Mary van Balen

This article on the Huff Post caught my attention. Employment Non-Discrimination Act 2013:The 'T' in LGBT Protections.As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has be introduced into the congress...again. In its earlier forms, ENDA did not include transgendered people in its protection. Why? As Rep. Barney Frank was quoted in the above article: "There is more resistance to protection for people who are transgender than for people who are gay, lesbian and bisexual," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said in a statement at the time. "This is not a good fact, but ignoring bad facts is a bad way to get legislation passed."

The 2013 bill includes transgendered people. As you can see from the graphic, only sixteen states provide employment protection for transgendered people. It is time to contact your Senators and Congressmen and express support for the inclusive bill.

No one should fear for his or her job because he or she is transgendered. Or gay or lesbian or Bi-sexual. This is an issue of discrimination and of justice. Click on the article or on the link below the graphic to learn more. Read More 

I intended to write about some thought provoking articles in The Christian Century, but I clicked on the television to check news and watched the PBS special on the Freedom Riders instead. I was eleven in May, 1961, but remember news broadcast images of the Civil Rights struggle including some of the Freedom Riders. Watching the special last night was both horrifying and inspiring.

I know people who have marched with MLK Jr. in Selma and one who worked with the bus boycott in Montgomery. As a teenager, I joined in protests for the Farm Workers Union and marched in protests against the Viet Nam war. Facing National Guard bayonets on my college campus, I experienced rubbery knees and covered my nose and mouth with wet towels to lessen the effects of tear gas.

None of these actions of mine required the raw courage of those college students who became "The Freedom Riders." Trained in non-violent resistance, these young people knew they were likely going to face beatings, arrest, and possibly death, yet boarded the buses anyway, intent on calling national attention to the immortality of segregation and the need to change Jim Crow laws. Read More 

PHOTO: MAURICE FLOOD


Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Lk 11:23



This verse reminds me of another, two chapters earlier in Luke’s gospel. Jesus’ disciples saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and they tried unsuccessfully to stop the exorcist who was not one of their group. They told Jesus about it and he said, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you” (Lk 9,50).

The temptation of the world is to divide its people into “them” and “us,” and that process begins early. As children we are quick to point our finger at someone else as deserving of blame: “I didn’t do it; they did!” I remember one day years ago, sitting on the floor with my younger sister in the large bedroom we shared with another sister, a brother, and a grandmother. We must have been making too much noise playing because mom had called up and in her no-nonsense tone told us we had better quiet down.

We leaned against the footboard of one bed, touched our toes to the sideboard of another, and made a pact: We will NEVER forget what it was like being a child as our mother obviously had. My own children would say I had forgotten long before they were born. What is natural bonding and response to growing up is different from the hateful divisions that are purposely created by adults.  Read More