If repeating a statement over and over again were a guarantee that the statement is true, then I would have to believe that Jim Garlow does not fear gays and liberals. He certainly goes on at length insisting that he has no such fear. But I suspect that the reason Garlow invited liberals to speak at his church was to exploit them for his own purposes. I doubt that he wants his flock to seriously entertain the notion that God might be okay with homosexuality.
Skyline Church, the Rancho San
Diego megachurch known for hosting conservative speakers such as Glenn
Beck and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, was harshly judged this week by a former
Episcopal bishop famed for defending gay marriage, including his own.
The Right Rev. Gene Robinson. Image via Wikimedia CommonsIn a column for The Daily Beast, the Right. Rev. Gene Robinson wrote about attending a Sunday service at Skyline and finding a mood that turned dark.
“In between the uplifting songs, the message is: They’re coming to
get us. One by one, the speakers lay out the parameters of the siege
under which Christians live, attacked by liberal and godless forces on
every side.”
In a piece headlined “Even After Hobby Lobby, the Religious Right is Still Terrified,” Robinson wrote:
Every message, action and gesture seems calculated to
ratchet up the anxiety of those who are listening. And then it’s over.
Just like that.
I honestly don’t know how typical such a service is among
evangelicals, bent on making people fearful, but if you left that
service feeling hopeful, at peace with God, and eager to help the poor
and needy, then you weren’t paying attention.
Now a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, Robinson concluded his 1,100-word column posted Sunday with this:
“Anti-gay sentiment is waning in American society, and with that
forward progress, conservative churches will see a loss of credibility
and a diminished effectiveness of their fear-mongering. That is as it
should be. Neither the church nor the state is served by it.”
On Tuesday, Skyline senior pastor Jim Garlow responded.
Answering a Times of San Diego request for comment, Garlow said: “We
did not know the writer was in the audience on that Sunday morning
service. We did invite him to a Sunday night service.” Here is Garlow’s full response to Robinson, which he termed “my thoughts.”...
Conservative
evangelicals have internalized a besiegement narrative that doesn’t
change even when they win political victories. But fear has no place in a
properly Christian worldview.
There
is nothing intimidating about the building, other than its sheer size
and the many millions of dollars it took to build it. In fact, it is one
of the most welcoming places I’ve ever been. This conservative,
evangelical megachurch, just outside San Diego, is a hive of activity on
a Sunday morning. Upon entering, I’m drawn into the sophisticated café
that makes Starbucks look like a 10-year-old’s sidewalk lemonade stand. I
get my latte and am assured that I am welcome to take it with me to my
seat in the church. I find a seat, which is plush and comfortable, and
sure enough, there’s a cup holder for my coffee.
I am struck by
the starkness of the worship space: no windows, all black, no cross or
stained glass, and not a single sign that this is a place of worship. A
drum trap set is the only thing on the massive stage. It’s hard to tell,
really, when the service starts; it just seems to grow organically,
with additional people coming onto the stage over the course of 15
minutes, everyone dressed in jeans and comfortable clothing. The sense
of expectation grows minute by minute.
The crowd gathering in the
congregation is old and young. Some members are alone, some coupled, and
lots of families, with kids in tow. And virtually all white. Everyone
seems excited to be here. When things actually begin, it is as
professional as any Broadway show, with fantastic music by a small band,
and everyone is singing. Although there is a brief prayer early on, the
service seems oddly devoid of any mention of God, much less Jesus. And
within the first 10 minutes, the head minister announces that the time
has come for what we’ve all been waiting for: the collection, the chance
to give for the work and ministry of this place. And everyone cheers.
That’s right, cheers! Wild applause, enthusiastic delight at the chance
to contribute to the ministry.
If
you left that service feeling hopeful, at peace with God, and eager to
help the poor and needy, then you weren’t paying attention.
But
soon, the mood turns dark. In between the uplifting songs, the message
is: they’re coming to get us. One by one, the speakers lay out the
parameters of the siege under which Christians live, attacked by liberal
and godless forces on every side. An African-American minister from New
York describes a change in policy in New York City to disallow churches
to hold services in public schools, and his message is, “Beware. What’s
happening in New York is headed your way! Get ready!”
