Reversing Bush Policy, U.S. Backs UN Condemnation of Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation

Report - Thanks to Towleroad
Via UN Dispatch:

"In late December the United Nations General Assembly held a symbolic vote on a statement calling for the universal decriminalization of homoseeport - xuality. France spearheaded the resolution, which was a 13 point declaration "to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention." The statement received 60 votes in support, mostly from Europe and South America. Opposing the resolution, were the United States, the Holy See, and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. At the time, the Bush administration couched its objection to the measure in legal technicalities. Well, that was then. This is now: At the so-called 'Durban Review Conference' on racism and xenophonia underway in Geneva, Europe again put forward language condemning 'all forms of discrimination and all other human rights violations based on sexual orientation.' According to UN Watch, 'The Czech Republic on behalf of the E.U., with the support of New Zealand, the United States, Colombia, Chili on behalf of the South American states, the Netherlands, Argentina and a few others, took the floor in support.'"

The efforts unfortunately failed due to lack of support from non-European countries (South Africa on behalf of the African Group, China, Egypt, Nigeria,Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Botswana, Iran, Algeria, and Syria), but the U.S. appears to be back on the correct side of the issue now.

Good for you - Argentina !!

By DEBORA REY
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The traditionalist bishop whose denials of the Holocaust embarrassed the Vatican was ordered Thursday to leave Argentina within 10 days.
The Interior Ministry said it had ordered Richard Williamson out of Argentina because he had failed to declare his true job as director of a seminary on immigration forms and because his comments on the Holocaust "profoundly insult Argentine society, the Jewish community and all of humanity by denying a historic truth."
Williamson's views created uproar last month when Pope Benedict XVI lifted his excommunication and that of three other bishops consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as part of a process meant to heal a rift with ultraconservatives.
The flap led the Vatican to demand that the British clergyman recant before he can be admitted as a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church. It also prompted the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Lefebvre, to dismiss Williamson as director of the La Reja seminary in Argentina and to distance itself from his views. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the Vatican had no comment on the Argentine action.
In an interview broadcast Jan. 21, Williamson told Swedish state TV that no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust and only 200,000 to 300,000 were killed, not 6 million.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Williamson declared in a 1989 speech that "Jews made up the Holocaust, Protestants get their orders from the devil and the Vatican has sold its soul to liberalism."
"There was not one Jew killed in the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies," Williamson said in the speech at Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes church in Sherbrooke, Quebec, the Jewish group said in a report posted on the Internet.
He was quoted as asserting that "the Jews created the Holocaust so we would prostrate ourselves on our knees before them and approve of their new state of Israel."

Guest House (Rumi)

I am currently going through a "rough patch" with some significant health problems, trying to keep my seminary studies up, and affected by the economic impact. In consult with my minister and mentor, he provided me with this reflection by Rumi that has provided me some comfort and wish to share it with all of you; who also may be experiencing a "rough patch".

The Guest House - -

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi ~

(The Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks

Individualism is it a threat?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately for some reason. Perhaps because of what I have been reading/hearing in the news and witnessing recently. It is no more than has always been the case but as we advance into this new era in America, one would think that there would be more tolerance for the expression of individualism and non-conformity. Yet, despite all the extolling that individualism is to be respected and embraced in these United States, conformity is what our society in subtle and not so subtle ways attempts to impose. Being somewhat of an individualist myself, I have found this societal influence to be at times mildly irritating and other times offensive and even threatening. I would like to explore this subject in multiple posts and welcome comments regarding same. To start things off for now, I am going to focus on individual choices versus inherent individual traits such as skin color, sexuality, physical stature, etc.

You may ask; where is this all going? Well, recently I made an individual (admittedly belated) choice to be a vegetarian. You would think from the reaction of some of my friends and acquaintances that I had just become a member of some subservience cult. There is bewilderment, questioning as to why, peer pressure to just eat a little of a “delicious” meat dish, frantic food preparation quandaries, concerns that meat eating in front of me is offensive, expressions that it is not healthy, and opinions that my menu choices are boring, tasteless, unexciting, non-nutritious and just plain yucky. There are many reasons (many private) why I made this choice and do not feel that I should have to justify it – sometimes repeatedly. I was surprised by the reactions and ask the question why. I never have felt compelled to ask omnivores or carnivores as to why meat is such a basic part of their diet, certainly have not subject them to twenty questions, nor offered opinions on the taste and nutritional value.

I have an opinion (and may be wrong) that the impetus for this reaction is not so much of my being a vegetarian but rather a reaction to me not being in conformity with the majority and thus in some way a threat to their life style. But why does my eating a bowl of steamed broccoli versus beef stew constitute a threat? This, I do not understand and would appreciate some insight.