PSA

Tonight is the night.

ABC

8-10 PM

See you there.



P.S. I'm in the Pacific time zone.
That means most of you will see this before I do.
Please don't comment any spoilers.


EDIT: I've seen it now. Feel free to discuss.

An Early Grave, A Better Land

In talking with a friend the other day, I was finally able to define something I have been increasingly feeling these last two years or so. This friend likes to refer to this season I have been in (and she has experienced, as well) as wilderness. I know this isn't original to her, I have heard that description often. But it is in hearing about her repeated musings about her journey in this wilderness that I have learned something strange.

I like the wilderness.

No, I LOVE the wilderness.

Which is ironic considering I hate camping. I love nature, as long as I don't have to sleep in a tent or pee in a hole in the ground, or take cold showers. Or cook. As long as it's not raining. Or freezing.

Things I love about the wilderness? Rivers and creeks. Especially the kind that make noise. Hot sun, as long as there is cold water nearby. Campfires....I could stare into a campfire and watch the ashes rise for the rest of my life. Trees...lots and lots and lots of trees. The really tall ones; the ones you can see the stars between late at night. I love the air...unpolluted and healing in it's purity. I love meadows and frog and cricketsong at night. I love the quiet-loud of the natural world.

Spiritual wilderness is a strange place...because, like camping, you have to take the good with the bad. You have to take the dust with the seclusion and you have to take the cold nights with the hot days.

So many things I read about spiritual wilderness are aimed at finding the way out of the wilderness, finding civilization: hot water, diet coke, and a real bed once again. Though many will say not to rush the wilderness, they also say the goal is to eventually come out of it; maybe with a beard (or long pit hair if you're a girl) stinking of sap and smoke and dirt. Get yourself clean, have a good meal, and get back on track.

I haven't seen Into the Wild yet, but I aim to. However, I know the premise, and when I hear that song, I realize I maybe would never be happier than to eventually die in this wilderness. For it is here I have truly found God. Yes, you might say, well Christopher McCandless died of starvation. Yes, I might not know where my next meal will come from or what it will consist of, but I trust in the Provider I have put my heart and soul to.

I had a dream a while back that I was somewhere on the edge of the wild, in the mountains, in a last-stop type giftshop, where they sold band-aids and beer and wool hats. I was searching for something, asking the employees, asking the customers..."Has anyone seen a good book of maps for this area? I really need some good maps so I don't get lost." And in my entire dream, no one could produce one. Oh, the employees tried, they searched, but everywhere they looked it was not there.

I no longer worry about getting lost on the way...I know there is One who always knows where I am, who can send signs from above if I am off track. I am not only off the map, I friggin' burned the map. I burned it and stomped on the ashes. There is no more map.

Does this mean I no longer follow Jesus? Of course not. It is He who led me here, and He who builds my fires and cuts boughs for my shelter; He who has taught me to smell water.

Does this mean I no longer need the Bible? Of course not. It is the Breath of God, but it is not a map, it's an autobiography. It's more about Who I'm traveling with than where I'm going.

Does this mean I don't need community? Of course not. I am recently finding renewed life and love in community; but there is something to be said for being autonomous, even just a little.

Where I can feel the wind in the trees and the rain on my face, this is the place I love. I will not apologize for the things I no longer believe in, nor will I try to justify those things I now believe. Maybe I'm a rogue, maybe I'm mad...I just don't need to be on the expressway to heaven. I'll get there the roundabout way, through eight feet of snow and 104 degree heat, sure I'll have frostbite and blisters from time to time, go in circles sometimes, but I'll see more of the world than ever I would in the concrete jungle and urban decay I once used to call my spiritual home.

Liars, and the Men Who Love Them

Who's to know if your soul will fade at all,

the one you sold to fool the world
You lost your self-esteem along the way, yeah
And you should know that the lies won't hide your flaws,
no sense in hiding all of yours
You gave up on your dreams along the way, yeah
--Seether

I believe church culture cultivates liars.

There I go making a blanket statement again. OK, so I don't mean everyone who goes to church is a liar...I mean the church culture gives some of us good fertile soil in which to plant lies about who we are. And as the Chinese proverb says, I have three fingers pointed at myself.

Some people don't need to lie. If you have never felt, when among church people, that you had to behave differently, dress differently, talk differently than you normally would, then skip this. If you have never: lied about your "quiet time" that wasn't...pretended to know the words to a song during worship...hid Coors or National Geographic when your church friends came over...or changed the music in your car to seem more religious, you are not in need of these words.

Then there are the rest of us.

Every time we deliberately present ourselves as something we are not in order to feel more accepted in church culture, we are lying. We are donning a mask, hiding behind a facade of feigned righteousness, often based on ludicrous standards.

