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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
"If the suffering we are seeing in Jamaica were happening in Ft. Lauderdale or Chicago or San Diego, there would be an unbelievable outcry not only from the LGBT community, but from many of our spiritual and activist allies. To date, the silence of our community about atrocities so near our shores is overwhelming. We must speak up and not shut up until we know the tide is turning towards justice and safety for our brothers and sisters in Jamaica!"
- Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson Moderator Metropolitan Community Churches
"Is there no end to injustice? Is there no shame among religious people who would use their faith as an excuse to mistreat, exclude, yes, even murder others? Is there no force in the world to stop these barbaric acts, to soften these hard hearts, to teach these misinformed people that same-sex love is simply love? We of the progressive religious community have work to do and no time to waste as our children die. God help us."
-- Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D. Co-Director, WATER Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual
"The National Black Justice Coalition stands in spiritual solidarity with the powerful message of the Article of Faith: A call for people of faith to stand against anti-LGBT violence. We are called to speak truth to power and vigorously speak out against violence. The violence that is inflicted upon God's LGBT children is a global disgrace. It is a phenomenon that receives too little notice and apparently, scant concern. This can't go on. Indifference to human suffering dishonors all people. We have to speak out loudly in a chorus of protest against the unholy, treacherous maiming of body and soul."
-- Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D. Director of Religious Affairs National Black Justice Coalition
"Violence against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is the last, cruelest and most reprehensible act of an oppression that fails to get its way by other means. This violence is so far removed from religion and God that its perpetrators can lay no claim, offer no Scriptural defense, proffer no justification that removes their guilt. Such violence is abhorrent to all right-minded people, of any community of faith, and those who use it are rightly called what they are - criminals."
-- Emily Eastwood Executive Director Lutherans Concerned/North America
"Thank you Rev. Schuenemeyer for bringing our awareness again to the increasing horror and pain of hate crimes and our responsibility, in any and all communities, to combat it.
"Righteousness and indifference are as malicious and dangerous as any fist or voice raised against another human being, and how subtly and sneakily can they creep into our daily lives.
"Righteousness gives us 'permission' to do or say things that are hurtful to others while standing on high ground. Indifference gives us 'permission' not to care about others suffering, allowing us to stand by and do nothing. It is hard to keep our hearts open and have real empathy for others; it is hard to have humility and acknowledge that we may not always be right, and may not have answers for everything. But just because these things are hard to do, doesn't mean that we should stop striving every moment of every day to be the compassionate warriors we were born to be."
-- Swami Dhumavati Kashi Ashram Member of the Roundtable Steering Committee
"It is a tragic truth that stories of anti-LGBT violence are so common. A few years ago a grade-school-age child was beaten to death here in Georgia, because he acted too 'feminine.' As people of faith we are called not only to loudly condemn these actions but also to challenge the misuse of Scriptures that motivate such violence. From a personal perspective I will work to see that faith-based refugee resettlement efforts through Lutheran Services in America, the largest social service agency in the United States, recognizes the need to provide asylum and resettlement services to people whose lives are in danger simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity."
-- Bob Gibeling Lutheran Services of Georgia Member of the Roundtable Steering Committee
"You cannot get more basic than, 'Thou Shall Not Kill.' There is no religious tradition, Christian, or other spiritual path that condones such behavior. And while religious teachings have often been used to incite terrible acts, preaching hate and violence is not the word of any God that I know. As religious people, as LGBT people or any person with a connection to a moral tenet, what do we need as a call to action? The atrocity in Jamaica is thousands of miles away so perhaps I can ignore it. How can I also ignore the murder of 15-year-old teenager Lawrence King which took place 40 miles from my home? It should not be the proximity or number of people injured or the level of atrocity that moves me. As a human being created in the image of God, I have a duty to speak out against the corruptions of God's teachings that let some people think that they can attack and kill a neighbor and that this is somehow acceptable behavior. If I do not speak out, I have failed as a divinely created being. So I am speaking, and asking others: What we can do together to address this? And, I am asking them to ask others as well. If we both ask and take action, we have a chance to restore communities where we can recognize that of God in each of us. Shalom."
-- Joel L. Kushner, Psy.D. Director Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation Hebrew Union College -- Jewish Institute of Religion
"Faith In America calls upon Jamaicans to recognize and understand the immense harm caused when a social climate of rejection and condemnation against its gay and lesbian citizens is justified with religious teaching.
"History has proved it wrong -- from the time when Gentiles were treated as second-class citizens in the early church to the persecution of Reformation leaders in the 15th century and still today as gay and lesbian individuals are rejected and condemned as immoral by the church.
