How Ethical Is This?

One Nation Divided

2011-06-04T10:36:00.000-05:00

Blessed Or Privileged?

2011-06-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

When the Ground Is No Longer

2011-06-04T09:35:00.000-05:00

Transitions: Resisting the Process of Change

2011-06-04T09:32:00.000-05:00

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rev-deborah-e-lake/2010/08/22/one-nation-divided

Female Discipleship & Male Discipleship. What's the Difference?

2011-06-04T09:29:00.000-05:00

New Year New Way Part Three

2011-06-04T09:25:00.000-05:00

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rev-deborah-e-lake/2010/03/07/new-year-new-way

New Year New Way Part One

2011-06-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

New Year New Way Part Two

2011-06-04T08:55:00.001-05:00

Know Who You Are

2011-06-04T08:46:00.002-05:00

In Jeremiah1:5 we read:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

And, in Psalm 139:13 we read:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

These two verses have become battle cries for those who use them to validate a political agenda. We all know about the continued fight between those who are anti-abortion, pro-life or anti-choice and those who are pro-abortion or pro-choice. The the long and often mean spirited fight can be summarized in who controls what a woman does with her body. Does the woman control her body? Or should religious institutions have that privilege? Lawmakers? Family? Society? Who or what controls what a woman does with her body? This battle seems never ending, and sometimes violent. Over the decades, men have been the most visible and the most vocal on both sides.

When we take the text for today literally, the message is clear; God knew us even before we were born. Our life's work, the reason we are born, is determined even as we are being formed in our mother's womb. This means that before our bodies are functional organisms, before our bodies even exist in this world we are who we are and God knows us. Based on the literal interpretation, we might decide that a woman should not have the last say over what she does with her body. However, if we accept the literal interpretation, we have to also agree that a particular version of Christianity should be the law of the land. We have to agree that everyone, regardless of their personal beliefs or religious affiliations, is subject to this one version of Christianity. The separation of church and state dictate that we cannot establish one religion as law, so we need to look deeper.

In Matthew 7:5 we read:
Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
This means that we need to know who we are first. We need to see our own flaws, clean up our own house, remove the plank from our own eyes before we can even try to see the speck in another's. The message to know who you are first is quite clear.

Self-knowledge is not easy mainly because who we are is often not who we want to be. Who we are is often not who we think we should be. In Jeremiah we are literally told that God knows who we are before our bodies are formed: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. God knows who we are, first. Our bodies come after the fact. Now, let's move away from the literal understanding and look at a common theme for clarity. We might even be able to find some sanity in this particular battle. The theme is grounded in knowing or knowledge.

The biblical know is varied. There is the know as in God knowing or divine knowing. Genesis 3:5 is an example of this: For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

There is the know as in sexual knowing between people. Genesis 19:8 is an example: See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.

There is the know as in naming something or someone. Genesis 2:19 illustrates this: Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

There is the human knowing God: Genesis 6:7: I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Know as in the knowledge of good and evil Genesis 2:9: And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Making oneself known or revealing yourself. Genesis 45:1: Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Make everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

We can see that know, knowing, revealing, and knowledge are important in the Bible based on prevalence. This makes knowing important to us.

Many of us choose to think that knowing means that we can claim to know what is in God's mind all while we have no clue about our own motivations. We decide that biblical knowledge gives us permission to tell the world what/who God loves, and what/who God hates. We then use this 'knowledge' to justify who and what we love and who and what we hate. All while we do this, we have no clue about how to love God. We have no idea about whether our neighbors feel love from us. In addition, we refuse to see the most destructive sin of all, which we commit each time we ignore the pain of another.

We have already established that when the text is literally applied, abortion should be banned and a woman's right to privacy should be denied. If God knew us before our bodies were being formed, then abortion is, in fact, murder. This is a common understanding. Not so common, however is the fact that we can also use the Bible to justify protecting a woman's right to abortion. If God knew us before our bodies were being formed, then abortion does not stop us from existing. This means that abortion cannot be murder because we exist independent of a physical body. Consequently, a woman's right to privacy can be protected without contradicting what the Bible teaches.

There is a problem with this when we include the separation of church and state. Using the Bible to impose a particular religious perspective, or belief, or judgment on others is against our constitution. Both the anti-abortionist and the pro-abortionist are wrong when they use religion to justify passing a law. When we decide what God wants, likes, expects, for anyone other than ourselves this is hubris. If you do not know what hubris means, part of your lifework after this sermon is to look it up and learn the word. When we say:
you need to...

Or, she has to...

Or, they are not saved.

Or, he is going to hell.

Or, God doesn't want those people in his house.

Or, God don't like ugly.

Or....you fill in the blank.

When we say these things, and then point to a verse in the Bible to support our opinion, we use the Bible to promote what we want. Rather than accessing the Bible to support and inform us as we make our way to self-knowledge, we use the Bible to help us feel superior to others, First remove the plank from your own eye. Know who you are, first. Know where you are in your life, first. Know the plank that is in your eye, first. The Bible is here to support your individual process, not to enable you to impose your will on others.

If you strive to know who you are, you will learn that self-knowledge is sometimes painful, joyful, difficult, easy, and a life-long process. When you strive to know self you gain skills like patience, understanding, consistency, endurance, honesty, and clarity. Then you are able to use your skills, when the opportunity is offered, to help another. Conversely, if you spend most of your time and energy memorizing the biblical verses that help you feel accepted and valid, if you spend all your time rejecting verses that contradict what you think is right, you are insulting a long held tradition. In addition, you reject knowing the one thing that is yours alone, you.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you.. It is up to you to fill in that blank by knowing who you are. What are you appointed to do? Do you know? Are you working to find out?

The last time we were together I gave you what I call lifework. This is like the homework that everyone has as students. Lifework is what we do to gain the skills we need to turn our lives around. The last assignment was to take 10 minutes every day and remove all distractions. Then find a part of your body that you like or that you are comfortable seeing and really get to know that part. At the same time, you were to repeat this phrase: my body is home to my spirit. Now, we are going to build on what we have been doing.

Find a comfortable place, and expand the time that you set aside to 15 minutes. Sit in an upright position and remove distractions. Close your eyes if you are comfortable doing so. If not, find a spot to rest your eyes. Once you are comfortable, and things are quiet, sit with your thoughts. Do not try to censor your thoughts or change your feelings. Be gentle with yourself and give yourself 15 minutes of time when you do not think you are wrong, or silly, or ugly, or fat, poor, too old, too young, or any of the things that we all have thought about ourselves. Do this every day if possible. Give yourself 15 minutes of uncensored, uninterrupted time to be.

Until next time, may God continue to bless and keep you,

Amen

Your Body Your Temple

2011-06-04T08:43:00.000-05:00

In Luke 8:42a-28 we read:
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him. Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

This story is about an unnamed woman who was an outcast, and at her last ditch effort. In the time of Jesus, a woman who was menstruating was unclean. She was untouchable. In general, menstruating women at the time were kept separate from the rest of society. Now, because the woman in the story never stopped bleeding, she had lived as an untouchable for 12 years. Imagine how lonely she must have been. Imagine how desperate she was. We know that she was desperate because the text tells us that this unnamed woman had spent all of her wealth trying to buy a cure. She had used all of her resources in efforts to buy freedom of her isolation. Freedom from her unclean state. Freedom from what caused her fear and pain. I think this unnamed woman represents how many of us feel today. We feel isolated. We feel as though God has left the room, and corruption, deceit, and anger have take over the world.

We are stressed. Maybe we are unemployed, and the financial strain is causing trouble in our relationships. Affairs, arguments, or just plain apathy, have replaced the love we had before. Maybe we are living in a neighborhood that has been taken over by gangs and drug dealers. The strain is causing trouble in our bodies in the form of high blood pressure, migraines, or obesity. Like the bleeding woman, we spend all of our wealth in efforts to find relief. We stand in long lines to buy the newest iPod and best ear phones we can afford so that we can shut out the world. We get the best video games so that we can distract ourselves from the things that hurt us. Or, scare us. Or, make us angry. But the state of the world today and the way we feel tells us that none of these things work.

Then one day we wake up and realize that, like the bleeding woman, we are at our last ditch effort. We have used all that we have to find relief. Yet every night before we go to bed, the very feelings that we try to escape, creep into our minds just as we start to relax. We are that woman who is sick. We are that woman who is lonely and desperate. We stand alongside her and reach out to touch Jesus.

She reached out to get the health and connection that she had craved for so long. She took control for her own health. She stopped looking for places to purchase relief from the physical world, and found what she needed in her spirit. The fact that Jesus felt her touch tells us that she was healed spiritually first. And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” The fact that her spirit had to be healed before her body, tells us that this is what we need to do.

I want to share a story about me with you. Many of you know that over the last 6 months or so, I have been training to run in my first marathon. This was the most difficult and the most healing thing that I have ever done in my life. I say that because to be successful, I had to not only see my body as an extension of my spiritual health, I had to treat it that way. You see, many of us—myself included—give lip service to the belief that our bodies are temples. We say this, but we do not live this. We do not exercise, for instance. We do not listen to what our bodies are telling us. We mask a sick spirit and the bodily signs of that sickness with make-up, loose fitting clothing, and scented lotions. Some of us even refuse to look in the mirror because we do not want to see what our bodies reveal about our spirits. This is important to understand and accept because it is how we start turning things around. Today, you can start living what you believe in your heart; that your body is the temple for your soul.

I want to give you lifework. Lifework is like homework that people in school have. Students have homework so that the lessons they are learning are reinforced and become part of their knowledge base. I give people lifework so that the habits that we all need to live full and happy lives can become something we simply do as easily as breathing in and out. Your lifework until next time is to set aside 10 minuets of each day. The time you set aside can be the last thing you do before you go to bed, the first thing you do when you get up, or any time between. For 10 minutes, turn everything off. No television, radio, or music. Eliminate as many distractions as possible. Find a part of your body that you like or that you are comfortable seeing. This could be your hand, or your foot. Maybe you like your legs. Whatever part of your body that you are comfortable with, use the 10 minutes to look at the color and shape. Feel and if you can, smell your body part. Let yourself feel the energy that is there. This may seem a little odd at first, but as you do this every day, you will become more and more comfortable. Now, as you look at your body, think to yourself: My body is home to my spirit. My body is home to my spirit. Continue to do this, and we will expand the lifework as part of the journey to turning yourself around.

Until next time, may God continue to bless and keep you,

Amen

'All the Way IN Anniversary Celebration'

2010-06-29T09:59:00.000-05:00

'All the Way IN Anniversary Celebration'

'Gay Marriage' More Ethical Than A Catholic Wedding?

2010-02-22T18:40:00.000-06:00

For Immediate Release
Chicago: February 22, 2010

“Gay Marriage” More Binding Than A Catholic Wedding?

Laws make divorce more difficult

Gay Marriage: More Binding Than a Catholic Wedding, is an All the Way IN radio program hosted by Deborah E. Lake. The program will air live on Monday, March 5th at 6:30pm EST. Guest Mariette Geldenhuys, Attorney at Law will address the fact that same gender couples who no longer wish to be together often live in a commitment limbo because of the inconsistency in state laws.“Because there is no uniform approach to recognizing same gender committed relationships in America, lesbian and gay couples need to be especially informed before entering into a civil union or marriage,” said Lake.

This will be Geldenhuys' second interview on All the Way IN radio. During her first interview, she outlined the chaotic legal state of same gender committed couples. “It saddens me that we have to think this way, but this is really important,” said Geldenhuys. “It is much wiser to think it through carefully.” Gay marriage is recognized legally in different ways and only in a small number of states. Add to this, the lack of clear leadership at the federal level, and same gender couples who want to build a life together face an unpredictable future. This means that same gender couples need to think about how they would proceed if the unthinkable happens—they no longer want to remain a couple—at a time when they should be celebrating with family and friends. Listeners can hear the program live, and call in with questions or comments at (347) 857-3286.

About All the Way IN radio:
All the Way IN is a BlogTalkRadio show that focuses on topics to help people live life to the fullest. Host and executive producer Deborah E. Lake explores relationship, health, social, and other issues that we all face today. Listeners are encouraged to call (347) 857-3286 to add their questions or comments. Downloads are available through iTunes and DeborahELake.com.

About Mariette Geldenhuys:
Ms. Geldenhuys has practiced law in Ithaca, New York for the past twenty-one years. A major focus of her practice is LGBT law, including marriage rights, domestic partnerships, civil unions, adoptions and estate planning. She is constantly seeking new and creative ways to expand legal protection for her lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clients. She is a member of the National Family Law Advisory Council of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the New York State Bar Association Special Committee on LGBT People and the Law and the planning committee of the Family Law Institute of the National LGBT Bar Association. She is also the Founder and Founding President of the Ithaca Area Collaborative Law Professionals and sees Collaborative Law as an effective process for LGBT clients to resolve legal issues. For more information, see www.geldenhuyslaw.com.

