Now is the time to pay attention, get involved, and work together to turn the tide.

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Democrats are hoping that an increasingly diverse U.S. electorate can deliver them the White House in 2020, and California Sen. Kamala Harris made that clear in an opening statement criticizing President Donald Trump for using “hate, intimidation [and] fear” to divide the country and distract from his “failed policies.”

The American people, she continued, “know that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us, regardless of our race, where we live, or the party with which we’re registered to vote.”

South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg of Indiana is not the first openly gay presidential candidate – that would be 2012 Republican candidate Fred Karger, who never made a debate stage – but his candid description of his struggle deciding to come out in 2015 may have been the first for a nationally televised debate.

In a socially conservative community, he said, “I had to wonder whether just acknowledging who I was was going to be the ultimate career-ending professional setback.”

“You only get to live one life,” he said he decided, “and I was not interested in not knowing what it was like to be in love any longer.”

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2019/0913/Democratic-debate-The-biggest-winner-was-clear-from-the-stage

 

September 20, 2019

Dear Rob,

Tonight, we will make history in Iowa.  GLAAD is partnering with The Advocate, One Iowa, and The Gazette to host the first 2020 Presidential Forum focused exclusively on topics that affect the LGBTQ community.

Watch the live stream here starting at 7:00 p.m. CT.

As the world watches, we will bring the issues that matter to LGBTQ and ally voters to the forefront of this race for the first time – issues like employment nondiscrimination, housing, conversion therapy, and the rise of hate and violence against LGBTQ people – especially trans women of color.

I don’t need to tell you at this point how bad Donald Trump has been for our community. Three years. 125 attacks against our community in policy and rhetoric. And this is our first chance to hear from the other 2020 candidates how they will reverse the travesties of this Administration and put us back on a path to full equality and acceptance.

Be sure to tune in tonight and get active on social using the hashtag #LGBTQForum. Now is the time to pay attention, get involved, and work together to turn the tide.

And it starts tonight in Iowa.

In solidarity,

Zeke Stokes
GLAAD Chief Programs Officer

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Expanding Freedom, Equality, and Justice with Mary Baker Eddy, Nelson Mandela, The Christian Science Monitor, and Mark Sappenfield

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“Let us serve instead of rule, knock instead of push at the door of human hearts, and allow to each and every one the same rights and privileges that we claim for ourselves”.

Mary Baker Eddy

(Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 303).

 

Supporting that commitment to expanding freedom, equality, and justice is the most important thing the West can do for the world. When done honestly, the benefits far outweigh the cost.

The Christian Science Monitor

 

Echoing Oprah’s keynote speech at the opening of the Statue of Liberty Museum in New York this past May, “We live in divisive times, but I think it’s only fitting that at this critical moment, we remember that the one idea that sustains the soul of America above all others is freedom.” For that reason, we must put our differences aside, advocate for each other’s basic human rights, and become better allies.
But what is allyship to begin with? Merriam-Webster defines the word ally as “a sovereign or state associated with another by treaty or league.” That is true, however, there’s one definition that accurately fits what we’re discussing: “One that is associated with another as a helper: a person or group that provides assistance and support in an ongoing effort, activity, or struggle.”
Social media is a wonderful tool for building community, educating others, and uniting marginalized groups without support systems. But it also makes it easy for allies to speak on behalf of the LGBTQ community, despite not having the same struggles.
Francisco Pallarés-Santiago – June 27, 2019

https://www.oprahmag.com/life/relationships-love/a28159555/how-to-be-lgbtq-ally/

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THANK YOU NELSON MANDELA

06 December 2013
mambagirl
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He [Mandela] gave an assurance that gay and lesbian people are part of the oppressed in South Africa, and therefore there was no way he would reject them,” said Nkoli.

Mandela affirmed our right to constitutional protection, a world first, in one of his two inauguration speeches in Cape Town on 9 May 1994.

He said that he believed that South Africa could become “a constitutional, democratic, political order in which, regardless of colour, gender, religion, political opinion or sexual orientation, the law will provide for the equal protection of all citizens”.

In December 1994, Mandela appointed Edwin Cameron, an openly gay HIV positive man to the High Court and called him “One of South Africa’s new heroes”. Cameron went on to become a Constitutional Court judge.

The struggle for equality for all came to fruition when President Nelson Mandela signed the final Constitution, and its groundbreaking Section Nine protection of people from unfair discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, into to law on 10 December 1996.

This constitutional equality led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality, full equality under the law and South Africa leading Africa and many other nations by legalising same-sex marriage.

Mandela’s understanding of human rights and equality as being inseparable from the rights of LGBTI people went on to make him an icon for gays and lesbians around the world.

This vision is encapsulated in one of Mandela’s famous quotes:

“I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity”

That quote was inscribed in a bronze plaque supporting same-sex marriage rights unveiled by the West Hollywood City Council in California in 2009.

That same year, a portrait of Nelson Mandela was included in an exhibition of Gay Icons at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Mandela’s powerful legacy will outlive us all. His vision of a world in which all people are universally equal and of immeasurable value will remain an inspiration and an ideal for LGBTI people for generations to come.

