Salem City Council says "NO" to LGBTQ rights

Last Monday night I learned that it isn't only religious fundamentalists who don't care about the rights of LGBTQ people.

(Since this blog is read by people all around the world, some of whom may not be familiar with that term, it's an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning.)

I was deeply irritated when the Salem City Council voted 6-1 to approve a lease with the Salem Alliance Church for use of a church-owned building as a temporary public library while renovations are being made to the library at the Civic Center.

This has been a fascinating issue for me to be involved with, since it intersects issues that I'm interested in: the role of religion in society, politics, and human rights. 

I started a "Stand Up for LGBTQ Rights in Salem!" petition that currently has 287 supporters. Feel free to sign it, if you like.

A key reason I decided to support the Salem Human Rights Commission, which opposes using the church-owned building as a public library, given the opposition of the Salem Alliance Church to same-sex marriage and same-sex sex, is that I don't see any difference between bigotry in the name of religion and bigotry in the name of anything else.

Bigotry is bigotry. If you don't support basic human rights for everybody, no matter their race, sex, gender identity, or whatever, you're a bigot.

I've had people on Facebook say to me in a comment, "What don't you understand about same-sex sex being a sin? It says so in the Bible." Hard to believe religious people can be so ignorant. The Old Testament was written by human beings in pre-scientific times. 

So using the Bible as a guide to morality is absurd. As is using any other holy book as a guide to morality.

But even Christians should recognize that the Bible can be interpreted in various ways when it comes to same sex attraction. Today a gay man, Cary Renfro, left this comment on a post I wrote about the City Council's bad decision. 

Brian, thanks for doing this blog.

First, the Salem Alliance minister either doesn't know his Bible very well or (more likely) is reading from faulty English translations. There are gay and lesbian people all over the place.

Ruth and Naomi (Ruth 1:16-18), (Ruth 4:14-15)
David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:1-4; 1 Samuel 20:16-17 (their marriage); 1 Samuel 20:41; 2 Samuel 1:26)
Psalm 133, which is very short and begins "How good it is and how pleasant for men to dwell together in union!"

First gentile conversion was the gay treasurer of Ethiopia: Acts 8:26-39.
Gays can go to heaven: Isaiah 56:3-7

The story of Nehemiah, the eunuch (aka gay) handservant of King Artaxerxes who became the rebuilder of Jerusalem and the temple starts in Nehemiah chapter 2.

King Zedekiah’s gay (court official) Ebed-Melech, who rescued the prophet Jeremiah when Prince Malchiah and others threw Jeremiah into a cistern and he sank into the mud. (Jeremiah 38 - 39) The story ends with the LORD telling Jeremiah to go to Ebed-Melech and say: “Thus says the LORD of hosts…I will surely deliver you…because you have put your trust in me, says the LORD.”

Jesus, praying that men who love one another may be united with Him and God: John 17:18-26.

Jesus healing the Centurion's boyfriend: Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10; John 4:46-53.

SO much for all that. Look it up yourself, and do the translations yourself, and for goodness' sake use a decent English translatiion.

Now, this decision of the city council is quite upsetting to me.

If the property were owned by the KKK would the city be leasing it? No or yes? If you take that pastor's remarks and replace the word "homosexual" with any racial term or religious term such as Black person, or Irish person, or Jewish person - would there not be an outcry? and would not the city refrain from contracting with the organization?

(I put in Irish because at one time there were signs all over the country saying "no Irish need apply".)

How can the city justify this?

For those of us who can't use the temporary facility for whatever reason, please come to Chemeketa Community College library. Lots of parking, on the bus line, handicap accessible, linked to the full CCRLS catalog, and your Salem library card works just fine there. Open Monday thru Friday and even a lot of Saturdays.

I invite you to look at these four short videos I made of the people who testified in person at last Monday's Salem City Council meeting. I was the first to sign up, getting to the meeting early, so led off the three-minute public comments. The other three testifiers made some great points in heartfelt ways.

 

 

 

Comments

[Jesse]

"Bigotry is bigotry."

Including anti Christian and anti traditional family bigotry which are both supported by an ever growing section of American of society. It goes so far that when churches are victims of mass shootings the news doesn't even cover it because everyone's been trained to hate Christians so thoroughly. But this is neither here nor there.

It's is a good start that people are pushing back on faux equalitarian demands that continually ask for more and more disruption and attacks on social order, but they need to completely end all these drag queen story hours and all the other open displays of "child grooming" as well. It's obviously pedo stuff that we're being taught to accept lest we be labeled bigots by the self proclaimed enlightened class. It'd be better to put all libraries in Churches than to allow that sort of stuff to happen.

As I said before, there are better secular reasons for upholding sane social order than religious ones. The bible isn't even worth talking about in this context. China is officially atheist, and they get this one right.

Here's a video of a 9 year old talking about and imitating the snorting of ketamine with a drag queen. He's celebrated as a hero by mega corporations and global media conglomerates. I'd choose a repressive theocracy over this sick demented world we've created any day.

