PLEASE MEET CHAIM LEVIN: Chaim Levin is Giving Hope to LGBT Orthodox Jews

¨Chaim Levin, 22, grew up feeling the sting of discrimination¨

“I felt like I didn’t want to live anymore.”  Chaim Levin

¨When people think of anti-gay places, the gay Mecca of New York City does not often come to mind. However, Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community is a hotbed of homophobia, where LGBT people are shunned, abused, rejected and told they must change their sexual orientation to be accepted.

Chaim Levin, 22, grew up feeling the sting of discrimination and disgust from his Orthodox family and neighbors in Crown Heights. In his teenage years he was sent away to a strict religious boarding school in France. After Levin was outed, he was bullied and humiliated on a daily basis...¨ read it all please, HERE

Against all odds, Levin has brushed off his critics and pushed forward to break barriers and begin to create lasting change in a hostile environment. This month he started a new blog named after gay icon Harvey Milk’s famous saying, “You gotta give em hope.”*

¨Last week, Levin joined me in Atlanta to protest an “ex-gay” conference. It was part of his heroic advocacy to help LGBT youth and educate people in Brooklyn’s Jewish neighborhoods.

Levin has ruffled feathers and gained notoriety since he published an historic pro-LGBT essay in the Jewish Press, the first of its kind in this traditionally conservative publication. In reaction to his piece, some anti-gay activists urged a boycott of the Jewish Press and extremist Rabbi Yehuda Levin wrote a letter to the editor calling for the   chemical castration of gay men. Levin has also had to endure the criticism of some LGBT Orthodox Jews who prefer a quieter, more closeted approach to advocacy...¨ by Wayne Besen   HERE

*This month Chaim Levin started a new blog named after gay icon Harvey Milk’s famous saying, “You gotta give em hope.”

· Thanks to Truth Wins Out, sidebar
· Thanks to Wayne Besen
· Thanks to Chaim Levin
· Thanks to ´You gotta give em hope¨ HERE


Jewish Gay Pride

MAGISTRATE IN UGANDA HOMOPHOBIC SMEAR CASE AGAINST BROTHER OF ARCHBISHOP OF YORK: ¨Accuses lawyer of dirty tricks campaign¨

Ugandan ´Mega Church´Pastor Robert Kayanja, Brother of John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

BACKGROUND:

¨Pastor Kayanja is very, very strong. His is 'Rubaga Miracle Cathedral'... and it is a mega church. He has recently opened a TV station in Uganda. Christian. And his ministry spans the earth. Yes, it does. He has good connections with the First Family, and has given of his accumulating wealth, judiciously. I mean, he has been giving to the police. Gifts of appreciation.¨  HERE

¨Kampala — THE first half of this year left its mark in the history of Uganda's Born-again church. Renowned pastor, Robert Kayanja, was accused of sodomy.
A group of five pastors and their colleagues pinned the Rubaga Miracle Centre cleric but Kayanja denied the allegations, calling them mudslinging.

The accusers were anti-LGBT campaigners/pastors Michael Kyazze, Martin Ssempa, Solomon Male, Kayiira and Semujju.¨ ¨The Pastor Wars¨, HERE

The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, brother of Pastor Robert Kayanja

¨Just caught up this, that the Archbishop of York, the number 2 in the Church of England is not going to comment on the Anti-Homosexuality bill.

Yeah, the guy was born in Uganda. And, forgive the gentleman, he has some more than veiled interest in what is happening! I mean, remove the fact that he is the number 2 to Canterbury. And, he is Ugandan... by birth. Grew up here. Went into the diaspora during the Amin times....¨ HERE

UPDATED:

The trial magistrate in Uganda’s on-going landmark homophobic smear case against three anti-gay pastors has accused the lead defence lawyer of a dirty tricks campaign.

Pastor Martin Ssempa (hand/head/facing down) and Kyazze (facing down) during a court appearance in 2011

¨Magistrate John Wekesa said the lawyer, Edward Sekabanja, had orchestrated a bribery smear campaign against him in the media and meanwhile sanctioned “false affidavits” to accuse the magistrate of having received a bribe from Robert Kayanja of Lubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral in Kampala.

