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Announcing, the official celebration of . . .
-- the first of its kind . . .
the long awaited -- . . .
publication of . . .
|
CELEBRATION OF SAFE STAFF GUIDEBOOK PUBLICATION TO HIGHLIGHT CPCSM'S
JUNE 28th ANNUAL MEETING
Representing the culmination of four years (1994 - 1999) of its work in conducting training sessions for educators in eight of the eleven Catholic high schools in the Twin Cities area, the CPCSM Board is officially announcing and celebrating, at its upcoming annual community meeting, the publication (Hayworth Press) of its long-awaited training manual for teachers, counselors, and other secondary educational professionals, Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students.
All are invited to this very special CPCSM Annual Community Meeting on Thursday, June 28, at St. Martin’s Table Bookstore and Restaurant (2001 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis). This special celebration will begin at 7:00 p.m. with a wine and cheese reception, followed by a reading of the various testimonials, reflections, and prayers contained in the newly publication.
A panel comprised of a number of people involved in the original safe staff training initiative in the local Catholic high schools will be present and available to answer questions, as will a number of contributors to Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students, and Michael Bayly, the book’s editor. Copies of the book will also be available to purchase.
We hope that all our friends and supporters can join us for this very special event.
Some Further Reflections About the Book
“A courageous document.” That’s how Kristen Gunckel and Adam Greteman of Michigan State University describe Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students: A Catholic Schools Perspective (Harrington Park Press) – the long-awaited training guidebook for educators based on the groundbreaking work CPCSM accomplished in the late-1990s in a number of Twin Cities Catholic high schools.
More About the Book Including Reviews
An Editorial Showing Why CPCSM's Work Still Needed
Hypermachismo in the U.S. bears hidden costs |
BY MARK DERY TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press |
Article Last Updated:05/05/2007 03:14:30 AM CDT |
So there's a smoking crater where Don Imus used to sit. That's fine with those of us who never understood the appeal of his grizzled-codger shtick, which always sounded like Rooster Cogburn reading "The Turner Diaries," anyway. But if we're going to administer a ritual flaying to every blowhard who channels the ugly American id, why has a hate-speech Touretter like Ann Coulter escaped the skinning knife? She called Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot" at the Conservative Political Action Conference; insisted on "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" that Bill Clinton's "promiscuity" is proof of "latent homosexuality"; quipped on "Hardball Plaza" that Al Gore is a "total fag"; and wrote, in her syndicated column, that the odds of Hillary Clinton "coming out of the closet" in 2008 are "about even money." Obviously, racism - slavery, lynching, institutionalized discrimination - has taken a much greater toll, in this country, than homophobia. According to the most recent FBI data (2005), most hate crimes (54.7 percent) were racially motivated; only 14.2 percent were inspired by the sexual orientation of the victim. But there's another reason the media haven't given Coulter a prime-time water-boarding: Her problem is our problem. As a society, we view racial epithets as Class A felonies, whereas homophobic slurs are parking violations (if that). Coulter laughed off her Edwards crack, saying, "The word I used . . . has nothing to do with gays. It's a schoolyard taunt, meaning wuss." Got that? The term "faggot," helpfully defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "offensive slang ... a disparaging term for a homosexual man," really means "wuss," a schoolyard pejorative applied exclusively to guys - guys who are "unmanly," according to American Heritage. Not that it means you're a fag or anything. Which is just British slang for "cigarette," anyway. So why are you looking at me like that? Coulter's chop-logic re-minds us that homophobia is so ubiquitous as to be invisible in American society. Only people whose idea of formal attire is a white sheet with eyeholes would dare to use the N-word in public, but homophobic smears reverberate throughout pop culture. Little wonder: Asked in a 2003 Pew Global Attitudes Project study if homosexuality should be accepted by society, only a razor-thin majority (51 percent) of Americans answered yes, in contrast to 83 percent in Germany, 77 percent in France and 74 percent in Britain. Our tradition of demonizing political opponents is founded on homophobic innuendo. Camille Paglia derided Al Gore for his "prissy, lisping Little Lord Fauntleroy persona" that "borders on epicene." John Kerry was deemed too "French" - meaning too much of a girlie man - to be commander in chief. Now