If we truly wish to honour this remarkable man we must each work to ensure that Mandela’s dream lives beyond the laws, words and examples he left us. That it becomes a reality for all those who remain victims of discrimination, hate and inequality. He would have wanted – and expected – no less.

Goodbye Tata. And thank you. We will not forget.

http://www.mambagirl.com/article.asp?

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Does responsibility extend beyond borders?

The Monitor hosted two journalists through the Mandela Washington Fellowship; it was a reminder of the connection the Monitor had with Nelson Mandela.

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Peter Main/The Christian Science Monitor/File
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Nelson Mandela (center) visits the Christian Science Center in 1990. A fellowship named for him brings African professionals to the U.S.
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I wish all of you could have met Chol Duang and Zikhona Miso.

The two came to The Christian Science Monitor’s offices last month as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a six-week leadership program for African participants run by the U.S. State Department. The visit was meaningful simply for the relation that the Monitor had to Nelson Mandela, who read the Monitor while imprisoned in South Africa and visited our headquarters the year he was freed. But it was even more meaningful for the time some of us shared with Mr. Duang and Ms. Miso.

These two journalists – from South Sudan and South Africa, respectively – brought with them the best hopes of the profession. They want to make the lives of their fellow citizens better. They want to be a force for honesty and compassion and fairness that moves their countries forward. And they came here to fuel that hope.

Today, programs like the Mandela Washington Fellowship can be a touchy subject. Trends ebb and flow, but at the moment, Western nations are being much more cautious about any responsibilities to people other than their own citizens. Think Brexit and “America First.” President Donald Trump has often asserted that many countries that receive foreign aid do “nothing for us.”

To be sure, there is a robust debate to have around foreign aid. As a reporter in Afghanistan, I saw examples of Western aid workers throwing money at a problem from behind the high walls of a Kabul compound rather than doing the necessary – but more dangerous – work of engaging with communities to build real stability and safety. That inefficiency is part of the skepticism.

But it’s equally important to meet Mr. Duang and Ms. Miso and see plainly the good that countries can do beyond their own citizens. The genius of the Western world during the past 70 years is that, at its best, it promoted values that have demonstrably helped to spread wealth, freedom, liberty, and equality across the world. That expansion has absolutely been in the West’s interests, from enlarging influence to creating new markets for products. But the work is far from done. Who will continue to expand these mutually beneficial values?

Mr. Duang and Ms. Miso, to name two.

The fellowship brings together “the best of Africa,” says Mr. Duang, a leading television news reporter. And through the program, participants are seeing the best of America in many ways – including the conviction that in helping Africa reach its potential, America is strengthening itself.

“There are so many things to take home and to apply,” Mr. Duang says.

For Ms. Miso, also a broadcast journalist, there’s no question that “the U.S. gains 10 times more than it puts in.”

“The people in this program are game changers,” she says. “The resilience and commitment is amazing.”

Supporting that commitment to expanding freedom, equality, and justice is the most important thing the West can do for the world. When done honestly, the benefits far outweigh the cost.

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/upfront-blog/2019/0804/Does-responsibility-extend-beyond-borders

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September 11, 2019

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Norma Molina, of San Antonio, Texas, leaves flowers by the names of firefighters from Engine 33 on Monday at the September 11 Memorial in New York. Her boyfriend, Robert Edward Evans, a member of Engine 33, was killed in the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

Norma Molina, of San Antonio, Texas, leaves flowers by the names of firefighters from Engine 33 on Monday at the September 11 Memorial in New York. Her boyfriend, Robert Edward Evans, a member of Engine 33, was killed in the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

Love that shields you

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Your God Is There

JOSEPHINE HAWKS

From the October 2, 1937 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

Your God is there, where dangers seem encircling;
They are but dust of dreams that have no place
In Mind’s infinitude and Love’s protection,
Wherein you dwell in safety, beauty, grace.

Your God is there, where wanton ill seems lurking
To snatch your peace or fell you low in pain.
Such threats are proved unauthorized and empty,
For God is Love: His power the only reign.

Your God is there, though slander seem to flay you.
The barbs of hatred cannot stay the might
He gives to you through prayer and consecration,
And Love that shields you in a robe of right.

Your God is there, where lack would seem to bind you.
It cannot fetter life, in good complete;
For all is yours by birthright of abundance
In Spirit’s freedom, full and grand and sweet.

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*Logo below was a gift from my student in Oaxaca, Mexico.  “Use it for goodness.”

Please Forgive Me -Conversion therapy organization founder comes out as gay

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C.S.B and former editor of the CSPS made the following comment due to discredited reparative therapy in 1986: “Several articles and editorials have been written explaining why homosexuals cannot be admitted to membership.  One of these I wrote myself, the title: “Homosexuality Can Be Healed.”  All I can say in defense of myself for writing it is that it was based on information I thought was authentic, but which later was disproved …. If I were to write another article on the subject now, I would probably entitle it, “We’re ALL God’s Children.”

 

  • Note – Above quote not part of article below

 

Conversion therapy organization founder comes out as gay: ‘Please forgive me’

Joshua Bote, USA TODAY

 

The man who founded Hope for Wholeness, one of the most prominent conversion therapy groups in the United States, has come out as gay.

