inconsistent reasoning at best

archbishop donald wuerl is on a pr campaign to try and make people understand that he was never trying to blackmail the council of the district of columbia into trashing a bill that would legalize marriage between two people of the same gender. the latest effort is a bit in the washington post's "on faith" column. in it, archbishop wuerl restates that the archdiocese was never trying to influence the process and also mentions that he is asking only for the same language that the aclu is recommending including in the final bill.

but, here's where it all falls apart for me ...

each year 68,000 people in the district rely on catholic charities for (fill in the social service here). this assistance is offered regardless of race, religion ... sexual orientation ...

let me get this straight? it's okay to provide social services to and recognize relationships of down-and-out gay people, but not okay to provide equal benefits to lgbt employees or allow lgbt people to adopt? guess it's all about charity and not justice - which, last time i checked, is not necessarily in line with catholic social teaching.

yeah, try again don.

no one's going to force anyone to get gay married

there seems to be confusion as to the underlying intent of personal freedom laws regulating such things as an individual person's individual right to terminate a pregnancy for whatever personal reason that individual person has or an individual person's individual right to marry another individual person of their individual personal choosing - regardless of their sexual orientation.

you see a bunch of leaders from the orthodox, catholic and evangelical ilks have signed a document called the "manhattan declaration" calling on christians to practice civil disobedience when it comes to implementing laws that directly oppose their beliefs. interesting - last time i checked no one was required to get an abortion or even to marry people of the same sex. but, bring on the sit ins and boycotts i say because people should take steps to defend their beliefs. i just hope that the people in these groups remember to practice civil disobedience when it comes to the treatment of the poor and children or even against those who insist on cutting their hair and eating pork!

december 4, 2009

i've had some pretty good birthdays in my life - trips to ny to see ellen degeneres before she was famous, a blow-out 21st bash at the tombs, fondue with friends - but i just found out that this year is going to ROCK!

i've posted before about venice the series and my overwhelming joy that crystal chappell is playing a lesbian. didn't think it could get much better than that until i saw this ...

Venice The Series - Season One - Teaser from Venice The Series on Vimeo.

this is the one year i won't mind if you don't call!

news from around the world

we had a friend over for dinner last night and she was giving a run down of the day's stories from the bbc. some of them were just too funny not to share here -

from somalia - the story of a 112 year old man and his 17 year old wife. take a look at this girl's face. think she's pissed at her parents?

from senegal - the story of a new statue that is sure to draw millions of visitors and dollars each year. the president says that he will receive 35% of all of the ticket sales because it was his brilliant idea.

from italy - gaddafi's in town and he's recruiting super models for allah.

walking to help the homeless

each year i walk with my youth group kids (i know ... it's difficult to believe that I am a church youth group leader!) in the fannie mae help the homeless walkathon. we walk on behalf of "hope and a home" a district nonprofit that provides transitional housing.

as i'm sure you've guessed, this post is nothing but a shameless plea for sponsors!

click here

if you'd like to support the flipflop fed as i walk this saturday at half past dark in the freezing cold.

overheard at work

here's the back story - a man with polio and a pregnant woman have been living under the overpass on the side of my building since the spring. they've got quite the set up - a queen size mattress, a guest mattress, coolers, tables and chairs, even a laundry basket. we've been watching them out the window since march and know their every move - one colleague has become an expert. she can tell you when they eat, what they eat, when they wake, where they've gone if they're away ... you get the picture. with winter coming, a group of us decided to pitch in and get them a tent and some sleeping bags. (gave the stuff to them and introduced ourselves a few weeks ago.)

okay then - here's the recent conversation:

colleague one (the tone was - can you believe how good she has it!): i went down there yesterday to give them some food and she was WEARING PERFUME!!! so she's got two pairs of shoes, two purses AND she wears perfume!

colleague two: but she IS living in a tent under a bridge ...

