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04/19/2007


Presbyterian General Assembly Rejects Marriage Equality

ImageWord has come down from the highest, official-est conclave of Presbyterian Christianity: Gay marriages are verboten. (The "blessing" of gay "unions," however, remains groovy.)

In Pittsburgh late this week, the Presbyterian General Assembly voted 338-308 against altering their denomination's definition of marriage from a "civil contract between a woman and a man" to a "covenant between two people." (Both of which sound distressingly vague.)

The Washington Post's coverage of the vote notes that disagreements over the definition of marriage have lately caused considerable strife within the global Presbyterian presbytery. The Rev. Jane Spahr was censured by the church's governing body in 2007 for signing same-sex couples' marriage licenses during the brief legal interregnum when doing so was legal. And last week, the General Assembly's moderator resigned after causing controversy by signing a gay couple's marriage license.

From the Post:

Opponents of the new definition of marriage said it would violate the word of God, divide the Presbyterian Church and alienate the denomination from its many partner churches overseas. If the assembly had approved the redefinition, it would have required ratification from a majority of the church’s 173 presbyteries, or regional districts, a process that usually stretches for months.

“I must affirm definition of marriage as between one man and one woman,” said Jodi Craiglow, of the Miami Valley Presbytery in Ohio. She directly addressed gay Presbyterians. “As much as my heart breaks for your pain and frustration, I must simply hold to the standard of the God I love,” she said.

Despite such sentiments from Presbyterians allegedly in touch with the omnipotent creator of the universe, Presbyterians have for some time been shedding anti-marriage congregants. Pro-equality ones, too. From the Post:

Last year, the denomination dropped just below 2 million members, and several theologically conservative churches have left to affiliate with like-minded denominations. In an unusual move, one liberal California congregation, the West Hollywood Presbyterian Church, recently split off to join the United Church of Christ, saying Presbyterians have been too slow to support gays and lesbians.


NEWS: Cameroon, Turkey Cheese, Newt Gingrich, And Mysteries

Smilinggingrich Towleroad-roadicon Gingrich is still against marriage equality -- but he appreciates how, in Washington, we're going about it "the right way."

Towleroad-roadicon Retired Presbyterian Rev. Jane Sparh censured for performing gay weddings when they were legal in CA:

"The issue is not simply the same-sex ceremony," the commission wrote in its majority opinion decision. "It is the misrepresentation that the Presbyterian Church ... recognizes the ceremony and the resulting relationship to be a marriage in the eyes of the church."

The censure constitutes an official rebuke, but does not carry additional penalties such as or exclusion from church services or ex-communication.

The commission, made up of 15 ministers and elders from around the country, held a hearing on Spahr's case in San Antonio last week. The six members who voted against censuring Spahr said punishing her sends the message that gay couples "are children of a lesser God."

Towleroad-roadicon Somehow, this tale of a Grindr affair that wasn't was Salon's lead story yesterday:

... But the most unsettling experiences occurred when I saw Brian. I panicked when I passed him on my bike. I would pedal faster so he didn’t recognize me. Once, I saw him standing on my subway platform at the bottom of the stairs, but instead of introducing myself, I turned around and waited for the next train. I’m not sure what I was afraid of — awkwardness, I guess. I mean, what do you say to someone whom you’ve never met, but whom you’ve seen naked? But mostly, I was afraid that if I met him, he wouldn’t live up to my elaborate fantasies, and I’d have to end it all.

Towleroad-roadicon National Review editors to Rick Santorum: "Stop tipping your hand!"

... He is one of us, he has fought for our causes, and he has the political scars to prove it. Santorum is not one of those Republicans about whom Richard Brookhiser once remarked, “In their hearts they know they’re wrong.” He seems serenely confident that with enough time he can change anyone’s mind on the issues. But he has not always shown that he knows how to pick his battles wisely, or that he understands that voters want a president with a suitably modest conception of a president’s proper role in national life ...

If he does not heed this lesson, he risks doing damage to the causes he rightly holds dear. Already his inopportune remarks about contraception have lent an undeserved credibility to liberaldom’s claim that a Republican “war on contraception” rather than a Democratic attack on freedom is what underlies the debate over the Obama administration’s new regulations. 

We have defended Santorum many times in the past and will happily continue to do so. We do wish he would leave himself exposed a bit less often. 

Towleroad-roadicon Ten women arrested in Cameroon on charges of lesbianism.

Towleroad-roadicon The grieving family of Darius Frazier thinks he was killed because he lived as a woman.

Towleroad-roadicon J.K. Rowling's new novel is ... a murder mystery!

