Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyNovember 19th, 2009
Regular readers may notice that there are fewer commentaries being posted at present. There are two reasons. First, this seems to be a sligtly slow news period for subject matter that this site covers. And the second, and more relevant, reason is that three of our writers are traveling at present and the fourth has been ill for the past few days.
So we will give you an opportunity to discuss matters of concern to you which may not have been recent thread topics.
Discuss away…
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Rick Brentlinger
November 19th, 2009
Gay Christians get flack from straight Christians who insist we can’ be gay AND Christian.
We also get flack from secular gays, some of whom view us as stupid for identifying with a group that rejects us.
What is your attitude, position, opinion on gay Christians?
Richard W. Fitch
November 19th, 2009
Rick – Thanks for the lead. I was pondering sharing this article earlier and your question seems to me to be addressed by Bishop Spong’s essay:
Canterbury and Rome: Ecclesiastical Kindergarten Games
Richard W. Fitch
November 19th, 2009
Corrected link:
http://secure.agoramedia.com/spong/week375story1_prev.asp
homer
November 19th, 2009
Is Carrie Prejean the sixth Cylon?
Michael
November 19th, 2009
Can we have some investigation into whether there is a gay “Bradley Effect”? The polls had us winning in California and Maine by similar margins, and then we lost by similar margins. Even polling guru Nate Silver got it wrong in his predictions for both states.
Burr
November 19th, 2009
I like that last question. I’m really curious whether anyone has really looked into a Bradley Effect or if we’re all just theorizing and we’re just getting a lot of bad polls. Improving the accuracy of polls on gay rights is going to be key to any future campaigns.
Priya Lynn
November 19th, 2009
It seems clear enough to me, you can take 5% off the poling numbers for the equality side to bet a better feel for how its likely to go on voting day.
Ephilei
November 19th, 2009
The Bradley Effect question is interesting!
I’d also like to see coverage of ENDA which is being debated in Congress now, tho not getting the coverage it has before.
Ken in Riverside
November 19th, 2009
Empirical evidence is empirical.
Ben in Oakland
November 19th, 2009
What a great link, richard. I just emailed Rev. Spong.
Dear Bishop Spong:
“We invite all gay Roman Catholic clergy who are tired of hiding in dishonesty to become Anglicans. To ease their transition we will allow some Roman liturgies to be used. We also invite all those alienated Roman Catholic lay people who can no longer twist their minds into first-century pretzels in order to assent to dogmas that the intellectual revolution of the past 500 years has rendered unbelievable to come now into a Church where they can explore truth with minds not fettered by the myth of “divine revelation.””
All I can say is BRAVISSIMO. I have always admired you. I hope the Anglican and Episcopal Churches do exactly this. Any chance that you can replace that weak tea of an Archbishop?
Richard W. Fitch
November 19th, 2009
Ben – Bishop Spong’s newsletter is e-published weekly. Some times it deals with strictly Biblical and/or Christian issues; but frequently it addresses current events that have a religious/spiritual component. It requires a subscription ($10 per qtr) to take advantage of all the features which includes reader forums and access to all the past newsletters. I have been an admirer of the Bishop for over 12 yrs now and have read/own most of his books. His perspective has prompted me to define myself as “a post-theistic, liberal Episcopalian”. His latest book “Eternal Life: A New Vision; Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell” was released a few weeks ago. [I had it on pre-order and ‘devoured’ it immediately.] Most of the issues he has elucidated over the past 30 yrs are touched on again in this book. If you have liked his thinking previously, I highly recommend wrapping your spirit around this one too.
Duncan
November 20th, 2009
On a different topic, take a look at this link, from one of The Economist’s blogs:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2009/11/banning_straight_marriage_by_m.cfm
The basic problem is that these people don’t just think straight marriage is written in stone, they think it is an absolute truth and states merely acknowledge it. Hence this.
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