Opponents of Proposition 8 will appear before the state Supreme Court today to request that Proposition 8 be overturned. Watch it live at http://www.calchannel.com/ or at one of the viewing parties in San Francisco, LA and West Hollywood.

It’s my hope that the court will agree with the arguments made for why Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, though I don’t expect the challenges to stop until it has gone all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

One step at a time. I’ll be watching.

(More information)

The ‘righteous ones’ praying at Qualcomm stadium sent a mailer out targeting black, urban and poor communities saying that Obama supports Proposition 8.

The only problem? It was a flat-out lie.

Barack Obama, Arnold, and Dianne Feinstein all oppose Proposition 8. And if you oppose discrimination, please volunteer to help, or donate.

Jackson takes 30 seconds to say what it took me 300 words to put together. Just watch:

This video moved me. Not because it mentions a candidate or because it endorses a position on anything, but because it speaks to the version of Christianity that I understand and believe.

In contrast…

On Sunday, Dr. James Dobson will be making an appearance at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium to stir up the masses for Proposition 8. In Dobson’s view, he is rushing to California to “save marriage”. Every Yes on 8 person I’ve asked cannot give an adequate answer to the question of what they are saving. What is threatened? What is at stake? Yet, there’s this:

Dobson had to call his son to tell him he couldn’t babysit for his grandson this weekend as planned and his son Ryan then confirmed that God wanted him in California instead. Dobson could barely keep it together when he explained that “the Lord must be involved in this” and then hands over the program to Garlow, who also gets choked up and speaks of their level of spiritual desperation and their constant “crying out to God” to save California because they are “watching the destruction of Western civilization.“

Jim Wallis at Sojourners has a different view of the role of Christians in politics, and what they should be focused on:

Finally, there are biblical roles for both the church and the state, and both are necessary according to scripture, in good Christian theology, and even in the Anabaptist tradition which we are both attracted to (including my living room talks with Yoder). The body of Christ must demonstrate what the kingdom of God looks like and offer a prophetic witness to the state. But churches, by themselves, cannot provide for “the common good” as government is supposed to, in conjunction with many other institutions in society—including the churches.

To be clear: What is at stake here for evangelicals is really the alienation of a generation or more of people they wish to reach.

Proposition 8 is an effort to create two classes of people in California and confer certain rights on only one of the two classes. They use a ’separate but equal’ argument to justify it, but that argument has already been rejected by the courts.

The choice for Proposition 8 is to discriminate or not to discriminate. It has nothing to do with gay marriage. It’s about creating disparate classes in a society which was founded with equality as one of its core values.

The LDS and Baptists have done themselves no favors with this campaign. They are in very real danger of losing one and possibly two generations of people they should be trying to reach. In the meantime, Jim Wallis’ words are welcome:

I do think you could call upon your listeners to vote, no matter who they vote for, and then ask them to get busy in showing the nation how Christians are supposed to live and hold whoever wins accountable to the agenda of a movement.

Please, vote no on Prop 8. And help them get the word out with a donation or by volunteering.

Update:

From what the NO on Prop 8 campaign knows, the DoS attack started
yesterday from a small number of individuals. It is believed the
attacks, which occurred throughout the night, came from California,
Texas, New Jersey and Georgia. The attacks to the site increased from
a small number of hosts to dozens. As IP addresses of attackers were
blacklisted, new IP addresses emerged and attacked.

Probably most significant:

“I’m sure we’ll hear a lot of denials today from the Prop 8 campaign,
but this is clearly an orchestrated attempt to tear down what has
become one of the largest grassroots movements in California electoral
history,” said Patrick Guerriero, NO on Prop 8 Campaign Director. “We
have reported this to the FBI and other federal authorities and we
have secured our site in ways we never thought would be necessary. But
make no mistake – this was an attack against individual rights, not
just a Web site.”

If you want to help, please donate and volunteer.

And not just the No on Prop 8 site. From the campaign:

SACRAMENTO – 10/30/08 – Today the NO on Prop 8 campaign’s Web site (http://www.noonprop8.com/) was the victim of what appears to be a coordinated attack designed to bring the system down. According to http://www.calitics.com/, the denial-of-service attack (DoS) on the NO on Prop 8 website occurred before 11:30pm, Wednesday, October 29th and coincides with a similar attack on Florida’s NO on 2 campaign, the Constitutional Amendment Against Marriage Equality.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, an attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing information or services. By targeting a computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites, an attacker may be able to prevent someone from accessing email, web sites, online accounts (banking, etc.), or other services that rely on the affected computer. The most common and obvious type of DoS attack occurs when an attacker “floods” a network with information.

