More on California

You might be interested in reading my blog on the Huffington Post today on the California decision:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-debra-haffner/celebrating-the-californi_b_102058.html

And for anyone who doesn't quite understand why "Marriage" matters -- or how far we have come in this country -- watch this quick clip of Ellen DeGeneris announcing her plans to marry Portia Rossi this morning on national TV.

http://www.tv.yahoo.com/the-ellen-degeneres-show/show/35584/videos/7848875

YEAH FOR CALIFORNIA! Marriage Equality in One More State

Just a few hours ago, the California Supreme Court voted 4 to 3 to overturn the ban on same sex marriages in California -- effectively making it legal for same sex couples to marry in the state. I've taken a quick look at the decision (it's very long!) and the bottom line seems to be that there is no constitutional reason, in a state that recognized domestic partnerships, to have same sex couples denied the full benefits of marriage, including using the "M" word.

California joins Massachusetts in affirming marriage equality. Connecticut's Supreme Court may do so as well in the coming month.

As our Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality states, "there can be no justification for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity...in terms of religious values, there is no difference in marriages between a man and a woman, two men, or two women...Where there is love, the sacred is in our midst."

Scripture calls for love and justice in all relationships. Today the Supreme Court of California did so as well.

Because We Can, Should We? A Religious Viewpoint on ARTs

Yesterday, under the leadership of our Associate Director, Dr. Kate Ott, the Religious Institute held a one day colloquium with religious leaders and activists on Assisted Reproductive Technologies or ART. If that term isn't familiar to you, it means everything from artificial insemination to IVF (invitro fertilization) to surrogacy to some even newer ways for people to have genetically-related children outside of the old fashioned way of penile-vaginal sexual intercourse.

The discussion was intense, invigorating, and mind expanding. I admit to not knowing a great deal about the subject matter: did you know for example that ARTs are successful in producing a child less than half of the time? Did you know that as many as 6 different people can now be involved in producing a new baby? (so much for answering children's "where did I come from" with "when a mommy and daddy love each other"...) Did you know that some wealthy families in the US are now engaging in "reproductive tourism" where they ask women in poor countries to act as surrogates for them? Did you know that there are over 400,000 frozen embryos in the US? Or that in some states, it is illegal for single women or gay and lesbian people to obtain ART's?

The issues are complex, and don't fit neatly into a conservative/progressive framework. We'll be wrestling with them in the coming months, and in the fall will publish a guidebook for clergy on these issues and a new "Open Letter to Religious Leaders." What's clear to me is that the available technology and its commercialization has out paced thoughtful reflection and deliberations on these issues. In the words of one of our participants, Miriam Yeung, "just because we can, should we?" I'd welcome hearing your thoughts and experiences.

Happy Mother's Day!

I was once again in an airport today, traveling back from a few days off with my spouse.

I was missing being with my children on Mother's Day. I wished the woman who checked us in "Happy Mother's Day." For a moment, we had a sense of woman to woman connection. I smiled "Happy Mother's Day" to the two women TSA agents working as well. It happened again. I wished the woman behind me in line "Happy Mother's Day" and the woman who I bought the newspaper from.

In those exchanges, we recognized something in each other. As mothers, we knew we knew the joys and the sorrows that come from loving another more than our whole being. I knew that they knew; they knew that I knew what someone wrote a long time ago: "that having a child is making the decision to have your heart beat on the outside of your body."

Blessings to all of you who are mothers -- and all of you who are helping nurture new generations in whatever ways. Blessings to the women who nurture and sustain me.

An Evangelical WHAT?

This morning at the National Press Club, a group issued what they called "The Evangelical Manifesto." You can read it here at http://www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com/

It is a call for evangelicals to define clearly who they are, to resist becoming "idiots" for a political party (really, their words, not mine) but to have an appropriate role in the public square. Its most noteworth signer is the President of Fuller Seminary; otherwise, I have to say I didn't recognize the other key names. According to USA Today, Richard Land and James Dobson do not agree with it.

It begins with a clear statement of belief (including a belief that the Bible is the literal word of God) and then raises I think some points of the role of faith in public affairs that I would basically affirm. But, their comments about "cosmopolitan secular liberals" and equating what they terms "assaults on the unborn" (I assume that means abortion) with genocide and slavery, surely tip their hand from otherwise reasoned rhetoric.

I read earlier today on Yahoo news that overall conservatives are happier than liberals. After reading this "Manifesto", one can't help wonder how that could possibly be true.

Mildred Loving, Rest in Peace

I just read that Mildred Loving passed away this weekend.

She's the Loving of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision, that told states it was unconstitutional to ban interracial marriage.

My own children can't believe that there was ever a time in America when people of different races couldn't marry each other.

I hope my grandchildren* won't believe that there was ever a time when people of the same sex couldn't marry.

Loving is what is important.

(*My children are 22 and 15. I don't have grandchildren. Maybe in the next decade...)

Methodists Affirm Anti-Gay Position

I am so saddened by the just voted on decisions at the United Methodist General Assembly. Once again, the UM delegates, by the slimmest of margins, voted to affirm their teaching that homosexuality was incompatible with God's teaching.

Here's a summary of their decisions from the National Religious Roundtable of the NGTLF:

"In deeply paradoxical moves, the voting members of the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church, meeting in Fort Worth, TX, decided to uphold language that states that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching; keep in place a ruling that allows pastors to ban lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons from membership even as they turned down all legislation that sought to discriminate against transgender persons, especially transgender pastors; named heterosexism and homophobia as oppression against which the church should work; and called on families and congregations not to reject their LGBT members."

In response, the Reconciling Network released this proclaimation, which said in part:

We are part of God’s living body in today’s world, but our United Methodist Church refuses to accept what God has done, refuses to keep covenant with its own words in the baptismal promise, refuses to honor God’s call to professional ministry, refuses to do no harm, refuses to open its hearts, minds, and doors.

Surely, soon the day will arrive when the churches will acknowledge sexual diversity as part of God's blessing and welcome fully all of God's children. But until that day, we must all continue to speak out for full inclusion.