McKrae Game, the founder of the South Carolina-based conversion therapy ministry Hope for Wholeness, came out as gay this summer, nearly two years after being fired from the organization he founded.

Game said in an interview with The Post and Courier published Friday that his organization, founded nearly 20 years ago, “harmed generations of people.” He was ousted by the organization’s board of directors in November 2017.

He recounted his experiences as a conversion therapy minister in a Facebook post published Aug. 25. “Please forgive me!” the post began.

“I certainly regret where I caused harm. I know that creating the organization that still lives was in a large way causing harm,” he continued. “People reported to attempt suicide because of me and these teachings and ideals. I told people they were going to Hell if they didn’t stop, and these were professing Christians!”

The organization operates across at least fifteen states. Hope for Wholeness did not respond to multiple requests for comment from USA TODAY.

“Conversion therapy is not just a lie, but it’s very harmful,” Game told The Post and Courier.

Game, now 51, is one of several former conversion therapy advocates who have come out as LGBTQ and condemned the practice of conversion therapy.

More than a dozen states have banned gay conversion therapy, which seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The practice has been repeatedly condemned by the American Psychological Association.

Maine is the latest state to prohibit the practice, becoming the seventeenth state to do so in May.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Joshua Bote on Twitter: @joshua_bote

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/04/mckrae-game-founder-conversion-therapy-group-comes-out-gay/2210789001/

 

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The Pilate Assumption

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“If you launch your bark upon the ever-agitated but healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms.
Your good will be evil spoken of.  This is the cross.  Take it up and bear it, for through it you win and wear the crown.  Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.”

Mary Baker Eddy

Science and Health, p. 254, 27-32

 

The Pilate assumption

By NATHAN A. TALBOT

From the April 6, 1981 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

The moment must have been tense, even dramatic. Christ Jesus didn’t respond to his interrogator. Pilate pressed him: “Speakest thou not unto me?  knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” With unshaken confidence Jesus answered, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.”1

One can hardly read of such episodes leading to the crucifixion without being deeply touched. Pilate’s assumption that he could determine Jesus’ fate; Jesus’ certainty that God alone was controlling his destiny: these two views have implications way beyond that significant event when those two men faced each other.

The Pilate assumption challenges us even today. And it threatened people long before Jesus’ time. What Pilate said symbolized a basic mortal fallacy: the belief that people, places, events, can exercise final control over our lives. Moses, in preparing to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, must have felt the arrogance of the Pilate assumption in the confrontation with Pharaoh; Elijah felt it with Jezebel; the three young Hebrews with King Nebuchadnezzar and his fiery furnace.

And what about events in your own life? Is there a Pilate speaking to you, warning of its control over your destiny? Perhaps a medical verdict? Unemployment statistics? A domineering acquaintance? If so, surrender to the Christ just as Jesus did. Accepting our native Christliness, we will find the conviction welling up in us, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.”

This is a different kind of prayer from one in which we attempt to brush away the Pilate confronting us—or justify ourselves before him. Perhaps Jesus could have answered Pilate so convincingly that the governor would simply have released him. The resurrection would have been lost to the world. Some of our own challenges (modest in comparison) may impel a pleading to change the events; yet they may call more for a deep recognition that nothing in the development of our career is beyond God’s authority.

Does this mean that we simply must accept whatever happens as God’s will—suffering, limitation, inharmony? Surely not. It means rather that we so thoroughly deepen our conviction of God’s reign in our affairs that all actions are drawn into conformity with His plan. Our destiny is never determined by other people, by places or events, when we surrender to the purpose divine Mind has designed for us. Of this omniscient Mind that is God, Mrs. Eddy writes, “He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers.”2

Let’s take an example. Suppose a foreman on the job is obstructing our progress. Maybe he or she has been unfair, heavy-handed, even antagonistic. Perhaps we have prayed earnestly to be moved to another position—or better yet that the obnoxious foreman be moved! And still no solution. Could it be that in this case our answer just isn’t in that kind of prayer? In Science we do not pray for humanly outlined solutions; we pray to know divine Mind’s all power and intelligent government of man. Think of what it would mean to approach this challenge more from the standpoint, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.”

Such a perspective may seem at first almost untenable. “How could this person, who is doing something so wrong, be impelled by God?” you wonder. But that’s not the point. Jesus wasn’t marveling over some sort of spiritually inspired action on Pilate’s part. He was challenging the assumption that anyone could stand in the way of his divinely impelled purpose. Jesus had an overriding conviction that nothing, absolutely nothing, could block the path that God was mapping out for him. And on that basis he saw that even those who thought they were thwarting his purpose could only contribute to his full demonstration of immortal Life.

Today the Pilate assumption would try to operate in a variety of ways. Our response is crucial. Most people accept the assumption. Then try to battle this supposed authority. Yet the Christly approach is to reject the assumption in the first place; and know God’s omnipotence, His unimpaired command, with such conviction and clarity that the actions and attitudes of others actually push us forward rather than defeat or frustrate us.

The only way we can truly challenge the Pilate assumption, effectively and permanently, is through a discernment of where we are really going. If we are just wandering along through human experience, there will be plenty of times when various Pilates will claim power to crucify or release us.

