THERE MUST BE NO HOMOPHOBIC CHURCHES: "Never let other people define your reality or put you into bondage to their ways of thinking." Jerry Maneker

HERE

"A Church that doesn't provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of society in which it is being proclaimed, what gospel is that? Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980)¨

"Cultural prejudice has not only succeeded in making most heterosexuals hate gays; it has succeeded in making most gay people hate themselves" Randy Shilts

¨I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who has been out for decades, and is married to her partner of many years. She asked me if it's normal for a Gay person to question if he or she is "normal," as she has those concerns. I told her that the tragic fact is that many LGBT people erroneously view themselves as abnormal, and that is largely due to the many ignorant and/or hateful messages to which they have been exposed for most all of their lives; most of these messages come from "religious" sources...please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
·  Thanks to A Christian Voice For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, sidebar
·  Thanks to Mail Today, Australia

BLOWING SMOKE: ¨Many people who condemn others, who seek to deprive LGBT people of equal civil and sacramental rights, are therefore not Christians, despite what they call themselves...¨

¨...those who preach a false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and what I call “genital theology,” are “missing the mark,” which is the very definition of “sin.”

 ¨A Christian is called upon by Jesus to love and not judge others! The two Commandments Jesus gave all who would be His disciples are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength; to love our neighbor as ourselves! Period!

No Christian is subject to the laws laid down for Jews in the Old Testament! Anyone who uses the Old Testament to in any way trash LGBT people is either a very immature Christian or is not a Christian at all!

All Christians are given their salvation by the grace, or unmerited favor, of God! We see this fact in the story of the repentant thief on the Cross. He didn’t have to know the four spiritual laws, didn’t have to get baptized, and didn’t have to confess all of his sins.

And we, too, appropriate God’s grace by having unwavering faith in God, despite seen circumstances. Hence, those who preach a false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and what I call “genital theology,” are “missing the mark,” which is the very definition of “sin.”

Many people who condemn others, who seek to deprive LGBT people of equal civil and sacramental rights, are therefore not Christians, despite what they call themselves, and despite the fact that they may even attend church each and every week. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car!

As I have often written, Christianity is very consistent with same-sex love! There is nothing in Scripture that prevents same-sex love and same-sex marriage! Indeed, love is essential to the Christian life, and that love is by no means to be restricted to heterosexual love!

Don’t be fooled by professing Christians, many of whom are mere haters, who “bear false witness” against Gay people, thereby contravening one of the Ten Commandments. They say such outrageous things that Gay people caused Hurricane Katrina, are destroying the institution of marriage, are “disordered,” etc. These allegations are foolish on their face, and only a very limited and hateful human being could assert them or take such allegations seriously!...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to A Christian Voice for GLBT Rights, sidebar
·  Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

IF YOU ARE GAY, YOU ARE BLESSED BY GOD: ¨You have the capacity to love another human being, and nothing is more sacred or godly than that...¨

¨...The last bastion of the civil rights movement is the stigma and exclusion of gay people from our churches and from our secular society. Yet, they can be seen to be a gift to us from God in that, despite their terrible persecution, many remain steadfast in their loving relationships. Despite all of the barriers set up by Christians and non-Christians alike, many remain in committed relationships.

Being constitutionally gay is not a disorder any more than having brown eyes is a disorder! Most gay people have been born that way and like the old Sunday School saying goes, "God doesn't create junk."

If you're gay, you have been blessed by God in that you are capable of loving another human being. The most dangerous people in the world are those who either have nothing to lose or who are incapable of loving others. There is no reason not to assume that God blesses the monogamous gay couple every bit as much as He blesses the heterosexually married couple...¨  read it all, HERE

· Thanks to the Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT Rights, sidebar

GAINING ON COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR LGBTI PEOPLE: We can´t count on predominantly White or Black Churches to help lead the way to the Promised Land

Mr. Don Lemon:  ¨Proud to be Out¨ interview with the Washington Blade, please read it all, HERE

