Reconciling Ministries Network

Thank you, Ms. Schroer!

By Ann Thompson Cook

Diane Schroer has just won an important case for gender freedom.  A retired US Army Colonel, Diane had applied for a job at the Library of Congress while still living as David, and had been offered the job as the most highly qualified applicant. But when she told her new employer that she would be transitioning, the employer choked and withdrew the job offer.

Diane sued, claiming that she was wrongfully denied employment. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality:

In his ruling United States District Judge James Robertson stated… "None of the five assertedly legitimate reasons that the Library has given for refusing to hire Schroer withstands scrutiny."

Judge Robertson concluded, "In refusing to hire Diane Schroer because her appearance and background did not comport with the decisionmaker's sex stereotypes about how men and women should act and appear, and in response to Schroer's decision to transition, legally, culturally, and physically, from male to female, the Library of Congress violated Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination." For more, including a link to the full decision, see NCTE's website,

Judge Robertson got to the heart of it when he repudiated employment decisions based on “stereotypes about how men and women should act and appear.”

Those sex/gender stereotypes are foundational. They are the basis for discrimination and violence against anyone who doesn’t conform—gay men for loving men, lesbians for loving women, transfolks and anyone else who acts or appears other than how society defines “straight” and “normal,” male and female.

Sometimes I wonder whether we would take more ground as a movement if we were challenging those stereotypes directly rather than focusing on identities. The movement for equality spends so much energy sorting out which labels are appropriate—LGBTQA etc.—hoping to clarify how to identify ourselves and others. But too often, as we flounder in the conversation of identities, we forget to challenge the stereotypes that require them in the first place.

We will never come up with enough labels to fit everyone (thank God). What if we focused on building a world where all of us are free to simply be ourselves?

Ray Boltz comes out

By Heather Murphy

I listened to a lot of Contemporary Christian Music when I was a teenager.  Amy Grant, Sandi Patti, DC Talk, Petra, Whiteheart, I had all of their cassettes.  I even had One Bad Pig; beat that, readers.   My very first mix-tape, given to me by a friend of the family, included Ray Boltz's "Thank You," which I have stuck in my head right this very moment even though I haven't heard it in years.  His "Watch the Lamb" was the focal point of my first Easter cantata.

CCM isn't a field that's forgiving of what it considers to be moral failings- at least it wasn't when I last checked in on it.  So the coming-out of Ray Boltz is a big deal.  I can relate to the path he discusses, first fighting against what he was, then trying to fix it, and ultimately accepting it. 

So congratulations, Ray, on your coming out.  Feels good, doesn't it?  I'm looking forward to hearing from some of the other closeted voices in CCM, too.  You know who you are.  Come out, come out, whoever you are...

A light in the darkness

By Laura Young

Greetings from Texas.  The devastation that Hurricane Ike brought to the Gulf Coast is heartbreaking.  Much of Texas will be in recovery mode for quite a while.  Just viewing the photographs brings about a pain that is hard to describe.  Every hurricane is different, but the pain is a familiar pain.  I grew up only 40 minutes from the Galveston seawall.  Hurricane preparation is a familiar drill.  When you live down here, it’s just something you do.  These days, I live about 120 miles north of Galveston’s beaches.  This part of Texas is more used to providing shelter for those who evacuate.  Ike had other plans.  Friends even farther north than I am took a hit.  We felt Category 2 winds up here.  A 75’ pine tree fell on our house.  It was only one of many trees that fell on homes, some causing loss of life.  Our church tried to provide care for evacuees in a city without power, gasoline, or ice. 

This is day 12, and still thousands of people in the Houston area are without power, stable homes, and reliable communication.  It is anything but “business as usual.”  Today, for the first time, Galveston residents are being allowed to return home to see what remains.  My family was fortunate.  Our home received minimal damage and had power restored on day 8.  That was certainly the longest I had ever lived without electricity.   We were grateful for a cool front that arrived on day 2, but I didn’t do well being cut off from the world for those 8 days.  During that time text messaging via cell phone was the only way to communicate, and it wasn’t a sure thing.  We had a hand held sports radio that provided only local information.  I did fine reading by flashlight, taking cold showers, and eating non-perishable food, but it didn’t take long to confirm that I’m addicted to nightly baseball games, MSNBC, and the internet.  Important events all over the conference had to be cancelled.  All businesses and schools were shut down.  Destruction and debris was everywhere.  Survival and clean up was the only activity – still is in some places.  Each morning when the sun came up we all got back out and continued the effort.  Being ever aware that our challenges were nothing in comparison to those on the coast, we knew better than to complain.   

In the midst of all of this, there were wonderful scenes and stories of neighbors reaching out to neighbors and strangers reaching out to strangers.  In a town that was pitch dark by 8:00 pm there was light everywhere!  Not a day went by when Christ-like behavior didn’t pop up at every turn. 