Press Contact: Deborah Lake

(978) 201-3300

info@lakeenterprise.com

Turning It Around Today

2009-09-24T08:15:00.000-05:00

On October 4, you can start listening to Rev. Lake's sermons on Blog Talk Radio.

Life is tough.

Many people, with many agendas try to tell us the best way to be. When you feel you are pulled from many directions, start Turning It Around Today.

If you are living a way that you never really wanted, start Turning It Around Today.

Life is fun when you turn it around.

Coming Out and Coming to Life

2009-07-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

Mother of four daughters, wife for 15 years, Black, and lesbian. The day I looked in the mirror and said, 'you are lesbian' to my 30 something self was the day I claimed my right to a life without longing. The longing that was always with me, the longing I had learned to live around, the longing that did not have a name was gone; banished by a woman's touch. To my shock and horror, that made me lesbian. In retrospect, the day the longing stopped was the day I became an abomination to the Black community.

Before coming out, I was comfortable and afraid at the same time. I had a safe life with a Black man who was a good provider and faithful husband. I was protected, secure, and valued by the larger African/American community. I was a mother, which meant that I was doing my part to ensure that African/Americans continued into the future. Black men respected me and looked at our family with admiration. I was a wife, which meant that supporting Black men was most important to me. Other women called me blessed because I had a good husband and beautiful daughters. My mother-in-law introduced me to her friends with pride. My future was secure. My place was defined. My heart was fearful. I was afraid of being alone.

Overnight my greatest fear came true. With one forbidden touch, my future became uncertain. Being lesbian meant that I was something to be exorcised from the Black community. Suddenly, people assumed that I hated men, especially Black men. Mothers protected their children from me, and looked at my daughters and ex-husband with pity. Men took it upon themselves to correct my lesbian waywardness through unwanted sexual advances. My in-laws shunned me. My friends avoided me. Coming out meant I had no community. I had no protection. In my mid-30's and rejected by the overall Black community, I found myself searching for acceptance in the gay community.

The failure of established gay rights activist to engage Black communities in the battle to oppose Prop 8 and similar anti-gay movements tells me that what I experienced in the mid-90's is relevant today. As a newly out Black lesbian looking to the gay community for the acceptance I had lost, I quickly learned that my oppression, my pain, and my presence were important only when they validated the white gay agenda. This means that for the most part, Black LGBT people are neither valued nor wanted. Our experiences are not valuable to white LGBT communities and our presence is not wanted in Black heterosexual communities. This puts Black LGBT people in a chasm of indifference and apathy. The world is indifferent to our struggles and we become apathetic to our own pain. We learn not to value who we are. We learn to ignore our pain. We learn to live with internalized homophobia.

I was very much stuck in that chasm for years. I did not value who I was, so I did not demand the respect that I deserved. In addition, I did not acknowledge my own pain. When my partner and I found each other, and decided to make a life-long commitment, there was no celebration with family and friends. No community blessing and no welcome to the family. Being ignored and ostracized in this way hurt, and deep down I believed that I deserved the treatment. This was my internalized homophobia.

Ignoring my pain, and not expecting our relationship to be honored by family and society only served to damage my relationship with my partner. Recently my partner and I have started working to repair the damage caused by internalized homophobia. To do this, we both had to understand how anti-gay attitudes hurt us and how internalized homophobia hurts our relationship. The work is difficult. We have to trust our wisdom and respect the wisdom of the other. Most important, though, we both have to come out of our fear. We have to release the fear of being alone. Stop being afraid of offending those who could care less about our happiness.

Coming out meant losing the longing. Coming to life means losing my fear.

What About Gay Rights?

2008-12-24T03:18:00.001-06:00

Interpretations of why Prop 8 and other proposals like them passed this year range from 'people of color' banded against gays to free flowing money from right-wing churches bought success. Blame is plentiful and as free flowing as money was from both sides of the proposition before the election. Prop 8 passed in, of all places, California. The gay rights community is now left to answer questions like why? Why did the proposition pass? How? How could such a defeat happen at a time when the country also elected its first African/American president?

The passing of Prop 8 reveals the ongoing challenges of racism and misogyny that the gay community faces. The passing of Prop 8 represents failure and these failures have to be recognized, addressed, and corrected before we will ever obtain equality in America.

We failed to make the moral case for why it is important for society to honor our committed relationships. Instead, we made the mistake of accepting the perception of our opposition and then building an answer in response. This means that we fought a losing battle of change. We tried to change the beliefs of another and lost. In so doing we lost sight of the fact that Americans have the right to believe what they want as long as their beliefs do not infringe on another person's rights. The real tragedy behind the passing of Prop 8 is that there is another crack in Thomas Jefferson's wall of separation.

We failed to communicate the ethical reasons why our life-long partners should have equal protection and equal privilege. Instead, we made the mistake of engaging the theological battle over whether or not marriage was meant to exist between two men or two women. This means that we fought another losing battle of change. We tried to change people's understanding of their religious dogma. In so doing, we lost sight of the fact that Americans can accept whatever religious dogma they choose as long as their dogma is not forced on the rest of us.

Marriage is both secular and religious. Secular marriage between same gender couples means that we will have the same legal protections and privileges as opposite gender couples. No religious group will be forced to perform a ceremony that contradicts their dogma. The real tragedy behind the passing of Prop 8 is that a particular religious dogma has been voted into law.

We failed to recognize our limitations and work to eliminate them. A major limitation that may be painful for white gay males to recognize is that they are often experienced by Blacks and Latino/as regardless of gender and orientation as self centered and less invested in addressing the oppression of people they see as others.

The world in which white gay men usually travel has virtually no external pressure to expand their world-view so that it includes people they see as different. Unlike women and people of color who are forced to understand and navigate the world of our oppressors, white gay men can decide when and if they see and address the oppression of others. In addition, they can decide when and if they acknowledge the times they benefit from an oppressive society.

We failed to see each other as equal partners and chose to treat each other as enemies. The legacies of racism and misogyny in the gay community have caused a great deal of damage in the past. That damage needs to be heard and reconciled. Through the years and today, gays have banded together and consistently used Black and Latino/a leaders only long enough to co-opt our ideas, passion, and work.

Just as many years, we have thrown down gauntlet after gauntlet demanding that racism be addressed and brought to an end in gay America. These gauntlets have yet to be picked up. Over the years and today, the leadership of women who love women have been consistently resisted or negated. We have been seen and treated as a means to promote or attain the agenda of white gay men. We have thrown our gauntlets down at the feet of gay America in our calls for recognition and equality within. Our gauntlets have yet to be picked up.

In Matthew 7:6, we are cautioned not give dogs what is sacred and not to throw our pearls to swine. We have decisions to make if we are going to change the direction our country appears to be heading in relation to gay rights. Do we grow up as a people, own our mistakes, and work together to correct them? Or, do we continue to take to the street and in so doing validate the likes of Fred Phelps with our sacred energy, attention, and presence? Do we listen to the ways we have excluded and colonized one another? Do we accept the effects of our actions? Or, do we continue to waste our pearls of intellect, vision, and passion on those whose hearts can only be changed by God?

Perhaps if we see that we have been giving dogs what is sacred all while the sacred among us have been ignored or silenced, we will stop picking up gauntlets thrown by the Fred Phelps of the world. Perhaps if we stop throwing our pearls to swine when the pearls among us continue to leave the community, we will find more honest ways to make our case for equality to the rest of America.

Reverend Deborah Elandus Lake, M.Div.

The Problem Is…

2008-06-21T07:50:00.000-05:00

Laura Washington’s Chicago Sun Times article on May 19, 2008 and Amy Wooten’s May 28th follow-up article in the Windy City Times have sparked new energy in an ongoing debate between the business owners and residents of Chicago’s Lakeview Boystown neighborhood, and some adult Black LGBTQ self-identified youth advocates. The debate, often heated, passionate, and littered with accusations of racism, is over how to handle the teens who come to the gay focused Boystown from the south and west sides of Chicago.

During the community forums that I have attended over the years, I heard several concerns. Business owners said they worried that the teens interfered with the coming and going of their patrons. Residents said they were frustrated because the teens were noisy and disrupted the peace by congregating on street corners and rough housing well into the early morning hours. Some youth advocates said they felt attacked because Black and Latino teens were being targeted due to racism. These continued debates and strong feelings happen in the context of taboo and blame. There are issues that we do not explore and some of us use accusations to silence and bully people.

One of our biggest taboos is the fact that many LGBTQ teens from the south and west sides of Chicago come to Boystown because they are not safe in their homes and neighborhoods. Indeed, some LGBTQ teens are homeless because their parents threw them out. The youth advocates who say Black and Latino LGBTQ teens are not welcome in Boystown because of racism may very well be correct, but the teens are not welcome in their homes, churches, schools, and neighborhoods because of homophobia either.

In his April 2007 entry for the Chronicle of Higher Education’s ‘News Blog’ Lawrence Biemiller describes the overt homophobia in historically Black colleges that often goes unchallenged. He reports that there are a disproportionately small number of gay student organizations in historically Black colleges due in part to the unwillingness of faculty members to serve as advisers. In addition, since 2004, students at the historically Black Hampton University tried unsuccessfully to get a gay/straight alliance approved by the administration according to Elizabeth A. Perry in her February 2007 article for the Washington Blade.

Black LGBTQ same gender loving people many times see exposing homophobia within their communities as taboo. This means that while White young people often find college to be a safe place to explore their sexuality, Black and Latino who attend historically Black colleges have the opposite experience with scarce support from the adult Black LGBTQ community. Consequently, they are left to navigate hostile social, religious, and educational settings without having space to even name the hostility. They are left to mend from painful experiences without having consistent guidance in how to develop affirming relationships as LGBTQ people. As a result, young Black and Latino LGBTQ people sometimes come to believe that they belong on the fringe of society, and build their lives on that belief.

The National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. in New York released their 2004 abstract of a study by Gwadz MV, Clatts MC, Leonard NR, & Goldsamt L that identified what they called fearful attachment style (one's core beliefs regarding the self and others) in young men who have sex with men (MSM). They connect the fearful attachment style to the increased potential that young MSM will leave the protective systems of family, school, and work and decide to remain and function in risky communities where they are less likely to encounter ‘pro-social peers’ and adults. The writers of this study concluded that young MSM who develop this fearful attachment style are more likely to have been homeless, to have participated in sex work, to use substances daily, to have been involved in the criminal justice system, and to be out of school/work.

This means that young LGBTQ people who ‘come out’ and are consequently abandoned by their families and communities are at greater risk for developing the fearful attachment style and believing that the world is an unsafe place. They are at greater risk for not seeing family, school, church, neighborhood, and work as sources of protection and safety. They are at greater risk for seeing no alternative to joining fringe communities, and they are less likely to develop positive relationships with peers, loved ones, and safe adults. The challenge for the wider adult LGBTQ community as Black and Latino LGBTQ teens emerge toward adulthood is to help them develop identities that are proudly Black and Latino, confidently LGBTQ, and solidly part of mainstream society. Our challenge is to help teens make decisions that will result in them being prepared to enter society as successful doctors, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs, parents, ministers, politicians…

As Black and Latino/a LGBTQ adults, we have a choice to make. We can get distracted, yet another summer, by claims of White racism as warm weather and excitement draws teens to Boystown’s nightlife area. Or we can do something different as a community. We can teach with our actions that being LGBTQ means more than turfs, clicks, race, gender, sex, and political affiliation. Being LGBTQ also means doing the difficult work of forming honest relationships with family, friends, peers, colleagues, and yes, perceived enemies. We can spend yet another summer describing why racism is the problem. Or we can show with our actions that a problem is no more than a means to bring people together.

As White LGBTQ adults, we have a choice to make. We can become bogged down, yet another summer, with justifying our need to feel safe and get a good night’s sleep. Or we can do something different as a community. We can teach with our actions that being LGBTQ means more than turfs, clicks, race, gender, sex, and political affiliation. Being LGBTQ also means that we use the resources we have to help create equality, freedom, and safety for everyone. We can spend yet another summer describing why crowds of noisy, strong, boisterous young people are the problem. Or we can show with our actions that a problem is no more than a means to have honest conversation about our needs.

Yes, we have choices to make. We can continue to honor taboos, look for blame, act out of guilt, and treat one another with suspicion. We can continue to see each other as ‘those’ people, and continue to argue about who has the right to make change happen. We can continue the fight about change all while another year passes and the only change we see is in the faces of the people arguing. Another year passes and the only change that happens is more young people are lost to HIV, addiction, or abuse.

Or we can take the opportunity this summer brings to think and talk about what we owe to the future. We can think about the wisdom we have gained through our mistakes and our successes. We can talk about the guidance we could give a young 15 year old, for instance, who is thinking about telling his mother that he’s gay. We can think about the ways we could help him explore some of the effects of coming out before he has to live with the choice he makes. We can talk about how to parent the young people who are already homeless.

