A new project

I've been working on a project for the past couple of weeks involving Scientology. Although I'm a Christian, I'm always interested in the ways in which other belief systems handle the issue of homosexuality. So I decided to investigate Scientology for myself to see what exactly it is that Scientologists believe. It has been incredibly enlightening.

For now I will say this... Although there are Christians who are also Scientologists (I encountered a Catholic and a Presbyterian), there is one fundamental difference between Christianity and Scientology, and it's a huge one that I just can't reconcile. Not that becoming a Scientologist was the purpose of this project. I'm just trying to discover more about what Scientology has to say about homosexuality, and in the course of that study I have discovered a plethora of challenging and interesting ideas about faith. Here's the fundamental difference: In Christianity, faith is in God through Christ Jesus. In Scientology, faith is in self.

Although Scientology studies the ways in which our spirit relates to self, the universe, other life, and ultimately a supreme being, it seems to me that in Scientology it is ultimately up to the individual to progress and make himself into a more enlightened spiritual creature. There is no reliance on God for wisdom, knowledge, love, etc.

Scientology has often been labeled as sort of a spiritual diving board that takes a person off the deep end, and for this reason some Christians would probably tell me to steer clear. To that I would say...why are you so afraid of the answers to your questions?

This experience has confirmed my Christianity. And it will make me a whole lot more knowledgable and less judgmental in future conversations about Scientology. In a faith full of fear-based ideas and reflex judgments, I want my own spiritual growth to be marked by confrontation and resolution--upon the answers to my questions, and not upon the fear of asking them. More on that to come.

20Something 1-25-06 Genesis 3 and 4

This week's study has been posted at http://coh20something.blogspot.com

We had a few new faces at 20Something this week. It was great to see the energy and thirst that they brought to the group. After we finished one of them described our discussions as thought-provoking, which is certainly the norm. We usually leave with as many questions as answers, which I think is one of the methods God uses to challenge us to grow, as individuals and as a group. 20Something is a great catalyst.

Follow-up from 9/27/05 -- Rev. Jeff Falter

I got an email last week from Rev. Jeff Falter, whose 6th-grade son had happened to Google his name and discover that I had written a blog about him in September of last year after learning that his congregation voted to fire him for embracing the GLBT community.

After reading my blog and the other Google results, Jeff emailed me to say hello and how happy he was that his words were having a positive impact beyond their orignial audience. He added, "I feel God has called me to work for the full equality of LGBT's in church and society; I feel more strongly about that call than about any other single thing I have tackled in ministry." That's a powerful statement.

Knowing there are people like Rev. Falter out there, who experience this degree of conviction about our validity as Christians, sure makes it easier to endure the tantrums of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and others who just don't get it. God is moving in our community and alerting others like Rev. Falter who can help spread the word, and it's great to see them respond to the nudgings. If God is calling others to work for our equality, we can rest assured that our place in God's realm is unequivocally secure.

Here's a portion of an interview that Rev. Falter did with the Human Rights Campaign last fall. It provides more background and gives us a better idea about just how committed he is to truth and understanding. His words give all of us a voice.


Rev. Falter, I first learned about you through news reports that you were fired from your pastoral position because you supported LGBT rights. What happened?

On February 26, 2005, I published a sermon in the local newspaper in which I said, "Gay and lesbian Christians are no different than the rest of us. They deserve full equality in the church and in society, for they are my brothers and sisters, people for whom Christ died." That article, like much of my ministry, demonstrated the importance of inclusion to me—not only of LGBT’s, but also of Hispanics, women, AfricanAmericans, and any other group which may be treated as second class in church or society.

The newspaper sermon was, to say the least, controversial in the small Appalachian town of Elkins, West Virginia, and in the Presbyterian congregation I served there. Though many people in the church and community were grateful for the word I had spoken, others were not. In the end, the publication of that article, and the turmoil that resulted from it, resulted in the congregation voting on May 22 to dissolve its relationship with me, by a vote of 100 to 72.

How has that experience affected you and your family?

Jesus said that each one of us must pick up our cross and follow him. While my cross has not led me to a physical death like Christ’s, I have in many ways faced metaphorical death: loss of position, loss of home. I have to take my children away from their friends, and my wife and I have to leave the life we have been building here long before we intended.

I am now in the process of seeking a new call as a pastor or campus minister/chaplain. I do not yet know where God is leading me in that process. But despite the personal and professional cost, I remain absolutely committed to working for the full equality of LGBT’s in the church, trusting that the God who called me to do this will not abandon me now.

