My sharing of images from my recent weekend in Chicago continues with a batch of photos from my visit with friends to the Museum of Science and Industry. (To start at the beginning of this series, click here.)
Left: Friends Nate, Liana, Curtis and Phil – Saturday, August 11, 2012.
Located in Chicago, in the Hyde Park neighborhood between Lake Michigan and the University of Chicago, [the Museum of Science and Industry] is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Initially endowed by Sears, Roebuck and Company president and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, it first opened in 1933 during the Century of Progress Exposition. It is also the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere.
Among its diverse and expansive exhibits, the Museum features a full size replica coal mine, a German submarine (U-505) captured during World War II, a 3,500-square-foot (330 m2) model railroad, the first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel passenger train (Pioneer Zephyr[right]), and the Apollo 8 spacecraft which flew the first humans to the Moon.
Based on 2009 attendance, the Museum of Science and Industry was the second largest cultural attraction in Chicago.
Above and below: The U-505, a German Type IXC U-boat built for service in the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Captured on June 4, 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3, it yielded codebooks, an Enigma machine and other secret materials that assisted Allied code breaking operations.
Above: Standing at left with (from left) Phil, John, Curtis and Liana.
All but one of U-505's crew were rescued by the Navy task group. The submarine was towed to Bermuda in secret, her crew was interned at a US prisoner of war camp where they were denied access to International Red Cross visits. The Navy classified the capture as top secret and prevented its discovery by the Germans.
In 1954, U-505 was donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois and is now a museum ship.
She is one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II, and one of four German World War II U-boats that survive as museum ships. She is the only Type IXC still in existence.
Above: Phil inside U-505.
Above: Nate, Phil, John, Liana, Noelle and Curtis at the U-505 exhibit in the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago – Saturday, August 11, 2012.
I’m currently reading actress and activist Joanna Lumley’s autobiography No Room for Secrets. The title refers to the rather unique structure of the book. I’ll let Joanna herself explain:
I may have been in your life for many years, as a vaguely remembered name, or as a shadow on a flickering television screen in the background; or this may be the first time we've met. In any case I’ve been in your home – but through an appalling oversight I have never invited you into my house until now. You can’t really know someone until you’ve seen where and how they live. My house is my home, where all my life is assembled; all thoughts and memories from my earliest days up to this very moment are here, and this book will be a tour of . . . well, to be frank, me.
No room is spared in this fascinating tour of Joanna’s house and life – hall, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, spare room, attic. It’s an unusual way to write an autobiography . . . but it works!
I’m reading No Room for Secrets because I’m enthralled by the BBC television series Sensitive Skin which stars Lumley. Made respectively in 2006 and 2008, the two seasons of Sensitive Skin comprise one of the best TV shows you could possibly find. I highly recommend it, and will no doubt write more about it in a future post.
For now, I simply want to share an excerpt from Joanna Lumley’s No Room for Secrets which particularly resonates with me. Perhaps it will resonate with you too.
We all need reminding often of how tiny our footprints are before the next wave comes crashing in to obliterate them. Footprints in the sands of time. We are like icebergs, only a small part of us showing and about nine-tenths underwater, made up of hidden thoughts and a completely separate life. I believe that’s why we love stories and films and above all music. Even though we can, with the top part of an iceberg, the one-tenth sticking out of the water, discuss them with other people, how we interpret them is surely completely singular. Our imagination, our greatest gift, is utterly different from that of every other soul that has ever lived. Remarkable! Miraculous, even: a daily miracle.
I had a wonderful time in Chicago last weekend with my friends Phil, Noelle, John, Liana and Curtis. The last time I visited the "Windy City" was in April 2008.
Left: John and Noelle.
Right: Curtis and Liana.
Left: Phil.
While in Chicago we stayed with our friend Nathanial (right) in the community area of Edgewater on the city's North Side.
Above: Phil, Nate, Noelle and John.
One of the first things we did upon arrival was walk from Nate's apartment building (above) to nearby Thorndale Avenue Beach, also known as Lane Beach Park (below).
