Religion and Putting the “T” Back into GLBT

What motivates religious conservatives to discriminate against the transgender community, and how should transgender people respond to such attacks?

On Aug. 9, Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, hosted a discussion about the transgender community and faith. Diversity counselor and trainer the Rev. Dr. Julie Nemecek, a transgender woman and former pastor, led the talk. Nemecek helped those present explore an aspect of many transgender people’s lives not often touched upon: faith.

Nemecek started out by discussing five motivations for religious discrimination against LGBT people. She titled her presentation “Religion and GLBT People” because often, religious arguments used against trans people are specifically about LGB people.

The first motivation, Nemecek said, is legalism. Those using religious arguments against trans people emphasize legalism, as opposed to the love and grace emphasized in the Bible. Another motivation is “selective literalism.” Some conservatives may feel that they need to honor or protect the word of God, so they apply their own understanding to passages.

Read more at windycitymediagroup.com.

Jay Bakker to be Honored Guest at Raliegh Gay Pride

St. John’s Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of Raleigh, a church for all people founded on the “whosoever” principal in 1976, announced yesterday that Jay Bakker; son of PTL’s Jim Bakker and the late Tammy Faye Bakker-Messner, star of Sundance Channel’s “One Punk Under God” and founder of Revolution Church, will be participating in NC Pride activities September 26 -28, in both Durham and Raleigh.

Bakker will be participating in the Pride festival and parade at Duke University’s East Campus in Durham, NC, Saturday, September 27. He will then be the honored guest at an open-to-the-public reception held at The View, part of the Legends Night Club complex located on the corner of Hargett and Harrington streets in Raleigh, NC, Saturday evening from 6-7 p.m. Bakker will finish out the weekend by preaching St. John’s MCC Sunday Services, September 28. The 11 a.m. service will be held in Broughton High School’s Auditorium located at the corner of Peace and St. Mary’s Streets in Raleigh, N.C. The 7 p.m. service will be held in St. John’s MCC’s sanctuary located at 805 Glenwood avenue in Raleigh.

“Having grown up in Charlotte, I was excited to receive the invitation to participate in the Pride activities of my home state,” says Bakker. “Although I have worked in cooperation with MCCs across the country sharing the Gospel of grace, this is the first opportunity I have had to work with the people at St. John’s MCC.”

Read more at gaynewsbits.com.

Rent Boy Busted for Blackmailing Priest

Bishop on Gay Partners: Love is Love

The Archbishop of Canterbury has stated he does not believe homosexuality and gay relationships are sinful. It has been reported, Dr. Rowan Williams said in private correspondence that gay relationships could “reflect the love of God” in the same way traditional marriages do as long they were lasting and faithful.

The Archbishop exchanged letters with Deborah Pitt, a psychiatrist and evangelical Christian living in his former archdiocese in south Wales.

Media reports quoted one letter saying: “I concluded that an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might therefore reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness.”

The letters, written in 2000 and 2001 before he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, reaffirmed his liberal stance towards the subject of gay relationships.

His letters to Dr. Pitt expressed his belief the Bible describes promiscuity as sinful and not people who are homosexual by nature.

He said as a theologian rather than a church leader he was more liberal on the subject, despite recommitting the Anglican Communion to its position that homosexual practice was not compatible with scripture at the recent Lambeth Conference.

Dr. Williams also expressed his wish the Church would gradually become accepting towards homosexuality.

He said: “The Church has shifted its stance on several matters - notably the rightness of lending money at interest and the moral admissibility of contraception, so I am bound to ask if this is another such issue.

“If I am really seriously wrong on this, I can only pray to be shown the truth.”

Lambeth Ends with No GLBT Resolution

In his final end of Lambeth address, Dr Rowan Williams emphasized the Church’s need to remain united, despite the absence of some 200 Bishops who boycotted the conference over the gay issue. “We may not have put an end to all our problems but the pieces are on the board… And in the months ahead it will be important to invite those absent from Lambeth to be involved in these next stages,” he said. Around 200 bishops, including those from Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda, boycotted the meeting, while there are moves by clergy from Africa, Australia and the US to create a breakaway group in protest at more liberal attitudes towards homosexuality.

Read more at fyne.co.uk. or here at gayagenda.com.