Joe Huffman continues his discussion of the Brady Bunch’s bigotry.  It is very, very insightful.

And Sebastian talks to us about it, giving his thoughts on what Joe Huffman has previously said concerning it.

Linked off of that last article was this article.  Read and witness Mitch Mayne’s truth:

September 6, 2009

You know who I am. You have been seated next to me in meetings. You have greeted me with enthusiasm when you’ve seen me come to Church. You have heard my voice in prayer.

Yet, I wonder how many of you would treat me less kindly if you knew the truth. I wonder if you would judge me–however mildly, however inadvertently, however silently.

Being honest about who I am has seldom led to a positive outcome. In my home, my Father told me that my being gay was his ultimate fear, and my ultimate failure. My mother told me it would have been better for her if I’d been born dead than gay. Growing up, I was scorned on the playground, and ridiculed and bullied in the classroom. I have been fired from jobs because I am gay. I have been told by church leaders that I am unworthy of ever taking the Sacrament. I have been told that I will never work with the youth of the church. I have been told in meetings that it is because of people like me that the AIDS pandemic has come upon the Earth–that my sins are bringing punishment upon the wicked and the sinless alike.

It has not been an easy path, nor a path I would wish for anyone. But it is *my* path. And it has made me who I am today. I am, in fact, grateful for being gay. It has given me levels of compassion, understanding, patience and forgiveness that I would never have developed otherwise.

Many Sundays I look out across the congregation and watch
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you: Shawna and Raymond Lee, with their brood of wonderful and rambunctious boys; MJ and Katherine Pritchett with their fledgling children, offering them support as they leave the nest; Dick and Jackie Alder, with their deep, lifelong companionship and love for one another. And I know I will never have those things. If I am to live by church doctrine, I am relegated to a life of solitude, and my sentence is to grow old and leave this world alone.

Those are painful moments for me. Yet when the Sacrament is passed, and I bow my head and speak my sorrow to my Heavenly Father, something equally grand happens.

Almost without exception, a feeling washes over me from deep inside my soul. A tender, warm, yet powerful feeling–and a voice that tells me, “You belong here.”Not when I have it all figured out, not when I am perfect, not when I know all the answers — but today, right here, right now. With you. That, my dear brothers and sisters, is why I am Mormon. Because I belong here.

I had no choice whether or not to be a child of my Heavenly Father. And I had no choice whether or not to be gay. Both things simply are. Both things are intertwined into the DNA of my soul so deeply that you could not extricate one from the other without destroying who I am. They are, in fact, who I am.

Why do I speak to you today?

I don’t want pity. To pity me is to make me a victim. I want understanding. To understand me, is to love me as an equal.

I don’t want tolerance. If I am tolerated, I am disliked or feared in some way. I want respect as a fellow striving child of Go — an equal in His eyes.

I don’t want acceptance. To accept me is to graciously grant me the favor of your company. To accept me is to marginalize me with the assumption that I am less than you. I am your peer. I am neither above you nor below you.

I don’t want judgment. My path may be different than yours, but it is a plan built for me by a power greater than any of us in this room. To judge me is to judge the designer of that path.

I do not want to be viewed as a mistake. My path on this Earth was prescribed uniquely for me, just as yours was. It was designed to give me the experiences I need to grow as a child of my Heavenly Father. To view me as a mistake is to view Him as a maker of mistakes.

We are very different, you and I — on a cosmetic level. You have spouses, or the opportunity for spouses, I do not. You have children, or the opportunity for children, I do not. You are attracted to those of the opposite gender, I am attracted to those of my same gender.

What I want most of all is for you to look past the cosmetic. I want you to look at what makes us the same: the simple fact that we are all children of our Heavenly Father, and we are struggling day to day to understand how to best do His will, and how to return to Him. It is that similarity, brothers and sisters, that weighs more than all the cosmetic differences in His universe.

You know who I am. You have been seated next to me in meetings. You have greeted me with enthusiasm when you’ve seen me come to Church. You have heard my voice in prayer. And now, you have heard my truth.

Thank you, Mitch Mayne, for sharing part of yourself.  I am grateful for your gift.

I saw this article in the Salt Lake Tribune and thought it was a perfect example of A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts and Sitting in the Fire: Large Group Transformation Using Conflict and Diversity.

Gay rights: Oakland LDS Stake tries to heal post-Prop 8 rifts

‘This is the church I know and love’

By Peggy Fletcher Stack

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 02/05/2010 01:39:33 PM MST

Ted Fairchild, who is openly gay, has HIV and serves as a part-time LDS missionary in the Bay Area, left the love of his life to return to church activity. Linda Schweidel wondered why her bright, successful returned-missionary husband still was not ready for children after eight years of marriage. That’s when he broke down and told her he was gay.

