Special thanks to Intelligent Design for the graphics work. Event co-sponsored by Water of Life MCC.August 11, 2010
Sunday Gospel Jamboree
If you're in the Tucson, AZ area, come out and network with your community while supporting a good cause.
Special thanks to Intelligent Design for the graphics work. Event co-sponsored by Water of Life MCC.
Special thanks to Intelligent Design for the graphics work. Event co-sponsored by Water of Life MCC.
November 09, 2007
Pulpit Persecution
persecute vt. to afflict constantly as to injure or distress, as for reasons of religion, race, etc. persecution n.
In doing research for our social experiment project at Victory Christian Center Austin, we discovered an uncanny parallel between persecuted Christians and the lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered community; we have all suffered persecution because of bad religion.
Having been raised in the Christian faith ourselves, and having reconciled the afflictions of our religious upbringing with our sexual orientation, Ceil and I shuddered at the idea of voluntarily throwing ourselves back into the CLOSET, for the sake of finding answers through this experiment. For too long, our people have suffered in silence, persecuted from the pulpits, while asked by their church leaders to give money for people elsewhere in the world to live the way God intended - freely.
With great zeal, Evangelical church leaders encourage their congregations to support missionaries with their offerings. In fact, they are staunch supporters of the Bush doctrine of spreading democracy and religious freedom around the world at whatever the cost.
The sad irony is these Evangelical leaders fail to see that they themselves perpetrate the very same religious persecution and intolerance toward people who are not like them. Hundreds of thousands of our LGBT people have lost their families, their churches, and their lives because of religious persecution and condemnation. This is completely contrary to their "pro-life" doctrine, and like the horrendous act of throwing salt on an open wound, these intolerant and hate-filled institutions are rewarded by our government with tax exempt status... go figure!
In doing research for our social experiment project at Victory Christian Center Austin, we discovered an uncanny parallel between persecuted Christians and the lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered community; we have all suffered persecution because of bad religion.
Having been raised in the Christian faith ourselves, and having reconciled the afflictions of our religious upbringing with our sexual orientation, Ceil and I shuddered at the idea of voluntarily throwing ourselves back into the CLOSET, for the sake of finding answers through this experiment. For too long, our people have suffered in silence, persecuted from the pulpits, while asked by their church leaders to give money for people elsewhere in the world to live the way God intended - freely.
With great zeal, Evangelical church leaders encourage their congregations to support missionaries with their offerings. In fact, they are staunch supporters of the Bush doctrine of spreading democracy and religious freedom around the world at whatever the cost.
The sad irony is these Evangelical leaders fail to see that they themselves perpetrate the very same religious persecution and intolerance toward people who are not like them. Hundreds of thousands of our LGBT people have lost their families, their churches, and their lives because of religious persecution and condemnation. This is completely contrary to their "pro-life" doctrine, and like the horrendous act of throwing salt on an open wound, these intolerant and hate-filled institutions are rewarded by our government with tax exempt status... go figure!
August 23, 2007
A Deal with the Devil
In our covert investigation conducted at Victory Christian Center (VCC) in Austin, TX, we collected mounting evidence of how the Republican political strategy is employed from the Bush/Rove White House on down to their base of conservative Evangelical churches.
David Barton, Vice-chairman of the Texas GOP and founder of an organization called Wallbuilders, was invited to be the guest speaker at both of VCC's Sunday morning worship services on August 20, 2006. According to Pastor Lee Boss' introduction of David Barton to the congregation, he's "been used by God to touch more elected officials in this nation over any other organization." Armed with old-time bibles, a swanky PowerPoint presentation, and much jibber-jabber, Barton mobilizes the Evangelical Christians to the polls by replacing the word "voting" with "stewardship". He concludes by telling us that Republican political candidates are the obvious choice in our stewardship if we are concerned with biblical issues.
