This page lists our postings from all of May, 2009

For an index to all our reports and analyses
on the 219th General Assembly

A RELIGIOUS PUBLIC WITNESS IN WASHINGTON, DC
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Noon - 1:30 PM

NRCAT is sponsoring a major event led by seven heads of faith groups and other senior religious leaders in front of the White House at noon on Thursday, June 11, to urge President Obama to create a Commission of Inquiry to investigate U.S torture practices since 9/11. Our goal is to have 1,000 people of faith join us. We need your help make that happen.

In his speech on Guantanamo and torture last week, the President reiterated his opposition to appointing such a commission. We are disappointed and believe he is wrong. By making our position visible, we seek to change his mind.

Discovering the truth makes us free, holds people accountable, and can bring healing and transformation. The results of the investigation will also make it possible for the Congress to put the needed safeguards in place to assure that U.S.-sponsored torture never takes place again.

Legislation introduced in congress to suspend operations at the School of the Americas and to investigate its connection to human rights abuses in Latin America.

New SOA/ WHINSEC Legislation Introduced in Congress!

On May 21st, 2009, Representative Jim McGovern introduced HR 2567 in the House of Representatives with 42 original cosponsors! This new legislation would suspend operations at the SOA/ WHINSEC and investigate the association of torture and human rights abuses associated with the school.

We need your help generating more cosponsors and support for HR 2567! Visit the Legislative Action Index on our website to learn more about how you can get involved and add your cosponsor as a supporter of this legislation. Use our Online Action to send an automatic email or fax to your Member of Congress or access our sample call script and the toll-free congressional switchboard phone number to make your views heard in Washington! You can also access the updated list of cosponsors at the bottom of the Legislative Action Index.

If you haven't already signed the petition to President Obama asking that he close the SOA/ WHINSEC by executive order, click here to sign the petition online!

For more information, please contact the Legislative Coordinator of SOA Watch, Pam Bowman at pbowman@soaw.org or 202-234-3440.

Not ready to act – but there’s more to it.

We recently posted news from Scotland that the Church of Scotland had acted to permit the Presbytery of Lochcarron-Skye to approve the appointment of the Rev Scott Rennie, who is openly gay, to Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeenshire. That action was set aside, however, when the General Assembly, meeting in Edinburgh, set up a study committee on the matter, to report back to their next Assembly in two years.

The Rev. John Mann, a former minister of the PC(USA) who is now serving in Glasgow as a member of the Church of Scotland, encourages us to avoid oversimplifying this matter, and suggests looking at a report by The Times, which is based largely on comments by the Rev. Lindsay Biddle, who is his spouse, and is also serving a church in Glasgow. She, however, has not transferred her membership to the Church of Scotland, and so is not affected by the “gag rule” which the Church of Scotland General Assembly has imposed on its own members.

Lindsay Biddle appeared earlier in May on an STV news program report on Scott Rennie and his struggle to remain in ministry after coming to terms with his own homosexuality. Click here for the interview, which runs a little over two minutes.

The South makes the difference

An observation from Gordon Shull, a Witherspoon member in Wooster, Ohio:

Dale Johnson's analysis makes it possible to discern that the Southern presbyteries tipped the scales. With the South, the amendment loses 78-94. Without the South, it wins 66-61.

I did a similar calculation on the original vote on G6.0106B. With the South, the amendment won 96-71. Without the South it would have lost, 65-70.

Am I still an ecumaniac? I don't know: ecumenicity has its price.

Gordon Shull
May 27, 2009

Dale Johnson, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., is emeritus professor of church history at Vanderbilt Divinity School.  He was an elder commissioner to the 2008 General Assembly, and a member of the Church Orders and Ministry Committee which considered the overtures dealing with ordination,

He offers an updated analysis of the voting on Amendment 08B, suggesting that a number of larger, more urban presbyteries showed significant shifts toward favoring a more inclusive ordination policy, even in the South, while smaller presbyteries were less likely to change. 

He also finds that while the "popular vote" was very close (with a 5.6% gain in raw vote to a 49% total for the amendment), it will take a significant gain in popular votes to bring in a majority of the presbyteries -- which are, after all what "counts" in the final result.

For Johnson's essay >>

May 26. This morning, the California State Supreme Court announced its deeply disappointing decision to uphold Proposition 8. While More Light Presbyterians is pleased that the court recognized the legal marriages of the 18,000 same-sex couples married in 2008, we are profoundly disappointed by its decision to uphold the anti-LGBT, discriminatory Proposition 8 that was narrowly passed by a ballot initiative.  

It is incredible that the legal, equal and civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and their families were not protected by either the Court or the electorate in a state within a country that is committed to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all of its citizens.

