Trump's Education Secretary DeVos Presents Commencement Address at Bethune-Cookman University: Things Do Not Go Well for Her

Mr. Trump's Secretary of Education (and right-wing Christian activist) Betsy DeVos was the commencement speaker yesterday at the historically black United Methodist university founded by Mary McLeod Bethune, Bethune-Cookman University. Things did not go well.

The Story of the Refusal of the Episcopal Cathedral in Orlando to Baptize the Son of a Gay Couple: My Reflections

For a variety of reasons, I've been following with some interest the story of the refusal of Anthony Clark, dean of the Episcopal cathedral in Orlando, St. Luke, to baptize the baby of a married gay couple, Rich and Eric McCaffrey. I first became aware of the story a few days ago when Faithful America sent out an email asking people to sign a petition calling on the bishop of the diocese, Greg Brewer, to assure that no priest in his diocese refuse baptism to a child on the basis of the sexual orientation of the parents. The petition states,

Struggle for Gay Welcome and Inclusion in United Methodist Churches: A Report from the Ground, Tampa, Florida

The struggle about justice and inclusion, about love and compassion for those who are made gay by God, is hardly confined to the Catholic church, by the way. For a gripping (and painful) report about this struggle within a single United Methodist congregation--Palma Ceia UMC in Tampa, Florida--read John Masters's recent posting at his Deep Something blog site. John has been a United Methodist for 54 years, and has been working patiently and assiduously in recent years to help his Palma Ceia church fashion a truly hospitable space for gay people seeking a church home.

What's the Matter with Florida?!

To borrow from the title of Thomas Frank’s outstanding 2005 book about the tendency of heartland voters to vote against their own economic interest in voting neo-conservative: what’s the matter with Florida?

As I’ve noted before on this blog, Steve and I own a house in Florida that we’d druther not have bought, and which we bought by being foolish enough to respond to empty promises about tolerance and inclusion on the part of someone who is, sadly, unable to tolerate and include openly gay people in her life.

What happened to us when we believed those empty promises and went to Florida to assist a “friend” who turned out not to be a friend, and now the added fact of owning a house in Florida—this gives us an interest in what is happening in a community in whose history and future we are now implicated despite our own wishes.

Consequently, I follow Florida news—especially news about the fate of LGBT people in a state I found to be aggressively homophobic, though I also know many wonderful folks there—with avid interest. I’m interested today in reports that are everywhere on blog sites, about a St. Petersburg Democratic legislator, Darryl Rouson, who states, “I think that lesbianism and homosexuality is morally wrong and the law's supposed to discriminate sometimes” (www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=923673E8FBB802245E9AA344D5881F0F?diaryId=6404; www.bilerico.com/2008/08/disturbing_video_the_law_supposed_to_dis.php;
www.towleroad.com/2008/08/florida-democra.html).

Rep. Rouson made that astonishing statement in a 2006 television interview in which he addressed the issue of gay adoption. In the interview, Rouson proposes that children raised in households headed by same-sex parents suffer psychological damage.

As the blogsites referenced above indicate, Rep. Rouson is now trying to back off his inflammatory statements, perhaps because he is in a tight race for his seat. His opponent, also a Democrat, Charles McKenzie, is a Baptist minister who happens to be for gay equality and opposed to attempts to forbid adoption rights to gay couples.

Both men are also, as it happens, African American—a fact that makes Rep. Rouson’s statement that “the law's supposed to discriminate sometimes” particularly odious. When people who experience discrimination turn around and discriminate against other marginalized groups—when people who oppose discrimination advocate it for others who are denied rights—those discriminatory people totally undermine their own claims to justice.

I haven’t seen anyone reporting on this, but it seems to me that Rep. Rouson’s claims that children raised by same-sex parents suffer psychological damage makes his own track record as a parent fair game for those who find his claim about same-sex parenting to be bigoted balderdash. I find on the website of Bob Andelman a 2003 assessment of Rouson as a lawyer (a very positive assessment) that has disturbing information about his own parental role modeling and commitment to family values.

Rouson has been married three times. His second wife died tragically of breast cancer. The first marriage ended in divorce due to Rouson’s drug habits—and led to a long-standing estrangement between him and his daughters of that marriage. To his credit, Rouson has gone through rehab for his drug habits, which reappeared as his second wife died. He is now married for the third time.