Karl Rove understands the conservative Evangelical voices are a powerful and very well organized tax exempt, money making machine for the Republican party. As long as these Evangelical church leaders have an insatiable appetite for power and influence, Rove will continue to use them to succeed on his mission of establishing a permanent Republican majority. Watch how all the Republican Presidential candidates are scrambling in a tizzy to court the Evangelical / Religious Right vote. It's funny to see the conservatives salivating at the bit, waiting for the next self-righteous politician with the right outside package that they can rally behind. Ever notice how the GOP have to beat up on a minority group of people in order to rally their base? How Christian or Christ-like is that?
David Barton, Vice-chairman of the Texas GOP and founder of an organization called Wallbuilders, was invited to be the guest speaker at both of VCC's Sunday morning worship services on August 20, 2006. According to Pastor Lee Boss' introduction of David Barton to the congregation, he's "been used by God to touch more elected officials in this nation over any other organization." Armed with old-time bibles, a swanky PowerPoint presentation, and much jibber-jabber, Barton mobilizes the Evangelical Christians to the polls by replacing the word "voting" with "stewardship". He concludes by telling us that Republican political candidates are the obvious choice in our stewardship if we are concerned with biblical issues.
Karl Rove understands the conservative Evangelical voices are a powerful and very well organized tax exempt, money making machine for the Republican party. As long as these Evangelical church leaders have an insatiable appetite for power and influence, Rove will continue to use them to succeed on his mission of establishing a permanent Republican majority. Watch how all the Republican Presidential candidates are scrambling in a tizzy to court the Evangelical / Religious Right vote. It's funny to see the conservatives salivating at the bit, waiting for the next self-righteous politician with the right outside package that they can rally behind. Ever notice how the GOP have to beat up on a minority group of people in order to rally their base? How Christian or Christ-like is that?
June 13, 2007
God, Gays, and the Sanctity of Marriage
Husbands, love your wives. Wives, respect your husbands because of the position God has ordained for him, not whether you think he deserves it or not. Now turn your bibles to Ephesians 5:21-33 to see what "God" (Paul, actually - not God) has to say about keeping your marriage blessed. - This is a paraphrased excerpt of a six-week series taught by Pastor Lee in the mainstream Evangelical church we infiltrated and investigated as CL and Cammy Morrison.
Ironically, on the Sunday the Pastor began the marriage series, we witnessed on our way to church, a display of "the sanctity of marriage" the Conservatives so righteously fight for. About five blocks away from the church, I noticed a Latino man roughing up a woman. There was also a young girl with them; she looked between 5 or 6 years old. I immediately told Ceil and we pulled into the parking lot where this abuse was taking place. Remember, we were in our characters, so CL, in a deep voice hollered, "Hey!" at the guy as we pulled up beside them. I picked up our cell phone and asked if I needed to call the police. He froze and looked at us, then made it obvious to us that he didn't speak English. Cammy asked the woman, "Is he hurting you? You need help?" She replied in broken English, "No, no; he's my husband", and proceeded to turn and start walking. The little girl, wide-eyed with fright, soon followed beside her mother. The man ceased roughing up his wife and walked slightly behind them. We continued to watch for her safety, and especially the little girl's, until they were out of sight.
I couldn't help but wonder if our characters' appearances that day, as male and female, didn't help a little in this particular situation. Ceil and I, as two females, would have confronted the situation all the same, but I would venture to guess that had it been the case, the abusive man would have reacted differently toward two women than he did with CL and Cammy.
The Pastor prefaced his marriage teachings with his explanation of Adam and Eve. He taught that God is both male and female. In the beginning, God created Adam both male and female as well. Then God wanted to bless Adam with a "help-mate", so God took the female characteristics out of Adam and made Eve. God intended for the man and woman, together through marriage, to be a manifestation of both the female and male attributes of God.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but most lesbian, gay, and transgendered people we know are keenly aware of both the female and male attributes we were created with. In fact, most of us celebrate that gift of versatility and diversity.
So according to this Evangelical Pastor's teachings about male and female and Adam and Eve, the impending question is... are homosexuals and transgendered people created more like God than heterosexuals?
