The Cities Category Archive: Marriage amendment

Maine a preview of MN's marriage vote?

Posted at 7:00 PM on May 11, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Livability, Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Politics, Religion

Anyone interested in Minnesota's vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage this November will find the documentary Question One intriguing.

Filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile got extraordinary behind-the-scenes access to both sides of the debate over Maine's 2009 referendum on marriage. In an interview from his office in New York, Fox explained he "wanted to tell the human story of the people caught up in the fight that would change their lives."

Fox will be in Minneapolis for screenings of the film May 14-19 at 7 p.m. at the Mall of America Theatre as part of the Twin Cities Film Festival.

For three months, the film crew embedded "war-room style" as Maine voters considered whether to repeal a state law that had legalized same sex marriage. (Spoiler alert: Maine voters repealed the law, but it's headed for a rematch this November.)

So what are the lessons for Minnesota?

Fox says to expect the same playbook. The Yes on One campaign was run by Frank Schubert, a Sacramento-based PR consultant who also led successful campaigns for Prop 8 in California, in North Carolina last week and is working with Minnesota for Marriage.

Even knowing the outcome, the film is dramatic. Right up to the vote, the No on One side was polling ahead. Why did they lose? The No on One campaign director wonders in the aftermath, "People lied in the polling, and that's been eating away at me."

Looking back, Fox remembers a portend. In the phone bank room, Fox overheard Yes callers telling people who were supporting gay neighbors or friends that gays and lesbians already had their civil rights and they didn't need marriage. "When I heard those calls, there was something in my gut--and the person changed their mind during the course of the call--that I felt perhaps the No side would not win."

Lesson number 2:

"Never underestimate the passion of people," said Fox. "I went into this thinking the passions would mostly come from a religious base and yes, that was true, but the passions went beyond that," said Fox, reflecting on the winning side. "These were people that felt they were being ignored, their voices weren't being heard and there was a rage that was brewing inside of these people that their leaders weren't listening to them."

Lesson number 3:

Conversations matter. "I saw how people's minds were changed through one knock on the door and the hello that followed," said Fox. "You're not fighting an issue. It's all personal."

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Lutheran Catholic Frenemies?

Posted at 12:30 PM on May 4, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (11 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Religion

This weekend, the Minneapolis ELCA celebrates the installation of Ann Svennungsen as the new bishop of the largest Lutheran synod in the United States.

The Lutherans are pulling out all the glam for this event at Central Lutheran Church Sunday afternoon: pastors processing in red vestments, the St. Olaf College Choir and the Augsburg College Woodwind Quintet.

Dignitaries include the presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Mark Hanson, and a Lutheran Archbishop from Nigeria.

It will no longer, apparently, include Archbishop John Nienstedt, of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Although his name was on the ELCA press release as an ecumenical guest, he cancelled his appearance on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Archdiocese confirmed the Archbishop had "a change in plans."

From reading Rose French's excellent piece in the Star Tribune last fall (Minnesota Bishops, Catholic, Lutheran share common ground), we know Catholic and Lutheran leaders have enjoyed a 35-year dialogue and friendship.

But they are also notably far apart on such issues as the ordination of women, and the marriage amendment on the November ballot which would define marriage as between one man and one woman. The Minneapolis ELCA voted to oppose the amendment, while the Catholic Bishops have made its passage a top political priority.

The Archbishop's no-show at Svennungsen's installation brings to mind an earlier chapter in Lutheran-Catholic relations.

In 1998, a tornado tore through St. Peter, Minnesota, destroying the Catholic Church of St. Peter.

(Photo of Catholic Church of St. Peter courtesy of St. Peter Kiwanis)

First Lutheran Church offered the use of its building for the two years it would take their Catholic neighbors to rebuild. First Lutheran administrator Paul Aasen recalled the deep friendship that grew between the two congregations. A sign was even erected out front, "First Lutheran Catholic Church", that Aasen said elicited some double-takes.

According to Aasen, Father Harry Behan, the Irish priest at St. Peter's, good-naturedly wished the Lutherans a "happy Reformation Sunday." Reformation Sunday marks Martin Luther's break with the Catholic Church nearly 500 years ago.