¨...— very important — it’s different in the black community. In the black community, for the most part, not all black people, the church has been the backbone of the community for so long, and the church preaches against homosexuality. So when you’re growing up, from the day you go into church, it is instilled in you that being gay is going against God...¨

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE BLACK AND THE LGBT CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS

By the Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

¨But when the backbone, the structure of the community has been so associated with the church, it’s even doubly more imprinted on your being and on your psyche.¨  Don Lemon

¨It seems to me that this is the major difference between the African American Civil Rights movement in the 1950's-60's, where the Black Church was usually behind the fight for equality, and the current LGBT Civil Rights movement. And it's a gigantic difference.

Now, the Black Church is usually against the fight for equal rights for equality by LGBT people; even resent the comparison between the two Civil Rights movements.

Hence, the lack of church and community support for LGBT people and this struggle, which leads to low self-esteem and lack of organization counted on in the Black Civil Rights movement in the 1950's and 1960's.

African Americans had role models right in their own families, churches, and neighborhoods; people who would affirm them as people of worth. Most of their churches saw their struggle for equality as they did Moses leading the children of Israel to the Promised Land.

In the LGBT Civil Rights movement, it is rare for a young Gay person to have role models in his/her nuclear family and what LGBT people exist in his/her church and neighborhood are usually closeted.

This is one of the reasons why the fight for equality for LGBT people is much more difficult than it was for African Americans, as self-esteem among the former is far less than it was among the latter; consciousness of kind was far greater among the latter than it is the former.

Therefore, we can't count on the Black churches to help lead the way toward the Promised Land of equality for LGBT people, just as we can't count on predominantly White churches to help lead the way for LGBT people to reach that Promised Land of equality... please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to The Washington Blade, sidebar
·  Thanks to Don Lemon, CNN Prime Time Anchor
·  Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
·  Thanks to A Christian Voice for GLBT Rights, sidebar

THE WORST HOMOPHOBIA: Using God and the Bible to justify one´s own dysfunctions and hatred

¨Preoccupation with Gays and same-sex activities usually denotes emotional/sexual dysfunction; discrimination against LGBT people usually denotes both emotional/sexual dysfunction and the harboring of hatred that causes the suffering, suicides, assaults, and murders of LGBT people!

And of all types of homophobia, religiously based homophobia is the worst, as the appeal to God and to the Bible are used as seeming justifications for the externalization of one's own dysfunctions and hatred.

All homophobes have blood on their hands, and out of all of them homophobic clergy are the worst of them!

In the case of intellectually and spiritually honest people, studying the issue and talking with LGBT people can cause one to relinquish one's homophobia, but only if these dysfunctions are absent. When emotional/sexual dysfunctions are present, it is often impossible to change the minds of rabid homophobes, regardless of the evidence presented...please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Manker
·  Thanks to A Christian Voice for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, sidebar
·  Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

DUMPING NONSENSE : There is no reason not to assume that God blesses the monogamous gay couple every bit as much as He blesses the heterosexually married couple!

A truckload of anti-LGBTI NONSENSE headed for the ¨stigma¨ dump!

¨...The last bastion of the civil rights movement is the stigma and exclusion of gay people from our churches and from our secular society. Yet, they can be seen to be a gift to us from God in that, despite their terrible persecution, many remain steadfast in their loving relationships. Despite all of the barriers set up by Christians and non-Christians alike, many remain in committed relationships.

Being constitutionally gay is not a disorder any more than having brown eyes is a disorder! Most gay people have been born that way and like the old Sunday School saying goes, "God doesn't create junk."

If you're gay, you have been blessed by God in that you are capable of loving another human being. The most dangerous people in the world are those who either have nothing to lose or who are incapable of loving others. There is no reason not to assume that God blesses the monogamous gay couple every bit as much as He blesses the heterosexually married couple!

As Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees, we make void the Word of God by our traditions (Matthew 15:3,6,9) Mere fallible human beings interpreted the Bible to condemn same-sex unions! Mere human beings call being gay an "affliction" and gay sex as "intrinsically evil."