Above: Curtis on Thorndale Avenue Beach.
Above: Standing on the shoreline of Lake Michigan with the skyline of downtown Chicago in the distance.
Ed Kohler is a founding member of a group of over 100 former priests speaking out against the proposed Minnesota "marriage amendment." He's a thoughtful and articulate man with solid knowledge of Catholic teaching and history. Recently, Ed had a letter-to-the-editor published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in which he calls on all people of good will to "exercise their fundamental right to follow their conscience" and vote against the marriage amendment. Following is more of Ed's letter.
. . . That conscience must rule is consistent with what all of us former priests learned in seminary. It is also consistent with what I taught college students in social justice classes during the '60s at the archdiocesan minor seminary. When discussing human rights, I included Pope John XXIII's teaching that every person possesses the right to honor God "according to the sincere dictates of his own conscience." The rule is also consistent with the teachings of Pope John Paul II. He wrote that "People are obliged to follow their conscience in all circumstances and cannot be forced to act against it."
That conscience must rule is also consistent with the current Pope Benedict XVI – who taught, while still Father Joseph Ratzinger, that "Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority, there still stands one's own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, even if necessary against the requirements of ecclesiastical authority."
Some Minnesota Catholics are conflicted on how to vote on the marriage amendment. This results from many Catholic leaders instructing Catholics that the church's religious values bind the conscience to support the amendment, in effect making support a non-negotiable moral imperative.
These Catholic leaders are wrong. They have converted a political tenet into church dogma. Catholic readers should know that. They are being led astray.
There is no official Catholic teaching that dictates how one must vote on the marriage amendment. Catholics are free to vote their conscience on Nov. 6, regardless of what they may hear from the pulpit or read in their diocesan paper.
Here's a sneak peek at Catholics for Marriage Equality MN's yard sign. It's the group's latest effort to get the word out that Catholics can in good conscience vote 'no' on the Minnesota 'marriage amendment.' As you know, the 'marriage amendment' refers to the November 6, 2012 ballot initiative that asks Minnesotans to vote on limiting the freedom to marry by amending the state constitution to define marriage as “solely between one man and one woman.” (For more information about this issue from a Catholic perspective, click here, here and here.)
C4ME-MN's yard sign will be officially launched at the group's August 15 Minneapolis event, "I DO! Believe in the Freedom to Marry." (You're getting this sneak peek because I serve as executive coordinator of C4ME-MN and it happens to be my front yard in the picture above!) Of course, the making available of yard signs, buttons & bumper stickers and DVDs will be a bonus aspect of the August 15 event. The main attraction of the evening will be the premiere of the music video "For All the Children." You may recall that this video was filmed back in April and involved the participation of over 300 local Catholics.
C4ME-MN's yard signs will, of course, be available after August 15. Check Sensus Fidelium, the website of Catholics for Marriage Equality MN, next week for more information.
The following comment by "Ex Jebbie" was recently posted on the website of The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY) in response to Ben Anderson's August 8 commentary "Progressive Catholicism No Match for Authentic Teachings." (Thanks to my friend Laura for bringing Ex Jebbie's response to my attention.)
Plenty of studies have shown that the Catholic Church has lost membership because of its policies toward women, its misogynistic hierarchy and its almost total irrelevance to the ideas, issues and intelligence of the 21st Century.
Mr. Anderson is a zealot who cares nothing for the essential teachings of Christianity (upon which Catholicism is based, not the other way around) which are love, forgiveness, tolerance, generosity and humility. Mr. Anderson’s version embraces repression, contempt, intolerance, oppression, and a rigid allegiance to a fascist authority structure. Jesus NEVER taught any of those ideas. That junk is the creation of men who exploited the power and influence of the Church for personal enrichment. Even the most cursory examination of the behavior of the institution down through history – the Holy Roman Empire, the greedy, genocidal exploitation of the Southern Hemisphere, and its absurd subjugation of women – is more than enough evidence to condemn it.