Having raised three biological daughters from infancy to adulthood, I know how difficult adolescence can be for both the parent and the child. There are times when, as parents, we need to step back and watch as our children flap their wings in the nest, and there are times when we need to step up and say: this is not the time to fly. There are times when we should heed to what young people want, and there are times when we have to say: this is the time to heed to what I know. As adults, we do this so that our adolescents are protected and free. They are protected from themselves and the predators of the world. They are free to explore and grow into the adults they are meant to be. This is a difficult task, but one that is crucial. Without adults who are willing to be the ‘bad guy’ and say no when it’s easier to say ‘yes’ young people are lost. When the young become lost, we lose the future.

The problem is not race, although race is part of the picture. The problem is not age, although age is part of the picture. The problem is not grandstanding, although grandstanding is part of the picture. The problem is us. The problem is our community has become stuck in ancient battles, old ways, and irrelevant rhetoric. The problem is we are silent in the face of people who prey on the innocent and hide in the chaos. The problem is me. The problem is you.

This means that the solution must be us.

Race, Religion, and Politics in the 21st Century

2008-05-13T10:20:00.000-05:00

During the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., we remember the ongoing struggle to end race based oppression in America. In our communities and our religious institutions we celebrate King’s life, mourn his death, and we vow to continue the struggle. Meanwhile, Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s comments, and our reactions to them, are part of the backdrop.

Let us examine Wright’s comments and our reactions to them with more than a simplified black/white understanding. As we remember the change brought about through the civil rights movement, let us look at the position of the Black church in the lives of many today with more than a bottom line good/evil lens. We can use this time of social unrest and political disagreement to develop broader understandings of what it means to be American, what it means to be oppressed, and what it means to hold ourselves, our government, and our institutions accountable.

The unapologetic, racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-American comments of Wright opens a window to American history that many hoped had been closed through the work and sacrifices of activists over the decades. In addition, our reactions to these comments reveal how we tend to look for simplified explanations for the complex challenges that we face today.

Wright is a human being with a set of life experiences and a journey of personal choices. We react to his comments as if he is either a demon against all that is civilized or a deliverer from all that is unjust. Neither is absolutely true, and therein lies the conflict we face. In our assessment of Wright, some of us choose only to see the fact that he led a prosperous congregation that became a positive force in the lives of many. Others of us choose only to see that he has used the pulpit to make racist, intolerant, and unpatriotic comments.

King too, was human with his own set of life experiences and personal choices. We tend only to remember King the prophet who spoke against injustice. We often forget that sometimes King’s actions contradicted his words. While he spoke so eloquently for the end of oppression, he battled with, and ultimately succumbed to, his personal homophobia throughout his relationship with Bayard Rustin. We want to remember King the visionary who lost his life in the fight to end racism. All the while we seem to forget that he did not address the fact that women in the movement were only treated as valuable when they served the agenda of men.

Today, we credit the Black church with starting and fueling the civil rights movement. We forget that many churches would not support King and he was not welcome in many pulpits. What many of us choose to remember and what actually happened during the civil rights movement reveals a dual image of history, the Black church, and the struggle for equality. That duality continues today.

Now, because of Wright’s comments and reactions to them, the perception that the Black church follows two versions of Christianity is becoming prominent. One Christianity is expressed behind closed doors when Black preachers and their congregations express anti-American rhetoric, blame the government for the spread of disease in their communities, and accuse Jewish people of fueling the tensions in the Middle East. The other Christianity is presented to the public when Black preachers and their congregations try to address the spread of HIV in their communities, work to help incarcerated men and women have a successful reentry into society, and attempt to ease illiteracy in Black communities.

This duality extends beyond the church and into the politics of today. Some of us are so anxious to believe that racism no longer exists in America that we will almost blindly support Barack Obama’s bid for the presidential candidacy because he is Black. We ignore the times when he talks around direct questions by raising important issues that affect the quality of our lives. We heave a heavy sigh of relief when we hear him speak about the importance of having conversations about race in this country, and our hopes are raised.

Others of us are so eager to maintain or obtain power and control that we resort to images and attitudes that call to mind the America when slavery was a God-given right, rather than a man-made abomination, Jim Crow was the law of the land rather than the will of the racist, anti-Semitism was the litmus test for all Christian rather than just one more expression of hate, and lynching was a means to maintain control, rather than violent, hate-based murder. The result: our country is divided, yet again, between Black and White. This division comes at a time when most Americans can claim a blend of racial heritages and ethnicities.

We face the most important decision of our generation. We need to decide as individuals and as a country whether we will continue to see color, gender, sexual orientation, and religion when we look at one another, or if we will finally move beyond what has divided us and be an example so that the next generation of Americans will not have to make choices based on imposed social, religious, and physical categories.

It is my hope, as it has been for decades, that we will be able to become free from the shackles of the racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual orientation categories that have served so well to separate all of humanity. We are slaves to our categories of Black, White, Christian, Moslem, Jew… and because of this, our oppressions continue. We all must stop looking for ‘self’ in categories, and start seeing ‘us’ in humanity. We can take this time when half of America is shocked by Wright’s comments and half is relieved to hear them aired, to learn how to see beyond the many categories that we claim and see our common experiences. We can take this time when half of America does not understand how a pastor could speak such language from the pulpit, and half understands completely, to see that oppression touches us all.

Langston Hughes eloquently describes our potential for connection in this excerpt from his poem, Let America be America Again:

“I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—and finding only the same old stupid plan of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, tangled in that ancient endless chain of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed! I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today—O Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, the poorest worker bartered through the years.”

Until we recognize that we are human, and we have common human experiences, we will never find the unity, peace, and prosperity that we all crave. Until we stop looking for our ‘savior’ the ‘next Martin Luther King’ the iconic ‘leader for change’ and start understanding that each one of us has a choice to make and our choice will determine the direction of our country, we will always find that our next ‘new hope’ is yet another disappointment.

One choice is to continue to magnify the base, degrading, and insulting attitudes of those who are blinded by their hatred by replicating or justifying them. Another choice is to diminish these attitudes by rejecting them, and magnifying the words and actions of those who truly see beyond our divisions. We can follow those who capitalize on the categories that divide us, or we can empower those who envision an America that is indivisible and with justice for all. We can throw down our shackles of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and religious affiliation and begin to create true change as we connect with one another through our common human experiences.

Stand for World-wide Justice

2008-04-10T22:56:00.000-05:00

The increase in the violence and intimidation of gays and lesbians in many African countries reminds me of the terrible brutality committed against Fanny Ann Eddy in Sierra Leone. Eddy was an out lesbian and an activist in her country for gay and lesbian civil rights. In 2002, she founded the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association.

In 2004, she spoke at the UN’s 60th session on human rights, and gave testimony to the dangers lesbian and gay Africans faced. Later that same year, she was beaten, raped and killed while she was working late in her office. She was targeted because she stood against homophobia.

The Human Rights Watch said Eddy was, “a person of extraordinary bravery and integrity, who literally put her life on the line for human rights.”

Let us all take the example left by Eddy and Stand together against homophobia, misogyny, and oppression regardless of the danger we face. Let us speak out against the corporate sponsorship of hate. Let us not be silent in the face of the religious justification for oppressing lgbt people.

Division and silence are the food of bigots. Power comes with unity.

Morality and Our Politicians

2008-04-10T22:55:00.000-05:00

Washington Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey, accused of running a $2 million prostitution ring, said that Louisiana Senator David Vitter, outspoken politician against gay rights, paid her for sex. Surprised? Male prostitute Mike Jones revealed that Ted Haggard, then prominent preacher against gay rights, paid him for sex. Shocked? Venus Magazine publisher, Charlene E. Cothran declared she was saved from a lesbian lifestyle that she called the gates of hell. Astonished?

If the answers are no, then you recognize moral dishonesty in many leaders. Even more, you recognize moral dishonesty in our country. While America claims to embrace a God-fearing, pro-life morality, the number of women, children, and men killed by violence and abuse rise, one of two marriages ends in divorce, new HIV infections rise, crime, drug abuse, homelessness all rise, political corruption rises, and a prominent religious institution agrees to pay $660 million to the victims of its predatory priests. These are a few of the reasons why we are not surprised when moral dishonesty and shame in leadership are exposed. Why, in a country where freedom is fiercely protected, are so many of us dishonest, ashamed, or afraid?

In Genesis 2:9 of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, we read that the Garden of Eden had a tree of life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam and Eve that taking food from the tree of knowledge meant death (2:16). Adam and Eve chose to take from this tree (3:6), and immediately became ashamed (3:8) and afraid (3:10b). Today, we face a similar choice. We can choose to take from either the tree of life or the tree of knowledge. The facts that we, like Vitter, Haggard, and Cothran, either live morally dishonest lives, are ashamed of who we are, or afraid to confront homophobia illustrate that we still choose to take from the tree of knowledge.

What would happen if we drew from the tree of life instead? Having the tree of life as a source would mean that we focus on the universal needs that connect us rather than the special interests that divide us. We would address problems based on the understanding that everyone needs to be safe and is concerned for the wellbeing of their loved ones. Choosing the tree of life would mean that we look for the gifts in each individual and include those gifts in the work of deconstructing what divides us.

Just as Adam and Eve, the choice is ours. We can find more ways to dominate, hurt and abandon one another. We can further weaken our societies by developing more division. We can keep taking from the tree of knowledge. At the same time, we can overcome oppression, heal hurt, and create authentic inclusion. We can become strong in our unity, and strengthen our communities using life-promoting assumptions. We can choose to take from the tree of life and begin to live morally honest lives free from fear and shame.

Why I Support Hillary Clinton

2008-04-10T22:52:00.000-05:00

Senator Clinton has consistently demonstrated her commitment to justice and equality for everyone with her words and actions, and that is why I voted for her in the IL primary and will vote for her when she wins the nomination.

I can give two specific examples of how clear Senator Clinton is when it comes to justice and equality for everyone.

First, during her appearance on the Tyra Banks show, Senator Clinton said, with the conviction that I have not heard from any other politician, that when she is president, she will use all her power to ensure that lgbt couples and their families have the same legal protections as straight.

Second, while I attended the annual gala for Equality Illinois this month, both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton sent written statements to the lgbt community. Equality Illinois has a long and successful history of working to ensure that the rights of lgbt people are recognized and protected under Illinois law.

The statement sent by Obama can be summarized this way: you are working for your rights, good for you. You are demanding that you have equality under the law, and you deserve this. I think that it’s a good thing that you are celebrating your accomplishments.

The statement sent by Clinton can be summarized this way: I am with you, and support your work for equality. When I am president, I will rescind the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy which is wrong. When I am president, I will ensure that you and your families have the protection that all Americans have a right to expect and have.

Obama is full when it comes to rhetoric, sermons, and empty phrases that most people would not oppose. He is empty when it comes to action and taking a real stand for justice and equality for all.

Clinton may not be able to preach, but I really don’t want a preacher in the White House. I have seen her take on unpopular positions solely because it is the right thing to do. Instead of using lovely and inspiring descriptions of justice, she uses her position, clout, and influence to work to establish justice. That is the president I will claim as a private citizen of the United States of America.

The Importance of Communication

2008-02-27T14:57:00.003-06:00

The following video is an example of the fact that we all need to find ways to talk about difficult topics.

Freeing Yourself From the Homophobic Lifestyle

2007-11-18T19:17:00.000-06:00

If you are sure that your preacher has the mainline to God, then submit to his directions on how you should treat your neighbor.

If you know that your preacher and God have special visits, then follow every example his actions show you.

If you believe that your preacher knows what God wants, then surrender when he tells you that women are only meant to be helpmeets.

If you have faith that your preacher represents God on earth, then yield when he tells you that LGBT, same-gender-loving people are condemned to hell.

If you accept the tradition that the Holy Spirit speaks through your preacher, then harden when he tells you to hate.

On the other hand, if your soul longs for a way to heal hurt caused by rejection, then understand that God stops pain through you. If you your mind questions why sexuality is a painful issue, then know that God shows love through you. If your heart doubts that LGBT, same-gender-loving people are no more perverted than anyone else, then remember that God speaks truth through you.

Some members of Black lesbian communities were distressed by the actions of Charlene E. Cothran, Venus Magazine Publisher, when she declared she was no longer lesbian. Cothran betrayed gays when she vilified us with her words. In her writing, which she now claims is for Black lesbians and gays who are … searching for a way out, Cothran connects lesbian and gay relationships with standing at the gates of hell. She writes that as a believer of the word of God she fully accept and have always known that same-sex relationships are not what God intended for us. Cothran’s experience, actions, words, and decisions illustrate the quagmire many Black LGBT, same-gender-loving people face: I had been struggling with trying to reckon my spiritual upbringing with my lesbian lifestyle. Black preachers continually perpetuate the perception that a person cannot be Black, LGBT, same-gender-loving and Christian at the same time. These preachers emphasize the fact that domestic violence, child abuse, alcohol/drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, HIV/AIDS, STD’s and suicide are all present within our communities as evidence for their condemnation of us.