When done in a context of monogamous mutual love, the Bible doesn't affirm or condemn homosexuality. Indeed, the Bible is silent on this matter!

Many gay people walk around with guilt and shame because they think that they are condemned before God and their fellow man. Read the Bible with new eyes, taking account of the most recent biblical scholarship (See, for example, The New Oxford Annotated Bible), and see for yourself that God created you just as you are and He affirms and loves you just as you are. God shows far more grace than do mere human beings!

If you're gay, you have been given the gift of the capacity to love by God, your creator. Don't take that gift lightly and do not deny it as a gift from God.

You have the capacity to love another human being, and nothing is more sacred or godly than that... read it all, HERE 

· Thanks to the Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
·  Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT Rights, sidebar

BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL? By attending Homophobic churches you are being exposed to the demonic, and thereby terribly hurting your spiritual and emotional lives!

FLEE HOMOPHOBIC PASTORS AND CHURCHES

By The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

Many people might be surprised to learn that I am a conservative Christian; that I'm theologically conservative and that I'm also evangelical, in that I seek to spread the only Gospel to be found in Christianity: the Gospel of grace, or God's unmerited favor visited upon those whom God has chosen from the foundation of the world.

I also believe in the devil!

I'm absolutely convinced that the demonic has taken over much, if not most, of the institutional Church, as evidenced by hatred touted as "love," and by the false gospels of legalism, perfectionism, exclusion, and genital placement being substituted for the Gospel of grace!

When we fight for full and equal LGBT rights, we are not only seeking to gain those rights, but also portray an accurate view of Christianity!

The two are inextricably linked, as God made LGBT people in God's very image! Once people, LGBT and Straight, see that all of us have been made in God's image, that there are no "queers" or freaks in God's creation, the appeal to God by rank haters will increasingly fall on deaf ears!

You are not a "queer"; you are not a "tranny"; you are not in any way abnormal! You are God's child, made in the exact way and image God wanted to create you, and to in any way despise what God has created is a tragedy and, indeed, sinful, as you are then taking God's gift and throwing it back in God's face!

Moreover, all too many people, LGBT and Straight are, to one degree or another, taking seriously the venom spewed from hatefully ignorant professing Christians, especially pastors, and are continuing to listen to them and even attend homophobic "churches."

Flee homophobic pastors and churches as fast as your legs can carry you!

By attending those churches you are being exposed to the demonic, and thereby terribly hurting your spiritual and emotional lives! HERE

· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to  A Christian Voice For LGBT Christians

CHRISTIAN AGENTS OF HATE: The failure of many, if not most, professing Christians is being agents of hateful rhetoric against LGBT people by many clergy and evangelists

 

¨There is absolutely no Godly, biblical, or constitutional reason why lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should not enjoy every single civil and sacramental right that accrues to every other citizen!¨

By The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

¨...The Church, Christ's Church, the ecclesia, 'the called out ones,' are to obey the only Commandments Jesus gave us: to love God by trusting Him over and above seen circumstances; to love others and not to judge them. That's it! The only Gospel to be found in Christianity is the Gospel of grace, "the good news," the fact that through Jesus God has bestowed upon us His unmerited favor!

The proponents of the false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion, which is certainly not "good news," and certainly doesn't represent the commandment Jesus gave us to love others, is diametrically opposed to the Gospel, and its proponents have, unfortunately, virtually taken over most of the organized Church. Most of the organized Church has aligned itself with the most reactionary forces in secular society, which is also diametrically opposed to the Christian mandate that we love others by also fighting for justice for all of God's children.

Therefore, my passion is two fold: 1. To help reclaim Christianity from those who have substituted their own prejudices and mind-sets for the Gospel, and have sought to impose those prejudices and mind-sets on others; 2. Fight for full and equal civil and sacramental rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

There is absolutely no Godly, biblical, or constitutional reason why lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should not enjoy every single civil and sacramental right that accrues to every other citizen! The specious arguments presented by all too many clergy and their followers don't stand up to biblical, logical, empirical, or constitutional scrutiny; those arguments betray the very Gospel that Christians are called upon to preach and to live!

