Osteen's Church Responds, Sort-Of (Third Letter)

This is my third letter to Joel Osteen. The first and second have gone without significant reply.

Due to Pastor Joel Osteen's recent shift in message on the gay issue, stating conclusively that he believes "homosexuality is a sin," I felt compelled to communicate with him and urge him to clarify his position.

We have shared this third letter with Pastor Osteen's team and await their reply.

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Dear Pastor Osteen,

This is my third open letter. The first and second having gone without significant reply.

Thursday morning we received a brief email from Cassie Malone, Media Relations on your behalf.

To re-iterate, here is Ms. Malone's response to my publicist (who has been graciously working tirelessly), Jenée Arthur:

Dear Jenee,

Thank you for contacting our ministry.

At this time we are unable to accommodate to your request.

God bless,

Cassie
Lakewood Church
Media Relations

My response back:

Dear Cassie,

Thank you for acknowledging, on behalf of Pastor Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church, after two weeks, that our attempts for communication are being received by your team. It is disheartening that Pastor Osteen has chosen to provide no reply, thought, or reflections, in any form, to the tremendous amount of work (by many concerned persons) that has been put into offering opportunity to converse, in any form.

I continue to offer my prayers and sincere requests for conversation, as a fellow person of conservative faith. We look forward to continuing our attempts for open conversation in hopes of Pastor Osteen's timely reply.

Again, as you represent a significant voice for our faith, it is my hope to assist you in clarifying your recent swing in position. Unfortunately your lack of response thus far continues to position you as a substantial representative of Christ who makes blanket, national statements singling out gay persons in our churches and your congregation as uniquely sinful. I'm sure you would agree, these statements ostracize gay persons as somehow unique in their particular human context, while not holding the same standard for all other persons in your congregation whose context is equally complicated. Additionally, I hope you would agree that Christ's Church-doors have no gay-detectors, and that the message of grace is available, without condition or cost to all persons.

We continue to offer opportunities for open conversation by way of an Over Coffee Conversation (http://overcoffeeconversations.com) event with Pastor Joel Osteen.

Your Brother in Faith,

D.a. Thompson

You may be aware that this last week, Shirley Phelps-Roper, an adamant nationally recognized anti-gay protester from Westboro Baptist Church, daughter of the founder Fred Phelps, has agreed to an open dialogue concerning an Over Coffee Conversation. I am excited for our conversation and am so grateful for her openness and willingness to converse. As such I must confess it disappointing that a minister such as yourself is not willing to converse at all and hope that you will open up a dialogue to clarify your unique isolation of gay persons in our churches and your congregation.

Your Brother in Faith,

D.a. Thompson

Second Open Letter to Joel Osteen Concerning His Statement on Homosexuality

This is my second letter to Joel Osteen. The first has gone without reply in any form from his team.

Due to Pastor Joel Osteen's recent shift in message on the gay issue, stating conclusively that he believes "homosexuality is a sin," I felt compelled to communicate with him and urge him to clarify his position.

We have shared this second letter with Pastor Osteen's team and await their reply.

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February 15, 2011



Dear Pastor Osteen,

Thank you for the opportunity to communicate with you once again concerning your recent statement and swing in position on the Piers Morgan Show Tonight: “Homosexuality is a sin.”

It has been a week since my initial open letter was provided to your team. Regrettably, we have received no communication from you or your team, in any form.

Whereas a lack of conversation may seem initially favorable in this context, holding to a message that alienates people based upon their unchangeable sexual orientation (again, even after reparative therapy) will for many, serve only as a proclamation of targeted discrimination. As such, your message and conversation thus far continue to further position you away from the message of welcoming-love and unconditional grace to which our faith and your message have held so strongly.

Again, I urge you to contact me so that we might discuss a fresh perspective of definitions, message, and our conservative faith where this volatile issue and these often-alienated persons are concerned.

Time is of the essence. This window of opportunity is a chance provided you sovereignly. It is a chance to distinguish yourself as a conservative faith leader who is open to conversation, within a conservative and biblical context, concerning persons of faith in your congregation whose sexual orientation is unchangeable. Rather than viewing this as an attack from the liberal media, I encourage you to view this as an opportunity to provide uniqueness to your message and ministry.

I look forward to your response to my Over Coffee Conversations invitation. Please know that I am available for your call should you desire to become more familiar with my message, position, and intent.

Your Brother in Faith,



D.a. Thompson

Open Letter to Joel Osteen Concerning His Statement on Homosexuality

Due to Pastor Joel Osteen's recent shift in message on the gay issue, stating conclusively that he believes "homosexuality is a sin," I felt compelled to communicate with him and urge him to clarify his position.

We have shared this letter with Pastor Osteen's team and await their reply.

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February 8, 2011

Dear Pastor Osteen,

Recently, a friend passed me a hyperlink to your media spot on the Piers Morgan Tonight show, where you made a very clear statement that “homosexuality is a sin.” The link was passed to me from a conservative Christian friend who noted, “I had a lot of respect for him, until I saw that.” I hope you will permit me to express my concern for this swing in your position, and moreover, invite you to discuss this crucial issue in person.