What role did your faith play in motivating you to speak out?

When I first published my article, I was not looking to make a bold political statement nor enter into a political fray. I wanted to address the real spiritual needs of the gay and lesbian community in my own town and in the congregation I was serving. People were hurting and suffering because of the stand that "good Christian people" had made about LGBT’s over the years, and especially in recent months in this nation.

Forty years ago, a very wise president from Texas said, "In Selma, as elsewhere, we seek and pray for peace. We seek order. We seek unity. But we will not accept the peace of stifled rights, or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest. For peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty" (Lyndon Johnson speech "We Shall Overcome" urging Congress to pass the Voting Rights Acts of 1965). Unfortunately, over the last year or two we have seen this wisdom escaping us as a nation, finding instead that state after state is adopting a "Defense of Marriage" amendment to its constitution, encoding our prejudices into law, simply because the majority of people find the pursuit of happiness of a minority objectionable. Such actions have served to bring further pain to the LGBT community, working to destroy life rather than build it.
Martin Luther King once said, "The greatest sin of our time is not the few who have destroyed but the vast majority who sat idly by." When I recognized the destruction of life caused by the church's stand against LGBT's, I could no longer sit idly by. Christ calls me to build life, not destroy it. In publishing my sermon in the local paper in February, I wanted to help build life for people in my congregation and in this community, in response to Christ’s call.

We often hear religious leaders say that the Bible says being lesbian or gay is wrong – usually disregarding bisexual and transgender people altogether. How do you respond?

Presbyterians have, historically, clung tightly to the "right of private judgment" — that is, to the universal and unalienable right of each individual to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience regarding the interpretation of Scripture. I do not wish to violate anyone’s right to interpret Scripture, even as I continue to pray that others will discover more light from the witness of Scripture, as I did.

I would like to ask folks a question, however. My own experience has been that on questions fundamental to the Christian faith—questions about baptism, salvation, justification, sanctification, communion, resurrection, eschatology—Christians can have a wide diversity of opinion and yet remain respectful of one another as coworkers for Christ. Why can Christians not have that same fundamental respect for one another when it comes to differing understandings of human sexuality—an issue which is most definitely NOT central to the Christian faith. Why is diversity of belief in the field of human sexuality so threatening?

What I discovered in my exploration of Scripture is that our world is not the same as the ancient world. In the Ancient Near East, marriages were usually arranged by parents long before children could fall in love and make their own choices. The Bible sought to regulate sexual behavior based on that historical, cultural context. So, for example, when Leviticus 18 speaks about "Holiness in Sexual Behavior", it tells the male members of the society, "You cannot have sex with your inlaws, your relatives, your animals, your slaves, your children, sacred prostitutes, or anyone else. You have a spouse with whom alone you may practice your sexuality." In this context, if a man had same-sex sexual activity (lesbianism is not addressed in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament), it meant that he was breaking fidelity with his spouse.
In our 21st century, North American context, the issue of fidelity/faithfulness remains essential: no one should break faith with one’s partner. However, unlike the Ancient Near East, 21st century marriages in modern Western societies are not arranged by parents for their children. Instead, marriage is the result of two individuals falling in love and deciding to commit their lives to one another. The Bible makes no claim about whom one may or may not fall in love with; the Bible has a lot to say about remaining faithful to those with whom we are in relationship.

I find four other Biblical passages significant for me in addressing LGBT issues. Three are quotes from Jesus (who, by the way, never directly addresses same-sex relationships): Jesus said, "Whoever comes to me I will never drive away" (John 6.37); "You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7.16); and "Whoever does the will of God is my brother or sister or mother" (Mark 3.35). These three passages remind me that not only those who think and act as I do are worthy to be called children of God. Instead, everyone who does the will of God is part of God’s family, someone for whom Christ died. The other passage is the admonition of Gamaliel (Acts 5.3839): "If this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail [on its own]; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow [it]—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!" If God intends LGBT’s to become an integral part of the church’s life, then Christians sure don’t want to be found fighting against it. If, on the other hand, such activity is not God’s desire, then it will fail all by itself.

Lastly, I recall the words of one of my professors from seminary: "It is better to err on the side of grace." When I stand before my God, I would rather have God accuse me of showing too much grace than too much judgment.

You have been courageous in a way we wish more clergy would be. But they might see your experience as another reason not to take a stand. What would you say to them? Would you do it all again?

