Baking Cakes, Entertaining Strangers

Those of us of the Judeo-Christian heritage know of at least one story of cake baking in
Scripture. Abraham brings home strangers, apparently to be around for a meal as well. He asks
Sarah to bake cakes for them. (I think what consisted of a “cake” in that time is vastly different
from our modern concept of cake, but that is not the point... just sayin’.)

Sarah bakes the cakes. Period. She didn’t ask for the strangers’ credentials or “papers”
or make sure they followed the same religious practices as she did or any other criteria. She
just baked the cakes. It was a simple act of hospitality.

Much is being made about the Supreme Court decision concerning a bakeshop refusing
to bake a wedding cake for a same sex couple because of the baker’s religious beliefs. Seems
many want to be clear that it is a narrow ruling and that discrimination against LGBTQ folks is
serious and illegal. That is of course the legal aspects and all that entails.

The real point is getting lost in all of the hype. As much as anything else, the baker’s
refusal to bake the wedding cake was not an act of hospitality, rather inhospitality. He did what
Sarah did not do: he imposed his own religious beliefs on someone. The baker discriminated
against two people. He passed judgement using criteria that should not matter in such a
transaction. Baking cakes, buying and selling cakes, buying and selling anything doesn’t call for
the imposition of religious criteria unless you are following strict religious dietary laws: think
orthodox Jewish people and kosher food. Even in that instance I doubt anyone would think
about discrimination. Hospitality would be more important.

Jesus’ hospitality was radical. The man would talk to anyone, eat with anyone, socialize
with anyone, and visit whomever He pleased. He did not stand on ceremony or appearances.
And despite what some of our Christian kindred want us to believe, these encounters were not
all the time about sinners and redemption. Sometimes it was just ordinary socialization among
friends and strangers alike. Yet, the model he personified was the basis for salvation because it
centered on how we treat each other. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

This is another opportunity for us to practice radical hospitality. For everyone who gets
denied a cake based on the religious beliefs of the baker, let us be the bakeshop where all that
matters is our hospitality and not anything about who might walk through our doors.

Those better schooled than I have said this Supreme Court decision about cakes was
based on a procedural error by a government agency and not intended to indicate that
discrimination against LGBTQ folks was legal. Some of our kindred in other faiths are not

interpreting that ruling the same way and hail so-called religious freedom to discriminate in the
name of Jesus. I am not convinced the radical love and hospitality Jesus practiced and expects
of us is in line with such discrimination.

There is a petition in the Solemn Collects for Good Friday where we pray for those who
in the name of Christ have persecuted others. I cringe every time we pray that collect. I would
like to think that we, as Episcopalians, are different from those who claim the right to
discriminate in the name of Jesus. I hope we are. Yet in the eyes of the “average” person we are
lumped in with those who do discriminate. Our voices of inclusion continue to get drowned out
by those who would exclude. Our work still lies before us to change that perception.

In a few weeks we will have a chance to be clear about the radical love of Jesus in issues
of cake baking and matrimony. I pray that we will use that chance to right some wrongs and to
bring more of God’s children in touch with the Jesus of radical love and hospitality. I hope we
can give our kindred in eight dioceses reason to bake wedding cakes. It’s time. It is time dear
bishops of our church. It is time dear deputies of our church. Let us not squander that time and
lose yet another opportunity to share the love of Jesus.

Contact your deputies to General Convention. Contact your bishop(s). Make sure they
know you want everyone to be able to bake cakes, similar to those baked by Sarah, but for
weddings.

Continue to pray daily for the General Convention of our church and all who make
decisions that affect us.