But if we realize we’re moving directly and specifically toward an understanding that man is God’s perfect idea, unflawed by mortality, then we won’t be held in the grip of a false assumption. Jesus knew where he was going. Pilate didn’t stop him. The crucifixion didn’t stop him. He perceived that all those events were speeding his resurrection—his emergence from the belief of substance and life in matter. Because Jesus saw God’s controlling hand in every aspect of his life, the ascension itself awaited him.

We too can recognize God’s presence leading our lives. And whatever would oppose our progress will be overturned; it will become a support. We will experience more of the resurrection; and eventually our ascension.

NATHAN A. TALBOT

1John 19:10, 11.↑

2Unity of Good,pp. 3-4
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The immeasurable love of Love Herself with Laura Moliter

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“You have received the ‘Spirit of full acceptance,’ enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned…For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, ‘You are God’s beloved child!’” (Romans 8: 15, 16, The Passion Translation)

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What a tender assurance! Here are the facts of your heritage—greater, deeper, more powerful that blood lines and genealogy, physiology or background.
You are of the family of God. You are enfolded in this absolute Truth. God, Love Herself, has created you and you remain Her child perpetually. This reality is not merely a nice idea, either. We are reminded here that God’s faithful ever-presence, loving care, and fathering goodness, are felt.
This is the Holy Spirit, that very expression of those qualities of God right where we are, in a way that we can hear, feel, and understand. This tender whisper to our very being is that promise to our heart that we will never be alone, that we will always be wanted, belong, and be accepted and loved wit
Laura Moliter, Divine Purpose Coach and Spiritual Activist
www.beingfreenow.com
https://www.facebook.com/poeticandpowerfulliving/

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Every step that breaks a limitation is a giant leap with Virginia Harris, C.S.B.

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When does a small step become a Giant Leap?

22nd Jul 2019

Amazing. The distance of 50 years just can’t diminish the phenomenal achievement of landing men on the moon!

The past few weeks have been full of accounts of the myriad technological advancements as well as the thousands of individual stories of the men and women who worked together – in the US and the world! – in this momentous accomplishment. The final episode may have been videos of the three men and a lunar module, but there were countless teams pushing the mental boundaries of what was known and accepted as science at the time. “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”

In 2019 the moon landing remains a legendary benchmark for the possibilities of humanity to break limitations, expand beyond the known to the unknown, and explore what seems not only impractical but impossible. And demonstrate a new standard of right thinking.

Breaking limitations of any kind – small step or giant leap – always come with rewards: universal changes, large and small, for the progress of all. History books can’t possibly contain all the remarkable steps and leaps forward by individuals – but all of us stand on their shoulders and enjoy the accomplishments they have given to humanity.

One individual scientist who has changed my life and millions of others is Mary Baker Eddy. Through her own exploration, experiments and discoveries, she was able to confidently challenge conventional thinking about the treatment of disease. Eddy’s realization that God or Mind is the all and only basis of intelligent life changes everything about what is assumed to constitute existence.

I know because this basis of life, a spiritual not material basis, changed my life. After a near-fatal car accident, I was rushed to a hospital. But there were limitations to the conventional medical treatment of the day. For my family, there was no other choice available to break through the fear of the hospital staff, that the injuries were potentially fatal, than to rely on the Science of divine Love to heal the physical condition. (Go here for the full account.) And that is what happened.

In her bookScience and Health, Eddy writes, “Mind’s control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science.”

Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, even fear of death has frequently kept mankind rooted to the self-limiting, time-honored systems of “what has been done before.”

But not the thinkers – they refuse to be limited! We live in a world where when just one person has the courage to think differently and approach a seemingly intransigent problem in an unconventional way millions can be impacted. This is what Mary Baker Eddy did in her many steps forward over the years, and eventually made a giant leap in reforming medicine, religion and science for the healing benefit of multiple generations.

It’s not a surprise, then, that Eddy challenged all the readers of her book, “The time for thinkers has come.” One small step of an individual has the potential to be a giant leap for many in helping and healing. Because there is no small step of progress that is insignificant in the promise and potential of humanity.

Every step that breaks a limitation is a giant leap!

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Photos below:  Jean L. Widell (grandmother & Journal Listed, CS Practitioner) plus photos from Longyear Fall Tour of Mrs. Eddy’s earlier homes.

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The one who “turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God.” – Gratitude

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On page 3 of the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs. Eddy asks: “Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.”

 

GRATITUDE

VERONICA VIOLET PARK

Excerpt below from the June 17, 1950 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

 

In the Manual of The Mother Church Mary Baker Eddy reminds us that “gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years” (Art. XVII, Sect. 2). A dictionary definition of gratitude is “a sense of appreciation of favors received, … thankfulness.” Surely no people have greater cause for gratitude than Christian Scientists, for Christian Science gives them a demonstrable understanding of God. Christians have always thought of God as Father, but He revealed Himself to Mrs. Eddy as also Mother. Thus the warmth and tenderness, as well as the strength and shelter, of our one real Parent are unfolded to us. Yes, God is our one real Parent! Man has always been, is now, and will always be God’s reflection and expression; therefore man is inseparable from God, and our gratitude for this revelation brings ever greater unfoldment of it.

