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.

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.

I don’t know exactly how to tell the story of my attendance at the media bus tour rally for Proposition 8 in Camarillo today. If told in a linear fashion, I doubt you’d make it to the end. Ultimately, it may be best to tell it in vignettes, not necessarily in time sequence, but as more of an impressionistic landscape of conversation, observance, and ultimately, sad conclusion.

• The No on 8 representatives were a very small contingent, maybe 10 or 12, a handful at best. As one of them explained to me, they did not seek a confrontation or wish to disrupt. They were there to represent, no more, no less. The most poignant pair were the couple (a man and a woman) holding up a sign reminding us to remember Lawrence King and what his murder represented. They were silent. I never heard them say a word. As they struggled to get around the Yes supporters trying to block visibility, they said nothing. As if they were reading each other’s mind, they crossed the street together and stood on the opposite corner, unblocked, serious, respectful, and silent, standing with the sun in their eyes, facing the group on the other side with their tragic reminder of what happens when hate transforms to action.



• The little girl and the big girl As I crossed the street to come closer to the rally itself, a girl of about sixteen handed a small girl of about five or six a sign that read “Yes on 8=Parental Rights” and told her to stand on the corner closest to the driveway. I asked the little girl what that sign said. She didn’t know. I asked her what it meant for her to be holding it. She was quiet. The older girl, in a somewhat hostile tone, asked me why I was asking such questions of a little girl. I said I was curious to understand what little kids were thinking about holding signs and being part of the political process. Her response: “She doesn’t have a clue.” Mine: “I guess that’s my point.” She looked at me quizzically and turned away.
• The preteen boys, especially the one with the Bad Religion shirt on. Two boys, around 12 or 13 stood on the north side of the rally holding Yes on 8 signs, squinting into the sun. As a car drove by honking madly for the Yes on 8 folks, they cheered like they were at a soccer game. I asked them why they were cheering.

  Boy in the Bad Religion shirt: “Because if this doesn’t pass, we’ll have to let gay kindergarten kids hold hands, and that grosses me out.” His friend nodded vigorously. I asked him whether he had ever seen such a thing. “Well, no”. What made him think it would happen if Prop 8 were defeated? “The guy over there (on the podium) says so.” What else made him want Yes on 8? “Well, we’ll have to learn about gays marrying, which is totally disgusting. And my religion says it’s bad, and I’m like, totally religious.”

  In my mind, I’m trying to reconcile the Bad Religion shirt with being “totally religious.” I thought about asking. Thought better of it, decided on a different approach. Repeating my earlier question, I ask them whether they’ve learned about gays marrying in school yet. “No, but they say we will.” I remind him that nothing changes if Prop 8 doesn’t pass. Changes only happen if it does pass. At that point, the man in the suit holding a sign a ways down intervenes, asserting rather strongly that state law requires it. (Note: This is false. All family and health education is opt-in, as any parent knows who has a child in the public school system)

• The man in the suit and tie in the jeans and polo shirt (see comments for correction). This was the only time that I felt even a little afraid. He was a bit intimidating, and shouted across to me, asking who I was “with”. I said I wasn’t ‘with’ any organization; I was a blogger. Next question: Who did I blog for? Answer: Myself. Next: What site? I gave him my site URL. Question: Which way does it lean? Answer: Proudly liberal. and Christian.

  He turned and walked away. I said, rather loudly, that Jesus was more of a liberal than anything else, to which he turned and rather furiously shouted back that Jesus was certainly not a liberal.

  Later, one of the observers of that exchange admonished me as he was leaving to “tell the truth”. I reassured him that I absolutely intended to do exactly that.  The truth as I understood it, as fairly as I can tell it.