Bruce Garner, President Integrity USA ... The Episcopal Rainbow

Integrity Celebrates Marriage Equality in The Episcopal Church

Press Release: Salt Lake City, UT - July 2, 2015

Integrity USA celebrated the passing of two significant pieces of legislation at the General Convention of The Episcopal Church on June 30, 2015. The House of Deputies voted to concur with the House of Bishops to pass Resolution A054 (87% yes, 11% no, 2% divided), a measure to offer gender neutral marriage rites and urge bishops to provide ways for couples to get married when in dioceses or churches with marriage equality restrictions. Later, the House voted to concur to pass Resolution A036 (82% yes, 13% no, 5% divided), a measure to alter the church canon.

Both these measures passed within days of the Supreme Court decision to recognize marriage equality throughout the USA.

Integrity President Matt Haines said, "I am overjoyed that our relationships and marriages as same-sex couples are finally recognized by both church and state.  The Episcopal Church spoke to this justice overwhelmingly, beyond our expectations, affirming the equality of our love.  Integrity has joined with allies for 40 years, proclaiming the blessing and holiness of our lives, which we offer to the church. We celebrate God's grace!"

Haines, recognizing that there are still faithful Episcopalians who live and engage in ministry in dioceses where their bishops will not permit full marriage equality, said that the Board of Directors will continue to work on making the rites available to everyone. Rev. Jon M. Richardson, Integrity Vice-President of National Affairs, pointed out, "While we are overjoyed at the strides we've made toward having all of our marriages recognized and blessed in the Episcopal Church, we are also acutely aware of the reality that this does not mean that the work of striving for equality is now finished in the Episcopal Church or in our society at large. LGBTQ people remain particularly vulnerable to discrimination in employment and in housing in many places in the country. LGBTQ teens remain significantly more likely than their heterosexual peers to be homeless, to commit suicide, or to endure the humiliations associated with bullying. Transgender people continue to face threats to their very survival each time they go out in public. The church continues to have a responsibility to speak to these injustices and to be agents of change, not just within our own halls, but in the hearts and minds of all people whom we encounter. We have taken great strides, but there remain many miles to go."

"In this spirit," Haines added, "we must continue to seek out those on the margins and join them as they too seek the love and support of the Episcopal Church.  We are obligated to work hard until all in this church and the world it serves are open to the grace and beauty of God's creation of humanity.  We are all one body in Christ Jesus, we must never forget our interdependence."

A Day to Remember

The members and leaders of Integrity - both LGBT and not - can hardly contain our emotion on this day of jubilee throughout the nation.  We are thrilled that LGBT Episcopalians can know full civil marriage equality everywhere and we continue in our fervent hope that the church will answer the call to equality with the same prophetic witness as the U.S. Supreme Court has.  Even in the midst of our joy, however, we remember the mourning of our brothers and sisters in South Carolina right now, and moreover we remember the pain and violence experienced by our transgender members and friends every day throughout the nation.  It remains true that #BlackLivesMatter and #TransLivesMatter, and Integrity remains equally committed to seeking the justice to which Christ has been calling the church.  Though we celebrate, we remember that there is much work left to do.


The Rev. Jon M. Richardson
Vice President of National Affairs - Integrity USA

Taking a Stand for Marriage Equality in Alabama

Photo by AlabamaNews.Net

Rev. Jeff Y. Byrd was caught in a flurry of media attention when on February 9, in front of the Pike County Courthouse, he stood with a sign in support of the Supreme Court decision. That decision let stand a federal judge ruling that Alabama's ban on marriage equality was unconstitutional.  Rev. Byrd was thrilled about the Supreme Court announcement, but was offended by the actions of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who instructed probate judges to not perform their duties as required.

He stood from 8am until closing. At first he was afraid to go and make a stand. Then, he realized that he feared not going even more, that by not going he would not be living out his calling. So he went as a tax-payer, a citizen, a priest, holding the sign that his daughter created the night before. He could not stay quiet as he heard about judges hiding behind a mask of religion to perpetuate marriage discrimination.

Social media began to share articles about his stand. One article by the AlabamaNews.NET featureded him with his poster. On Facebook, there were photos of Rev. Byrd with other supporters.