My point in bringing up this biographical information is quite simply as follows: when someone claims that children are automatically psychologically damaged by living in a household headed by same-sex parents, but when that same someone has had a failed marriage due to drug abuse, and when that failure has resulted in estrangement from his own children, it would seem fitting for that someone to look at the possibility that heterosexual marriages can inflict psychological damage, before attacking the marriages of same-sex couples.

Rouson is not the only high-profile Florida political leader to weigh in on gay rights issues as the state faces a vote to add a ban to gay marriage to its constitution. Recently, Governor Charlie Crist stated that he supports the proposed amendment banning gay marriage (www.ocala.com/article/20080805/NEWS/808052035/1402/NEWS&title=Crist_says_he_ll_support__tax_swap__vote_in_November).

Yes, Charlie Crist. Yes, that Charlie Crist. Yes, the “longtime bachelor” who announced his engagement (the spouse-to-be is Carole Rome) on 4 July, as rumors abounded that he was being vetted by John McCain for the vice-presidential slot.

As I’ve said before on this blog, what an opportunity the churches in Florida have today to teach basic civic virtues such as tolerance, inclusion, respect for everybody and in particular for the marginalized, open conversation about civic matters in which everyone has a place at the table). What an educational opportunity the churches have in a state in which homophobia continues to trouble Florida communities, and even manifests itself in ugly incidents of violence.

And with that opportunity, what a marvelous model Florida churches have in the town-hall meetings developed by the prophetic African-American leader and founder of a Methodist college, Mary McLeod Bethune. In this period following a United Methodist General Conference in which the United Methodist Church challenges its member churches and the institutions they sponsor, what could be more appropriate than for the Methodist bishop of Florida, Timothy Whitaker, and the president of the university Dr. Bethune founded, Trudie Kibbe Reed, to re-institute Dr. Bethune’s town-hall meetings—with a particular focus on the issue of educating about and including gay, lesbian, and transgendered citizens of the state in civic life?

Churches place great (and understandable) emphasis on reaching the culture in a transformative way. This is a hallmark of Methodism in particular. When social need is great, and when models to meet that need are embedded in institutions sponsored by a particular church, it seems unthinkable that the church would not consider adapting those models to meet contemporary social needs, doesn't it? Particularly so, when churches wish to be taken seriously as they talk about their mission and values . . . .

Hate Crime in Daytona Beach: The Continuing Pertinence of Mary McLeod Bethune

News of a horrible hate crime in Daytona Beach. According to Mark I. Johnson and Seth Robbins, “Driver Charged with Hate Crime after Bicyclist Run Down,” yesterday Thomas Darryl Cosby was charged with a hate crime after he deliberately ran down an African-American woman the day before (www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02EAST071608.htm). Simply because she is black.

The allegation is that, Monday evening, Cosby ran his sedan off the street in Daytona Beach, careening into Mekeda Cato, who suffered a badly broken leg and internal injuries. His car then crashed, at which point, Cosby emerged from it, inciting bystanders to racial violence and shouting that African Americans should be returned to Africa.

This story catches my attention for a number of reasons. First, it’s a story illustrating the violence to which minority communities are still all too frequently subjected. And when such events occur, news coverage is often spotty and localized. We all, as part of the body politic, need to listen more carefully to the stories told by members of various minority communities about violence to which they are subjected, simply because they belong to a marginalized group.

Second, Steve and I lived for over a year in Port Orange, which happens to be where Mr. Cosby also lives. In fact, we own a house there, one we have been unable to sell, since we acquired it as a result of promises made to us that were revoked after we made the crucial decision to put ourselves in debt by purchasing the house.

So I feel a certain personal connection with this story. We often biked along the sidewalks of this city and neighboring ones, including Daytona Beach.

Third, as readers of this blog know, I have a very strong interest in the life and work of that important 20th-century African-American educator, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. Dr. Bethune founded a college in Daytona Beach, now known as Bethune-Cookman University.

As various postings on this blog have noted, Dr. Bethune developed a powerful pedagogical theory underscoring the links between education and participatory democracy. As did Bayard Rustin, the African-American Quaker thinker-activist whose work I have also cited frequently, Dr. Bethune considered American democracy unfinished business.

