Wild Goose Festival Migrates through Turbulent Issues of Transgenderism, Intersex

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Asher Kolieboi, emergent Christianity, evangelical, Evangelical Left, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Intersex, Jeff Walton, Lianne Simon, Megan DeFranza, Religious Left, Transgender, Wild Goose, Wild Goose Festival

(Photo credit: Shannon T.L. Kearns/Anarchist Reverend)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

An annual progressive Christian festival that draws oldline Protestants and disaffected former evangelicals will feature workshops on transgenderism and “Intersex” next month.

Inspired by Britain’s annual Greenbelt festival, the Wild Goose Festival brings performers, yoga practitioners, speakers and artists to a multi-day campout in the mountains of western North Carolina August 8-11. In its first two years, Wild Goose speakers promoted an assortment of liberal causes – peppered with sharp critiques of Southern Baptists and other conservative evangelicals.

Wild Goose has broached issues of human sexuality before, welcoming gay and lesbian speakers and exhibitors in 2011 and 2012. The unofficial United Methodist Reconciling Ministries Network will have a presence at Wild Goose this year, and former Contemporary Christian Music artist Jennifer Knapp has brought her “Inside Out Faith” program to the festival. Tony Campolo and his wife Peggy have also spoken at Wild Goose about the church’s response to homosexuality.

In 2013, Wild Goose is apparently getting wilder. Among the workshops highlighted at next month’s gathering will be a talk by Asher Kolieboi, co-founder of the Legalize Trans* campaign, on creating “trans* inclusive faith communities.” Kolieboi’s talk will be entitled “Galatians 3:28,” referencing the verse “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Festival goers will also have the opportunity to hear a talk on “welcoming the intersexed among us” titled “When Male and Female Is Not Enough.”

As we have the previous two years, IRD will send a team to report on the festival’s speakers. Both of the above workshops should be intriguing. Kolieboi was born a woman, now “Trans Man,” who self-describes as an “artivist” (activist and artist). Co-founder of the arts collective Queer Sol in Austin, Kolieboi was featured in The Advocate Magazine’s “Top 40 under 40” LGBTQ activists for work with the Soulforce Equality Ride, where Kolieboi served as the Co-Director of Young Adult Activism.

The discussion on “intersex” will feature Lianne Simon, author of Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite, a young adult novel about an “intersex” teen. Born with a mix of testicular and ovarian tissue, Simon was raised, for a time, as a boy and eventually came to identify as female.

While not as prominent in gender and sexuality conversations as homosexuality or transgenderism, “intersex” is an umbrella term for people either having traits of both sexes or identifying with neither. Transgender activists often point to “intersex” persons as evidence for their claim that biological sex is not binary, but instead a continuum.

Simon will be joined by Megan DeFranza, a professor at evangelical Gordon College who has written about sexuality. Interestingly, DeFranza attends a conservative Anglican parish. The Gordon College professor recently appeared on a panel discussion at Episcopal Divinity School in which she examined the eunuchs of the Bible and suggested that such a study would be helpful for Evangelicals in understanding how to approach intersex persons.

A Southern Baptist Response to Same-Sex Marriage

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Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, evangelical, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Kristin Rudolph, marriage, Russell Moore, Southern Baptist Convention

(Credit: OneWed.com)

Kristin Rudolph (@Kristin_Rudolph)

Two weeks before the Supreme Court announced its decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the Southern Baptist Convention hosted discussions on the topic of marriage at its annual meeting on June 11 – 12 in Houston, TX. Dr. Russell Moore, the new president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) directed conversations considering the implications of redefining marriage, and the broader challenges Evangelical Christians face in a culture that devalues marriage.

Moore said in a panel discussion that evangelicals “Have been slow train sexual revolutionaries. We adapt to whatever the last generation already accommodated to when it comes to marriage and sexuality,” which is why “homosexuality seems as normal to a 15 year old right now in our culture as divorce seems to a 45 year old in this culture.”

David Platt, a pastor and author emphasized the importance of consistency regarding all aspects of marriage, including divorce, within the church. “If we are not willing to do church discipline when necessary … then it’s going to ring very hollow,” he warned. To single out homosexuality and ignore other areas of sin amounts to “selective moral outrage.”