First, I would want to say to my fellow clergy that I wouldn’t presume to claim to know what God’s call for them is at this point in their lives. God’s call to each of us is unique. God has called me at this point in time to work for the full equality of LGBT’s in church and society.
At the same time, I would like to remind my fellow clergy of the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die" (The Cost of Discipleship [New York: Touchstone, 1995], 89). Christ does not call the Christian to a life of comfort and ease and selfsatisfaction, nor can we allow our own fears, our own desires for security, determine Christ’s calling for us. Christ calls us instead to pick up our cross and follow him. If we, as the public leaders and examples of Christian faith, are unwilling to put our lives on the line for the call of Christ, do we really have the right to expect our parishioners to lead transformed lives as Christ’s disciples?

Would I do it all again? Absolutely. At the end of the day, I take comfort in Christ’s words, "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets" (Luke 6.2223). I know that at the end of the day, I can look myself in the mirror: I have answered Christ’s call to me despite the cost.

20Something 1-18-06 Genesis 1 & 2

The discussion questions from last week's 20Something are posted here. (http://coh20something.blogspot.com) If not on the front page, check the January archives.

Sorry for the delay!

A Bible Revival

Anyone else noticed a Bible Revival lately? It seems to me that more and more people in my little circle of the world are reading the Bible for themselves and discussing its meaning and impact with renewed curiosity and vigor. (I would say "corner of the world" but that seems far too limiting and boxed in.) Many people used the start of the new year as a time to begin reading the Bible from cover to cover, including those of us at Cathedral of Hope. We're reading as an entire congregation with each Wednesday night's sermon as the guide.

One observation so far about this renewed commitment to Bible study in 2006... The opportunity to witness others carrying their worn and weathered Bibles into the sanctuary and opening them up to highlights and curled up pages, is often a huge part of the overall lesson and experience. The fact that the pages are sometimes brittle and curled up on the ends could be attibuted to that particular Bible's placement open-faced next to a sunny window for a year or two, but I choose to believe these pages are weathered because they have been poured over again and again during intense times of study, worship, and reflection. It's inspiring to know that these people have sought God and have encountered God in those pages.

Reading the Bible together is also giving us the opportunity learn things that we might have missed otherwise. During last Wednesday night's sermon, Rev. Piazza spoke about the creation story from Genesis, but rather than break down the story piece by piece, he focused primarily on the first five words of Genesis--"In the beginning God created..." I've flown past that verse a thousand times in my life, thinking I need to hurry up and get into the heart of the story, but Rev. Piazza's hesitancy to do that made me stop and think and wonder what else I might have missed. He stressed the importance of those five words, saying that, among other things, they establish God as eternal, singular, and intricately involved in our existence. He suggested that the rest of the Bible's two thousand pages are rooted in these basic ideas. I hadn't thought of the Bible's opening statement quite that way before.

Reading the Bible as a group isn't about streamlining thought, but about becoming increasingly aware of the ways in which God speaks to, teaches, and uses those around us. Reading as a team doesn't somehow relieve us of individual responsibility, but rather challenges us to hold up our end of the bargain and seek God with at least as much energy as our neighbor with the endless highlights and crumpled up pages. And in the process, not only will we become more educated and enlightened, but perhaps we'll also begin to see the same old principles in a whole new light.

Finally, an email from God

I must post the email that Will sent me yesterday after reading my blog entry. It said:

Jen, God wanted me to forward you this e-mail of directions for the rest of the year. I have had it for a few weeks and I just keep forgetting to send it. And somehow, unfortunately, some of the message got cut off. Here is what is left.

To: Jen Austin (jen@jenaustin.com)
From: God (God@God.com)
Subject: Detailed instructions

Dear Jen,

Just wanted you to know I love you and I am so proud of you. I read your blog every day. I am so pleased at your strength and courage and more importantly, your love and grace. Here is what I would like you to do next.

1. Pray
2. ----

Sorry the rest got cut off Jen. I am sure it was just details.

Ha! Thanks Will. I guess I'll go pray now. And since you're evidently in cahoots with God (at least enough to have intercepted this email) can you also try to line up a conference call? Maybe that's the way to go.

January, spiritually speaking

If you're in Dallas, you might know that I'm not doing traffic for Kidd Kraddick in the Morning anymore. I'm still at Kiss FM doing various things and I have a few other job possibilities, but during this transition period I've noticed that my ability to blog and work on other writing projects has become limited. Darn it. I'm sure this transition period will end up being a time of accelerated growth and it might lead me to other opportunities that I hadn't thought of before, but for now it's preventing me from doing some of the things I really want to do. But God can work with that.