Both of these prophetic black leaders noted that democracy is an ideal that has not yet been fully realized. Both maintained that democracy will be realized—will be extended, will move from ideal to real—as the body politic recognizes that some groups within our society are disenfranchised and must be brought to the table.

Both Dr. Bethune and Bayard Rustin stressed the need for safe spaces in which marginal communities can come together with the mainstream community for dialogue, interaction, and development of a vision of the common good that will serve the needs of all. Dr. Bethune built such town-gown meetings into the educational philosophy and practice of the college she founded.

In these meetings, Dr. Bethune modeled the kind of inclusivity that she challenged American democracy to develop. Dr. Bethune’s town-gown meetings gave no privileged place to any group. In a time and place in which whites were expected to occupy seats of honor and blacks to sit at the back of the room, Dr. Bethune opened her doors to everyone, with the provision that people sit where they could find seating.

By eradicating preferential seating—a radical act in the time and place in which she lived—Mary McLeod Bethune demonstrated to her community what participatory democracy is all about: it’s about bringing everyone to the table, providing an equal place for everyone, and listening respectfully to everyone across lines that divide us. Dr. Bethune’s town-gown meetings abolished the lines that divide, at least for the space of the meeting itself.

In the leadership team she developed for her college, Dr. Bethune also sought to model such inclusivity and such abolition of racial lines. Dr. Bethune’s leadership team deliberately brought together people from across racial lines. She stressed the need for her students to be taught by people from all racial backgrounds, from all walks of life, since they would be functioning in a pluralistic society.

As the story from Daytona Beach that begins this posting illustrates, Florida still struggles, along with the rest of the nation, to build participatory democracy. Racial divisions remain strong in Daytona Beach, and in many parts of Florida.

As I have noted before, Bishop Timothy Whitaker, bishop of the Florida United Methodist Conference which sponsors Bethune-Cookman University, has a premier chance today to develop a model that would put into practice the recent UMC General Conference’s challenge to Methodists to educate themselves and others about discrimination. The university founded by Mary McLeod Bethune, which is under Bishop Whitaker’s pastoral jurisdiction, offers a rich opportunity for Bishop Whitaker and Florida Methodists to develop workshops and educational programs that explore marginalization and its effects in Florida communities.

With the heritage bequeathed by its founder, Bethune-Cookman University can continue to play a significant role in modeling participatory democracy and in educating for participatory democracy both locally and internationally. The recent decision of the United Methodist Church to place the current president of Bethune-Cookman University, Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed, on its University Senate is another opportunity for Dr. Bethune's university to demonstrate to the church at large what Dr. Bethune’s legacy means in practice. Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed is a distinguished African-American educator and a Methodist leader. Her placement on this important Methodist university body holds much promise to bring the legacy of Dr. Bethune into a wider community.

As the story of Mr. Cosby’s horrific assault on Ms. Cato indicates, we have much work to do—and Florida has much work to do—to overcome violence against minorities in our communities. What better way to begin the process than by following the path set before us by Mary McLeod Bethune—by developing safe spaces to bring various communities together for dialogue; by developing inclusive structures of educational leadership that model the kind of inclusivity we seek to teach students; and by moving our churches’ rhetoric about social healing beyond the rhetorical level to actual practice?

And, it goes without saying, such new models of educational leadership in church-sponsored colleges and universities absolutely have to deal with questions of marginalization due to sexual orientation. I’m reminded of this crucial need in Florida by a recent email I received from Chuck Wolfe, president of Victory Fund, a Florida political organization committed to pursuing rights for the LGBT community in Florida.

The email I received begins by stating,

Not every state with a big LGBT community is friendly to LGBT rights. Take Florida – where it’s still legal to fire employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity alone. Gays and lesbians also can’t adopt, and committed same-sex couples have zero partnership rights.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that Florida is the largest state to have never elected an openly LGBT state legislator.

There’s work to do in Florida. I’m pleased that the school founded by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune is on the scene, continuing to embody the ideals of Dr. Bethune. I encourage Bishop Whitaker and Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed to continue developing Dr. Bethune’s educational model for a local community in which the need is obviously so acute. With the historic first represented by Mr. Obama's bid for the presidency, we have a chance today for a renewed dialogue about race (and other forms of marginalization) in American democracy. Institutions like Bethune-Cookman University, with the rich legacy of Mary McLeod Bethune, have a singular opportunity to contribute to this dialogue.