Edwards is too heteroflexible; only Straight Guys with a Queer Eye get $400 haircuts, right? George W. Bush learned an unforgettable lesson about the anxious nature of American masculinity when Newsweek branded his father a "wimp," a perception Bush 41 never really overcame. The resolve never to look like a wimp is the key to Dubya's psychology: the you-talkin'-to-me pugnacity at news conferences; the Top Gun posturing on the aircraft carrier, in a crotch-gripping flight suit that moved G. Gordon Liddy to swoon - on "Hardball," for Freud's sake - "what a stud." Doesn't all this machismo and locker-room homophobia protest a little too much? What can we say about a country so anxiously hypermasculine that it produces Godmen, a muscular-Christianity movement that seeks to lure Real Men back to church with services that feature guys bending metal wrenches with their bare hands and leaders exulting, "Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!" The trouble with manhood, American-style, is that it's maintained by frantically repressing every man's feminine side and demonizing the feminine and the gay wherever we see them. In his book, "The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity," clinical psychologist Stephen Ducat calls this state of mind "femiphobia" - a pathological masculinity founded on the subconscious belief that "the most important thing about being a man is not being a woman." OK, so maybe I'm overstepping the bounds of my Learning Annex degree in pop psychology. But the hidden costs of our overcompensatory hypermachismo are far worse than a few politicians slimed by pundits. The horror in Iraq has been protracted past the point of lunacy by George W.'s bring-it-on braggadocio, He-Ra unilateralism and damn-the-facts refusal to acknowledge mistakes - all hallmarks of a pathological masculinity that confuses diplomacy with weakness and arrogant rigidity with strength. It is founded not on a self-assured sense of what it is but on a neurotic loathing of what it secretly fears it may be: wussy. And it will go to the grave insisting on battering-ram stiffness (stay the course! don't pull out!) as the truest mark of manhood. Mark Dery is a cultural critic who teaches in the department of journalism at New York University. He wrote this piece for the Los Angeles Times. |
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Coadjutor Archbishop Nienstedt's "Learning Curve"
Thursday, May 03, 2007
A Suggested Trajectory . . .
Lesson 1: Homosexuality 101
Lesson 2: Diversity: The “True Tradition” of the Church
Last week it was announced that New Ulm Bishop John Nienstedt (photo at left, standing) had been appointed by the Vatican to be the successor of St. Paul - Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn (photo at left, seated).
Nienstedt will serve as “coadjutor archbishop” until Flynn’s retirement, the date of which has yet to be announced. As coadjutor archbishop, Nienstedt will share with Flynn the various duties related to the governance, administration, and pastoral ministry of the archdiocese.
Much discussion
Since the announcement of the appointment, there has been much discussion among Catholics about the implications for the archdiocese of Nienstedt’s leadership style. It’s common knowledge that John Nienstedt holds views and opinions generally termed “conservative.” Archbishop Flynn, on the other hand, is viewed by many as a moderate. Under his leadership, for instance, a range of worship styles has been tolerated within the archdiocese – from the traditionalist practices of the Church of St. Agnes, to the “liberal” practices of parishes such as St. Joan of Arc.
How will the more liberal communities fare under the new archbishop? Will it be a time of “cracking down” and “reining in”? Some are obviously hoping so, and welcome Nienstedt as “someone who plays by the rules and doesn’t bend them to please every crowd,” someone who will give the archdiocese “a good house cleaning.” Others have responded to the news of Nienstedt’s appointment with dismay and apprehension.
“I expect disaster,” retired priest Kenneth Irrgang is quoted as saying in an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “[Nienstedt] is a micro-manager. He has to control everything. He hews the line from the Vatican without question whatsoever. He’s not a very good people person.”
Others disagree. “Bishop Niensted is a consummate man of the Church,” says the Rev. Philip M. Schotzko of the Church of St. Peter in St. Peter, Minnesota. “He thinks with, prays with, and loves the Church with everything he’s got. He just follows very carefully the teachings and all aspects of Church theology and moral teaching. You’ll get a very committed man in that way.”
Controversy
Both Irrgang and Schotzko are quoted in David Hanners April 25 Pioneer Press article on the appointment of Nienstedt. While acknowledging that “some in New Ulm lauded [Nienstedt] as an able administrator and liturgist,” Hanners also reports that “some of his actions have rankled his own priests and parishioners in the diocese he has led since August 2001.”
