Lou Dobbs on Friday stated it made him sick to hear Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s so-called hateful words against America coming from a pulpit. 

What’s truly sickening is to see the most blatant attempt yet to interject racial division into the presidential campaign being spoon-fed to Americans under the guise of religion.

That truly is damnable.

Rev. Wright commented that God damns America for immoral acts such as policies that sanctioned apartheid and other foreign policy he says benefit corporate profit rather than humanity. This has received an enormous amount of airtime.

Over and over again, listeners have heard Wright’s words; God damns America. At first it is reasonable to assume most Americans would recoil from such words coming from the pulpit. The particular interest in this pulpit is that a presidential candidate sits in front of it.

Only in recent memory, consider how many times the Religious Right, from its pulpits, has stated that America is damned because of policies aimed at protecting gay and lesbian Americans from hate crimes and discrimination? How long have Americans, former presidential contenders and presidents sat in front of that pulpit?

It is not mere coincidence that this story was brought to our attention by the Fox News network, a media outlet that is perceived by many to carry water for the Religious Right. What is indeed shocking is how the mainstream media seemed blindsided by the story by first trying to ignore it and then falling right in line with Fox News in reporting on this as a story that has grave consequences for Obama and the Democrats.

This shows how far out of touch the mainstream media is with mainstream America. Even more disappointing is how far out of touch the mainstream media is when it comes to confronting the Religious Right’s spin machine and thinly veiled bigotry.

It may also be of no coincidence that the story broke just ahead of the weekend so that there would be a lag in the news analysis on this story. Were there sufficient time to analyze the story, the media may have had time to understand how this story is nothing more than an effort to energize the Religious Right.

How?

First, it is the most brazen attempt yet to interject racial division into the campaign. There is no doubt that a focus group somewhere has shown that nothing reviles the conservative base more than believing an African-American is preaching traitorous things about this great country.

To state that this story isn’t racially charged is utter nonsense. What is also utter nonsense is the manner in which some network commentators appear to recoil from Wright’s statement.

“It makes me sick”, Dobbs said.

How many talking heads are made sick when the Religious Right, day after day, condemns America for its anti-discrimination laws for gay and lesbian Americans or its policy on abortion?

Week after week, right-wing religious organizations work to shore up the Republican Party base and use America’s pulpits to condemn not only America but good, decent patriotic Americans. It’s not just religious leaders spreading a message of religion-based bigotry. Many elected officials and candidates are doing the same.

No one sought to give any context that Wright’s words were spoken from an interpretation of Holy Scripture. Poor presentation of the story, indeed. Even less context.

A nation where corporate greed holds sway over hard-working Americans? A nation that goes to war under false pretense? A nation in which political forces cater to prejudice and racial division? A nation in which gay and lesbian teenagers are being sacrificed on the alter of religion-based bigotry.

Would Wright’s God frown on such practices?

Surely, it would make him sick.

By Brent Childers, Executive Director
March 5, 2008

What Lawrence King might have grown up to be – a noted philospher like Kwame Anthony Appiah, a talented actor like Richard Chamberlain or a famous singer like Sir Elton John, we will never know.  His hope and aspiration, two of American’s most cherished religious and sociological ideals, were ended by a 14-year-old classmate who saw something threatening in young King because he had announced he was gay.

People of faith hope and aspire to live up to the tenants that form their doctrinal or theological perspectives. As individuals living in a free society, the idea that everyone has the ability to achieve their best is fundamental to the American sociological experience.  But many gay Americans are being denied the right to see these ideals transform their existence because there are also dark and menacing religious and sociological forces that have been allowed to flourish in our society.

Factions within our nation’s faith communities condemn King’s sexual orientation as something to be reviled, that gay and lesbian individuals are part of an evil attempt to capture the innocent minds of children and destroy families.  Young lives are ending as a result. The families of those victims know that religion-based bigotry played a role in the destruction of their family. As director of an organization working to educate Americans about the harm caused by religion-based bigotry against gays and lesbians, I have had the privilege of working with two families that lost sons within a month of each other last year. One lived in Florida, one in South Carolina, and both of their lives ended because they were gay.

And now a third death in California.  All in less than a year.

What captured the young mind of King’s 14-year-old killer? What has destroyed two families? It was not the ideals of love and compassion.  It is clear that the perpetrator’s mind was influenced by the attitudes of rejection, condemnation and misunderstanding that have been allowed to flourish in our society for far too long.

