HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!

Why is June Pride Month?  Liz at Common Ground explains.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, there was a bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village called “The Stonewall”. It was a gay bar, patronized mostly by men and transgendered individuals who were typically married and outwardly “straight” members of their communities. These were family men, professional men…all of whom had good reasons they felt for keeping their sexual orientation or non-traditional gender identity or gender identity expression firmly under wraps.

Throughout the 50’s and 60’s, the police would raid the bar and put whoever was in it on a given night in a police wagon. They’d threaten the newly arrested men with exposure unless the men agreed to pay a sum of money each to walk away. In most, if not all instances, the money was paid.

On June 27, 1969 however, all that changed. In what some compare to the courageous act of Rosa Parks not to move to the back of the bus, when the police came by for their usual “fundraiser”, a group of patrons in the bar started what could only be described as a riot in the Village, protesting the egregious treatment and discrimination and declaring once and for all that enough was enough.

The bar (which has since closed although there is a marker on the wall where it stood in the Village) was never raided again because from that point forward, people took pride in who and what they were and if they didn’t, well then they probably didn’t hang out at the Stonewall any more.

The gay pride flag was designed by Gilbert Baker who is said to have taken his inspiration from the black civil rights and hippie movements. It was debuted in 1978 at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. Its colors, always shown in the following order, symbolize:

• RED = Life
• ORANGE = Healing
• YELLOW = Sun
• GREEN = Nature
• ROYAL BLUE = Harmony
• VIOLET = Spirit

And that is why June is Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Heterosexual and Transgender Pride Month…

Of course, you already knew that, right?

THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF OUR 'CHRISTIAN' NATION

Nevertheless, because the revolutionary leadership sprang from the social establishment in several colonies, it included many who were Anglicans by denominational loyalty, no less than two-thirds of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. Elite egalitarians tended to lead these Founding Fathers not to the Awakening but to the Enlightenment and Deism: cool versions of Christianity, or virtually no Christianity at all. The polymath Benjamin Franklin seldom went to church, and when he did, it was to enjoy the Anglican Book of Common Prayer decorously performed in Christ Church, Philadelphia; he made it a point of principle not to spend energy affirming the divinity of Christ. Thomas Jefferson was rather more concerned than Franklin to be seen at church on key political occasions, but he deplored religious controversy, deeply distrusted organized religion and spoke of the Trinity as 'abracadabra...hocus-pocus...a deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign to Christianity as that of Mohamet'. In the face of such low-temperature religion, many on the present-day American religious right, anxious to appropriate the Revolution for their own version of modern American patriotism, have sought comfort in the ultimate Founding Father, George Washington, but here too there is much to doubt. Washington never received Holy Communion, and was inclined in discourse to refer to providence or destiny rather than God.
....

What this revolutionary elite achieved amid a sea of competing Christianities, many of which were highly uncongenial to them, was to make religion a private affair in the eyes of the new American federal government. The constitution which they created made no mention of God or Christianity (apart from the date by 'the Year of our Lord'). That was without precedent in Christian polities of that time, and with equal disregard for tradition (after some debate), the Great Seal of the United States of America bore no Christian symbol but rather the Eye of Providence, which if it recalled anything recalled Freemasonry. The motto 'In God We Trust' only first appeared on the American coin amid civil war in 1864, and it was 1957 before it featured on any paper currency of the United States.

From Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCullough, pp. 763-764.

So much for the United States as a 'Christian' nation established by 'Christian' Founding Fathers. Citizens who do not know the true history of the country make up from whole cloth a false history to suit their individual purposes.

You may find this hard to believe, but during all my years in elementary and high school, I said the Pledge of Allegiance minus the words 'under God' and, I came out of that period of my life unscathed. The words were added in 1954, during my university years.

Further reading on the subject of the 'Christian' Founding Fathers in a splendid article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the religious views of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Thomas Paine, none of whom would be electable today.

OF CARNIVAL AND KINGS AND CAKES

From History of the King Cake:

(The above link for the quote below went missing and is now dead. I can't find the source in a web search. Sorry.)