“For instance,” writes Hanners, “soon after being named bishop of New Ulm, [Nienstedt] condemned some of the theological views of the man who had the post before him for 25 years, Bishop Raymond Lucker, a noted progressive clergyman who died in 2001. Denouncing his predecessor’s views was an ‘extraordinary step,’ the National Catholic Reporter noted in an article on the incident.”
Hanners goes on to note that, “As bishop in New Ulm, Nienstedt prohibited cohabitating couples from being married in Catholic churches. He barred female pastoral administrators from leading prayers at a semi-annual leadership event. He once disciplined a priest for holding joint ecumenical services with a Lutheran congregation after the Catholic church [in the priest’s town] had been destroyed by a tornado.”
A learning curve
Such controversial matters appear to be off-limits in the coverage of Nienstedt’s appointment by The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the St. Paul/Minneapolis Archdiocese. Instead, writers such as Maria Wiering simply note that “those who know Nienstedt say he is ‘patient,’ ‘honest,’ and loves to snow ski.”
In another Catholic Spirit article about Nienstedt’s appointment, Julie Carroll reports that the new coadjutor’s “first priority will be to learn what makes the archdiocese tick.”
Neinstedt himself stressed this priority when during a news conference last week he declared: “I see myself as a learner. I’ll come here, I’ll listen, I’ll talk to people . . . This next year will be a sharp learning curve for me.”
Well, that certainly sounds promising.
I’d like to suggest a couple of topics of study for the new coadjutor archbishop (and his supporters, as well).
Homosexuality 101
First: homosexuality. I'm sorry to say that judging from what Nienstedt has said about homosexuality in his regular column, “And Miles to Go,” in the New Ulm diocese’s newsletter, he truly has “miles to go” in grasping and articulating a credible (not to mention, pastorally sensitive) understanding of this particular aspect of human sexuality.
Neinstedt, for instance, has expressed the view that people become gay or lesbian as “a result of psychological trauma” when a child between the ages of eighteen months and three years. Furthermore, homosexuality, according to Neinstedt, “must be understood in the context of other human disorders: envy, malice, greed, etc.” He also advised parishioners to avoid the film Brokeback Mountain, which he bizarrely describes as “a story of lust gone bad.” (As if lust on its own isn’t already understood by the Church as “bad”!)
If Neinstedt really is dedicated to listening and learning, then I urge him to make a start by getting to know local Catholic parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons (pictured below). In 2005, many of these parents formed a grassroots Catholic organization and issued a pastoral statement entitled, The Catholic Rainbow Parents Declaration. These parents would be more than happy to share with the new coadjutor archbishop the wisdom and love they’ve experienced and gained as the result of being parents of LGBT persons.
Such wisdom stands in stark contrast to Nienstedt’s ill-informed views on homosexuality noted in Hanners’ April 25 article. These views shocked, saddened, angered, and embarrassed local Catholic parents of LGBT persons (not to mention LGBT persons themselves).
Nienstedt’s views also prompted the following May 1 letter-to-the-editor by St. Paul resident Margaret Klempay: For Catholics, the Second Vatican Council was a beacon of hope. In its decrees, church leaders embraced the challenges of an ever-changing civilization with all its demands, insights, unknowns and discoveries, confident in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately, this confidence seems to be lacking in the newly appointed Coadjutor Archbishop John Nienstedt, especially as he confronts the status of homosexual persons in the church. Attributing homosexual orientation to a trauma undergone by a child between 18 months and 3 years old lacks any shred of scientific credibility. Equating homosexual orientation with greed and malice seems to be more a fearful reaction to the unknown rather than a confident openness to a pastoral challenge.
Should Catholics not be concerned about the imposition of a leader who appears to be fearful of the future while he clings to the comfort of the past?
Others, of course, relish the thought of a return to pre-Vatican II formality and orthodoxy – which they see embodied in John Nienstedt. Take for example, the following comments left on the Pioneer Press website in response to David Hanners April 25 article:
Thanks be to God for our new Bishop Nienstedt. He will be a welcome change for the [arch]diocese. The 60s are dead, let’s move forward [or backwards, as the case may be].
Bless the Lord! A Bishop without a limp wrist, but more importantly without a limp spine. [Ouch! What’s this person insinuating about Archbishop Flynn? And must he/she do so in such a homophobic way? I mean, “limp wrist”!?]
The Church is the Church and with it comes its theology. For those who don’t like it there are other, more liberal denominations waiting to welcome you.