How many more Americans must die before we, as a society, face the underlying cause behind these senseless tragedies?  

Lawrence King might have been governor of California some day. We’ll never know.

His death and the tragic violence perpetrated by his 14-year-old classmate should prompt repentance from those who continue to promote bigotry as religious truth.  The public, the media and elected officials can no longer ignore the root cause of the horrific violence that is being waged against good, decent, wonderful lives simply because the person’s sexual orientation is different.

It may not be mere coincidence that King’s death comes on the heels of certain faith communities in California waging a crusade against teaching understanding and respect of gay and lesbian students in public schools. Certain religious and political organizations teamed up with churches last fall to collect signatures for a referendum overturning an anti-discrimination measure for these students that was signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger last October.

Those organizations operated under the misleading names of “Save Our Kids” and “Campaign for Children and Families” and they aggressively recruited certain faith communities in their efforts.  Their website called upon 777 California churches to each collect 1,000 signatures to defeat the measure that works to promote understanding and respect for gay and lesbian youth.

In such an environment, a young mind could justify violence against a gay or lesbian person, thinking he or she would be acting to save kids and families.  We should not doubt the role those forces played in ending the life of Lawrence King. Members of his family are suffering and so is the family of the child who committed murder.

Out of this monstrous tragedy, we must begin to build a sense of compassion, respect and understanding in the hearts of Americans because this epidemic of hate must end.  Let us join together with courage and resolve in making sure attitudes of rejection and condemnation toward gay individuals will no longer be allowed to flourish under the guise of religion truth.

Yesterday former Vice-President Al Gore made a video clearly expressing his view that gay people should have full and equal rights….and that includes marriage.
 
I would like to ask you to take a moment to concentrate on this letter during your busy day. It literally could help save some lives today and countless others in the future from the fear, isolation and depression that one faces as a young gay first realizing what your sexual orientation is.
 
Al Gore is the guy who more than 30 years ago warned America of the harms of global warming and not enough people took him seriously.   And the press did not do enough investigative journalism to educate the citizenry that this was in fact a serious issue.
 
Al Gore is the guy who just a few years ago warned America that invading Iraq was a horrible mistake.  I was sitting in the front row listening to him deliver this speech in San Francisco.  I was shocked that evening to see how the news portrayed his speech. It was dismissive.  Not enough people took him seriously.  And the press did not do enough investigative journalism to learn the facts about what has turned out to be one of America’s greatest debacles.
 
Once again, Al Gore is a step ahead with his vision of a just world.  I believe Al Gore made this statement because he is just tired of sitting back and seeing people he loves and doesn’t even know be the recipients of the real harm caused by those who have as a priority to marginalize and dehumanize gay Americans.  Al and Tipper Gore know that today, as I write this letter to you, there are untold thousands of teenagers who are desperately struggling with the reality that they are gay.  Will they lose their family if they find out?  Will they lose their friends?  Their church? Will they get beat up at school?  Will they get killed like Sean Kennedy last May?  Who can they talk to?  I know the fear and terror of this isolation.  I know that some will commit suicide.  I know because when I was a teenager I was not just constantly depressed but suicidal.  For the grace of I don’t know what, I am here today. I somehow had the strength to get through it.
 
Imagine if you are a teenager today in Hope, Arkansas.  Child of a Southern Baptist family….maybe your father is a preacher.  Close your eyes and think about the fear and isolation I’ve described.
 
Al Gore gave America another wake up call today. Will you take him seriously and really search to understand what he is talking about?  Do you see his vision?  Marriage is not the issue.  Full and equal rights is the issue.  I want to encourage you and help you investigate what it means to a teenager to be gay today.  You might think it is easy to come out, but it is not.  Where my factory is in rural North Carolina I see and know the religion-based ignorance and fear.
 
I was in Los Angeles yesterday.   A few hours after Al Gore’s announcement, I was at the offices of the Trevor Project listening to phone calls from gays contemplating suicide.  Hopefully, I helped save a life or two. 
 
Several years ago I spent a weekend at the Gore’s home.  It was just Al and Tipper and myself. I really didn’t know him that well and got the chance to have long conversations (as well as get a one on one of his climate slide presentation that has now become quite famous!!!).  Once I got over the intimidation of being with him and the awe, I decided to really probe on a wide variety of issues that interest me.  From health care to all kinds of questions about foreign countries to poverty and to, of course, gay rights.  After about a day and a half I looked at him at one point and simply said “you know, you are a good Christian.  Why didn’t you use that in your campaign?”
 
