During the 2008 election year, one of the biggest political fights in the California state ballot was on Proposition 8, a proposition against gay marriage. Sadly, the proposition passed. One of the keys to the passage of Proposition 8 was the efforts of the Mormon church, the Evangelical church, and the Catholic church to lobby its members to vote for the measure. A friend of mine told me that two weeks before the elections, the pastor in the evangelical church that he attends in Cupertino had a sermon against gay marriage.

After the elections results, many gay rights activists went on marches to protest Prop 8. In anger, some activists vandalized Mormon, Evangelical and Catholic property. Though I was against Proposition 8, I was also against the vandalizing of Mormon, Evangelical and Catholic churches. I wrote a few blogs that you can read here, here, and here where I describe how there are Mormons, Evangelicals and Catholics who support LGBT rights. When I attended an Evangelical church, I met Evangelicals who either supported gay rights or had gay friends and family members and were bothered by how these friends and family members were treated by other people in the church. I worried that in their anger over the passage of Proposition 8, many gay activists would develope a prejudice against Mormons, Evangelicals and Catholics, when in fact there are many Mormons, Evangelicals and Catholics who support gay rights. I was also worried that attacks on the church would give conservative Mormons, Evangelicals and Catholics ammunition to marginalize their more liberal counterparts.

Over the past two years, the Tea Party has dominated the political discourse in American politics. In spite of my disagreements with them, I have a grudging respect for the way the Tea Party activists have become passionately involved in the political process and have taken part in organized protests to try to sway the American public to their way of thinking. I hope more progressives emulate that sort of activism.

Despite that grudging respect, I disagree with a lot of things that have emanated from the Tea Party. One of my biggest disagreements with the Tea Party has to do with the way they interpret the Constitution.

When I read a lot of what the Tea Party espouses about the Constitution and its philosophy of a limited federal government, I wonder if these people are confusing the Constitution with the Articles of Confederation.

A few months ago I had written a post on religious people who have spoken in YouTube against homophobia. Since then, I have found in YouTube various houses of worship who have collectively taken a stand against bullying against LGBT youth. In here I'll post some of those YouTube videos.

I've always admired the Quakers. I admire the Quakers because they have always been among the first advocates of the various civil rights movements that have weaved its way through our American history: they were in the forefront of the abolitionist movement, the right of women to vote, and the antiwar movement. Around three years ago, I attended two Quaker services in San Jose, California, and found it to be a really meditative service. Though I eventually became an Episcopalian, my admiration for the Friends remains. The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker group that was founded in 1917 during World War I. Since its founding, the AFSC has continued to put Quaker values into action in our country and around the world.