As you can see, many are gleefully anticipating that the new archbishop will crack down on Catholic parishes and organizations that are not toeing the traditionalist line. In the eyes of these so-called conservatives, such communities are not authentically Catholic.
Accordingly, the individuals who comprise such communities better shape up or get out and leave the “true believers” in peace with their rigid, calcified understanding of “the Church” – an understanding that sees the Church, supposedly by its very tradition, incapable of growth and change.
But wait! Such a reactionary and fearful perspective is not only very sad and pathetic, it’s also a terrible and tragic betrayal of our richly diverse Catholic tradition.
Diversity in the Catholic Church!, I can well hear some exclaim, Surely, Michael, you jest?
Yet before you dismiss such an outlandish contention, let me share the findings and insights of medieval scholar Gary Macy. And think of these insights as comprising the content of Lesson 2 of that “learning curve” to which Coadjutor Archbishop Nienstedt has committed himself.
Diversity: The true tradition of the Church
In his book, Treasures from the Storeroom: Medieval Religion and the Eucharist, Macy reveals the long-held theology within the Church that recognizes and celebrates “each generation of Christians as equally graced by God, each striving to fulfill God’s will as they understand it. Each generation failing, misunderstanding, or succeeding as much as we do [today].”
“If this theological approach is correct,” says Macy, “then the past seems not so much a simple path leading (how reassuring!) right to our doorstep, but rather many paths attempting to find their way to God. Perhaps not surprisingly, seen from this perspective, the past may well be more tolerant of diversity than some scholars have led us to believe.”
The upshot of all of this, and its connection to current events in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis?
Well, according to Macy, “the discovery of such diversity suggests two theological conclusions. First . . . is the well-founded belief that our true tradition is diversity itself.”
“To be tolerant is a substantial part of our better Christian heritage,” insists Macy. Furthermore, “If there was diversity in the past, and that diversity was tolerated, then the best way to truly honor the past is to foster such diversity in the present.”
“Secondly,” continues Macy, “this understanding of the history of Christianity frees us in the present from a tremendous burden. If the past did not lead ineffably to us, then the future does not absolutely depend upon us ‘getting it right’ either (whatever that might mean to different groups). We are surely called to do and live by, to the best of our ability, what we determine to be God’s will (just as those in the past were supposed to do).”
Macy also notes, no doubt much to the chagrin of those who can’t wait for the “liberals” within the Church to pack up and move out, that “in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a truly autocratic notion of Church was propagated with great success and then read back into the rest of Christian Catholic history. [In the] twenty-first century we are still wrestling with this terrifically successful campaign of misinformation.”
Yes, and here in Minnesota this “wrestling” will undoubtedly intensify with the appointment of John Nienstedt, a man known to be very much committed to this “autocratic notion of Church.”
Yet in the midst of such doom and gloom some are finding, albeit ironic, signs of hope. Tom Murr, for instance, a lifelong Catholic and co-founder of Catholic Rainbow Parents, recently shared with me his opinion that the appointment of John Neinstedt is simply one more indication that the institutional Church has chosen to enter into “self-destruct mode.”
Of course, this makes perfect sense when you consider how it was the institutional Church (i.e. the Vatican) that created and continues to fuel that “campaign of misinformation” identified by Macy, and thus how stubbornly it and its supporters have denied and sectioned themselves off from the authentic Catholic tradition of diversity and tolerance – not to mention from an attitude of trusting openness to the Holy Spirit present and active throughout all aspects of the people of God, an attitude upon which the Church’s “true tradition” of diversity depends.
A “strange form of authoritarianism”
Yet what is the theological basis for the Church’s “official” aversion to diversity? It’s certainly not the theology of our forebears, who as Macy documents, embraced a theological tradition which recognized “each generation of Christians [as being] equally graced by God, [and] striving to fulfill God’s will as they understand it.”
No, the theology that today’s so-called traditionalists embrace is far more narrow, prescriptive, and authoritarian. Macy describes it as the ‘Big Book of Doctrine’ school of theology.
“This strange form of authoritarianism,” says Macy when describing this particular school of theology, “fomented both by the ultra-montanism of the late nineteenth-century papacy and by Enlightenment anti-clericalism, understands Roman Catholicism as fundamentally an attempt to provide the definitive answers to all questions, usually in one ‘big book of doctrine,’ whether it be Thomas’s Summa, Denzinger’s Enchiridion, or lately the Roman Catechism of the Universal Church.”