Sekabanja represents three Christian preachers, Martin Sempa, Solomon Male and Bob Kyazze who stand accused of conspiracy to damage Kayanja’s name by way of a homophobic smear campaign. Kayanja has sued the three pastors in the on-going case...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Behind the Mask, sidebar
·  Thanks to Gay Uganda, sidebar

¨THE ARCHITECT´S MANIFESTO¨: Archbishop Drexel Gomez and The Anglican Covenant

Archbishop Drexel Gomez,  Primate of the West Indies (retired) and chair of the Anglican Covenant Design Group

¨Drexel Gomez was not chosen to chair the Covenant Design Group as a neutral chair. His views of the present and future of the Communion were well known and the Archbishop of Canterbury must have chosen him with this in mind.¨ Paul Bagshaw HERE

¨In 2001 Drexel Gomez co-edited with Maurice Sinclair  HERE(wikipedia) a short book called To Mend the Net: Anglican Faith and Order for Renewed Mission. It was published by The Ekklesia Society. HERE

Please note the date: 2001. Two years before Gene Robinson (wikipedia) HERE

To Mend the Net is a collection of essays with a conservative prescription for the reform of the Anglican Communion. It is not available on the net.

(References below are to paragraph numbers)

The editors' focus was on The Episcopal Church's disregard of the Lambeth 1.10 resolution on sexuality, TEC's decision to monitor progress towards women's ordination in all dioceses, and the equal valuing of marriage and non-marital sexual relations within the Church (1.8) though the valuation of homosexuality within the church was their particular horror (1.6).

Amongst other things the book prescribes:

'Enhanced Responsibility' for the Primates' Meeting ( Lambeth Conference 1998-3-6). This was central to the book's programme. (1.2)

The 'need to be clear what kind of new practices can be accepted into a process of open reception, how necessary openness can be guaranteed, and how a proper collegiality among Anglican bishops can be restored when it is eroded or broken' (1.8)

'Some may be tempted to imagine that democratic structures linked with democratic values will sole our problems. Instead ...' [we choose] 'truth and holiness of life' 'We want to allow the authoritative Scriptures to speak into and redeem our Church and our world and we refuse to relativise or domesticate the Word of God.' (1.10) (See an earlier post, A Richer Covenant)

They claimed no brief to put a legislative structure above Provinces, but espoused 'the exercise of a form of political authority at the international level.' (1.11)

'Genuine collegiality will normally require a minority to respect decisions supported by a majority of Primates.' Experiment in 'doctrine, discipline or ethics' would need 'a consensus or a very substantial majority of Primates' (2.2)

The Exercise of Enhanced Responsibility was summarised as:

Self Examination led by Primates' personal example (3.1)

Education: promoted by Primates who should also 'specify the limits of diversity and the frame of reference of provincial autonomy.' (3.2)

Advanced Sharing: especially sharing initiatives with one another in advance of implementation (3.3)

Preparation of Guidelines: if a significant minority of Primates disagree with the proposed initiative it should not proceed. If such advice is ignored then 'guidelines' should 'address the situation created and identify its remedy.' (3.4)

Godly Admonition: the 'guidelines' would be sent to the errant province or diocese [to address the issue of 'local' action allowed but not authorized by a Province] for approval and acceptance. 'This step would be taken with a very positive intent.' (3.5)

Observer status: if the admonition was not heeded the Archbishop of Canterbury would demote the recalcitrant body from member to observer on international Anglican bodies. (3.6)


Continuing Evangelization: the Archbishop of Canterbury would also be asked to authorize 'appropriate means of evangelization, pastoral care and episcopal oversight' of the offending body. (3.7)

New Jurisdiction: And if resistance continued the Archbishop of Canterbury would be advised how to set up a new jurisdiction to replace the offending body as the legitimate Anglican entity in that geographical area. (3.8) The 'intransigent body' would be suspended. (3.8)

Primates' Commission: a standing commission to assist the Archbishop of Canterbury would be established 'to the furtherance of priorities in mission and the re-ordering in cases of disorder.' (3.9)

What remains in the Covenant? ...please read it all, By Paul Bagshaw, HERE

Note:  Emphasis added by Leonardo Ricardo

·  Thanks to Not the same stream, sidebar
·  Thanks to Paul Bagshaw

¨NO¨ to ANGLICAN COVENANT: ¨This weekend, the dioceses of Leicester, Portsmouth, Rochester, and Salisbury all voted against the Anglican Covenant.

