Posts Tagged ‘Election 2012’

Day 5: Celebrate Love Heroes!

No Comments | Share On Facebook| Day 5: Celebrate Love Heroes! Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 23, 2013

Today is Day 5 of the Thirty Days of Love. Today’s action is to honor Courageous Love in your community. Click here for more resources, family actions, and more! Click here to sign up for the daily Thirty Days of Love emails.

Award recipients Sally, Pat, Scott, and Charles with Campaign Manager Jennifer Toth.

On Sunday, we got to help kick off the second annual Thirty Days of Love by awarding Courageous Love Awards to leaders at First Unitarian Church of Baltimore. “Honor Legacy” is the theme for this first week of the campaign, and it is an apt touchstone for our historic congregation. When Rev. William Ellery Channing delivered “the Baltimore sermon” from our pulpit in 1819, he shook religion at its core and defined an American Unitarianism that was serious, rational, and progressive.

It was a joy to celebrate the stories of our congregational leaders. As a group, they worked to pass marriage equality—by popular vote!—this past November in Maryland, and have also advocated for the rights of LGBTQ people for decades. Award recipients Sally Wall and Pat Montley were our public spokespersons, receiving messaging training, addressing the media, and organizing other congregations to mobilize for equality. Scott MacLeod was our principal cheerleader in the congregation, urging our people to volunteer at phone banks and door-to-door canvassing, and leading a square dance fundraiser.

Fighting for human rights was nothing new for award recipient Charles Blackburn. In 1961, he was a Freedom Rider in the south, challenging local segregation laws by riding interstate buses. In 2004, Charles and his partner were one of nine couples in Deane & Polyak v. Conoway, the suit for equal marriage rights in Maryland. That suit was lost in 2007. Our congregation’s response? We hung a banner proclaiming “Civil Marriage is a Civil Right” as a testament to our commitment to equal rights for all. This past Sunday, acknowledging that marriage equality could not have been won without our UU Legislative Ministry of Maryland, we were able to take the banner down with pride.

Any organization or individual can give Courageous Love Awards to those who exhibit “courageous love.” This is an opportunity to recognize the amazing change-makers in your community and inspire future social justice work. Click here for more info on Courageous Love Awards.

Together, let’s continue to put our faith into action, and stand on the side of love!

Rev. David Carl Olson
First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, Maryland

PS: The Standing on the Side of Love campaign hopes your congregation is participating in Share the Love Sunday! The SSL website has some helpful resources for planning your service, taking a collection to support the Unitarian Universalist Association, and discussing what it means for your congregation to rejoice in community and stand on the side of love. Thanks for your generosity on February 17!

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A Celebration Worthy of Cake

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| A Celebration Worthy of Cake Share/Save/Bookmark Dec 27, 2012

Here at Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, Maine, we recently celebrated our state’s vote for marriage equality during our Sunday services–an event complete with Standing on the Side of Love-themed cakes!

Standing on the Side of Love cakes!

We had two wedding cakes with same-sex edible marzipan couples as toppers, which the congregation shared during coffee hour. During the service itself, we danced around the sanctuary to commemorate the occasion.

Maine approved marriage equality by ballot measure in November. We are excited to begin having same-sex weddings here at our congregation in the new year!

Meret with her cake.

This post was contributed by Meret Bainbridge, a member of Allen Avenue UU Church.

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Love Wins Big at the Ballot Box

No Comments | Share On Facebook| Love Wins Big at the Ballot Box Share/Save/Bookmark Nov 07, 2012

Pinch me! I, like many of you, still can’t believe that this moment has finally arrived.

Yesterday, voters in Maine and Maryland affirmed marriage equality at the ballot box. Minnesota became the first state in the country to reject writing discrimination into its state constitution. And, while the ballots are still being counted, marriage equality appears headed for passage in Washington State. These outcomes may influence the U.S. Supreme Court when it considers the constitutionality of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. After working for more than a decade for LGBTQ equality, I’m ecstatic to say that the United States has reached the tipping point. We are poised to take our place among the other nations of the world who stand on the side of love.

But wait–there’s more! Wisconsin voters elected Tammy Baldwin–the first openly-LGBTQ American, and a woman of profound integrity–to the U.S. Senate, offering new hope and a shining example of success to young people who are hoping that it will get better, who will know they can achieve anything. Electoral outcomes in New Hampshire and Iowa mean marriage equality is most likely safe in those states, and the composition of Colorado’s legislature could mean new possibilities for relationship recognition for same-gender couples. Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins has retained his seat after anti-gay forces tried to oust him for joining in a unanimous 2009 decision for marriage equality.

Of course, whether we are Republicans and Democrats, all of us understand that when it comes to advancing equality for LGBTQ people in our nation, there was simply no contest between President Obama and Governor Romney. Hopefully, with President Obama’s leadership, we will never again have a sitting president who does not support full equality for LGBTQ people in our country.