So think about it: those being pushed out of the Church for being open to and tolerant of diversity are actually more attuned to the true tradition of Catholicism than the so-called traditionalists doing the pushing!
Of course, these traditionalists, these defenders of the “autocratic notion of Church,” do not see their efforts as misguided or ultimately self-destructive. I have no doubt, however, that many of them do believe that a smaller, more homogeneous Church - one dedicated to the ‘Big Book of Doctrine’ school of theology - would be better than a Church that welcomes and encourages diversity.
Accordingly, efforts to “crack down” on parishes that aren’t up to their standards – to the extent that people are compelled to leave and join other denominations – may well be part of a plan to establish a “remnant” of “true believers,” or perhaps more accurately, a “leaner/meaner” style of Church. Yet would such a Church be “Catholic”? Our history, our very tradition says no, it would not. And why not? Because it would lack diversity.
A prayer and a challenge
My prayer is that John Nienstedt will reject any misguided efforts to forge a “leaner/meaner” style of Church. May he instead be open to seeking and nurturing our living, evolving Catholic Church’s “true tradition” of diversity.
I also pray that there will be folks within the archdiocese willing to connect and share with our new coadjutor the theological and pastoral insights and the spiritual gifts they’ve gained as a result of their embodiment of this tradition of diversity. Believe me, there are many of us out there.
My sense is that it’s going to be quite some “learning [and teaching] curve” for more people than just the new coadjutor archbishop in St. Paul/Minneapolis if we want to see a Catholic Church that lives up to its true tradition - a tradition of diversity.
I’m up for the challenge.
So are, among others, the Catholic Rainbow Parents.
Is Coadjutor Archbishop Nienstedt?
Are you?
Let us all continue to work and pray for social justice and civil rights for ourselves, for our families, and for all people throughout the world!
. . . "Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protections, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages." . . .Coretta Scott King
Speech given at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
March 24, 2004
CPCSM
Strongly Supports
Equal Civil Marriage Rights!
A
Billboard near St.Louis, MO, sponsored by Catholic Action Network*
A Catholic Theologian's Reflection
Wisconsin
Theologian and Former CPCSM President
Sheds Much Needed Light on Same-Sex Marriage Issue
in Recent Pioneer Press Guest Editorial
On civil unions and Christian tradition
WISCONSIN'S
MARRIAGE AMENDMENT
WILLIAM
C. HUNT,
STD St
Paul
Pioneer Press, Oct. 31, 2006
Christians concerned about the so-called marriage amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution would do well to examine our own religious tradition, in particular a centuries-old condemnation of an "unnatural" practice.This practice is mentioned more than 15 times in the Hebrew Bible — always in the negative sense of a serious offense. Christian leaders condemned it as an unnatural vice for more than 1,500 years. In 1312 an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church condemned as heretics all those who argued that this practice was not sinful. Dante places people guilty of this vice in the seventh ring of hell. Martin Luther equated this sin with theft and murder and insisted that anyone who engaged in this activity should not be buried in consecrated ground. . . . (For complete article:)
See CPCSM's full page of
information
about CPCSM's
support for equal marriage for LGBT persons and about
the Minnesota 2006 Anti-Marriage Amendment,
which was
strongly supported by
Minnesota's Catholic Bishops and Christian fundamentalists.
Scientific News About LGBT Persons
"Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.
We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. . . ."
10,578 Clergypersons (as of 2/12/07) who signed "An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science"
The Clergy Letter Project
Butler University
Indianapolis, IN
Confronting the Biological Facts about Homosexuality
By William Saletan
St. Paul Pioneer Press, February 7, 2007
Just over the Montana border, closeted in their own private Idaho, the gay sheep are getting it on.
Well, it's not exactly private. They're doing it in front of scientists at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station. The scientists arrange the trysts. It's called "sexual partner preference testing."
According to an article by researchers in the project, here's how it works. In a 15-by-10-foot "arena," a young ram is offered four choices: two ewes in heat, and two rams. "The four stimulus animals are restrained in stanchions so that they can only be approached from the sides and rear." For 30 minutes, the unrestrained ram does as he pleases — and the scientists keep score.
