Ways to Help in the Aftermath of the US Storm

How can you help in the wake of Sandy?  Give time, blood, and money.

Seriously.

Money:

The Red Cross will still have a LOT of work to do, mostly feeding people, including emergency workers and people cleaning up their houses, in the coming weeks.  Not to mention still providing shelter and food over the next few days. 

To donate either to where the need is greatest or to your local Chapter, click here: 
http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations

To donate by text message: text REDCROSS to 90999. 

Text donation FAQs here:
https://american.redcross.org/site/SPageNavigator/ntld_Redcross_text2help_faqs?JServSessionIdr004=hziibru202.app293b

Blood:

Many, many blood drives were canceled due to weather, and the blood supply could get critically low very quickly.  Please consider giving blood as soon as you can:
http://www.redcrossblood.org/

Time:

So many ways.  But most of all, become a Red Cross volunteer.  The American Red Cross workforce is more than 90% volunteer. 

http://www.redcross.org/support

Holding the East Coast and Midwest in the Light / in the Goddess during storm recovery.

"To People in my Facebook Circle Who Support Chick-fil-A: Are you my friend?"

by Claudia Ginanni

Before I ask you a serious question about our relationship, I want to make something clear.

I am an ardent defender of the First Amendment, and I think it was wrong--not merely a tactical error, but wrong--for government officials in Boston and Chicago (or anywhere) to suggest that they would use the power of public office to prevent a company from doing business in their cities just because they disagree with the political or religious beliefs of its owners. That's an abuse of power, and they shouldn't have done it.

Now, on to my question.

I am a lesbian. Do you think that means that I'm probably a pedophile?

If the answer is yes, please let me know so I can go ahead and unfriend you. If the answer is no, allow me to explain why I asked.

Chick-fil-A (not Dan Cathy as an individual, but the corporation) has donated millions of dollars to antigay organizations. Among the beneficiaries of this corporate largesse is the Family Research Council, an outfit whose relentless defamation of LGBT people has earned it a spot on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of hate groups, right alongside the likes of the Ku Klux Klan and the New Black Panther Party (surprised? Yes, the SPLC considers antiwhite rhetoric hate speech, too).

Representatives of the FRC have repeatedly asserted a link between homosexuality and pedophilia, even though numerous studies by reputable social scientists have definitively established, many years ago, that there is no factual basis for this scurrilous claim. That is one of many slanders against LGBT people that the FRC and similar groups repeat endlessly.

If Chick-fil-A continues its past pattern of "charitable" giving, some of the money you spent there Wednesday will eventually fund a propaganda campaign suggesting that I am a promiscuous, sex-crazed pedophile who aims to destroy families. That insulting caricature of me and people like me will be used to justify, among other things, opposition to laws that would prevent me from being fired just because of my sexual orientation, a kind of discrimination that is still perfectly legal in 29 states. I hope you can understand why I'm not giving that a thumbs-up.

And here's my second question: if you don't believe that I'm a pedophile, and there are people going around implying that I am, why aren't you defending me against this slander? Can't I expect that of someone who claims to be my friend?

If you are a Christian who takes the Bible as a moral guide, let me direct your attention to Exodus 20:16, which says, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

The Bible passages that can be construed as prohibiting homosexuality for Christians are few and obscure, and their interpretation is a matter of dispute among Biblical scholars who have read the text in the original language. But lying and slander are condemned in so many passages in both the Old and New Testaments that it's hard to count them, and the injunction against bearing false witness is one of the Ten Commandments. Shouldn't Christians be outraged by corporate funding of that?

My belief is that bearing false witness made the top-ten list because defamation genuinely injures people, which means that it also violates Jesus' command to love your neighbor as yourself. And I promise you that the calumny against LGBT people perpetrated by the FRC and similar groups has ramifications far beyond denying us the social and material benefits that heterosexual couples get from state recognition of their relationships. It contributes to profound human suffering.

At my age and stage of life, my personal response to the steady stream of insults from groups like these is mostly anger and frustration, but young people who are just discovering their sexuality are deeply vulnerable in the hostile environments this kind of rhetoric creates.

According to the most recent National School Climate Survey, "84.6% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 40.1% reported being physically harassed and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation." The percentage of homeless teens who identify as LGBT is hugely disproportionate, and a large majority of those kids are on the street as a result of having been kicked out of their homes because of their sexuality or gender presentation. They are bombarded with messages telling them that they are disgusting, foul, sinful, unclean, and fundamentally unlovable--is it any wonder LGBT teens commit suicide at five times the rate of straight teens?