Sadly, we can't have something sane in between theocratic fascism and child grooming drug utopia because that would be bigoted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmrp3JVFrb8

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Brian
1. You have a beautiful, rich and gentle speaking voice and should consider narrating videos of your views... Or guided meditations.

2. This is an MLK lunch counter opportunity. Fill the place with LGBTQ couples and friends. Make it a place of gathering, casually. Meeting there at the beginning of a date, or the starting place for an evening with friends.

Instead of arguing concepts, the LGBTQ community should just over-utilize the space. The church is ignorant. But their members are human beings. The time has passed for shouting at the darkness. The time to hold the torch of enlightenment begins!

Enjoy the space with the complete freedom the current law provides. The LGBTQ community should make a point to become its greatest traffic, as is right for a higher educated population.

Feeling uncomfortable is something that we all must put up with when we decide to do the right thing. Now everyone can participate.

I recall in 1978 attending the gay pride parade in West Hollywood. I was invited to come and watch by a colleague who was gay. I brought my Catholic girlfriend, and my Satsangi friend, Tom Curtis and his wife, Maria, who were at the time teaching me about the Path, and initiates of Charan Singh.

Towards the end the parade some of the marchers invited watches on the side walk to come into the street and join the parade.

Tommy grabbed my hand and Maria's and we joined in the throngs. I reached for my girlfriend 's hands and she shied away, thinking of how she could explain things to her parents... And then in the midst of the packed crowd she was lost. We found each other at the end of the route, detaching for each other an hour later.

Just go there, Brian. Just make that an LGBTQ squatter' s home. Let no open hour pass without a member of the LGBTQ community there reading a book comfortably, doing the Lord 's Seva.

Think behavioral conditioning and re-conditioning. Not conversation and debate.

The heart understands in time what the mind is incapable of knowing.

The good Samaritan came from a distant land. But he had to be there at the right time to help.

[Vinny]

Where is that tippy and his friend ribbon, both of them act like pimps of Gurudom. Kal/time will bring destruction of these pimps of Gurudom.

[123abc]

hey Brian, get yourself to California next week. Gurinder will be there for two days from Jul 30 to Jul 31 for Q&A sessions....

https://PetalumaProgram.org

Salem to San Francisco is hardly a 2hr non-stop flight, your chance to ask whatever you want...!

[Brian Hines]

123abc, I have zero interest in asking the RSSB guru any questions. Less than zero, in fact. Gurinder owes answers to the people and entities he and his family received shady loans from, and to the investigators in India who are looking into the financial fraud. I'm confident the Indian financial press will report on whatever results from these inquiries.

[Spence Tepper]

"Gurinder owes answers to the people.."
Truth.

[um]

Spencer, owes an answer?!

To what people?
and
In What capacity?

As a citizen he is responsible to the legal structure of his country.
As a father, son, uncle, husband, nephew and friend, to his family and friends.
As a guru, based on the theology of Sant Mat as laid down by Kabir, only to his "boss" who gave him a job to do but certainly not to any of his followers.

The parabel of shepherd makes that clear. The shepherd works in service of the owner of the sheep, he doesn't own them, they are not theirs. The owner, his boss, owns the sheep.
He is just ordered to bring the sheep to the stable and that is what he does, he is not even resposible for making the selection, and, mind you, with or without their consent and he can use whatever means he deems fit to do his job, even if he has ro have the dogs running after uncooperative sheep.

Whether you or anybody else likes it or not, this is the story of the sant movement.

The bhakti movement started by kabir and that spread over india in the form of many panths, was for that reason never democratic. Just read the literature.

That is how I came to understand it, and how I understand it has nothing to do with my personal preferences, believes etc.

People from the west have a tendency to turn this movement into an Buddhistic perspective as that suits their mindset better, certainly after 1968.

The rules of this religious game, for this game to continue as it is, cannot be changed, where you or I like it or not.

So, he as a guru doesn't owe anybody an answer, he, like the many before him and after him, will not answer any question … in fact, if you understand it correctly, they speak but never say a thing … they cannot, they will not.

There is no link between them and the followers that binds them, they cannot be influence fot the very reason that there doe'sn't exist an emotional connection.

Sit down drink coffee, look at magpies and crows and you will understand that they cannot be transformed into Nightingale and eagles.

[Amar]

Um, what you described above is the epitome of why gurus get away with what they do. Very dangerous mindset.

The reason he doesn't answer it, unlike other questions, is that he thinks he can do whatever he wants, including being dishonest and not honoring his debts and have to answer to the sangat for it.

You assume/attribute too much to him, and he provides the sangat with very little accountability.

So be it. I don't answer to anyone as well... maybe my wife would say differently.

[um]

Amar, please read it again.

As a citizen he is responsible to the worldly and legal authorities and as you can read these authorities are doing their job.

As a guru he is responsible to nobody. Please do understand. It has nothing to do with any particular guru, it is part of the framework of Bhakti Panths, Sant Mat. He is not accountable to the sangat.

If you have children and a job, or as son of your father earning a living for his family, you will understand humans live in different worlds, with different roles and responsibilities.