Al Gore is a sincere Christian.  Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, James Dobson and on and on are not.  I mean this nicely and sincerely when I say that I challenge you to stop accepting these people using their code words like ‘social conservative’ (aka bigotry) and the like.  Ask them what they really mean by ‘traditional marriage’ or ‘family values’.  They are the ones who are espousing religion-based bigotry.  Let’s call the disease by it’s real name.
 
The economy, war in Iraq, Iran, Lou Gehrig’s disease, universal health care…..these are all incredibly difficult and complicated issues to solve.  Gay teen depression and suicide?  Easy to solve.  You have the responsibility and power to expose the hypocrisy of religion-based discrimination. You have the ability to show that it has been used in the past and was wrong…and evil….and is today as well.
 
Please forgive my passion and if I’ve been too forthcoming to you.  Or if you feel I am being hard on the media.  I just can’t stand to see another day go by where a teenager might be going through what I did.  Let me know however I can help you understand this horrific problem. Gay rights is not just about a middle class couple who might not have visitation rights, or a person being fired from their job or denied housing.  
 

The African-American community should pay close attention to what Sen. Barack Obama has said about equality for gay and lesbian Americans and the correlation of religion-based bigotry and discrimination against African-Americans.

The struggle for justice, equality, and dignity for gay and lesbian Americans continues and Sen. Obama and other leaders have engaged the African-American faith community on this issue.

Are we listening?

As an African-American minister, I many years ago heard the call for change on this issue and it is still my resolve today to be a missionary for justice and equality, to be courageous, true to my faith, and challenge the African-American faith community, to love God with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves.

The African-American faith community must defend the human dignity of all people as distinguished leaders in our community are calling us to this task.

Consider Coretta Scott King’s remarks in a 1998 address in which she said that “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.”

Just last week it was announced that Julian Bond, an icon in the civil rights movement for nearly 50 years and longtime national chairman of the NAACP, has stepped into a leadership role with the Fairness for All Families Campaign in Florida, a statewide coalition effort working to prevent an effort to write discrimination against gays and lesbians into that state’s constitution.

These leaders recognize the history of religion-based bigotry and discrimination toward our own community. We know that religion was once misused to justify slavery.

Today it is being misused to deny members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community full and equal rights.

The African-American faith community must recognize the perpetrators and injustice, and bring about an end to the hurt that has been caused to so many.

Discrimination is morally wrong and un-Christian. Let me repeat this: Discrimination is morally wrong and un-Christian.

Sen. Barack Obama has said that he strongly disagrees with the views of people like gospel singer Donnie McKlurkin and others who use religion to attack members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. Those of us who are missionaries for justice and equality are hopeful that Senator Barack Obama will be true to his platform for change, and speak out against religious bigotry coming from a select group of African-American evangelical leaders. His appearance Monday night at a presidential debate in Myrtle Beach would be a good opportunity for him to do just that.

While Senator Obama’s candidacy for president of the United States offers hope, let us not forget a facet of society that has had little hope for change the last 20 years. The purpose of our government, first and foremost, is equality under the law, respect for human rights, and protection of all our citizens, whether they are white, black, male, female, disabled, Christian, or gay. We must be about the business of building a beloved community with a foundation of compassion and justice for all.

The Declaration of Independence says: “All people are created equal and endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The Bible says, “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12:30-31 There are no exceptions about who our neighbors are.

We must be courageous enough on our watch to change our society for the better.

So let us hear the call for change from our leaders and join them in challenging those people who misuse religious teachings to justify attitudes of condemnation and discrimination toward our gay and lesbian friends and neighbors.

Rev. Dr. Bennie Colclough of South Carolina serves as co-chairman for the S.C. Progressive Network and has been a longtime advocate for the LGBT community. He is a contributing writer for Faith In America, an organization that works to help the public better understand the harm caused by religion-based bigotry and discrimination.

“Unfortunately, there is a glaring reason we must question whether Gov. Huckabee was answering ‘candidly and honestly,’” said Faith In America Executive Director Brent Childers.

“It’s the fact that in the same interview he said it was his perception of God-sanctioned marriage that shapes his policy position that restricts gay and lesbian citizens from enjoying the same rights and privileges of other Americans.”

