12,000 TO BE HONORED ON THE DC MALL

To honor LGBT military personnel fired under 10 USC Sec. 654, better known as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, (enacted November 30, 1993) 12,000 Flags on the Mall will take place starting on the 14th anniversary of the policy's enactment, November 30, 2007, and continue through Sunday, December 2nd. During that weekend, each of the 12,000 flags installed on Washington's National Mall will serve to honor an individual service member discharged under "Don't Ask."

DANIEL, an "e" partner ...

On a more personal level...

I belong to a number of blogs. One of them, LECTIONARY EPISTLE NOTES is committed to reading, studying and commenting on each week's lectionary epistle reading. It was monitored by Rev. Daniel Berry. One day I became aware that the weekly email NOTES had stopped coming.

In the back of my mind I started to think: was my junk mail collector getting better; was I too liberal; did I offend someone? I was too busy to do the fact checking until tonight when I got a "NOTE" saying that Daniel -- who kept it going -- had died of a massive heart attack over the holidays. So who cares? I do for one.

You see Daniel was on the opposite end of the theological spectrum as I am. After we began a series of private messages, we both knew it. That did not stop us from communicating albeit just over the internet.

And it was Daniel I wrote to when, after all these years, I realized I did not have a concrete understanding of "salvation." Driving home one night something told me, "Ask Daniel." I asked the right man. Despite our differences he walked me though my own exploration. Though him and with Him, I re-discovered salvation.

I don't claim to "know" this blind pastor from a tiny Texas town, I cannot go to his services ... I was not even aware he was married ... I just know that for weeks on end we wrote back and forth about a host of issues; one very important one for me, and that this self described "Orthodox Presbyterian" help me along the way.

Daniel, Daniel may flights of angels see thee to thy rest ...

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR...

Part of being able to appreciate this bit beauty might come being familiar The Episcopal Church in American or in this particular case the Anglican Church in England.

I remember a priest saying to me once, after a state funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington DC: "We really know how to do worship." He had every right to claim what is a fact. This is one of those moments ... a song is sung and it marks the beginning the holy season of Christmas.

MARRAIGE SOLUTION, a blessing...

The solution to all of the issues surrounding marriage today is simple: disallow the clergy from carrying out a legal state function. Clergy can not divorce, why permit them to marry.

Some churches have already questioned their participation in a state role. "We are looking at the function of our church in marriage ceremonies," says Anita Hill, a pastor at Saint Paul-Reformation, Saint Paul, MI. "We're not in the wedding business; we're in the blessing business."

Rev. Hill’s church joins dozens of congregations and clergy persons who now refuse to carry out a state function. All couples may use the church for blessings, this solution reasons. The only difference is that heterosexual couples take the added step of finding a court house to make their "contract" legal.

The United Church of Christ(UCC) says dozens of its churches across the country have begun to forsake the legal aspect of marriage and that individual clergy persons are refusing to sign marriage certificates. “When a law is not morally right, we are not going to follow it," says Reverend Don Portwood of Lyndale, MI.

“Jettisoning the legal portion of marriage has only reinforced the spiritual aspect,” Rev. Hill says. "As a congregation, we started coming back to the importance of marriage as an institution to the understanding of the importance of having a communal ritual."

All people need the essential aspects of faith communities; in particular persons broken by divorce. As it is today, marriage is a blessing and divorce a curse. Jesus did celebrate at his friend's wedding but his entire ministry is summed up in the story of the Good Samaritan.

Rethinking the legal aspect of marriage will clarify and enhance the roles both the church and government must play in a healthy society. The role of the church is to bless the union and pick up the broken hearted; the role of the government is to legally bind and dissolve a contact. Each should do their part well.

NO UNITER HERE...

During an interview (here) with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), seeking the presidency in 2008, responded to a question on special rights for LGBT citizens.

Obama disagrees with the notion that things like hospital visitations for same-sex spouses are special rights. "How would Jesus feel about somebody not being able to visit somebody they love when they're sick?" He asks.

But that response is a dance around the simple issue of full equality. Perhaps it is his way of sticking to his campaign pledge of being a “uniter.” The question is, Mr. Obama, “Why aren't the basic rights of LGBT citizens important to you?