As a former journalist (in my previous life I was a sports reporter for Bartlesvilles daily paper), I know its impossible to cover all ground in a given story. So, I wanted to clarify a couple of things regarding my interview for this piece: First, the primary reason for wanting other clergy to address Council before I do is because its vital for Council to know there are many clergy members in Springfield who support the ordinance, not just one or two, and those voices need to be heard more than my own (Ive had the good fortune of being heard already). And while I dont at all regret having my comments go viral, I dont want the attention given to my speech to allow Springfield to forget that several other religious leaders and clergy in Springfield also gave compelling speeches in support of the ordinance that night (Im hardly the only clergy person in Springfield supporting the ordinance), and over two dozen of us are publicly supportive of gay rights, even here in the Bible Belt, with many more personally supportive who arent in a place to go public with their support because of external pressure from denominational hierarchies or internal pressure from the power bases in the particular congregations they serve (the same can be said for regular church goers, for this doesnt even take into consideration the major shift taking place among active laity who are supportive of gay rights even though the official teaching of their respective church isnt -- this is why the local church survey done by the task force was so flawed, for what pastor can speak for the entirety of his or her congregants?). For me, this is connected to the dire need of collectively changing the dominant and problematic religious narrative that exists in Springfield, which basically assumes that virtually all religious people in Springfield either do not support gay rights, or arent willing to change their views, or arent in the process of changing their views, *none of which is true*. Second, for the record, I do wish to say that I also expressed appreciation in my interview for the work of the SOGI task force, who had the difficult task of advising Council. Their countless hours of hard work and collaboration are not lost on me. While Ive been skeptical over the last couple of years thinking that the task force was just a way for Council to buy time to delay having to take a formal stand, I do tend to think the task force has allowed Council to view the proposed ordinance(s) from a wide range of perspectives, which I hope in the long run prove beneficial. cc: Stephanie Perkins Robert Stephens Kathy Munzinger Emily Bowen-Marler
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 11:39:09 +0000
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