On #NALTs, kneejerk responses, and African Bishops

So if you go to Twitter and you look for the hashtag #NALT, you will find a range of opinions about the new "Not All Like That" video campaign, where professed Christians speak out in favor of gay rights.

You will see there a backlash from some members of the gay community, lashing out against those of faith, that seems to coalesce around the idea "how dare you speak to me?"

Here's one such tweet:

Dear Straight "Allies": when you tell Queer people how to feel about something straight folks (like #NALT) are doing, you're doing it wrong.

I don't think they were telling you how to feel, they were telling you--and other Chrisians-- what THEY  feel.  And then,

Having a christian tell me they "accept" me means NOTHING to me. And frankly, why should it? #NALT

And I find this to be quite annoying, with its focus on knee-jerk identity politics.  Fine, it means nothing to you, snarky tweeting pereson, but it may mean quite a lot to other people.  Other gay people.  And, other Christians.  Let alone, gay Christians.

I got news for ya, people:  we do not win equality without the support of straight allies.  And we have not won equality in any state that has had a vote without the support of people of faith.  So when those people of faith step up, and put their own faces on the line, to speak not just to the LGBT community but also fellow Christians, I say more power to 'em.  We need all the help we can get, and having a litmus test for progressive bona fides is just infuriating.

One vivid response by an HIV-positive man who lived through the plague years nails the self-satisfaction of the snarky young activists:

I am furious at the too-cool 20-somethings in the LGBTQ Christian community (and I almost can't use the  word "community" for the first time in my life) who think NALT to be pretentious, insincere, presumptuous, etc. etc. …. 

I'm furious at their lack of wisdom (or willingness) on the part of those in our community to acknowledge the fact that they have just slapped the face of these people who are going to take a boat load of shit from their own congregations, friends, and families to perform the simple act of letting people know that they're loved, unconditionally….. 

As I am listening to and watching the kind eyes in these videos, all that I can do is to hold back tears of gratitude.  And fear isn't anywhere to be found.  I see... I see, almost a plea of remorse and empathy in their eyes.  My heart hurts for the kindness that I see…. 

  I for one love you for coming to a place of loving all of God's children without condition. I love you for not playing God, and for your bravery. I love the fact that I've lived to see this day. That I've survived the horrors to hear a message of love where there once was nothing but silence.

The reactionary left wing that tries to define what THE response should be, often within its own little echo chamber.  A purity cult. I definitely would not pass muster there.

While they insult the good efforts of the #NALT campaign, they also took down someone else this week, an African bishop James Tengatenga who was to be head of a program at Dartmouth college.  Yes, indeed, the Bishop had had a history of negative comments about LGBT people. But (like a certain President), he had evolved to an explicit support for LGBT rights, in the context of a place and a culture where how to advocate for LGBT people is not the same as here. But his job was rescinded because there is apparently no nuance possible.

The Rev. Albert Ogle, who is an out gay Episcopal priest who works extensively in Africa on LGBT issues, writes,

The Dartmouth saga is the most recent example of American Christian liberalism paying more attention to the symbols of LGBT equality and inclusion rather than actually in the business of forming new moral paradigms for the 21st century. 

Most liberal institutions in the USA including academia and the faith community have not taken the time or spent the resources needed to understand global homophobia. We are not paying attention to our own collusion in building up a new faith-based industry supported even by funding from the American taxpayer. Dartmouth’s response is only another example that we are really not listening and are prepared to throw good and resourceful people like James Tengatenga under the bus to protect some public persona that we are somehow more inclusive than we really are. Image trumps substance. The Rev. Kapya Kaoma, who was deeply shocked by this sad melodrama, expressed the delineation of battle zones simply as: “America is right. Africa is wrong.”

Ogle and other leaders active for social justice in Africa (including Abp Desmond Tutu) have written a letter decrying the firing of Bishop James, and the failure of American activists to recognize the cultural differences and boundaries of building rights in Africa.

To me, these are partnered issues, because there is an unwillingness to look beyond a certain pattern of "acceptable" activism, and rejection of potential allies for a lack of sufficient "purity".   Which really, is no different than some on the other side of the ideological spectrum.

#NALT: Susan Russell steps up!

i told you a couple of days ago about Dan Savage's new "NALT" campaign. This is  a video campaign where straight and LGBT Christians tell both the LGBT community AND other Christians that they are "not all like that", that Pat Robertson, and Tony Perkins, and Timothy Cardinal Dolan do not speak for "Christians" when they spout their anti-gay rhetoric.

