Christian 'Exorcism' Leads to Gay Teen's Suicide 3FEB12

WHAT a sad, heartbreaking story. I can not imagine the depth of despair he must have been in to reach the point that life was no longer worth living. I can't imagine how his family must feel now, the loss of a child, the guilt, the hurt, they need prayers and support to heal and resolve all the issues they are now dealing with. And we all need to search our souls on our relationships. From God's Politics blog......

Eric James Borges via Facebook.

Eric James Borges was teased his entire life for being different. Though he didn’t come out publicly until his sophomore year of college, he recalls emotional and physical abuse as far back as kindergarten for his differences. And though most children undergo some degree of hazing from time to time, the seeming indifference of the adults in his life made matters dramatically worse.
In a video recorded for the “It Gets Better” Project, an LGBT advocacy group focused on offering hope and community to LGBT people on the margins, Borges, 19, recalls being physically assaulted in a full high school classroom while his teacher stood by and watched.
The distressed teen had nowhere to turn at home either. His Christian parents decided to perform a ritual exorcism on him with the hope of “curing” him of his orientation. When that failed, they kicked him out of the house.
Though Borges went on to advocate for LGBT rights through the “It Gets Better” Project and through his work with The Trevor Project (a group committed to preventing suicide among LGBT teens), the demons of his past still lingered. Despite finding a community that affirmed and embraced who he was, the damage had already been done.
He killed himself on Jan. 11.
In the suicide note he left, Borges wrote:

My pain is not caused because I am gay. My pain was caused by how I was treated because I am gay.

This is a point lost on many Christians who condemn what they call the “gay lifestyle.” Not only are we, as followers of Christ, called to set aside our judgment, hateful rhetoric and disdain for those in the LGBT community; we’re bound by a covenant of compassion to advocate for their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.
If we don’t, we’re no better than the teacher who stood by indifferently as his students beat Borges in his classroom.
In spite of the tragedy of Borges’ suicide, he left behind some gifts by which we all can remember him. In the face of all he had suffered, he still mustered words of love and hope for his fellow LGBT teens.
The following is a quote from the “It Gets Better” video Borges made in December 2011:

You will date, fall in love, fall out of love, have your heart broken, just like the rest of us. You will love, and be loved, and I love you. you have an entire life fit to burst with opportunities ahead of you. Don’t ever give up, and don’t ever for one second think that you aren’t a valuable and beautiful contribution to this world.

Unfortunately, some of the power of the positive message can’t help but be lost in his absence. What’s worse, Borges' story is not atypical.
An estimated 30-40 percent of LGBT youth have been reported to have attempted suicide.
LGBT people between the ages of 15 and 24 are four times more likely to commit suicide than their peers.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among LGBT people in this age group.
The same population is three times more likely to report hazing, abuse and/or harassment by peers than straight people of the same age.
It’s easy to feel there’s no hope for progress in the Christian community when we hear such stories. After all, silence on the matter simply isn’t enough. Ambivalence is equivalent to complicity. For this, we are collectively responsible for the sins of indifference, inaction and aggressive hate, all in the name of Jesus.
There are a few glimmers of hope in the overwhelming darkness. Organizations such as the Marin Foundation seek to “build a bridge between the religious and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities in a non-threatening, research and biblically oriented fashion.” And there are others.
Unfortunately, too often the advocacy work is left to members of the LGBT population themselves. For real, systemic change to take hold, those on the side of privilege (ie, those not harassed and abused for our inherent sexual orientation or identity) to care enough to say that things have to change.
Not just because we know someone who is gay. Not just because we feel bad for those pushed to the margins. But because we are called out by Jesus himself to confront such evil, to call it out, and to rob it of its power through the transforming power of love.
This is an active love, and not simply a rhetorical, tolerant, “love the sinner, hate the sin” kind of cop-out love. For those whom we love, we are willing to risk that which we hold dear for their sake. We are willing to forgo the acceptance of our peers to stand side-by-side with our marginalized sisters and brothers.
Loving in word is not enough. We have to demonstrate such sacrificial, Christ-like love with our whole lives.
Until then, the deaths of so many thousands of persecuted youth are on our heads.
Christian Piatt is the creator and editor of BANNED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BIBLE and BANNED QUESTIONS ABOUT JESUS. He co-created and co-edits the “WTF: Where’s the Faith?” young adult series with Chalice Press, and he has a memoir on faith, family and parenting being published in early 2012 called PREGMANCY: A Dad, a Little Dude and a Due Date.