The NO on Prop 8 campaign will provide additional details as they become available.

The attack is not just limited to the No on Prop 8 website. Florida’s SayNo2.com site has also been under attack since yesterday. It’s not known if the attackers are the same ones, but it certainly seems to be coordinated, given the timing and focus of the attacks.

If you want to help, please donate.

Update: Embedding has now been disabled on this video, but it can be viewed here.

I don’t even know how to respond to it. I was reviled, both by the lyrics, the spirit, the bastardization of a child’s tune, and what it taught the children who sang it.

It’s horrible. And they dared to suggest that it was “for the children”. Wow. Not for my children.

Suffer the little children…

Vote NO on Prop 8

The more I dig down into Proposition 8, the more bizarre the facts are. Like everyone else, I like to follow the money to identify the agendas. Here’s what I know:

Blackwater

From Calitics.com

Andrew Sullivan notes today that one of the biggest financial supporters of the Yes on 8 campaign is Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, who has pumped $450,000 into the campaign. Broekhuizen is the mother of Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince and Bush Pioneer Betsy DeVos. She’s also quite the patron of the religious right.

At first blush, the two groups don’t have a whole lot in common besides neighboring real estate in the political spectrum. But as Blackwater continues its unwanted presence in San Diego (spawning aspirants to the throne in Hemet), Michigan resident Broekhuizen is just a big fish in the flood of out-of-state money trying to buy their way into a change to California’s constitution.

Blackwater, you remember them. They’re the contractors hired by the Bush Administration to privatize our military. That money is now being recycled into politics by huge donations to campaigns like the Yes on 8 campaign.

To be clear, that’s YOUR taxpayer money, laundered a couple of times.

Mormon Church

From the Salt Lake Tribune

The LDS Church’s campaign to pass Proposition 8 represents its most vigorous and widespread political involvement since the late 1970s, when it helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment. It even departs from earlier efforts on behalf of traditional marriage, in which members felt more free to decide their level of involvement.
This time, LDS leaders have tapped every resource, including the church’s built-in phone trees, e-mail lists and members’ willingness to volunteer and donate money. Many California members consider it a directive from God and have pressured others to participate. Some leaders and members see it as a test of faith and loyalty.

The Mormons have given $8.4 million to the campaign for Proposition 8. That’s the tithes of Mormons, taken out of the church and funnelled into the political process. 8.4 million dollars.

sfgate.com:

Prop. 8 is on pace to be the costliest race in the nation, except for the billion-dollar presidential election. The Yes on 8 campaign estimates that up to 40 percent of its donations come from Mormons. Some others estimate that Mormons account for over 70 percent of donations from individuals.

Today, the Courage Campaign delivered a petition to Mormon church President Thomas Monson signed by 16,935 people urging the Mormon church to cease funding the Proposition 8 campaign.

I won’t even address how offensive it is to have tax-exempt religious organizations inject money and resources into politics. Whatever their agenda, they are making an effort with a lot of tax-exempt money to shape the political landscape via out-of-state money and resources.

Evangelicals

Finally, we have the evangelical movement and I would say most specifically, the Baptists. This boggles my mind, because in other, more reasonable days the Baptists wanted nothing to do with any political initiative, fearing (rightly) that injecting themselves into politics would erode the church/state wall. When Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (and author of the Purpose-Driven Life) endorsed the Yes on 8 campaign, he ignored all of the traditionally Baptist beliefs about keeping church and state separate.

Randall Ballmer:

Warren, a Baptist, knows better. The cornerstones of the Baptist tradition are adult baptism (as opposed to infant baptism) and the principle of liberty of conscience and the separation of church and state. Baptists inherited these ideas from Roger Williams, the founder of the Baptist tradition in America. And, at least until the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1979, Baptists have always been watchmen on that wall of separation and fierce guardians of liberty of conscience. Thankfully, Williams’s ideas were incorporated into the United States Constitution, both in the First Amendment, which forbade a religious establishment, and in the recurring principle of respect for the rights of minorities.

In an increasingly bizarre election year we have an incredibly bizarre campaign to discriminate against an entire group in our society, backed by privatized military, and two powerful religious forces who ordinarily have nothing to do with one another.

I’ll end with this: According to the FBI, hate crimes are down. Well, they’re down with one exception: Hate crimes against gays increased 6% in the past year.

Imagine what it’ll be like if Yes on 8 passes. Why? Well, let’s start with the long and ugly campaign where phrases like “don’t let them have this too” and “restore marriage” (implying that GLBT folks are far too low to have such a right, etc) have predominated the debate. Where the Constitution is turned on its head and churches are willing to crawl into bed with the likes of Blackwater.

