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3rdragonIt is related, though. Possibly it falls under the category of things that made Small Miriam into Big Miriam.
Right now I'm somewhere in the application process of an organization that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rumorofrain has been referring to as the Mennonite Peace Corps. It's not an entirely accurate description, as you don't need to be Mennonite, but it's close enough. They do want you to be an active member of a Christian church, and to agree to abide by their lifestyle expectations. Okay, fine, lifestyle expectations. I think that living simply and an agreement to not racially and/or sexually harass people are good things. And I'm perfectly willing to abide by the drug and alcohol policy. Personally, I don't expect to have issues following any of this stuff. However.
"MCC requires sexual celibacy for personnel outside of a heterosexual marriage relationship during their terms of service with MCC.
Persons of homosexual orientation who meet MCC personnel criteria as noted above will be considered for MCC service if they are willing to abide by MCC's requirement of celibacy for all outside of a heterosexual marriage and if they will not use MCC as a platform from which to advocate for same-sex sexual relationships."
ISSUES ISSUES ISSUES.
Okay, they're a church group. If they want people to be celibate outside of a committed relationship, that's their prerogative, I guess. But I have serious problems with specifying that your committed relationship has to be a heterosexual marriage. And I think the little "the gays are welcome so long as they're willing to act straight" addendum almost makes it worse.
My mother's take on this is that that particular requirement and that particular phrasing is put in there to appease the funding base. I was still feeling somewhat grumpy about the whole affair, though.
And then I realized that part of the application included this question: "Write about a time when you observed racism, sexism or other forms of oppression, or participated in efforts to work against racism, sexism or other forms of oppression. Please elaborate."
When I was a small child, Germantown Mennonite Church was removed from the greater Mennonite conference for accepting openly gay and lesbian members. I remember an incident that took place one summer around that time, when we were on vacation and my parents chose to visit another Mennonite church some distance away.* We asked for directions when we stopped for breakfast, then drove to attend the service at this church. I was too young to understand the sermon, but I was old enough to understand that my parents felt that the message** might have been picked specifically to exclude our family and our church.*** I was certainly old enough to understand that the pastor meant we were not welcome when he refused to shake our hands.^
That was the first time in my existence as a cute, white child in a white, upper-middle-class family, with a mom and a dad and two kids, that I experienced direct and outright discrimination. It was an experience that stuck with me very forcefully. I was very lucky that I had never personally experienced it before, and that day was the first time that I really understood that there are people who live every single day experiencing inequality and bigotry simply because of who they are – of who God made them to be. I felt then, and still believe now, that this is wrong.
This isn't just a story about LGTBQ issues, either. When I was reading -- I think it was The Watsons Go To Birmingham 1963, or some book like that, anyway -- there's a scene where the northern African-American kids encounter "no coloreds allowed" signs for the first time, and it's a much more visible and overt symbol of racism than they've ever encountered in the north, where they were mostly too young to notice it. And that interaction registered for me in a much more immediate and visceral way for having had this experience.
*Clarification after talking to my mother: The conference had called for dialogue around this issue, and a group from this church had come to visit us against the wishes of their pastor. They did not agree, but there was dialogue. Our pastor felt very strongly that someone from our church should visit them, and upon discovering that we would be vacationing in this area, charged my parents to do so.
**Romans 1:26-27, if you're curious. According to the English Standard Version, ". . . For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error."
***It could have been, too. Mom and dad used the payphone at the bottom of the mountain multiple times in the week preceding to try to call the church office and figure out when services were. They never got an answer but left messages saying we were coming.
^In Emperor Mage, when she talks about an attitude of decided unwelcome? Yes, that. Exactly.
Right now I'm somewhere in the application process of an organization that
rumorofrain has been referring to as the Mennonite Peace Corps. It's not an entirely accurate description, as you don't need to be Mennonite, but it's close enough. They do want you to be an active member of a Christian church, and to agree to abide by their lifestyle expectations. Okay, fine, lifestyle expectations. I think that living simply and an agreement to not racially and/or sexually harass people are good things. And I'm perfectly willing to abide by the drug and alcohol policy. Personally, I don't expect to have issues following any of this stuff. However."MCC requires sexual celibacy for personnel outside of a heterosexual marriage relationship during their terms of service with MCC.
Persons of homosexual orientation who meet MCC personnel criteria as noted above will be considered for MCC service if they are willing to abide by MCC's requirement of celibacy for all outside of a heterosexual marriage and if they will not use MCC as a platform from which to advocate for same-sex sexual relationships."
ISSUES ISSUES ISSUES.
Okay, they're a church group. If they want people to be celibate outside of a committed relationship, that's their prerogative, I guess. But I have serious problems with specifying that your committed relationship has to be a heterosexual marriage. And I think the little "the gays are welcome so long as they're willing to act straight" addendum almost makes it worse.
My mother's take on this is that that particular requirement and that particular phrasing is put in there to appease the funding base. I was still feeling somewhat grumpy about the whole affair, though.
And then I realized that part of the application included this question: "Write about a time when you observed racism, sexism or other forms of oppression, or participated in efforts to work against racism, sexism or other forms of oppression. Please elaborate."
When I was a small child, Germantown Mennonite Church was removed from the greater Mennonite conference for accepting openly gay and lesbian members. I remember an incident that took place one summer around that time, when we were on vacation and my parents chose to visit another Mennonite church some distance away.* We asked for directions when we stopped for breakfast, then drove to attend the service at this church. I was too young to understand the sermon, but I was old enough to understand that my parents felt that the message** might have been picked specifically to exclude our family and our church.*** I was certainly old enough to understand that the pastor meant we were not welcome when he refused to shake our hands.^
That was the first time in my existence as a cute, white child in a white, upper-middle-class family, with a mom and a dad and two kids, that I experienced direct and outright discrimination. It was an experience that stuck with me very forcefully. I was very lucky that I had never personally experienced it before, and that day was the first time that I really understood that there are people who live every single day experiencing inequality and bigotry simply because of who they are – of who God made them to be. I felt then, and still believe now, that this is wrong.
This isn't just a story about LGTBQ issues, either. When I was reading -- I think it was The Watsons Go To Birmingham 1963, or some book like that, anyway -- there's a scene where the northern African-American kids encounter "no coloreds allowed" signs for the first time, and it's a much more visible and overt symbol of racism than they've ever encountered in the north, where they were mostly too young to notice it. And that interaction registered for me in a much more immediate and visceral way for having had this experience.
*Clarification after talking to my mother: The conference had called for dialogue around this issue, and a group from this church had come to visit us against the wishes of their pastor. They did not agree, but there was dialogue. Our pastor felt very strongly that someone from our church should visit them, and upon discovering that we would be vacationing in this area, charged my parents to do so.
**Romans 1:26-27, if you're curious. According to the English Standard Version, ". . . For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error."
***It could have been, too. Mom and dad used the payphone at the bottom of the mountain multiple times in the week preceding to try to call the church office and figure out when services were. They never got an answer but left messages saying we were coming.
^In Emperor Mage, when she talks about an attitude of decided unwelcome? Yes, that. Exactly.