Whereas it is not unusual for people to hear conservatives specifically delineating homosexuality as sin, what was unusual in this instance was the person making the statement. As you represent a significant voice for conservative faith, your position is important. Up till this point, your position has appeared fairly moderate and your non-alignment has allowed for a number of conservative individuals to feel a relative safety and welcome-ness in your message and congregation where gay persons are concerned.

Regrettably, your statement on the Piers Morgan Tonight show effectively moved your position, in many eyes, from one of welcoming and love, to one of dismissal and inconsideration for Christian believers whose sexuality is unchangeable (in many cases even after reparative therapy) and who are not able, nor gifted, to live a celibate life.

Additionally, many will see your statement as a gross example of double standard. For example, many will now point to your welcoming of divorced and remarried people in your congregation as being discriminatory of God’s grace, when you specifically do not allow gay individuals to also be enabled to live in less-than-perfect human contexts and still be members.

I would urge you to clarify your position and provide your listeners and congregation members with the opportunity to discuss this very important issue in a safe and welcoming event. I would like to invite you to participate with me in an “Over Coffee Conversation.” This is a stage-based event we have created to provide an atmosphere of safety and conversation on this issue, where we all agree to the following Rules of Engagement:

1. We will agree to make no conclusions

2. We will remain within a conservative faith context: accepting the Scriptures to be inspired and inerrant

3. We will agree not to discuss any current political, economic, or legal issues

I encourage you to learn more about this event at http://overcoffeeconversations.com/

Thank you for your consideration on this matter. I am grateful for your unending commitment to, as the author Jude compelled us, “to contend for the faith…”

Your Brother in Faith,

D.a. Thompson

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Over Coffee Conversations: 2001 National Tour

I'm am excited to announce the launching of our Over Coffee Conversations 2011 National Tour.

From the site:

About Over Coffee Conversations

Over Coffee Conversations are a stage-based event with conservative leaders concerning the subject matter of D.a. Thompson's book, “Over Coffee: A Conversation for Gay Partnership & Conservative Faith.” The event provides conservative faith audiences with a unique opportunity to engage the controversial issue of gay partnership by means of a low-lit, coffee-house conversation between D.a. Thompson and his event participants.

Audience members will enjoy sitting in on this lively and controversial discussion, watching as D.a. presents his work and welcomes his guests' reflections on each main point, reflecting with them on both sides of this heated issue. The audience will conclude their engagement by participating in a Question & Answer period following the presentation.

Rules of Engagement

In a effort to establish an environment of openness and safe consideration, all persons, including the audience, agree to observe three simple rules:

• We will agree to make no conclusions
• We will remain within a conservative faith context: accepting the Scriptures to be inspired and inerrant
• We will agree not to discuss any current political, economic, or legal issues

The Book "Over Coffee"

“Over Coffee” is a narrative piece couched in a coffee-house conversation between the author and a small-town pastor concerning a gay church member who desires to be partnered in the church. D.a. warmly introduces the reader to a conservative, faith-based dialogue for providing room on the pew in today’s most conservative churches for gay partnered persons.

Thompson’s work provides an uncommonly informative bridge for two otherwise seemingly opposing audiences. He brings to the table two respective views, and dispels the polarizing stance from which they are customarily positioned. He does so within a conservative context that embraces biblical relevance and conservative faith tenets, while presenting a case for holding gay partnership within a similar framework in which the Bible embraces any other human condition.

Why I Still Favor Ruby Over Python

Recently the Python programming language was listed in the TIOBE Programming Community Index for January 2011 as having the most growth in new users. (Of course that wouldn't be because Google's free AppEngine runs only Python or Java apps -- thank goodness for jRuby allowing Ruby to run natively on Java and thus AppEngine.) And a swift congrats to them.

That said, I did want to add a very quick list of reasons why I still prefer Ruby over Python.

1. The most compelling reason for me is Ruby's distribution system for new software via Rubygems. It's as simple as 'gem install NameOfGem' and all the dependencies and requirements are installed for you. And if you want to update: 'gem update'. Additionally, developing your own Gem for packaging your new software for distribution is as easy as 'gem build' to create your gem, followed by 'gem push' to make it available for everyone in the world.
2. The second reason is a bit more touchy-feely and non-empirical. In general I prefer the 'vibe' of elegance/simplicity in Ruby and the Ruby community/software over the seeming brutishness of Python and 'useful' hackerish things I can do to make stuff work and/or figure out what is what. To me it is sort of like 'Mac vs PC' which may explain why there are so many Mac users at the Seattle Ruby Brigade meetings. Though Ruby works just as well on all platforms in my experience.
3. Three, since I am largely a web-app guy who is often having to expose services in a friendly way over the web (API's), I love that the Ruby community continues to stay remarkably innovative with frameworks like Rails and Sinatra, Rack, etc. that make creating/maintaining these complex entities MUCH easier.
4. Last, developing robust command-line tools is uber-easy with Ruby tools like Thor
   

Of course, the back and forth between Pythonists and Rubyists leaves one to wonder... are Rubyists cat people... or dog people?