Childers said Huckabee, in a question about his position to ban all abortions, evoked Americans’ inner sense of equality for all and that the ideal cuts deeper than his personal religious beliefs.

In the interview Sunday with Host Tim Russert, Huckabee stated: “It’s not a faith belief. It’s deeper than that. It’s a human belief,” That’s why we go after that 12-year-old boy in the woods of North Carolina when he’s lost, not because he has greater worth than someone else, but because we believe he has equal worth as everyone else. I like it that in this country we treat each other – at least we should – with that sense of equality.”

Childers said it was apparent that Huckabee was trying to distance himself from the perception that his personal religious beliefs shape his policy positions – which was the theme behind Russert’s line of questioning.

“The obstacle that Huckabee has in selling that to the millions of fair-minded Americas who no longer are willing to accept the use of religion-based bigotry to justify legal discrimination is that his position on issues that affect gay and lesbian citizens and their families is antithetical to that inner sense of equality that he alluded to.

“The truth is that Huckabee has opposed marriage equality, adoption by gay parents, equal opportunity in employment and housing and against gays and lesbians serving in the military. When you put that together with his own words that described homosexuality as a sinful aberration, it’s pretty clear that Huckabee indeed is using his own religious beliefs to shape his position on these issues.”

“The majority of Americans no longer look upon gay and lesbian citizens as sinful aberrations and thus somehow underserving of the rights guaranteed by our Constitution to all citizens. That’s because they can look back at history and see how religion-based bigotry has been used to justify rejection, condemnation and discrimination against other minorities.

“Surely, Gov. Huckabee isn’t blind to these lessons from history. And surely he can see the harm that is being caused.

Childers said gay teenagers are twice as likely to commit suicide and the depression rate is nothing less than epidemic. He said that situation is not brought on by their sexual orientation but instead because they live in a society that for too long has rejected and condemned them as sinful – by those like Huckabee who very publicly define them as missing their interpretation of God’s marker.

“Faith In America has been unsuccessful on several occasions in its attempts to communicate with Gov. Huckabee about the harm that being caused by religion-based bigotry and discrimination against gay and lesbian citizens.

“Huckabee and other political and religious leaders must humble themselves to confess that their use of religion-based bigotry against gay and lesbian is having a horrific impact on the lives of good, decent Americans and their families.

“That is the confession that the heart and soul of the American people – and the innate sense of equality it embodies – yearns to hear.”

Faith in America Inc. is a civil rights advocacy organization whose mission is to end legal and spiritual discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people in America and to gain full and equal rights for those citizens. Faith In America is not a religious organization but works to educate Americans about the harm caused by religion-based bigotry against GLBT individuals.

By Jim Galloway
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Thursday 12.27.07

A bipartisan effort to restore Georgia’s hate crimes law could become bogged down in a behind-the-scenes debate over whether to include gays and lesbians in its reach, according to those familiar with the issue.

A state Senate study committee must decide by mid-January whether to proceed with the legislation, which is supported by a broad array of prosecutors, religious and civil rights groups — and GBI Director Vernon Keenan.

A Senate decision could be colored by House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who recently said he’s not inclined to take the issue up when the Legislature reconvenes in Atlanta in January.

“I haven’t seen a dramatic change in crime levels since the Supreme Court tossed it out,” Richardson said. “I see no reason to address it. I never have understood treating crimes with different punishments because of the person against whom you committed it.”

But those who support the effort say objections to the legislation extend beyond philosophy — and that the key hurdle may be defining whom the measure is intended to protect.

“We understand that there are legislators who are going to be more skeptical about the bill if it includes sexual orientation,” said Bill Nigut, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. Nigut said his group nonetheless supports the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the legislation.

Sadie Fields, leader of the Georgia Christian Alliance, said she doesn’t necessarily agree with the concept behind a hate crimes measure. “We definitely would oppose any legislation that included sexual orientation,” said Fields, who spearheaded the effort to incorporate a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution in 2004.

Cathy Woolard, former president of the Atlanta City Council, is a lobbyist for Georgia Equality, an advocacy group for gays and lesbians. Woolard said she considers extending hate crime coverage to homosexuals as the primary sticking point in the Legislature. Without it, she said, “I think it would go through in a minute.”