The sermon
is delivered by a guest preacher, whose main point seems to be the evils
of feminism and sexual immorality. In the 40-minute “sermon,” there is
hardly a mention of the Divine. “God” shows up about 30 minutes in, and
Jesus is mentioned only once, at the last minute. The senior pastor
delivers an additional message, imploring those present to return that
evening for a debate about homosexuality (the reason I’m there—and to
their credit, both sides are being represented). His explicit message
is, “Come tonight! I cannot prepare you for the onslaught of immorality
and anti-Christian fervor if you don’t come! There is a battle underway
for your souls, and I intend to outfit you for a holy war!” Every
message, action and gesture seems calculated to ratchet up the anxiety
of those who are listening. And then it’s over. Just like that.
I
honestly don’t know how typical such a service is among evangelicals,
bent on making people fearful, but if you left that service feeling
hopeful, at peace with God, and eager to help the poor and needy, then
you weren’t paying attention. It is no wonder to me that many
conservative, Christian people are fearful, and believe that there is a
war on religion (especially Christians) in this country. After all, it
is drummed into them every week...
The Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist minister, was defrocked after officiating at the wedding of his son Tim.Credit
Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
Father
and son had always been close, from the moment Tim Schaefer was born,
six weeks premature, with blood poisoning, a weak heart and lungs, and a
doctor who thought he would not make it through the night.
His
father, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist minister, thought
of his eldest son as a miracle child, saved by some combination of
medicine and prayer, saved for something special.
“We
couldn’t even touch him; he was in an incubator, and we had to reach in
with latex gloves through those holes in the sides,” Mr. Schaefer said.
“I begged God to please save his life.”
Their
bond was such that, years later, facing a choice between upholding his
church’s teaching and affirming his son’s sexual orientation, Frank
chose to endanger his own career by officiating at his son’s same-sex
wedding. The actions that followed — a rebellion in his congregation, a
church trial, a defrocking and then, last month, a reinstatement —
have made the Schaefers symbols of the conundrum facing much of
American Christianity: How does religious doctrine on homosexuality
respond to the longings for spirituality and community from congregants
and family members who are gay?...
For years, the only people who have been standing up to the Westboro
Baptists have been motorcycle gang members and liberals. It took a lot
for regular folks in Oklahoma to become outraged.
The main issue of the Westboro Baptists is hating homosexuals. Liberals in Santa Monica chased them off (see video), but conservative Christians should do more about the haters than merely protecting their own children when the Westboro Baptists show up at the temporary elementary school of tornado victims. All children should be protected all the time. And so should adults.
Conservative Christians should worry about their own sins, and let God deal with homosexuals as he sees fit. Apparently, God sees fit to leave them alone. The tornado that killed seven children at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore Oklahoma wasn't caused by God deciding to smite children. It was an act of nature.
The truth is that the Westboro people are just doing openly what the Republican-controlled House of Representatives does with much more powerful effect. The congressmen simply use (slightly) more controlled vocabulary to talk about it. Instead of picking very personal locations to vent their ugly feelings, socially acceptable haters do it on national television and talk radio. I think that's really worse. So why don't 2000 people picket them??? Because the 2000 people don't seem to mind the other stuff, they just got mad when the Westboro folks were attacking white kids. Shame on the public for accepting the haters who are the most harmful, and for accepting the Westboro bullies most of the time.
It was a 'no contest' showdown, when thousands of folks in Moore, Oklahoma, came out in the cold and rain, to counter-protest the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). The vile WBC group was scheduled to picket a school, where children had died in last year's horrific tornadoes. Their allotted time was 2:00 - 2:30 on Sunday, April 6 [2014]. The police were there to enforce free speech, but were hardly a deterrent when the large crowd began crossing the road towards the hate group. Within two minutes, the WBC picketers realized the danger, stuffed themselves, and their signs, into their vehicles - and left the scene rather quickly. Smart move on their part. No arrests were made.