In the seventeenth chapter of Luke we read of Jesus’ instantaneous healing of ten lepers. Through his clear understanding of man’s perfection and oneness with his Father-Mother God all ten received release from this seemingly dread disease. But it is apparent that the one who “turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God” in acknowledging the source of his healing must have understood the Christ, Truth, better than the nine.

If our daily living appears barren, cheerless, and unsatisfying, it may be because it lacks an abundance of gratitude. It has well been said that gratitude is the open door of healing. Why? Because no suggestion of evil, or fear of it, can find lodgment where there is a joyous acknowledgment of good. And as we open our hearts to this lovely quality, we find it invariably accompanied by joy and peace.

The writer and a member of her family once stayed in a country district where it was very difficult to get in touch with a practitioner. Both members of the family appeared to be ill. The writer worked earnestly in Science to awaken herself from this dream, seemingly without result. During the night she continued to thank her Father-Mother God that through the revelation of Science she knew that no such argument could ever be real or even happening in divine Love’s allness. By morning both were not only well but buoyant, again proving the liberating power of gratitude for His blessings.

There may be occasions when one is tempted to feel gratitude would be easy and spontaneous if only the healing were manifested. It is well then to remember that the only change ever needed is one of thought, and that Christ Jesus before raising Lazarus said: “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hast heard me always.” Out of his deep spiritual understanding his gratitude rose to the zenith of praise to light our paths and point the way.

Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty. ~ Christian Science Hymnal

4th of July with Virginia Harris, C.S.B.

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This Freedom Is Really Big.

30th Jun 2019

“Citizens of the world, accept the “glorious liberty of the children of God,” and be free! This is your divine right.” ~ Mary Baker Eddy

How is it that a 19th century woman, a self-described “native of New Hampshire, a child of the Republic, a Daughter of the Revolution” – a woman clearly filled with patriotic pride – could break free of national focus and embrace the entire world in a rallying cry for freedom?

Because humanity was Mary Baker Eddy’s transcending and forever focus. In everything she suffered to accomplish, it was for the bettermentof humanity, not personal achievement. She was Author, Healer, Teacher, Reformer, Publisher and Businesswoman. All this before she founded a church organization of activities to communicate across the globe her powerful and effective ideas on gaining freedom from every painful human condition.

What Eddy revealed in her book, Science and Health, and proved by healing in her own life is that there can be only one source of Life, God who creates and governs every function of the universe, with love and goodness. The Science of her system of spiritual healing is completely described so that anyone can heal themselves of pain and suffering, and turn to their neighbor with love and confidence and heal them too. Anyone, everyone – all in one infinite harmonious whole.

This is truly big. So when you think about it, in addition to proclaiming freedom from pain and sickness, Eddy was also proclaiming another divine freedom: the inherent ability of each one of us to do as she did, to acknowledge and welcome the global-everyone in God’s goodness and unconditional love.

A friend of mine who lives and works in New York City loves how the ideas in Science and Health have made a difference in his life. Several months ago he realized that he should listen more to what friends and acquaintances are dealing with in their lives…maybe some ideas in the book could help them and he should be open to sharing. This has led to surprising and comforting discussions, some of which have continued.

The other day, he was on his way out the door to visit a friend and decided to pop a Science and Health into his backpack. On the crowded subway, a disheveled person, evidently homeless, asked my friend for some money. He replied, “I don’t have any money to give you but I do have something that I would like to share because I have been thinking about what it means.” He pulled out his book and opened to the first page, “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.” The man asked him to read it again. Then the man read it. My friend said, “What do you think it means?” The man thought and replied, “You want to take steps leading upwards, not steps leading downward.” “Yes,” my friend replied. “I think so too.” What neighborly affection!

Now then, what will you do with this huge freedom that includes all global citizens in your loving embrace?

“Who should care for everybody? It is enough, say they, to care for a few. Yet the good done, and the love that foresees more to do, stimulate philanthropy and are an ever-present reward.” ~ Mary Baker Eddy

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Rainbow Flag, Usa And Lgbt, Two Flags Together, Pride

 

 

 

Recipe for Success with Laura Moliter

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“Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.”

(Proverbs 16: 3, Amplified Bible Classic Edition)

e-inspire
Laura Moliter
June 17th, 2019
Here’s a beautiful recipe for success and satisfaction. As we forge ahead on the work we feel called to do or required to accomplish, we have support and guidance at the ready.
We can turn to God. We can release our worries to Him and entrust the business of our jobs and our lives to this loving Mind Who knows us and His purpose for us. As we relinquish the personal sense of control, ingenuity, ego, and fear, we are humbly prepared to be lifted up, directed, provided with all that is needed.
When we commit our works to God, to good, to Truth, we align ourselves with the Almighty intention, and this empowers us. This oneness with God provides us with the inspiration and information that brings progress, achievement, and a sense of rightness both for ourselves and for others as well.
When our plans yield to God’s true intent, and our motives are in tune with His goodness, we come into natural harmony with a Life that is loving, peaceful, and productive!
Laura Moliter, Divine Purpose Coach and Spiritual Activist

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Father’s Day 2019 with Virginia Harris, C.S.B.