Around here, people get their electricity from a company called Entergy.  Let me tell you, when those trucks showed up we were pretty excited.  They worked tirelessly, in dangerous conditions, and showed great attention to our safety.  They were living without power too - away from their families and camping in “tent cities” and the end of each day.  As people drove by, some were interrupting their work to say thank you, or to ask when they might expect power.  Even when interrupted, these Entergy employees exhibited very positive attitudes.  More Christ-like behavior.  It was impressive. 

Power and internet were restored to our neighborhood on Saturday afternoon.  That gave us just enough time to write and print out thank you letters to all the people we had been dependent upon over the past 8 days and have our congregation sign each one.  As I looked up the addresses I had trouble finding one for Entergy.  Browsing through their website I couldn’t help but notice the word “inclusion” in their “About Entergy” pull down menu.   

Of course, I had to go check it out.  I discovered their 5-page statement on “Diversity and Inclusion.”  It is filled with words like “integrity,” “people,” and “value.”  Pretty typical.  It also includes phrases such as, “environment that fosters creativity, productivity and mutual respect of all people.”   Then, in a nation where most companies stretch themselves to use the word “tolerance,” Entergy says,

“A cornerstone of Entergy’s culture is respect, respect for every individual regardless of race, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or any other cultural factor.

‘Tolerance’ is insufficient in this organization that values the differences among its nearly 14,000 employees.”

Yep!  More Christ-like behavior.  No wonder their employees were impressive.   

Queers United asks ; Please Save One Life

By Kelli Busey

Queers United wants to save a life. Just one Life.

Please help by signing a petition asking the British government not to deport John Bosco Nyombi to Uganda.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people in Uganda face homicide directed by Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni and protested by Amnesty International.

Bishop Eria Paul Luzinda of the Uganda's Anglican Mukono diocese has urged the government of Uganda to keep homosexuality illegal. Both of these people by their actions encourage state and religious sponsored homicide. In Uganda to be homosexual is punishable by life in prison. A "death sentence" in prison for a gay person is HIV/AIDs, communicated by a judge and jury in rape by fellow prisoners. How can a government proclaiming to be a defender of freedom send people to their death? Please do not deport John Bosco Nyombi to Uganda.

Let's Give Them Something to Talk About

By Jayson Dobney

You can take the boy out of the country, but there's just a little bit of the country that will always stay with the boy. Even though I moved from little towns in Iowa and South Dakota to the "big city" of New York, I never thought I would relate to that statement.  I have to admit though, that I miss many things, including (don't tell anyone) some country music.  I don't hear much of it in New York City, the last country station in the City closed a few years ago, but growing up, I heard it all the time.  So, even as I walked through Central Park on a recent beautiful morning, it was not surprising that I found myself humming that good old Bonnie Raitt song - the one that gave me the title of this post (quick look back to the top).   

The words to that song soon got me thinking about the state of our reconciling movement and I realized that this song can really give us some things to think about. 

We in the GLBT community have a long history of using the phrase "Breaking the Silence."  Most of us know that the first great hurdle to overcome is the fear of bringing up our issues.  Even after we come out as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or allies, we tend to be ashamed of bringing up those issues that affect our lives.  In recent years - as a good United Methodist I might say over the past quadrennium or two - I have seen the work of the Holy Spirit as literally thousands of people across the country have joined in our reconciling struggle.  We are now reconciling people and churches that stretch across the connection.  Yes, there are many places where we still need to break the silence, both in some churches in South Dakota, but truthfully, also in some congregations in New York as well.  Still, the progress has been startling.  Thanks be to God!  We truly have given the church "something to talk about."   

Now that we are overcoming the first hurdle, that of making it possible to bring our issues to the proverbial table, we must work to assure that the talk itself does not become an excuse for inaction.  In too many places, we have annual conferences, agencies and boards, universities and seminaries, and even local churches, where action has been pushed aside as we engage in endless "dialogue" and "holy conferencing."  Too often, and in too many places, we and our allies have become satisfied with only having booths at annual conferences, or wearing stoles at church events, and have shied away from bringing forward meaningful legislation or action items for fear of being viewed as "controversial," or because we are afraid of "losing a vote," or because authority figures accuse us of "disunity."   

That's when I get back to good ol' Bonnie Raitt.  Now that we got the church to talkin,' now that tongues are wagging, we have to make sure we continue to give them SOME THINGS to talk about.  Let's bring forward and challenge action on our whole host of issues from addressing injusticies in membership, ordination, and marriage, to creating meaningful ministries to combat the root causes of homophobia and sexism and help the victims.  We can't get bogged down in official "dialogues," as that has become a tool of preserving the status quo.  We must be people of action, challenging the church to action. 

