For many reasons, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's funny, but for many years my mother has always read this prayer before our family Thankgiving dinner .  We are not a family that says any sort of Grace before meals, and when I asked her about the prayer, she said it was something she saw years ago and felt very moved by it. 

Now those of you who know anything about me, probably figured out I was raised in an observant Jewish home. And my mother was undoubtedly the driving force of observance in our family.

So imagine my surprise when I googled the first line of the poem and discovered that it was written by Samuel F. Pugh, a Christian Minister.  Now to be clear, I wasn't surprised that a Minister had written this poem, but that my Mom had chosen it to be our family poem of thanks. So I asked her if she knew who had written the poem. And she said that she thought it was by a Christian religous leader but that it embodied the social justice of her religous belief better than any other prayer she had read.

So I thought I might share it with you. It seems particularly apt this year.  Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Samuel F. Pugh

---

"O God, when I have food,

help me to remember the hungry;

When I have work,

help me to remember the jobless;

When I have a home,

help me to remember those who have no home at all;

When I am without pain,

help me to remember those who suffer,

And remembering,

help me to destroy my complacency;

bestir my compassion,

and be concerned enough to help;

By word and deed,

those who cry out for what we take for granted.

Amen."

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There is no rational reason to prohibit all homosexuals from adopting children, a Florida appeals court said in a ruling that upheld a gay man's adoption of two young boys.

Florida is the only remaining US state to expressly ban adoption by gay men and women without exception, the ruling noted.

A lower court found in 2008 that the ban violated the state constitution's guarantee of equal treatment. It allowed the plaintiff, a gay man named Frank Martin Gill, to adopt two boys - half-brothers he had been raising as foster children since 2004.

The Florida Department of Children and Families said the lower court erred and the adoption was illegal under the state's 33-year-old ban on adoption by gays.

But the state's Third District Court of Appeal in Miami on Wednesday upheld the lower court's finding that "there is no rational basis for the statute."

The children were removed from their home because of abuse and neglect when one was 4 years old and the other 4 months old, and their parents' rights to the boys were terminated by a court.

When they were placed with Gill, the older boy did not speak, the younger one had an untreated ear infection. Both had ringworm and other medical problems, the court documents said.

'Equally good parents'

Both sides in the case, including state officials, agreed that the children were thriving in the care of Gill and his male partner. The parties in the case also agreed "that gay people and heterosexuals make equally good parents," the appellate ruling noted.

"Given a total ban on adoption by homosexual persons, one might expect that this reflected a legislative judgment that homosexual persons are, as a group, unfit to be parents," the opinion states. "No one in this case has made, or even hinted at, any such argument."

"Finally, a piece of 30-year-old prejudice has been struck from the law books in Florida," said Howard Simon, who heads the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida and represented Gill. "This is good news for the advancement of human rights and the children in Florida's troubled foster-care system."

Gov. Charlie Crist lauded the court ruling as "great" and said he would immediately stop enforcing the ban.

During the original trial, psychologists, social workers, family experts and a clergyman gave conflicting testimony about the development of children raised by gays. DCF presented testimony from two university professors — one an ordained Baptist minister, the other a scholar who acknowledged he was guided largely by the Bible — to bolster the agency's contentions below.

The court found such children were no more likely to be homosexuals themselves, engage in early sexual experimentation, suffer mental illness or domestic violence, or abuse drugs than children raised by heterosexuals. (Ministers and bible scholars are not qualified experts on anything but guilt and opression).

The Department of Children and Families argued that children would have better role models and face less discrimination if they were placed in non-homosexual households, preferably with a husband and wife as the parents. (Yes, DCF was sooo worried about the discrimination these children would face. Guess they don't allow adoptions by Jews, Muslims, or people with disabilities based on this principle.  No? I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.).

But the court said the statute did not accomplish that goal since it allows single people to adopt and it allows gays to serve as foster parents.

"It is difficult to see any rational basis in utilizing homosexual persons as foster parents or guardians on a temporary or permanent basis, while imposing a blanket prohibition on adoption by those same persons," the court said.

Florida also allows people with criminal histories or histories of substance abuse to be considered as adoptive parents on a case-by-case basis, the ruling noted. (Is it any wonder that bad things happend to kids under DCF's watch when they will allow criminals to adopt but not a gay couple).
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Yes the bolding is mine. My snarks are in red.

This is a compelation from several news sources including the Miana Harold, and The St Petersburg Times Of course this will be appealed to the Florida State Supreme Court, but today at least, sanity rules!  Does a happy dance! 

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has come out against health care reform due to the coverage of  abortion, Historically, the Catholic Church in the US has been one of the strongest supporters of universal health care - but they can't seem to acknowledge the fact that abortion is legal in the United States.. And they are willing to abandon millions of Americans who desperately need health care (the already born) in order to protect what they call the unborn.

Likewise, the Church has also taken a much more active role lately in its supporting actions that strips the GLBT community of rights that straight people take for granted. Not just marriage, but again access to health care. Catholic Charities in Washington D.C. is ending health care coverage of spouses because they might have to cover gay spouses as gay marriage became legal in the D.C.. If you think its morally appropriate that everyone have access to health care, why would you care how the person got coverage? They are willing to forgo covering straight spouses to make sure that human beings, who happen to be gay, will not have access to health care.

What next? Will you be dropping coverage for single employees because some of them might be gay? And what about children? Are you going to drop coverage for families because someone's child might be gay. Hello Catholic Charities; are you too stupid to realize that you are already covering lots and lots of gay people whether you acknowledge it or not?

And don't even get me started on the ever increasing child rape scandals.  Let's call it what it is. Members of your male hierarchy raped children. Plain and simple. It is against the law and it is repugnant to any decent human being. And yet you continue to work to withhold rights from people who are in loving consensual relationships while at the same time you are hiding crimes against children and protecting rapists. Shame on you!

There is one piece of good news. From Think Progress: 

Catholic nuns break with bishops and urge passage of health care reform.

How can this be? My guess - the nuns run the hospitals where they get to see the consequences that the lack of health insurance and access to health care bring about.  The Bishops are too busy trying to preserve their power and cover up scandal.

Really sorry for having to re-post. LJ's being very uncooperative right now.
And it still isn't letting me put in multiple cuts. Grrrr. So just hit the first cut and the rest of the post will show.

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He's Back !  And he's done something wonderful, simply wonderful.  You remember Glenn.  For those of you who may not, he's a Fox News TV & radio talking head who always has such interesting takes on world events. 

Now he leaps back in with his take on churches that preach about  'social or economic justice.'  ( Can you guess what he said? )

Here's a quote from the man himself: 
( Major nutfuckery warning )
Beck has singlehandedly done the unthinkable. He's united Christians from various denominations to speak against him. Evangelicals (well, liberal ones anyway). Mormons, Catholics. Good Work Glenn!

Now some church leaders are calling on Christians to boycott Glenn Beck.  I'm certain that Glenn will be explaining to us why these leaders aren't 'real' Christians.

Oh Glenn, you make me go LOLOLOLOL.
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More from The Caucus (the NY Times Blog):

Christians Urged to Boycott Glenn Beck

 

( Read more... )