But with it, debate over a hate-crimes bill in Georgia could mirror arguments over anti-discrimination legislation before Congress. Some religious conservatives have said that including sexual orientation as protected category in federal legislation would chill their right to condemn homosexuality from the pulpit.

Passed in 2000, Georgia’s hate crime law permitted judges to hand down heavier sentences for crimes committed out of “bias or prejudice.” In 2004, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled the language “vague” and thus unconstitutional.

A Democratic measure to restore the law, led by state Sen. Vincent Fort of Atlanta, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, and included sexual orientation as a protected status.

But the Fort bill never reached the Senate floor.

Instead, the chamber backed legislation by rookie Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) to study the matter. Chamber is now chairman of a committee of four Republicans and three Democrats, which must finish its work before lawmakers return next month.

Cowsert said any new legislation would have to name specific protected groups that would be covered by the designation of “hate crimes.”

In other states, such legislation often defines bias-motivated acts as those in which the victim is selected because of race, religion, sexual orientation, ancestry or nation of origin. In Florida, the elderly are a protected group.

Cowsert’s study committee has met twice. In September, Keenan, the GBI director, was among the first to cite the need for new legislation. Keenan noted that Georgia was one of five states without a hate crimes law.

“Crimes motivated by bias strike at the foundation of a free society,” the GBI director said. “Hate crimes legislation is a statement that such conduct will not be tolerated.”

Groups representing Georgia’s police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors have also endorsed the restoration of the hate crime law.

Cowsert said the study group has been hampered somewhat by the lack of hard data on hate crimes. In November, the FBI reported that hate crime incidents in the United States rose by nearly 8 percent in 2006, with racial prejudice continued to account for more than half the reported instances.

In Georgia, a total of 13 hate crimes were reported for 2006, but only four law enforcement agencies in the state keep track of such information. Atlanta counted seven incidents; Conyers, one; Norcross, two; and University of Georgia, three.

Six of the incidents involved racial prejudice. Sexual orientation was a cause in four cases.

But Cowsert said any legislation wouldn’t address the information shortage. While law enforcement groups support a hate crimes bill, they don’t want added paperwork. “We have not received encouragement or requests to add to the administrative burdens of local police departments,” Cowsert said.

Groups supporting the legislation advocated the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected status during a six-hour hearing in November. Cowsert noted that no one spoke against the inclusion of gays and lesbians during the hearing, but admitted that “it could be a factor.”

“We want to make certain there’s broad-based support for it,” the committee chairman said. “One thing that comes up is a concern that we don’t squelch free speech or expression.”

That shouldn’t be a concern, said David Barkey, an ADL lawyer who testified at the November hearing. He said Georgia lawmakers faced a similar situation when drawing up legislation that increased penalties for crimes committed by street gangs.

“They already have a statute in place where they distinguish between freedom of speech and criminal activity,” Barkey said.

Republicans, including President Bush, are naturally loath to expand the federal role in law enforcement, and the unnecessarily broad definition of “hate crime” gives Bush a pretext for vetoing a bill whose central provision is already controversial, especially with religious conservatives who oppose what they wrongly call “special rights” for gays and lesbians.

Congress drops legislation that would address bias and crimes against gays and lesbians.

Among the business Congress left unfinished in its stampede toward a Christmas recess were two initiatives to deal with the continuing reality of bias against gays and lesbians. One, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, would prohibit bias in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation. The House has passed the bill; all that is required is Senate concurrence.

Another measure, which would broaden the definition of “hate crime” in federal law to include attacks motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation or identity, faces a more tortuous path to passage. If supporters hope to enact that bill—and discourage a threatened presidential veto—they need to fine-tune it.

Named after a gay Wyoming college student who was beaten to death in 1998, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act also would provide $10 million to help local law enforcement officials defray the cost of hate-crime investigations and, in rare cases, allow for federal prosecution of such crimes.

Approved by the House in May, the bill was added by the Senate to a defense authorization measure—and then stripped from that bill in conference. That gives Congress an opportunity in the new year to improve the bill by narrowing its unduly broad definition of “hate crime.”

The problem isn’t that the definition includes crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation. FBI statistics suggest that such crimes are a real problem, making up 15% of reported “single bias” incidents in 2006. The problem is that the bill doesn’t stop there.