"It should not be difficult for everyday Jamaicans to recognize bigotry and discrimination in all its ugly forms. A poll of Jamaicans last year living in Britain showed that 96 percent of those of polled believed they were the target of racism.
"We believe the majority of Jamaicans can recognize the harm of social injustice.
"There is no greater injustice than justifying rejection, condemnation and violence with religious teaching and we ask Jamaicans to denounce those church leaders who seek to disguise bigotry as religious truth."
-- Brent Childers Executive Director Faith In America
"In a time when war rages in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Sudan, in Sri Lanka... and the list goes on and on, it is critical that people of faith make it emphatically clear: religion at the end of the sword is blasphemous. At a time when LGBT people are executed in Iran, murdered in the United States and viciously attacked in Jamaica...and the list goes on and on, it is critical that people of faith make it emphatically clear that hatred cloaked in religious garb desecrates God.
"The God we worship celebrates the humanity of ALL God's children. The God we worship rejoices in the diversity God has created. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Voodoo, Paganism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, straight; African, Asian, European, North American, South American, Australian -- all give rise to a different voice, a different perspective, a different praise. But, together, they only begin to articulate the grandeur, the beauty, the creativity of God.
"Our religious traditions should inspire our awe in this kind of a God and in this kind of a creation. Praise, not killing, ought to be our work of faith."
-- Rev. Rebecca Voelkel IWR and Faith Work Director National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
"DignityUSA strongly condemns religiously motivated violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people everywhere in the world, and especially the recent attacks in Jamaica. We call on all people of faith, and especially religious leaders, to respect the diversity of God's creation, to remember that faith is rooted in love, and to affirm the rights of all people to live in safety and in peace. We pledge our support for Catholics in Jamaica working to create a climate of respect and tolerance that is consistent with the message of the Gospel, and Jesus' call that all may be One."
-- Marianne Duddy-Burke Executive Director DignityUSA
17 Comments:
They should contact the United Church of Christ. The UCC would most definitely join this coalition if they were made aware of it.
Are the Unitarian Universalists representated? They, too, would join in this call for solidarity against hatred and injustice.
posted by Emily K, at
3/06/2008 4:00 PM
It would be nice to get some of the conservative christians churches to make the same statements. They don't have to agree to the sin/no sin definition of homsexuality but at least back up the christian ethic of no violence.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/06/2008 5:00 PM
"It would be nice to get some of the conservative christians churches to make the same statements."
Randy Thomas IS NOT the representative for all conservative christians.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/06/2008 10:03 PM
Anon, that's what he's PAID to do, so yes, he is.
Funny you said that, though - about him being "representative". It's kinda like him using his alcoholism, sluttery, and whatever else he allegedly done when he was openly gay - and uses his personal story as representative of the entire gay community. If he done it, all gays do it - according to him.
And you totally let that one fly over your head, obviously. It was a twist on "when pigs fly".
posted by S., at
3/07/2008 6:02 AM
Where are the leaders of the Anglican and RC denominations in all this? Seems like silence gives consent. Nothing new there.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/07/2008 8:12 AM
Scott,
I got the when pigs fly thing. I was making a statment that although Randy Thomas is paid, or gives his personal opinions and views on things - he is not the voice of the majority of those he claims to represent. He may be one of the loudest but certainly he is not a representative of a larger group (that he claims to be)
posted by Anonymous, at
3/07/2008 1:34 PM
"There is no religious tradition, Christian, or other spiritual path that condones such behavior."
Bzzzt! Wrong again. Because in fact all three Abrahamic religions feature prohibitions and condemnations against homosexuality. The right wingers have both historical precedent and the words of your shared "holy" books with which to justify their actions.
If you're going to insist on worshiping an archaic Levantine deity, then at least rewrite your Bibles and Qu'rans and get rid of the verses where homosexuality is condemned as unnatural, or where God's followers are instructed to kill homosexuals.
Then maybe you will have accomplished something.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/08/2008 1:20 AM
"First pluck the beam from your eyes Christianized America, before you attack the mote in the eyes of your brother" First look at your Segregated Sundays and the hypocrisy of your CHURCHES through the views of your Ministers. Was it not one of your celebrated Ministers who said that Chavez should be assassinated?
Jamaicans have been a siociety of STRAIGHT MEN AND WOMEN from SLAVERY. This nasdtiness of va man sodomizing another's bottom or women artifically stimulating others is FILTHY , DISGUSTING and has neither LOGIC , nor MORALITY to support that lifestyle but AMRERICA sets the trend and think that the rest of the world must follow.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/15/2008 11:53 AM