A bare majority of rams turns out to be heterosexual. About one in five swings both ways. About 15 percent are asexual, and seven to 10 percent are gay.
Why so many gay rams? Is it too much socializing with ewes? Same-sex play with other lambs? Domestication? Nope. Those theories have been debunked. Gay rams don't act girly. They're just as gay in the wild. And a crucial part of their brains — the "sexually dimorphic nucleus" — looks more like a ewe's than that of a straight ram. Gay men's brains similarly resemble those of women. Charles Roselli, the project's lead scientist, says that such research "strongly suggests that sexual preference is biologically determined in animals, and possibly in humans."
Roselli's interest is in the science. He figured the political upshot, if any, would be gay-friendly. After all, surveys show that if you think homosexuality is biologically determined, you're less likely to be anti-gay.
Roselli didn't just prove that homosexuality in rams is natural. He tried to engineer it. In a 1999 grant application, he proposed to determine whether male-oriented "preference behavior can be artificially produced in genetic male sheep by providing male lamb fetuses (with) prenatal estrogen stimulation." Seven months ago, he published a study that sought the same result by other means. That's how you test possible causes of homosexuality.
You'd expect conservatives to demand that the National Institutes of Health stop funding this research. But if you figure out how to make sheep gay, maybe you could figure out how to make them straight. And maybe you could do the same to people.
Roselli studies hormones, brains and behavior at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), a medical institution. But Fred Stormshak, his collaborator, is an animal scientist affiliated with Oregon State University (OSU), which focuses more on agriculture and economics. Gay rams are "a costly problem for sheep producers because breeding rams are worth $300 to $500 each," Stormshak said in OSU's agricultural newsletter a decade ago. "Outwardly, there is no way to tell whether a ram is male-oriented, so the producer runs the costly risk of buying an animal that will never produce any offspring."
Identifying gay rams wasn't enough. In 2000, Stormshak described an attempt to "alter" them. The idea was to "enhance their sexual behavior or performance" by making them act like straight rams. Three years later, Roselli told an OHSU committee that "information gained about the hormonal, neural, genetic and environmental determinants of sexual partner preferences should allow better selection of rams for breeding and as a consequence may be economically important to the sheep industry." OSU President Ed Ray says the research "may define biological tests that can be used to identify" gay or asexual rams, "thus eliminating their use for general breeding purposes."
Notice the lack of animus. Breeders don't care whether rams are gay or simply unmotivated. All that matters is "performance." And when Ray talks about "eliminating" such rams from breeding, he leaves open the possibility of their grazing happily into old age. But you can smell the slaughterhouse.
Which brings us to the animals whose breeding we really care about: our children.
Passing on genes is life's deepest drive. You don't just want kids. You want grandkids. An Israeli woman, with court approval, is using her dead son's sperm to inseminate a stranger. I know a man whose future mother-in-law put him through a fertility test before approving the marriage. Then there are parents who pressure their adult children to marry and procreate. In a survey, 73 percent of Americans said they would be upset to learn that their child was gay. To many parents, "I'm gay, Mom" means "No grandkids."
Roselli offers evidence that human homosexuality is linked to biological conditions, some of them genetic. If he figures out how to manipulate sexual orientation in sheep, will others try to manipulate it in humans? Doctors used to "treat" homosexuality with hormone injections. Some still do. This idea failed miserably in adults, but it might work in fetuses. And if we can't engineer sexual orientation, maybe we can select it. In Asia, millions have used modern tests to identify female fetuses so they could be aborted. If we learn how to recognize gay brains in development, look out.
The more likely path is gentler. Science will gradually convince us that sexual orientation is innate, more like skin color than character. Condemnation of homosexuality as a sin will subside, and we'll turn to two biological differences between race and sexual orientation: Homosexuality defies the aspiration to procreate with your mate, and it's easier to isolate and alter in embryonic development. We may come to view homosexuality as we do infertility — as a disability. The rhetoric of "acceptance" will shift from liberals to conservatives. We'll inoculate our children against homosexuality out of love, not hate.
The sheep researchers didn't intend anything like this. But they didn't foresee the uproar over their work, either. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has tried to quash their research, depicting them as bigots. PETA, like President Bush, thinks that bad ideas come from bad people, and you must stamp out the whole lot.