Read the history of the saints in your country, and there you will find that all trials to make saints accountable, failed.

Part of the theology is that seekers come to their doors and ask them to be accepted.

Try to understand with an open and objective mind what the core "message" of these panths is. like one can write down in a couple of sentences what this or that religion is all about. You need not to like it to understand it.

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Um
You wrote
"fit to do his job, even if he has ro have the dogs running after uncooperative sheep."

He is bound to his sheep and goes after them himself,, carries the sheep back on his own shoulders.

That is the true King, who has a real relationship, and a real responsibility, to those he loves, just as each of us do.

But for a pretend shepherd who carries no such responsibility, there is no real relationship, no real responsibility. And he and you never held a bond, nor any duty to each other.

That is a false Shephard.

But where there is a real shepherd, every effort is made to explain, to reach, to encourage, and to love.

[Heyjoe2 where-you-gonna-run-to-now]

Christ why do they talk such crap?
Lama sabacht Ani?

[um]

Spence, i can reproduce here whatever I understand to be the core teachings of sant mat, or bhakti movement started with Kabir.

Part of that teaching is that the previous guru is responsible for his successor. So in fact the assumed founder of this lineage, Swami Ji of Agra is responsible.

Further I know to whom and what i feel mentally attracted, and that that attraction doesn't say anything about the persons or things I am attracted to. It has nothing to do with something or somebody deserving my feelings towards them. Being attracted towards an piece of art doesn't mean that the maker is a great artist

In that light you might understand that i am not in a position to differentiate between the false and the genuine gurus. It is quite possible that I have had avers reactions towards an genuine guru.

The same teachings tell me that if a seeker is honest, his seeking will bear fruit even if the one he follows is a fraud.

This has nothing to do with me, what i do and think … it is all about how the core teachings have come to me.

[Jesse]

Um seems to have never read a single word of any of these bhakti texts in his entire life. The guru is considered responsible for every single aspect of his disciples lives and afterlives. To say he has no responsibility at all according to the random unintelligible texts of "The bhakti movement" is absurd.

But who cares. He's just a guy none of us know and so were the authors of old books that we romanticize. None of this matters at all. Men (and women. don't wanna be sexist) will continue making claims about gods they don't know. And they will continue stealing money. Some will talk about god and steal money. They are the ones who future generations will also worship.

[Heyjoe2 where-you-gonna-run-to]

Books mean nothing (or very little) as do wiki or Google, just ramifications of intellect to confuse itself further. May as well burn them all then perhaps some intelligent reality might make itself present.
Bhakti exists before any books were written read or published. Bhakti existed before Kabir Nanak Muhammad or Jesus, before mankind evolved and before existence materialized. If there's a better way to understand one's life and one's presence in the world and one's condition, then find it and follow it. Otherwise ramble on.

[um]

Jesse, the parabel of the shepherd, being the essence of bhakti movements laid down by Kabir to begin with shows who is responsible to whom and who cares for what.

The shepherd is ordered to bring the sheep home alive and sane doing so he is free to act towards the sheep as he deems fit.
It also sows clearly that he doesn´t owe anything to the sheep.

The issue was whether an guru in general and Gurinder in particular owes some explanation to his followers … he is not.

People can stamp the floor like 3 year old kids, he will never answer any question as he is not in THEIR service.

One can manipulate a sitting president maybe to act according to the wishes of the masses as these masses vote according their sentiments.

Sant mat is not democratic … meaning the masses have no say in what these gurus stand for.

Only the government can question him legally as a citizen and that is what they are doing. For the government his role as guru has no meaning, it is not defined in books of law. They will act cautiously fearing the consequences for public order, but that is another issue.

[j]

The vagrant apocalypse seems to be a far bigger problem to Salem Oregon than the temporary renting of library space.

[Jesse]

"Just go there, Brian. Just make that an LGBTQ squatter' s home. Let no open hour pass without a member of the LGBTQ community there reading a book comfortably, doing the Lord 's Seva."

Just add a J for junkies in to the lgbtq, Spence, and you're describing public libraries and inner city churches already. I only go you suburban libraries precisely because of how weird city libraries have become. Not interesting and cool weird either. But smelly and dangerous, wouldn't let kids near them weird.

And the churches all with their huge gay flags and requisite "ALL ARE WELCOME. WE ARE A LOVING AND AFFIRMING CHURCH!" aren't much different. The churches in USA do infinitely more to not only accept but encourage homosexuality than any of the church's detractors. Only difference at this point is that churches thanklessly feed the dregs that your average "liberal" moves to the suburbs to escape. Just like I did. Just like Lao Tse did too supposedly.

On a tangential note(me tangent?), I have a strong suspicion that had the library been moved to a mosque or a synagogue nobody would be brave enough to confront them. You'd see most of these same people thanking the muslim or jewish community because they know damn well there are real consequences for going against them even though their stances on homosexuality are both much harsher.

America has maybe 20 years left. Maybe. Enjoy the decline.

[Sonia]

People don’t “choose” to be gay. You can choose who you marry but you can’t choose who you love.