Fearful of offending other minorities, the authors of the Shepard bill also provide for a federal role in hate crimes motivated by a victim’s disability or gender. Yet only 1% of hate crime incidents logged by the FBI in 2006 involved someone targeted for his or her disability. Although the FBI doesn’t keep track of “gender motivated” bias crimes, California does, and in 2006, only 0.8% of reported incidents involved gender.

Republicans, including President Bush, are naturally loath to expand the federal role in law enforcement, and the unnecessarily broad definition of “hate crime” gives Bush a pretext for vetoing a bill whose central provision is already controversial, especially with religious conservatives who oppose what they wrongly call “special rights” for gays and lesbians.

Crime statistics and common sense make the case for the current hate-crimes statute targeting acts of violence and harassment based on race, color, religion or national origin. Those same considerations justify enactment of a Matthew Shepard bill that targets the still-too-widespread bigotry that led to his death.

Wednesday 12.26.07

Twenty-seven states have passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriages and next November, Florida could become the 28th.

But backers of the amendment shouldn’t expect Florida voters, most of whom do not approve of gay marriage, to be exercised about this issue during an election year in which there are so many other important matters to talk about.

Gay marriage is last season’s politics.

Besides, Florida already has a law outlawing marriage between people of the same sex, so formalizing a ban in the state constitution hardly merits front-burner status.

Florida law says a marriage made somewhere else between persons of the same sex is “not recognized for any purpose in this state.” The language is clear.

Plus, there’s the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that says states don’t have to recognize gay marriages from other states. That law protects Florida, if the state needs protection, just as it does the other 49.

Yet Florida4Marriage, the sponsor of the proposal, has collected the 611,000 signatures needed to put the amendment, already cleared by the Florida Supreme Court, on the ballot in 2008.

It’s easy to accuse the group of prejudice, as its critics have, but Florida4Marriage insists its purpose is to defend traditional marriage and its foundational role in a stable, civil society. The group says state laws are not enough when judges, with the swipe of a pen, can overturn them.

But the issue has also helped forge the political landscape. Republicans have effectively used the gay-marriage ban amendments against Democrats, who want gay votes but don’t want to alienate the majority of voters who don’t sanction same-sex marriages.

In 2004, when President Bush was up for reelection, 11 states passed marriage bans with vote totals averaging 67 percent. Two years ago, when the Republicans lost control of Congress, seven more states passed bans. However, Arizona voters refused to go along.

We’re sympathetic to those who would protect traditional marriage as a sacred trust. These are people who fear for our culture and lament the loss of respect for the institution. But changing the constitution, when it hasn’t proven necessary, is not the way to do it.

Americans have grown more tolerant of their gay and lesbian neighbors and are appalled by the violence and discrimination some have faced.

A number of state and local governments have responded by outlawing discrimination based on a person’s sexual preference. And an increasing number of businesses are granting spousal benefits to homosexual partners as a way of retaining valuable employees.

Homosexuals should not be denied employment, public accommodation or any of the civil liberties enjoyed by Americans.

But marriage is not simply a civil rights issue. It is an amalgam of faith, values and tradition. Changing its definition is no trifling manner.

But make no mistake. Gay marriage is not the biggest threat to the institution of marriage. Bigger assaults are exposed by divorce rates and the growing number of out-of-wedlock births. Almost half of marriages today end in divorce. In Florida, one in four babies is born to an unwed mother.

To best defend the institution of marriage, we should quit looking for bogeymen where there are none.

Many evangelical Christians this year may have to admit to their children that they’ve been perpetrating an “untruth.”  Perhaps they are made just a smidgen more uncomfortable by the fact that they believe truth was embodied in Christ - who according to their religious teachings was a person born different than any other human being.

So at a time when many Christians are cautioned not to forget the “reason behind the season,” they are confronted with the fact that they must close the door on a part of their son’s or daughter’s childhood by telling them that certain stories about the partially eaten cookies, the hand-scrawled note left behind and the soot smeared on the floor were really not true.

But the young lives of a future generation will go on albeit perhaps a bit more cynical and somewhat dejected from discovering such a truth.

For the families of Pat and Lynn Mulder of Auburndale, Fla., and Elke Kennedy and Jim Parker of Greenville, S.C., the lives of their two children will not be going on. The day-to-day gifts of joy they gave their parents, siblings and friends ended with their deaths - and no amount of perception will make their future lives and their gifts to those around them a reality.

