The Global Conversation

Tag: gay rights

  • Be Prepared. For A Time of Change Ahead.

    The Boy Scouts of America has a new face. On May 23, 2013, the organization decided to openly accept members of the gay community into their ranks. With this measure, all boys, regardless of sexual orientation, will be allowed to be proud scout members. By facing such a monumental change, the BSA is showing the country and the world that they are prepared to be a part of an open society to all those who wish to be included.

    Unfortunately, this is a face that not everyone agrees with. With every push forward, there seems to be another pull from behind. Across the country, the new motion by the BSA has been return with some serious backlash…from nowhere else but the Church itself. As a result of this new policy, many churches, including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, and (possibly) the Roman Catholic Church, are deciding to sever their ties with the BSA completely. With nearly 70% of troops being supported by religious organizations and over 47,000 of these organizations wishing to withdraw their support from the BSA, these decisions made by the church will displace millions upon millions of youth looking to be a part of something greater than themselves.

    With this in mind, what could possibly possess these religious intuitions to take such a stance? As any institution goes, it’s from fear of change. At all levels of those who object to this motion, fear runs deep in their words. As remark by Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee and advocate for the continuation of the gay scout ban, “We don’t hate people, we don’t hate anybody, but we just felt like there’s got be some objective standard, and we felt they were maintaining that until recently.” Also, noted by Tim Hester, executive pastor for the Southeastern Christ Church with over 300 of its members involved in scouts, “We want everyone, including ourselves, to live by biblical standards. We cannot be distracted from the mission God has called us to.” And finally, in an official statement released by the Assemblies of God, “we believe that the BSA policy change will lead to a mass exodus from the Boy Scout program, as Assemblies of God and many other churches can no longer support groups that are part of an organization allowing members who are openly homosexual.” Notice a pattern?

    In all three of these statements, the same themes run through all: standards, missions, and a terrible prophecy. No matter if it is the BSA’s new policy or any other challenge to a religious institution, the need to maintain the social order (by the means of standards) is reinforced by some moral duty/obligation (by the means of missions) and of a message of doom for all those who follow this new path (by the means of a terrible prophecy). If this sounds familiar, it should, because ALL institutions (religious, economic, political) have been using this same formula to keep their members in fear and their own numbers in check. In its current regeneration, we see this playing out with the Boy Scouts. But when will it stop?

    Until these institutions are willing to let go of their fear and accept their changing world, this cycle will continue. While living in their own fear, the only thing that they have chosen to accept is that they are becoming even more fearful of the world around them. Until the Church’s level of acceptance of change and for change will change, they will continue to see more people tuning out of their congregation and tuning in to another message that is more open to new idea, new interpretation, and new thought. By limiting their expression, they have limited their own growth. And THAT is their own cross to bear. Unless…they accept the changing times and ideas.

    I’ve never been a GLBT rights activist, but I accept that people should love in the highest expression of their love. Though it is different from the way I know and the lifestyle that I have chosen, I accept that there are different ways to live, and different ways to love. In these days of such rapid change, I accept that my level of acceptance is changing as well. Right now, I have friends who are awaiting to become Eagle Scouts. They have readied themselves for the obstacles ahead – in their own lives and in society. As these hard working boys, with the other 2.7 million youth members, 1.1 million adult volunteers, and 110,000 troop units comprise the BSA, they are willing to accept the challenge. Though the Church may not, there are some who are prepared to change. Are You Prepared?  

    (Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL, and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • OBAMA: TREAT GAY MARRIEDS
    THE SAME AS STRAIGHTS

    Should gay married couples have the same rights under the law as heterosexual married couples? The administration of President Barack Obama says yes — and is going to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue its case.

    Administration lawyers are asking the Court to declare Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Section 3 is the part of the current U.S. law that says that same gender couples are prohibited from eligibility for certain federal benefits, such as the ability to qualify for and file  joint income tax returns, or to receive federal employee benefits.

    In papers filed with the high court, the Administration said there are more than 1,000 federal statutes and programs arising out of current law that depend on a person’s marital status. Treating gay married couples differently than straight married couples should be illegal in all of these areas, the Administration said.

    The Defense of Marriage Act, in fact, singles out gay people specifically, the Administration’s lawyers said, including couples who are legally married, having met all the requirements to achieve that status in the states in which they reside. Targeting them as this law does, the Administration says, is “a harsh form of discrimination that bears no relation to their ability to contribute to society.” As well, the present law violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, its filing before the Court said.

    The court filing comes as little surprise to people who heard the President’s remarks about gays in his recent State of the Union message. On that occasion he said: “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”

    Opposition to any change by the Court in the Defense of Marriage Act comes in the main from Republicans in Congress, who say that the courts should stay out of the issue of gay marriage rights and let the people decide at the ballot box how they want these matters handled.

    The Obama Administration told the Supreme Court, however, that there is a long history in America of discrimination against gays and lesbians. It also argued that sexual orientation bears no relation to one’s ability to contribute to society as an active member of the citizenry, and should therefore not be the basis of laws that fail to grant equal rights to those citizens.

    As well, said the filing, sexual orientation is a core part of a person’s identity, and there is broad scientific evidence that this is not a voluntary choice — which is, the filing asserted, another reason why discrimination based on such orientation should be declared unconstitional.

    But the Obama Administration filing saved its biggest argument for last. Gays, it said, have very limited political leverage, and what progress has been made on their behalf has not been uniform, and where it has taken place, has more often than not been the result of “judicial enforcement of the Constitution, not political action.”

    The New Spirituality, of course, is very clear on this issue. Gays should not be discriminated against in any area of civic, public or private life, from housing to employment to legal rights and benefits. And same sex married couples should be accorded exactly the same social and legal benefits as opposite sex married couples. I can’t imagine a single spiritual reason why that should not be the case.

    There are those, of course, who believe that gay sexual activity violates the law of God, and on that basis should be temporally illegal as well. Regarding this aspect of human behavior, everything should be “on earth as it is in heaven.”

    But is it this way in heaven? Are same gender sexual expressions of love an “abomination,” as some declare that the Bible asserts – and so, therefore, that God says?

    Is the Bible the infallible Word of God — on this or any other topic? If so, which topics? Every subject brought up in this Scripture?

    Do you agree with the Obama Administration’s actions in requesting the Supreme Court of the U.S. to declare portions of the Defense of Marriage Act, widely known as “DOMA,” unconstitutional because they fail to protect gay married couples from discrimination?

    What is the spiritual basis of your position, one way or the other? Let this be part of The Conversation of the Century.