The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast permits blessings of same gender couples. St. Mark's Episcopal Church has been an Integrity Proud Parish Partner (P3) for some time and is a safe space in Troy, Alabama. Rev. Byrd not only ministers to the LGBT who may be coming from anti-LGBT upbringing and faith traditions, but he also ministers the prison community. St. Mark's food pantry runs 24-hours non-stop. It is with this background that Byrd chose to stand for all the people in his diocese.

I chatted with Rev. Byrd on Wednesday and asked him to comment on what is happening in Alabama and on his stand.

Yesterday was a historic day in Alabama, and a historic day in the fight for human rights and dignity for all people. Of the 67 counties here, seven have now allowed same sex couples to have equal access and protections under the law. I celebrate that, but we have a long way to go to make sure all people have the dignity and civil rights they deserve!

I was absolutely astonished by the respect and support shown to me and our small group of protesters yesterday. Church folks that I knew and strangers alike were very kind... for the most part. People would just drive by and wave their approval. Some parked their cars right in front of the Pike County Courthouse just to come over and thank us for our visible but silent witness. Members of my church, St Mark's Episcopal Church in Troy Alabama, brought food and water. Lawyers going in for trials mostly smiled and gave us the thumbs up. During the day several same sex couples tried to apply for assistance from the probate judge's office even though they knew they would be denied... but still they tried! 

The media attention we received was overwhelming. I was interviewed by The New York Times, National Public Radio : All Things Considered, a Montgomery News Channel for a video piece, a Montgomery paper, Troy Public Radio, AL.COM, and the Troy Messenger who ran an article today. Truly overwhelming! During the day many of you sent messages of support that made a huge difference. Knowing that so many folks were praying for us, or simply sharing messages of solidarity meant the world to me...bless you all! 

In closing I'd like to share some words with you from my good friend Rev. Jim Flowers: "Our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters have for far too long been shamed as the stranger among us. By loving them and celebrating their lives among us, we move as the human community one step closer towards the wholeness God intends for the world. As a priest of the church, I rejoice in this courageous step in righting a grievous wrong. We are all made in God's image (all of us). It is time we started acting like it!"

Please do continue to keep the folks in Alabama who are still waiting for equal civil rights, dignity, and justice to be their lived experience. Please pray that the number of allies for the LGBTQQ community will continue to grow as we continue to press for fair and equal treatment for all people! Blessings, Peace, and Love

Rev. Byrd asks for your prayers as Alabama resolves the issues of giving its citizens equal access to marriage.



Mel Soriano, Director of Communications, Integrity USA

The Time is Now

This week’s action by the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting Alabama’s same-sex marriage stay request is widely understood as a hint of things to come. Jurisprudence throughout the nation has overturned marriage inequality. Interestingly, the two dissenting justices cited the protection of the status quo as the reason they would have maintained the stay. Yet, the highest court of the land rejected such weak reasoning. Protecting the status quo at the cost of perpetuating injustice is anathema to Americans; it is anathema to Christ as well.

Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Our savior summarized the law as loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. God’s law is love. This movement toward civil marriage equality suggests a nation ready to recognize love as it really is. As a nation, we are on the way to fulfilling the law for all people seeking marriage in this land. And, our church is on that same journey.

This summer we will take a significant step on that road. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church will have before it a similar question as it considers marriage equality in a church where at least 75% of Episcopalians now live in states with legal marriage equality.

Will they be able to marry in their own churches? Without prophetic action in the church, the status quo suggests no. If the House of Bishops and House of Deputies vote to change church law, we can lead the Supreme Court and the faithful in recognizing that marriage is between two people, regardless of gender.

Please read the Taskforce on the Study of Marriage’s Report and the recommendations it offers. This report is a continuation of decades of study, reflection and faithful practice. Please reach out and encourage your bishop and deputies to do the same. They need to know that our marriages are real and holy. Together we can make the case to the leaders of our church – as it is being made to the leaders of our nation – that the time is now for marriage equality. The time is now for it is time for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to change its laws and amend our canons. The time is now to re-imagine the Episcopal Church -- with Marriage Equality -- to help faithful gay and lesbian Christians to fulfill God’s call of love lived out in their own relationships.