Moore urged pastors to get serious about wedding ceremonies in their churches, and recognize from a Christian perspective they are not intended to be a “celebration of the love of the couple … [instead] the marriage ceremony is about the people of God gathered as witnesses saying we are holding this couple accountable for the vows that are being made.”

Pastor J.D. Greear pointed out “We’re in a unique moment for the Gospel” with the differences between Christians and the culture growing increasingly stark. In response to holding to convictions concerning marriage, Greear said “We know we’re going to be spoken about as evil doers.”

In another session addressing questions from the “next generation” of SBC leaders, Moore criticized evangelical attempts to mold cultural mores to appear more Christian. In this process, he lamented “Evangelicalism was watered down.” He explained how “the last generation of evangelical Christianity wanted to remove the freakishness of Christianity in order to say ‘we’re really just good old Americans just like you are and if you add a little bit of Jesus to this you’re going to have an even better life than you have right now.’”

But this “freakishness” is the very thing that gives Christians a voice. Moore said “the influence that we have is not going to be because we are so big, it is not going to be because we have so much power, it is going to be because we are so strange.”

Further, instead of extreme sexual practices such as polygamy becoming mainstream as a result of redefining marriage, Moore predicted it is more likely that marriage will simply “become relatively meaningless in the way that it is in some more secularized societies right now.” As less people marry into lifelong, life producing unions, and cohabitate, marry multiple times, or are generally sexually permissive, Christians who live chaste lives in singleness or marriage will indeed look “freakish.”

Rather than focus narrowly on raising money for political campaigns and agendas, Moore said evangelicals should “love the people around us enough to have conversations with them. Not just have conversations about them.”

He pointed out that “we’re going to say things that are so strange that they are going to prompt further conversation. They’re going to shut down some conversation, but they’re going to prompt conversation.” Moore continued: “I honestly think the things that are going on right now in American culture, as sad as they are in the short term, in the long term, enable a very good recovery of evangelical Christianity.”

Following the Supreme Court’s rulings, the ERLC released a document outlining the changes resulting from the decision and the faithful Christian response. The brief document urges churches to love their gay and lesbian neighbors, remain calm in the face of shifting cultural morals, and strengthen their own commitment to preaching and practicing Christian marriage with integrity.

Press Release: Marriage is Worth Defending

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evangelical, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Kristin Rudolph, marriage, same sex marriage

June 26, 2013
Contact: Jeff Walton 202-682-4131, 202-413-5639 cell

“Regardless of court rulings, churches and others, now more than ever, must defend and strengthen traditional marriage.”
-Kristin Rudolph, IRD Evangelical Program Coordinator

Washington, DC—The Supreme Court has issued its rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s voter-approved Proposition 8 defining marriage as one man and one woman.

The Institute on Religion and Democracy has a paper by Alan Wisdom extolling the social value of traditional marriage and taking stock of the debate about its future in U.S. society. The marriage paper poses the question: “Our society’s view of marriage, centered on mutual emotional satisfaction, is already far from classic Christian teaching. Now pro-homosexuality advocates are seeking to radically redefine marriage, reducing it to a relationship between any ‘two people who love each other.’ Amidst all this conflict, is it worth the cost for Christians to continue to defend this embattled institution?”

The paper examines biblical passages related to marriage, as well as the history of the church’s approach to marriage. It presents social science evidence showing the weakened state of marriage today, but also the benefits that marriage brings for both adults and children. It addresses sensitive issues such as cohabitation and same-sex marriage. The paper can be viewed free of charge on the Institute’s website at www.TheIRD.org/marriage

Kristin Rudolph, IRD Evangelical Program Coordinator, commented:

“Traditional marriage serves an important role as a building block for a flourishing society. There is an urgent need for churches and others to defend traditional marriage.

“Faithful church teaching contrasts with forces of cultural accommodation that would redefine marriage out of existence. Standing up for traditional marriage is an important responsibility in a confused culture needing spiritual and moral direction.

“By many measures, marriage has weakened in our society. Fewer people marry. More people divorce. More co-habitate. Increasing numbers follow a pattern of ‘serial monogamy.’ Those who suffer most are the next generation of Americans. Children suffer when adults are encouraged to pursue their own satisfaction over the good of their offspring.