Not knowing exactly what the next few weeks will bring is causing me to take one day at a time, and that may be the very thing that God wants me to glean from this. I'm not a very patient person at times. This causes me to seek immediate answers, especially where jobs and income are concerned, and it results in a lot of needless worry and clutter in my life. Since this experience now requires so much patience and trust, I'm forced to let go of the worry and clutter and just know that God is not the least bit stressed about it. I've noticed that in doing so, I'm busier than I've been in months, and opportunities are popping up that I never would have considered otherwise.

It seems like every devotion I read now and every sermon within earshot talks about obedience and the promise of God's faithfulness and blessing when we follow the nudgings. So I'm trying to be obedient. I wish God would email me with detailed instructions about where to go next and how to assemble this new year, but so far I've only received emails from friends, family, and ebay. Nothing from God. But I will do my best to be obedient to the guidance I receive by faith.

January is an important month. My friend Will said in his blog (http://willatgrace.blogspot.com), speaking about the life of his church, "Now is the time when we set the momentum for the whole year. If, in January, we fail to make plans and help others embrace those plans, the momentum of the year just catches up with us and we have trouble making new things happen."

God is always working on new things and will bring them to life through us if we are attentive enough to allow it. Patience, trust, and obedience are necessary parts of that process. An email announcing these new things would be nice--even if it's spam--but since God doesn't like to echat I suppose prayer will have to do. And lots of it, so the rest of 2006 will have the spiritual momentum that it deserves.

The Golden Globes

It was great to see Brokeback Mountain win four Golden Globes last night and become the certain front-runner now for the Oscars, whose nominations will be announced on January 31st. Brokeback won Golden Globes for best screenplay, best song, best dramatic film, and best director for Ang Lee. A gay-themed movie has never won Best Picture at the Oscars, but certainly could this year.

Felicity Huffman gave a great acceptance speech last night after she was honored for her role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery in Transamerica, which I haven't seen but want to even more now. During the speech she said, "I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are and so I would like to salute the men and women who brave ostracism, alienation and a life lived on the margins to become who they really are." Perhaps as Hollywood continues to blaze the trail and America makes greater progess in relearning the truth about who GLBT people are, these margins will become less defined and will eventually cease to exist.

Angela works with a couple of people who refuse to see Brokeback Mountain simply because of its gay male content. It's unfortunate that their own fear will cause them to miss out on such a powerful and compelling love story. And I'm glad Hollywood gets it.

20Something 1-11-06

Click the link above for last night's lesson. If it's not on the front page it will be in the January archives.

Cathedral of Hope is diving in to a year-long study of the entire Bible, so we can all become more informed, enlightened Christians. This study is an overview. We had a great discussion last night about whether or not we consider the Bible to be inerrant, whether or not we take it literally, and what it means to each of us. Definitely an enlightening conversation.

The coolest thing I saw last night was actually after 20Something, just as the church service was ending. Communion wasn't part of the church service last night, but it was made available immediately afterward, so about fifty people lined up at the side altar to receive it as individuals, as partners, or as families. There were several 20somethings in line ahead of Angela and me, but instead of going up to receive communion individually as I expected, they all walked up to receive communion from Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson together, as a family. Ten of our 20somethings, arms wrapped tightly around each other's shoulders, with eyes closed and in humble prayer as they received the wine-dipped wafer and blessing. Rev. Dr. Hudson possesses an incredibly fortifying gaze anyway, but last night she seemed to instill even more courage and love than usual with the communion-based eye contact, as if to transfer over to this group of 20somethings enough spiritual food and love to get them through any trial ten times over. It was a powerful image and one that made me incredibly glad that 20Something is back from its brief hiatus. These friends of mine are quite a gift to the church. I hope you'll join us for 20Something one of these Wednesdays.

Congratulations to Kim and Virginia! They will be married this Saturday. We'll be there with bells on. I mean a tasteful pantsuit of course. Congrats.

20Something tonight

After taking a break during December, 20Something meetings resume tonight at Cathedral of Hope in Dallas.

Note the new time! We'll meet at 6:15 now instead of 6:00. This gives you an extra fifteen minutes to file those papers at work, change clothes after work, fight traffic, or do whatever it is you do that usually makes you late. :-) Hope to see you then.

The church service following 20Something will now be at 7:17 instead of 7:07.

Positive and Negative Attention for Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain won two more awards last night at the 11th annual Critics Choice Awards, voted on by broadcast film critics....Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Michelle Williams. Brokeback Mountain has already been awarded best picture by the New York and Los Angeles film critics associations, and it heads into next Monday's Golden Globes with a leading seven nominations. I don't even have to mention the Oscar buzz.

