YouTube: First Gay Christian Wedding in Thailand

NOW ON YOUTUBE-

FIRST GAY CHRISTIAN WEDDING IN THAILAND

Officiated by Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson, newly named Other Sheep Coordinator for Thailand

Facebook page of Wedding Sahrah & Ngorh 11.11.11

BRONX, NY

by Rev. Stephen Parelli

February 12, 2012

In an email to Steve Parelli dated February 7, 2012, Ken Dobson reported: "This [YouTube video] is evidence of perhaps the first authentic Christian wedding of an open lesbian couple in Thailand. Anyhow, it was a good day here in Chiang Mai."

Rev. Dr Kenneth Dobson (right)
with his husband
(legally married in Iowa, USA)
Pramote of Thailand

In his November 2011 annual report to Other Sheep, Ken wrote: "On November 11 (2011) I will conduct Thailand's first Christian wedding of a lesbian couple. There have been other weddings of an indigenous nature (sometimes with a nominal Buddhist element), but there are no Christian pastors who are willing to break with tradition and risk reprobation."

Ken Dobson, who officiated the wedding, has a long history of ministry in Thailand, and, in more recent years, a unique ministry with and among LGBT people of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In 2009, my partner Jose and I had the privilege of meeting Rev. Ken, staying in his home, and meeting some of the LGBT people among whom he ministers. At that time, Rev. Ken published some of his writings on our Other Sheep web site and assumed an active role of keeping Other Sheep abreast of his ministry in Thailand. Subsequent to the Other Sheep annual meeting of November 11, 2011, Ken accepted the role of Other Sheep Coordinator for Thailand.

In November of 2010, Ken spoke on a panel at a World AIDS Day weekend event on "Same Sex Marriage in Thailand." You can see his outline notes that he prepared for the panel discussion by clicking here and scrolling to the right.

Our "Mystical" Visit to Thailand this New Year's Day 2011

by Rev. Stephen Parelli, Bronx, NY.  January 6, 2011

Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson (right)
and spouse Pramote, Summer 2009

Jose and I visited Thailand in the summer of 2009.  We met many wonderful people in Chiang Mai, Mae Sot, and Bangkok.  In Chiang Mai we met Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson and his spouse Pramote (legally married in Iowa, USA, fall of 2009) and had the privilege of staying in their home and meeting many of the young LGBT people to whom they minister.  Since then, Ken has been a contributing writer to the Other Sheep website.

Where Jose and I were slept as
guests in the home of Ken
and Pramote, Summer 2009

On New Year's Day 2011, we received an interesting email from Ken.  He wrote:  "Thanks to a visit from [a Beijing contact you made this past summer], I feel mystically in touch with you two."  While in Beijing this past summer (2010), Jose and I met a gay Christian who was moving to Bangkok for work.  We told him we would put him in touch with Ken.  Ken was able to put our gay Christian  friend from Beijing in touch with a gay Thai Christian living in Bangkok.  Turns out the two young men have formed a meaningful friendship --- and for New Year's Day they made the trip to Chiang Mai to visit Ken and Pramote and celebrate New Year's Day with the LGBT Thais.  Hence, Ken was "feel[ing] mystically in touch" with Jose and me. 

Some of the LGBT Thais that Ken
and Pramote minister to, Summer 2009

While we were in Chiang Mai in 2009, one of the LGBT young people had invited us to come back for their annual New Year's LGBT celebration.  It sounded wonderful but it was a bit out of reach for us (to have to travel from New York City) and, to say the obvious, we didn't make it for New Year's Day 2010.

Steve (left) and Jose
at the Forbidden City,
Beijing, China, Summer 2010

However, this New Year's Day (2011) celebration was a bit different.  Even though we weren't there in person, the contact that we had made in Beijing this past summer was there in Ken's home along with his new Thai friend from Bangkok.  For Ken, in some kind of "mystical sense" Jose and I were there.  Ken said the Beijing friend and he swapped stories of how their meeting Other Sheep came about. 

For Jose and me -- well, we still haven't made it to the Chiang Mai LGBT's celebration of their New Year's Day, but this year we were there is some kind of special way!  What a thrill, what a blessing, networking on behalf of LGBT people worldwide.

Jesus Was Gay? Yes, he was, Sir Elton John!

 by The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson
Presbyterian minister
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Other Sheep Advisor for Asia

I read this week that Sir Elton John has made headlines claiming that Jesus was gay. The quote was:  JESUS was GAY - according to the gospel of SIR ELTON JOHN.  Source: An article by US Editor Pete Samson in the February 19th Internet issue of The Sun.

The singer makes his controversial claim about the Lord in a new US interview that will enrage America's Bible belt.

Elton, 62, declares as he pours out his heart to a magazine: "I think Jesus was compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems."

He adds: "Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East - you're as good as dead."

I am ready to agree that Jesus was gay.

I am not only ready to accept, I am ready to insist, that Jesus was gay, black, feminine, Hispanic (in Texas, for example), Christian (in Burma, for example), a migrant, an immigrant, a liberal, and that Jesus was in Auschwitz, in Salem (you know when), at Gettysburg, in Stalingrad ... wherever people are suffering Jesus is there, and radically one of them ... not just for them, but with them, one of them.

If Elton John needs Jesus to be gay for him, Jesus will be glad to be gay. Jesus let the "loose woman" wash his feet and dry them with her hair, and you know what THAT meant. You aren’t sure? Well, use your imagination.

The theological problem doesn’t come when we are one of those who are tortured, marginalized, abused, terrorized, or suffering, but when we are one of the abusers, the corrupters, the despots or the bigots. When we then claim Jesus is on our side, we will likely hear, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). Strom Thurman, James Dobson (no relation) and Jerry Falwell cannot expect to be in the same line-up as their victims unless they were radically transformed in a process that went unreported. The trouble comes to even more of us when we are decent and basically good, and not involved, just minding our own business and keeping our noses clean. We will be surprised to find the fence is too razor sharp to sit on, and the weight of our non-involvement will weigh too heavily to keep us from being sliced right up the ... well, it isn't a pretty picture.

But, I think Sir Elton was referring to Jesus’ gender orientation for which there is inadequate evidence to draw a firm conclusion one way or another. However, to say there is a grey area here is already going to offend those clinging to the buckle in the Bible belt.

The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson
Chiang Mai, Thailand
February 23, 2010

Editor's note:  Jose Ortiz, my partner and Other Sheep Coordinator for Asia, and myself, Rev. Steve Parelli, Executive Director of Other Sheep, met The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson for the first time during our 2009 visit/ministry to Thailand on behalf of Other Sheep.  A former board member of Other Sheep put us in touch with Ken Dobson after learning via our travel eNews, while we were ALREADY abroad - a two month Southeast Asia trip - , that our plans included Thailand.  The timing was perfect.