Father Behan and First Lutheran Pastor Mark Solyst held separate worship times for their flocks on Sunday mornings, but Maundy Thursday, Christ's Last Supper with his disciples, presented a special challenge. Both congregations were used to an evening service. According to a 2007 history of First Lutheran Church written by Donald Gustafson, "A logical but improbable solution was suggested--a joint Lutheran-Catholic communion!"

Mass with the Lutherans apparently proved too much for Behan's Bishop, Father John Nienstedt, then Bishop of New Ulm. Behan was reprimanded, and shipped off to serve two small parishes in the southwestern Minnesota. He's since retired in his native Ireland.

I emailed Behan to ask about Nienstedt's censure of his ecumenical work with the Lutherans. He wrote back:

"The people of St. Peter, in the aftermath of the tornadoes, prayed together, worked together, shared resources and worship spaces, cared together for those who lost property, their health and even a child, to such an extent that it was ecumenism in action. Many of the barriers between different churches disappeared and we were uplifted and joyful as a result. There are so many great stories from that period that 'that all may be one' (Ut unum sint) that we treasure the spiritual progress to this day. This was one of the silver linings in the tragedy that happened. I do not wish to speak about the differences with Bishop John Nienstedt except to say that although 'That all might be one' is his motto, he seemed to need to control everything rather than pastorally make the motto happen."

According to Archdiocese spokesman Jim Accurso, relations with the Lutherans are "good" and the Archbishop had another unspecified engagement.

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Campaign Finance Board to investigate marriage amendment backers

Posted at 8:00 PM on March 9, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Marriage amendment

The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board has agreed to investigate complaints against two groups supporting the constitutional amendment that would ban same sex marriage.

The complaints were filed by Common Cause last month, and allege Minnesota for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council broke Minnesota's disclosure laws. In the complaint filed against Minnesota for Marriage, Common Cause executive director Mike Dean wrote, "MFM filed a false report with the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board by not itemizing and disclosing the names of all individuals who contributed more than $100 to MFM's campaign in support of the Marriage Amendment."

Minnesota for Marriage listed the names of seven donors, accounting for $2,119 of the $830,105.60 it raised. Most of the money came from the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Minnesota Family Council Marriage Protection Fund and the National Organization for Marriage, which is currently fighting to protect the identify of its donors in Maine.

In a letter to Common Cause, CFB executive director Gary Goldsmith wrote:

The Board's undertaking of this investigation signifies only that the complaint met the minimal threshold to require an investigation. It should not be taken as an indication of what the Board's ultimate findings will be.

Minnesota for Marriage did not immediately respond to MPR News' request for comment. Previously, spokesman Chuck Darrell called the complaint "baseless."

Common Cause also called for the Board to charge John Helmberger, CEO of the Minnesota Family Council and chairman of Minnesota for Marriage, with a gross misdemeanor for signing what Common Cause calls "a false report."

Helmberger sent an email to supporters earlier this week with the subject line, "They want me in jail" and asked for financial support to defend the organization against what he called "this baseless attack."

Helmberger told his supporters "Let me state emphatically: even though new campaign finance regulations exceed the requirements of the law and violate our Constitutional rights, I have followed them to a "T."

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Minneapolis Lutherans oppose marriage amendment

Posted at 9:44 PM on February 17, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (14 Comments)
Filed under: Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Politics

The Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a resolution this evening opposing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples.

Made up of 155 congregations from Anoka, Carver, Hennepin, Isanti, Scott, and parts of Sherburne and Wright counties, the synod represents nearly 190,000 baptized members.

The resolution opposes the amendment that would "would prevent one group of committed couples and their families from pursuing ordinary legislative or legal means to gain the support and protections afforded to all other."

In 2004, the Minneapolis Synod opposed any effort to rewrite the federal or state constitutions to forbid the the creation of legally recognized relationships between same sex couples.

In 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the national group, voted to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy.

The resolution takes pains to point out Lutherans may "hold various convictions regarding lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships," nevertheless, the church "has called upon congregations and members of this church to welcome, care for, and support same-gender couples and their families and to advocate for their legal protection."