For more, please visit FaithoftheAbomination.com
Ironically, on the Sunday the Pastor began the marriage series, we witnessed on our way to church, a display of "the sanctity of marriage" the Conservatives so righteously fight for. About five blocks away from the church, I noticed a Latino man roughing up a woman. There was also a young girl with them; she looked between 5 or 6 years old. I immediately told Ceil and we pulled into the parking lot where this abuse was taking place. Remember, we were in our characters, so CL, in a deep voice hollered, "Hey!" at the guy as we pulled up beside them. I picked up our cell phone and asked if I needed to call the police. He froze and looked at us, then made it obvious to us that he didn't speak English. Cammy asked the woman, "Is he hurting you? You need help?" She replied in broken English, "No, no; he's my husband", and proceeded to turn and start walking. The little girl, wide-eyed with fright, soon followed beside her mother. The man ceased roughing up his wife and walked slightly behind them. We continued to watch for her safety, and especially the little girl's, until they were out of sight.
I couldn't help but wonder if our characters' appearances that day, as male and female, didn't help a little in this particular situation. Ceil and I, as two females, would have confronted the situation all the same, but I would venture to guess that had it been the case, the abusive man would have reacted differently toward two women than he did with CL and Cammy.
The Pastor prefaced his marriage teachings with his explanation of Adam and Eve. He taught that God is both male and female. In the beginning, God created Adam both male and female as well. Then God wanted to bless Adam with a "help-mate", so God took the female characteristics out of Adam and made Eve. God intended for the man and woman, together through marriage, to be a manifestation of both the female and male attributes of God.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but most lesbian, gay, and transgendered people we know are keenly aware of both the female and male attributes we were created with. In fact, most of us celebrate that gift of versatility and diversity.
So according to this Evangelical Pastor's teachings about male and female and Adam and Eve, the impending question is... are homosexuals and transgendered people created more like God than heterosexuals?
For more, please visit FaithoftheAbomination.com
May 15, 2007
Looking for Answers
Utter frustration and defeat was what Ceil and I felt after we left the first Evangelical church in 2005. Lamenting over the injustices and questioning the purpose of it all eventually lead us on a deep search for the Truth.
Would we have been treated differently and accepted as part of the church family had we been heterosexual? Would we have had opportunities to minister had we been males in that organization? Would those people have taken time to know us had there been no walls of religious doctrine separating us from them? Sadly, the answer to those questions were YES for both of us.
At this point, however, that was only our assumption and opinion, and not our truth. Neither one of us had ever experienced life as male nor heterosexual. With a burning passion and conviction to find Truth, we embarked on a social experiment to get some answers. Ceil and I would alter our physical appearances and become what we perceived as "acceptable" by church leadership standards. We wanted to see if the Evangelical church would get to know us and connect with us, perhaps even love us, if we looked and acted just like them.
It was unbelievable, some of the things we witnessed and experienced as a man and woman inside the inner circle of a powerful Evangelical church. It's all recorded in the documentary. The most heart-breaking truth we discovered is the fact that many religious leaders in both communities, gay and straight, have lost sight of the most noble purpose of humanity - to build up one another through love.
Would we have been treated differently and accepted as part of the church family had we been heterosexual? Would we have had opportunities to minister had we been males in that organization? Would those people have taken time to know us had there been no walls of religious doctrine separating us from them? Sadly, the answer to those questions were YES for both of us.
At this point, however, that was only our assumption and opinion, and not our truth. Neither one of us had ever experienced life as male nor heterosexual. With a burning passion and conviction to find Truth, we embarked on a social experiment to get some answers. Ceil and I would alter our physical appearances and become what we perceived as "acceptable" by church leadership standards. We wanted to see if the Evangelical church would get to know us and connect with us, perhaps even love us, if we looked and acted just like them.
It was unbelievable, some of the things we witnessed and experienced as a man and woman inside the inner circle of a powerful Evangelical church. It's all recorded in the documentary. The most heart-breaking truth we discovered is the fact that many religious leaders in both communities, gay and straight, have lost sight of the most noble purpose of humanity - to build up one another through love.
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