Friends, Election 2012 is our moment. Love wins big!

Of course, our victories go much further than just LGBTQ equality. Voters in my home state of Maryland became the first in the nation to ever vote on a DREAM Act measure at the ballot, signaling resounding approval for providing in-state tuition to undocumented residents. Minnesota voters rejected a regressive voter ID amendment. And voters in two states–Colorado and Washington–said yes to decriminalizing marijuana. In an ideal world, this could indicate a shift in our national conversation about drug laws that disproportionately affect poor communities of color.

As these victories set in, however, we remember that this is really about people, and our love for one another. “Gratitude” is the number one word I am hearing emerge from the mouths of those who had so much invested in outcomes yesterday.

So today, let us all offer our gratitude to one another for our collective work to bend the arc of the world towards greater love and justice.

In faith,

Dan Furmansky
Former Campaign Manager
Standing on the Side of Love

The message above went out on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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Speak, Act, Vote with Love

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Speak, Act, Vote with Love Share/Save/Bookmark Nov 02, 2012

With just a few days remaining until Election Day, we’re all at the breaking point–waiting has become excruciating, our patience is flagging, and we’re moments away from throwing the television out the window to avoid another campaign ad. Amid this climate of dual frustration and anticipation, it is easy to lose sight of what truly matters.

This inspiring video, created by Elliott Cennamo, reminds us that LOVE is the true antidote for the fear and hate that is so widespread during this election season:

Please help us spread this message of love before the election on Tuesday. Simply click here to share the video with your friends on Facebook, or click here to share via Twitter.

Many of us care about the same things. Who will be elected President? Who will hold majorities in Congress? Will Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin become the first openly gay individual to be elected to the U.S. Senate? Will various ballot initiatives across the country—on marriage equality, voter ID, animal welfare, reproductive justice, health care, the death penalty, and so much more—become law or be rejected?

No matter the outcome of these social justice issues that we care so deeply about, what gives us hope is that people like you all over the country will never stop working to make our society a more compassionate, loving, just place. Of all the things people in the world choose to worship, LOVE is right there at the top for all of you.

Thank you for all you do to promote justice in the world. And as Elliott’s video reminds us, may we all remember during this trying time to speak, act, and vote with love.

In faith & justice,

The Standing on the Side of Love Team

The message above went out on Friday, November 2, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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Erring on the Side of Love (Theologically Speaking…)

3 Comments | Share On Facebook| Erring on the Side of Love (Theologically Speaking…) Share/Save/Bookmark Oct 24, 2012
Rev. David Miller

This post was written by Rev. David A. Miller, minister of the UU Fellowship of San Dieguito and SSL Creative Advisory Team member.

As I listen and view the debates on marriage equality and all the issues during this election season, I cannot help but remember a conversation I had with a professor while attending seminary. She said, “do not get into a debate about whose interpretation of scripture is wrong or right, it is a discussion that you will never win.” I think she said this because there are so many chapters in the Bible, so many verses that can be read one way or the other, that is possible to “proof-text,” or pull out what one needs to prove one’s point.

Some say that the bible is inerrant, that each verse is the word of God–but is that not easier for the issues that one wishes to highlight and a little more difficult for those verses that time, customs, and culture have changed? I love that line they use in The West Wing from Leviticus 11:6-8 about how one should not be touching the skin of a dead pig because it makes one unclean, but I sure know a lot of deeply religious people of all denominations that love football. Another favorite is Exodus 35:2 – “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.”

My point is it is not just about the words, but about the spirit of the whole idea–what is the overall message of the Bible? Since we all choose passages, here are my two texts I would like to “proof:”

Matthew 22:37-40:
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

And,

1 Corinthians 13
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

As a raised-Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, agnostic, mystic, post-Christian Jesus appreciator, I am really far from a biblical scholar, which detractors would be happy to point out, but this seems pretty clear to me: “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” I can have all the faith in the world, but it means nothing if I do not have love. Love is the be-all and the end-all message of almost all of the wisdom traditions. Relationships of mutual love, of mutual respect, of mutual understanding, and of mutual commitment are heralded in the wisdom literature.

So whether or not I read or understand the Bible as detailed poetry, incredibly wise metaphoric lessons, or literal interpretations, I choose to err on the side of love. I choose to spend my time on earth praying that love conquers all, not praying with others that love be kept on the sidelines of that football stadium, (with perhaps the pigskin). I choose to spend my time on this earth taking from these wise and timeless lessons, that love is the request, love is the rule, and love is the reason. That is why I intend to be kind to those who hold views in opposition to mine, support love everywhere possible, support the right for two people who love each other, whoever they are, to marry and, in this and all elections, intend to cast my vote on the side of love.

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