All Christians are called upon to live, not in 'time' but to live in 'eternity!' We are to be agents of God's love in this sin-cursed world, and if we're not such agents we are betraying both the Gospel and Jesus Himself!

The failure of many, if not most, professing Christians in being such agents; the hateful rhetoric against LGBT people by many clergy and evangelists; the failure of most clergy to condemn hateful rhetoric against LGBT people; the enmeshment of much of the organized Church with reactionary secular forces that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo from which they are frequently quite handsomely rewarded; the bureaucratization of most of the organized Church that is all too often obsessed with hierarchy, patriarchy, incestuous socialization, and building beautification, over and above addressing such burning issues as war and poverty; the failure of most of the organized Church to be in the vanguard of seeking full and equal civil rights and civil liberties for LGBT people; the suffering of so many LGBT people and their families at the hands of both religious and political forces, have spurred me to expend as much energy as possible in confronting these perversions of the Gospel. HERE

· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT Christians, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

PREACHING THE FALSE GOSPEL OF EXCLUSION: ¨All of us, by our actions and/or by our silence, are complicit in this conflagration, in this horror, in this unspeakable evil, in this unspeakable sin!

THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH'S COMPLICITY IN EVIL AND SIN

By Dr. Jerry Maneker

¨...Oppression is of one piece! As I've written so many times, when one group is oppressed, all other groups are at risk of being oppressed, and the oppression of women and LGBT people in Iraq and Afghanistan is inextricably interwoven with the oppression of LGBT people in the U.S. and elsewhere, as it is inextricably interwoven with sexism, racism, and homophobia both here and elsewhere. All of us, by our actions and/or by our silence, are complicit in this conflagration, in this horror, in this unspeakable evil, in this unspeakable sin!

This country voted for the cowardly politicians who roll over for it, and choose to give a blank check that furthers the humiliation and annihilation of people. We are the murderers, and our collective hands are bloodied by what is being done in Iraq and Afghanistan in our name, just as they are being bloodied by the horrors visited upon LGBT people both in the U.S., Uganda, Jamaica, and elsewhere when we remain silent in the face of such outrages!

While most of the institutional Church focuses on the theology of genital placement, and remains silent in the face of such outrages as seen in the above cited article, and as seen in the treatment of LGBT people, it is not only irrelevant to the issues of the day, but it is also complicit in those corporate and personal sins that cry out to God for vengeance, and for which it is largely responsible, due to its actions and/or silence in the face of such oppression, through its often destructive and hateful rhetoric, and through its enmeshment with the most reactionary forces in society.

So, sing your pious hymns, continue to raise money for building beautification, continue to concentrate and hammer on others' personal weaknesses, continue on in your incestuous socialization, continue to keep the juices flowing with sanctimonious and fiery rhetoric, continue to ignore and/or encourage the corporate evil done in our name and, frequently, in the name of God, and continue to preach the false gospel of exclusion through the often hateful rhetoric that garners even more money for the collection plate.¨ please read it all HERE  (emphasis added by LR)

· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT Christians, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

HOMOPHOBIA/PART THREE: ¨...there are psychological and social payoffs provided by homophobia and its rhetorical and/or behavioral expressions!¨

¨It seems to me that all emotionally healthy people recognize Freud's assertion that, "The Ego is not master in its own house!" (Sigmund Freud, "A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis," 1917.)

That is, we contain unconscious forces within us that we can barely, if at all, understand; we do not have the degree of control over our thoughts and behaviors that we often, though falsely, think we have!

One of the indicators of emotional intactness, and also intelligence, is the ability to handle the many uncertainties and ambiguities of life! Homophobes, and xenophobes of all types, those who feel the need to denigrate and exclude others, seem to lack that ability and, hence, they show themselves fearful of the many gray areas that exist in society, exist in what and who they perceive to be "the other," and exist in what often unknown forces reside within themselves as well.