Towleroad-roadicon WashPo does puff piece on institute which claims to teach ... magic!

Howard Broadman wants to see as much as he can before age slows him down, but he wonders if he might have ventured too far this time. He takes a seat at a long wooden table across from a man wearing a cap with a firefighter emblem. Five other people fill the plush white chairs around them, but soon Broadman is listening only to the firefighter, watching a spoon dangle between the man’s fingers.

“I’ve done other programs here,” the firefighter is saying. “In one, we learned to bend spoons with our minds.”

Towleroad-roadicon At last -- the Dictionary of American Regional English:

... Such was a particularly nerve-racking day in the life of one of America’s most ambitious lexicographical projects, which culminates with the publication by Harvard University Press of Volume V (Sl-Z) next month, a mere 50 years after the project was inaugurated by Frederic G. Cassidy, an exuberant Jamaican-born linguist given to signing off conversations with “On to Z!”

Mr. Cassidy, who died in 2000, did not make it to the end of the alphabet. But to scholars and language lovers the work he set in motion is an invaluable guide to the way Americans not only speak but also live — a homegrown answer to the Oxford English Dictionary, served up with heaping sides of “slump” (cobbler), “turkey cheese” (cottage cheese) and “wapatuli” (a potent Wisconsin punch).

Towleroad-roadicon Reaction shots: See hundreds of actors and actresses learn they have -- or, more frequently, haven't -- won Academy Awards.

Towleroad-roadicon Why does movie violence sound the way it does? How'd it get so squishy?

Towleroad-roadicon Singer/songwriter/Peter Gabriel impersonator Gotye is very impressive. Five friends covering him with one guitar? Even moreso! Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

 

WalkOffTheEarth

Continue reading "NEWS: Cameroon, Turkey Cheese, Newt Gingrich, And Mysteries" »


Presbyterian Church Ordains First Gay Man as Minister

As I noted last week, the Presbyterian Church ordained its first openly gay minister on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, Madison.com reports:

Anderson “To the thousands of Presbyterians who have worked and prayed for almost 40 years for this day, I give thanks,” Anderson, 56, told the 325 people gathered to witness his ordination at Covenant Presbyterian Church on Madison’s West Side. “And I give thanks for those who disagree with what we’re doing today yet who know that we are one in Jesus Christ.”

The ordination — two emotion-filled hours — capped a lengthy, difficult journey for the denomination and for Anderson, a largely private person thrust into the national spotlight.

(image madison.com)

Reuters reports:

Scott Anderson, 56, was ordained minister at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in front of a jubilant congregation...

...Anderson, who years ago had been rejected by members of his congregation at the Bethany Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, California, left the ministry in 1990. He has been with his partner, Ian MacAllister, for 20 years.

...Since leaving the ministry, Anderson had remained active in the church. He began the process of returning to the ministry five years ago. The Presbyterian Church in July changed its constitution to allow openly gay and lesbian ministers.

"It just so happened that I was the first in line, I didn't intend to be the first," Anderson said. "What a great privilege and honor and humbling to be the first."

Anderson's ordination brought protest from the Westboro Baptist Church, the Badger Herald reports.

The Presbyterian Church USA lifted its ban on gay and lesbian clergy three months ago.


Presbyterian Church to Ordain First Openly Gay Minister on Saturday

The Presbyterian Church USA is set to ordain its first openly gay minister this weekend, the Journal Sentinel reports:

Anderson On Saturday, Anderson, of Madison, will become the first openly gay minister ordained by the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. since the denomination amended its constitution this year to allow it.

Hundreds of friends and supporters, and possibly some protesters, are expected to turn out at Covenant Presbyterian Church for what is being called a watershed moment in the life of the denomination. It is also the culmination of one man's deeply personal spiritual journey.

"I have felt a call from God to serve as a parish pastor since I was a sophomore in high school," said Anderson, 56, a near-lifelong Presbyterian who has spent the last eight years as executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. "When I came out and left the ministry, I never thought in my lifetime this day would come," he said. "This has been 20 years of God surprising me, really."

Anderson is being ordained by the John Knox Presbytery, which consists of 60 congregations in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.


Towleroad Guide to the Tube #923

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH:  Richard Lui talks with Paul Mowry, who is a gay candidate for ordination.

1906: A look at San Francisco's Market Street before the historic earthquake.

BODVERTISING: A French man gets inked with a QR code.

IN GRAVITY'S PULL: Sisyphean canine plays fetch.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.


FOX Affiliate's Hateful Gay Clergy Poll Offers No Good Choices

Poll
WACH South Carolina offers its readers two opinions on gay clergy.





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