ECLA allows gay clergy men...

In a historic moment the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA) has voted to allow gay clergy into the church. The issue of homosexuality has been a major divide in the mainline protestant churches for a while now; the Anglican church split due this very same issue. Expect other mainline groups (Most notably the United Methodists) to follow the same path. This is easily the most decisive thing that has hit American churches since the issue of slavery which caused many churches to split into separate groups. Expect the same here. As much as I hate to see such horrific divisions, I think its almost a necessary evil at this point in protecting gays and promoting progressive theology into the mainstream.

Article on transgender model in Korea...

First, the Chosun Ilbo (of all sources) has an article on a transgender women named Choi Han-bit. Choi Han-bit is the first transgender woman to compete in the Super Model Contest.

a telephone interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Wednesday, she said, "I dreamt of becoming a model from when I was very young. The message on the screen of my cell phone reads, 'I am a model,' and after the operation I started preparing to become one. I thought it was a dream that could never come true, but I'm very happy about where I stand at the moment."

Her biggest supporters have been her parents. When Choi decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery, they encouraged her, saying it is better to live with confidence than to hide from your nature and end up with regrets. "When I called my parents after the contest, they told me I did very well but I should stay humble as bigger obstacles are yet to come," she said.

Good luck Choi Han-bit! Miss Choi is not the first transgender woman to make major pop media news, Harisu of course came out in 2001 and has always been very open about her past.

Speaking of which..

Korea Beat has an excellent translated article on a lesbian club in Hongdae by Chosun Weekly. In Seoul, there is numerous centers for our gay friends (Itaewon) but there seems to be no center for lesbians. Its nice to see that they are acknowledged to exist in mainstream Korean media though I wish the article focused less on the one-night stands and sexual escapades. What do you guys think?

*NOTE: According to the comments, the S Club is not a lesbian club. I cannot confirm this at this point*

Bigot Watch: David Staples and ANCC

All forms of bigotry should not be tolerated and should be taken on publicly. One of the goals of this blog is to try to point out acts of bigotry within our community and confront it. For our first installment, we shall focus on the All Nations Community Church and its recent sermon by David Staples called "Chauvinist or Feminist? Which is Jesus?" on July 17th, 2009.

ANCC is a Korean ethnic church that is the English ministry to the Onnuri Church (not affiliated with the Onnuri Church in Seoul). The church currently is part of the Southern Baptist Convention but was non-denominational for a long time before hand (the website does not even mention its connection). Like alot of Korean churches, there is a strong emphasis on piety and most sermons are based around Bible reading. Last week, they covered 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, a infamous text that can have sexist readings. I respect the ANCC for trying to cover this and their emphasis on biblical reading as part of sermons, but there are some major issues here. Fortunately, they have all their sermons online for you to listen to.

After discussing the problems the early Church was facing, David goes onto this little explanation around 9 minutes in...

They are being influenced by the Corinthian culture.. and with that came sin... one of the movements that was happening was a feminist movement. Females they were oppressed for a long time.. they still are oppressed today...

Does not seem to bad right now, and he argues that the Christian church actually lifted many women from oppression. After this, David begins talking about "God's view of women" which he does not bother to elaborate at this point (about 12 minutes in)..

Women though at this time begin to go on further... it wasn't just good enough to say men and women were equal.. they wanted to say women were better then men... they were allowing some of these feminists beliefs to rule over the church...

Oh boy, this is not looking good. Nevermind that there were many cults around this time who were claiming to be "Christian" were doing incredibly immoral things by any standard; or that there were numerous churches who had heterodox beliefs and often had their own canons that was a problem during the early days. Blame the feminists!

After a while, David makes these statement when describing the issue of women wearing coverings in Church 33 minutes in...

These women went so far to go and cut their hair off because they wanted to look like a guy... you know what these women did? These women were lesbians...

Oh boy, here we go. Singling out the lesbians (apparently men weren't bad enough to get mentioned this time). As pointed out before, there was alot of things that people would consider "sexually immoral" going on back then; including stuff that had little to do with the gender of your partner. But just like the case of Sodom, queers get singled out as the ones sending us to hell.

Seriously, are people aware that back then there were numerous groups that were committing sexual rituals? That there were rumors of pedophile, necrophilia and all other crazy stuff? Is homosexuality really the biggest sin here?

Four minutes later, it gets even worse...

Some people say "what is the Corinth culture like?"... its like Seattle!... Whole bunch of sexual immorality, lesbians, gays. Its not like Lake Forest Part, but is like Capital Hill..

Are you kidding me here? Out of all the acts of sexual immortality you have to bash on the queer community as if they are a crime itself? Do you seriously have to demonize Capital Hill, and ignore other areas of high "sexual immorality" in Seattle? You telling me sexual immorality does not exist in the U-District or Belltown? Oh wait, they are straight so it is not that bad. But those queer folk? They are going to hell.

This stuff disturbs me on so many levels. Not only does this just spread homophobia, but it creates a false impression on the people listening. By focusing on such narrow things, they are making other "immoral" acts seem less dangerous and more acceptable. Personally, I find adultery and sleeping around much more dangerous then what gender someone decides to be with. Of course many of these young people will have no problem with this because the only thing they hear is homophobia; its ok as long as you are not gay or lesbian.

And this is how good "Christian families" end up having pregnant teenagers; its not that bad because they are straight! Seriously, I know godless queer people who live a more "Christian" love life then some of these people. Wanna know why? Because its this focus bashing queers over producing decent moral human beings.

Paul is saying this.. that women ought to act and look like women and men ought to act and look like men... (49 minutes in)

Yes, because we all know there has been a strong consistent definition of masculine and femininity in history. Those terms have never change. Ironically, this point was made indirectly earlier.