Today I attended the funeral of Lloyd Griffee, considered by all the people who knew him to be a person of honor, integrity, and dignity. He distinguished himself in a career which included a lifetime of service as a teacher, a counselor, a school administrator, and a language arts coordinator. He served for a number of years as state secretary for the Iowa Department of Classroom Teachers. In retirement he volunteered in programs serving the homeless. In his church, First United Methodist Church of San Diego, he was part of a visitation program for homebound people. Rady Children’s Hospital presented him with a gold watch for serving 1258 hours as a volunteer ambassador.

Lloyd was gay. He is survived by his life-time companion and partner, Jer Thomas. The Reverend Jim Mowry officiated, acknowledging and expressing admiration and respect for the loving, committed 45-year relationship of Lloyd and his partner. Along with other Scriptures affirming the importance of love in relationship, Jim ended his homily with a reading of First Corinthians 13. It seems appropriate to include the reading here.

 1) If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
 4) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
 8) Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
_________________________

I’ve been wondering all day what the six candidates who say they are Christians and obviously want badly to become the next president of the United States would have thought about the funeral service and about Lloyd’s life of service to his community and his country if they had been there today.
-------
Calling himself a "traditional, classic conservative," presidential candidate hopeful Newt Gingrich said he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman and insisted he would not have repealed the controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the military. Gingrich said he supports a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.
-------
Ron Paul is a lifelong Christian who says he personally believes in traditional marriage. In 2004, on the floor of the House of Representatives, Paul said, “I oppose federal efforts to redefine marriage as something other than a union between one man and one woman.” In August Paul said, “I think that marriages should be between a single man and a single woman.” 
-------
Jane Schmidt, a student at Waverly High School, in Waverly, Iowa, recently asked Michele Bachmann, “Why can’t same-sex couples get married?”
“They can get married,” Bachmann responded, “but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.”
-------
When Jon Huntsman was asked what he things about homosexuality and marriage said, “I believe in civil unions. I think we can do a better job in this country as it relates to equality and basic reciprocal beneficiary rights. I’m in favor of traditional marriage. I don’t think you can redefine it without getting in trouble.”

-------
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has signed a pledge sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage promising to support a federal constitutional amendment "defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
-------
Rick Santorum equated homosexuality with bigamy, polygamy, insest, and beastiality. He said, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," Santorum said in the AP interview.

On the way to my car from the service today, I stopped to take these pictures at the edge of the church parking lot.