Matt Haines, President of Integrity USA.

Marriage Equality Takes A Giant Leap Forward

Integrity USA is thrilled to see marriage equality make significant strides these past two days.  Five state petitioned the Supreme Court to review the cases that overturned their bans but were denied: Wisconsin, Indiana, Utah, Oklahoma, and Virginia . Other states in the circuits affected by Monday's denial should be seeing marriage equality soon as well because they are in the same court circuit: Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, West Virginia, and Wyoming.  And on Tuesday, the 9th Circuit confirmed that the bans in Nevada and Idaho were unconstitutional, and given Monday's news, may choose to not appeal. This court decision implies that Alaska, Montana, and Arizona may soon see marriage equality.

Within months or even weeks then, 64% of the US population will live in states with marriage equality in 35 states. The eleven states directly affected by the Monday's Supreme Court action involve several southern states, including Virginia, South Carolina, and my own ancestral home of North Carolina. This is an incredible an time for LGBTQ people across the nation. 

64%! It seemed incredible to think that there was going to be legal same gender marriage anywhere in the United States as recently as 12 years ago, and now a clear majority of our population will have access to the right. 

It is easy for us to celebrate, and we should celebrate vigorously. But let us not allow our excitement to become complacency, not allow our joy to lead to apathy for the needs of that other 36% of the population that still faces homophobic, flagrantly unconstitutional laws that limit their basic human rights. 

We must continue forward until gay and lesbian people everywhere have full protection and just treatment under law. 

For today, we thank you God for Your mercy and love, and for Your guidance of our nation as we continue towards freedom for all people.

Sarah Vivian Gathright Taylor is the Executive Director of Integrity USA

Familial Exchange: a Good Friday Meditation

Meditations on the Seven Last Words of Jesus 

Marsh Chapel, Boston University

Good Friday, March 29, 2013

1) Father forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34)

2) Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me i
n paradise (Luke 23:43)

3) Woman, behold your son: behold your mother (John 19:26-27)

4) My God, My God, why have you forsaken me, (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34)

5) I thirst (John 19:28)

6) It is finished (John 19:30)

7) Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46)

John 19: 23-27

23When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 24So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.’ This was to fulfill what the scripture says,

‘They divided my clothes among themselves,

   and for my clothing they cast lots.’

25And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ 27Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

In the midst of community we are estranged. In the midst of alienation, community is formed afresh.

The scene before us is unimaginably bleak.  An innocent man hangs before us, being stripped of life.  His loved ones look on from near and afar, nearly crushed by pain.  Yet in the midst of utter desolation, Jesus inaugurates a new creation.  A new community, a transformed family.  To his mother he says, “Woman, here is your son.”  To the beloved disciple, “here is your mother.”  “From that hour,” the gospel reports, “the disciple took her into his own home.” 

Strange as it may seem, this passage echoes the first miracle story in the Gospel of John.  Seeing a connection between this story and our passage, the sixth century Byzantine Hymnist Romanos imagined a grieving Mary querying her son, “Is there once again another wedding at Cana?”[1]   In the second chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus had declared to his mother, who was concerned about the depleted wine supply, “Woman… my hour has not yet come” (John 2:3-4).  He had gone on to transform the contents of six water jars into the finest of wines.  Now, standing in “the hour” of his death, the formation of family has become once more an occasion of transformation.  To and for his beloveds, Jesus performs a relational exchange: I now pronounce you mother and son.

In this week in which the Supreme Court oral arguments on Proposition Eight and DOMA have saturated the airwaves, the transformation of community, of family, of marriage, are much on our minds and hearts.  In a poignant column this week, a fellow Episcopal priest, the Reverend Canon Susan Russell, evoked how painful – and for LGBT people and our families, how triggering – it can be to hear these arguments.

