| September Meeting
http://www.pflagkc.org
What is it? Who is it? Why is it?
Our program on Sunday, September 14, will feature our Web Master
Glenn Lang and Diane Harvey who will share with us about online resources to
which we have access, including our own website. They will speak about websites they have found that people may find helpful
and they will explain how to search for resources on the Internet.
Whether or not you have a computer you will find this an interesting
and helpful program. Bring your friends and family and join us at 3pm.
Who knows, you may even learn a new LANGuage. There will be, as
always, lots of sharing and fellowship and, of course, delicious
snacks.
Join us for PROMO's first ever Equality Summit!
The Equality Summit is a day filled with skill building
workshops, legislative planning, electoral strategizing, coalition building,
religious organizing, and fundraising fundamentals.
Every significant piece of PROMO's programmatic work will be assessed
and
concrete goals and objectives will be set for 2004. This is the most
direct way for you to help shape PROMO and the future of LGBT rights in
Missouri!
The Equality Summit will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on
Saturday, September 6th in Columbia on the University of Missouri campus in
Room 114 of the General Classroom Building.
BTW, KC PROMO needs a copy machine!!! Any contacts? Call
816- 931-2300
Dick and Jane Gephardt Join the PFLAG Family
With great pleasure, we welcome Dick and Jane Gephardt into the
PFLAG family. Dick and Jane have proudly and clearly communicated to the
world their love and support for their daughter, Chrissy. They have been
vociferous in spreading what is also PFLAG's message: family ties are among
the deepest and
strongest, and that they should not be broken.
Please check out PFLAG national's website
welcome piece.
Wouldn’t you like to serve on our PFLAG/KC Board?
At our upcoming PFLAG meeting nominations will be
accepted for service on our Board.
Meetings of the Board are held on the same day as our regular
meeting, the second Sunday of each month, and begin at 1:30pm.
Your presence would be most welcome. We need you to help us
keep PFLAG running smoothly.
It’s easy to do: When the floor is open for nominations just
raise your hand and say, “Sign me up.” Elections will be held at that
meeting and you would start serving in October. Give it lots of
thought....OK?
From our President
Hi Russ - for my last article in the newsletter, please just say:
Come out and vote for next year's Board of Directors for PFLAG-KC and
welcome
Jamie Lee to leadership in the chapter. Also ...... note that our new
e-mail
address is: pflagkc@pflagkc.org
Much love, Helen
It was with great reluctance that I accepted this “last
article” from our outgoing president. Through the months.....and years,
actually..... that I have been editor, Helen Cohen was a very consistent, important source of
material for the newsletter, on top of everything else she did with
such commitment and total devotion to and love for this chapter of PFLAG.
All of us benefited so much from her leadership and, I fear, took her too much for
granted. But, if she felt that, she never revealed it. She traveled
nonstop across this city, and state, and country representing us and speaking out boldly
and with great certainty and authority on behalf of the lgbt community. All
that, and she still had time for a sometimes beleaguered editor. I always knew that if
it was getting close to “crunch” time for the newsletter, and news was
not forthcoming (about the upcoming program, e.g.), I could always call her and
say “help”, and she always came through. So, in
addition to all the many, many other ways I will miss her, I will miss her as “co-editor” of the
newsletter. I can’t help but sense a time of stumbling along in my
role as editor, and I will be reaching out to all of you to help fill in the inevitable gaps
that will be created. I don’t worry TOO MUCH about that, however. :)
Having said all that, I look with real optimism to
this new dynamic woman who will be taking Helen’s place. Jamie Lee exudes energy from
every pore of her being and seems not the least bit reluctant to jump headlong into the
“fire”, so to speak. All of us have a vitally important task ahead of
us....to help Jamie in every way we can to feel comfortable knowing she has our total
support and encouragement.......and help.
This is a marvelous family we have created here. Many
lives have been touched and moved in a way that sends a vital message to people in the lgbt
community as well as to parents, family members and friends of that
community: It is a message of love and total acceptance of who they are and all they can
become in our midst.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As a former pastor, I sometimes moved into a new church only to
discover some members continuing to seek out the former pastor for advice,
etc., Believe me it sometimes was very harmful, not only to me as the new
pastor in my leadership role, but to the whole church community as well.
We must move forward. There are many issues out there
that still remain unresolved. We will be asking much of our new president and she will
be asking much of us. All of us together, in our commitment, love, and mutual respect, will achieve, I believe, the final realization of our dreams for the
parents, families and friends of the lgbt community.
And now let us rise for the benediction. :)
Russ Hawkins
Domestic Partner Registry
The vote was 11-1 in favor of the Domestic Partner Registry and
Domestic Partner Benefits. A great day for a great city.
And, a moment of true pride for LGBT people and our straight allies who will
continue working side-by-side to make Greater Kansas City an inclusive and progressive community.
More news, as it develops, but for now....take heart and
celebrate!