The “Church” Mr. Anderson believes in is the decomposing corpus of this corrupt enterprise. If folks have left the faith it is because of Rome’s commitment to keeping its wealth, power and influence. As Mr. Anderson’s essay makes so evident – by its failure to even mention Jesus - the “Church” is about blind obedience to its man-made rules for the advancement of men not the values of Christ.
A final point: Faith, by definition, is the belief in something that cannot be proven. To make the claim that faith is compatible with any concept of “objective truth” is illogical and absurd. If one makes one’s faith factual then it is no longer faith but fact . . . and you’d better be prepared to prove it.
On this day in 1945 the United States demonstrated that it was as morally bankrupt as the Nazi machine it had recently vanquished and the Soviet regime with which it was allied.
Over Hiroshima, and three days later over Nagasaki, it exploded an atomic device that was the most efficient weapon of genocide in human history. The blast killed tens of thousands of men, women and children. It was an act of mass annihilation that was strategically and militarily indefensible. The Japanese had been on the verge of surrender. Hiroshima and Nagasaki had no military significance. It was a war crime for which no one was ever tried.
It's become an annual tradition at The Wild Reed to share images of Gay Pride celebrations from around the world.
Now I have to admit that because I started collecting this year's images back in June, I've unfortunately forgotten where a couple of them originally came from and thus who snapped them! This happens to be the case with the wonderful image above which, if I recall correctly, was taken in New York City. What with my love of dance, this image just had to open this year's celebration of Worldwide Gay Pride here at The Wild Reed!
Above: Participants in the 10th annual Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem. (Photographer unknown)
Left: An Israeli man participates in the annual Gay Pride Parade along the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel – Friday, June 8, 2012. (Photo:Oded Balilty/AP)
Above: People protest against Russia's policies on homosexuality during Berlin's annual Christopher Street Parade – June 23, 2012. (Photo: John MacDougall.AFP/Getty Images)
Right: Russian police officers detain a gay rights activist during an attempt to hold a gay pride parade in Moscow, Russia, in late May 2012. (Photo: AP/Photographer unknown).
Hopefully, folks in Russia will one day soon no longer be carrying gay people away to jail, but rainbow flags in joyful celebration of diversity, like the folks in . . .
. . . Key West, Florida!
Above: Revelers carry a 100-foot-long rainbow flag, a symbol of gay pride, down Duval Street in Key West – Sunday, June 10, 2012. (Photo: Carol Tedesco/Florida Keys News Bureau)
Above:Cheer SF cheerleaders perform during San Francisco's 42nd annual Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, June 24, 2012. (Photo: Noah Berger/AP)
Above: Revelers with balloons create a human rainbow during San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade – Sunday, June 24, 2012. (Photo: Noah Berger/AP)
Above: People participate in a gay pride parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil – Sunday, June 10, 2012. (Photo:Andre Penner/AP)
Above: A couple kisses during Sao Paulo's Gay Pride Parade – Sunday, June 10, 2012. (Photo: Andre Penner/AP)
Above: A gay family photographed at the 37th Annual Capital Pride Festival in Washington DC – Sunday, June 10, 2012. (Photo: Elvert Barnes)
Above: Cuban Pride! (Photo: Jorge Luis Baños)
Above: London Pride. (Photographer unknown)
Above: Hey, watch your step! Like the opening image, I can't recall where I found this particular one. But it's a great photo, wouldn't you say?
. . . Being a Christian has made me long for a more just, dignified, fair, charitable, and kind world but I haven’t been and am unlikely to be able to, impose what I want onto the law of the land. In a very important sense this is the very definition of living in a society with religious freedom. All freedoms are two fold; they are both positive – freedom for something, in this case the right to worship as you choose — and a negative sense, or freedom from having to worship or conform to religious dictates outside of your own or in any form at all.
Sometimes I fear that my fellow Christians don’t understand this, believing that whichever way they (or we) experience something, or want something to be, is as it should be and therefore should be written into law. In a sense that the only perspective with validity in American legal and civic society should be the Christian and Biblical one.
But that’s not the way it is, even if elements of the Judeo-Christian perspective informed elements of our founding laws. US law is not Biblical law, and that leads us to the issue of gay marriage.