• The speakers on the podium. I’m not sure who they were, but they stuck to the talking points. It’s a strange thing to see Baptists allied with Mormons. In any other context, the Baptists would be furiously decrying the Mormons as a cult. Yet, they were up there on the podium cheering each other on and adding exclamation points to the points. I was having difficulty reconciling the cognitive disconnect. Everyone dressed in their Sunday Best, suits, ties, Easter dresses, children properly cleaned up and strategically placed, while hearing talking points that made no sense, yet everyone was cheering as though they’d been hypnotized.
• The talking points. First point, repeated many times: This is a campaign of love. The first time it was repeated with no explanation for how that could be true. Several repeats later, I heard this phrase: “This is a campaign of love that should not be subject to the tyranny of the minority.” I also heard this: “They’ve got it all. Don’t let them have this, too.” The term “they” referred to gays. “This” referred to marriage. When I heard that, I immediately wondered what they meant by “got it all”. I also wondered how they were reconciling that statement with the idea of it being a campaign of love. Could it be that they were limiting the concept of love to the religious, the heterosexual, the married heterosexuals? Was that kind of intellectual dishonesty truly possible? It reminded me of the kind of love that abusive parents administer. They hold you close and hug you before knocking you across the room with one backhand to the face. That kind of love.
• The cheerleading The final, and presumably key speaker could preach like a revival preacher in the Deep South. Lots of amens and calls to preach it from the crowd. At the end of his speech, he drove up the passions by calling for them to shout out “I do!” to each talking point. The first point was to affirm marriage as only being between a man and a woman. With rising pitch, he would ask the crowd “Do you swear to….(insert talking point here)”, and the crowd would rise and shout as if lifted by God Himself, “I DO!!!”. Each successive call for affirmation was louder and louder. All I could think of was the children who had no clue what the fever was all about, but would go along because they were in an exciting and energized group of people, driven by emotion and inspiration.
• The men who didn’t know who Lawrence King was or why he should be remembered. Two men overheard as I was about to cross the street to leave, upon observing the couple with the “Remember Lawrence King” sign crossing the street: “Who is Lawrence King? Do you know?” “No, I don’t.” Barely able to contain myself, I turned with a smile and said “Lawrence King was murdered in cold blood in his homeroom class in Port Hueneme last February. In front of 40 eighth-graders. By a kid taught to be afraid of and hate gays.” I turned on my heel and left. This was front-page news here, and ultimately made the national news as well. It wasn’t a secret. Yet here were two full-grown men who had no clue who that poor boy was. Lawrence King was a resident at Casa Pacifica, a resident facility for troubled teens. It’s always struck me as ironic that, despite being part of a so-called traditional family, those traditional family values failed him. His killer is a troubled boy as well. I certainly don’t see where the ever-sanctified family was an asset to him either, other than to make sure a gun was accessible so he could put two bullets into Larry King’s head at point-blank range in front of his classmates.

  I was glad they couldn’t see the tears welling up in my eyes at the affront.



• The priest and the parishioner. Among the handful of people standing in opposition to Proposition 8, the one who most stood out was the gentle-looking man in the priest’s collar. He was involved in a respectful, intense conversation with another man who was arguing respectfully, but passionately, that homosexuality was a perversion. There was no question that the conversation was pointed and intense, but not confrontational. At one point, one of the Yes on 8 people brought a bottle of cold water to the priest. He accepted and said “I think I’ve just seen the face of Jesus today.”, as a way of thanking the water-bringer. What a generous and clear-headed spirit that priest had. I think I saw the face of Jesus, too. But it was on the priest, not the parishioner.

I have other fragmented, less clear impressions. Impressions of people, well-intentioned, sincere people, who somehow had been duped into thinking that somehow allowing same-sex marriage threatened their own heterosexual marriages. Impressions of children, happy to be at a big party, with no clue what the party was celebrating. Children being misled and taught falsehoods about what being gay was and what it wasn’t. Children being raised to be afraid, to not speak their minds or their hearts. The quiet determination of the two people on the corner. The TV cameraman who asked me which side I was on, and applauded my answer: That I was a Christian on the side of love and inclusion, strongly opposed to the idea of excluding anyone from entering into a marriage contract and a lifelong loving relationship.

Impressions of middle schoolers, anxious to be included in the event, but young enough to be distracted by the idea of tossing a baseball against the gargatuan Yes on 8 sign on the side of the truck. Impressions of a crowd stirred by the charismatic words and delivery of the preachers in the pulpit, fiercely guarding their right to be married to their loving spouse on the other side, believing in their deepest heart that they were somehow threatened.

And there is this: the impression that Christianity has been somehow twisted into an exclusive club where an entire segment of the population is to be toughloved out of the mainstream into the fringe. A sense of deep disappointment, of loss, grief that people could be led in such a way and in turn lead their children. Disappointment that there was not one mention of what Jesus did for those on the fringe, the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the unwanted and the unwashed. For Jesus, it was all about them. And us.

As I reached my car, I smiled at the woman across the street who had told the Yes on 8 people they couldn’t park in front of her house. I got in the car, turned around, and cried all the way home. I remember sitting in front of my own house wondering how such ignorance, such venom, could be celebrated by a church. I will never forget the tone and manner with which the line “Don’t let them have this, too.” was delivered. That tone will haunt me for the rest of my life, as will the image of Lawrence King’s sweet face.

I printed his picture. I put it in my wallet. I will carry it with me to the polls on November 4th, and when I draw my line across the arrow on my ballot pointing to “No” next to Proposition 8, I will say a prayer that he is up in Heaven sending love our way.

This question of marriage is about love. Allowing everyone to celebrate and express it. Allowing each individual the basic human right to fall in love, and make a public commitment to remain true to one another, and that commitment is as valid for same-sex marriages as it is for heterosexual marriages. In a world where there are true threats to our well-being — disease, poverty, hunger, abuse, abandoned, unloved children — we should celebrate those who want to affirm commitment and a pledge of love to one another, not condemn it.

I don’t pretend to be objective. I’m not. I truly in my heart believe that excluding a group from something as good as marriage is wrong. Teaching children to be afraid of, or ridicule those different from them is wrong. Please, instead of making it an us versus them thing, vote No on Proposition 8 and make it only an US thing. Because we are all US. Aren’t we?

[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