Jon O'Brien, President, Catholics for Choice

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Jon O’Brien, President of Catholics for Choice. The interview took place first thing on a Monday morning and, I have to say, listening to this activist’s enthusiasm and morally courageous approach to his work was the perfect way to begin my week.

Catholics for Choice (CFC) is an organization that seeks to represent Catholics who “disagree with the dictates of the Vatican on matters related to sex, marriage, family life and motherhood.” Jon states that the goal of CFC is to “be an example of Catholicism as lived by normal people” with “an understanding of the world in which we live.” Jon states the leadership have “misunderstandings about sex that have nothing to do with how people live.”

CFC is largely concerned about ending poverty and does a significant amount of work overseas. Jon points out that the Vatican’s attacks on choice do not make as deep an impact in the U.S. as they do internationally. For instance, in the U.S. a Catholic can easily practice the “right to disagree” with the leadership over birth control by going to any drug store to buy condoms or taking the pill, however those in the global south do not have such luxuries. This is why so many Catholics find it so offensive for the church leadership to lobby the UN against the distribution of condoms.

Although the “uber conservative” Catholic world vision states Catholics must obey leadership regardless of their views, Jon says that is not a Catholic teaching. In fact, Jon informed me that as a Catholic, “you are required to follow your conscience.”

Galileo

I asked Jon to give me an example of such a heritage in the Catholic faith. “Imagine how Galileo’s mother felt,” he said to me. After all, “it took the Vatican 1000 years to forgive him for having scientific integrity and speaking the truth.”

Jon also gave the examples of Ted Kennedy and Kevin Dowling, a priest in South Africa who believes that the Catholic hierarchy must change their teachings from one that claims to be “open to life” to one that tries to prevent death.

Similar to Dowling, Kennedy, and Galileo; CFC has come under severe scrutiny from the hierarchy of the Church. However, Jon derives his moral courage comes from the “knowledge that what we are saying is the truth.”

Having come from a religion with similar troubling positions regarding women and sex, I was curious where CFC stands on working with Catholics who choose to leave the faith. Jon says he is “deeply hurt” to hear of people who have been wounded by the leadership of the church, especially women and gays. However, Jon says that he respects “the moral courage involved in saying ‘I need to go.’”

Bishop Kevin Dowling

According to Jon, those who have left the faith “have a great sensitivity of how the institution hurts people” and “of course” they can stay involved in the movement.

On the other hand, Jon says that he and others at CFC stay in the Church not because they are afraid to leave, “but because we are the Church. The Church is a community of people, the hierarchy and ownership does not reside in the Bishops.”

Jon joked that CFC should be given a retainer for all those who have remained in the faith because of the presence of the organization. Jon meets Catholics all the time who have been struggling about “how to stay Catholic” given their views. People often express relief after discovering CFC and remark how great it is to have “representation” after feeling alone in their views for so long.

I was touched by Jon’s dedication to his religion despite the seemingly many roadblocks to his faith. It all seemed to come together, however, when he put it this way: “We are each asked to stand up. If we don’t, there will be nothing left to stand up for.”

Arsham Parsi

Arsham Parsi is the founder of the Iranian Queer Railroad (IRQR), an organization that supports Iranians who have fled their country due to Iran’s harsh punishments against gays and lesbians. IRQR provides support ranging from safe houses and funds to education about rights. The organization operates out of Canada, where Arsham settled after escaping Iran out of fear for his own safety.

I chose to write about Arsham because of the impressive way he has taken a stand in his community, despite the backlash that caused him to flee his country of birth. Besides the retaliation he faced from Iran’s government, Arsham has also confronted hostility from some in the Iranian queer community itself.

He explains that many Iranians don’t understand the concept of volunteer work or activism in the way North Americans do.  Many don’t believe that he would strive so hard out of sheer passion. So he’s often accused of trying to benefit himself.

After nine years of activism, Arsham still receives regular threats against his safety and reputation. However, he points out that while dealing with backlash is a constant part of his work, the negative messages “are nothing” compared to the supportive messages that he receives.

Arsham says that while negative attacks are personal, he tries to take them in stride: “It’s not all about me anymore; it’s about all of those who are looking forward to my activities in order to have a little bit more freedom. I can tolerate it when some people say something harmful against me. Because it is not just my rights, it is everybody’s rights.”

While IRQR operates without any paid staff, it boasts an impressive success rate. More than 70% of IRQR’s clients have gained refugee status or are in the middle of the resettlement process. IRQR is quite successful in assisting refugees with financial support from private donations.

IRQR recently gained official nonprofit status in Canada and is working to expand  its visibility and impact.  For example, the organization would like to boost its use of volunteers in the next
year to help with writing reports. And the more fundraisers that supporters can organized, the better!

If you’re interested in helping IRQR, email them here.

The idea of an “underground railroad” for queer Iranians is a brilliant update to the underground railroad used by American slaves in the 19th century. This analogy is just another way of understanding that human rights truly are universal. The strategies for securing those rights can cross borders, and centuries, too.

I asked Arsham what he would say to other young activists who, living in an era of instant gratification, are easily discouraged by the lack of immediate results.  He replies eloquently: “Defeat, defeat, defame, but finally success — if we learn from our mistakes.”