While again, I respect my fellow Christian’s rights to choose this issue from the Bible and seek to keep it for ourselves in a Biblical sense, we also must recognize that marriage has a civic element, too, from marriage licenses, to special rights conferred, to tax advantages gained.
What makes this particularly civic in origin, and not religious, is that atheists marry in the US, as do agnostics, pagans, other non-Christian religious persons, and persons indifferent to religion even if not taking an anti-religious perspective. The state’s interest is not even remotiely connected to the religious or Biblical aspect of marriage – it only wants social security numbers, maybe blood type, and dates and names.
This is where, in spite of the precious and even sacred nature of marriage in Christianity (it is one of our sacraments), there is a wholly secular element enshrined in US law and available to those (mostly heterosexual) couples who wish to pursue it. The problem with denying this same secular privilege (here I am speaking only of law and not of certain denominations) to gay couples is that under law marriage confers certain special privileges otherwise not available to unwed couples. And in our legal and civic society, giving privileges to one portion of the population while denying them to otherwise equal members of society is discrimination. . . .
– Lindsay Curren
"Chick-fil-A: Junk Food for Jesus" Transition Voice
August 3, 2012
For 'music night' this evening at The Wild Reed I spotlight one of my favorite vocalists, Marianne Faithfull. I begin so by sharing an article I wrote about her for the April 1995 issue of the Dignity Twin Cities newsletter. (I was editor of this particular publication at the time!) As you'll read, I'd actually met Faithfull the previous September.
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British singer Marianne Faithfull performed at Elton John's star-studded AIDS benefit earlier this year and, as Ray Rogers notes, "gave new meaning to the lyrics of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." The song fits Faithfull well.
In the sixties Faithfull was renowned not for her music, but for her "scandalous" relationship with Mick Jagger and the notorious drug-bust at Redlands, the country estate of Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards. By the early 1970s, Faithfull had parted company from Jagger and was living on the streets of Soho, London – destitute and addicted to heroin.
In 1979 she recorded the dark and profane Broken English – an album that was lauded as an artistic triumph and which generated a cult following. The 1980s saw Marianne again on the edge – living a junkie's existence in a run-down apartment in New York City. An almost fatal overdose prompted her to seek help at the Hazelden Rehabilitation Center in Minnesota. Recovery and healing were slow, but in 1987 Faithfull recorded the plaintive Strange Weather and was again critically-acclaimed.
Last September [1994] I met and briefly spoke with Marianne at a local bookstore (left). She was in the Twin Cities signing copies of her autobiography – simply titled Faithfull. We spoke mostly about her haunting recording of the song "Ghost Dance." She said a friend, who has since died of AIDS, suggested the song to her, and that she believes that much of the power in her recording of it was other-worldly inspired.
Faithfull also discussed "Ghost Dance" with journalist Ray Rogers: "The friend I used to come here with, Scotty, died of AIDS last August. It was Scotty's idea that I do "Ghost Dance" . . . He made me a tape of it, and when I put it on, there was nothing there. He was dead by the time I played it again. I found it. It was on the tape, but it wasn't on at the beginning. It was like unwrapping a present."
Recently, Faithfull collaborated with Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti to make A Secret Life, a collection of lush and reflective ballads. "Writing [my autobiography] meant I had to plow through emotional territory I normally wouldn't want to," Faithfull recently stated. The reflective mood of A Secret Life can be viewed as the culmination of this sorting through one of one of the most notorious lives in music.
Faithfull's autobiography details her affairs with women as well as men, but she notes that "in the '60s, you could be anything you wanted – gay, straight – it wasn't so nailed down at all." Ray Rogers notes that her narration of the glory days drew mixed reactions, most vociferously to her allegation that Mick Jagger once shared with her his sexual fantasies about Keith Richards. "I was amazed when people were so astounded by that. In the straight world, that was the most dodgy area."