Let's really give the church something to talk about . . .

How about Love.

Jesus and the Well-Ordered Community

By Peter L. DeGroote

I returned from my summer sabbatical thinking about the differences between a well-ordered Church and the teachings of Jesus. For my first Sunday back the lectionary presented an example of it being a problem from the start.

Matthew 18:15-20:

A.  Some observations:

1. Having worked hard to gather and keep a congregation going, the leaders of this early church were frustrated with internal disagreements getting in the way of the life that Jesus had taught them.
2. They understood that the law of love is the basic rule (Love of God and others) but they had to figure out what that meant when someone treated another badly and was unwilling to change. The same was true for those who complained of bad treatment believing they were deserving of better treatment than others.
3. So they sought a procedure to reconcile the differing parties. (Does this sound familiar?)

B. The  Procedure:

1. The first step was to involve witnesses to talk it over with the parties. (Relying on Deuteronomy 19:15: “Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses can a charge be sustained.")
2. Second, if that discussion didn’t reconcile the parties, the matter was sent to the congregation for decision. 
3. Third, if the congregation decided that someone was in the wrong, and that person would not change, they were to be regarded as toll collectors or pagans, which also meant they were no longer in the community. (The NRSV uses the word “gentiles” instead of “pagans” but the latter would have been the proper translation for the early church. However, its view of these “outsiders” was the same as the Jewish attitude toward them; i.e., they were something less.)

C. In the above, the community decided to give itself the power to reject “troublemakers.” It is easy to understand that and probably inevitable in some cases. But how do you draw the line? It can be a way to deny those who challenge our thinking and question the effectiveness of our witness to the teachings of Jesus. All of the great church reformers knew how easy it was for the church to deny them. It is good for us to remember that reconcilers are reformers.    

D. Further, in denial of Jesus' counsel to not judge others the community also empowered itself to treat (judge) those to whom they denied membership as pagans and toll collectors (inferior, unworthy, and, perhaps, something less than human).

1. This judgment was also contrary to Jesus way with people. Consider a few illustrations:
   >>Matthew 9:10: “Tax collectors and sinners” dined with Jesus.
   >>Luke 18:10-14: Jesus says that a tax collectors prayer is heard before that of a righteous man. 
   >>Matthew 21:31b: Jesus says that tax collectors and prostitutes will get into heaven before the religious leaders.
2. The judging is risky for a congregation’s spiritual health because it can lead to an underlying assumptionon that "we" are more approved by God than others.
3. The judging is also risky for our own spiritual health because it allows us to substitute a procedure designed to hold the church together for the teachings of Jesus—the teachings of the institution become more important than the teachings of Jesus.

E. From this passage and my experiences in churches, I draw two conclusions:

1. Our comfort level at church seems to arise from our ability to avoid controversy, keep things well ordered, and everything and everyone in their “proper” place.
2. Our spiritual health arises from our ability to energetically follow Jesus’ teachings. Unfortunately, it is not always a well-ordered and neat path. It is often messy.

"What Does Religion Teach Us?"

By Tina Seitz

Christian Transgender Woman and Advocate Author

I have been reflecting on the effect religion has on society’s treatment of the LGBT community. Many (not all) organized religions teach society that all LGBT people are sinners, abominations, are all immoral, and we should not be afforded the same rights as a "moral" society due to the we were born. It is exactly these teachings, these exclusionary policies that causes society to consider the LGBT community to be second class citizens whose lives don’t mean as much as that of the "moral" society. Here is how society reacts to these church’s teachings:

40% of the homeless youth living on the streets are LGBT, most of them there because "moral" parents kicked them out.

30% attempted suicide rates among gay and lesbian youth. Why would anyone want to continue living as an "abomination" that the church teaches them that they are, knowing they will never be able to change?

Over a 50% attempted suicide rate for transgender teens, for the same reason listed above. (These rates do tend to be cut in half for those that actually live through their teen years.)

It is these same "moral teachings" that lead to minimal jail time for the many murderers of transgender, gay, and lesbian people. There are many people of LGBT people, trans people in particular, that serve minimal sentences because "the victims were at fault themselves obviously by merely being LGBT".

When taken to the extreme, there are some who believe that it is right to kill us because of who we are as was exemplified in Knoxville earlier this year.

Why doesn’t organized religion address these travesties of justice? It’s obvious that many "religious people" would rather hide these outrageous statistics rather than admit that their teachings are causing them to occur. To those people I would like to ask; are you ready to tell God that you did your best to make the world a better place by ignoring the suicide rates of LGBT people because "they are abominations and their lives really don't matter?

Are you ready to tell God that you made the world better by excluding LGBT people from the basic rights afforded to the rest of society, like same sex marriage? To tell God that by making it easier to discriminate against "those sinners", that the world is better off?