But bad ideas, such as communism and eugenics, are usually well-intended ideas that turn bad along the way. What we do with the biological truth about homosexuality isn't written in our genes. It's up to us.
William Saletan covers science and technology for Slate, the online magazine. He wrote this piece for the Washington Post.
Born
Gay? How Biology May Drive Orientation
The Seattle Times, June 19, 2005
Animals
Exhibit "Gay" Behavior
The Seattle Times, June 19, 2005
In
New Book London Researchers Say Being Gay Is Genetic
(Born Gay: The Psychobiology of Sexual Orientation)
News Release, University of East London
June 14, 2005
New
Study Gives Support to Position:
Sexual Orientation Has Biological Basis, Is Not Simply a Choice
Study: Homosexuals react to male sex hormones like
women
The Associated Press
May 9, 2005
Genetics at Work?
 |
An
Appeal to the Hearts and Minds
of All Who Seek the Truth .
. .
Listen
to the stories of tens of thousands
of GLBT people and their families!
Listen
to the vast majority of professional associations
of scientists and health care professionals!
SEXUAL
ORIENTATION IS NOT A CHOICE !
Discrimination
Against GLBT Persons
Is Evil and Sinful Because
It Destroys Lives and Families!
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A Prayer for Peace and Justice
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we will live deep in our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people and the earth, so that we will work for justice, equity, and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer, so we will reach out our hands to comfort them and change their pain to joy.
And may God bless us with the foolishness to think that we can make a difference in the world, so we will do the things which others say cannot be done. Amen.
Prayer of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Ann Arbor, Michigan
This Justice Candle will keep
burning until justice is achieved for God's lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgendered children.
"The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness cannot overcome it."
(Click here to
find out how to obtain your own Justice
Candle.)
"Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Let us pray and work for social justice
for all of our brothers and sisters everywhere!
"In
Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came
for the Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then
they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for
me."
(From Martin Niemoeller,
Berlin Lutheran pastor, arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau Concentration
Camp in 1938; the Allied forces freed him seven years later.)
|
What's
New |
Upcoming Events
CPCSM's Annual Community Meeting
June 28, 2007
7 - 9 PM
St. Martin's Table
2001 Riverside Avenue,
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-339-3920
Meeting Preceded by
Wine & Cheese Reception.
All Members and Supporters
Are Welcome!
Available Now
from Haworth Press!
Creating Safe Environments
for LGBT Students:
A Catholic Schools Perspective
Michael J. Bayly, Editor
A unique publication, the first of its kind anywhere!
Compiled from CPCSM's three years of experience conducting "Safe Staff" training seminars with local Catholic high schools.
More about the book,
with reviews.
Now on sale locally at:
St. Martin's Table
2001 Riverside Avenue,
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-339-3920
News
Bishop Gumbleton removed as pastor from inner-city Detroit parish
US Bishops Issue Regressive and Spiritually Violent Statement 11-14-06
CPCSM's Year in Review:
2005 - 2006
Editorials
Michael Bayly's Response to US Catholic Bishops Statement on Gay Ministry
Be Not Afraid: You Can Be
Happy and Gay
Nov. 16, 2006
When 'Guidelines'
Lack
Guidance
Nov. 15, 2006
Other Reactions to US Bishops' Document
NACDLGM
November 17, 2006
DignityUSA
November 12, 2006
Catholic Organizations
for Renewal
November 12, 2006
National Religious
Leadership Roundtable
of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's (NGLTF)
October 20, 2006
Letters to the Editor
Star Tribune
Nov. 17, 2006
Georgia Mueller
Catholic Mother of Gay Man
Positive Pastoral Care:
A Sampling of Resources
Developing List of Resources
(NACDLGM)
Gay
Adolescents in Catholic Schools
By Robt. Mattingly, SJ
Momentum**
Part I (Sept - Oct ' 04)