See KOCO News Video
YouTube Video of Oklahoma Protest Against WBC (by AJVegas)
Good for the folks of Oklahoma. This isn't a first. Communities around the country continue to trump the WBC's odious agenda. Last year the residents of Santa Monica, California, formed a human chain to border a pro-LGBT high school. The WBC had no choice but to slither away on that day as well.
Today is Monday, April 7. Election day is Tuesday, November 4. There are 212 days between now and then. Yet:
Once the House adjourns on Thursday, it’s in recess until April 28, giving members time back home to run for reelection. House GOP leaders have scheduled only 55 more days of legislating (less than two full months in session) for the year prior to Election Day, according to the House calendar issued by Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office.
So here's the question: Are they merely lazy? Or are they trying to run out the clock until election day? After all, as we learned last fall during the shutdown, when House Republicans show up for work, they tend to make problems for themselves.
On Wednesday night Rachel Maddow discussed Texas Gov. Rick Perry's prayer event, The Response, which took place last weekend. The event "raised eyebrows," she noted, for involving pastors known for their extreme conservative views. A number of the pastors have something more in common explained Maddow:
"Many of them are part of a little-known, very specific religious and political movement... The New Apostolic Reformation."
According to a cover story in the Texas Observer this month, pastors in the movement believe themselves to be modern day prophets or apostles, directly linked to God. Their aim, explained the article author Forrest Wilder, is "to infiltrate government, and Rick Perry might be their man."
The new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take “dominion” over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the “Seven Mountains” of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world. They believe they're intended to lord over it all. As a first step, they’re leading an 'army of God' to commandeer civilian government.
Just days before Perry is expected to announce his presidential run, Maddow expressed concern that the Texas governor was able to hold a very public prayer event, largely organized by members of this group, without the Beltway media exposing who they really are...
Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama met with religious leaders and issued an apology today...
Addressing a crowd Monday at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church in Montgomery, the new governor said, " Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."
"If the Holy Spirit lives in you that makes you my brothers and sisters. Anyone who has not accepted Jesus, I want to be your brothers and sisters, too," he said.
Following the initial comments many civil right groups objected to the comments and called on the governor to apologize.
"It is stunning to me that he'd make those remarks. It's distressing because of the suggestion that he feels that people who aren't Christian are not entitled to love and respect," said Bill Nigut, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League...
"Burn a Quran Day" is how a church in Florida is preparing to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11. So far the Christian response to this in America has been nearly dead silence.
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has issued a press release opposing Burn a Quran Day. This is good, but it is basically just a statement to assure non-Evangelical Christians that Terry Jones does not represent authentic Evangelical Christianity.
More direct are efforts by John Rankin, an Evangelical and President of the Theological Education Institute, to reach out Pastor Terry Jones in person. In addition, Rankin has initiated the "Yes to the Bible, No to the Burning of the Qur'an" collective affirmation. So far, however, John Rankin seems to be a voice in the wilderness on this.
Since 9/11 many American Christians have been asking why Muslims who oppose Islamist radicalism don't do more to counter it. Today I suspect more than a few Muslims are looking at Christians in America wondering why Christians don't try to dissuade the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, led by Pastor Terry Jones, from hosting Burn a Quran Day.
What is the responsibility of religious believers in a given faith to engage fanatics advocating ideologies of hate while claiming to act in the name of this faith?
Quran burning does not equate with murdering thousands in terrorism. However, these are similar in being ideological expressions of hatred which identify themselves with Abrahamic faiths better known for their emphasis on God's mercy toward all humans.
Both are independent movements evoking the name of far larger, broader religions. The Dove World Outreach Center is an independent church. Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda is an independent movement. Just as millions of Christians peacefully attend churches with no affiliation with the Dove World Outreach Center, millions of peaceful Muslims have no affiliation with al-Qaeda and associated movements.
