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Christianity
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
July 19, 2020, Note from Mary: I listened to this broadcast in my car today (CBC Radio: Tapestry) and felt the content was so powerful that I wanted to share it with any who might be questioning whether there is "a God". This is about faith and science, and has nothing to do with being gay and Christian.
Dr. Francis Collins is one of American's leading scientists. A physician and geneticist, he led the Human Genome project to identify and map human DNA.
He has been the director of the National Institutes of Health since 2009, making him the longest-serving director in the institute's history. Collins and his team are currently hard at work trying to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
Dr. Francis Collins is the 2020 Templeton prize winner. Former winners include Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. This talk is based on his book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Please go to the CBC Radio website. The full audio episode is 54 minutes long.
There is also an hour and a half long video on the same page.
The Inevitability of the Rise of Liberal Christianity
It is inevitable that Christians who would now be described as "liberal" will be the overwhelming majority of Christians in America. That sea change, the waters of which we already feel swelling everywhere around us, can no sooner be stopped than can the moon passing across the night sky. Today's conservative evangelical Christians who are rallying against "postmodern relativism," "revisionist secular theology," "a naturalistic doctrine of God," or however else they might label the theology of the left, are like yesterday's horse-and-buggy owners rallying against the newfangled automobile.
The future of transportation was obvious then; the future of Christian theology is obvious now.
The Roman Catholic Church Hits A New Low
Just when I think the Roman Church has hit the bottom of the gutter with all of the Papal and Vatican sponsored attacks against the Gay community, we learn that we have yet to see the bottom.
The latest news to disgust me is the refusal of the San Diego Diocese to allow any of its parishes to bury a gay man who happened to have owned two gay bars during his lifetime. He chose to own businesses that catered to the gay community. That was his crime, his sin, that was so grave that it kept him from being buried from a Catholic Church or chapel. Is the Bishop trying to buy political capital with this decision? Is he pandering to the religious right and the Republican party for some reason?
Unreasoned Ignorance Abounds
Everywhere I turned today, I read yet again another perversion of Holy Scriptures with a decidedly anti-gay twist. It is an epidemic of ignorance and misplaced righteousness.
First, the Vatican is at it again, or should I say still at it. What I predicted last year has come to pass: The Pope has banned gay men from becoming Priests and has launched a new inquisition which he is quite experienced at as he came from the Office of the Inquisition. This Pope has sent squads of clergy to visit all of the 229 American seminaries in order to ferret out any gay men; even those who might have a "close friendship," as observed by other seminarians and faculty. He is also calling in Priests who have been ordained within the last three years for questioning. In fact what this Pope has done is turn Seminarians and Priests into KGB type spies who report on their fellow clergyman to the Vatican. It disgusts me to no end. Major Archdiocese like Washington, D.C. could not function without their gay clergy. There are many more Dioceses that this holds true for also, including those led by gay Bishops.
The Self-Destruction of the Roman Catholic Church
I have once again finished reading an official document issued by the Vatican in Rome that deals with the complex issue of gays in ordained ministry. Not since the document "CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS," issued two summers ago by John Paul II, have I been so absolutely dumbfounded at the total lack of knowledge, understanding, compassion, theological insight and right reason as it relates to the homosexual person exhibited by the Vatican hierarchy.
In the second paragraph of the Introduction to this latest obscenity from Rome, a clear unmistakable purpose is given as to why this document has been issued: "It (this document) contains norms regarding a particular issue, made more urgent by the current situation, and that is the admission or not to Seminaries and Holy Orders of candidates that have deep-seated homosexual tendencies."
Christian Denominations and Gays
These links were originally from glbtq.com - once an excellent encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, & queer culture but now archived. Used with Permission.
While denominations such as the Metropolitan Community Church and the Unitarian Universalists welcome full participation by glbtq members and clergy, others are divided over glbtq issues, and some are ardent supporters of the most homophobic elements of the New Right.
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/metro_comm_church.html
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/unitarians.html
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/new_right.html
Metropolitan Community Church
On an autumn Sunday morning in 1968 a twice-defrocked gay Pentecostal minister welcomed twelve people into his living room for a worship service. From that distinctly modest beginning the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) has grown into a worldwide ministry with over forty thousand members in eighteen countries.
Origins
The Reverend Troy Perry felt the call to preach at an early age, delivering his first sermon when he was only thirteen. Although his parents were not particularly religious, his family had strong church ties; one of his aunts was a Pentecostal preacher who handled snakes as a sign of faith and an uncle was a Baptist minister.