Diane Oviatt held her sobbing gay son in a darkened kitchen as he poured out years of grief at the secret he had been carrying for 18 years and wondered how he would get to heaven without marrying.

These were among the anguished stories several Mormons shared during emotional church services Oakland LDS Stake held last summer to heal rifts caused by the faith’s activism in the Golden State on behalf of traditional marriage.

In June 2008, the LDS First Presidency asked all California Mormons to give their time and money to Proposition 8, a ballot measure striking down gay marriage. Many members did so with gusto, circulating petitions, raising money, sending e-mails to church lists and putting up lawn signs.

That left other Bay Area Mormons, particularly those with gay friends and relatives, feeling embattled and alienated. Some stepped away temporarily from church; others left for good. Those who remained often felt at odds with fellow believers.

Oakland Stake President Dean Criddle, a respected lawyer and gentle leader, sensed the ripples of collective pain and wanted to reunite his flock, says Matt Marostica, bishop of the Berkeley Ward.

So Criddle and his counselors assembled quotes and speeches from LDS general authorities that stressed love and compassion for those with same-sex attraction. They then asked each of the 10 wards in the stake to hold a joint meeting of adult members during church services on either Aug. 30 or Sept. 6 to hand out the quotes and listen to personal stories from area members.

The response in Oviatt’s suburban Moraga, Calif., ward was electric, Oviatt says. “Everyone in the audience was weeping. Men came up to my husband, crying, and hugged him, saying, ‘We love you and we love your son.’ “

A couple of the more ardent ballot supporters apologized to Oviatt for having Prop 8 signs on their lawns, saying, “We never knew.”

Several people told Berkeley’s bishop, Marostica, how much they appreciated the meetings, including one woman who said, “I am so glad we did this. This is the church I know and love.”

[s]Till they have faces » The authorities’ statements and church setting provided a comfort level to Mormons who rarely discuss homosexuality openly, except to condemn it as a social trend or satanic tool. By all accounts, though, it was the stories that were transforming.

One man, who outed himself from the pulpit during one of the meetings, talked about a life of being scorned, bullied and accused by other Mormons of bringing on the AIDS pandemic. Still, every week when he takes the sacrament bread and water, God’s voice whispers to him: “You belong here.”

It’s the same voice Fairchild has heard over and over since becoming active in the LDS Church as a 17-year-old in Pullman, Wash., in 1970.

He served a two-year mission in Mexico, earned a degree at Brigham Young University and married a woman because, he says, she was pretty and could play the piano. The couple had two daughters.

But Fairchild always knew he was gay and eventually couldn’t continue the lie. He fell for a man.

“It was the only time,” Fairchild says, “I have ever been physically, emotionally and spiritually in love.”

By 1986, he and his partner were diagnosed with HIV, which at the time was a death sentence. Elder Richard G. Scott — then an LDS Seventy, now an apostle — gave Fairchild a blessing in which he asked God to build a protective wall around his cells. In that moment, Fairchild believed he needed to live by Mormon standards. He broke up with his love and returned to the church.

“Once you’ve experienced the Holy Ghost,” he says, “there’s no other feeling like it.”

More than 20 years later, Fairchild is relatively healthy and at peace with his decision. He believes he was born gay and a child of a loving Heavenly Father, twin qualities that make him a more effective “worker in God’s kingdom.”

Letting go or holding fast » That doesn’t work for Oviatt’s son, Ross Oviatt, who has not been back to church.

He attended BYU for a few semesters, she says, but it was a “toxic environment.” The Prop 8 fallout — which continues in California with the ballot measure now before a judge – proved difficult for Ross as he tried to weather homophobic slurs and keep his secret. He misses his Mormon experience and friends, but the association is too painful.

It hasn’t been easy for the rest of the family, either.

“We had to re-examine our place in the church,” Oviatt says. “We are not leaving, but it’s hard to stay in a religion that does not embrace our child. If we had to choose between the two, we’d choose Ross.”

Some Mormons in the stake see only one choice: following church edicts.

“I am a faithful Latter-day Saint, happily married with children, striving to live up to my temple covenants, fulfill my calling, be a good father and all the other things which active members of the church try to do,” one man wrote to Criddle in between the two joint sessions. “According to your definition of homosexuality, I am also a homosexual. I have had strong attractions to men (and exclusively men) my whole life.”

But homosexuality is not his identity, just a temptation he refuses to act on, the writer said. He thought the stake should have included more emphasis on heterosexual marriage as the core of Mormon teachings.

Criddle shared the letter (without identification) in all the wards.

Coming back » In what she calls, the “dark days of Proposition 8,” Schweidel took a “leave of absence” from the church.