They do this all while they ignore the fact that heterosexuals are more likely to sexually abuse children. Alcoholism, promiscuity, and domestic violence are prevalent among heterosexuals, and HIV/AIDS is spreading most rapidly among black heterosexual women, youth, and men. Meanwhile, Black LGBT, same-gender-loving people who value belonging to a traditionally Black religious institution, feel violated, vilified, and threatened into silence about their sexuality.

Unfortunately, Cothran followed this same tactic when she connected the violent murder of her friend Venus Landin who died at the hands of her lesbian partner to her own salvation from the lesbian lifestyle. It is time for us to stop being scapegoats for all of the issues that threaten our society. It is time for us to learn how to be our own role models.

A Response to Homophobia

2007-11-18T19:14:00.000-06:00

To find real change, and to create real equality, we must first understand how the teachings of Jesus Christ have been misquoted, misused, and misunderstood. This is why people who are homophobic need to skip over Jesus and either quote the Hebrew Bible or the apostles when they want to justify their bigotry.

Tree of Life or Knowledge?

2007-11-18T13:57:00.000-06:00

Redeemed! Or Rebuked?

2007-02-05T14:15:00.000-06:00

Are you sure that following your preacher will save your soul?

Does what your heart tell you contradict what your preacher says to believe?

If you are sure that your preacher has the mainline to God, then submit when he tells you to shun your neighbor. If you believe that your preacher knows what God wants, then surrender when he says women are helpmeets. If you know that your preacher represents God, then applaud when he condemns lgbt, same-gender-loving people. If you accept that your preacher speaks with the Spirit, then harden when he tells you to hate.

Conversely, if your soul longs to heal hurt caused by bigotry, then understand that God ends oppression with you. If your mind questions why sexuality is so painful, then know that God’s love shines through you. If your heart doubts that lgbt, same-gender-loving people are especially perverted, then remember that God’s truth lives in you.

Charlene E. Cothran, Venus Magazine Publisher disappointed Black lesbians when she started a campaign that included betrayal and vilification. Cothran betrayed many lesbians who saw her as their role model when she announced that she was out of the closet and saved from the lesbian lifestyle. From betrayal, Cothran went on to vilify.

In her article “Redeemed! 10 Ways to Get Out of the Gay Life, If You Want Out” she claims to write for Black lesbians and gays who are … searching for a way out. Cothran connects lgbt, same-gender-loving relationships with standing at the gates of hell, and writes that as a believer of the word of God I fully accept and have always known that same-sex relationships are not what God intended for us.

Cothran’s betrayal and vilification are products of the quagmire in which many Black lgbt, same-gender-loving people live. Her words are a poignant illustration: I had been struggling with trying to reckon my spiritual upbringing with my lesbian lifestyle.

Black preachers perpetuate the perception that to be Black, lgbt, same-gender-loving, and Christian means you are condemned to hell. These preachers emphasize the fact that domestic violence, child abuse, alcohol/drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, HIV/AIDS, STD’s and suicide are all present within our communities as justification for their condemnation.

They justify condemning us all while they ignore the fact that statistics show heterosexuals are more likely to sexually abuse children. Alcoholism, promiscuity, and domestic violence are prevalent among heterosexuals, and HIV/AIDS is spreading most rapidly among black heterosexual women, youth, and men.

Meanwhile, Black lgbt, same-gender-loving people who value belonging to a traditionally Black religious institution, feel violated, demonized, and threatened into silence about their love. Unfortunately, Cothran’s way out of her quagmire was to follow the example of the preachers; she connects the vilification of lesbians and gays to her personal salvation from sin.

Maybe it is not God speaking through preachers, but preachers talking in their confusion.

Maybe it is not God directing Cothran’s actions, but Cothran acting out of her pain.

Maybe it is time for us to rebuke those who vilify lgbt, same-gender-loving people because of their own loneliness, shame, and spiritual distress.

Maybe we should listen when God speaks through Jesus and says that it is our faith that saves us (Lk. 8:48). God speaks through Jesus and says to bear witness to God’s work in our lives (Lk. 8:39).

Maybe we should recognize that God speaks through us when we boldly share our stories of the love, respect, and honor we have for one another.

We Are America: Rev. Lake's speech in DC

2007-01-21T11:56:00.000-06:00

I’d like to start with a moment of silence in honor of Coretta Scott King, a woman who stood for gay rights and the rights of all people.

Thank God for our ancestors. Thank God for the people who come before us.

We're here. It's been a long journey. Road-blocks, set backs, accomplishments, but we're here. We are here standing for our right to free speech. We are here standing for our right to protest wars of aggression. We are standing up for those who support us, but who are no longer able to be with us for whatever reason. We are here, and we believe. We believe we can make a difference. We believe that together we can drive Bush and everything he represents out of our house.

On November 2nd in Chicago when I first spoke at a rally for World Can't Wait, I was struck by the people. I saw people in wheel chairs, and people in strollers. I saw people carrying oxygen tanks, and people carrying school books. I saw people representing all colors and backgrounds. And we were here for one thing: to demand that our country stop being defiled by President Bush and all who keep him in power.

Over the weeks of the hard work, and exhausting trips, and endless meetings, and all the things that we had to do to bring us to this point, I came to know our movement inside out. I came to know the people connected with our movement. Everyday people. Courageous people. People who were risking their personal safety to sustain our movement. People who made financial sacrifices to work toward making today a success. Often these people, my colleagues in dissent, opened their homes and their lives to me, a stranger.

They did this because they believe. They believe we can all have peace, and justice, and equality in this world. They believe in what America actually stands for. We believe in what America actually stands for. We believe.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in hate and homophobia. Just yesterday, there was a story in the news about an 18 year-old boy in Massachusetts who violated a gay bar and attacked three people with a gun and a hatchet. This is hate! This is homophobia! This is the kind of country the Religious Reich and their president stands for.

We believe in what America actually stands for. We believe in a better world, all while we know America is heading for disaster.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in misogyny and the oppression of women. They are working to add an amendment to our Constitution that will impose their version of family and marriage on the rest of us. They claim that civil marriage is a tradition that should be protected.

Their marriage is a tradition. It is a tradition based on misogyny. It is a tradition that comes from the time in history when men legally claimed women and children as property.

Biblical marriage is the same. It comes from the religious traditions by which men gave themselves the divine authority to claim women and children as property. This is the kind of tradition the Religious Reich and its president wants to change our Constitution to uphold.

We believe in what America actually stands for. We believe we can change, all while we know that everything is stacked against that change.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in aggression and war. They use the ‘T’ word to justify taking away our right to free speech, our right to disagree, and our right to assemble. When we come together to express our dissent, we face being herded into pens. We face being accosted by the police because we have the nerve to hand out fliers. This is the kind of country the Religious Reich represents.

We represent America. We represent America. We believe that oppression can be brought to an end, even as we see evidence of oppression all around us.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in racism and religious intolerance. We all know about Katrina and how the neglect of poor and black areas brought about the death and suffering of thousands of people. But how many of us know about our Muslims brothers and sisters who have been arrested or deported solely because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs. This is racism! This is religious intolerance. This is what the Religious Reich and its president stands for.

We believe in what America stands for. We believe what America stands for. It is up to us to stop the Religious Reich and its president from dictating what we should believe. It is up to us to stop them from changing our Constitution so that it supports their hateful brand of religiosity.

It is up to us to stop racism.

It is up to us to effectively address misogyny.

It is up to us to stop torture.

Stop intimidation.

Stop the spying.

Stop the lying.

Stop the aspiring theocrat.

Stop the pollution of our planet.

Stop the war.

Stop the inequality in health care.

Stop the decline of our educational system.

Stop the disrespect of our elders.

It is up to us stop the verbal and physical violation of our women and our girls.

It is up to us stop the debasement and contamination of our men and our boys.

It is up to us to stop the decay of our government.

It is up to us to work for prison reform.

It is up to us to stop the fanatics from imposing ‘abstinence only’ as the answer to HIV and AIDS.

It is up to us, the believers, to stop Bush and all those who keep him in power through their silence, inaction, and back-room collaborations.

I have a message for Bush. Bush, we believe in America. We believe in what America stands for. We hold the moral high ground.

We demand that you leave.

We demand that you step down.

We demand that you take your program of hate, your program of misogyny, homophobia, religious oppression, aggression, destruction, exploitation, your program racism, and neglect with you.

Copyright 2006, Reverend Deborah Elandus Lake

Know the Company You Keep

2006-11-08T17:52:00.000-06:00

Are you in favor of the marriage amendment? Do you think homosexuality is a sin against God? If your answer is “yes” read a sample of quotes from the company you keep.

Gregory Daniels, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Illinois.
If the KKK opposes gay marriage, I would ride with them.

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) hates. Some Black preachers are joining with racists in their efforts to spread the homophobic lifestyle in our communities. They are taking all who follow them into dangerous spiritual territory. In their territory, good is subject to and controlled by evil.

Paul S. Morton, Full Gospel Baptist Church in Georgia.
We are talking about hate crimes now and calling it hate.
Years ago we used to call it good morals, but now it's called hate.

Donald Bockman and Darren Gay, both University of Texas students, were found guilty of repeatedly kicking, punching, whipping with a vacuum cleaner cord, stripping, and sexually assaulting their victim in his home because he was gay. Michael Sandy, a young man in New York, died from injuries obtained while he was beaten because he was gay. Fanny Eddy, an outspoken advocate for lesbian and gay civil rights in her country of Sierra Leone, was beaten, raped, and killed because she was lesbian. These are just a sample of those who have been terrorized and murdered by people who believed their ‘good morals’ justified their actions.

DMX Rapper/Songwriter: from the song Where the Hood At?
Last I heard, y'all niggaz was havin sex, with the same sex.
I show no love, to homo thugs. Empty out, reload, and throw more slugs.

When Black preachers verbally attack our souls from the pulpit, and Black songwriters verbally attack our minds from the stage, they are helping to create a climate of terror that makes it easy to physically attack our bodies in the street. They are taking all who follow them, all who listen to them into dangerous spiritual territory. In their territory, good is subject to and controlled by evil.

Know the Company You Keep

On Monday, November 13 starting at 6:30pm, we will have an open community discussion about how our attitudes about sexuality affect the quality of our lives and the value we place on our relationships with one another. Join in the conversation. All are welcome!

Chicago: Monday, November 13 (6:30 to 10:00pm)
75 East Wacker Drive—Bella Bacino’s (located in Club
Quarters Hotel. Between Michigan & Wabash. Near the
Michigan Avenue bridge).

Donations accepted: www.sankofaway.org

© 2006 Sankofa Way Spiritual Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Black Intolerance: Homophobia

2006-11-07T23:24:00.000-06:00

Black homophobic pastors normalize intolerance in black communities. Black homophobic pastors standardize bigotry in black communities. Black homophobic pastors sanctify hate in the name of religion. These pastors are misogynists. They live the homophobic lifestyle, a lifestyle that brings with it the spread of hate, pain, and oppression.

Children are polluted with words of bigotry and hate. Often they hear these negative words come out of religious institutions.

Men, even men who have sex with other men, are pressured by white zealots and their black preachers to join in the hatred of lesbians, gays, and women. Often the pressure is strongest and most organized within religious institutions.

Women are bullied by men to hate themselves and each other or risk being ostracized as lesbians. Often the most powerful bullies represent religious institutions.

Meanwhile, our children come out of schools unable to read. Our old people wonder how they will pay for food and medication. Our families are headed mostly by single women and they scrape to get by. Our neighborhoods are striped of their historical value in the name of gentrification.

Maybe we should start to be tolerant of each other and intolerant of threats to our harmony, equality, and safety. With this as our commitment, we could actually start following the teachings of Jesus when he tells us that unless we become like children, we will be denied the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:2-4).

Perhaps we should stop following those who spread ignorance and misinformation about the ‘gay lifestyle’ all while they pollute children and destroy families through their homophobic lifestyles. With this as our commitment, we could finally hear Jesus when he tells us that those who pollute children should be ‘drowned in the depths of the sea’ (Matthew18:6-7).

Maybe we should stop waiting for the word to come down from a male dominated pulpit and start remembering that women were the first to know that Jesus had risen (Mark 16:4-6; John 20:1; Luke 24:1-8; Matthew 28:1-6 ). Women were the first to recognize Jesus as Savior (Mark 16:9; Matthew 28:9; John 20:16). Women were the first to preach the Word as Christians (Luke 24:10; John 20:17-18).

Black homophobic preachers stand against everything and everyone that Jesus died for.

These are unprecedented times and they call for unprecedented actions. Now is the time for black people and our allies to look for new leadership. Listen to different words.

On Monday, November 13th at 6:30pm our community will have an open conversation about the pain and disconnect caused by days of terror.

Chicago: Monday, November 13 (6:30 to 10:00pm)
75 East Wacker Drive—Bella Bacino’s (located in Club Quarters Hotel. Between Michigan & Wabash. Near the Michigan Avenue bridge).

