Rev. Danny Fisher

As reported by the Associated Press, this year’s Gay Pride Parade in New York City put religious groups and leaders front and center.

[The] placement of the Christian, Jewish and Buddhist religious organizations near the head of the march–ahead of AIDS service groups and political advocacy groups–gave them unaccustomed prominence [at the event].

[...]

The annual parade, one of dozens around the world, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots in which patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid.

The article does not identify the particular Buddhist group or groups that participated, but does say something about the contributions of individual Buddhists to the parade.

A Buddhist group carried signs that said “Construct Dignity in Your Heart” and “Don’t Block Your Buddha.”

“We’re all Buddhas,” said Hortense De Castro, a teacher from Manhattan. “It’s just a matter of letting it come out.”

In addition to religion and homosexuality, another major issue at this year’s parade was that of legalized same-sex marriage. The article continues:

The march took place days after the New York State Assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, which Gov. Eliot Spitzer supports. Although the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled state Senate anytime soon, parade-goers said they were cheered by the Assembly’s action.

“This is one very important step toward full equality for all New Yorkers,” [parade grand marshal Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum] said.

[...]

At San Francisco’s festival, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards marked the occasion by splitting with her husband over support for legalized gay marriage.

“I don’t know why someone else’s marriage has anything to do with me,” Elizabeth Edwards said at a news conference before the parade. “I’m completely comfortable with gay marriage.”

That Elizabeth Edwards has spoken out in support of same-sex marriage is wonderful, I think. It is disheartening to me, though, that her husband and all but two of the candidates for the Democratic Party’s 2008 presidential nomination oppose same-sex marriage.

The constitutionality of a ban on same-sex marriage is questionable at best: although I am not a lawyer, it seems obvious to me that legislation such as the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause and probably other crucial parts of the Constitution.

It is also certainly an extraordinarily uncompassionate thing to dehumanize others and deny them their civil rights. How would, say, George W. Bush like it if he were denied equal protection under the law?

I support same-sex marriage as a Buddhist, a chaplain, and a citizen of the world. To show your support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, follow this link.

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship recently posted a new action alert at their website. It is a petition against a development plan that would adversely effect the Bhāvanā Society in High View, West Virginia–”the only Theravāda Buddhist forest monastery in the eastern U.S. and one of only a handful in all of North America.” The petition explains:

[The Allegheny Power Company] is now considering a route change for it’s TrAIL 500 Kilovolt line through Hampshire County, West Virginia. The Bhavana Society Forest Monastery and Meditation Center is located on Back Creek Road in the Capon Valley of Hampshire County. We recently learned that a new route has been proposed to avoid an auto junkyard which would severely encroach on the monastery property. Apart from the health concerns due to close proximity to electromagnetic radiation, this would seriously infringe on the peaceful nature of our place of worship and the integrity of our contemplative way of life…A unique cultural and spiritual resource, visitors spend time here in prayer and meditation in the peaceful setting of the forest.

[...]

We protest the disfigurement of a beautiful forest monastery and spiritual refuge in order to save a junkyard. We, the undersigned, strongly urge the Power Company to move the power line route so it would traverse the center of the junkyard property, so as to keep the Bhavana monastery intact and relatively secluded from the ugly eyesore which the wide swath of the power line will create.

In the fall of 2001, I was very fortunate to spend some time at the Bhāvanā Society, living in the kuti (meditation cabin) pictured to the left. It is a very special environment indeed and it would certainly be a shame to see it unnecessarily disturbed.

I encourage you to sign your name to the petition here.

In a recent post, I talked a bit about the climate crisis. In quite a few other posts, I talked about the genocide in Darfur. Unfortunately, as it turns out, there is much more to say about these two issues–these two inexorably connected issues.

The conflict in Darfur has been driven by climate change and environmental degradation, which threaten to trigger a succession of new wars across Africa unless more is done to contain the damage, according to a [U.N. Environment Programme (U.N.E.P.)] report published yesterday.

[...]

With rainfall down by up to 30% over 40 years and the Sahara advancing by well over a mile every year, tensions between farmers and herders over disappearing pasture and evaporating water holes threaten to reignite the half-century war between north and south Sudan, held at bay by a precarious 2005 peace accord.

[...]

The U.N.E.P. investigation into links between climate and conflict in Sudan predicts that the impact of climate change on stability is likely to go far beyond its borders…“It illustrates and demonstrates what is increasingly becoming a global concern,” said Achim Steiner, U.N.E.P.’s executive director. “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that as the desert moves southwards there is a physical limit to what [ecological] systems can sustain, and so you get one group displacing another.”

He also pointed to incipient conflicts in Chad “at least in part associated with environmental changes”, and to growing tensions in southern Africa fuelled by droughts and flooding.

The information in U.N.E.P.’s report is especially important in that it underscores a critical point made by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and political shorthand–an ethnic conflict pitting Arab militias against black rebels and farmers. Look to its roots, though, and you discover a more complex dynamic. Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.

U.N.E.P.’s report does much to both unpack the Secretary-General’s statement and give us a sense of the region’s future.

The U.N.E.P. study suggests the true genesis of the conflict pre-dates 2003 and is to be found in failing rains and creeping desertification. It found that:

• The desert in northern Sudan has advanced southwards by 60 miles over the past 40 years;
  
• Rainfall has dropped by 16%-30%;
  
• Climate models for the region suggest a rise of between 0.5C and 1.5C between 2030 and 2060;
  
• Yields in the local staple, sorghum, could drop by 70%.
  In turn, the Darfur conflict has exacerbated Sudan’s environmental degradation, forcing more than two million people into refugee camps. Deforestation has been accelerated while underground aquifers are being drained.

Worse still, the report suggests that unless both the changing climate and degraded environment are properly addressed, the situation can only deteriorate further.

A peace deal signed last year by rebels and the Khartoum government broke down, but this month President Omar al-Bashir said he would accept the deployment of a joint U.N. and African Union force. He has reneged on similar pledges, but U.N. diplomats are hopeful this one will stick. However, the U.N.E.P. report warns that no peace will last without sustained investment in containing environmental damage and adapting to climate change. Mr. Steiner said: “Simply to return people to the situation there were in before is a high-risk strategy.”