“U.S. Christians have three options. They can yield to the trends devaluing marriage. Or they can admit defeat in society but try to maintain traditional teachings inside the church. Or they can swim against the current and insist that both church and society must uphold marriage. We believe that only this last option is faithful to the Scriptures and conducive to the long-term good of society.

www.TheIRD.org

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Evangelical Amnesty Activists Double Down

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evangelical, George Soros, Immigration, Sojourners

By Marjorie Jeffrey (@MarjorieJeffrey)

The immigration bill in the Senate seems all but unstoppable, but pro-amnesty religious activists aren’t taking any chances. All this week, on the Capitol grounds, the Evangelical Immigration Table will be holding prayer gatherings every morning at 10 AM to pray for the passage of immigration reform in the Senate. A different group represented by the Evangelical Immigration Table will host the meeting each day.

A group of about twelve activists gathered this morning for today’s meeting, which was hosted by Sojourners.

The prayer gathering was informally led by Lisa Sharon Harper, Director of Mobilizing at Sojourners, who declared at the outset, “This is not just an action. This is a truly spiritual moment. We are calling on God to move the hearts of the legislators.” She also mentioned that Sojourners was sponsoring the event, and that, “We are proud to be founding members of the Evangelical Immigration Table, who put this together today.”

The prayer gathering, which lasted about 30 minutes, was organized along the lines set out by a sheet which was passed around to participants, which listed passages from the Bible and encouraged those gathered to pray as they were moved to do so. Also included were suggestions for prayers, such as asking God, “To convince Christians that He can judge a people for their failure to protect the vulnerable”, and, “To put a holy fear in Christians of His judgment for improper treatment of immigrants.

Individual prayers from participants included a prayer “for those who are white, Lord, and those of us who have experienced a lot of privilege.” Another young woman prayed for more children’s book authors to portray immigrants in a more flattering light. Ms. Ivonne Guillen offered a prayer in Spanish.

Harper took a turn at prayer, saying, “I pray for the Hoeven-Corker amendment, and the reality that it has passed. But I pray Lord that it does not get any worse.”

Rose Berger, a longtime social justice activist and Sojourners associate editor, offered prayers during the event, calling on Congress: “And as we stand trembling in awe of your love and your power, let us also convey a holy fear to those in Congress. They have a choice to do what is right. Let them tremble if they choose to do what is wrong.”

Ms. Berger closed the event. After reading a passage from the Book of Revelation, (Rev. 7:9-10), she concluded with these words:

Empires are slippery things. And Revelation is a love-letter from John to small communities in the middle of a big empire. We are a small community in the middle of a big empire. This Capitol grounds is soaked in the blood of slaves, who died building this building. We brought people five hundred years ago in chains to help build this country. Five hundred years later, people are begging to get into our country to help build it. And we’re pushing them out. All of this is resulting in death. The atrocities of slavery and the atrocities of making people come through very dangerous routes to enter this country. But the ark in this country, of the people who stand for liberty and justice, is a moral ark. And it bends toward justice. And it bends toward liberty. And it bends toward peace for all of us. And so we say to the Congressional representatives and all those who are making laws on the Hill today that affect millions of people, [here all were encouraged to lift their hands towards the Capitol] we invite them today to come to the winning side. We invite everyone in the House to come to the winning side. We invite everyone in the Senate and in the White House and in the Judiciary to come to the winning side… We don’t know if it will be today, we don’t know if it will be this week, but it will come. And we will recognize the moment, and we will celebrate the moment, and we hope that they will be part of that moment also. Because this is a country where we pray for liberty and justice for all. For all.

The event wrapped up with a hand-clapping chorus of “Amen”.

Event organizers declined to comment after the event, but encouraged communication via email. When asked to comment about who exactly is funding the Evangelical Immigration Table, the Director of Communications referred me to the National Immigration Forum’s recent statement, which claims that no funding from George Soros is being used to pay for the Evangelical Immigration Table’s media campaign.