Scaring the Hell Out of Teens

2006-11-05T16:16:00.000-06:00

Rev. Meeks, of Chicago’s Salem Baptist Church had “Nights of Terror” on Halloween when he “scared the hell out of teens.” Meeks causes days of terror every Sunday when he scares the hate into black people. Nights of Terror is how Meeks co-opts Halloween to proselytize. Days of terror are when Meeks co-opts Christianity to shun. Nights of Terror has a message that can be dismissed as silly ranting. Days of terror contain messages that cannot be ignored because they are echoed by our mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers.

Every Sunday Meeks is just one of many black preachers who use sermons to teach hate. In the name of praise, they demonized black lgbt people. In the name of Jesus, they justify oppressing black women. In the name of Christianity, they condemn all “others” to hell. Meanwhile, black people represent fifty-percent of the new infections of HIV in the U.S. Young people between thirteen and twenty-four have the highest risk for HIV infection. Alcohol abuse and illegal drug use destroy lives. Child abuse and neglect are unaddressed. Black people are dying and many black preachers bring fire and brimstone to the foot of our deathbeds. It is time for something different.

On Monday, November 13th at 6:30pm our community will have an open conversation about the pain and disconnect caused by days of terror.

Chicago: Monday, November 13 (6:30 to 10:00pm)
75 East Wacker Drive—Bella Bacino’s (located in Club Quarters Hotel. Between Michigan & Wabash. Near the Michigan Avenue bridge).

Donations accepted: www.sankofaway.org
Sankofa Way and St. Martin’s Episcopal Church are co-hosts for the evening. Visit http://www.sankofaway.org or call 773 793 5211 to find out more and reserve your seat.

Take Religion Out of Politics

2006-08-18T12:06:00.000-05:00

Whatever happened to ethics? We do not need to believe in a ‘higher power’ to figure out what is right and what is wrong. We do not need to ‘have faith’ to know what to do in response to something that is wrong. All we need to do is look and act. Look and see those of us who are homeless, poor, oppressed, and terrorized right here in our country. This is going on in the same country where others of us have more wealth, power, and safety than will ever be needed.

Is this right?

If the answer is ‘no’ then we have the moral responsibility to act. We must use the resources we have to change things. We have the moral responsibility to encourage and unite with other people who are also working to change things.

Whatever happened to examining how our actions impact others? We do not need to belong to a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple to do this. All we need to do is look and speak. Look and see what is going on in Iraq, for instance. We bombed and invaded this country under the banner of establishing freedom and ending terrorism. Now the people there have less freedom, less safety, and a new generation of ‘terrorist’ is being formed through our actions today. We need to speak up and ask: what does this act of aggression reveal about the values of our country? In addition, we are claiming to fight in Iraq to bring the people there freedom, democracy, and to stop terrorism all while people in Africa, South America, parts of Europe and Asia, the Caribbean… are, and have been, living with oppression, political corruption, and war. We need to ask: what does this say about who and what we value?

We need to remove references to religion, faith, God, Manifest Destiny, Yahweh, Allah… from political discussions. References to religion and faith are what brought our country to this point in history. The point where women are facing the threat of losing their right to personal freedom, gays are facing the threat of never obtaining first class citizenship, blacks are facing the threat of losing the battle to full equality. Faith, religion, dogma, and religious rhetoric all belong in our private lives.

Faith and religion are important to many of us, myself included. In a pluralistic country, though, religion cannot be the standard for civil action. The first question we have when we try using religion in this way is whose religion is the standard. In addition, when we include religious beliefs in the process of deciding what is right and what is wrong, we end in confusion, bickering, name calling, bullying, ostracizing, and shunning--sound familiar?

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

The Homophobes Are Out of the Closet!

2006-07-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

Not only have Bush and the Democrats who support him with their silence and limp opposition reduced our country to its lowest common denominator, this administration has provided space and permission for the homophobes to come out of their closets with a vengeance.

Not only have Bush and the Democrats who support him with their silence and limp opposition committed crimes against humanity, this administration has created a climate where the people we viewed as odd and small-minded before are now perceived as mainstream America.

Not only have bush and the Democrats who support him with their silence and limp opposition violated our right to privacy by spying on those who speak out against him, this administration has economically empowered what was once the fringe of our society through its faith-based initiative.

This has got to stop.

Across the world lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (lgbt) people are under attack. In Nigeria, along with other African countries, people are beaten and killed because they are lgbt. Governments, for the most part, do little to stop this violence. In Iraq, people are beaten and killed for being gay. While the U.S. continues to occupy a country based on lies, and while children, men, and women continue to be killed and hurt, and while millions of dollars are spent daily on acts of aggression, people are sought out, beaten, and killed because they are perceived to be lgbt.

In the U.S., people live with threats of violence daily because they are lgbt. Many of us have been killed. Men and women, boys and girls who do not conform to the female vs male gender code are at risk for insults, threats, and physical attacks regardless of whether they are actually lgbt. Often, young people become sexually active with the opposite sex prematurely because they are afraid that their friends will think they are gay.

The result: children, men, and women live in constant feat that they will be labeled as queer.

Recently, some black preachers and white racists have overtly attacked lgbt people. Black preachers and white racists have joined forces to spread their climate of hostility toward lgbt people. Bush is the ringleader in this unholy alliance. His whip is the faith-based initiative. His chair is acceptance into the ‘good ole boy’ community. Money and recognition are awarded to churches that support this administration’s anti politics: anti-female, anti-gay, anti-peace, anti-human rights. Preachers then use the pulpit to promote the anti agenda; this is the development of a theocracy in action.

Black preachers who trade black spirituality for monetary gain and political clout verbally attack us from pulpits all while they claim that their fight is to bring us salvation. Their claim to bring salvation makes it easier for people to ignore that verbal attacks pave the way for physical aggression. They are not unlike Bush who ordered our troops to invade, occupy, and kill the people of Iraq all while he claimed that his fight was to bring them freedom. Bush’s claim to fight for freedom makes it easier for people to ignore that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, our schools are failing our children, people are unemployed and/or homeless, and more and more of us have lost faith in the government.

This has got to stop.

We at Sankofa Way Spiritual Services Inc. are against anyone misusing religion to justify what laws should exist, which people should be protected, and which people should not be protected. We are for religious freedom which means that people should be free to believe or not believe whatever they want as long as they do not violate the rights and integrity or threaten the safety of another.

Sankofa Way, by sponsoring the formation and growth of Black LGBT & Allies For Equality, is taking a public Stand against this religiously based and politically supported violence. We are inviting people of all races and geographical locations to Stand with us by doing two things:

1. Add your name to our statement
2. Add your organization/institution or group to our growing list of supporters

Visit www.sankofaway.org and follow the rainbow flag link to Black LGBT & Allies For Equality. Read and sign “Your Statement” and unite for the human right of lgbt people and all people to be able to live free of violence and aggression.

The Homophobes Are Out of the Closet!

2006-07-06T12:35:00.000-05:00

Obama and Religion

2006-07-06T11:35:00.000-05:00

Here we go again. Yet another politician who is blurring issues by including religion and faith in discussions about civil laws, civil rights, and government values.

Whatever happened to ethics? We do not need a ‘higher power’ to tell us the difference between liberty and oppression. We do not need to ‘have faith’ to know what to do in response to behavior that causes destruction and chaos in the world. All we need to do is see and act. See those who are homeless, poor, oppressed, and terrorized with eyes of empathy rather than blame, disgust, or indifference. See that alongside the homeless, poor, and terrorized there are people who have more wealth, power, and safety than they will ever need in one lifetime. Is this right? Does this reflect a country that claims to offer liberty and justice for all? If our answer is ‘no’ then we have the moral responsibility to act. We must use the resources we have to change things, and encourage others to do the same.

Whatever happened to examining how our actions impact others? We do not need to belong to a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple to do this. All we need to do is see and speak. See what is going on in Iraq, for instance. We bombed and invaded this country under the banner of establishing freedom and ending terrorism. Now the people there have less freedom, less safety, and a new generation of ‘terrorist’ is being formed through our actions today. In addition, we claim our fight in Iraq is to bring the people there freedom and democracy all while people in Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean… are, and have been, living in oppression, political corruption, poverty, and war. We need to speak and be curious about what this ‘war’ reveals about the values of our country. In other words, speak and ask, what do our actions in Iraq say about who and what we value?

It is time to remove references to religion, faith, God, Manifest Destiny, Yahweh, Allah… from political discussions. References to religion and faith are what brought our country to this point in history. The point where women are facing the threat of losing their right to personal freedom, gays are facing the threat of never obtaining full citizenship, blacks are facing the threat of losing the battle to full equality. Faith, religion, dogma, and religious rhetoric, while very important to some of us, all belong in our private lives. In a pluralistic country, religion cannot be justification for civil decisions. The first battle we must fight when we misuse religion in this way is over whose religion will justify. When we include religion in the political process of deciding what is right and what is wrong, we end in confusion, bickering, name calling, bullying, ostracizing, shunning--familiar? Meanwhile, people continue to suffer and die.

Obama’s speech is just one more illustration of how little backbone, and even less imagination, and even less vision most Democrats and Republicans have when it comes to standing up and speaking out for liberty and justice for all.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

How Ethical Is This (given at the Michigan rally in May 2006)

2006-05-27T09:04:00.000-05:00

Good evening. I’d like to start by thanking certain people. Thank you, Gold Star Families For Peace for making it possible for all of us to be here.
Thank you, colleagues for being here and sharing your wisdom with us.
And thank you for coming here in solidarity. There is strength in numbers. Your presence strengthens this movement.

We live in times when we are bombarded with talk and isolated through action. Politicians talk about faith while their actions encourage Americans to fight against one another and to see each other as enemies. Politicians talk about God while their actions serve to make our country less than what it was in the past and less than what it can be in the future.

Religious zealots talk about belief, while their actions chip away at our rights to privacy. Religious zealots talk about sins against God while their actions support the denial of human rights for lesbians, gays, Muslims, non-Christians, women, and anyone they consider to be different or less than.

Talk and action.

We talk about what is right. And we act by coming together with those who agree with us. We talk about what is wrong. And we act by working against those who do not agree with us. We talk about ending wars of aggression. We act by demonstrating our disapproval.

There is a great deal of talk, a great deal of unrest, a great deal of confrontation in our country. But, in all the talk, in all the action, all the confrontations and demonstrations, how many times do we hear talk about ethics?

How many times do we talk about ethics?

How many times do we look at our actions the actions of others in the context of ethical standards?

Now, what do I mean by ethical standards?

What I don’t mean is religious belief.
That’s what has been confusing people in this country. Those who wish to oppress the most are the quickest to use religious belief as justification for their actions.

Religious belief and ethical standards are different and can progress independent of one another.

Webster says this:
Ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; a set of moral principles or values; a theory or system of moral values; the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group; professional ethics; a guiding philosophy.

Politicians aren’t talking about their ethical standards. They’re too busy telling us who has faith and who doesn’t. Religious zealots aren’t talking about their ethical standards. They’re too busy telling us what God wants and doesn’t want.

Yet the ethical standards of a person, a group, or even a country are present and working. Those standards are not revealed through talk, but we can see them in action.

I’d like to share a story with you. I’d like to tell you about a woman that I met while traveling and speaking throughout the country. This woman opened her home to me and made sure that I was comfortable. She lived in a one bedroom apartment, so she gave me her bed while she slept on the couch during my stay.

We talked while I was there, and I got to know her. She was a person with one of the kindest hearts that I have ever encountered. She was a person who seldom went to a church, temple or mosque. She didn’t believe in God, and did not think organized religion was good for humanity.

Yet she treated me, a stranger, with the respect and acceptance that I would expect from my family.

This woman’s actions tell us a lot about her ethical standards. She was a person who valued every human being, She respected herself and others.

She loved her neighbor as herself.

In her presence, I found myself asking questions like what do my actions reveal about my ethical standards?

What do our actions reveal about our ethical standards?

What do the actions and concerns of our leaders reveal about the ethical standards of our country?

To begin to answer these questions for myself, I had to do more than talk and act. I needed to question and think.

We need to question and think.

We need to ask questions like: how ethical is it that our country is fighting and killing people who are not a threat to us? We need to think about how we are experienced by the people who witness the killing.

We need to ask, how ethical is it that we have destroyed a country based on lies? We need to think about what lies we are being told right now by our leaders.

We need to ask, how ethical is it that our president allows our young men and women to become traumatized, dehumanized, and killed in his war of retaliation and aggression? We need to think about what this aggression is doing to our future.

We need to ask, how ethical is it that while our country spends millions of dollars every day this aggression continues, people are hungry, homeless, and are unable to obtain adequate medical care? We need to think about how we can work across boundaries to change this.

We need to ask, how ethical is it that with every new generation of Americans comes a higher percentage of High School drop outs? We need to think about why we have been relatively silent about this disturbing national trend.

We need to ask, how ethical is it that a new generation of women may not be able to control their own bodies because religious beliefs are negating our right to privacy? We need to think about how to separate religious beliefs from the right to privacy.