If you find yourself hurting, angry, anxious, scared or snarky reach out and let someone you love remind you that you're loved… And if you know someone who may not reach out, find them where they are and remind them that they're loved.[2]

In this week of “heightened scrutiny,” Jesus’ words reach across the chasms of fear.  For we are family, all of us.  We are made for one another.  However fraught our communion, however intense our disagreement, however frayed our fabric, we are constantly being knit afresh. 

Like Jesus’ garment for which the soldiers cast lots, we are called to be one, mysteriously,seamlessly woven from above.  In this light, the fourth century theologian Ephrem the Syrian challenges us, “Share then, for love of [Christ], the body of him who, for the love of you, shared his garment between those who were crucifying him.”[3] This body of which we all are members: share it.  This is the message we receive at the foot of the cross, that ultimate symbol of stigma and alienation that turns death and division on its head.  This is my body.  This is your family.  Take, absorb, share it in its entirety.  Fling wide the doors of your heart.  Be transformed.

photo from
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/27/175463886/photos-supreme-court-hears-arguments-on-doma

Cameron Partridge is the Episcopal Chaplain at Boston University and a Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School

---

[1] Romanos the Melodist, “On the Lament of the Mother of God,” stanza 1. 

[2] Susan Russell, “The Marriage Equality Debates: The Pastoral in the Political” 

[3] Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on the Diatessaron 20.27

Bishops Petition Supreme Court for Marriage Equality

Twenty-nine bishops in the ten states (plus Washington DC) where same-sex marriage is legal signed an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the United States which challenges the constitutionality of the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA), a 1996 law which mandates that the Federal government cannot recognize same-sex marriages. The leaders of all but one of the 24 dioceses where civil marriage is legal signed the brief addressing the case of Windsor v. United States, which is being heard by the Court this month.

The case refers specifically to an inheritance tax burden of over $360,000 owed by a New York woman after her wife died. The couple of 40 years was legally married in Canada in 2007, but DOMA stipulates that the inheritance benefits of marriage do not apply to even those same-sex marriages recognized by some states.

A second brief, signed by the bishops of all six dioceses in California, speaks to the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry and the overturn of Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative which took away marriage equality in California after thousands of couples were legally married. The Supreme Court of California has already found the law unconstitutional, but its overturn was appealed by the initiative's sponsors.

Dozens of groups -- including one by the CEO's over many of the country's largest corporations -- recently filed briefs in favor of marriage equality.  The bishops' campaign was launched by the Right Rev. Marc Andrus, Bishop of the Diocese of California, which includes San Francisco.  Bishop Andrus explained his motives in a Washington Post column published February 28th.

“We overturned nearly two millennia of set tradition when we began ordaining women 34 years ago. We repudiated the traditional tolerance of slavery and racial prejudice in the mid-20th century. We traded our cultural privilege and hegemony as a largely Anglo denomination for the wealthy and have deliberately become more and more consciously a church for all,” Andrus wrote. “In all these things we have prayed and thought and been in earnest conversation in and out of the church, and believed that in the end we have discerned better the mind of Christ than we had in the past.”

“Integrity is delighted that the Bishops have signed on to these two amici briefs. Last year General Convention passed resolution D018 urging members of Congress to repeal federal laws that discriminate against civilly married same-gender couples. Signing the amicus brief in Windsor v. United States is a logical step as it supports the repeal of the discriminatory so-called Defense of Marriage Act,” said the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall, Integrity's President. “However it is a step that might not have been taken had it not been for the courage of the bishops involved and the leadership of the Diocese of California. Once again, The Episcopal Church joins with the leaders in this important witness and commitment to social justice.”

Please join us in thanking all the bishops for speaking out on marriage equality. For a complete list of the signers and more background, please visit this article on the Diocese of California website.