Part II (Nov - Dec ' 04)
Creating Safe Environments
for LGBT Students:
A Catholic Schools Perspective
Michael J. Bayly, Editor
Based on CPCSM's work with local Catholic high schools
Scheduled for Publication
by Haworth Press,
Winter 2006-2007
Just the Facts About
Sexual Orientation & Youth:
A Primer for Principals, Educators
and School Personnel
American Psychological Association
Tell Me The (Whole) Truth:
School Supplies to Get
Real Sex Education
Lambda Legal Publications, 9/5/2002
Facts About Homosexuality
and Child Molestation
Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D., Professor
Dept. of Psychology, University of Calif. at Davis
Library of Resources
Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
Coming Out: A Guide for Youth and Their Allies
GLSEN
Journal of Gay & Lesbian
Issues in Education
Haworth Press
Diagram
of Sex and Gender:
Sexuality Scales
(Including Definitions
of Important Terms)
Free
HRC Guide to
Coming Out:
> In
English
> In Spanish
> For
African-Americans
School
Survival Guide
A
project of the LGBT Center of NY:
Run by and for youth
Homosexuality:
An Example of the Conflict Between Religion and Science
Joseph
Nicolosi:
Why He is
Wrong About Reparative Therapy
Other
Facts About
Reparative Therapy
Lambda
Rising: An
Excellent Resource
for Ordering
GLBT Books
Upcoming
Events
For
more information
about upcoming events
Science in the News
Research: Kids of gay
parents fare
at least
as well as others
Wisconsin State Journal
10-16-06
Other Research on
Children of Gay ParentsFacts About Kids with Gay and Lesbian Parents
An Excellent Resource:
Children of Lesbians & Gays Everywhere (COLAGE)
Employment Opportunity
Searching
for
"Diverse"
Educators and
Board Members
Holy Cross Ecumenical
International Institute
Now through Dec. 2006
For More Information . . .
Important Reminder!
Member Organization
Please remember
to include CPCSM in your annual office giving drive by
choosing our social-justice-oriented umbrella organization, Community
Solutions Fund. Also, remember that you can designate all or a portion
of your CSF donations exclusively to CPCSM. (Currently, the
only way you can donate to CPCSM without mailing us a check.)
CPCSM News
CPCSM's
2006 Annual Community Meeting
a Great Success
CPCSM
Members Show Family Photos at MN Senate Committee Hearing on Marriage
Amendment
Catholic
couple clashes
with church over gay rights
By Kay Harvey
Pioneer Press, 2-26-06
Story About Catholic Rainbow Parents' members Charlie and Maria Girsch
CPCSM
Cofounder and
Source of Inspiration,
Bill Kummer, Passes Away
on January 29, 2006
CPCSM Newsletter
Rainbow
Spirit
Spring 2006**
**Adobe
Acrobat
needed to read or print this .pdf document. To download free software,
click here.
|
New
CPCSM Program
Check
out their new
Media
Coverage Catholic Rainbow Parents Formation Reported in the NCR (8/26/05) |
New
CPCSM
Web Page
Gay Priests & Pedophilia
Guest
Commentary
Speaking
Against the Proposed Marriage Amendment
On
civil unions and
Christian tradition
By William C. Hunt, STD
St Paul Pioneer Press,
Oct. 31, 2006
History
Reveals Unsavory Mix of Religion, Constitutional Law
By Rev. Michael Tegeder
St. Paul Pioneer Press
January 10, 2006
Online Donations
Click here for
instructions about
how to make a secure donation by credit card
to CPCSM or to
Catholic
Rainbow Parents.
Other GLBT
Catholic News
Gay
theology pioneer
trusts 'God's
shrewdness'
(About John McNeill)
By
ROBERT J. McCLORY
NCR, 11-11-05
Proud
to be celibate,
gay priest
By RENEE K. GADOUA
Religion News Service
NCR, 11-11-05
Memphis
Bishop
Welcomes Home
Gay Catholics
NCR, 6-17-05
Other
Commentaries
By CPCSM Leaders
Inspirational
Links
- Reflections from: Center of Concern (Promoting Global Justice and Peace since 1971)
- Meditation of the Day Saint of the Day
- Catholic
E-Cards
New Resources
for Families and
Friends of GLBTs
Come
Out and
Celebrate Program
with
Sample Packet
of
Materials
for Downloading
CPCSM's
Parents' Speakers Bureau
An Excellent
Local Support Group
for GLBT Youth
The
Naming Project
Other
Resources
Out
of the Darkness,
Into the Light**
The
Present and
Future Impact of
GLBT Ministry
on the Church
1/10/2001
By Fr. Greg Tolaas
About Us
History
of Gumbleton
and LeMay Awards
Other
Relgious Links
GayCatholicForum.org
Christian
Lesbians.Com
Nationwide
Welcoming Congregations Index
This web site was
last updated on:
June 6, 2007
