(no subject)
I just read the most fucked up thing.
African bishops reject aid from gay-friendly churches
Larry Buhl, PlanetOut Network
Thursday, June 9, 2005 / 05:56 PM
With encouragement from conservative American leaders, Anglican bishops in Africa are refusing millions of dollars from several American Episcopal Church donors to protest their tolerance of homosexuality.
African churches are the fastest-growing part of the 38-member Anglican Communion, which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church. A typical African diocese budget ranges from $50,000 to $100,000 per year, with an estimated 70 percent of all funding coming from churches in the United States.
The 2003 election of openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, as well as the growing acceptance and even consecration of same-sex relationships in some U.S. churches, met with condemnation from the archbishops of Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, who have rejected aid from the Episcopal Church. Bishops in Rwanda and Tanzania have declared they will also refuse to accept such donations, the Washington Times reported this week.
The U.S. religious right has praised such actions, promising their own aid from conservative donors.
Tony Perkins, president of the anti-gay Family Research Council, applauded the African Anglican leaders, who serve some of the poorest people on the planet, for "putting principle above the pocketbook."
"No amount of silver is worth sacrificing your duty to your congregation and to God," Perkins said on FRC's Web site. "As Rwandan Bishop John Rucyahana of the Diocese of Shyira put it, 'If money is being used to disgrace the gospel, then we don't need it,'" Perkins continued.
For his part, Perkins urged FRC's conservative followers to help make up the difference by donating to Bishop Ruycyahana and "the orphans of his diocese."
A few far-right members of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. version of the 38-member worldwide Anglican Communion, also encourage African churches to reject money in order to remain true to scripture.
The Rev. Bill Atwood, Secretary of the Ekklesia Society, an international Anglican network, told the PlanetOut Network that African dioceses ultimately need financial self-sufficiency to be "biblically faithful" and still eat.
"He who pays the piper calls the tune. African archbishops don't want be beholden to organizations with views they don't agree with," he said.
Atwood, who admonishes homosexuality, said his organization helps African churches set up their own income-generating resources, such as radio stations and commercial fishing operations.
Nevertheless, Atwood said that he witnessed rampant poverty and starvation on his travels in Africa, and admitted that self-sufficiency is a long way off in much of the continent.
Unlike their conservative counterparts, moderate and liberal Episcopal churches have reacted to African leaders' rejection of aid with sadness and dismay.
"It's a terrible mistake morally to refuse that money," Jim Naughton, spokesperson for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, told the PlanetOut Network. "We haven't made a precondition that they agree with us on our views on homosexuality. That shouldn't be a deal breaker."
One openly lesbian Episcopal pastor is less willing to criticize leaders in Africa, a continent where homosexuality is demonized in the rare instances it's discussed at all. Susan Russell, associate pastor of All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., instead places most of the blame on the religious right in the U.S. for exploiting African ignorance and homophobia to promote a political agenda.
"Two thirds of our brothers and sisters around the world have no clue what the lives of openly gay and lesbian families are like," Russell told the PlanetOut Network. But instead of informing them, Russell said, conservatives here "are demonizing gays and lesbians in order to break the ties that bind us to these parishes in order to promote their own conservative theocratic agenda."
"It's an example of how far the religious right will go," she continued. "The people who most need money are being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. We have people worldwide who desperately need what we have to offer. This grieves the heart of God."
Russell, who is also the national president of Integrity, a gay and lesbian Episcopal organization, will try to put a face on gay and lesbian issues for African diocese leaders when she attends the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England, later this month.
As the "official live-in-capacity lesbian representative," Russell says she reaches out to those "whose only exposure to gay and lesbian anything might be a 30-second sound bite of a Pride parade."
As with fostering economic self-sufficiency, changing views on gays and lesbians in Africa will be a long, hard slog. Barring donations from big-pocket conservatives, lack of technology may be impoverished Africans' saving grace for the time being.
"If parish 'X' in the U.S. gives to school 'Y' in Kenya, the church leaders there often can't keep track of where the money comes from," said Naughton. "The slow pace of communication in these huge African provinces means that money given by [gay-friendly] U.S. parishes tends to fly under the radar."
Naughton, whose diocese works with African provinces that will accept their donations, expressed pessimism about provinces that don't. "Anti-gay forces say it's OK for Africans to condemn people to death by refusing money. But unless there are enough conservative American churches with deep pockets -- and who will put Africa on their agenda -- that money won't be made up."
Fine! If you're too holy for the money that is going to SAVE YOUR LIFE, then you can starve. Now is not the time to be picky, motherfuckers. When the children come to you and ask you why their family starved to death, you just tell them you were proving a point. How far is this shit going to go? You're sacrificing lives to make yourself seem more righteous? Oh yeah, I'm sure your God looooooooooooooooooooooooves that shit!
