Episcopal priest sues to repeal anti- gay measure. The Rev. Susan Hrostowski (left) and Kathryn Garner, who are suing to repeal the “religious freedom” law. Susan Hrostowski, suing June 1. LGBT rights in Mississippi felt like d. It allows business owners, based upon their religious beliefs, to refuse service to LGBT persons. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who signed the measure into law April 5 saying it was intended to prevent religious discrimination, is named in the lawsuit, along with other state officials. Ucanews.com is the most trusted independent Catholic news source from Asia. It reports news from, about and of interest to the Church in Asia. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. Which in Coptic signifies a revealer.
The law is set to go into effect July 1. It is among a recent spate of laws involving religious beliefs but considered by some as contrary to Christian values. Another is a controversial “guns in churches” law that allows congregations to train and provide armed security teams during worship. That law took effect April 1. Bryant signed it. Controversial law said . That’s unconstitutional.“They have passed laws that allow discrimination based on a very specific type of religious perspective that is antithetical to my own and many other people’s. As an Episcopalian, we follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, chiefly to love one another as he loved us. That’s the perspective I’m coming from.”Among other things, the law states that “marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman” and that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a union. And that “male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”Based on those beliefs, according to the law, social workers, public employees, and a wide range of businesses can refuse service to the LGBT community. Mississippi Bishop Brian Seage said the law “codifies discrimination” by allowing businesses to treat one segment of the population differently.“For example, if an LGBT couple walks into an office to get a marriage license, they don’t have to offer them one, but they do have to provide someone else who can,” Seage said. In a PBS interview Seage called the “religious freedom” law “unnecessary and . Ann Whitaker, associate rector of St. Peter’s Church in Oxford, along with others have said that while the “guns in churches” law also seems antithetical to Christian values of peacemaking and reconciliation, it came on the heels of the “religious freedom” measure and, consequently has received less immediate attention.“I don’t want to be a pistol- packing priest and I don’t think any of my colleagues in the state want that either,” said Whitaker. Even though she recalled having “a gun pulled on me in a parish here in Mississippi many years ago. It was very frightening and I was grateful that I was not harmed. We were able to meet the need of this individual without incident – that’s the good thing.”The law, which Gov. Bryant had said was a response to the June 1. Bible study at a Charleston, South Carolina, church. The victims were African American; the shooter, who was white, reportedly said he wanted to start a race war. After some initial discussions, St. Peter’s vestry decided “there was not the necessity here to train anybody or have anybody bring a gun to church,” Whitaker said. And while they have talked about posting . Edward O’Connor, dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Jackson, said he and the vestry also discussed posting signs banning weapons but “how does that prevent people from carrying in guns?”Guns are part of the fabric of the state, located “in the buckle of the Bible Belt. The image that sparked the most outrage was that when the governor signed the bill, he did it with a . Bible. It was just disrespectful.”Suzanne Pepper, who is chair of the diocesan Committee with LGBT Persons, called “the fact that anyone can go into a church with a gun, it’s just shameful and it’s dangerous. Guns are a deeply rooted Southern tradition but you still should not endorse someone carrying a gun in church.”Divisiveness: A new kind of . It’s like our community needs love and compassion and understanding and healing.”O’Connor agreed. He asked for prayers for the state, “prayers that we can come to the table with open hearts and open minds and know that we are not alone. We are changed by the narrative of each other’s lives; we need to hear them and learn from one another.”But the laws have also fueled a divisiveness and lack of respectful public discourse, he said.“Many of our Protestant sisters and brothers whose reading of Scripture is different than ours . We’re scratching our heads. It feels a lot like the Jim Crow South,” O’Connor said, referring to former laws segregating races. The reality also is that Mississippi Episcopalians are a very diverse group. Andrew’s Cathedral and other churches who are adamantly opposed to the law and there are others who are absolutely for it. I have wonderful fine people who leave church on Sunday and go eat lunch with dear friends of 4. Christianity – there’s always been that tension.”While acknowledging “there is some grace that has been spent trying to keep people at the table and teach that Episcopal- Anglican model of via media, that we can profoundly disagree but still be called to break bread together at the table.”He added that, “what we most want is civil, kind, respectful discourse, and we’re not finding it.”In the meantime, he is working with grass- roots organizations and community organizers, attempting to forge a way forward and “gathering people together as Christians and Jews and whoever to talk about what is right and just with regard to all people in this state.”Pepper agreed. A native Mississippian who moved away but recently returned, she said she had hoped “to be part of a changed Mississippi, or that I could be part of the change.”But she compares “what I see happening in the LGBT movement to what was happening in the Civil Rights Movement that I saw as a young child. It reminds me of that, all that hate.“Now, with the law, people can look at you and say, . That’s just not what ought to be happening in the year 2. Hrostowski is a social work professor and vicar of St. Elizabeth’s Church in Collins, where the congregation dismisses the “guns in churches” law as also antithetical to Christianity. She says she and Garner will continue to work for LGBT rights in Mississippi.“I certainly hope to gain the repeal of this law,” she said. One thing that makes me very angry is that people who espouse that kind of Christianity . The world needs the Episcopal Church right now.”– The Rev. Pat Mc. Caughan is a correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.
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