After all, as I've often written, emotionally healthy people don't really care about the love and sex lives of others, let alone compulsively focus on, and condemn, Gay people, to the degree that some people even make careers (and sometimes a handsome living) as professional homophobes!

So, simply put, people do what they perceive to be rewarding for them! And there can be no doubt that there are psychological and social payoffs provided by homophobia and its rhetorical and/or behavioral expressions!

Both externalized and internalized homophobia are largely used as defense mechanisms to repress and/or suppress often sexually tempestuous forces that threaten to come to consciousness, often when provoked by the mere existence of LGBT people; the objects of one's fear, be it others and/or him/herself, become objects of derision, and even hate, that reflects, and futilely seeks to eradicate, the very derision and hate that one feels toward him/herself.¨ read it all, By Dr. Jerry Maneker, HERE

· Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT People, sidebar
· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

HOMOPHOBIA/PART ONE: When one's unconscious anxieties and fears are threatened to be manifested in their nakedness, the result is often anger and aggression...

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL ROOTS AND PAYOFFS OF HOMOPHOBIA

By The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

¨...Internalized and externalized homophobia are both congruent with fear, and are caused by fear; that homophobia (and its manifestations) is, in itself, an instrument or defense mechanism that one uses to minimize the fear and/or shame of one's being Gay, or even used to minimize the generalized fear of the unknown, that resides in the homophobe's own psyche.

As Sigmund Freud asserted, the unconscious is not merely a passive part of our personality. Rather, it is comprised of all sorts of tempestuous forces, often "unspeakable" drives and urges, that one cannot afford to bring to consciousness in order to maintain his/her ego-integrity his/her sense of self.

"In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behavior and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences."

These "unacceptable" and "unpleasant" feelings, conflicts, and anxieties that reside in the "Id," the "unconscious," are usually repressed by the psyche. However, when those unpleasant feelings, conflicts, and anxieties threaten to come to consciousness, all sorts of defense mechanisms are used to keep those feelings suppressed, not the least of which is denial; when denial is impossible, anger and aggression (externalized and/or internalized) usually become manifest.

When one's unconscious anxieties and fears are threatened to be manifested in their nakedness, the result is often anger and aggression so as to repress and suppress those anxieties and fears; that repression and suppression cause homophobes to both live inauthentic and self-defeating lives on the one hand, and also fool themselves into believing that they are intact human beings on the other hand.

And, of course, nothing could be further from the truth! One cannot live an inauthentic and/or self-defeating life and also be emotionally intact!

Repression and suppression of sexuality as a price we all pay to live in civil society, as alleged by Freud, is dramatically fueled by religion that seeks to maintain the status quo, and maintain its moral hegemony over others; even over people's self-concept that in reality is not usually in line with the truth of one's tempestuous psyche that screams to get out of its repressed state.

Strident Homophobe Pastor Eddie Long and George W. Bush

And, tragically, it is often "homophobia" (and its manifestations) that is used as a defense mechanism that helps keep the person's frustrations, urges, and other tempestuous forces that reside in the unconscious repressed and suppressed. Hence, the virtual impossibility of educating the strident homophobe into seeing that being Gay is a normal sexual orientation.

Gafcon Anglican/Puritan/Schismatic repression and suppression of sexuality is dramatically fueled by taboo, superstition and fundamentalism 

It seems to me that among many people there is an inordinate need for certainty in this uncertain world, and this phenomenon is no less true when we speak of one's psychic world.

Hence, the seduction of "fundamentalism," be it in religious life or in secular life. HERE

· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT People, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

PART THREE -- Dupes, Opportunists and Allies of the Power Elite: Reactionary mind-set and who ferociously seek to maintain their control over others in order to keep their privileged positions!

