factors. For example, more LGBT people are coming out and more non-LGBT people are getting to know them and are themselves becoming advocates for equal rights. There is also the influence of popular culture and celebrities, the high profile of LGBT issues in the media, and the vibrant presence of LGBT bloggers in social media.

But the legal and policy advances of the last decade did not spring miraculously from the results of a public opinion poll or a single heartfelt, pro-gay acceptance speech at the Oscars. Instead, they happened because LGBT organizations made them happen. Whether working for high-profile victories such as the marriage equality win in New York last week or defending an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance from being overturned by voters in Bowling Green, Ohio, these organizations provide focus, deploy volunteers, organize phone banks, and wrangle allies.

As I've always said, the gay movement is not a leader focused movement. Everyone who comes out is a leader with a little community of friends, family, and colleagues around them, and with a lot of others still in the closet behind them. The individual strength, courage, and initiative of its constituents and allies is the strength of our movement. All of those individual stories in all of their infinite variety add up to a big tidal change in history. We're entitled to enjoy our victories and to take courage from them for the struggles ahead.

As the Romans said, Gutta Cavat Lapidam, "Dripping water hollows stone."

The Chinese Communists Turn 90

Today is the 90th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party, and I'm sparing the huzzahs.
The Chinese Communist Party (along with the Catholic hierarchy) is one of those organizations that makes me seriously consider the old anarchist assertion that all organizations end in tyranny, that today's movement is only tomorrow's ruling oligarchy determined to stay in power at all costs. The Communist oligarchy's determination to rule has already cost millions of lives (see the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward), and now, they've thrown out their original faith. Becoming a Party member has nothing to do with embracing any policy positions or sets of principles. It's all about social and career advancement. Being a member has a lot of advantages over not being a member. The rulers of China long ago traded in ruthless communism for ruthless capitalism (and the world's capitalists love it; a huge cheap and pacified labor force with no independent labor unions, a huge government apparatus that can favor your business and punish your competitors, a colossal army and security state to secure assets and capital, a compliant state press with no competition, so no political and social instability; a banker's dream come true!), and now they have a very real chance to dominate the world. I'm no fan of the American Empire and do not lament its decline, but I don't look forward to these folks stepping into the power vacuum we leave behind.

Dear Fans of Brad Evans

I'd like some advice.

He recently crossed a line on this blog, writing a comment on my post about Goran, which really opened a door into the outer darkness. I'd really like to put this guy out of business permanently. I'd prefer to do that by exposing him, by posting his name, address, phone number, employer, and picture up for all the world to see. He's clearly a sociopath who uses public computers around the Providence, RI area. I know there are some bloggers that he targets out there (and there are a lot of them) who track his various IP addresses. I'm thinking about doing the same, and I wonder if it might be worth the trouble of contacting the cops. He certainly is a nuisance, but how serious a nuisance is he really, and must I put up with it?

I suspect that he is small fry, a lonely obsessive with a crappy job and few to no friends, with a life so empty that trolling blogs is the only way he knows how to fill up the time. I doubt that he is quite the prominent and influential figure Robroy turned out to be. For those of you who aren't familiar with him, "Robroy" was the nom de guerre of a ferociously homophobic right wing ranter who regularly plagued Episcopal blogs and was publicly exposed as a prominent physician, political figure, and "ex-gay" in southeast Colorado. After he got outed, he hasn't been back since on anyone's blog so far as I know. I'm wondering if outing Brad Evans will have the same effect, or is he worth the trouble. Is he worth contacting the cops over, and if necessary, filing a criminal complaint?

What do you think?

Happy Canada Day!

Maybe The USA Finally Has Its Own Peter Tatchell, and His Name is Dan Savage

Here is a web only interview with Keith Olberman that is supposedly about the new musical "The Book of Mormon," but covers a lot of other things. I love Savage's dare to Bryan Fischer to "choose to be gay" and to "be gay on him." Assuming that gayness is a switch in the back of the head that can be turned on or off, Dan Savage dares Fischer to turn on that switch and have sex with him. Love it!

I'm sorry fellow religious folks, but I agree with the sentiment, if not always with the letter, of Savage's comments. I think he is being scrupulously fair here, and insightful. I think the word that he uses to describe what gay kids go through in religious upbringings, "spiritual abuse" as opposed to spirituality, is spot on, and he is very careful to draw that distinction between the two. I think he already gets it that we and him are on the same side. I agree that we should stop whispering in his ear, and start shouting at all the candidates for Caiaphas out there (which indeed a lot of us have been doing for a long time). I think we're wasting our time complaining to him that not all Christians endorse this crap. Rather, I think we should think of him, and others like Savage as living in the State of Missouri whose motto is "Show Me."

Bless me Mother Superior for I have sinned.

"How have you sinned my child?"

Back in my retail store days, I was a huge fan of "Savage Love." Us bookstore clerks used to read it aloud in the break room and howl with laughter. Loved it!

My Position on The Covenant

If The Episcopal Church signs on to the Covenant, I'm out.
I did not join in 1982 to be part of another Rome, yet another Christian imperium ruled by a curia of bishops, and especially a Calvinist one.
As a gay man, I refuse to be a part of any organization where I am not a full and equal member, where I must accommodate and submit to those who refuse to recognize my full humanity for reasons that are arbitrary and discredited.
I refuse to be part of any organization, especially a religious one, that declares that membership in The Family of Humankind comes with qualifications.
I refuse to be part of any "Christian" organization whose fundamental guiding principle is "God loves those who deserve it."

I'd feel the same way about anyone else who was also arbitrarily excluded or accepted "with conditions," say women for example.

If Anglicanism becomes a "Rome Lite," then why not just save the subway fare and head down the street to St. Cecilia's? Why not? There wouldn't be any difference, or any that would mean anything to me anymore. Or even better, why not have brunch more often with my husband (soon to be legal here in New York)?

And besides, here in Williamsburg Brooklyn, within a few blocks from me is The Revolution Church for when I really need that Christian fellowship as well as any number of house churches where I would be fully welcome.

Until the unlikely event that the Episcopal Church self destructs so our bishops can continue to have tea with the Queen and Archbishop every ten years, I will continue to think of myself as Episcopalian, perhaps the only church in Christendom that says bluntly, "No, we don't have all the answers. No one does. We're trying to find our way through this life in the dark with the sputtering lamp of imperfect faith just like everyone else (whether they admit it or not). Let's travel together."

+++

Just to be clear, I LOVE the Episcopal Church, and have since I joined it in 1982. Since 2003 with the consecration of Bishop Robinson, and since the consecration of Bishop Glasspool, and all the grief that the church has taken for both of those actions, that love has only intensified. The whole church has not only taken up my cause, but actually come over to where I live and joined me in the exile and suffering that have always been facts of life for me and people like me. My church shares in the scorn I bear. How could I not love it for that? I hope and pray that this experience will inspire me to go and do likewise for others unjustly scorned and dwelling in exile.

The whole point of the Covenant is to punish the Episcopal Church for acting on its collective conscience, for doing what it saw was so clearly right and urgent. I can't imagine this church would willingly acquiesce to so transparently punitive a document which would fundamentally alter its nature, and end its uniquely democratic polity based on the conviction that the Holy Spirit dwells in and speaks through ALL of the Church and not just in its designated officers. After suffering so much grief, and prevailing by simply surviving and continuing to grow and evolve, why should this church sign a document which essentially demands its capitulation?