Week In Review
Good Monday morning. Welcome to Believe Out Loud’s Week In Review, a weekly digest of the latest headlines at the intersection of Christianity and LGBT equality.
If you were told God is not a Christian, nor a Muslim or a Jew, what would you say? Bishop Shelby Spong, former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, N.J. and supporter of LGBT equality, talks about Christianity being a “vehicle” to God. He spoke in St. Paul this past weekend.
Last Saturday, the ban on LGBT ordination was lifted in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indiana by an assemble vote of 336 to 144. “It was an incredible work by the Open and Affirming churches here in Indiana over a two and half year period. Praise be to God!” said Kerry Armstrong, Vice Moderator of Council at the GLAD Alliance.
In Washington D.C. Madonna called President Obama a Black Muslim at a concert. For anyone who has questions about the President’s religious background, be sure to catch Dick Staub’s Obama’s Religion: Christianity 101 For The Willfully Ignorant.
African-American support for Question 6 in Maryland has skyrocketed since a similar poll was conducted earlier this year. Question 6 would allow same-sex couples the right to obtain a civil marriage license and ensure religious communities have the exclusive right to their own theological interpretations of marriage. As Gene Demby writes in The Root, Gay Marriage Won’t Stop Black Voters.
Austin became the first Texas city to endorse marriage equality.
This past Saturday, Governor Jerry Brown made California history by signing into law a ban on “therapy” used to change the sexual orientation of LGBT minors. “These practices have no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery,” the Governor said. Believe Out Loud was a member of a faith coalition supporting the ban.
Frank Schubert, a man working against marriage equality and whose been accused of “using actors rather than everyday people to tell scary stories about gay marriage,” was profiled in the Seattle Times. At the same time, Rev. Debra Peevey, Faith Director of Washington United For Marriage, is having conversations with communities around the state and inspiring Christians to support LGBT equality and Approve Referendum 74.
Here’s a final thought from Believe Out Loud member Jared Butterfield: “I just had the most wonderful argument with my mother about how Christians nor anyone else should be allowed to interfere with anyone else’s way of life because of personal views or convictions. She could not come from a point of view other than a bias Christian saying the LGBT community should not be allowed to have equal rights because the Bible says it is wrong. I stood up for people of all walks of life, not just LGBT, but anyone being allowed to live their life as long as it does not interfere with another’s…” –September 25 @ BOL Facebook
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