We need to ask, how ethical is it that lesbian and gay families are forced to live as second class citizens because religious bigots have overtaken our political process? We need to think about how we are being manipulated by homophobic, power hungry men and women whose goal is to oppress all who do not conform.

We need to ask, how ethical is it that we still look at one another and see racial categories while human beings suffer. We need to think about how we can stop seeing skin color and physical characteristics before we see people.

These are the kinds of questions we need to ask ourselves.
These are the questions that we need to demand that our leaders answer.
These are the kinds of things we need to think about.

I would like to leave you with a task tonight. I’m going to give you some homework. When you get home, I would like you to find a comfortable and quiet place to close your eyes and think. Think about a country where people are free to believe as they wish as long as those beliefs do not infringe on the rights and safety of others.

Think about a country where people of all colors are equal and have equal protection under the law.

Think about a country where women can take for granted that their right to privacy, their right to decide when to bring life into the world will be under their control only.

Think about that country. Envision your country. Hold in the images and feelings that come.

Then decide on one action you can take to help bring your country into reality. Join with people you think are different. Make their goals yours and ask them to help you with yours.

Because we will never stop the direction we are heading by splintering ourselves off into special interest groups. Today calls for us to ignore all that divided us in the past. Put aside our perceived differences. Find common ground, and work to save our world and the human race.

These are unprecedented times and they call for unprecedented responses.

Thank you,

Black Homophobia

2006-02-08T08:43:00.000-06:00

Often the call for church peachers to reform their ways and stop living a homophobic lifestyle falls on deaf ears. The fact that they fail to hear, though, does not mean that they have moral authority. In additon, the fact that they fail to refrain from living a homophobic lifestyle, does not mean that they have the divine right to encourage others to do the same.

In Exodus 6:3, God tells Moses: " But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you." The actions of homophobic preachers reveal that God has hardened their hearts. They do not hear when God speaks to them about the pain and destruction black homophobia causes in our communities. They do not hear when lesbian and gay members of their congregations express feelings of isolation. They do not hear when their members share how much it hurts to hear homophobia preached from the pulpit.

Not only has black preachers using church to spread homophobia helped the spread of HIV/AIDS in our communities, black preachers have opened the door for the Religious Reich to develop a political base in some black communities. They are determined to make religious oppression legal in America. The Religious Reich has co-opted the language of liberation and salvation theology and used them to distract attention from the fact that our civil rights are being chipped away by those who have political power. The result is black churches are impotent in effectively addressing the tragedy of Katrina, the decline of our educational system, poverty, unemployment, hunger, homelessness, the spread of HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, political corruption, pollution, war, prison reform...

Perhaps black preachers who live a homophobic lifestyle should spend less time claiming to know what God wants, and more time softening their hearts so that they can hear, and in the process be transformed.

Coretta Scott King's Funeral Held in Homophobic Church

2006-02-06T14:37:00.000-06:00

How ethical is it that Coretta Scott King's funeral will be held in a place where many of the homophobic, aspiring theocrats spread their hateful brand of religiosity every Sunday?

Mrs. King was a courageous woman who stood against the oppression of all people. She openly spoke out for 'gay rights' even when it publicly put her at odds with her daughter who is one of the Religious Reich's cohorts.

Let us all remember Coretta Scott King for the remarkable person that she was, and not let this last ditch effort on the part of the Religious Reich's cohorts damage her memory and defile the legacy of inclusion and dignity that she left us.

Bush Step Down And Take Your Program With You!

2006-02-06T13:33:00.000-06:00

Rev. Lake's speech as given at the Washington, DC national World Can't Wait demonstration on February 4, 2006.

Let us have a moment of silence in honor of the life and contributions of Coretta Scott King.

Thank God for our ancestors! Thank God for those who came before us!

We're here! It's been a long journey of road blocks, set backs, successes, meetings, and collaborations, but we're here. We are here standing up for our right to free speech. We are here standing up for our right to protest wars of aggression. We are here standing up for all those who support what we are doing, but are unable to be with us today. We are here, and we beieve. We believe we can make a difference. We believe that together we can drive Bush and everything he represents out of our house.

On November 2nd in Chicago when I first spoke at a World Can't Wait rally, I was struck by the people. I saw people in wheel chairs, and people in strollers. I saw people carrying oxygen tanks, and people carrying school books. I saw people representing all colors and backgrounds coming together with one thing in mind: We were determined to put an end to the way our country was being defiled. It was then that I knew I was part of a historical moment.

Over the weeks of the hard work, exhausting trips, and endless meetings that brought us to this point, I came to know our movement from the inside out. I came to know the people connected with our movement. Everyday people. Courageous people. People who were risking their personal safety to help sustain our movement. People who made financial sacrifices to work toward making today a success. I met people who have been working to end oppression and war most of their lives. Some had even passed the tradition of dissent on to the next generation in their families. Often these people, my colleagues in dissent, opened their homes and their lives to me, a stranger. They did this because they believe. They believe we can all have peace, justice, and equality in this world. They believe in what America actually stands for. We believe in what America actually stands for.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in hate and homophobia. Just yesterday, there was a story in the news about an 18 year-old boy in Massachusetts who violated a gay bar and attacked three people with a gun and a hatchet. This is hate! This is homophobia! This is the kind of country the Religous Reich and its president stands for.

We believe in what America stands for. We believe in a better world, all while we know America is heading for disaster.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in misogyny and the oppression of women. They are working to add an amemdment to our Constitution that will impose their version of family and marriage on the rest of us. They claim that civil marriage is a tradition that should be protected. Their marriage is a tradition. It is a tradition based on misogyny. Their marriage is a tradition that comes from the time in history when men legally claimed women and children as property. Biblical marriage is the same. It comes from the religious traditions by which men gave themselves the divine authority to claim women and children as property. This is the kind of tradition the Religious Reich and its president wants to change our Constitution to uphold.

We believe in what America stands for. We believe we can change, all while we know that everything is stacked against such change.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in aggression and war. They use the "T" word to justify taking away our right to free speech, our right to disagree, and our right to assemble. When we come together to express our dissent, we face being herded into pens by the police. We face being accosted by the authorities for having the nerve to hand out fliers. When we come together to express our dissent, we face being threatened with arrest for standing on public sidewalks. This is the kind of country the Religious Reich and its president represents.

We represent what America stand for. We believe that everyone has the right to voice an opinion without fear of reprisal. We believe that oppression can be brought to an end, even as we see evidence of oppression all around us.

The Religious Reich and its president would have us believe in racism and religious intolerance. We all know about Katrina and how the neglect of the poor and black areas brought about the death and suffering of thousands of people. How many of us know about the thousands of Arabs and Muslims who have been arrested or deported soley because of their ethnicity or religious beliefs. This is racism! This is religious intolerance! This is what the Religious Reich and its president stands for.

We believe in what America stands for. We believe that neither the color of your skin, your ethnicity, nor your religious affiliation should make you guilty by association. We believe in America. It is up to us to stop the Religious Reich and its president from dictating what we should believe. It is up to us to stop them from changing our Constitution so that it supports their hateful brand of religiosity.

It is up to us to stop racism.
It is up to us to effectively address misogyny.
It is up to us to stop toture.
Stop intimidation.
Stop the spying.
Stop the lying.
Stop the aspiring theocrat.
Stop the pollution of our planet.
Stop the war.
Stop inequality in health care.
Stop the decline of our educational institutions.

It is up to us to stop the disrespect of our elders.
Stop the verbal and physical violation of our women and our girls.
Stop the degradation and contamination of our men and our boys.
Stop the decay of our government.
It is up to us to work for prison reform.
It is up to us to stop fanatics from imposing abstinence as the only answer to the spread of HIV and AIDS.

It is up to us, the believers, to stop Bush and all those who keep him in power through their silence, inaction, and back-room collaborations.

Bush, we have a message for you! We believe in America. We believe in what America stands for. We hold the moral high ground. We damand that you leave! We damand that you step down. We demand that you take your program of hate, misogyny, homophobia, religious oppression, aggression, destruction, exploitation, racism, and neglect with you.

Because we can't wait any longer. We won't wait any longer. The world can't wait any longer.

Reich's Top Ten: Cloning Prohibition Act

2006-01-12T09:49:00.000-06:00

[The Cloning Prohibition Act is meant to protect human dignity by preventing the creation--through cloning--of living human beings. Human beings should not be reduced to commodities that can be bought or sold or used for research.]

The Religious Reich has mastered the tactic of cloaking. They cloak their oppressive agenda with statements and positions that are difficult for anyone to oppose. They do this all while they work to take away our rights and reduce us to a means by which... Their goal is to continue to use us as a product of trade. Their agenda includes changes in the legal, social, religious, medical, and educational institutions to validate the Reich's use of human strength, talent, ability, and faith as compensation for their lifestyle, goals, and privileges.

Human beings should not be reduced to commodities... is a statement with which all of us can agree. This is just one example of why the Religious Reich's agenda is difficult for many to identify and address effectively. Some of us feel caught in an unending war, battling to expose the Reich's agenda as wrong, evil, and detrimental to our country. Some of us are frustrated because, as we face the pending confirmation of Alito, the threat to women's reproductive freedom, and the overall state of our country today, we feel we are losing the war.

The Reich's success at agenda cloaking is why, for many of us, the installation of their agenda in our country seems inevitable. Those of us who feel this way, unfortunately, are resigned. We go about our days reluctant to read newspapers and hesitant to discuss political issues. We prepare to accept the way things appear they will be.

If we stop our efforts to reveal how evil the Reich's agenda is, if we come out of our resignation induced intellectual comas, and begin to examine their actions in particular areas, we can see a pattern. This pattern contradicts what the Reich claims to represent.

By fighting to free large corporations from government restrictions, the Reich reveals its true agenda to reduce some humans (workers) to commodities by which the rich obtain and sustain their lifestyle and power.
By working to restrict the freedom of women to decide when to have our children, the Reich reveals its true agenda to reduce some humans (women) to commodities through which men maintain their economic privilege and power.
By working to limit our civil rights and personal freedom, the Reich reveals its true agenda to reduce some humans (police, government officials, lawyers) to commodities by which white supremacists control our natural resources and hold on to power.
By justifying the destruction, invasion, and domination of countries, the Reich reveals its true agenda to reduce some humans (military personnel) to commodities by which white expansionist fulfill their goals to colonize the world and develop their base of power.

These are unprecedented times, and they call for unprecedented responses. Those of us who respect religious diversity, personal freedom, the separation of church and state, the sanctity of the Constitution, and freedom of speech must put aside our divisions and our egos. We must work together to bring the Religious Reich to a halt

Religion & Ethics: Religious Reich Top Ten List

2006-01-09T12:05:00.000-06:00

Legislative Priority Three

The Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA) would make it a Federal offence to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion if this action circumvents the application of a state law requiring the parental involvement in a minor's abortion (or judicial waiver of such a requirement).

The Religious Reich cloaks its agenda in words such as 'protection' and 'circumvent' to hide the fact that it wants to over-throw any legal institution in disagreement. The Reich is attempting, and succeeding, to attach its oppressive plan for our country to words that represent our ethical standards (child custody, protection) and our legal restrictions (circumvent the application of state law).

In reality, the people who make up the Reich are the real culprits. The so called Child Protection Act is a front for the Reich's determination to invalidate laws in states that disagree with them about who should control a woman's reproductive capabilities.

How ethical is this?

These are unprecedented times, and they call for unprecedented responses. Those of us who respect religious diversity, personal freedom, the separation of church and state, the sanctity of the Constitution, and freedom of speech, much put aside our divisions, and our egos and work together to bring the Religious Reich to a halt.

How Ethical is Adsense

2006-01-09T11:18:00.000-06:00

The following is an email that I sent to adsense after spending several hours trying to filter the ads of websites from the religious right and searching for how to stop the ads.

I would like for you to delete my account with adsense immediately. You use several ads from the religious right and they have appeared on my blog more than any others. I have repeatedly tried to filter these ads from my site using your directions and had no success.

I have found adsense to be cumbersome, time consuming, and not straight-forward with some information. For instance, you make it very easy to start adsense, but very difficult to stop it. I had to read through pages of information about how great adsense is before I discovered the one sentence that described how to get you off my blog.

I am not happy, and will let everyone know about the experience I have had with your company.

Religion & Ethics: Religious Reich’s Top Ten List

2006-01-08T04:26:00.000-06:00

Religious Reich’s Top Ten List of Priorities

Reverend Deborah Elandus Lake

Religious right-wing, conservatives (the Religious Reich) are working to strip us of our rights, freedom, and diversity. They are committed to spreading their brand of religiosity throughout the United States, and the rest of the world. Their goal is to change our Constitution so that the Constitution supports their beliefs. How ethical is this?

The Family Research Council’s website, a Reich gathering place, contains a list they call their Top Ten Legislative Priorities. One of their priorities starts:

To ensure marriage remains reserved to one man and one woman will require amending the U.S. Constitution.