For our midterm we were asked to write a “manifesto” to describe how we will apply the concept of moral courage in our lives.Here is a small excerpt from my manifesto:

• I vow to continually bear witness, “like a woman bears a child, with all her might, born out of the greatest pain, into a Grand Canyon of light” (Ani DiFranco).  I will protect my ability to bear witness by refusing to accept moderation when it comes to my core beliefs and morals.

• I vow to give emotional shelter to others who display moral courage and have faced backlash for doing so. When given the opportunity, I will mother, support, and comfort those who have been rejected by their own.

How can I learn to be morally courageous?

I sensed a lot of ambivalence from my classmates about completing the assignment. I think this exercise taught many of us that we need to better understand how we individually exhibit moral courage in our lives, if at all.

Through my experience with the class, and my later experience as Campaign Manager for the Moral Courage Project (MCP), I have become interested in how to help people “learn” to be morally courageous.

I believe that one of the best ways to encourage people to be bold and speak truth to power is to expose real stories about how every day people all over the world are doing it. If the MCP can show through these stories how empowering if can be to speak truth to power I am sure a chain reaction will start with people applying these concepts in their lives.

Why is it so hard to pin-point moral courage? Perhaps it is because moral courage is more than mere bravery. It is more than joining a movement or marching in a demonstration. Those with moral courage bring the movement to their own communities and explore how we are perpetuating injustice locally. Moral courage requires one to act even in the absence of a movement.

The notion of “grassroots organizing” has become very popular in the U.S. in recent years. I often wonder, though, if those who use the term really know what is meant by it.  By definition, grassroots activism is undertaken to effect change by those who stand to be most impacted by the change. It cannot be effectively demonstrated without the presence of moral courage, without the willingness to confront your community, and yourself, for that is where the prospect for the most change lies.

I look forward to using this blog to explore the variety of ways that people exhibit moral courage in their lives. And I welcome you to share your thoughts with me about who should be featured on this blog.

Part of the mission of the Moral Courage Project is to encourage and promote the free exchange of ideas. Because this is so important to us we have created the following list of “tips” for new bloggers with the hope that more readers will take the plunge and start using blogs such as ours as a platform for critical thought and self-expression.

Practicing expressing yourself online is the perfect way to obtain more self confidence and be morally courageous in all aspects of life! We hope this will be a helpful resource and welcome any feedback on what MCP can do to help new bloggers.

Tips for new bloggers

1) Where do I leave my comments?

Click here for easy to follow instructions on responding to posts on www.moralcourage.com.

2) Start small.

The best way to get used to blogging is to join, or start a conversation by leaving a comment on one of our posts. MCP offers a safe, supportive place to express yourself. The more you practice by sharing conversations the easier and more fun it will become.

“I leave comments on blogs to correct any mis-information I feel needs to be challenged, to educate people on topics that I feel I have a good amount of knowledge about, to bring up other related but neglected issues, and to test my theories and stances on things by making them public and allowing other people who care about the issue to criticize me and bring new ideas to light that I may have never thought about. It’s all about having an open mind and the pursuit of the truth whether convenient or not. The pursuit of truth is, or should be, the holy grail of the blogosphere!”–AnthonyNYC

3) Don’t post and run

Readers don’t like bloggers who don’t respond to comments. You don’t have to respond to each comment individually, but you should be engaging your readers.

4) Be brave, support each other. Blogging can be tough, because people often act more aggressively online than they would in person. If you are feeling nervous about sharing your opinions, take the plunge!

An open mind is a terrible thing to waste. All you have to lose are your misconceptions.

“I’m not much of a blogger so I was hesitant to post anything on the Moral Courage website at first. Although I do consider myself a writer, I was strangely intimidated by the thought of posting my opinion on there. After posting my first reply, however, I felt very comfortable expressing myself on the site. I encourage anyone who feels they have something to say about any of the topics listed, to go ahead and post your opinion no matter how strange, random or irrelevant it may seem to you, lol. After the first post, it gets easier.” GenesisBe

5) Prime the pump

Oftentimes, readers don’t comment on a site because they are waiting to see what the culture of that blog is like, or see what other people have to say first. But there is a kind of herd mentality – people will sit back and wait for someone else to make a comment first. We can support one another’s writing by priming the pump and leaving comments on one another’s posts.

6) Shorter=better. Really!

Short posts and comments receive more views and prompt more responses because they are easier to read. If you have a lot to say about a topic, consider writing a blog post about it, or breaking one post into several. Be creative; consider writing a “series” of posts related to the same topic.

If you have a lot to say when responding to a post or comment, save some of your thoughts and spread them over the length of the conversation. Remember, the goal is to facilitate dialog, if you have a lot to say you don’t have to say it all at once.

7) Use specific headlines. If writing a blog post, use a title that is creative and specific as possible. Readers want to know what a post is about before they will start to read.

If you are responding to a post, consider using a creative title to attract people to your comment and solicit a response.

Share a conversation, start a global dialog.

Get started today!

Thank you to Serena Freewomyn for help with the blogging tips!