New Map Shows 2,200 Private US Military Contractors from WAR IS BUSINESS 5JAN11

WANT TO SEE WHERE OUR TAX DOLLARS ARE BEING WASTED ON THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX? Check out the interactive map below.....also added to the TOP SECRET AMERICA page on this blog
Finally! Here’s a rough version of a feature I’ve had in mind for this site since its launch late last year: Military contractor maps.
The closest comparable online project is a part of the Washington Post’s Top Secret America series, by Dana Priest and Bill Arkin. Aided by a team of researchers and computer geeks, Priest and Arkin did an impressive job at sketching out the nationwide network of US military and intelligence contractors. Unfortunately, the Post chose to censor the results of their research, even though the “secrets” had been gleaned through public records. As an editor’s note to the series explained, users can “see the cities and towns where the government conducts top-secret work in the United States, but not the specific locations, companies or agencies involved.”
The “national security” justification, in that case, was unconvincing.
The new War Is Business map, by contrast, is designed specifically to show the locations of companies doing business with the Pentagon, because the point of this website is to reveal who profits from war spending. To that end, the map links up to our DIY investigations form, so not only can users easily find nearby military companies, they are given the tools to find out who owns those companies.
Revealing this information is not—repeat not—a threat to members of the armed forces or their civilian colleagues. On the contrary. As an eight-month Congressional investigation recently determined, US national security is gravely threatened by system-wide ignorance regarding the ownership of military contractors.
Anyway, enough with the introduction—give it a try!
Send suggestions and comments to editor-at-warisbusiness.com. And if anyone has the time and expertise to help build a more expansive version of this project based on OpenStreetMap, please get in touch.

Where Were The Winners In Pentagon Procurement?

These 2,200 companies received a collective $12 billion from the US military in fiscal year 2010. Each contract was worth at least $1 million, so this subset represents a fraction of the hundreds of billions diverted from American taxpayers to the Defense Department to private corporations in that year.
A quick visual scan shows, predictably, that some regions of the country landed more big Pentagon projects than others. The point here is to explore the data in greater detail, and fill in some important unknowns about today’s military-industrial complex.

You can help. Browse the map and find a contractor near you.

Click through the company’s name to begin a new DIY WIB investigation, and help piece together something that even the Pentagon doesn’t know—namely, who owns all these companies.

Enter your address here to find a contractor near you (the button links offsite)

Source: DoD

$960 BILLION IN DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FAT 25AUG10

THE Defense budget should be subject to the same scrutiny all other department budgets are subject to, and if waste and abuse are found they should be deleted from the budget and returned to the Treasury. The military-industrial complex's hold on our economy has to be broken, and Reps Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) have a proposal in Congress to start this by trimming $960 billion in "defense" spending. Please see the campaign from TrueMajority below and participate by clicking the link to send a letter to your representative to support them. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower may have said it best: "The United States should spend as much as necessary on national defense, but not a penny more."

Dear Craig,

"Hey, Congress, trim the fat!" Barney Frank wants to save billions. Will you help?

We could cut over $960 billion from the Department of Defense and be just as safe as we are now. Perhaps even safer.

With the national debt continuing to soar, unemployment teetering around 10 percent and the threat of a double-dip recession hovering, the last thing we need is for a government bureaucracy rife with inefficiencies to continue costing us billions of dollars with no overhaul in sight.

But there is another way.

Led by Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul, a bipartisan group in Congress is demanding an honest look at military spending without sacrificing our safety.

The good news? Over $960 billion could be cut without endangering our current safeguards and programs. The bad news? This opportunity is probably not on your member of Congress's radar.

Which is why we need your help. Send a message to your member of Congress, asking him or her to sign on in support of Congressman Frank's effort to clean up the wasteful spending in the Pentagon!

We'd like to believe that our military power stems directly from a financially sound American government and a vibrant economy that supports not just the protection of the people, but the education, health and well-being of the people as well.

But we have to speak up for what we believe.

Will you tell your representative to help put an end to wasteful government spending by supporting Congressman Frank's letter?

Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower may have said it best: "The United States should spend as much as necessary on national defense, but not a penny more."

We hope Congress thinks so too.