She didn’t know if she could return. But when Criddle and Marostica asked her to tell her story at one of the joint sessions, she readily accepted.

She has been attending and involved ever since.

“The special meeting made me want to be part of a positive change in the church,” she says. “I want to talk to people, to explain why I feel like I do, and help them try to understand.”

That may work in Berkeley, but how about Bountiful?

Schweidel is hopeful. There are two kinds of Mormons, she says, quoting a friend: those who know gay people and those who don’t know they know gay people.

The task, she says, is to move more members from the second to the first category.

“If my mom in Orem had gay neighbors next door, I know she would love them,” Schweidel says. “The Mormons I have spoken to make an effort to understand. They totally get it.”

This gives you an idea of what I was trying to convey in my post Unpacking Things.  This is how the process works.

Interesting Master’s Degree opportunity + USA Study Opportunities and Tutorials. Check them our under the cut!

I will continue posting about such opportunities. This way I’m bound to check them out myself )

- UNIVERSITY OF BASEL, SWITZERLAND -

The University of Basel, Switzerland, in cooperation with the World Peace
Academy, offers a 9-month full time Master of Advanced Studies in Peace and
Conflict Transformation. The first academic year runs from 1 March – 26 November
2010 and every year thereafter. The program is accredited by the University of
Basel, which also issues the MAS diploma. All courses are taught in English by
leading specialists in their field from around the world, including Prof. Dr.
Johan Galtung.

The WPA program is designed to provide students with the intellectual competence
to analyze conflicts and their underlying causes, practical skills in conflict
transformation and peacebuilding, and the motivation to do everything in their
capacity to help create a better world. During the 9 months full‑time
study period, the students will learn and work together, building a
multicultural community. Such a unique learning situation will enable the
participants to train in everyday situations what needs to be realized on a
global scale: mutual understanding, tolerance, cooperation and the willingness
to learn from each other.

Why Study at WPA?
- WPA has a comprehensive program that aims to cover all aspects of peace;
- WPA combines theory with practical experience. Our professors work on
practical applications in the field as well as doing research;
- Different from most other universities, which have their fixed faculty, WPA
enjoys the advantage of inviting the best teachers from around the world from a
wide variety of disciplines. We have 40 faculty members from 20 countries, from
all 6 continents;
- You study in a close community with people from all over the world.
The program consists of 10 modules: Introduction to the Scientific Methodology
of Peace Studies; Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding; Regional Conflicts
and Peace Initiatives;International Relations and International Law; From
National to Human Security; Peace Education and Ethics; Human Rights, Gender and
Democratization; Sustainable Development and Its Contributions to Peace; Peace
Culture and the Media; and Development of Key Competencies for Peace Workers. It
includes lectures, seminars, exercises, group activities, excursions,
self-study, library research and writing papers. Click here for a course
calendar, course descriptions and biographical notes about our faculty members,
see our website.
Directors of Study:
Prof. Dr. Ueli M�der, Institute for Sociology, University of Basel
Prof. Dr. Dietrich Fischer, World Peace Academy and Transcend Peace University
Catherine Brunner Dubey, MA in Peace and Conflict Studies, World Peace Academy
Who Should Apply: Students from any discipline interested in peace and conflict
resolution, for example young diplomats, government officials, NGO members,
teachers, journalists, lawyers, social workers, soldiers, psychologists. A first
university degree (bachelors or equivalent) is required, and preferably some
professional experience.
Degrees: Those who successfully complete the program and write a thesis on a
relevant topic of their choice, under the guidance of a faculty member, obtain a
Master of Advanced Studies in Peace and Conflict Transformation from the
University of Basel, worth 70 credits according to the European Credit Transfer
System (ECTS). Those who complete at least 12 weeks of courses obtain a
Certificate from the World Peace Academy.
The WPA also very much welcomes those students who are not able to take the 9
months full-time study period continuously. In consultation with the responsible
person, it is possible to attend one or more modules at the time over a period
of several years.
Costs: 15′000 Swiss Francs (about 10′000 Euro) tuition for the 9 months of
study, including thesis advisement. Rooms cost 350-500 Swiss Francs per month
and meals are extra. A few partial scholarships are available for students who
need one.
When to Apply: WPA has a rolling admission policy. You can apply at any time
before the begin of the program, and if you qualify and we have space left, you
will be admitted. Those who need a Swiss visa are advised to apply at least 3
months in advance.

Contact:
For more information: see www.world-peace-academy.ch
To apply: click here
Or contact: Francesco Marelli at info@… or Tel. 0041 (0)61
315 85 95. We will be happy to answer your questions and assist you.

————————

Scholarships

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—————————

Tutorials

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