Posted on by seekeroftruthrfs

The Good Dad

14th Jun 2019

In my family of three sons, all dads, I have a best-view, ring-side seat to seeing all the nurturing and enriching qualities of fatherhood-in-action! On any given day, each dad expresses what is needed at the moment of essential care-giving to his child: a word of tender encouragement when disappointed, wise counsel if uncertain or confused, and sometimes a firm corrective if lost in bad decisions – all coming from a big heart of constant, awesomely-felt, unconditional love.

It’s tempting sometimes to get caught up in an unhappy situation, whether it is an angry outburst or serious mistake. But here is what I know: The good in the father always sees the good in the child – the good son and daughter – right in front of him, despite the temporary drama.

Dads see through the smoke screen or fog to affirm what they know in their sincere hearts who the son or daughter really is: unchanged perfection. Focused on the good and true keeps the dad following his spiritual compass, enabling him to course-correct and bring out the unblemished identity of his loved child.

The good dad mirrors what Father-Mother Love does for all of us each day. And if there is no dad, we all have the one true Father – the model to guide us, the provider to sustain us and the protector to keep us safe. There is no flawed child ever because there is never a moment of separation from the divinely perfect and good Creator and Parent, the Cause of every good life-effect. Can a cause not have a direct effect? Or could an effect everspin off crazily and independently from its cause? Inconceivable!

As Deuteronomy describes Father-Mother’s relationship to its child:

“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings…”

It’s the good dad who sees his child as the divine Father-Mother sees the child: as the apple – the reflection – of his eye.

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God’s mothering message: ‘He’s with Me’

Posted on by seekeroftruthrfs

 

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2019

God’s mothering message: ‘He’s with Me’

Excerpt below by Kim Crooks Korinek

rom the May 6, 2019 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

 

At 4 a.m. I had gotten a phone call from the school saying that my son was missing and had last been seen 14 hours earlier wearing a hoodie and shorts and going out for a “quick” run. The temperature that night was near freezing, and the campus abuts thousands of acres of wilderness area. My husband was able to get there immediately, but I was a four-hour drive away on a business trip. I knew I would spend all that driving time in deep and earnest prayer.

A friend kept in touch, offering her prayerful support on the way. “Life is irresistible,” she shared. “Of course!” I thought, knowing that God is Life, the source of everyone’s life. We aren’t fluctuating between lost and found, fear and hope, death and life. Life is irresistible. Life is, right now, complete and intact. We are always “found” because we are always in God’s care. We can never be lost.

I trusted my son’s spiritual sense—his capacity to listen for right ideas and act wisely—and I knew that nothing could hinder that capacity. I recognized that his intelligence is sourced in the ever-active, exacting influence of divine Mind. He could never be separated from God. He is naturally led by Spirit, God, in the way that would keep him safe and protected. Nothing could stop him from doing the right thing!

The law of God—that spiritual force that governs all—influences the thought of all that God creates, whether we are conscious of this or not. So whether or not my son was praying and acknowledging what was spiritually true, as I was, the law of God, Love, was just as present and operative spiritually as the law of gravity was operating humanly. Mary Baker Eddy writes about this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Truth has a healing effect, even when not fully understood” (p. 152).

God is the omnipresent Parent and is never separate from His children.

My prayer had quieted me and prepared me to hear God’s message, as God is always communicating to us. “He’s with Me” broke that hypnotic hold of fear and put me on a firm foundation. I knew the comfort that washed over me came from the same source that was guarding and guiding my son. If I could feel this steady comfort and security in the midst of so many unknowns, so could he. I later came across these ideas from Mrs. Eddy that express so much of what I felt during this time: “Thus founded upon the rock of Christ, when storm and tempest beat against this sure foundation, you, safely sheltered in the strong tower of hope, faith, and Love, are God’s nestlings; and He will hide you in His feathers till the storm has passed. Into His haven of Soul there enters no element of earth to cast out angels, to silence the right intuition which guides you safely home” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 152).

And my son was guided safely home. His calm confidence, resourcefulness, and wise actions got him through that cold night. And early the next morning, ten miles away, he found his way out to a road, flagged down a car, and got to the campus at the same time I did. His legs were all scratched up, his hoodie was torn, he was cold and hungry, but he was smiling.

I learned a powerful lesson on parenting that day. I saw the futility of worry and the need to lift our thought above the feeling that sometimes, as parents, we are helpless to help our children. We are never helpless. We help our children best when we are seeing that their Father-Mother God is always available to them, always communicating to His children. We help them best when we see them as God created them: intelligent, capable, whole, unique, and loved. Parenting is not about the efforts of one human mind to control or manage another. In proportion as our parenting is a reflection of God’s parenting, we are free to witness the child of God’s creating—to see each of God’s children uniquely reflecting the infinite facets of divine Truth, Life, and Love. Our enduring affection for them can become free of worry, outlining, and limiting and false expectations as we become a clearer reflection of divine Love’s parenting.

Kim Crooks Korinek
Guest Editorial Writer

 

https://www.christianscience.com/christian-healing-today/daily-lift/gods-mothering-message-hes-with-me?

