Lopez Sermon Goes Viral

I loved this email in my inbox this morning:

Even though I was unable to attend yesterday, my wife told me all about it when she came home. I was so moved, I went to the Church’s website to watch the video of Abel's sermon. I thought the entire sermon was beautiful, but his personal proclamation towards the end really drove it home …I became so filled with the spirit that I wrote an article about it that was picked by the editors to be on the cover (virtual cover that is) on Open Salon. A subsidiary of Salon.com

Check out the article here ...

And this YouTube excerpt -- posted on the site -- here:

Voices of Witness Africa featured by Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] Voices of Witness Africa is a new 30-minute documentary intended to help Episcopalians listen to the views and experiences of Anglicans who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) and to emphasize that homosexuality is "not just a North American or European issue," says the Rev. Cynthia Black.

Co-produced by Black, rector of Christ the King Church in Kalamazoo/Texas Corners, Michigan, and Katie Sherrod, a writer and commentator based in Fort Worth, Texas, the documentary features GLBT Africans who talk about their lives and their relationships with God and the church.

"The voices of LGBT folks from around the world need to be heard," says Black.

Read the rest here ... and remember that the West Coast Premiere of the film is here at All Saints Church, Pasadena this Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
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Happy Gay Pride Month from ...

What a great way to kick off Pride Month -- with this Presidential Proclamation just out as a White House press release!

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic.

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans.

These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.

These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

BARACK OBAMA

Sunday's Sermon @ All Saints Church

... wherein preacher Abel Lopez declares Pentecost "The Feast of God the Disturber" and outlines why -- in the Spirit of Pentecost and God's inclusive love -- he will no longer act as an agent of the state in some marriages until he can act as an agent of the state in ALL marriages.

A few quotes:

To deny the love of a gay or lesbian person -- to say that their love is somehow different -- less revered by God -- that it somehow diminishes the love between a man and a woman ... is discrimination of the lowest form.

It has been said that he who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who perpetrates it. The discriminatory actions of the state in refusing to acknowledge the commitment and love of same gender couples are at the center of an evil system.

For some time now -- and in the spirit of God the Disturber -- I have been bothered by my participation in this injustice. That when I sign the license for a mixed gender couple I am simply reaffirming state sanctioned discrimination against same gender couples.

I choose not to participate in this discrimination any further. Going forward, I as a priest commit myself to performing sacramental blessings for mixed gender couples as well as same gender couples. But I will not perform the civil ritual of marriage -- the signing of the marriage license -- until I am able to do so for all couples equally.


A rising star, this Abel Lopez guy. Keep your eye on him! And watch the video here.
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QUICK! CHECK! Hell Must Be Freezing Over!

Cheney Offers Support For Gay Marriage

Dick Cheney rarely takes a position that places him at a more progressive tilt than President Obama. But on Monday, the former vice president did just that, saying that he supports gay marriage as long as it is deemed legal by state and not federal government.

Speaking at the National Press Club for the Gerald R. Ford Foundation journalism awards, Cheney was asked about recent rulings and legislative action in Iowa and elsewhere that allowed for gay couples to legally wed.

"I think that freedom means freedom for everyone," replied the former V.P. "As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute to protect this, I don't support. I do believe that the historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis. ... But I don't have any problem with that. People ought to get a shot at that."

Read the rest here ... and if you were ever planning on throwing snowballs in hell, today may just be your day!

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Beyond B033 video calls discriminatory resolution "Grace on Hold"

Just released: "With God's Help" -- bishops and deputies calling the 2009 General Convention to move beyond B033 in order to move forward with mission and ministry.

Add Nevada

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog entitled "Elizabeth Kaeton Does the Math" -- outlining the number of states/dioceses that now have either civil marriage or civil unions/domestic partnership protections for same sex families. Today, we add Nevada to the list.

Nevada lawmakers reject veto of partnership bill
By BRENDAN RILEY

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada's Assembly voted Sunday to override Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto and to change state law so that domestic partners, whether gay or straight, have many of the rights and benefits that Nevada offers to married couples.

The Assembly's 28-14 vote — the bare two-thirds majority needed — followed the state Senate's vote a day earlier to enact the measure into state lawbooks over the conservative Republican governor's objections.

The bill provides that domestic partners have the same rights as married couples in matters such as community property and responsibility for debts. It also prohibits discrimination against domestic partners.

Critics contended that domestic partners can sign private contracts to accomplish many of the goals of the bill, and that it conflicted with the intent of Nevadans who voted in 2002 for a constitutional amendment supporting marriage between a man and a woman.

The measure states, among other things, that no "solemnization ceremony" is required and it's "left to the dictates and conscience of partners entering into a domestic partnership" whether to have such a ceremony.