However, we still don’t really know who is paying for the ad campaign. While Rev. Sammy Rodriguez claimed in an interview with the Christian Post that the campaign was paid for by the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber has denied this. Ali Noorani, President of the National Immigration Forum, has also said that the Chamber of Commerce paid for the ad campaign. Sojourners seems to be staking their claim on that side of the dispute.

Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, has said that he would welcome George Soros’ funding, if it turned out that he was behind the money for the media campaign. Dr. Land also happens to serve as the Executive Editor of the Christian Post.

Sojourners’ representative also declined to comment on Eric Metaxas’ removal of his name from the Evangelical Immigration Table (though it has yet to be removed from the official website). They also declined to comment on whether or not anyone else had asked to be removed from the list.

In the afore-mentioned interview that Rev. Rodriguez did with the Christian Post, he ended with harsh remarks against those who would try to stand in the way of his preferred form of amnesty, such as Kelly Kullberg, Founder of Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration Reform. Rodriguez said this:

Accordingly, let me remind my Christian brothers and sisters not to be manipulated by groups that advocate a population control, anti-life agenda such as the very leading groups opposing immigration reform. Evangelicals were on the wrong side of history when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched against segregation. This generation will not make the same mistake.

Rodriguez’s response to being accused of manipulation is to accuse others of manipulation, while hinting that those who oppose amnesty are just as bad as those who opposed the Civil Rights movement. But it is even more ironic that when he refers to anti-immigration groups that advocate population control and abortion, he is repeating the old the lies of a smear campaign earlier this year, circulated by none other than the National Immigration Forum themselves.

In the end, we’ll probably just have to pass the bill to find out who funded the support for it. Sounds familiar.

The Evangelical Immigration Table Continues to Perplex

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#iwasastranger, Barton Gingerich, Breitbart, Christian Post, Eric Metaxas, evangelical, Evangelical Immigration Table, George Soros, Immigration, Immigration reform, Napp Nazworth, National Immigration Forum, Richard Land, Samuel Rodriguez

by Barton Gingerich (@bjgingerich)

In a Christian Post article today, a spokesperson for the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) fired off a defensive volley against a recent slew of critical reports from Breitbart News. Breitbart has reported that EIT is part of the National Immigration Forum (NIF), which receives generous grants from George Soros and other leftist foundations.  “No funding from George Soros has been used by the Evangelical Immigration Table,” reported the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference’s Sammy Rodriguez.

The Christian Post article reports that funds specifically for the EIT came from Republican hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Walmart, and “other leading Christian business owners,” according to Rodriguez.

Also today the National Immigration Forum released a carefully-worded statement: “Recently, some have accused the Table of receiving financial support from George Soros through the Forum. We wish to be absolutely clear on this point: These rumors are untrue. None of the funding the Forum receives from the Open Society Foundation goes to the work of the Evangelical Immigration Table. In fact, over the course of 2012 and 2013, approximately 10 percent of the Forum’s overall revenue has been from the Open Society Foundation.”

Breitbart has reported that EIT does not exist as a legal entity. Its work is “facilitated” by the National Immigration Forum.  It is essentially part of the NIF.  Its $250,000 ad campaign for immigration legislative advocacy was reportedly contracted by NIF.

NIF’s statement denies that Soros specifically designated funding for EIT, which Breitbart did not claim.  But EIT is an initiative of NIF, which most certainly DOES receive funding from Soros and similar philanthropies.

And who are NIF’s backers? Publicly available information shows that Soros’  Foundation to Promote an Open Society gave more than half of NIF’s total funding in 2010, $1.75 million. The NIF has received $3,807,152 from Soros since 2009 and a total of $5,107,152 over the decade from 2001 to 2011.

NIF’s statement today says Open Society provided about 10% of the NIF’s budget in 2012 and 2013 but does not indicate what the amount was or what is NIF’s overall budget, which possibly has increased.  The liberal Ford Foundation donated $250,000 to NIF in 2011, $500,000 in 2010, and $300,000 in 2009. Other donors of the left gave generous support: the Carnegie Corporation donated $500,000 in 2011 and the Tides Foundation $60,000 in 2010.

Many evangelicals are suspicious of this political alliance with George Soros and similar philanthropies.  Yesterday, noted evangelical commentator Eric Metaxas withdrew his name from the Evangelical Immigration Table, citing the Soros connection.