Chick-fil-A also funds Exodus, an organization that propounds "reparative therapy," which tries--and fails--to change people's sexual orientation through prayer and faith. Michael Busse, one of the founders of Exodus, renounced this approach several years ago. Busse recently joined three other former Exodus therapists in apologizing for their role in the organization.

"Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families," their statement said."Although we acted in good faith, we have since witnessed the isolation, shame, fear and loss of faith that this message creates." Busse and his colleagues went on to tell some stories that illustrated the heartbreaking results of the deep self-loathing and despair that Exodus treatments create. Confronted with evidence of this failure, Busse repudiated this approach and embraced life as a gay Christian. But Exodus continues to ignore the suffering it has caused.

Unless you read lefty or LGBT media, it's likely that you haven't heard much about the organizations Chick-fil-A supports--the mainstream media has framed the story mostly as a controversy about Dan Cathy's personal views on marriage. But if you've read this far, now you know that some portion of every dollar spent at Chick-fil-A will be used to fund activities that threaten the reputations, dignity, employment rights, and even personal safety of people like me. Are you my friend? Then please don't support those efforts.

(c) 2012 Claudia Ginanni, reprinted with permission

FLGBTQC travel assistance request deadline for FGC Gathering is May 20th

The deadline to request travel assistance from FLGBTQC (Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns) for the 2011 FGC Gathering is May 20th.  

Clerks are requesting help in getting the word out, since the newsletter will not be out before the deadline.

If you need the contact information, please let me know.

Fund-raising for travel in the ministry

Dear F/friends,

As I've mentioned before, there are several trips I feel led or called to take this summer which I do not have the financial means to do myself. For health reasons, Beloved Wife and I were not able to go to the FGC Couple Enrichment Leader Training; we were sad to miss it, but glad we stayed home recovering and taking good care of ourselves and each other. I did go to the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference, and am definitely glad I went! I am still raising money to meet my costs for that trip. Tomorrow we leave for FGC Gathering, where I am serving in several ways; I have done well with financial assistance and work-grants for Gathering. Right after we get back, I leave for North Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions, and I need to fund-raise for that.

Here are the details:

Pacific NW Quaker Women's Theology Conference:

Costs:

• Registration: $250
• Plane ticket + fees: $423
• Misc food & ground transportation: $75.88 (does not include brownies)
• Total: $748.88

Raised so far -- thank you!:

• Scholarship: $250
• Gifts: $266
• Total: $516

Still needed: $232.88.

North Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions:

Costs:

• Registration: $236
  
• Plane fare: $524.80
• Misc food & ground transportation: ??
• Total: $760.80 + a little more

Raised so far (thank you!):

• $500 total combined from Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting

Still needed: $260.80 - $300.00.

Please click here for information on how to make gifts to my ministry.

Sometimes it's very hard for me to ask for financial support to travel in ministry. It helps to remind myself, in the words of FLGBTQC's co-clerk, that it's ministry given through me. Then I worry less about the personalities involved, and am reassured that it's not whether it's my ministry, and it's not whether what I do speaks to people, it's whether I listen well and discern how I'm called, and it's whether I'm faithful.

Thank you for your support, for holding me in your spiritual care, and for your financial help.

Yours in Friendship,
Blessed be,
Stasa

I need your help to travel in the ministry

I am really terrible at asking for financial help for ministry. But the truth is that, as with most of us, whether we're Quakers, Pagans, or both, my ministry is not self-supporting, and that right now, I'm in a bind.

My ministry oversight committee from my Meeting encouraged me to register for the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference. The Conference at that time had not received any donations toward its scholarship fund; my committee and I agreed that I would fund-raise for registration and housing ($250), and request travel assistance from the Meeting. I went ahead and booked my ticket ($423), and then found out the Meeting is out of travel assistance monies for the rest of this fiscal year! So now I need to raise all of that money -- $673 -- myself. And I have no income right now. Eeep!

(Update: The Conference now has some scholarship monies, but I do not know yet how much I might receive from them.)

So I am asking for gifts towards my travel in the ministry. I've created a separate page on this blog -- click here for full information, or see the link at the upper right-hand side of the page. If you need to give through an organization, I have details there as well.

Truly, any amount is helpful.

Another thing that will help a great deal is holding me, and the Conference, in your spiritual care.

Thank you, friends.