When Christianity extended its influence and began overshadowing the religions that came before it, many of the local customs were not outright abolished, but instead were incorporated into Christian tradition and given a new spin. This even happened to the tradition of Mardi Gras, and from what we have researched so far seems to be the case, but that's another story. Catholic priests were not predisposed to human sacrifice, so the King's Cake was converted into a celebration of the Magi, the three Kings who came to visit the Christ Child.

In 12th century France where the cake would be baked on the eve of January 6 to celebrate the visit to the Christ Child by the three Kings. A small token was hidden in the cake as a surprise for the finder.

French settlers brought the custom to Louisiana in the 18th century where it remained associated with the Epiphany until the 19th century when it became a more elaborate Mardi Gras custom. In New Orleans, the first cake of the season is served on January 6. A small ceramic figurine of a baby is hidden inside the cake, by tradition. However now, the tradition is giving way to the baby being supplied and the customer placing the baby were ever they wish in the cake. Whoever finds the baby is allowed to choose a mock court and host the next King Cake party the following week (weekly cake parties were held until Mardi Gras).

In 1870, the Twelfth Night Revelers held their ball, with a large king cake as the main attraction. Instead of choosing a sacred king to be sacrificed, the Twelfth Night Revelers used the bean in the cake to choose the queen of the ball. This tradition has carried on to this day, although the Twelfth Night Revelers now use a wooden replica of a large king cake. The ladies of the court pull open little drawers in the cake's lower layer which contain the silver and gold beans. Silver means you're on the court; gold is for the queen.

Jane R. at Acts of Hope posted a picture of the French version of the cake, la galette des rois, which looks delicious.

The king cake consists of coffeecake dough, which is then shaped into strips and twisted to form an oval or circle. The original king cakes were decorated with only granulated sugar dyed purple, gold, and green, the official colors of the New Orleans Carnival season. Today most king cakes are covered with icing of some sort, like the cake pictured above, with the dyed sugar topping the icing. Other present-day variations on the original include cakes with fillings of all sorts, from cream to fruit-flavored jelly and whatever else the bakers may dream up.

The funniest commentary I've ever read about a king cake is about the baby, which was once baked into the cake, but is now, for fear of litigation, placed somewhere in the package or box for the customer to place in the cake, thus making the customer liable, rather than the bakery or the market. Here's the link to the commentary by blondiusmaximus at Live Journal. I must warn you that the post is x-rated and forbidden to my readers under the age of 14. And no lying about your age!

"CONFRONTING SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH"

In an essay at the Daily Episcopalian, Ann Fontaine addresses the recent history of child abuse in the Episcopal Church and the policies which have been put in place to prevent further abuse and to address current allegations of abuse.

General Convention began to act. In 1985, a resolution passed to request Dioceses to conduct workshops on recognizing child sexual abuse. In 1991, a Committee on Sexual Exploitation was established. During this period several women clergy and some attorneys who had been providing legal counsel for abuse victims/survivors developed training for Bishops and other leaders to teach the church about the issue and how to deal with perpetrators and victims/survivors. It was clear that TEC did not have canons or procedures to guide this work, so several of us proposed a resolution for the next General Convention.

The bishops did not think the time was right for this action but we pressed ahead. The women of the Episcopal Church – Episcopal Women’s Caucus, Episcopal Church Women, Daughters of the King, and others mobilized to lobby both Houses and to talk their bishops about the importance of immediate action by the church. Abuse victims/survivors came to testify, often the first time they had told their stories in public. 1997 saw a number of resolutions including the revision of Title IV (disciplinary canons) passed. (The history of resolutions is here.) The Bishop’s Pastoral Office led by the Rt. Rev. Harold (Hoppy) Hopkins was a key supporter of funding, education, developing training and facing the issues of abuses and exploitation.

How refreshing to read that the influence of the women's groups in TEC sped along the process of getting workable resolutions passed. Rome, are you listening?

Ann's entire essay is well worth a read.