Why Do We Miss Our Common Humanity and Make People Religious Scapegoats?
"Have you ever thought about the fact that “religious” people all over the world – I mean everyday people, not elite thinkers or those who use religion to push their career and political agendas – care about the same things when they practice their religions?
I’ve been observing that in my formal studies and teaching as a historian of religion for over fifty years. The religious thinkers, philosophers, theologians, and organizational leaders can give us all the great theories, scriptural quotations, logical cosmologies, and great doctrines all they want. And when these experts talk about various religions, that’s usually what they tell us theirs is.
Likewise when people refer to other religions they like to speak in terms of those doctrines when the majority of the people who visit their shrines, temples, mosques, and churches couldn’t care less....
But, everyday people have different ultimate concerns than those who need to keep an “ism” with all its creeds, doctrines, and orthodoxies going to preserve their livelihoods and self-being. To define someone’s religion as what is of ultimate concern to them, not in terms of “the Great Religions” talk, is not only to see where people are but to actually see where people have something very important in common that’s deeper, I think, in the human condition than all the creeds in the world..."
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including his, in this issue, saying that we must go beyond just calling bigots hypocrites - the religion itself has to be held accountable. He names names and is right: 'What we’re seeing is the heart of what right-wing religion itself really is, not merely hypocrisy.'"
-- veteran LGBT activist (since 1959) and a founder of LA's Homosexual Information Center in 1968, Billy Glover
and this organization promotes and is a strong advocate for such thinking. He is a perfect fit for the 21st Century American thinking."
-- Michael Alldaffer, founder of the Great Plains Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
"How to Stop Arguing About Religion But Make Your Point"
Relive Dr. Minor's Popular National PFLAG Presentation
An hour-long online presentation, Dr. Minor presented a version of his popular
workshop from the 2019 National PFLAG Convention to over 100 participants for the PFLAG Academy Online entitled "How to Stop Arguing About Your Religion But Make your Point"
Watch it here - "How to Stop Arguing About Religion But Make Your Point" and Access the Accompanying Training Toolkit
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The
Fairness Project On-Line Activist Tool Kit
The Fairness Project is in the process
of making available the handout materials from
Dr. Minor's popular workshop: "Being an Activist
Without Being a Victim." These materials are chosen
because they encourage activist leadership to proceed
from a progressive, healing model which contradicts
the models of leadership found in most popular
forms, models that are meant to keep the system
in place rather than to make changes that support
humanity, and result in burnout among leaders.
To access the current materials in The Fairness Project Tool
Kit for activist leaders, click
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An In-depth Coversation with Dr. Minor on
"The Desert Sanctuary" Podcast.
Spend an educational hour with Dr. Minor on religion, LGBTQ and other issues, and perspectives on what the religious right-wing's game plan is for America and how to stand up to it.
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When
Religion Is an Addiction
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America today challenging
much of how the left has responded!
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Scared Straight
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