As people of faith and Christians committed to justice, equality and ending discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and their families in both Church and society, while we lament the failure of the state court to maintain marriage equality in California, we are absolutely committed to continue our work for justice. Through PEP, the Presbyterian Equality Project, we will continue to work for marriage equality in civil society as we work for marriage equality within the Presbyterian Church (USA). 

Marriage is an equal right, not a heterosexual privilege. We are grateful that a growing number of Christians and citizens are recognizing that love is not restricted by gender and that God's gift of love is bestowed upon same gender loving couples in addition to opposite gender couples. Everyone has the right to be part of a family. 

with hope and grace,
Michael

This report (with plenty of commentary) comes from John Shuck:

John Knox struck up the alleluias too soon it appears. The Church of Scotland (behaving like all superstitious and fearful cults--like the PCUSA) gave into its homophobic element. I praised it yesterday for approving an openly gay man as minister. The backlash has begun.

Instead of outright rejecting a motion similar to the PCUSA's G-6.0106b (effectively banning gays without mentioning them), the General Assembly decided to set up a commission. From the BBC:

    The Church of Scotland has avoided a potentially damaging debate about whether gay people should be allowed to become Kirk ministers.

    At its General Assembly in Edinburgh, it was decided instead that a special commission should be set up to consider the matter and report in 2011.

    There will be a two-year ban on the future ordination of gay ministers.

"Avoided a potentially damaging debate" says the news. Potentially damaging to whom? Those of us who have watched commission after commission in the 35 year struggle in the PCUSA know what these commissions end up doing.

The Church of Scotland will experience a shit storm of fear-mongering for two years. At the end of this time, the beleaguered commission will come up with some report. It makes no difference what the report will say. Fundamentalist forces will wrest control and tell the same lies and offer the same threats that have been made here for the past third of a century. Then they will come up with some horrific rule (just like G-6.0106b).

The Church of Scotland will be no further ahead then than they are now.

It was fun for a day.

Torture Is A Moral Issue:
Panel & Conference for People of Faith
June 26-27
Palo Alto, California

From Carol Wickersham, of Presbyterian-related No2Torture

Dear Friends,

Please help spread the word about the Torture Is a Moral Issue panel and conference on June 26-27. Speakers and workshops will equip participants for effective action. Perspectives will be offered by former interrogators and intelligence officers, psychologists, ethicists, legal experts. I will offer some religious perspectives.

New curriculum material available

This note comes to us from Michael Adee, Executive Director & Field Organizer of More Light Presbyterians

If you want your local congregation, campus ministry or seminary community to be genuinely welcoming and affirming of LGBT Families, this new curriculum is for you.

More Light Presbyterians is a founding and sponsoring organization of IWR, the Institute for Welcoming Resources, the faith project of NGLTF.

I encourage you to order this curriculum today. This would be a great resource and complete curriculum for your Fall 2009 Christian Education program offerings.... or anytime.

I so wish that when I was growing up in southwestern Louisiana, trying to find my way as a gay kid and a Christian, in a small Presbyterian church, my parents and our family, our pastor, my Sunday School teachers and our family's congregation could have had this kind of educational resource. There was nothing to help my parents, our family, or our small Presbyterian Church on how to raise gay kids, or be open to LGBT families.  

You can make a difference now in your church for LGBT families.

After 3 1/2 hours of debate, the General Assembly of The Church of Scotland meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday evening, May 23, 2009, voted 326 for and 267 against the Presbytery of Aberdeen's action (taken in January 2009) to sustain the call (issued in November 2008) from Queen's Cross Parish Church in Aberdeen, to the Rev. Scott Rennie, an openly-gay minister in The Church of Scotland who is in a committed relationship with his Christian partner, David, who is a religious education teacher.

We thank God for an inclusive church, where all are welcome!

This welcome news comes to us from the Rev. Lindsay Louise Biddle, a minister of the PC(USA), who is now serving the Church of Scotland in Glasgow along with her husband, the Rev. John Mann.

Click here for the Associated Press report >>

Obedience to conscience has long been a part of our Reformed tradition, and respect for the right of conscience has been a major element in the argument for allowing LGBT candidates for ordination to declare “scruples,” that is to take exception to certain requirements for ordination such as the “fidelity and chastity” standard set forth in G-6.0106b of the Book of Order.

But we must remember that conscience has to do with far more than our sexuality. And the Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, who is now a Senior Fellow in the Faith and Public Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress, reminds us in a recent article that "A progressive moral vision is deeply connected to the exercise of conscience.”

