This week on The Gay Agenda: Did the race speech change our minds? Jennifer Vanasco and John Polly swoon over Barack Obama's historic speech - but disagree about the impact. Check it out.
I was impressed with his speech + found it quite on-point.
Regardless of its impact on the race, I hope it's an indication of the types of effort he would put forth to unify our country. Today, the races. Tomorrow, those of different sexual orientations.
I agree that we shouldn't have a religious class, but we do have one.
Over 75% of the U.S are christian.
(of them: 25% Catholic, 15% Baptist)
The total is less then 5% for all other religions,
the remaining 20% are non-religious.
I'm a white, queer-identified Christian (specifically UCC), seminary student in Chicago, and I just wanted to say that:
(a)
I agree completely that it's incredibly frustrating that there's an
assumption in this country that our president should be Christian, and
(b)
that my experience of Trinity UCC (Obama's church) is that, whether it's officially ONA
or not (I always assumed that it was, because it is sometimes listed as
ONA on various websites), I would definitely call it queer-friendly. It has a history of having openly queer (and queer-friendly) staff
members, Rev. Wright has preached against homophobia from the pulpit,
and the people I know who go there (LGBT or straight) are very invested in
being part of queer-friendly communities.
It's been really hard, from
the perspective of people close
to those at TUCC (not to mention people who are members there) to feel
that the image of this beloved church and home is being judged based on
sound bites and bits and pieces of information (and, as a result, is
now living under threat of violence). Personally, I don't find Rev.
Wright's sound-bited comments offensive (especially given the context
in which they were said), but even if I did, they
represent at most a few minutes out of 36 years of sermons and ministry
and
leadership and service in and for and with a church which has been home
to many, and hope to many, and inspiration and help to many (both
within and outside its walls). I know that this vodcast wasn't
at all primarily about Rev. Wright or Trinity, but I just wanted to make it
clear that the church, and especially Rev. Wright, are, in my experience, exactly what I
would call affirming of the LGBT community. And beyond that, that the
church is just a really good place -- welcoming, loving, energetic, and
honestly in service of the wider community in ways that I want to uphold as part of this conversation.
Umm...
Shouldn't it read "Obamarama?"
C'mon people, por favor.
Otherwise, nice conversation.
ACW '07
My dab
I'm In Complete And Utter Shock
Impressed
I was impressed with his speech + found it quite on-point.
Regardless of its impact on the race, I hope it's an indication of the types of effort he would put forth to unify our country. Today, the races. Tomorrow, those of different sexual orientations.
One can hope.
Religion Percentages.
I agree that we shouldn't have a religious class, but we do have one.
Over 75% of the U.S are christian.
(of them: 25% Catholic, 15% Baptist)
The total is less then 5% for all other religions,
the remaining 20% are non-religious.
figures were rounded and taken from:
teachingaboutreligion.org
re: Rev. Wright and Trinity UCC
I'm a white, queer-identified Christian (specifically UCC), seminary student in Chicago, and I just wanted to say that:
(a) I agree completely that it's incredibly frustrating that there's an assumption in this country that our president should be Christian, and
(b) that my experience of Trinity UCC (Obama's church) is that, whether it's officially ONA or not (I always assumed that it was, because it is sometimes listed as ONA on various websites), I would definitely call it queer-friendly. It has a history of having openly queer (and queer-friendly) staff members, Rev. Wright has preached against homophobia from the pulpit, and the people I know who go there (LGBT or straight) are very invested in being part of queer-friendly communities.
It's been really hard, from the perspective of people close to those at TUCC (not to mention people who are members there) to feel that the image of this beloved church and home is being judged based on sound bites and bits and pieces of information (and, as a result, is now living under threat of violence). Personally, I don't find Rev. Wright's sound-bited comments offensive (especially given the context in which they were said), but even if I did, they represent at most a few minutes out of 36 years of sermons and ministry and leadership and service in and for and with a church which has been home to many, and hope to many, and inspiration and help to many (both within and outside its walls). I know that this vodcast wasn't at all primarily about Rev. Wright or Trinity, but I just wanted to make it clear that the church, and especially Rev. Wright, are, in my experience, exactly what I would call affirming of the LGBT community. And beyond that, that the church is just a really good place -- welcoming, loving, energetic, and honestly in service of the wider community in ways that I want to uphold as part of this conversation.