You don’t think more hate will spring forth? Guess again.

Here are some ways to help:

• Volunteer
• Spread the word
• Donate

Because equality is a RIGHT in this country. For ALL. Not the religious or the military only, the righteous and the conservative. It is a right for ALL. Regardless.

Lawrence Lessig is very eloquent and logical about why, fundamentally, the concept of Proposition 8 is wrong.

Lessig is one of the most reasonable and reasoned people I know. And he’s straight, married, with two kids. Just watch. Listen. Think.

Then vote No on Proposition 8.

[Disclosure: I am a Christian, and I oppose Proposition 8. I support education, tolerance, and inclusion. See Mark 12:31]

The other day, my daughter told me that one of her friends wasn’t in school because she was joining her parents at a Yes on 8 rally. I was amazed. And outraged. As the mom of three kids (one in college, one veteran), I know how important it is for my kids to be in school, learning. For the past week, I have watched the Yes on 8 folks tell the public outright lies about our education system and civil rights, and now I’m seeing them using their kids as attention pawns in the middle of a school day.

I can’t remain silent, and I can’t remain objective. What they are doing is wrong, it’s unChristian, and it’s downright hateful. Over the past week, I’ve heard stories of young children, sometimes not even school age, standing on street corners with their parents, and even their pastors!.

What are their parents telling them? Based on their literature, I can only imagine. “Honey, you need to stand here and hold this sign so you won’t have to learn about ladies loving ladies, men loving men, and the perverted things they do to each other.” Seriously? “The evil liberals want to take away your right to marry a man (or a woman)?” “The gay folks want to end the human race?”

When a parent teaches their child to be afraid of people that are different from them, they plant the seeds of hate. When a parent enlists those same children as pawns in a political cause of exclusion, they teach them that it’s okay to speak that intolerance in public without regard for the feeling of true human beings on the other side of the issue, they teach them to live a life of division and intolerance.

When they teach their children lies, they teach their children to lie.

When they teach their children to be afraid of others who are different, they undermine their own cause. Christianity is a religion of inclusion, not exclusion. It is a religion based upon caring for others, not condemnation.  Above all, there is nowhere in biblical foundations for Christians to be involved in an effort to promote discrimination, fear and hate.

Right now, there is no provision in the California state constitution that addresses marriage. When the Yes on 8 folks claim that it forces schools to teach young children about gay marriage, they lie. Second graders are not taught these things in public schools today and nothing will be different on November 5th. Unless it passes. Then some children will be taught that there are groups in our society we should regard as lower than others. That is what the Yes on 8 people are trying to shove down Californians throats, and they’re willing to sacrifice their children’s education to do it. What hypocrisy!

Here’s an irony: By using their children as pawns in the Proposition 8 propaganda campaign, they are teaching their children more about gay marriage than they’d ever learn in public school. Unfortunately, they’re also teaching them to fear, hate and be intolerant of gays.  Now for perspective, know that the Mormons are the ones spearheading much of the effort. The same church that spawned people who think it’s okay to waterboard employees as a training exercise. While there are some Mormons who are more tolerant than others, the official position of the church is hard-line and militant with respect to gays and gay marriage.

I ask this question directly to them: Are you willing to accept the responsibility for 14-year old Brandon McInerney’s cold-blooded murder of Lawrence King last year?  McInerney’s attitudes came from fear, intolerance, and what he’d learned from his parents.  Are you willing to accept your hypocrisy for claiming to be teaching biblical principles while denying outright the acts of love that Christ modeled?

Directly to those undecided about Proposition 8, I ask you this: What credibility should you give to people who pimp their kids for the sake of a cause founded on fear, lies and hate? Are these the children you want looking after you when you can’t work, are disabled, sick or in need? If so, you’d better be sure you fall into the category of those who are acceptable in their eyes, because they have been schooled in the business of judgment and exclusion.

As for me and my house, two of my children are now registered voters and will be voting No on Proposition 8. The third isn’t old enough to vote, but she’s old enough to understand that voting for Proposition 8 is voting for hate, exclusion and intolerance. She is the same age as Larry King. His school was two miles from hers. She cried at the news of his shooting as though she had known him.  For the first time in her young life, she felt and understood the price of intolerance: one too high to pay.

This is the message she speaks to those who use their children to promote exclusion:

Leave it alone. Don’t teach your kids to be afraid. Kids have enough to deal with. They don’t need to worry about stuff that is mean.

Photo Credit (Top Right): Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times