President Barack Obama, United States of America ¨sold out to ´gay´ marriage and abortion¨

PART THREE:  ¨Portraying Christians as being under attack¨
By The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

¨No better most recent examples can be shown to highlight the machinations of the Power Elite by "religious" reactionaries than are contained in these two articles: See: "Evangelicals say McCain's the one, Meeting consensus: Obama has sold out to 'gay' marriage, abortion" (World Net Daily, July 8, 2008) and "Church of England refuses to comment on Vatican secret talks," Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent, June 7, 2008. first written for Whosoever Magazine HERE

In the first article, it shows how "evangelical Christians" (I put the term "evangelical" in quotation marks because that term has, unfortunately, been perverted.) are starting to organize and mobilize to support McCain for President. Clearly, they didn't like him in the beginning of the campaign but, when the rubber hits the road, they are going to support him, and they are now providing to themselves as well as to others their justifications in so doing.

Part of the article, reads as follows: "'Our shared conservative evangelical values and our concern about judicial activism compelled us to unite around the presidential candidate who most closely aligns with us,' [Matthew] Staver [President of Liberty Council] said. 'That candidate is obviously Sen. John McCain. United we will move forward to advance our values in the short- and long-term. We are committed to a trans-generational, multiethnic and multiracial conservative movement.'

"The report said some of the Christian leaders were irked by the fact 'Obama has reached out to evangelical leaders more than McCain.' But it confirmed others expressed support for McCain, 'because an Obama presidency would mean passage of highly liberal policies that would probably allow "same-sex marriage," severely hurt religious freedom and ensure the appointment of only judges who would keep abortion on demand as the law of the land.'´

Baptist Minister Rick Scarborough, author of ¨In Defense of Mixing Church and State¨ and ¨ Liberalism Kills Kids¨

¨Rick Scarborough, founder and president of Vision America, predicted that laws would be passed that would essentially criminalize basic Christian beliefs,' Strang's report said."

By portraying Christianity as being under attack, they are using the same rationale and tactics as was used by White Supremacists in creating an "enemy" so that they could portray themselves as victims of a grave threat that only by electing someone who had a mind-set like theirs, regardless of religious or spiritual commitment, could help remedy. Such a portrayal not only garners increased revenue for religious reactionaries, the handmaidens of the Power Elite, but helps enable them to ensure the status quo that they perceive will keep them in control and help keep the minority group(s) they despise under their thumb, so as to maintain their influence and control of most of the institutional Church, maintain what they tout as the moral high ground, and maintain their definition of "Christianity" in the public's mind.

Flagrant disregard of life and limb lost in an unjust and immoral war doesn't seem to bother these public advocates for the rights of the unborn! The irony of their seeming to care for pre-born babies doesn't seem to carry over to their caring for the countless thousands who have already been killed and maimed in the Iraq war, and the many yet likely to be killed and maimed if John McCain becomes President. first written for Whosoever Magazine. HERE


What is important to them is to maintain their mind-set of exclusion of "the other," their constructed enemy, be that "other" African Americans, women, LGBT people, or whatever enemy they seek to construct so as to maintain both their hegemony in society, and to help assure that the existing social structure continues to favor them and their ideology, an ideology that has relatively little to do with their "Christian" profession, and certainly nothing to do with Christianity itself!

The contradiction of their professed "Christianity" with their politics has been seen throughout history, so it should come as no surprise that in the article entitled, "Church of England refuses to comment on Vatican secret talks," by Jonathan Wynne-Jones, that appeared in the July 11, 2008 edition of "The Telegraph," we read:

"Senior Church of England bishops have held secret talks with Vatican officials to discuss the crisis in the Anglican communion over gays and women bishops.

"They met senior advisers of the Pope in an attempt to build closer ties with the Roman Catholic Church, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

"Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was not told of the talks and the disclosure will be a fresh blow to his efforts to prevent a major split in the Church of England.

"In highly confidential discussions, a group of conservative bishops expressed their dismay at the liberal direction of the Church of England and their fear for its future.

"They met members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the most powerful of the Vatican's departments, the successor to the medieval Inquisition, which enforces doctrine and was headed by Pope Benedict XVI before his election.