Unfortunately, it can't generate all of this positive attention without being subject to some negative attention as well. Last week the movie mysteriously disappeared from Salt Lake City's Megaplex 17, even though the ads ran in Salt Lake City's two major newspapers. The theater is owned by Larry H. Miller, a prominent Mormon businessman. The manger of the Megaplex refused to say why the film had been cancelled, but it is widely known that it has been under attack in Utah by the Mormon Church, so it would be natural to assume that this religious stance had something to do with the ban. The Utah Eagle Forum, a conservative group that backed the state's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and regularly fights other LGBT issues praised the decision not to run the film (365gay.com). Brokeback Mountain has also been pulled from a theater in Washington.

I love Heath Ledger's response to the news. He compares the cancellation of the film to racism, and adds, "Personally, I don't think the movie is controversial. I think it's very immature of a society. If two people are loving . . . I think we should be more concerned if two people express anger in love, than love."

It's too bad that some religious organizations can't agree. But it's refreshing to realize that the purity of love remains despite human attempts to ruin it. It's metaphorical really. The characters in Brokeback Mountain became boxed in by the culture that immediately surrounded them, and now the movie itself is being subject to the same type of limitation in some areas. Yet its power remains. Organizations may condemn the movie in the name of religion, but it's comforting to know that the objective critics who make no attempt to channel love, and make judgments based upon the merit of the story, realize that there is purity in gay relationships. Here's to much continued success...

A note from Armenia

I got an email from Armenia last week that really peaked my interest. I have to admit that before last Friday I had no geographical frame of reference for Armenia and had to look it up on a map, but in the past few days I have learned that it's a country about the size of Maryland and it's located in Southwestern Asia, near Turkey and Iran. The Armenian Apostolic Church is the predominant house of worship, named after the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who ended their days spreading Christianity in Armenia. Even though Armenia is largely a Christian nation, it doesn't seem to possess a very wide liberal to conservative spectrum, but instead a fairly narrow ideology that leans almost exclusively to the right. But then if ninety-four percent of the country identifies with only one church, the thoughts and images that are projected will be heavily influenced by whatever that particular church happens to believe.

Not surprisingly, the Armenian Apostolic Church condemns homosexuality. I read some thoughts online from one Armenian Apostolic worshipper, and after reviewing many of the typical clobber passages that we have been regularly condemned by in the United States, he also included the belief that homosexuality is contrary to sound doctrine. This always puzzles me, because it suggests that homosexuality is unsound and therefore shaky, unbalanced, and unhealthy. This view on homosexuality totally misses those of us who work to maintain healthy, thriving relationships with our partners, our communities, and with God, and whose lives are not visibly in conflict with sound doctrine. In fact, it's probably better to say that we have become fused with that sound doctrine, and one with the very community that Jesus challenged us to join in order to spread the Gospel throughout the world. The problem is we continue to be lumped in with "the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and profane, murderers, immoral persons, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers" from 1 Timothy 1:10, and all of those things that are indeed contrary to "sound doctrine." Armenia is no exception. Even though our inclusion with murderers and sodomites is unjustified and holds no truth, it has a certain negative impact upon the way others view us and can even affect our own sense of self worth.

From what I've gathered, this hostile Christian attitude creates quite a stifling environment in Armenia. It seems that staying closeted is the only way to go if a person doesn't care to risk harsh repercussions, and this has a profoundly negative effect upon the gay men and lesbians who live there. In fact, I think the email that was sent to me from Armenia last week marked the first time that this person was able to self-reference "gay" and "Christian" in the same sentence. The environment there just isn't conducive to living truthfully to both identities. But then the U.S. might send that impression as well, simply because those who speak out about homosexuality with the most force and persistence here are usually those who are the most disgusted and threatened by it. Actual personal interaction with other Christians in the U.S. doesn't always yield this hostility, but instead shows that a large percentage of Christians are indeed capable of understanding and embracing differences. Perhaps the same can be true of some sections of Armenia. But by and large, it seems that the country rejects the idea that homosexuality has any redeeming qualities.

