Rev. Danny Fisher

Via Steve Silberman at Shambhala Sun Space: BBCTurkish.com has a report about a new “good manners curriculum” in the Thai sangha designed to “discourage behaviour seen as effeminate.”

The guidelines are aimed at curbing the flamboyant behaviour of gay and transgender monks.

The religious authorities say they’re responding to increasing irritation among more conservative Thai clerics and members of the public with behaviour perceived as effeminate.

They’re aiming to reduce or eliminate the wearing of make-up and tight robes by younger priests, and generally attitudes that suggest homosexual activity.

Of all Asian countries, Thailand is perhaps the most tolerant of homosexuality, which is often open and flamboyant. But it’s still considered largely incompatible with Buddhist priesthood, with its traditions of celibacy and self-discipline.

It is part of my understanding of Buddhist monasticism that practitioners rein in explicitly sexual expression, be it hetero- or homosexual. That said, I’m concerned about how this curriculum might be misused. (It’s the BBC’s terminology, but I wonder, for example, what would “attitudes that suggest homosexual activity” include exactly?) I guess we’ll just see what happens…

[Image via BBCTurkish.com.]

The Associated Press reports on efforts to make airport chapels interfaith. The write-up includes some good history of travel ministry:

…The nation’s roughly 34 airports with chapels cater to a mixed community with a changing range of faith needs, according to the Rev. John A. Jamnicky, former chaplain of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and a 20-year veteran of travel ministry.

He said airport chapels date back to the 1940s when the explosion of commercial aviation, combined with a surplus of military chaplains home from World War II, gave church leaders the idea to mix faith with flying. The first known airport chapel was opened in 1951 at Boston’s Logan International Airport, according to the International Association of Civil Aviation Chaplains.

It started a trend. Over time, airport chapels became largely Catholic in northern cities like Chicago and New York, and Protestant in southern cities like Atlanta and Dallas, Jamnicky said.

As travelers become more numerous and more diverse, Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports now advertise prayer rugs and special Muslim facilities. Chapels created at airports in Norfolk, Va., and Tulsa, Okla., in the last decade have been interfaith. And in Cleveland, airport officials have discussed toning down the Catholic orientation of the airport’s ornate chapel.