A Treat From San Francisco

The BBC broadcast a Sunday Service (recorded in October 2006) this past Sunday from the Catholic parish of Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco:

Fr Donal Godfrey, Society of Jesus, leads a service from the Catholic Parish of Most Holy Redeemer, San Francisco, exploring how gay people can find a place in the Christian narrative and speaks of the gift of faith. The preacher is the Catholic writer and theologian, Fr James Alison.

My husband and I were honored to have dinner with both Fr Godfrey and Fr Alison a few years ago (although not at the same time.) The broadcast is available for downloading here (you need Real Player to listen to it) until this Sunday, May 6th.

Well, it appears that "homophobically inspired groups and individuals" are slamming the BBC with emails and calls to discourage any similar programs in the future. So get out your phone cards!

People are asked to call the BBC - 020 7580 4468, say you want to comment on a programme and ask for the Duty Log. This ensures that all comments are noted as received.

This would be very helpful since Christine Morgan, the BBC producer responsible for this area of programming is likely to have to go on Radio 4’s ‘Feedback’ programme over this, and she would value positive comments to support her. Her comment would be: Why has it taken the BBC so long to do such a programme?

Also important would be to e-mail Mark Damazer, the Controller of BBC Radio 4: mark.damazer@bbc.co.uk

You could also copy anything to the Head BBC Religious Broadcasting, Michael Wakelin: michael.wakelin@bbc.co.uk

Hearing these two men is a treat, however, if you'd like to read the service, you can find the transcripts here.

The Prom is Ruined Because the Bisexual is Dancing with the Boys AND the Girls!

If you happened to read the Boston Globe today, you might have read the story about the Catholic school girl who wanted to bring a same sex date to the prom but was told no.

If this was the end of the story it would have been fine since the high school, after all, is part of a religious institution and by law can discriminate against anyone they want because they are exempt (because they are a religious institution and not accepting public funds). You would think that the people responsible for the school would issue a statement with something about Catholic teachings and beliefs about gay people, etc... But nooooooooooooooo! Instead we get some hack spouting ridiculousness:

Administrators say they have banned same-sex couples because they want the prom to remain traditional.

"We're not looking for trouble at our prom," George A. Milot, superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Fall River, said yesterday. "Having boys bring boys or girls bring girls opens the door to all kinds of scenarios that could lead to problems. We're not willing to open the door. We're sticking with tradition; we have enough problems as it is."

He insisted the diocesean schools are not discriminating against gays and lesbians.

Where to start...? Did you hear about the prom's theme? It's 007: Diamonds are Forever. You know, 007, James Bond, that ladies' man who, when he's not objectifying women, is an trained assassin. Ah, I get it now, they want it to remain THAT traditional where men are in charge and women know their place.

His response also got me wondering about what kind of trouble they were going to get with having one girl bring another girl to the prom? Are the students so tough in Catholic high school nowadays that the two women were going to jump on the tables and start destroying the place?

And then there's that comment about "Having boys bring boys ...could lead to problems. We're not willing to open the door." Open the door to what? Everyone being treated equal? Gay bashing? What problems?

A Catholic school is free to discriminate against anyone they want. It's legal as long as they are not taking state or federal money. All these made up excuses just highlight the blatant hatred of gay people they have. It may be legal but it's certainly not Christian like.