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Mar Baker Eddy, Maine, Ellen DeGeneres, and Pete Buttigieg – “injure no man, but to bless all mankind”

Posted on by seekeroftruthrfs

“injure no man, but to bless all mankind”

(Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353),

 

 

 

POLITICS

Maine Bans Conversion Therapy For LGBTQ Youth

Gov. Janet Mills said the “harmful, widely discredited practice” has “no place” in her state while signing the bill into law.
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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine banned gay conversion therapy for minors on Wednesday, joining more than a dozen other states that have outlawed the controversial practice.

 

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed the bill Wednesday, and it will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns next month.

onversion therapy aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the new law, professionals, including school psychologists, pharmacy technicians and social workers, who have advertised, offered or administered conversion therapy to a child could face discipline from licensing boards.

 

Maine joins 16 other states and the District of Columbia that have banned the practice. Supporters decry it as a harmful and note the American Psychological Association opposes the therapy.

 

“Conversion therapy is a harmful, widely discredited practice that has no place in Maine,” Mills said. “By signing this bill into law today, we send an unequivocal message to young LGBTQ people in Maine and across the country: We stand with you, we support you, and we will always defend your right to be who you are.”

 

A law against conversion therapy was signed recently in Massachusetts, while states including North Carolina are considering such legislation this year.

 

“With this law, Maine is taking seriously its responsibility to ensure youth and parents who seek support are not subjected to fraudulent and dangerous practices under the guise of therapy,” said Mary Bonauto, the Civil Rights Project director for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders.

 

Maine’s former Republican governor vetoed a similar measure last year, but the bill has gained momentum this year under a Democratic-led Legislature. Republicans argued that the bill was unnecessary, while also contending that it would prevent parents from seeking religious counselors for their children.

 

“There have not been any recorded cases of this happening in Maine,” said state House Republicans spokesman John Bott.

 

Republicans failed to pass an amendment to exclude talk therapy and counseling from counting as conversion therapy.

 

Maine’s law exempts treatment that offers acceptance, support and understanding while being neutral on sexual orientation and gender identity.

 

Equal Rights with Mary Baker Eddy

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“Let us serve instead of rule, knock instead of push at the door of human hearts, and allow to each and every one the same rights and privileges that we claim for ourselves”.

Mary Baker Eddy

(Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 303).

 

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A mistaken apology for slavery

New Jersey’s ‘profound regret’ trivializes an important issue.

  • By Mackubin Thomas Owens
Newport, R.I.
 

This week, New Jersey became the first Northern state to apologize for slavery. The resolution expresses “profound regret … for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in the United States….”

Slavery is indeed a terrible stain on America and there seems to be no harm in issuing such an apology. But New Jersey’s act trivializes an important issue and contributes to a misunderstanding of the principles upon which the United States was founded.

The fact is that no contrition today can match the eloquence – and atonement – represented by the many “honored dead” who “gave the last full measure of devotion” during the Civil War. Nor can it match the healing rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln.

New Jersey’s apology seems predicated on the common notion that America’s founding – and its history ever since – is unjust and racist. To be sure, there have been, and are now, far too many racist Americans, and, for a long time, US laws and policies perpetuated the inequality of the races. But the crucial, if rarely recognized, fact is that America’s founding principles repudiate racism and racial injustice.

Indeed, it is possible to criticize slavery only because of the creation of the United States, which was based on revolutionary principles now largely taken for granted. Before 1776, the governing principle of action in both domestic and international affairs was the one attributed to the ancient Athenians: “Questions of justice arise only between equals. As for the rest, the strong do what they will; the weak suffer what they must.” Slavery, which had existed from the dawn of human history, accords with this principle.

The US was founded on different principles: justice and equality. In the words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” The meaning of this famous phrase is that no one person or group has the right to rule another without the consent of the latter.

This understanding of the Declaration is often rejected or ridiculed because many of the Founders held slaves. But these men compromised on slavery policy out of necessity, clearly understanding the contradictions between slavery and the nation’s guiding principles.

As Lincoln scholar Harry Jaffa has written: “It is not wonderful that a nation of slave-holders, upon achieving independence, failed to abolish slavery. What is wonderful, indeed miraculous, is that a nation of slave-holders founded a new nation on the proposition that ‘all men are created equal,’ making the abolition of slavery a moral and political necessity.”

In the 18th century, the Founders could go only so far toward justice. As Lincoln explained: “They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.”
 

Lincoln’s view of the Founders is supported by the most vociferous defenders of slavery, including South Carolina Senator John Calhoun, who said in 1848: “[the proposition “all men are created equal”] as now understood, has become the most false and dangerous of all political errors…. We now begin to experience the danger of admitting so great an error to have a place in the Declaration of Independence.”

Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, asserted in 1861 that the Confederate Constitution would correct the error Calhoun identified. “Our new government,” he said, “is founded upon exactly the opposite idea … that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery … is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Lincoln contended that the Founders believed they had placed the institution of slavery on the road to extinction. But as the tragic events of mid-century were to prove, they were wrong. It took a bloody civil war to extirpate slavery finally, to purify America’s “republican robe.”