These people want to change our Constitution. They want to change what it means to be American. They want to throw away the gains made through the sacrifices of our ancestors, regardless of their race or gender, and turn America into a state ruled by a theocracy. In addition, they are dangerously close to succeeding because of the power held by Bush, the pending appointment of Alito, and the silence of many of us who disapprove. How ethical is this?

On the same top ten list is what the Reich calls the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act,

which:

…would require those who perform abortions on unborn children 20 weeks after fertilization or later to inform the woman seeking an abortion of the medical evidence that the unborn child feel pain.

The Reich is seeking to make it legal to terrorize women at a time when we are most vulnerable. They want to legalize the bullying of women by our doctors, by our partners, by our churches, by our families, and by our schools during a time when we need their support and advice the most.

The Religious Reich goes on to demand that doctors (those who perform abortions) should be forced to distribute brochures developed by the Department of Health and Human Services to pregnant women (the woman seeking an abortion). The brochure will drive home the Reich’s point that the fetus (the unborn child) feels pain. The language in parenthesis here contains their hostile tone toward the doctors and women who disagree with their view of the world. This is a small example of how the Religious Reich treats anyone who disagrees with them. How ethical is this?

Finally, in the event that the Reich’s terror tactics and bullying fail and the pregnant woman still wants to have the abortion, they want to mandate that doctors offer anesthesia for the fetus before the procedure is performed.

Religious Reich, what kind of ethical standards justify wanting to terrorize people this way?

Where in your Bible does Jesus tell you that it is okay to terrorize and bully women?

When in Jesus' life and ministry did he use his influence to make people terrorize and bully each other?

Who gave you the last word on how a woman decides to become a mother?

These are unprecedented times, and they call for unprecedented responses. Those of us who respect religious diversity, personal freedom, the separation of church and state, the value of the Constitution, and freedom of speech must put aside our divisions, and our egos and work together to bring the Religious Reich to a halt.

Rev. D. Elandus Lake

Justice Sunday III

2006-01-07T17:44:00.000-06:00

How Ethical Is This?

Many conservative, right-wing, religious leaders (I prefer my term--the Religious Reich) manipulate the Bible (and the people who listen to them) to spread their intolerance, homophobia, and misogyny. The most recent example will take place January 8 in what is being called “Justice Sunday III—Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land-God Save the United States and this Honorable Court.” Their plan is to broadcast this exercise in false piety in churches, religious radio and TV stations, and web cast.

The speakers represent a long list of people (mostly men) who have consistently aligned themselves on the side of the oppressors in issues of morality. They intend to ‘save’ the country and 'proclaim liberty through the land.'

The Religious Reich claims these intentions all while they fight to keep same sex (I prefer my term—like speaks to like) couples in the ‘back of the bus’ of American society.

How ethical is that?

Herbert H. Lusk II, a black pastor, said that he agreed to let his church, Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia, host the event out of loyalty to Bush. Lusk is a black pastor who claims Bush as a friend in the back drop of Katrina and the obvious disregard Bush demonstrated for Black agony.

How ethical is that?

Religius Reich, you name today Justice Sunday III and call out for liberty while you ignore the fact that a large portion of American households suffer double taxation because our unions are not heterosexual.

How ethical is that?

You ignore the fact that many households with young children are headed by women. Women who are paid less than their male counterparts.

How ethical is that?

You ignore the fact that many of our children live in homes where violence is the norm.

How ethical is that?

Religious Reich, you ignore the fact that most of our children are molested by people they know, and often those people are religious leaders.

How ethical is that?

These are unprecedented times, and they call for unprecedented responses. Those of us who respect religious diversity, personal freedom, the separation of church and state, the value of the Constitution, and freedom of speech must put aside our divisions, and our egos and work together to bring the Religious Reich to a halt.

All posted material remains the property of the author.

May not be used without written permission.

A New Message For A New Year

2006-01-02T12:13:00.000-06:00

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.” And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
_____________________________________________________________________________

Which one are you? Are you one of the blind being led by a blind guide? Are you more concerned about religious rules than you are about the state of your heart? Do you spend more time building a large church than working to bring justice to the world? Which one are you?

Many people look at Matt.15:10-14 and think that Jesus is talking about the dietary restrictions some people followed during this time. In ancient Israel, people were concerned about what they ate, who they ate with, and how the food was prepared. They believed that a person could be made ‘unclean’ by what he ate. In fact, if we take this text on the surface and in the context of Jesus’ historical timeframe, it is easy to conclude that what we eat is connected to how close we are to God. I want us to look a little deeper, though. Look deep and find a new message for a new year. I want us to make this text relevant.

In Matt.15:10-14, Jesus is addressing the false piety that he saw in his community. He was speaking to the people who were more concerned about what they ate than they were about human suffering and telling them to change. Jesus is also speaking to us. He is telling us to look at our behavior and the effects of our actions and decide what kind of people we are and what kind of people we want to be. Jesus is very clear. It is not what we take in from the world that defiles or corrupts. It is what we send out to the world. In other words, we are not corrupted and we do not degrade others by what we take into our minds, and our hearts, and our souls from our surroundings. We are corrupted and degrade others by what we send out from our minds, and our hearts, and our souls into our surroundings.

This is very different from what many of us have been told. Often religious leaders teach that we are corrupted by the world. They tell their followers to stay away from places ‘of the world’ and people whom they call abominations. These religious leaders use Bible verses to validate what they say. They also encourage their followers to put the responsibility of the consequences from their actions on others. ‘If I hadn’t been with so and so, I would not have been arrested for selling drugs. If she hadn’t been dressed the way she was, I wouldn’t have raped her. If he hadn’t made me so mad, I wouldn’t have had to yell at him.’

We have been taught to blame others for the hurt we cause. We have been taught to look for and identify the scapegoat.

Jesus is saying something very different. It is not what goes in that defiles. It is what comes out. Jesus is putting the responsibility on us. We decide what kind of relationships we will have. We decide what kind of person we will be. We decide to hurt another or not. He is telling us that we can choose to spread corruption and degradation by our actions and words or we can choose to spread honesty and integrity through our actions and words.

It’s not what goes in that corrupts. It’s what comes out.

Today we have many opportunities to choose between whether we support the spread of corruption or support the spread of integrity. Every day we see and hear about new examples of how our political leaders are spreading corruption and degradation in our country and in the world. The president has admitted to spying on people without any legal justification. Our country bombed and invaded another country on what we now know was a lie. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

It’s not what goes in that corrupts. It’s what comes out. It’s not what we read, or hear, or see that corrupts us. It’s what we do with what we read, or hear, or see that corrupts.

I want to stop a moment with a caution. Understand Jesus was not addressing children in this passage. Consequently, I am not talking about children here. The passage and this sermon are about and to adults.

In our work places we constantly decide whether we will spread corruption or integrity.

Gossip.

All work places have this. We gossip about each other. We gossip about our bosses. We gossip about the institutions for which we work. Gossip hurts people. Gossip is usually based on lies.

We decide what we are going to do with the corruption of gossip. We decide to spread corruption by telling someone else the gossip. Or, we decide to spread integrity by not telling someone else the gossip.

It’s not what goes in that corrupts. It’s what comes out.

In our personal lives we make choices about whether we will spread corruption or integrity.

Domestic violence.

In our homes and in our neighborhoods we often see and hear men abusing women and parents abusing their children. We may live in a home where violence is present. Domestic violence hurts, even kills people. Often alcohol abuse is involved. Children are traumatized by domestic violence. Their emotional, physical, and mental development are affected.

We decide what we are going to do with the corruption of domestic violence. We can ignore what’s going on and through our lack of attention support the spread of this corruption. Or, we can act and address the corruption. We can do what needs to be done to get help for families suffering with domestic violence.

It’s not what goes in that corrupts us.

In our churches we must make choices about whether we support the spread of corruption or integrity.

Homophobia.

Many times we sit in pews and listen to homophobic statements from religious leaders. These leaders stand before congregations and attach their homophobic ideas to biblical texts. They do this through misinterpretation and ignorance. They misinterpret the Bible and are ignorant about the Bible’s historical context. Homophobia hurts, even kills people. Homophobia is the basis some of us use to justify the denial of civil rights to an entire group of Americans from all walks of life, all races, and all ethnicities.

We decide what we are going to do with the corruption of homophobia. We can be silent and through our silence support the spread of this corruption. Or, we can speak against homophobia. We can speak against this with our actions. Do not attend churches that are invested in spreading hate, fear, and misinformation. We and speak against this with our voices. Let people know that you do not accept the misuse of the Bible and other religious writings by homophobes.

It’s not what goes in that corrupts. It’s what comes out.

We have some well known and documented examples of people who have spread corruption. The Klu Klux Klan, slave holders, Nazis, and skin heads are all examples of groups of people who have spread corruption in the world. But, what about right now? What about today? Who is spreading corruption in our communities and country now? What should we do to stop the spread?

One of the largest groups of people who spread corruption today is in our religious institutions.

Today we are bombarded with the efforts of people who call themselves religious. They have much of the media and many Americans convinced that they know what is right for our country. They use the Bible to push their political agenda on all Americans. They collaborate with one another and form coalitions that work to deny civil rights to women, gays, Muslims, and anyone who disagrees with what they want. They can be found in religious institutions, teaching institutions, political institutions, medical institutions, and they present a false piety to the world that deceives and misleads. The best way to identify who they are is to look at their actions. Look and see if they spread corruption or integrity.

When faced with an opportunity to support peace, do they fight for war? Do they work to get revenge as they call out for justice? Do they spread corruption, or integrity?

When faced with an opportunity to establish equality, do they battle for control? Do they seek to oppress others in the name of religious morality? Do they spread corruption, or integrity?

When faced with an opportunity to support freedom, do they develop ways to isolate those they call ‘different?’ Do they strive to instill fear in those who do not conform? Do they spread corruption, or integrity?

Look at the actions of those who say they have the answer. Listen to their words.

We can stop this. We can stop by speaking with our actions, words, money, time, and talents. We can leave places where people try to convince us that the world is divided between us and them. We can speak out against the fear they spread and help people find the courage to unite. We can withhold our money from institutions that work to take away the rights of individuals. We can withhold our talents from organizations that seek to control others based on a narrow view of what is right and wrong. We can volunteer out time and offer our talents to organizations that work to free us all from the oppression of religious fanatics and power hungry politicians.

We can understand what those who spread corruption already know—we are the most powerful when we are united.

What kind of person are you? Are you a spreader of corruption and degradation? Do you support the spread of corruption? Or, are you one who brings honesty and integrity wherever you go? Do you support the spread of integrity?

NBC’s Programming Independence Is Under Attack!!

2006-01-02T12:09:00.000-06:00

Greetings & Happy New Year!

On January 6, 2006, the first episode of “The Book of Daniel” will air on NBC. “The Book of Daniel” is a drama/comedy series that has an Episcopalian minister and father (Daniel Webster, played by Aidan Quinn) as the main character. Webster has conversations with Jesus, an addiction to prescription painkillers, and leads a congregation struggling with issues such as church politics, sexuality, and monogamy.

“The Book of Daniel” series, co-written by Jack Kenny and Brian Hargrove, is being used by fundamental fanatics in their unending attempts to take control of our country and force their religiosity on the rest of us. These aspiring theocrats are threatening the sponsors of “The Book of Daniel” and demanding that they withdraw their ads.

In particular, Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman of the American Family Association is using the ‘religious’ right’s well developed scare and bully tactics to put pressure on NBC and its sponsors. Even as you read, aspiring theocrats are instructing their acolytes to contact NBC and demand that “The Book of Daniel” not be aired. This is censorship. This is anti-American. This is unethical.

Now is the time for Americans to unite and stop the scare tactics of those working to restrict our civil rights and install their brand of piety as the norm. Now is the time for Americans to unite and demonstrate that we are the majority. Now is the time for Americans to take a stand against those who want to overtake our country through religious rhetoric, censorship, and threats.

What Can You DO?

Visit http://www.tv.com/the-book-of-daniel/show/32641/summary.html?q=the+book+of+daniel or http://www.tv.com/ and let NBC know that you support their right to exert their independence from the ‘religious’ right as they make programming decisions.

Contact your local NBC station and their advertising sponsors. Let them know that you want them to air “The Book of Daniel.”

Share this information with everyone you know.

Thank you,

World AIDS Day

2005-12-01T11:54:00.000-06:00

In honor of World AID's Day I would like to ask that we pray for two things:

An increase in, and ethical distribution of, funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and treatment.
That those of us living with HIV and AIDS know they are cared about and supported.

We are all part of the same community. What happens to one of us, happens to us all.

Editorial

2005-11-30T18:58:00.000-06:00

It seems as though what we call civilization is spiraling downward into total chaos. The Catholic church has been caught after decades of abusing children and women. Now, its leaders are trying to silence their victims with money and bully their opposition with threats. Civil wars bring death, rape and destruction to countries whose governments are already on the brink of collapse. AIDS! Hunger! Addiction! Teen pregnancy! Our children come out of school unable to read. Bomb Iraq! Katrina! Prison rape! Homelessness! Our young adults are confused and afraid. 9/11! Domestic violence! Female genital mutilation! Political corruption! Our old people are disrespected in the streets. And, we all wonder how we can change the direction in which we are heading.