Pat and Lynn’s son Ryan Skipper, who was killed in April 2007, and Elke and Jim’s son Sean Kennedy, who was killed in May 2007, will not be with their families next week to celebrate the season - and there is an underlying reason which we as Americans must confront honestly and truthfully.

Both young men died after attacks that have been reported as acts of violence against them because they were born different. The difference was that they enjoyed dating, being around, spending time with, and bonding emotionally with men instead of women. That difference, according to certain religious and religious/political factions in America, condemns them as sinners, unclean, undeserving of the same rights that other Americans enjoy and unworthy of God’s love.

Gays and lesbian individuals are not the only Americans who have been delegated as second-class citizens at the hand of misguided religious teaching. African-Americans were once labeled as a cursed lot. And with the “Adam first, Eve second” thinking, women also have been denied equality in this country as many people believed they stood more in favor with their God by standing opposed to full equality for women.

The majority of religious-minded people look back on those periods in history and realize that religious teachings were misused and misconstrued to deny African-Americans and women full equality.

Yet many Americans today fail to see the history of religion-based bigotry against gay and lesbian citizens and the harm that it causes to millions of wonderful people simply because they are different.

The families of Ryan Skipper and Sean Kennedy this Christmas are experiencing the harm that comes when a social climate of rejection and condemnation is allowed to flourish because a society accepts bigotry against gay and lesbians as religious truth. While those families experienced the physical violence that is promoted by such a climate of rejection and condemnation, millions of of other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans and their family and friends experience this violence and in other forms as well - emotional, psychological and spiritual violence.

In South Carolina, where Sean Kennedy parents will spend Christmas, the state in 2006 voted to ban gay marriage and the opposition from Christian churches in that state was instrumental in writing such discrimination into South Carolina’s constitution - which coincidentally still banned interracial marriages until just a few years ago.

Next year in Florida, where Ryan Skipper’s parents reside, a ban on gay marriage is being proposed for that state’s constitution and no doubt religious and religious/political groups will lead that effort.

While denying gay and lesbian citizens the right to marry is but one of the many rights they as American citizens are not allowed to enjoy, it is an issue that clearly defines how a majority religious belief is used to justify legal discrimination against a minority.

Let’s hope that people across this nation will pause for a moment to recognize that misusing religious teachings to justify discrimination against gay and lesbian citizens must be recognized just as wrong today as it has been in the past.

Great social injustices of the past have fallen faint when America’s heart and soul bestows its most wondrous gift – equality.

Sharing that truth will most assuredly enrich the lives of future generations.

Brent Childers
Executive Director
Faith In America

By Lisa Wangsness
Boston Globe
Friday 12.21.07

NASHUA - In the dimly lit sanctuary of a large brick church at the north end of Main Street, more than 100 people move to light Christian rock music. Children, recently resettled refugees from Burundi, are splayed out on the floor with coloring books. A man in jeans and a sweater stands nearby, swaying and holding his palms heavenward.

“What can wash away my sins,” the group sings. “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Grace Fellowship in Nashua is part of a growing movement of evangelical Christians in New Hampshire, a group that includes nearly 1 in 5 Republican primary voters and that could play an important role in the state’s Jan. 8 election. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and an ordained Baptist minister, has preached in four New Hampshire churches, and is hoping to connect with religious conservatives.

Yet those who worship at Grace Fellowship and other New Hampshire churches point to many ways in which they differ from evangelicals outside New England, particularly in the South and Southwest, who are the backbone of the religious right in America and, in Iowa and South Carolina, provide a base of support for Huckabee.

Outside New England, evangelical megachurches are commonplace, attracting thousands or even tens of thousands. In New Hampshire, evangelical churches tend to be smaller - and more independent.

Evangelicals outside New England have created a large network of faith-based political organizations, such as Focus on the Family, dedicated to socially conservative causes such as outlawing abortion and same-sex marriage. In New Hampshire, only a few organizations mix faith and politics, and they tend to be very small, low-budget grass-roots groups that hold little political power at the state level. That makes the community more difficult for political campaigns to organize.

And while evangelicals in New Hampshire are more conservative than other Christian groups in the state, they tend to be more socially moderate than their Southern counterparts, suggesting Huckabee or any other social conservative who seeks their support might have to contour the message in a different way.