A few more excerpts:

“... For progressives, a crucial guiding principle in regard to public policy is to secure the common good while protecting individual liberty to the fullest extent possible ... progressives must understand their own roots among the many traditions on conscience, and the valuable contribution that progressivism... Whatever the roots of conscience, many religions emphasize its centrality to human goodness and dignity and have done so from ancient times. Increasingly, nonbelievers have also asserted the right of conscience as a central part of their value formation... Conscience is at the heart of progressivism because conscience is not just a feeling but a palpable urge toward improvement — a call to action or engagement... Caring for others and not just for oneself or one’s kind is, of course, a universal value found in both religious and humanist writings..."

The full essay >>

“Obama needs to be pushed from the progressive world in order to be able to be who he wants to be.”

Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, and founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, has just published an article on the Politico.com website in which he calls on progressives to press President Obama to get past his current efforts at pragmatic compromise, and return to the strength of his progressive ideological background.

Without this, he warns, Obama “will not be able to gain mass support for a coherent worldview that can form the basis for an alternative to ‘let the marketplace decide,’ which has been the guiding principle for American domestic politics, and ‘let our power shape the world,’ which has been our primary approach to foreign policy.”

The full article >>

"God's Whole Family" Conference Registration now open...

The National Welcoming & Affirming Presbyterian Conference
September 4 - 6, 2009 Labor Day Weekend
Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee

"God's Whole Family" is hosted by Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville and produced by More Light Presbyterians for pro-LGBT Presbyterians, families, friends and allies.

The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the 218th General Assembly, PCUSA, will join us as a keynote speaker and preacher. Bruce is pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, a multi-cultural Presbyterian congregation in San Francisco, CA

Rev. Debra Peevey, MLP's Campaign Outreach Coordinator for Amendment 08-B, will be with us to share heartwarming stories of faith, courage and transformation plus lessons learned from the campaign. Debra is a minister in the Disciples of Christ tradition and lives with her spouse, Candy in Surprise, AZ.

More information >>

Witherspoon board, joined by Voices of Sophia, meets in Minneapolis

John Harris, a member at large of Witherspoon’s board, has posted his quick report, with comments on Minneapolis, which will be the site of the 2010 General Assembly.

Over the past two weeks two more presbyteries have shifted their votes in support of amendment 08-B, which opens the door further to ordination of LGBT Presbyterians by making clear that suitability for ordination does not hinge on sexual orientation.

On May 9, the Presbytery of Utah approved Amendment 08-B by a voted of 28 to 25.

On May 8, the Presbytery of Northern Waters voted Yes on 08-B by 53 to 11, which is a 25% pro-LGBT shift from its vote in 2002.

Then on May 12, by a vote of 100 - 90 - 3, the Pacific Presbytery became the 33rd presbytery to switch from opposition in 2002 to support for LGBT equality and justice in 2009.

The same day, the Presbytery of East Iowa voted Yes on 08-B, 74 to 21, which is a 25% pro-LGBT shift from its vote in 2002.

Thus far, with the last presbytery vote scheduled for May 30, 77 presbyteries have approved the amendment for inclusive ordination, which is 35 more than the final count of 42 in 2002. Michael Adee, of More Light Presbyterians, who has furnished these reports, concludes his own report: “As the prophet Isaiah spoke, ‘surely God is doing a new thing in our midst.’ ” To which we can only say Amen.

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For a careful and insightful analysis of the voting, you may want to look at Bruce Hahne’s statistics and commentary.

Kim Bobo, founder and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, publishes Wage Theft in America

Witherspooner Gene TeSelle, a resident of Nashville, sends this recommendation:

Kim Bobo was heard on an interview on National Public Radio on Thursday, May 18, talking about wage theft in its various forms. She was in Nashville to celebrate a victory by car wash workers (not a group that you usually associate with victories). They had filed a federal lawsuit against Shur-Brite Hi-Speed Carwash, which recently signed a consent decree repaying them lost wages and giving them a break room, first aid equipment, and labeling or hazardous chemicals.

Another report from Nashville Public Radio >>

Here’s a brief sketch of the book, from the WageTheft website:

In what has been described as “the crime wave no one talks about,” wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States ever year. Between two and three million workers are paid less than the minimum wage. More than three million are misclassified by their employers as independent contractors when they are really employees, allowing employers to shirk their share of payroll taxes and to illegally deny workers overtime pay. Even the Economic Policy Foundation, a business- funded think tank, estimated that companies annually steal 19 billion dollars in unpaid overtime. The scope of these abuses is staggering, and in response, activists, unions, and policymakers are beginning to take notice. Nationally-recognized social justice activist Kim Bobo’s Wage Theft in America is an incisive handbook for activists, organizers, workers, and concerned citizens on how to prevent the flagrant exploitation of America’s working people. Bobo offers a sweeping analysis of the crisis, citing hard-hitting statistics and heartbreaking first-person accounts of exploitation at the hands of employers. She then offers concrete solutions, with special attention to what a new Presidential administration can do to address one of the gravest issues facing workers in the 21st-century.

