I Do ... We Don't ...

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in the midst of the same conversation about same-gender marriage as the nation. The Presbyterian Outlook reports on a preliminary report from the church's study group.
It is far too soon to guess what will become of the final report when it comes out in January, but the group's final recommendation will be met with general approval even though we will all break its intentions from time to time.
As the Outlook put it:

Several committee members described that last recommendation — a covenant called “Those Whom Christ Has Joined Together, Let No One Separate” — as the most important of the recommendations they were considering. The covenant states in part that Presbyterians should promise “to love one another even when we disagree, and to commit ourselves to the reconciliation of any broken relationship we have with one another.”

Love one another always. It's all that easy ... and all that hard.

ACORN -- this vote was nuts

Here is a letter I sent today to Virginia's U.S. Senators:
Dear Senator Webb,
As one who supported you and volunteered for your campaign I am deeply disappointed and, quite frankly, disgusted by your vote on the ACORN funding cut.
As I am sure you know, ACORN is one of the few organizations in the United States that works solely to assist the poor and most vulnerable citizens. As with any large organization, including the United State Senate, they have their problems and have made their mistakes.
But how is it possible to cut the tiny federal funds for ACORN and continue massive federal expenditures to contractors such as Blackwater, whose employees have killed people?
This is a craven political vote of the worst kind, and I expect far better from someone who was born fighting.
Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. David Ensign
I left the "born fighting" reference off of the Warner letter. In any case, that's the angriest letter I've ever sent to a public official.

Right and Wrong

This is more like a Facebook status than a blog post, but I just wanted to note, for the record, that it was nice to hear a public official, member of Congress, say straight up, "the Religious Right is wrong."
Congressman Jim Moran said that to me yesterday when I was in his office with a delegation from the Human Rights Campaign to thank him for supporting the employment non-discrimination act, hate crimes legislation and other bills that aim at justice for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.
Virginia Delegate Adam Ebbin was with us, as well. So I got to give a two-fer of gratitude to a pair of elected officials. That counts as unusual in my book for all kinds of reasons.