In the spirit of Sankofa, which means go back and get what was lost, I believe that we must go back and learn from the past before we can begin to think about how to change our future. Otherwise, just as Sankofa implies and history has proven, we are doomed to make a different version of the same mistakes over and over. Given this, I must wonder when we, as a people, changed? When did we begin seeing each other as adversaries in our efforts to obtain more wealth, and stop seeing each other as allies in our efforts to overcome oppression. When did wearing professional attire become white, and speaking broken English become black? How did buying our babies one-hundred dollar sneakers before we have opened their bank accounts start to make sense to us? Who said that black people are so intolerant that many of us who are lesbian and gay are forced to live in silence?

These are difficult questions, with no simple answers. I invite you to join in discussions about the issues raised in this piece and issues that are on your mind as well.

2005-11-30T07:27:00.000-06:00

2005-11-29T13:49:00.000-06:00

Separation of Church & State

Based on Luke 20:22-26

During this time of upheaval, uncertainty, corruption, and destruction, many of us tend to become distracted by arguments, debates, and fights. We protest and argue about whether creationism should be taught in school. We cry and debate over whether a woman should have the last word on when she will become a mother for the rest of her life. We shake our fists and fight about whether homosexual couples should have the same legal rights as their heterosexual counterparts.

These arguments, debates, and fights are fostered by our efforts to supplant our government’s laws with our religious dogma. Meanwhile, as we are busy bickering among ourselves over whose religious beliefs are more valid, the power hungry men and women in our country are busy taking away our rights, muting our voices, and co-opting our resources. The text for this sermon gives new insight into how we can start to address these important issues.

In the past, a popular use for Luke 20:22-26 was to justify government taxation and the financial support of religious institutions. Indeed, this text appears to instruct us to pay taxes and pay the church. But, these are new and more complicated times that call for new and more complex approaches to addressing the issues we face. We need to do more than pay our taxes and put our money in a collection basket. The stakes are too high for us to simply sit back and let the leaders lead. 9/11 ushered in a new age for America. We now know what other countries have known for decades.

We know what it is like to feel afraid as a nation. We know what it is like to watch buildings that are part of our heritage crumble into ruin. We know what it is like to see our leaders, those we look to for strength and direction, be confused, and full of emotion. This is a new age and it is time for new interpretation and new understanding. So, let’s look at Luke with new eyes and open to a new interpretation.

Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?” They said, “The emperor’s.” He said to them, “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

There is a challenge to be curious here. Jesus is challenging everyone to be curious enough to ask the questions that will help them determine what belongs to God (religion) and what belongs to the emperor (government). In addition, as Americans, we have the added challenge of determining what ethical standards we will expect our government officials to uphold.

Some of us will see this as an easy challenge. We will decide that God rules religion and governments rule countries. This is the approach we have taken in the past. This is certainly the approach that holds our country captive now. Our politicians constantly tell us that religion and government are separate all while they use religious rhetoric and religious leaders to promote their agendas. These politicians and their theocratic cohorts confuse the issues and blur the lines between religious belief and governmental rule. In so doing, they have brought us dangerously close to reducing America to the status of a state ruled by a theocracy. The present day religious hypocrites fiercely claim to be apart from the world and government all while they tirelessly work to control the world and government. They are the right-wing religious zealots and the left-wing political elitists who are both intent on establishing their version of religious expression as governmental law and social norm. Battles over women’s rights and lesbian and gay rights are framed by both right and left religious dogma.

So how do we render unto God and State appropriately? How do we stop the theocrats from taking over our country? We learn the difference between ethics and religious dogma. We make conscious choices about how we will live in the world based on our ethical standards rather than our religious beliefs. We strive to understand that our country is only as safe, only as healthy, only as ethical, only as generous, and only as equitable as the least of us. Most important, we learn to recognize the difference between our religious affiliations and our American citizenship. We do this by examining what each requires of us.

Our religious affiliations require that we accept a certain set of unsubstantiated beliefs as fact. Our religious affiliations require that we allow a certain group of people to claim us as their own. Our religious affiliations demand that we envision (or deny) a particular image of and name for a god (or gods). Our religious affiliations separate us from those we call ‘other.’

Our American citizenship requires that we behave as though we believe all have unalienable rights to personal freedom, life, and the pursuit of happiness. Our American citizenship requires that we protect our country from being invaded and overtaken by a foreign government. Our American citizenship requires that we support our government by: paying taxes, exercising our right to vote, learning about the challenges facing our country, and holding our elected officials accountable for their actions. Our American citizenship means that we have a responsibility to work to make our country more tolerant of its people, more respectful of its resources, and more aware of its impact on the world. Our American citizenship brings us together as a people.

This is what separation of church and state means. This is what Jesus was describing in Luke. No religious institution, expression, belief, or dogma should be imposed on the rest of us as law or established as the norm in our society. This means that we need to separate what is ethical from what is religious. To do this, we will need to ask and answer some very difficult questions.

For instance, how ethical it is for religious zealots who are against the use of condoms to go into African countries and preach that monogamy and abstinence are realistic answers to the spread of HIV and AIDS. How ethical is that?

How ethical is it that we allow our military to bomb, invade, and occupy Iraq while killing thousands of civilians. How ethical is that?

How ethical is it that our prominent news publications and media sold our right to freedom of speech and the free flow of information to advertising agencies with the highest bids, so that the only “news” we have easy access to is a watered down, sensationalistic, racist ‘spin’ on just some of the issues that are facing our country. How ethical is that?

How ethical is it that teaching is one of the least paid professions in America and public school teachers are among the least supported by our communities and our government. How ethical is that?

How ethical is it that school sports have more financial and community support than the arts? How ethical is that?

How ethical is it that an urban child can get crack cocaine easier than she can get a computer or a book? How ethical is that?

What do these facts say about who we are as a people? What do they say about our ethical standards as a nation?

We have the blueprint from our constitution and the examples left by our ancestors. Now, we have the task of building on what we have been given. We have to go back and remember and learn about the people who stood for American values in the past. We have to share their stories with our children and stop bickering among ourselves over whose religious beliefs are more righteous.

We need to go back and get what we lost in all the battles that confuse theology with politics. We need to go back and read the words of Ida B. Wells and John Wesley who are examples of how to constructively criticize our country from the stand point of love and respect. We need to study the lives of people like Bayard Rustin and Susan B. Anthony who demonstrate how to work for change in our country using ethical standards rather than religious rhetoric.

And once we have gone back and reclaimed what we have lost, reclaimed what it means to be American, we need to build on what we have claimed. We need to work together and develop our own critique of the direction our country is being taken and we need to do this from the stand point of love and respect for our country and each other.

We need to hold our elected officials to a higher standard than mud slinging, name calling, fear tactics, and religious rhetoric.

We need to demand dignity for our country and stop supporting those who cannot or will not behave in a dignified and ethical manner.

We need to stop expecting new answers to come from old failures, and make room for new people, new ideas, and new interpretations.

We need to engender, respect, and protect our youth so that they will have confidence in us and our government once again.

Most important, we need to look at ourselves and recognize where we fall short. Recognize where we are intolerant, where we are racist, where we are misogynistic, where we are homophobic. Only through this kind of ongoing self-exploration and disclosure will we be able to gain the necessary insight that we need to move our country out of the muck that has us ethically paralyzed.

2005-11-29T10:19:00.000-06:00

I am American. We are America!

I am African, and I am American.

I am Agnostic, and I am American.

I am Alcoholic, and I am American.

I am Arabic, and I am American.

I am Asian, and I am American.

I am Atheist, and I am American.

I am Black, and I am American.

I am Biracial, and I am American.

I am Bisexual, and I am American.

I am Boy, and I am American.

I am Brown, and I am American.

I am Christian, and I am American.

I am Chronically Ill, and I am American.

I am Convict, and I am American.

I am Drug Addict, and I am American.

I am Eastern, and I am American.

I am Educated, and I am American.

I am European, and I am American.

I am Ex-convict, and I am American.

I am Fat, and I am American.

I am Gay, and I am American.

I am Girl, and I am American.

I am Heterosexual, and I am American.

I am Homeless, and I am American.

I am Indian, and I am American.

I am Infant, and I am American.

I am Jewish, and I am American,

I am Latina, and I am American.

I am Latino, and I am American.

I am Lesbian, and I am American.

I am Man, and I am American.

I am Mentally Ill, and I am American.

I am Mentally Retarded, and I am American.

I am Mid-western, and I am American.

I am Muslim, and I am American.

I am Northern, and I am American.

I am Old, and I am American.

I am Orphan, and I am American.

I am Other, and I am American.

I am Pacific Islander, and I am American.

I am Poor, and I am American.

I am Pagan, and I am American.

I am Physically Challenged, and I am American.

I am Red, and I am American.

I am Rich, and I am American.

I am Southern, and I am American.

I am Spanish, and I am American.

I am Straight, and I am American.

I am Thin, and I am American.

I am Transgender, and I am American.

I am Transsexual, and I am American.

I am Uneducated, and I am American.

I am Underemployed, and I am American.

I am Unemployed, and I am American.

I am Western, and I am American.

I am White, and I am American.

I am Woman, and I am American.

I am Young and I am American.

We are America!

Together, we create the world’s most diverse country in history.

Divided, we are the world’s most powerful proponent for intolerance.

We are America!

Together, we make a sanction for those fleeing from oppression and injustice.

Divided, we are the authority on advancing injustice and intolerance.

We are America!

Together, we develop innovative approaches to end world hunger, illness, and suffering.

Divided, we are major contributors to the pain and suffering in this world.

We are America!

We are America, and now is the time for Americans to stop living in fear and intolerance.

We are America, and now is the time for Americans to stop dividing our country and then fighting for a slice of the ‘American Pie.’

Now is the time for Americans to learn how to make the foundational changes that are needed in our country.

Now is the time for Americans to understand that the gift of American citizenship is a means through which freedom, prosperity, safety, health, and well-being can be accomplished for all.

We are America, and it is time for Our American Revolution.

2005-11-29T09:15:00.000-06:00

America is in a battle between the extremes of right/left, pro/anti, gay/straight, black/white, religious/secular... America is in danger of being reduced to a state ruled by a theocracy.

Our country is caught by the shouts of extremists when we try to come to terms over the rights of same sex couples. We are stymied by the ravings of extremists when we try to discuss the validity of a woman having exclusive rights over her body. We are thwarted by the rhetoric of extremists when we try to understand why people of color are disproportionately incarcerated in our country. America is in a battle between the extremes.

Our country is bogged down by those who use religious language and theological ideas to bully, frighten, control, kill, and oppress anyone who speaks out against their beliefs, and tactics. These people are power hungry. These people are intolerant. These people spread chaos. They work best when we are confused, and issues are blurred.

These people are not the majority in our country. They are a small handful of people who strive to dictate how we relate to each other, how we treat each other, how we feel about ourselves, and how we are seen by the rest of the world. These people are working to reduce America to a state ruled by a theocracy.

Theocracy: 1. government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided.
2 : a state governed by a theocracy

Theocracy threatens America every time the leader of a religious institution uses the pulpit to promote a political agenda. Theocracy threatens America each time our political leaders use religious rhetoric to justify their actions. Theocracy threatens America each time the validity of our laws is determined by how analogous they are to a religious belief.

An example of how we are threatened by theocracy is illustrated in the theocratic actions and words of General Boykin a military general in the United States. Boykin has spoken at religious revivals and preached that America as a “Christian Nation” is in a holy war battling Satan. He has also said that America’s Muslim adversaries will be defeated “only if we come against them in the name of Jesus.” Published on Thursday, May 20, 2004 by the Guardian/UK

We are caught between extremes and it is time for us to come together and start the revolution that will free all Americans from the contrived battle between God and Satan, Black and White, Good and Evil. It is time to leave our made up movie interpretation of a good guy and a bad guy and start to realize that we are humans who are being used by power hungry, unethical men and women who will not rest until their version of how things should be is established as the norm.

I ask that you join in demanding that our political leaders stop using religious rhetoric to justify their actions, and start recognizing what ethical standards their actions reflect. For instance, how ethical is it that the leaders of Christian churches use their power to oppress the rights of those of us who are American and lesbian or gay?

How ethical is it that the president of the United States did not have a clue about the destruction and human misery that was brought on by Katrina until there was a loud outcry from several people for his attention?

What ethical standards do the actions of our political leaders and religious zealots reflect? Do we want to continue to stand by, silent while a few people continue to reduce our country to its least common denominator? Are we prepared to look the next generation in the eye and say that we did the best we could to ensure that they had the same rights, the same freedom, the same space to pursue happiness as we have had? What do our actions, or lack of action, say about our ethical standards?

It is time for Our American Revolution!