If a majority of dioceses of The Church  of England vote against the Covenant, one would expect that the Covenant will have effectively been rejected by the Mother Church of worldwide Anglicanism

¨As I’m sure many readers know, dioceses of the Church of England—there are 44 of them—are voting on the Anglican Covenant. Only if a majority of the dioceses vote in favor of the pact will the question of its adoption by the Church of England return to the General Synod for final approval. If a majority of dioceses vote against the Covenant, one would expect that the Covenant will have effectively been rejected by the Mother Church of worldwide Anglicanism. One always has to worry, however, whether Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams might devise some ad hoc contrivance to rescue his beloved Covenant from ignominious defeat by his own church.

Going into this weekend, the diocesan vote was 5 dioceses for Covenant adoption (Lichfield, Durham, Europe, Bristol, and Canterbury) and 6 dioceses against (Truro, Birmingham, Wakefield, St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Derby, and Gloucester). The vote is no longer so close.

This weekend, the dioceses of Leicester, Portsmouth, Rochester, and Salisbury and all voted against the Covenant. This makes the current vote of dioceses 5 for the Covenant and 10 against!
By Lionel Diemel  HERE

More information , including actual vote totals, will eventually appear on the No Anglican Covenant Coalition’s blog http://blog.noanglicancovenant.org/ and Web site http://noanglicancovenant.org/

·  Thanks to The Church of England
·  Thanks to No Anglican Covenant Coalition, sidebar
·  Thanks to Lionel Diemel, sidebar
·  Thanks to Church of England dioceses of Leicester, Portsmouth, Rochester and Salisbury

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IDIOT OF THE WEEK: Mainline Protestantism is ¨in shambles¨ and ¨gone from the world of Christianity¨

Roman Catholic former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania

Santorum Excommunicates 45 Million Christians: Mainline Protestants Are ‘Gone From The World Of Christianity’

¨We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it. [...]

Whether its sensuality of vanity of the famous in America, they are peacocks on display and they have taken their poor behavior and made it fashionable. The corruption of culture, the corruption of manners, the corruption of decency is now on display whether it’s the NBA or whether it’s a rock concert or whether it’s on a movie set...¨  HERE

·  Thanks to Think Progress, sidebar
·  Thanks to  Alex Seitz-Wald

I DON´T THINK IT WILL ALWAYS BE EASY: When Your 7-Year-Old Son Announces, 'I'm Gay'

"My 7-Year-Old Son Is Gay, and I'm So Proud To Be His Mom"

¨Considering that my son has a longstanding crush on Glee's Blaine and regularly refers to him as "my boyfriend," I thought there was a fair chance that he would someday say, "I'm gay." But my kid is only 7 years old. I figured I had a few years before we crossed that threshold (if we ever did), probably when he was 14 or 15. I never thought it would happen this soon.

Six months ago "gay" wasn't even a word in my son's vocabulary. He has always known that some of our male friends are married to men and some of our female friends to women, and it is such a normal part of his life that he never needed a special word to describe them. When he did notice the word and asked what it meant, I told him that when boys want to marry boys and girls want to marry girls, we call that "gay." He didn't seem very interested and quickly went off to do something else more exciting than a vocabulary lesson with his mom.

Fast-forward a few months. I was on the phone with a relative who had just discovered that I was blogging on The Huffington Post and openly discussing my son's crush on Blaine. I was in another room alone (I thought), explaining, "We're not saying he's straight, and we're not saying he's gay. We're saying we love who he is," when my son's voice piped up behind me.

"Yes, I am," he said.

"Am what, baby?" I asked.