Our own friend, the Rev. Susan Russell, has added her voice to the campaign.  Where's yours?

Updated: Roman Catholic Don't Ask, Don't Tell

I'm getting seriously annoyed at the Roman Catholics. The Conference of Bishops is meeting and rather than being concerned about social justice, they are going to discuss how to wage the culture war: particularly,  marriage equality.

East Bay Express

USA today

LGBTQnation

These are three of the most vocal bishops against us. Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, now Bishop of Oakland CA, was formerly in San Diego. He's extremely smart and widely considered the architect of Prop8. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York puts forward an avuncular face, but he's lobbying the president and vigorously fighting a rearguard action in New York. Archbishop John Nienstedt of Minneapolis is mobilizing troops in each parish to pass a Prop8-style anti-equality amendment there. He has infamously suggested that parents can't support their gay children and be Catholic. These men are intelligent, very powerful, and implacable foes of the LGBT community.

Their new meme is that marriage equality threatens religious liberty. To which the proper answer is, POPPYCOCK. There is no religious liberty if the Roman Catholic bishops impose their will on everyone else. The Episcopalians want to marry same sex couples: how is religious liberty protected if they are unable to do so?

The FACT is that the Roman Catholics are and will be free NOT to marry same sex couples, just as they are free NOT to marry previously divorced people, non-Catholics, or the unbaptized. But right now, most Episcopalians aren't able to perform legal marriages for their LGBT congregants. So say again, who's liberty is being infringed?  The Baltimore Sun follows this up.

As you may know, there is some irony that Roman Catholics overall are the religious group most supportive of marriage equality. Thus, the laity is simply ignoring the bishops, much as they do on birth control (I mean, how many RC have more than two children, these days?)

But I'm getting very frustrated with their "Don't Ask Don't Tell". Because while they simply ignore the Bishops, they continue as good Catholics to support the Church, and essentially function as enablers of the Bishops' war against gay people. We have many dear, supportive RC friends who love us to death, but none of them are standing up and saying, "no more!" to the institutional Church as it continues its attacks. None of them are calling out the Church on its actions; none of them are withholding their donations. They tried to persuade my wife to stay Roman Catholic: "just don't tell Monsignor that you're gay," they advised, and seemed unaware of the cost of pretending to be "in Communion" with an institution that reviles you.

It's the Roman Catholic version of the NALTs (not all like that).

Many RC find it hurtful when their church is criticized. After all, they themselves have no problem with their LGBT friends. But I want to get across to my RC friends: The institution that is your church is attacking us. What are you doing--really DOING--  to stop them?

Updated: from the National Catholic Reporter, we learn that Catholics care far more about caring for the poor than for issues around gays marrying.

But the Bishops are putting their effort behind an anti-gay web site (I don't link to such sites; google it if you want to find it).

Church of the NALTs

Briallen Hopper wrote an amazing sermon that columnist Dan Savage posted. From there I went to her blog and learned about the Church of the NALTs.Are you a NALT?

Sex columnist (and atheist) Dan Savage writes about what he calls NALTs, which stands for Not All Like That. NALTs are Christians who insist that they’re moderate, that they don’t hate, that they are for social justice and human rights, and that they follow a loving, joyous, peaceful Christ. Dan Savage is annoyed because, he says, NALTs apparently exist in large numbers, since they email him in droves every time he calls out the Church for a new example of extreme bigotry, but despite their large numbers, they’re disturbingly silent on the big issues. NALTs are not visible in the current political, theological, and cultural arenas, and Dan Savage wonders why.

It shames me as a Christian to realize that people are looking at me and my beliefs and asking why are you not speaking up? Why are you not fighting for your beliefs? Why have you stayed idle while cruelty and pain took center stage? Why did you let the people who hate and hurt us take power? It should be very humbling to us all that an atheist sex blogger was the one who reminded us what our God really wanted from us, and who expressly asked us to be Christ in the world on behalf of the persecuted.

My dream is a Church full of NALTs. The NALT Church. The Church of NALT. A group of people actively working to right wrongs in the world, to build God’s kingdom, and to live in love, joy, and peace with all people. A people who wrestle Christ’s filthy reputation away from the sowers of hate and violence.

Sounds good to me. I think more people are becoming vocal, but too many are only vocal in church. We need y'all to be passionate and loud OUTSIDE too!