Can you look upon God and tell him that "I rejected LGBT people just like the Bible told me to, I wouldn't look at them, I turned away from them and let everyone else know that are an abomination. I helped society reject and discriminate against them."

Anytime that we are excluded from any aspect of society, the people that took part in our exclusion told society that LGBT lives don't mean as much. They told society that it's OK to reject us. It's OK for parents to kick their LGBT children out. It's OK that LGBT people kill themselves because of the message these "moral people" espouse. The same message of hate that caused a transgender woman in Greeley Colorado to be beaten in the head with a fire extinguisher until the killer said he "thought he killed it" but then he heard a gurgling noise, so he hit "it" again. I always thought that the Bible was a book of learning, yet what I see in society is the Bible being used as a weapon again and again. When you decide how to treat others different than you, ask yourself if God really wants your actions to result in the death of so many. Should you be their judge, or leave it to someone with a higher authority.

Reconciling with a Sweat

By Leland Spencer

My advisor in college, Dr. Jamie Capuzza, used the phrase "Feminism with a Sweat" whenever she taught gender classes. It was probably three years ago that I first heard her say that, and I admit that I didn't really get it. She explained that feminism requires more than belief; to be a feminist, one must act (i.e., work up a sweat, hence, "Feminism with a sweat"). On a cognitive level, I understood that, and if you asked me as a sophomore or junior in college to explain what she meant by it, I would say what you just read in the sentence above. Even so, I still didn't get it. I didn't understand it experientially.

Now, a couple years later, I'm glad to say that I think I do get it--or, I am in the process of understanding it experientially. I suppose the point of the statement was lost on me because I connected activism and feminism in my mind, so I had no ground for understanding feminist beliefs and feminist behaviors as distinct. Similarly, it never occurred to me that people would identify as feminists without endorsing feminist beliefs or exhibiting feminist behaviors. In may ways, feminism is still castigated as "the other f word," so why would anyone want to claim that identity without embracing it and living it out?

I'm not sure, but it happens, and I recognize that now in ways that I didn't a couple years ago. Dr. Capuzza also often said, "Let's not be naive." My assumption that feminism and sweat were inherently connected was naive. I've been corrected.

So what's the point of this post? I guess it is to encourage all of us to own the identities we claim, and to choose the optional ones carefully. No one is forced to call her- or himself a feminist, so if you do, do it with a sweat worthy of the label. If I call myself a feminist but do nothing to advance human dignity, advocate for justice, and work for equality, am I really a feminist? I'd say no. I know some people think I'm being patriarchal when I insist that feminism has a definition, but to say that anyone who claims to be a feminist is automatically a a feminist actually waters down the movement, does it not? After all, if I say I am a giraffe, that doesn't make me a giraffe, and just because I stand in a garage does not make me a car.

This applies to our movement, too. What does it mean to say that I am a Christian? a United Methodist Christian? a Reconciling United Methodist Christian? What beliefs and behaviors are connected to those identities?

I want to close with Sonja Foss's wonderful definition of feminism. It includes some good goals for Reconciling with a Sweat:

I am a feminist, and, for me, feminism is the effort to disrupt the ideology of domination that pervades Western culture and the effort to transform it into a culture and relationships characterized by mutuality, respect, self-determination, and equality. Feminism is the effort to disrupt oppression wherever it occurs, whether of women, people of color, old people, gays and lesbians, friends, or family.

Exciting, lucrative jobs in the anti-equality industry! Apply now!

By Heather Murphy

Would you be shocked to learn that the forces allied against full equality for gay people are sometimes less than fully ethical in their methods?

You would?

Then you'll probably be shocked to learn that more than half of the money raised in the fight against gay marriage isn't actually going to that fight, but to the fundraisers.  Of the $3 million donated to preventing all those oh-so-stylish gay California weddings, only about $500,000 is going directly to the cause. 

Here's my favorite part- of the money the California Family Council received in its first two years of operation, none of it went to "program services."  Can you imagine?  None of it.  But the heads of the organization are making six-figure salaries.

I think I'm in the wrong line of work.  Maybe I should quit teaching public school and go into preying on people's prejudices while the money's still good.  Ten years from now, I have a feeling that this particular well is going to go a bit dryer, and some of these anti-gay fundraisers might just have to get real jobs.

Equality Ride route announced

By Heather Murphy

Soulforce has announced the route for the next Equality Ride.  A busful of GLBTS college students will visit a string of Christian colleges, mostly in the south, to open dialogue regarding the treatment of GLBT students at those colleges.  In past years, the Equality Riders have met with-- shall we say-- less than a wholehearted welcome at some of the colleges they visit, while other schools have invited them to carry out their visit more or less unimpeded.  This is a great mission to support.