"The names of the bishops are known to The Sunday Telegraph, but they have asked for anonymity because the talks are of such a sensitive and potentially explosive nature.

"The disclosure comes on the eve of a critical vote as members of the General Synod – the Church's parliament – prepare to decide whether to allow women to be bishops without giving concessions to staunch opponents.

"Up to 600 clergy gave warning in a letter to Dr Williams that they may leave the Church unless they receive a legal right to havens within the Church free of women bishops.

"In separate developments, three diocesan bishops wrote to the archbishop supporting the threat and two other bishops have said they are preparing to leave the Church. The letter from the Bishops of Chichester, Blackburn and Europe - seen by The Sunday Telegraph - argues that traditionalist clergy will not be able to "maintain an honoured place" in the Church without sufficient legislation."

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury attends Anglican African Bishop Conference with excluding and schismatic bishops in August 2010, Entebbe, Uganda

So the hostility "traditional" clergy in the Church of England have toward LGBT rights, such as the ordination of Gay people and same-sex marriage, is seamlessly related to their hostility toward women becoming Bishops, thereby reinforcing the basic misogyny behind much of the homophobia that exists.

Bishop Drexel Gomez/¨Hate Crime¨ riddled Jamaica and West Indies, Chairperson of the ¨punitive¨ Anglican Covenant

The issues aren't women and Gays, per se but, rather, the desire for control within the social structure(s) in which those with the reactionary mind-set find themselves!

We all want some degree of control over our lives, and we want our ideas to be taken seriously by others. However, there is a reactionary mind-set that requires those who possess it to have control over other people, and who thereby seek to impose their self-serving and naked self-interests on the rest of society and/or their denomination, even at the expense and contradiction of their profession of being "Christians" who trust in God, or any other laudable ideology that they profess.

So, just as "evangelicals" largely getting behind McCain for President, self-styled "conservative" Bishops and clergy in the Anglican Communion are seeking possible alignment with the Roman Catholic Church, a Church from which their forebears largely dissociated. It is not unlikely that the self-styled "traditionalists" or "conservatives" will now seek some way of affiliating with an organization quite well-known for its comfort with, and institutionalization of, the reactionary mind-set.

Moneyman, Howard F. Ahmanson is thought willing to install the ¨supremacy of biblical law¨  HERE .

Rather than call themselves "Reactionaries" or worse, they call themselves "evangelicals" or even "Christians," all the while not seeing the basic contradiction between their love of power and their professed love of God!

They can condone, or turn a blind eye to, the torture and killing of others, all the while portraying themselves as "the victims" of those [whom they derisively call "liberals"] who seek to stop that torturing and killing; they seek to take the high ground in public discourse, all the while seeking to deprive others of the full and equal civil and sacramental rights that they, themselves, enjoy; they state that they are "traditional Christians," all the while seeking power within their Church and/or society, and not trusting God and the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of that Church and in that society; in the name of "Christianity" they perversely bow down to Caesar and aid him in maintaining a status quo from which he mightily benefits!

We must finally come to realize that the enemy we are fighting, the enemy that oppresses us does so, not especially because we are women, Black, Italian, Jewish, Mexican, poor, immigrants, or Gay but, rather, that "oppression" is what that enemy, the possessor of that reactionary mind-set, routinely does, and has historically done, to gain and maintain power within society and/or the institutional Church!

Once we understand this phenomenon and how we all have a personal stake in the acquisition of equal rights for members of each and every non-predatory minority group, it will be at that point that all of us who are members of minority groups (and that's most of us in the U.S.) will see our commonality with each other and begin to work together in the fight against our common enemy: the Power Elite (and its allies), comprised of those who possess the Reactionary mind-set and who ferociously seek to maintain their control over others at any cost in order to keep their privileged positions! HERE

· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for LGBT People, sidebar
· Thanks to The Sunday Telegraph, United Kingdom
· Thanks to Jonathan Wynne-Jones
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing
· Thanks to President Barack Obama