Religious Institute

Eight faith-based, LGBT advocacy organizations are joining forces this week (Feb. 4) to launch The American Prayer Hour, with events scheduled in seven cities nationwide. The American Prayer Hour, created to celebrate diversity and inclusive values, also counters The National Prayer Breakfast, whose sponsors include organizations linked to the proposed anti-gay legislation under consideration in Uganda. 

Sponsors of The American Prayer Hour Hour include:  Religion and Faith Program, Human Rights Campaign; National Black Justice Coalition; Religion, Faith and Values Program, GLAAD; National Religious Leadership Roundtable, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; PFLAG;Metropolitan Community Churches; Full Equality Now DC; and Truth Wins Out.  Their announcement -- including ways you can get involved -- appears below.

We are about to embark on a historic mission to stop persecution of LGBT people in Uganda and we want you to be a key part of our vision.

On February 4^th, we are launching The American Prayer Hour. It is a multi-city affirmation of inclusive values and a celebration of diversity. It is also an action to protest the sponsors of The National Prayer Breakfast, which will take place on February 4 in Washington, DC.

While The National Prayer Breakfast is ostensibly a benign event, it is hosted by a secretive fundamentalist organization, The Family, which is directly tied to the draconian “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda. We strongly urge those invited to the National Prayer Breakfast to reconsider attending the event. Instead, they can join us at our American Prayer Hour.

The American Prayer Hour will be anchored by events in the following cities:

• Dallas—Creating Change (Sheraton Dallas – Dallas Ballroom A)
• Chicago Theological Seminary (The Chapel)
• Berkeley–Pacific School of Religion (The Chapel)
• Washington, DC (Calvary Baptist Church, Chapel)
• Anchorage, AK (Church Life Alaska)
• Boynton Beach, FL (Church of Our Savior, MCC)

Get Involved

If you live in a city where an American Prayer Hour event is already occurring, please consider attending.

1. If you are interested in creating an American Prayer Hour event in your hometown, please contact Wayne Besen, wbesen@truthwinsout.org.
2. Spread the word about the American Prayer Hour and the truth behind the National Prayer Breakfast
3. Pray where you are—wherever you are—for a world safe for all families regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

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Press Conference.

Nearly all unmarried young adults believe in planning for pregnancy and say that it is important for them to avoid pregnancy right now. Yet only half of them use contraception regularly, including nearly one in five who are sexually active and have not used any contraceptive method for the past three months.

These findings are part of a new report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, titled The Fog Zone: How Misperceptions, Magical Thinking, and Ambivalence Put Young Adults at Risk for Unplanned Pregnancy. The report is the first to focus in depth on the attitudes and behaviors of young single men and women regarding pregnancy planning, contraception and related issues.

Read the report here. 

Maternal deaths in developing countries could be reduced by 70% and newborn deaths cut nearly in half if global investments in family planning and pregnancy-related care were doubled, according to a new report by the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Currently, more than half a million maternal deaths and 3.5 million newborn deaths, many of them easily preventable, occur every year in developing countries.

The new report, titled Adding It Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health, found that investments in family planning boost the overall effectiveness of every dollar spent on the provision of pregnancy-related and newborn health care. Simultaneously investing in family planning and maternal and newborn services can achieve the same dramatic outcomes for $1.5 billion less than investing in maternal and newborn health services alone, the report says.

The Religious Institute has announced a new program for 2010, the Rachel Sabbath Initiative, to engage faith communities in educating their congregants about the crisis of maternal mortality worldwide.  To learn more, click here.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS CALL “CALL TO CONSCIENCE” UNJUST
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE RESPONDS TO THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION

Westport, CT, Nov. 23, 2009 – The Manhattan Declaration, endorsed by the most conservative religious leaders in America's religious life, is once again a political call against women’s moral agency and the rights of lesbian and gay persons masquerading in religious language. These religious leaders would have us believe that they will be forced to provide abortions or bless same sex marriages against their religious principles. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Faith leaders across the political spectrum support religious freedom, the right of each religion to determine its own rites and practices, as well as freedom of the pulpit. Mainstream and progressive religious leaders differ from conservatives in our belief that no single religious voice can speak for all faith traditions on abortion or LGBT equality, nor should government take sides on religious differences. We oppose any attempt to make specific religious doctrine concerning the rights of women and LGBT persons the law for all Americans.

Ten years ago, a multifaith group of religious leaders issued the Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing, a 500-word call for sexual justice that affirms full inclusion of women and LGBT persons and a faith-based commitment to reproductive rights. Today, the Religious Declaration has been endorsed by 3,300 religious leaders, including denomination and seminary presidents, from more than 50 faith traditions. Its positions on reproductive justice and LGBT equality reflect the majority opinions of American citizens, faithful and secular alike. Neither the Manhattan Declaration, nor the handful of Catholic bishops and evangelical leaders who created it, speak for most Christians, much less people of other faiths.

Download this press release here.