"Gay. I'm gay."  there is more, please read it all, HERE

NOTE:   I´m Leonardo Ricardo/Len and I knew I was ¨Gay¨ at least by age 7 too.  As described in Amelia´s entry at Huffington Post, ¨I didn´t know what the language for *it* was and I was afraid *it* was wrong to be who I was born to be...the authentic me.  My parents were loving and accepting of me (and my friends) at all ages/stages of my life even though we never had much conversation on ¨Gay¨ specifically. Thanks, Len

·  Thanks to Amelia, Mother, Wife, Partner and Breadwinner
·  Thanks to The Huffington Post, sidebar
·  Thanks to End Bigotry in Venango County, HERE

HELP! Anglican Archbishop John Chew Hiang Chea: Serial gang-attacks on transgender women in Malaysia increasing!

¨At least 13 transgender women have been assaulted in Kuantan, the state capital of Pahang, in the last six months – stirring fears that the same gang is responsible for the attacks, The Star newspaper reported on Thursday quoting a friend of several of the victims.

One of the victims, identified in the press as Mona, received 18 stitches after being assaulted and slashed in the neck at Jalan Haji Abdul Aziz on Sep 1 last year.Photo: The Star The attacks occurred in Jalan Bukit Ubi, Jalan Pasar and Jalan Dato Wong Ah Jang, besides Jalan Haji Abdul Aziz. One of the victims, identified in the press as Mona, received 18 stitches after being assaulted and slashed in the neck at Jalan Haji Abdul Aziz on Sep 1 last year.

The two victims of the latest attack, which occurred on Wednesday, are a make-up artist and her friend who were set upon by six men on motorcycles and beaten with chains, steel bars and crash helmets. They both suffered cuts and bruises.

“They hit me non-stop till I fell, and then hit me some more. They sounded very angry,” one of the victims was quoted as saying in the paper. She received five stitches to close a deep gash on the back of her head...please read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Fridae, sidebar

http://blog.noanglicancovenant.org/

COUNTERLIGHT´S PECULIARS: ¨My Advice to Right Wing Christians Tired of Being Portrayed As Unreasonable Bigots ...

Stop acting like unreasonable bigots.¨

¨Not getting your way in every policy debate and not having everyone else defer to your beliefs is not oppression.

Getting fired from your job, getting evicted from your home, getting constantly harassed and threatened, getting declared deviate and criminal, getting the shit beaten out of you, or getting killed just for being yourself, now THAT'S oppression.¨   HERE

·  Thanks to Doug, Counterlight´s Peculiars

PROFESSOR MARILYN McCORD ADAMS APPOINTED AS NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALITION’S FOURTH PATRON -- Professor McCord Adams joins Bishops John Saxbee and Peter Selby, and Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch*

Professor McCord Adams

¨The No Anglican Covenant Coalition today announced that Marilyn McCord Adams, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, has been appointed as the Covenant’s fourth Patron. The Coalition’s news release can be read here

“The proposed Anglican Covenant was conceived in moral indignation and pursued with disciplinary intent,” according to Professor McCord Adams. “Its global gate-keeping mechanisms would put a damper on the gospel agenda, which conscientious Anglicans should find intolerable. The Covenant is based on an alien ecclesiology, which thoughtful Anglicans have every reason to reject.”  Marilyn McCord Adams

Marilyn McCord Adams (born 1943) is an American philosopher working in philosophy of religion, philosophical theology and medieval philosophy.

Since 1 July 2009, Adams has been a Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before that she was, in reverse chronological order, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University, the Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale University, and a Professor of Philosophy at UCLA. She is also a former President of the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy.

Adams was ordained priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in 1987 and was until recently a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. HERE

Español

La Coalición No Pacto Anglicano ha anunciado hoy que Marilyn McCord Adams, Distinguido profesor investigador de filosofía en la Universidad de Carolina del Norte, ha sido nombrado Patrono cuarto del Pacto. El lanzamiento de la Coalición de noticias se puede leer La Coalición No Pacto Anglicano ha anunciado hoy que Marilyn McCord Adams, Distinguido profesor investigador de filosofía en la Universidad de Carolina del Norte, ha sido nombrado Patrono cuarto del Pacto. El lanzamiento de la Coalición de noticias se puede leer aquí AQUI . Un extracto:

"El Pacto Anglicano propuesto fue concebido en la indignación moral y la persigue con una intención disciplinaria", según el profesor McCord Adams. "Sus globales de mantenimiento de los mecanismos de la puerta que poner un freno a la agenda del evangelio, que los anglicanos de conciencia deberían encontrar intolerable. El Pacto se basa en una eclesiología extranjero, que los anglicanos reflexivos tienen toda la razón para rechazar ". Marilyn McCord Adams

Marilyn McCord Adams (nacida en 1943) es una filósofa estadounidense que trabaja principalmente en las áreas de la filosofía religiosa, teología filosófica y la filosofía medieval.