“It kind of makes me laugh sometimes when they lump evangelicals all in one group,” said the Rev. Bruce Boria, pastor of Bethany Church in Greenland, the state’s largest evangelical church and one of the most politically diverse, which attracts about 2,000 people each Sunday.

“At my church, there have been people who have opened their homes to Barack Obama” and a variety of other candidates from both parties, said Boria. He said he is a former New Yorker and finds much to like in Rudy Giuliani. In his congregation, Boria said, “I find, especially among the younger ones, a greater openness of dialogue instead of a hard-line position in one camp.”

Combined postelection survey data from 1992 to 2000 by National Surveys of Religion and Politics indicate that 45 percent of New England evangelical Protestants who attended church more than once a week considered themselves “pro-gay rights,” compared with 29 percent in the South.

John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life who conducted the research, sees two possible reasons: First, many more Northeastern evangelicals are affiliated with denominations that are more politically moderate than Southern Baptists and Pentecostals, the groups that dominate the Southern evangelical landscape. Second, he said, evangelicals in New England live in a more culturally liberal climate.

“They’re not from an evangelical Protestant culture, they’re from a New England culture,” added Andrew Walsh, associate director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford. “They haven’t been marinated for generations in the religious and political culture of the South, or even Iowa.”

John Prince, 24, who grew up an evangelical Christian in Berlin, N.H., and is now an investment consultant, is a Republican who opposes gay marriage and abortion, and his favorite candidate is Huckabee, whose views on those issues align with his. But when asked about his top issues in the presidential election, he talks about energy independence, building stronger alliances with countries around the world, and healing the country’s partisan divide.

“In light of things like war, for instance, and dependence on foreign oil, I think gay marriage sort of takes a back seat, even though I don’t think it’s necessarily unimportant,” he said.

At 18 percent, evangelicals are a smaller portion of Republican primary voters in New Hampshire than in Iowa, where they make up 38 percent, and South Carolina, where they represent 53 percent, according to a poll released this month by the Pew Research Center and the Associated Press. Yet it is a large enough group of voters to have an impact in a competitive, multicandidate election.

So far, only Huckabee has tried to pursue this group. Political analysts say that may be because it is risky in New Hampshire: The larger Republican electorate might look askance at an openly religious candidate.

“In New England in general, and in New Hampshire in particular, people are very skeptical about religious candidates,” said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

And many conservative Christians in New Hampshire are as squeamish about bringing politics into church as their secular neighbors are about bringing religion into politics.

“Political buttons, they stay outside the door,” said Chris Tidwell, the pastor of Deerfield Bible Church, a rural congregation of about 50 people.

“I don’t express my political views at church,” said the Rev. Frank Accardy, pastor of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Laconia. All “Christians don’t see things the same way, and there’s no point in introducing division.”

In line with that viewpoint, Huckabee has won some fans among New Hampshire evangelicals by scrupulously keeping faith and politics separated. When Huckabee met with a group of evangelical ministers in Manchester last week at a conference headlined by well-known national evangelical leaders, the event was not on his public schedule, and organizers declined to allow a reporter to attend.

Rev. Kenneth J. Bosse of New Life Assembly of God in Raymond called it “a huge leap of faith on my part” to open his pulpit to a presidential candidate last spring, but he was won over by Huckabee’s sermon on “the sin of being good,” which he said had absolutely nothing to do with the campaign.

“He so honored those boundaries,” Bosse said.

Fifty years ago, there were almost no evangelical churches in New Hampshire, Walsh said.

That changed as Southern evangelicals moved north - the first evangelical churches in modern New England, Walsh said, sprang up outside military bases. In the 1970s, evangelical churches began appearing in suburbs, part of a national reemergence of interest in evangelical Christianity.

The flexibility of Pentecostal and independent evangelical churches - pastors don’t always have to be ordained, and can hold other jobs - has helped new congregations flourish in down-on-their-luck small towns and among communities of new immigrants.

Many of the new churches are seeing “exponential growth,” said the Rev. Paul Berube, pastor of Grace Fellowship. Berube, 55, grew up Catholic in Nashua and can recall a time when “you’d have a real hard time having a group of 50, and now there is an incredible evangelical presence all over the state.” His church now has more than 1,000 members and is host to Chinese, Brazilian, Indian, and Brazilian congregations.

“It’s almost like the South or the Bible Belt is in its third or fourth generation, where we’re the first,” he said. “So there’s more enthusiasm and excitement and first-generation commitment.