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Oral Roberts' gay grandson to preach tolerance in Minnesota

Posted at 6:00 AM on October 21, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (1 Comments)
Filed under: Marriage amendment

Randy Roberts Potts has been invited by Andrew's Round Table, a group opposed to Minnesota's marriage amendment, to give a series of public lectures Oct. 23-26 called "A Place at the Table." The 37-year-old grandson of the late, legendary televangelist Oral Roberts hasn't had a place at his family's table since coming out of the closet in 2005. "I haven't been invited home for the holidays since I came out," said Potts in a telephone interview from his home in Dallas.

But the writer and father of three says he's determined to show "faith and homosexuality don't conflict. There really is a middle ground."

A year ago, Potts made his coming out story more public, producing a video for the It Gets Better series on YouTube. It's a letter to his uncle, Ronald "Ronnie" Roberts, Oral Roberts' eldest son who committed suicide thirty years ago. When Randy was going through his own coming out process, a relative informed him Ronnie too had been gay.

"It was upsetting to hear this man I had always idolized had been gay and I had never even known about it," said Potts. "I was having such a rough time coming out that it felt like almost like he committed suicide right then. Just all of sudden it was fresh and really tragic."

In the video, Potts says, "A bullet was the only example he left."

It's an example Potts didn't want to follow and he says he wants to spare other young evangelicals that pain. "So my message to them is, 'It's OK. That God loves you. You can have a wonderful life and you're not going to hell.'"

Potts says he hears from a lot of young Christians who are distressed about being gay. The other group he tends to hear from are older gays and lesbians "that came of age when my grandfather was on television a lot [in the 1960s and 70s]...they say it means a lot to them to hear me tell my story because...their parents took what they saw as Oral's message of anti-homosexuality to heart and used it against them."

Potts will be speaking next week in Minneapolis, Winona and Rosemount.

He's hoping to be back in Minnesota next year with a new project he's launching called"The Gay Agenda." The touring performance will set up in rented storefronts in conservative small towns. "Inside will be a gay couple being domestic. They'll vacuum, play cards, have visitors over and eat dinner and that kind of thing." Potts and his boyfriend will test out a five-hour fishbowl stint at an upcoming Dallas art fair that he promises will be very boring.

"We're always accused of having an 'agenda' and if we do, it's the human agenda of loving one another and living in peace and harmony and being domestic."

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Marriage amendment booth pops up at fair

Posted at 5:06 PM on September 2, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (13 Comments)
Filed under: Marriage amendment

I had previously reported supporters of the 2012 marriage ballot amendment (that would define marriage as between one man and one woman) and opponents (those who favor marriage rights for same sex couples) missed the deadline for state fair booths, but there's an update to the story.

Minnesota for Marriage, a coalition backed by the Minnesota Family Council, the Minnesota Catholic Conference and National Organization for Marriage announced yesterday that it has moved operations inside the fair.

"Initially, our coalition could not secure space inside the fairgrounds, so we set up just outside in front of the Church of the Holy Childhood," John Helmberger, Minnesota For Marriage coalition chairman said in a press release. "Thankfully, we have been able to secure space inside the fair itself, and are now set up at Underwood St. and Wright Avenue, positioned directly under the Wright Avenue sign."

Meanwhile, on the other side, Donald McFarland, project director of Minnesotans United for All Families told MPR News, "I'm sure the Minnesota State Fair hasn't chosen sides in this controversial issue. I'm sure there's a logical explanation for why suddenly, in the middle of the fair, a booth appeared overnight." McFarland said his group was told in July that the fair was sold out of concession space.

Fair spokesperson Lara Hughes wrote in an email: "Minnesota for Marriage submitted a registration requesting a license on August 31, they met all the requirements and we secured a location for them. If the Minnesotans United for All Families organization were to submit a registration requesting a license, we would certainly consider it."

McFarland says he intends to follow up with the Fair. "We talked with the Concessions and Exhibits Staff. They were very clear that they were accepting no new vendors and that we could apply for next year."

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