the district is not the nation's practice field

as often is the case, another national group is attempting to influence local district of columbia politics. the nra does it all the time - most recently getting an amendment attached to a version of the dc voting rights act that would repeal all of the district's gun control laws. and now it's the catholic church.

you see, the dc council is this close to approving a law that would allow same sex couples to marry (including the flipflop fed!). and this does not make the catholic archdiocese of washington happy. in fact, they're so unhappy that they're threatening to stop playing with the city and take all of their social services and go home.

my issue is not that a group would assert its principles and declare that it could no longer participate in an activity that may cause it to compromise deeply held beliefs. my issue is that the catholic church would never pull this shit anywhere else. consider canceling all social service contracts with the state of massachusetts? HELL NO. (although they did decide to stop providing adoption services lest, god forbid, lgbt people be allowed to adopt. the irony in it all? over the years, catholic charities in massachusetts has placed several children with gay adoptive families - oops!)

i would expect archbishop wuerl to "play christian," but at this point i'll settle for "playing nice."

my favorite color is fluorescent beige

the significance of the title of this post? it's one of the few lines in the movie "precious: based on the novel push by sapphire" that elicited a laugh that was neither nervous nor uncomfortable. precious is a heavy film and one that i highly recommend.

the entire cast is phenomenal and the story compelling. interestingly, i read one review that characterized the film as a piece of crap filled with dangerous stereotypes only meant to play to "white man's guilt." i completely disagree. the sad truth is that the story of precious, while fictional, is all too real with aspects crossing every race, every socio economic strata, every gender, every language group, and every area of the world.

and that's the distressing truth. though difficult to watch, precious gives you hope that it's all going to work out if each one of us goes that extra mile to make a connection with someone in need. i'm not talking about a handout or enabling or even the perpetuation of the dangerous notion that groups of us are better than others; rather i'm talking about meeting someone where they're at, taking in all that's there, and building on the strength, resilience and good that already exists.

THAT will make the world a better place.

straight up gangsta

looked at myself in the mirror and realized that i'm wearing an under armour pull over, under armour socks and under armour slides. now that's HOT!

loving jane lynch

it's official - jane lynch is number one on the list. loved her in all of the christopher guest movies. loved her even more in the l word. and now i can't get enough of her in glee as sue sylvester. haven't seen it? click on the link below and watch tonight's episode -

glee

(you want to watch episode 9 - wheels)

unveiling the bias

i had wanted to stay away from the fort hood shootings because it's a loaded subject (every pun intended) - no matter what side you take. but, i'm feeling like the coverage becomes more and more biased as the days wear on because there's no new news to report. could it be that this was really just a case of a man with ptsd who was facing deployment into a war zone and just snapped? it's seems like the most rationale explanation, but not one that's getting much coverage. instead, the print, online and television media, and some elected officials, are determined to unearth the terrorism angle - truth be damned. cases in point -

showing hasan in his prayer clothes laughing just hours before the shooting. the simple story is that he was coming from morning prayers and was interacting with a man he had interacted with on a daily basis for some time. news flash - even people who are down, depressed, pensive and dare i say considering suicide or homocide find moments of levity. i just wonder if this video would have gone viral if he hadn't been wearing his prayer clothes?

focusing on the fact that he had attended the same mosque attended by some of the 9/11 hijackers. the reality is that there's only one documented account of hasan attending the virginia mosque visited by two of the alleged bombers - neither of the visits being at the same time. it was for his mother's funeral. the truth is that hasan worshiped at a mosque in silver spring, md. but, that doesn't link him to some nefarious plot, does it?

a congressman troubled that the intelligence community has yet to confirm his connections to the terrorism community. could it be that there's nothing to find because he really was just a man who acted alone after spending extended periods of time listening to his peers describe the horrors of war?

i just worry we're going down the "oh shit! they've purchased aluminum tubes!!" or "he's a fat, strange man with a unnatural interest in helping the victims of the olympic park bombing" path that will only stop when even more lives are destroyed.