10/30/14

What a way for the Giants to win the World Series: 3 reasons I love this team


Reason #1: They don't buy into conventional wisdom about what is "likely to happen." They create their own reality, by showing up, doing each thing to the best of their ability, and having patience with themselves and the game
Reason #2: They play as a tight team, recognizing each other's strengths and abilities.
Reason #3: They are resolute.  When they fail like they did in game 6, they get up and dust themselves off and try their best again.

10/22/14

Pope Francis is changing the Catholic Church's relationship with the LGBT by forcing a conversation about being more welcoming



Also, this from Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post:
Headlines called it a “setback” for Pope Francis that the initial draft of the synod of bishops released last week that spoke of “welcoming homosexual persons” was silent on them in the final document. But I don’t see it that way at all. The pope let the genie out of the bottle. And, as we all know, it’s difficult to put him back in once released. 
What the synod did at the outset on paper, Pope Francis has been doing since ascending to the papacy. He’s been talking about gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church with an unheard-of humanity and care. So what that the more conservative bishops succeeded in watering down the gay paragraphs so much they couldn’t get the two-thirds majority necessary to include them in the new document released on Oct. 18. They may have won this battle, but they aren’t going to win the bigger battle with this pope... 
...As Francis said yesterday during his homily, “God is not afraid of new things! That is why he is continually surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpected ways.” By the time the bishops reconvene next October to finalize the synod document, we might be looking at a very different outcome. 
What could happen in the Catholic Church is analogous to what is happening in the United States. As I wrote this morning, in an odd way, the anti-gay political maneuverings of President George W. Bush and the sneering anti-gay Supreme Court dissents from Justice Antonin Scalia sparked a national conversation and action among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans that has resulted in same-sex marriage being legal in more than 30 states and support for it at 59 percent. 
No, no, no. I’m not saying the church or the pope will become a champion of LGBT rights. And I’m definitely not saying they are going to support marriage equality. What I am saying is that by talking about the humanity of gay and lesbian Catholics and worrying about their place in the church, Pope Francis is openly recognizing them as children of God. After centuries of demonization, that’s a revolutionary act that can’t be undone.
Full article 

10/20/14

10/8/14

Quote of the day, on the importance of marriage equality

We, as judges, deal so often with laws that confine and constrain. Yet our core legal instrument comprehends the rights of all people, regardless of sexual orientation, to love and to marry the individuals they choose. It demands not merely toleration; when a state is in the business of marriage, it must affirm the love and commitment of same-sex couples in equal measure. Recognizing that right dignifies them; in so doing, we dignify our Constitution.

-- 9th Circuit Court, Federal Judge, Stephen Reinhardt, in striking down Idaho's and Nevada's same-sex marriage bans

10/6/14

NYTimes' Frank Bruni: The Church's Gay Obsession



REPEATEDLY over the last year and a half, I’ve written about teachers in Catholic schools and leaders in Catholic parishes who were dismissed from their posts because they were in same-sex relationships and — in many cases — had decided to marry.
Every time, more than a few readers weighed in to tell me that these people had it coming. If you join a club, they argued, you play by its rules or you suffer the consequences.
Oh really?
The rules of this particular club prohibit divorce, yet the pews of many of the Catholic churches I’ve visited are populous with worshipers on their second and even third marriages. They walk merrily to the altar to receive communion, not a peep of protest from a soul around them. They participate fully in the rituals of the church, their membership in the club uncontested.
The rules prohibit artificial birth control, and yet most of the Catholic families I know have no more than three children, which is either a miracle of naturally capped fecundity or a sign that someone’s been at the pharmacy. I’m not aware of any church office that monitors such matters, poring over drugstore receipts. And I haven’t heard of any teachers fired or parishioners denied communion on the grounds of insufficiently brimming broods.
About teachers: When gay or lesbian ones are let go, the explanation typically cites their contractual obligations, as employees of Catholic schools, not to defy the church’s strictures, which forbid sexual activity between two men or two women.

But there are many employees of Catholic schools nationwide who aren’t even Catholic, who defy the church by never having subscribed to it in the first place. There are Protestant teachers. Jewish ones. Teachers who are agnostic and, quite likely, teachers who are atheists and simply don’t advertise it. There are parish employees in these same categories, and some remain snug in their jobs.
“Is it more important to believe in the church’s teaching on same-sex marriage than to believe in the Resurrection — or even that God exists?” asked the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and the author of the 2014 best seller “Jesus: A Pilgrimage.” “I don’t hear anyone calling for the firing of the agnostic parish business manager.”

The blunt truth of the matter is that during a period when the legalization of gay marriage has spread rapidly in this country, from just six states in 2011 to more than three times that number today, Catholic officials here have elected to focus on this one issue and on a given group of people: gays and lesbians.