Faithfull also contains Marianne's response to the dubious honor of being officially denounced as a witch by the Vatican Press:
The article cited Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg and myself – Mick as a warlock, and Anita and I as his coven of witches. When I showed it to Anita she shrugged it off as the complete absurdity it is, but then Anita has always been much less bothered by other people's opinions. Still, we wondered why this was happening all these years later. The unmanageable woman has been seen as a very dangerous quantity from the dawn of time, or at least since patriarchal religion clamped down on us.
Living a quiet life in a country cottage outside of Dublin, Ireland, Faithfull today relishes a life outside the "center of the hurricane." She plans to tour in support of A Secret Life and, later, to commence work on her next literary project – the story of her parents' love affair. To Ray Rogers she declared: "I have the title, and I believe at the moment that everything is in this title: Chance and Necessity. . . . That really does say everything, doesn't it?"
Tonight's Faithfull-fest continues with some wise words of Marianne's from a 1987 interview with music journalist Kris Kirk, followed by the video of her haunting 1987 re-recording of her 1964 hit "As Tears Go By."
A "scandalous and sensational" life
Being a woman and having led a scandalous and sensational life, it's easier to consider me a victim than to accept that I've done what I've done and taken the consequences. Of course I have regrets and I have remorse and, in some ways, I think I've damaged myself irrevocably as a woman and as a human being by doing things high that I might never have done straight. I've brutalized myself by letting people brutalize me. And I'm not talking about sexual slavery and bondage, really – just the wear-and-tear of the situation of a woman who never put value on herself, who accepted all the put downs.
But now I'm beginning to discover that my value as a human being has nothing to do with what I read about myself. That's just my ego-protection; I invented Marianne Faithfull and obviously people will do all sorts of things with that, including making me a stereotype, though it's the stereotype that's so hard to deal with.
. . . Did I have relationships with women? I sort of did, and I'm sad to say that I've been particularly abused by my own sex. I didn't really have a relationship with a woman; I had drug relationships. Like any other addict or alcoholic I would do practically anything for dope. I look back on a lot of things that I did in those days and find them very hard to accept; it's painful to think I allowed them to happen. What did I think I was doing? Yet I can't blame anyone else. That was me then.
Ireland, Catholicism, and guilt
I love Ireland and I made some really good friends there. I felt accepted by the Irish where I wasn't by other people. I don't know if it's the Catholicism or alcoholism or both, but they don't condemn; it was the first time I truly felt that I wasn't being condemned for my past. I guess they related to the idea of a good girl gone bad gone worse! Sometimes I look at myself and wonder if I'm a recovering Catholic as well as a recovering addict and alcoholic, because when I was younger I swallowed all that dogma and I guess I carried a lot of it into my adult life. Mind you, I don't do guilt anymore. Guilt is a self-serving emotion, just a way of whipping yourself.
Sex
I find I'm much more conventional and straight than I ever thought I was, and it's shocked me. I didn't expect it. But I live alone, I don't do sex. It's not something I'm advocating for anyone else, but what works for me right now is to stay away from sex and intimacy. I'm scared, really scared of sex. Because it has such a lot of personal power things in it and I don't want any longer to live in such a way where I'm either dominated by or I dominate another human being. And it's normally sex that puts me into either one of those situations so, until I've found some way of being true to myself within sexuality, I shall live without it.
. . . Promiscuity and permissiveness didn't really work for any of us. [In this era of AIDS] we're all gonna have to change our attitudes to sexuality; something has to happen on this planet of ours. Sexuality is a gift, and I sometimes think I've thrown it away.
Broken English
I remember when I did Broken English that I felt real rage and though it was cleansing and good to express those feelings, just to splurge out with emotion like that isn't enough. There has to be a building-up after the knocking-down. There has to be growth.
Quentin Crisp
[Quentin is] one of the top people I really respect and I feel I've learned a lot from him. He talks a lot about acceptance and self-acceptance; he's really got it sussed. Because that's what it's all about. After that all we can do is put one foot in front of the other and do the best we can, honey.
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William
"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB
"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip
"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal
"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George
"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin
"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick
"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael
"Michael, your site is like water in the desert."– Jayden