So what do you say to someone in that setting? I don't think the words that come out are as important as the connection that you establish. I think you open it, you allow God to work through it, and you offer a bit of the love and grace that you have discovered in your own journey every chance you get. We all have these opportunities, perhaps to degrees that we don't even realize. I can think of five friends right now who are stifled not by the political environment in which they live, but by the relationships that they have or do not have with their families. Families can create prisons for us just as easily as religious and political systems can, and often these strained relationships are much more emotionally disturbing. Maybe you have a friend in a similar situation that you can offer love and encouragement to as well. No matter what the barrier, it's just important that each person knows that he or she is not alone in the battle, and that there will always be someone there who understands. God is the someone who understands and who loves us beyond measure, but we can all open ourselves up to become better messengers of that truth.

I'm thankful for my Armenian connection, and I'm excited to learn more about the culture and about how God may choose to move through that part of the world in the coming years. Change will come. And the more we open ourselves up to be used by God during the process, the more sound our own personal journeys will become.

The Four Agreements

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is one of my favorite books. I'm currently reading its companion book, Using the Four Agreements to Master the Dream of Your Life. Toltec Wisdom has much to tell us about the steps we must take in order to claim greater courage, integrity, and empowerment for ourselves, and it offers some great ideas about how to create the mental framework we need to face judgment, difficulty, and other growth opportunities.

The Four Agreements are:

1. Be Impeccable with Your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your own life.

4. Always do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.


These agreements are relatively easy to accept at face value, but it's challenging to make them a matter of conscious practice. I find myself digging through the office to find a hard copy of the book at least once every six weeks or so because I inevitably forget not to make an assumption or to be impeccable with my word, etc. and I need to be reminded that there is a better way.

In the companion book, Don Miguel Ruiz says, "The Four Agreements slowly free the faith that is trapped inside your belief system. Little by little, you recover your integrity, and the real you starts to awaken."

I appreciate the way in which he gives faith a life of its own, apart from beliefs. Beliefs might complement our faith or provide evidence that it exists, but simply having beliefs does not necessarily mean we have faith. Faith is something that rises up out of the experience we gain during the process of discovering truth. Faith may include beliefs, but only after they have been tested. At any rate, it's important to know that faith is still very much alive underneath the clutter, and that we only need to further awaken to it.

I love books that are this liberating.

A couple of headlines...

Last month Focus on the Family announced it was withdrawing its funds from Well Fargo because the bank supports "pro-gay" causes. Just today, Concerned Women for America announced its disgust with Mattel, saying a box on the company's website that asks children to reveal their gender gives in to the "homosexual agenda." The box asks children to check "boy," "girl," or "don't know." A spokesperson for Concerned Women for America says Mattel is trying to confuse children.

Does this make anyone else laugh? How about giving kudos to Wells Fargo and Mattel for allowing people to be who they are? Maybe Mattel was only being half serious. Evidently it was enough to grab the attention of the morality police and cause an uproar in the fundamentalist community. It makes me want to buy a Barbie Doll.

It's important to remember that phrases like "pro-gay causes" and "homosexual agenda" are PR terms created to put a negative spin upon ideas that come from the gay community, and that they do not neccesarily paint a picture of truth. I'm not "pro-gay" as much as I am gay. But if "pro-gay" means that I enjoy staying home with my spouse and four schnauzers on a Saturday night and watching an Adam Sandler movie marathon, then perhaps that is exactly what I am. Terms like "pro-gay" paint a picture of us gay folk as a militant assemblage of wild hooligans intent on imposing our "way of life" on the masses, but in reality we're just regular members of the community who want nothing more than to be happy and to have the space to live accordingly. It's unfortunate that there is such little room for an acceptance of the truth from these conservative religious organizations. Instead, they attempt to close in on us with sets of boundaries and pre-conceived notions about the validity of whom they imagine us to be, with the intent of isolating and marginalizing us.

The good news is, as statements from these religious organizations continue to surface, it is not the gay community that becomes marginalized, but rather the religious organizations themselves. Since homosexuality has become increasingly annexed by the mainstream in recent years, attacking the new mainstream does nothing but point out how completely absurd an anti-gay notion can be. Is everything that can be considered mainstream automatically acceptable in God's eyes? I highly doubt it. But would it hurt to consider for a moment that perhaps the mainstream is onto something here? Why not embrace individuals where they are and without judgment, just as God embraces us?

It's unlikely that these targeted condemnations will cease as we move forward in 2006, or even in the years to come as lawmakers begin to realize that there is no harm in offering civil rights to same sex families. As we move further toward equality, the outrage will grow. But so will its irrelevance. So in the meantime, let's open another account at Wells Fargo and scoop up loads of Barbie Dolls. It will be fun, and it's a positive step that doesn't signal defensiveness or demand attention. But the effect will be certain. The ability to marginalize works both ways.