El 1 de julio del 2009, Adams fue designada Profesora Distinguida de Investigaciones de Filosofía en la University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Anteriormente había sido la "Regius Professor of Divinity" en la Universidad de Oxford, la Horace Tracy Pitkin Profesora de Teología Histórica en la Universidad de Yale, y Profesora de Filosofía en la UCLA.

En 1987 Adams fue ordenada sacerdote en la Iglesia episcopal en los Estados Unidos de América y hasta poco tiempo atrás fue canónica de la Catedral de Oxford. AQUI

*PROFESSOR MARILYN McCORD ADAMS APPOINTED AS NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALITION’S FOURTH PATRON -- Professor McCord Adams joins Bishops John Saxbee and Peter Selby, and Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch. 

The Revd Dr Lesley Crawley, Moderator of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition, and Dr Lionel Deimel, the Coalition’s Episcopal Church Convenor

MY SCHOOL DAYS/DAZE VALENTINE BOXES (would you or wouldn´t you be my Valentine?)

When I was a little kid.  A kid in Grade School.  I remember each Valentines Day we´d have a Valentines Day Party in our classroom.   I think the Mom´s brought in refreshments and the last couple of hours in the afternoon on Valentines Day were devoted to frolicing about, playing lovey-dovey games and opening the individual Valentine mail boxes we had wrapped and decorated for OURSELVES!  Yes, there they were all those former shoe boxes now all decorated with cupids, hearts and various throbs of electriclike love designs!  Surely you remember them, that is, if you were a kid when kid´s were still celebrating holidays like Valentines day in Grade School?  

Anyway, those little ¨mailboxes¨ , one each for each pupil in the class, actually received the paper valentines from fellow classmembers.  Some of the Valentines came in sets of Valentines and they all looked alike and all I had to do was sign my name, after Happy Valentines Day, seal the envelope and then address it, one for each classmate, and then deposit them in the lavishly gushy shoe boxes with the mail slot on top...of course, for SPECIAL friends, there were always larger, individual Valentines that would upstage the everyday/ordinary ones that everyone else would receive.  

Oh, how I worried day after day (Valentines were deposited in secret during recess/etc) that on the final day during the party when I opened my VALENTINE BOX, mine would be empty...yes, it´s true...fret, fret, fret, I was aware that I was ¨different¨ from the others at a very early age and I knew I couldn´t give BIG valentines to those secret recipients that I longed to give them to...and, of course nobody would know that I wanted a BIG VALENTINE  from one, or two, of them too!  

Well, it wasn´t as bad as all of that but I did worry about being ¨different¨ and being alone with my heartshaped unexplained longings.  ALAS! When the boxes were delivered, each one, one by one, to our desks during the Red Glazed Heart Shaped Sugar Cookie Party, my BOX was always full.   Filled with all the cards personally addressed to me from my fellow happy Valentines Day well-wishers...boys, girls and teachers too...it wasn´t a cause for worry as it turned out because year after year many of you, boys, girls (and later older versions too) remained/became my Valentines. 

You know who you are and since I´m now into my sixtyth (something) Valentines Day celebration I wish to tell you that I LOVE and APPRECIATE every one of you...you have been my Valentines, year after year and my Valentine box runneth over with love from many of you...let me count the ways that I love you tooeth...millions of ways I love you and I am thankful for each one of you...thanks be to God for all of you...I need not have worried, you´ve always been there for me when my heart opened (fear and despair falls away from me).

You are a big deal.

Love to you,

Lenny, Len, Leonard, Leonardo, Leo (all of us)
Valentines Day 2012