Jamie Rich, Director
Lesbian & Gay Community Center of Greater Kansas City
207 Westport Road, Suite 212
Kansas City, Missouri 64111
(816) 931-4420 Fax: (816) 931-1420
www.lgcc-kc.org
"Building Community - Connecting People"
Appointment of gay bishop reflects Christianity's compassion
Bill Tammeus
The angry reaction to the Episcopal
Church's recent brave decision to appoint an openly gay man as a bishop shows again how often religion follows
when it should lead.
In many locations around the world,
Anglican authorities denounced the appointment of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire and - in a burst of
self-righteousness - threatened to cut ties with their American counterparts
in the worldwide Anglican family. Their reaction reflects the growth -
especially in the Southern Hemisphere - of a type of Christianity that's
inflexible in its theology and often fails to challenge the oppressive social norms around
it.
Despite that, this kind of
Christianity, which is flourishing, has many positive elements, including an infectiously enthusiastic worship
style. But the theological rigidity of this expression of the faith sometimes moves
it to promote harmful positions that a more open approach to the faith would
lead it to oppose.
Instead of being complicit in the
oppression of homosexuals and other marginalized people, the worldwide church should lead the charge to liberate
them. But a misinterpretation of sacred texts that appear on first
reading to condemn homosexuality (a word unknown to biblical writers) locks parts of
the church into behavior similar to the shameful way some elements of
Christianity condoned and even promoted slavery in the United States before the Civil
War.
The world and the church look back on
that dark period now with horror and embarrassment. But it's instructive to study that history and see
the parallels to the church's continued repression of homosexuals today.
And I include my own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), among the guilty
for its refusal to allow ordination of otherwise qualified gays and lesbians.
In A History of Christianity, author
Paul Johnson notes that even
though "no good case for slavery could be constructed, in good faith,
from
Christian scripture," many churches in the South tried to do just that.
It was, Johnson says, "A shocking and flagrant stain on the faith" because
"the bulk of Christian opinion and teaching had been anti-slavery for more than a
millennium."
American churches, Johnson writes,
fought over slavery by hurling
biblical texts at one another. Much the same goes on today in the
often bitter
debate over homosexuality. People who oppose including gays and lesbians in
all
parts of church life often quote isolated bits of the Bible out of context. At the same time, people on my side too often draw overly broad conclusions
from the textual evidence or base their opinions on cultural - not religious
- values.
As the church oppresses gays and
lesbians, its historical messages of liberation, love, compassion and salvation get compromised. An
organization that stands on those principles should be in the vanguard of change to
remove oppression, not giving aid and comfort to oppression's supporters.
That's why I welcomed Robinson's appointment and why I’m so
disappointed that substantial segments of the church view it as a failure to abide by
biblical strictures. It's also why I was so appalled at the Vatican's
recent quarrelsome position paper on same-sex unions that warned Catholic
politicians they would be committing a "gravely immoral" act to vote in favor of
them. In both instances, religious people are following instead of leading.
Sex isn't the only matter roiling
religion these days, of course, though it gets much of the play, as the current scandal about Catholic
priests who abuse children shows. In Islam now the fights are over whether women
are as
free as the religion that the Prophet Muhammad founded sought to make them
and
over whether the concept of jihad, or struggle, ever should countenance violence. In Israel - the center of gravity of Judaism - one struggle
is about who
is really Jewish. The ultra-orthodox segment of the faith there
refuses to
imagine, for instance, that American immigrants from Judaism's Reform branch
are Jews at all.
These and similar disagreements often
devalue religious ideas that set
people free, make them whole and place them in a healthy relationship with
each other and with their God. Those ideas become secondary to dogma
that has
grown encrusted with foolishness and impoverished theology.
Religion, while honoring its valid
traditions, should help people live
fuller lives of love and service. That's what the Episcopal Church has
done
by making Gene Robinson a bishop. That decision reflects what is best
and
most healthy about religion, whether or not most of the religious world
recognizes it.
. To reach Bill Tammeus, a member of
The Star's Editorial Board, call
(816) 234-4437 or send e-mail to tammeus@kcstar.com.
The Tenth Voice
Turn On.
The Tenth Voice
Kansas City's Only Broadcast
For Lesbian, Gay, Bi & Trans Communities
Saturdays @ 1:00 PM on KKFI 90.1 FM
The Tenth Voice is the Kansas City area's only, locally produced radio
program for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Straight Allies, Families,
Friends, Queer, Questioning, Intersexed and Closeted Communities. Soon to
be celebrating 15 years. The Tenth Voice can be found to the left of your dial,
Saturdays at 1:00 PM, on Kansas City's KKFI 90.1 FM
Each week listeners with a lavender ear can tune in to this interactive,
public affairs magazine with: features, interviews, music, commentary, and
the international News-Wrap from This Way Out. The Tenth Voice offers openly Gay
and
Lesbian hosts, who each week, bring to the airwaves, stories and information
important to the LGBTQ Communities in the Kansas City area.
Let us know if you are listening and what you think about our show.
We
appreciate your suggestions, support and ideas.
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