At his second inaugural, Lincoln attributed the Civil War to the will of God, “as the woe due to those by whom the offense [of slavery] came…. Fondly do we hope – fervently do we pray – that his mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still must it be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’ “

What apology today could compare with that?
 

New Jersey has expressed regret for its role in slavery. But several years ago, the state rejected a bill that would have required students to recite a portion of the Declaration of Independence. That’s too bad, because the more substantial work of atoning for slavery lies in correcting the false philosophy that supported it – and affirming America’s founding principles that rejected it.

• Mackubin Thomas Owens is professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

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Equality Act 2019 – Historic Vote & Major Milestone – U.S. House has Your Backs

Posted on by seekeroftruthrfs

 

Today’s historic vote is a major milestone for equality and sends a powerful and profound message to LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ youth, that the U.S. House has their backs,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “No one’s rights should depend on which side of a state or city line they live on, and today we took a giant step forward in our journey toward full equality. This historic victory would not have been possible without the millions of LGBTQ people and our allies who organized, mobilized and turned out to elect a pro-equality majority in 2018. Now, we will take our fight to the U.S. Senate and turn up the pressure on Leader McConnell to allow a vote on this crucial legislation. And we won’t slow down in working to turn out the 10 million eligible LGBTQ voters and our millions more allies to elect a pro-equality president in 2020 who will sign the Equality Act into law.

Chad Griffin, HRC President

05/17/2019

 

 

I spent time working on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign at the end of 2015 to help pass the Equality Act which would prohibit discrimination in housing, education and employment against LGBT people in 36 states which currently have no protection. The Equality Act is currently before Congress. 

 
One college student shared with me that he signed up as a member of HRC because he has two moms. He shared that he is a well loved man because of it.

I was touched by one heart breaking story in particular. One woman shared that she had a friend whose son was gay. His family ostracized him for being gay so he left home with no further contact with them and perhaps felt pressured to leave his faith behind too. He died at age 26 from AIDS. Perhaps he died of famished affections due to a lack of love and acceptance from his family and church. But this same women also told me she has a gay son but she loves him unconditionally and their family welcomes him. As a result, he is now happy, healthy and well adjusted which demonstrates that love is the cure as stated by Sir Elton John.

 

 

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Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. (above), shown applauding during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in February, was one of eight House Republicans to vote for the Equality Act on Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

 

 

Equality Act with Mary Baker Eddy, Ellen DeGeneres, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita

Posted on by seekeroftruthrfs

The following from the pen of the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy appeared in the New York World of December 30, 1900. It was written at the request of the editors, and was one of upwards of sixty replies received from prominent thinkers of the world, both men and women, in answer to the query, What is the chief danger, social or political, that confronts the new century?
“To my sense the most imminent dangers confronting the coming century are robbing people of life and liberty under warrant of the Scriptures, the rights of politics and human power, industrial slavery, insufficient freedom of honest competition, ritual, creed, and trusts in place of the Golden Rule: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

From the January 3, 1901 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

This article was later republished in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: My. 266:1-9

 

Premiered May 4, 2019

The actors and husbands discuss how their rights and protections as LGBTQ Americans can change state by state. The Equality Act would add LGBTQ protections to existing civil rights law. Text EQUALITY ACT to 472472 to become a Citizen Co-Sponsor today.

QUEER VOICES

Jesse Tyler Ferguson And His Husband Push For Equality Act In Emotional Video

The “Modern Family” star is pressing for the LGBTQ bill, so no one’s rights are “determined by what side of the state line they’re on.”

Jesse Tyler Ferguson has joined a growing chorus of celebs in pushing for passage of the Equality Act, a comprehensive anti-discrimination bill seen by many as the LGBTQ rights movement’s top legislative priority.

 

The “Modern Family” star and his husband, Justin Mikita, share their experiences in a new video by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a national LGBTQ advocacy group. The video was released first to HuffPost on Friday.

 

“I’m from New Mexico. A lot of my rights are secured there,” Ferguson says in the clip, seen above. “But if I traveled right next door to Arizona, I could be kicked out of a restaurant for being gay. I could be denied a mortgage for being gay. I could be fired from a job for being gay, and all that’s within a matter of miles.”

 

“No one’s rights should be determined by what side of the state line they’re on,” he adds.

 

There is currently no federal law that extends discrimination protections to LGBTQ people nationwide. Anti-discrimination laws vary by state and even locality, a problem the Equality Act aims to fix.

 

The men, who married in 2013, are the latest to join HRC’s “Americans for the Equality Act” campaign. Olympic skater Adam Rippon, singer Shea Diamond and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have also appeared in videos released by the organization, which launched the campaign in February with a clip featuring Sally Field and her son Sam Greisman, who is gay.

 

In an email to HuffPost, HRC President Chad Griffin praised Ferguson and Mikita for being “key voices and partners” in the LGBTQ rights movement, citing their “outspoken visibility” and “longtime activism.”

 

“Both in the arts and in the public eye, Jesse and Justin are breaking down barriers for our community,” Griffin said. “It’s time for Congress to take action and pass legislation providing clear, comprehensive nationwide non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans.”

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jesse-tyler-ferguson-justin-mikita-equality-act_n_5ccc5c39e4b0e4d75731d895

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