Among Muslims there are emerging efforts beyond press releases to engage Islamist fanatics and Muslims, especially young Muslims, at risk of radicalization. Examples include the Quilliam Foundation, a Muslim counter-radicalization think-tank in the U.K., and the video Believers Beware: Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice, released this summer by the Muslim Public Affairs Council based in Washington, DC, featuring Muslim leaders speaking Muslim-to-Muslim against religious fanaticism.
This video is not a press release to assure non-Muslims that al-Qaeda does not represent authentic Islam. Rather, the video targets fellow Muslims.
The target audiences for countering Burn a Quran Day and Islamist fanaticism need to be, precisely, co-religionists, and in particular the enthusiasts of hatred and violence.
We need to reach inside our faiths across the lines of specific religious movements and denominations to engage those who promote and even act on hatred in the name of faith.
In the Believers Beware video, Imam Zaid Shakir of the Zaytuna Institute in California observes, with a passion emphasized in his repetition, that as for the "advocates of extremism...advocates of indiscriminate violence...advocates of killing civilians, where are they successful? Where are they successful? You just see one mess after another, one mess after another. And it is time for us to start cleaning up those messes..."
There is a mess brewing inside Christendom. Some American Christians might be thinking, "Terry Jones and his church - ahem, his "church" - have nothing to do with me because I am Catholic/Methodist/fill-in-the-blank." And yet the only thing a flood victim in Pakistan, likely Muslim, is probably going to hear about this story is, 'American Christians put their energy and resources into Quran burning, not into helping us in our hour of dire need.'
Moreover, if American Christians don't try to reach out to Terry Jones, then who will? Press releases will not be enough...
I can't say I was impressed when I met Sen. John Ensign at the C Street House, the secretive religious enclave on Capitol Hill thrust into the news by its links to three political sex scandals, those of Gov. Mark Sanford; former Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., who allegedly rendezvoused at the C Street House with his mistress, an executive in the industry for which he then became a lobbyist; and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Although Sanford declared today that his scandal will actually turn out to be good for the people of South Carolina because he's now more firmly in God's control, the once-favored GOP presidential prospect will finish out his term and fade away. And Ensign's residence at the C Street House during his own extramarital affair now threatens to end a career that he and other Republicans hoped would lead him to the White House.
When I met Ensign, he was just back from a run, sweaty and bouncing in place, boasting about the time he'd clocked and teasing a young woman from his office. She seemed annoyed that the senator wouldn't get himself into a shower and back on the job. When I wrote about Sen. Ensign in my book about the evangelical political organization that runs the C Street House, "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," I described him as a "conservative casino heir elected to the Senate from Nevada, a brightly tanned, hapless figure who uses his Family connections to graft holiness to his gambling-fortune name."
Now, of course, I know I was wrong: John Ensign is a brightly tanned, hapless figure who used his Family connections to cover up the fruits of his flirtations, to make moral decisions for him, and to do his dirty work when his secret romance sputtered...
If sexual license was all the Family offered the C Street men, however, that would merely be seedy and self-serving. But Family men are more than hypocritical. They're followers of a political religion that embraces elitism, disdains democracy, and pursues power for its members the better to "advance the Kingdom." They say they're working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize. Sexual peccadilloes aside, the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn't registered as a lobby -- and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.
The Family likes to call itself a "Christian Mafia," but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism...Early participants included Southern Sens. Strom Thurmond, Herman Talmadge and Absalom Willis Robertson -- Pat Robertson's father. Membership lists stored in the Family's archive at the Billy Graham Center at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois show active participation at any given time over the years by dozens of congressmen.
Today's roll call is just as impressive: Men under the Family's religio-political counsel include, in addition to Ensign, Coburn and Pickering, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, both R-S.C.; James Inhofe, R-Okla., John Thune, R-S.D., and recent senators and high officials such as John Ashcroft, Ed Meese, Pete Domenici and Don Nickles. Over in the House there's Joe Pitts, R-Penn., Frank Wolf, R-Va., Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and John R. Carter, R-Texas. Historically, the Family has been strongly Republican, but it includes Democrats, too. There's Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, for instance, a vocal defender of putting the Ten Commandments in public places, and Sen. Mark Pryor, the pro-war Arkansas Democrat responsible for scuttling Obama's labor agenda. Sen. Pryor explained to me the meaning of bipartisanship he'd learned through the Family: "Jesus didn't come to take sides. He came to take over." And by Jesus, the Family means the Family.
