Senate Race in Wisconsin: defending pedophile priests

Liberal stalwart Senator Russ Feingold is behind in the polls to Ron Johnson, a right-wing candidate. But it gets worse. You must go read the blog at StreetProphets by liberal Catholic Frank Cocozzelli:

Ron Johnson, the Religious Right and Tea Party backed GOP challenger to incumbent U.S. Senator Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) seems to care more about the powerful institutions such as insurance companies and the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay than the child victims of pedophile priests.

Johnson made himself clear while testifying on behalf of the Diocesan Finance Committee in opposition to the Child Victims Act. This bill would, had it been enacted, have removed the statute of limitations for childhood victims of sexual assault thus allowing them to file civil law suits against the alleged perpetrators. The views of finance committee member Johnson are now raising serious questions about candidate Johnson.

Read the whole thing.

It Gets Better (video)

You've heard about Dan Savage's It Gets Better Youtube campaign, which tries to give GLBT teens hope for the future. here's an example of a video from a professor of divinity.

Dan Savage calls out Right wing "Christians" who hate the sin(ner)

Dan Savage was rebuked for his "anti-Christian" language by an anti-gay "Christian" who loves the sinner, hates the sin, but never, ever would hurt anyone.

Dan responded this way:

Being told that they're sinful and that their love offends God, and being told that their relationships are unworthy of the civil right that is marriage (not the religious rite that some people use to solemnize their civil marriages), can eat away at the souls of gay kids. It makes them feel like they're not valued, that their lives are not worth living. And if one of your children is unlucky enough to be gay, the anti-gay bigotry you espouse makes them doubt that their parents truly love them—to say nothing of the gentle "savior" they've heard so much about, a gentle and loving father who will condemn them to hell for the sin of falling in love with the wrong person.

The children of people who see gay people as sinful or damaged or disordered and unworthy of full civil equality—even if those people strive to express their bigotry in the politest possible way (at least when they happen to be addressing a gay person)—learn to see gay people as sinful, damaged, disordered, and unworthy. And while there may not be any gay adults or couples where you live, or at your church, or at your workplace, I promise you that there are gay and lesbian children in your schools. You may only attack gays and lesbians at the ballot box, nice and impersonally, but your children have the option of attacking actual real gays and lesbians, in person, in real time.

....Oh, and those same dehumanizing bigotries that fill your straight children with hate? They fill your gay children with suicidal despair. And you have the nerve to ask me to be more careful with my words....

The religious right points to the suicide rate among gay teenagers—which the religious right works so hard to drive up (see above)—as evidence that the gay lifestyle is destructive. It's like intentionally running someone down with your car and then claiming that it isn't safe to walk the streets.

Which is why I argued that every gay teen suicide is a victory for the religious right. Because, you see, your side does use those suicides to "perpetuate [your] agenda."

Several of our regulars went over to Dan's site, and while agreeing with many of his sentiments, reminded him that there are many Christians who work for justice. Dan's readers mostly responded with the anger of the disenfranchised, which isn't very helpful, but is understandable. As we've discussed many times, the right wing's success in defining the word "Christian", as well as the rejection felt by many gay or gay-friendly people at the hands of right-wing churches, continues to provoke a backlash in the community.

And more generally, the injection of right-wing Christianity and the anti-intellectual, anti-science policy it engenders, into our public life (in clear contravention of our supposed Constitutional values) continues to be a thorn in the side of the non-believers. It is hard to avoid the outrage sometimes that the Roman Catholics and the Mormons and right-wingers are forcing me to live by their religious beliefs. The progressive Episcopal voices that I hear in our community here, while very welcome, seem too faint to hear on the national stage.

While I do try to make peace and defend the progressive Christians against my fellow non-believers (I am a Libra, after all ;-) I also have to agree with a certain frustration that was expressed in our discussion last year. The response to "Christians" behaving badly and being called out by the left, is not just to tell the left that "not all Christians are like that!" It's to call out the so-called Christians who are mis-behaving. Straight Christian allies can be our most powerful voice to those who are attacking us.

Still, I was proud to see our JCF and our Doxy lead the charge into the fray at Dan's to make the necessary comments. I encourage you all to keep it up, let your voices be prophetic, and agents for change and healing--and don't let the so called "Christians" get away with it.

Update: Here's gay activist and radio host Mike Signorile not putting up with it when another "Christian" calls him. The caller "would never hurt anyone's feelings" but thinks gays are going to hell. Signorile lets him have it--brutally.

Dan and Mike are both outraged. ARe they entitled? What do you think is the "proper response" --from them, or others, to the "love the sinner/hate the sin" protests?

The poor are with us more than ever

From thePhiladelphia Daily News

Figures released by the Census Bureau yesterday (full story on Page 31) show that poverty is the highest it's been since 1994...

At the same time, the debate over extending the so-called "Bush tax cuts" for the wealthiest Americans has highlighted a rapid and disturbing growth in income inequality over the last three decades. The richest Americans are gobbling up the biggest piece of the country's economic pie that they have had since the 1930s....

One in seven Americans - 43.6 million - was poor last year.

In reality, the true number of poor Americans is probably much higher. The government officially counts as poor a family of four with an income below $30,174, but the method for measuring poverty hasn't changed since 1963, and doesn't take into account soaring medical-care costs, transportation and child care....

No doubt that massive unemployment triggered by the recession has increased poverty, but there is another dynamic at work. Even people with jobs are losing ground. The wealth that has been created over the last 25 years by increased productivity hasn't trickled down at all. Wages either stagnated or declined.....

That richest 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation's total income, the highest share since 1928, right before the Great Depression. That's nearly triple their 9 percent share in the 1970s....

FOR DECADES NOW, the plight of the poor has evoked not empathy but contempt from many ordinary Americans, who have identified more with the "haves" than the "have nots."

Apparently, they believed that, with hard work, anyone can strike it rich in America. The opposite is true. But without a reversal of the widening income gap, they simply can't get there from here.

What I don't understand is the so called "Christians" who justify this gap, who ignore it, who live in their expensive homes and vote for a party and platform that gives the poor a big FU. After readings like last week's, it's positively wilfiul to ignore the clear Biblical Christian imperative to Take Care of People, regardless of whether they "brought it on themselves". But they (the so-called "Christians" ) can spend money and effort attacking gays, sure, while stepping over the lepers at their own doorsteps.

It is astonishing to me.

Blogs to contemplate: St Laika's and the Anchorhold

The Rev Jonathan Hagger (Madpriest) has launched a new blog, St Laika's, which is a worship blog. It features the Daily Office (including the resonant voice of the Rev. Jonathan) and seeks to find a communal worship space in the far-flung internet, not limited to any single (denomi)nation.

A companion blog, The Anchorhold, will focus on spirituality, contemplation, and prayer.

These are serious blogs, with serious intentions to build spiritual community. Madpriest will continue his irreverent commentary at OCICBW, but I for one am pleased to see these thoughtful, mature blogs develop and look forward to seeing them thrive.

Go check them out.