African bishops reject aid from gay-friendly churches
Larry Buhl, PlanetOut Network
Thursday, June 9, 2005 / 05:56 PM
With encouragement from conservative American leaders, Anglican bishops in Africa are refusing millions of dollars from several American Episcopal Church donors to protest their tolerance of homosexuality.
African churches are the fastest-growing part of the 38-member Anglican Communion, which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church. A typical African diocese budget ranges from $50,000 to $100,000 per year, with an estimated 70 percent of all funding coming from churches in the United States.
The 2003 election of openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, as well as the growing acceptance and even consecration of same-sex relationships in some U.S. churches, met with condemnation from the archbishops of Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, who have rejected aid from the Episcopal Church. Bishops in Rwanda and Tanzania have declared they will also refuse to accept such donations, the Washington Times reported this week.
The U.S. religious right has praised such actions, promising their own aid from conservative donors.
Tony Perkins, president of the anti-gay Family Research Council, applauded the African Anglican leaders, who serve some of the poorest people on the planet, for "putting principle above the pocketbook."
"No amount of silver is worth sacrificing your duty to your congregation and to God," Perkins said on FRC's Web site. "As Rwandan Bishop John Rucyahana of the Diocese of Shyira put it, 'If money is being used to disgrace the gospel, then we don't need it,'" Perkins continued.
For his part, Perkins urged FRC's conservative followers to help make up the difference by donating to Bishop Ruycyahana and "the orphans of his diocese."
A few far-right members of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. version of the 38-member worldwide Anglican Communion, also encourage African churches to reject money in order to remain true to scripture.
The Rev. Bill Atwood, Secretary of the Ekklesia Society, an international Anglican network, told the PlanetOut Network that African dioceses ultimately need financial self-sufficiency to be "biblically faithful" and still eat.
"He who pays the piper calls the tune. African archbishops don't want be beholden to organizations with views they don't agree with," he said.
Atwood, who admonishes homosexuality, said his organization helps African churches set up their own income-generating resources, such as radio stations and commercial fishing operations.
Nevertheless, Atwood said that he witnessed rampant poverty and starvation on his travels in Africa, and admitted that self-sufficiency is a long way off in much of the continent.
Unlike their conservative counterparts, moderate and liberal Episcopal churches have reacted to African leaders' rejection of aid with sadness and dismay.
"It's a terrible mistake morally to refuse that money," Jim Naughton, spokesperson for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, told the PlanetOut Network. "We haven't made a precondition that they agree with us on our views on homosexuality. That shouldn't be a deal breaker."
One openly lesbian Episcopal pastor is less willing to criticize leaders in Africa, a continent where homosexuality is demonized in the rare instances it's discussed at all. Susan Russell, associate pastor of All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., instead places most of the blame on the religious right in the U.S. for exploiting African ignorance and homophobia to promote a political agenda.
"Two thirds of our brothers and sisters around the world have no clue what the lives of openly gay and lesbian families are like," Russell told the PlanetOut Network. But instead of informing them, Russell said, conservatives here "are demonizing gays and lesbians in order to break the ties that bind us to these parishes in order to promote their own conservative theocratic agenda."
"It's an example of how far the religious right will go," she continued. "The people who most need money are being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. We have people worldwide who desperately need what we have to offer. This grieves the heart of God."
Russell, who is also the national president of Integrity, a gay and lesbian Episcopal organization, will try to put a face on gay and lesbian issues for African diocese leaders when she attends the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England, later this month.
As the "official live-in-capacity lesbian representative," Russell says she reaches out to those "whose only exposure to gay and lesbian anything might be a 30-second sound bite of a Pride parade."
As with fostering economic self-sufficiency, changing views on gays and lesbians in Africa will be a long, hard slog. Barring donations from big-pocket conservatives, lack of technology may be impoverished Africans' saving grace for the time being.
"If parish 'X' in the U.S. gives to school 'Y' in Kenya, the church leaders there often can't keep track of where the money comes from," said Naughton. "The slow pace of communication in these huge African provinces means that money given by [gay-friendly] U.S. parishes tends to fly under the radar."
Naughton, whose diocese works with African provinces that will accept their donations, expressed pessimism about provinces that don't. "Anti-gay forces say it's OK for Africans to condemn people to death by refusing money. But unless there are enough conservative American churches with deep pockets -- and who will put Africa on their agenda -- that money won't be made up."
Fine! If you're too holy for the money that is going to SAVE YOUR LIFE, then you can starve. Now is not the time to be picky, motherfuckers. When the children come to you and ask you why their family starved to death, you just tell them you were proving a point. How far is this shit going to go? You're sacrificing lives to make yourself seem more righteous? Oh yeah, I'm sure your God looooooooooooooooooooooooves that shit!