Family leaders consider their political network to be Christ's avant garde, an elite that transcends not just conventional morality but also earthly laws regulating lobbying.... "The more invisible you can make your organization," Vereide's successor, current leader Doug Coe preaches, "the more influence you can have." That's true -- which is why we have laws requiring lobbyists to identify themselves as such. But David Coe, Doug Coe's son and heir apparent, calls himself simply a friend to men such as John Ensign, whom he guided through the coverup of his affair.
I met the younger Coe when I lived for several weeks as a member of the Family. He's a surprising source of counsel, spiritual or otherwise. Attempting to explain what it means to be chosen for leadership like King David was -- or Mark Sanford, according to his own estimate -- he asked a young man who'd put himself, body and soul, under the Family's authority, "Let's say I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?" The man guessed that Coe would probably think that he was a monster. "No," answered Coe, "I wouldn't." Why? Because, as a member of the Family, he's among what Family leaders refer to as the "new chosen." If you're chosen, the normal rules don't apply...
Editor's note: Sharlet is the author of the bestselling "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power."
It seems to me that two people committing to love and support each other is a good thing. After all, sex with more than one partner can be dangerous since there are vicious viruses and bacteria that have chosen this avenue to infect human beings.
But let's say, for argument's sake, that we want to consider the possibility that some Christians are correct and that the Old Testament proves that God is against gay sex.
While we consider this, we must keep in mind that Jesus made it abundantly clear that love and kindness are the guiding principles of the New Testament, and that the Old Testament also says, "Judgment is mine, sayeth the Lord."
What we are left with are competing moral principles.
Some people don't know how to weigh competing moral principles. They just choose one and ignore the others.
Conservative Christians today must weigh the options; they must violate one or more of their principles. If they choose to maintain hostility toward gays, they must violate the directives to be kind and loving, and not to judge.
VISTA: The school board is to decide whether to formally endorse Proposition 8, the state ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage in California, at its meeting Thursday night.
Vista board president Jim Gibson said he asked that a resolution in support of Proposition 8 be added to the agenda. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the multipurpose building at Temple Heights Elementary School, 1550 Temple Heights Drive in Oceanside.
The ballot measure arose in May after the state Supreme Court struck down Proposition 22, an initiative that voters passed in 2000 to ban same-sex marriages. Proposition 8 seeks to amend the state Constitution to recognize marriage as only between a man and a woman.
Yesterday, Gibson said he's urging the board of the Vista Unified School District to support Proposition 8 in part because the California Teachers Association opposes it.
“These types of agendas filter into education, so if this decision by the judges stands as is that means the school will eventually have to teach that it's acceptable for two dads, two moms type-of-thing,” Gibson said.
[Blogger's note: Two dads and two moms is a fact. Why teach children to condemn? I don't believe people have a choice whether to be gay or not. Heterosexuals can't choose to be gay, and vis versa. Why not just accept that this is how human beings (and other species) happen to be, and that there's nothing we can do about it?]
In July, trustees of the Grossmont Union High School District voted 4-0, with one abstention, to endorse Proposition 8. Trustee Richard Hoy, who abstained, said at the time that the measure didn't directly affect the public schools. –B.L.
I was surprised to find out that William Wilberforce (1759–1833) was an evangelical Christian. He is the hero of the recent movie Amazing Grace.
In the United States over the past few decades, evangelicals have leaned to the far right, more interested in preventing what they see as misbehavior in other people's bedrooms than in making sure that all human beings are treated with respect and decency.
But the old days, when an evangelical forced the abolition of the slave trade in England, may be coming back.
Are evangelical Christians returning to social activism? It seems that they are. More evangelicals are fighting for justice for all, and preservation of the environment.