“Kim Bobo has written an excellent and informative book on one of the most pressing issues facing millions of hardworking Americans. She offers bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America.”

More Light Sunday – June 7, 2009

Celebrating a Church for All God's Children

As our "Answering God's Call to Serve!" YES on Amendment 08-B draws to a close on May 30, now more than ever it is important for us, for our Church, to recognize and celebrate the presence and gifts of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and their families in our local congregations. We believe in a Gospel and a Church for all God's children.

While we do recognize and give thanks for the extraordinary, history-making progress made during the Amendment 08-B Campaign, we also reckon with the reality that its ratification was narrowly defeated. This is a time of mixed emotions, celebration and lamentation.

So, we celebrate that a record number of 77 presbyteries so far have affirmed fair and equal ordination standards; and we lament that 92 have held to the status quo of discrimination against faithful LGBT Presbyterians simply seeking to answer God's call to serve. So, it is time for us to gather in community in every possible congregation, MLP Chapter, campus or seminary group for a time of reflection, prayer, healing and solidarity.

More Light Sunday 2009 is that perfect opportunity to be together in community. 2009 is the sixth year of the annual tradition of celebrating the presence, faith and gifts that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, their parents and families bring to the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

While your Web-Weaver has been in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia for his son’s wedding (ask me about it sometime – a wondrous experience in the diversity of life these days!), a few presbyteries have taken their actions on the proposed amendment to the Presbyterian Church’s Book of Order, which would have eliminated definitively the old G-6.0106b ban on ordination of anyone living in a same-sex relationship.

It is now clear that the amendment will not be passed, but the voting is still significant as a statement of progress that is being made in our church. So here are reports from some of the voting last week:

The Presbytery of Middle Tennessee voted on May 7, according to Gene TeSelle, "95 for, 139 against, and 1 courageous abstention." More from Middle Tennessee >>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Presbytery of Northern Waters (northern Minnesota and Wisconsin) met on May 7, and voted in favor of 08-B, by 52 to 11. Just in from our presbytery meeting.

Thanks to the Rev. David Oliver-Holder, of Bayfield, Wisconsin, for this report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Utah makes the shift for inclusion and equality

The Presbytery of Utah, meeting on Saturday, May 9, voted in favor of amendment B, by 28 to 25. This was a major shift from a vote of 21-32 against equality last time. The Presbytery of Utah thus became the 32nd presbytery to shift from opposing inclusion in 2002, to supporting equality in 2009.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tricia Dykers Koenig of Covenant Network adds these reports:

I've seen a report that Dakota Presbytery (non-geographical Native American) disapproved unanimously in a voice vote last weekend .... That brings the presbytery tally to 74-90. The Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley, which approved 08-B in February, at today's meeting was facing a motion from two Sessions to rescind their previous vote – but the motion was withdrawn, so the prospect of a cycle of do-overs was avoided, thanks be! ...

Utah's approval of 08-B reaches a milestone record of 75 presbyteries that support ordination standards based upon faith and character, not marital status or sexual orientation. We rejoice that 75 presbyteries call for the end of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Presbyterians who are gifted and called by God to serve as Ministers, Elders and Deacons. ... 

We now stand at 75 supportive presbyteries which is already 33 more than the final count of 42 in 2002 with more presbyteries yet to vote. The last presbytery vote is scheduled for May 30. As the prophet Isaiah spoke, "surely God is doing a new thing in our midst." 

The WSJ on May 7 published a brief article by Steven Waldman, defending the President against the outraged Religions Right on his decision not to continue the "National Day of Prayer" as it had been taken over by far-right evangelicals. Waldman is the Editor-in-Chief, President and Co-Founder of Beliefnet. He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.

He begins:

Conservative religious groups are criticizing President Obama for what the Associated Press called his "muted" observance of National Prayer Day Thursday. "At this time in our country's history, we would hope our President would recognize more fully the importance of prayer," said Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of National Day of Prayer Task Force, which organizes the prayer day festivities. The Family Research Council said Obama's decision to not have a big White House prayer event constituted a "de-emphasis on prayer." 

I think this is actually a case of religious conservatives having cut off their noses to spite their faces. Putting aside for a moment the question of whether it's appropriate for the White House to be involved in encouraging prayer, this particular occasion has evolved in a way that almost guaranteed its demise. More >>

For an index to all our reports and analyses
on the 219th General Assembly

PVJ's Facebook page

Mitch Trigger, PVJ's Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!

Voices of Sophia blog

Heather Reichgott, who has created this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:

John Harris’ Summit to Shore blogspot

John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive

Got more blogs to recommend?

Plan now for our 2010 Ghost Ranch Seminar!

GHOST RANCH SEMINAR

July 26-August 1, 2010

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