Gay-Friendly Bishop

[Viki]

Hi, friends, I just wanted to share that I just got back from two days of synod assembly and we elected the most gay-friendly Bishop - and our first woman - that I can imagine. I am soooo psyched. She is terrific is many ways, but this is the icing on the cake. Now I'm gonna crash, because I have to work tomorrow!

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Exclusionary practices (on any basis) by church doctrine and hierarchy is a concept/problem that I personally struggle with. Are some of us "made less in <his> image" than others? As I type this, I realize I'm even somewhat uncomfortable with the <his> word.

It is my belief that as soon as we start looking at "others" as being in some way different and less deserving, we are on a pretty slippery slope. Viki -- I'm sure you would know this -- Was it Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote the famous essay about "when they came for the jews, I said nothing because..."

It's great that your Bishop is accepting and gay-friendly. Change the heart (people) and then the head (doctrine) will follow.

As I type this, the sun has just come up and the sky outside is a beautiful mosaic of palest blue and peach. If that's not a sign that our heavenly <Mother> loves us in spite of ourselves, I don't know what is.

 

[OrlandoMike]

" In Germany they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and i didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me - and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Pastor Martin Niemoller

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Martin Niemöller and although there is some dispute of the order of the subsequent stanzas/paragraphs, he apparently cited the communists first.

And it is interesting that as anti-semitic as he arguably was, he still included the jews in his poem (Up to now, I had always thought it was an essay)

Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Jude.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.

How OFF-TOPIC is this for the DIS boards ?!?!? and how do I always seem to end up somewhere off in the deep weeds?!?!?!? Now.. How 'bout it? Anybody got updates on fast-passes for EE???? or How's the pot-roast at the Liberty Tavern????

 

[OrlandoMike]

Get there early!

Any Yummy!

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Thanks for the correct attribution.
After my initial post, I did a little looking around on the subject and was totally fascinated by what I found. I re-posted before I saw your correction. I apologize for not checking to see if somebody beat me to it.

 

[OrlandoMike]

If your talking about the "stanza" I simply looked on my wall and typed, have a version of this framed and on the wall as a reminder.......

It includes all of the triangles and what they stood for.

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Since, I really didn't know very much about this poem after all (wrong attribution and initially thought it was an essay) ...

What are the triangles and what do they symbolize?

 

[OrlandoMike]

Yellow on Yellow (Star of David) = Jews
Black on Yellow = Mental Disorders
Red = German Political Prisoners
Brown = Gypseys
Black = Asocial Prisoners and Lesbians (Geesh girls get a new color!)
Red with black circle below = Jehova Witnesses
Pink = Homosexuals ( I am guessing men only because of above)
Blue = Emigres

Thats what I have at least.

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

...the badges they were forced to wear on their clothes.

I was hoping for something uplifting.

Kinda like "Amazing Grace" being written by a former slaver who had seen the light. (I'm still digesting some other quotes from Martin Niemöller that I read this morning and honestly, I don't know what I think about this poem now. In the past, it had seemed like a voice of enlightened bravery in an incredibly dark time. Now, it seems more like enlightened self-interest.) I hope I'm wrong. Any theologians care to weigh in?