PNW Quaker Women's Theology Conference - consider donating to the scholarship fund!‏

Dear women:

You're receiving this email because you're one of the 50+ women who has registered for the 2010 conference (or because you are a particularly involved and long-time supporter of the conference), and we're writing to ask you to consider donating to the scholarship fund. As you know, our scholarships are made available from donations only, and we have received scholarship requests for the 2010 conference that we cannot meet at present.

There have already been some very generous donations to the scholarship fund, which we appreciate greatly. In fact, we have already received donations of over $400, which is over half the way to meeting our scholarship need of over $600. We are approximately $200 short right now.

Because of this remaining need, we'd like to ask each of you to consider whether you might be able to donate to provide scholarships for others who hope to attend, and to remind you that even a small donation can help, especially if many of us contribute. No amount is too small!

There are two ways you can easily donate:

1. online at our website, using a credit or debit card or a PayPal account
http://pnwquakerwomen.org/wordpress/register/scholarships
2. by sending a check to the conference treasurer

Please make checks to Hillsboro Friends Church and write 2010 Scholarship Fund in the memo line. Send the check to the address below:

Hillsboro Friends Church
c/o Alice Maurer
1100 N Meridian St. Apt. 29
Newberg, OR 97132

Thank you for considering this request! We are deeply grateful to Friends who can donate to help cover the costs of others.

Sincerely,

Ashley Wilcox and Sarah Peterson, co-clerks
on behalf of the PNWQWTC Planning Committee

Struggling with ministry: money and -- courage?

I am struggling a bit with ministry right now. The main thing, the obvious thing, is that there are a handful of events I want to travel to this summer, and I have to figure out how to find enough financial assistance and raise enough other financial support to do so. I also have to figure out if I have enough "spoons" (internal resources in the face of chronic illness) to be able to do so.

The thing that's really biting me in the butt right now about all this -- besides asking for money, which as we all know is just so much fun, and so easy -- is, in the words of Beloved Wife, putting myself out there.

I hate that.

But it's an integral part of ministry in community.

No, no, I want to say, my ministry is between me and the Goddess. It's about regular discernment, being faithful to my leadings, figuring out what I'm led to do and doing it; and if I've done it "right," other people will respond.

Except it's not. That way. Or, not only that way.

I've been wrestling for a while with how so much of my ministry is about what happens next: what happens after I've listened, been in discernment, and made a plan. Then comes talking to people. Then comes advertising an event, submitting a workshop proposal, herding cats in the workshop running the workshop, finding space for an event, etc, etc. All of these things invariably involve talking to other people about it. And not just talking to other people, but, as Beloved Wife said, putting myself out there.

Taking risks.

You know how you feel after giving ministry in Meeting for Worship -- tender? That's how I feel about my ministry work. That's how I feel about a particular effort in the ministry when it first comes to me, and that's how I feel about it even when it looks like the ball is rolling along well. Even when my Oversight Committee helps me refine something and tells me, "Run with it!," even after I get the workshop or interest group approval, I feel tender, and this weird combination of certain and uncertain. Hurrah, I did it! We're ready to go, goes hand-in-hand with, What if no one else responds? What if no one comes?

When I first moved to Seattle and became more active in my ministry, I asked myself that often about events I was hosting: What if no one comes? And although it was painful, I realized it didn't matter: what mattered was that I was there, fully present and open-hearted, holding space, so that people could come.

How do I translate that into the travel I feel led to do in the ministry this summer? How do I translate that into putting myself out there, and asking for money?

If I had enough money, it wouldn't matter whether or not other people think it's part of my ministry for me to go to, say, the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference, or whether other people think it's important for me to go. I could just pay my registration and book a plane ticket. But because I plain can't go on my own financial resources, I have to ask for help. And this means putting myself out there, means taking the risk that other people won't think it's as important as I do.

This is part of the price ministry demands of those of us who don't have enough money to support it financially ourselves.

We must take that risk more often of asking if other people believe in the value of what we're doing.

And that's hard.

What travel do I want to do in the ministry this summer? (It's scary to write this part!)

• FGC Couple Enrichment Leader Training
  
• The Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference
  
• FGC Gathering
  
• North Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions

I also really want to go Cherry Hill Seminary's Summer Intensive, but I know I don't have enough spoons right now for the classroom work beforehand and afterward.

I feel pretty sure that I will get the financial aid I need to go to FGC Gathering and to NPYM. I've been to those before; how to put together enough financial aid is nicely laid-out and well-established, both in general and for me.

Couple Enrichment Leader Training, and the PNWQWTC -- which, of course, happen first -- I'm feeling some angst over how to make happen financially.

Argh! Did I mention this is hard?