Lack of Faith and Feminism

There's a series of posts on Feministing called "Faith and Feminism". In it, feminists with different religious beliefs discuss how their faith and feminism interact. The stated purpose of the series is to broaden the discussion of women and religion. It's pretty cool, and, I would imagine, particularly interesting if you are of a religious bent.

I am not, though. Sometime around my 15th year, I decided that I had no good reason to assume the existence of a deity and became an atheist. For me, this was about logic; I have no strong opinions about organized religion, and it doesn't seem to me to be any more prone to misogyny than our many other social institutions. (Some feminists feel differently.)

But my atheism does interact with my feminism in one important way: it was the first issue on which I decided that most everybody I knew was wrong. And accepting that everybody else can just be plain wrong is incredibly liberating. I highly recommend it. It means that everybody might also be wrong about fat, or that gender essentialism is ridiculous, and so forth and so on.

It's not usually my style to end my posts with a question, but guys, I would luuurrve to hear your stories about the time you realized everybody else was wrong about something.

One Quick Bad Thing and Then Some Happy Stuff

UPDATE: Tracy Morgan has apologized, and the HRC and I finally have something in common: Neither of us accepts his apology. Neither does Unicorn Booty. So, um, good luck next time you try to get money from the gAyTM, there, chief.


Happy Friday!

I had planned to write today's post on some positive things that are happening in the queer community, but then Tracy Morgan had to go and spew hatred at gay people. Read the linked post if you want more details - for the purposes of this blog post, I'll just say that the things he says are violent and gross, and not funny. If he wants to make jokes at the expense of teh gheyz, they need to be funny. This, from all reports, was just vile.

According to Queerty, people have been trying to contact his PR agent, who is responding with "no comment." We need to get more details, but from the sound of it, Tracy Morgan has firmly lined himself up with the homophobic opposition to queer rights. Thus, I shall be boycotting Tracy Morgan. You are welcome to join me.

Okay! Moving on.

Yesterday I wrote again about how screwed up religion is when it comes to bullying gay people. This is an important theme to stay on top of, because people still seem to have this idea that being a Christian is the same as being a good person, and because Christians are an extremely powerful group in this country, it needs to be pointed out when they consistently and clearly stomp all over people.

That said, there are churches out there doing good work for gay people. My own personal brother goes to one such church! I met his pastor at his wedding, and she's great: social justice oriented, committed to inclusivity, sensitive to the fact that the view on the ground might be different from what she - a straight person - sees. We don't share a faith, but I think we share a lot of other important ideas. Anyway, her church is hosting a workshop on reducing anti-gay bullying, in conjunction with a church that has a homeless shelter for queer youth in its basement. She asked me to check out a resource on reducing bullying, also being put out by a church.

My brother's church is Lutheran, and in looking into it, I learned about a Lutheran program called Reconciling in Christ (RIC). This program is about making a conscious effort to be queer-inclusive. It acknowledges that queer people often feel excluded from or harmed by churches that call themselves inclusive, so it is about making it clear that sexual orientation and gender identity are not grounds for discrimination.

Another important group is Soulforce, run by gay film director Mike White's* gay dad, Mel White. I have corresponded with Mel White in the past, and in his communications he was warm and kind, despite the fact that I put my atheism right up front. He has written books on how the Christian Right is damaging. He is a personal hero of mine, and someone whose work I think is so important.

From the efforts of a trans-denominational group of people, we get Believe Out Loud. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has the GLAD Alliance. The Episcopalians - the denomination my parents belong to and that I grew up in - runs Integrity USA. There are lots and lots more. This is encouraging.

Groups like these are important in that they are counteracting the message that so many queer kids and adults are receiving about themselves: that they are damaged and damaging others. But beyond that, they are deliberately disinvesting themselves of the privilege that comes with being organized Christian groups in America. The most powerful and vocal Christian (and Catholic, and Mormon) groups are the ones opposing queer rights and spreading homophobia. These churches have a lot to lose by being inclusive - congregants who are committed to their homophobia, resources from other churches, and so on, as well as inviting attacks from the homophobes - but are doing the right thing.

There. The pig has wings, and I said nice things about organized religion.

* You know Mike White because he directed School of Rock. If you watch The Amazing Race, you saw Mike and Mel run the race twice.

Image via. And sign the petition while you're there.

The Religious Right: At It Again

I guess I should have called this "The Religious Right: Still At It," as there is no evidence that they have ever let up on their ridiculousness when it comes to queer youth.

First, we have the Family Research Council asking the New York State legislature to pray really hard about whether they want to encourage gay sex by allowing gay marriage. Because we all know that gay sex is going to bring our civilization to a screeching halt. It's gay sex that has destroyed the economy, right? It's because of gay sex that we're stuck in multiple illegal wars and have people wanting to kick the elderly off their Social Security. Got it.

Second, a Catholic school has decided that the best way it can prevent gay sex is to make sure kids never see rainbows. I know that's what did it for me. Overwhelming rainbows, just everywhere. Here's hoping none of those kids ever goes to Hawaii with their families. They have rainbows on their license plates.

But just in case you weren't getting the point about teh gheyz being the scourge of humanity, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer just outright lets us know that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. And we definitely shouldn't be buying gay pride t-shirts from Old Navy, because of that whole shame thing. Of course, he also notes that national borders were put there by god, which does not explain at all how he thinks gay people got here. I'm not a believer, but I can sniff out an inconsistency like that from here.

I know there are churches out there doing good work, and they are going against the grain, for which I applaud them. But that caveat aside, it distresses me that the loudest churches are the ones that are spreading lies and rumors about queer people, and actively working for our oppression or even death. Lots of religious Americans behind that kill the gays in Uganda bill, you know?

I don't get why people who want to call themselves pro-gay stay in churches that are anti-gay - or even neutral, which is almost as bad. How people can be okay with the dehumanization project their churches engage in is truly beyond me. And "there are other things about the church that I like" just doesn't really fly with me anymore. What about the church is so great that it's worth the active harm it does to people? I'm not seeing it.