I happened to marry into a particularly conservative Christian family, where certain standards were held in high esteem. I don't mean to say there is anything wrong with having standards, only that some were completely beyond my reach...I just wasn't that woman. I found myself hiding large parts of myself in order to feel accepted. I'll talk more about that in another post.

As I said before, when I met my husband I was much like I am now, but between then and now, there were many years of cramming my very round self into a very square hole. I changed, dramatically, in order to please and to feel safe. I actually succeeded for a number of years; as long as I could keep it up.

Why? My primary worry was what people would think if I let my true self out, especially after so many years of lying. I worried most about my husband...would he leave me if he realized? I never should have doubted him; he knew who I had been when we had met, and he had loved *that* me enough to marry me, way back then.

When I transitioned back to my true self, he actually said, "Now that's the woman I married".

The strangest, most surreal part of it all was the statment I just made. For all those years, I had tried to become the woman I thought my husband wanted me to be...more like his mother and the other women in the denomination he grew up in than like the woman I had been when we met. Yet, he always believed I was changing because I wanted to.

I can't say to any other woman how this "coming out" might affect your marriage. If needed, the timing and process is for you and your Creator to work out the details of. So please know I'm not advocating some aggressive bra-burning agenda; I only wish to share my experiences in the hopes it might encourage even one of you that one day you will be free to be you again.

However, I do know from experience if I had let my husband in on my misery so much sooner, it may have been an easier and less painful process.

I cannot say for certain, but I have a sneaking suspicion that in some churches, husbands are taught that Better Christian Woman is the ideal wife. I know that in my years, I looked very much like the wife my husband was taught to expect, so he never could see through that to recognize my misery. So there is a myth there on the other side of the equation; men, communicate with your wife about how your dreams and expectations for her might be more like her dreams and expectations for herself, and less like the expectations the church puts upon her.

Pt 1: Chili All Over the Kitchen
Pt 2: Harlots, Heretics and Hussies
Pt 3: Liars and the Men Who Love Them
Pt 4: A Narrow Path, a Crooked Line, Fly

Two Things

First, Jim Lehmer has a great idea.

"If the stimulus package passes the tax rebate will just be "found money" for those of us who don't have to worry about where our next meal comes from.

"Can you imagine if everyone in the upper brackets who got their checks turned around and gave them to a local charity? I bet the effects on both the community and the economy would be better than just sticking it in the bank. The money would get spent (thereby being the needed stimulus) and the poor would be helped."

I have to be personally honest with you guys...at this point our finances are very unstable and I simply cannot be certain what our situation might be six months from now. However, I will promise that we will carefully evaluate what we do with these funds when the time comes.



Second, my friend Barry has posted a companion post to my Better Christian Women posts (here and here), titled The Myth of the Good Christian Man. Please visit this post, it's important stuff.

(And yes, I do realize I used the word "post" four times in that last paragraph.)

Barry really gets the problem, and I love how he articulated this:

The thing is, we are all individuals. As soon as the church or any other group takes the “one size fits all” approach to its members, there will always be those for whom that “one size” doesn’t fit, who will be made to feel very uncomfortable as they try hard to make themselves fit into its restrictive dimensions. “One size fits all” just doesn’t work. Those who don't fit in will in many cases end up either repressing their true selves or abandoning the whole system altogether.

Amen!

Aw Hell

I'm working on polishing a couple more posts about The Better Christian Woman.

In the meantime, please visit my friend Pam, who has two recent kick-ass posts about hell and universalism, complete with passionate dialogue in the comments.

Pam and I are very much evolving in tandem...different processes, similar conclusions. I'm very glad she has tackled these topics, so I don't have to ;-)

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

In my previous post, I asked this question:

"People of different religions, and different factions within religions, have different understandings of God. If we could look at what these religions believe the earthly benefit of knowing their God is, then determine which followers most often experience that benefit, could we have found God?"

It was a bit of a trick question, I admit. My focus wasn't on whether or not we could determine whose God is the true God, but whether or not we should even look at the benefits of knowing that God in order to determine this.

Does what our understanding of God or what He/She can do for us really show us anything about the quality of a religion? Is it really representative of truth? Is what God does for me a barometer of anything?

In Christianity, especially when in the church, I have found there to be enormous emphasis on what God has done for us. He has saved us, died for us, answered our prayers, allowed us to experience Him.

What I didn't hear so much of is, "How is God changing me for the benefit of others?"

How should we really measure the value of any religion? Is it by how great our God is, how much He has done for us, or what He has done and is doing through us?

In the denomination I left (after a lifetime, I might add), one of their mottoes was "Saviour, Baptizer, Healer, King". While all those things are true and valuable, I tend to call God

L O V E R

more often than anything these days.

To be honest, I don't care what you say your God can do, if your God is not teaching you to make other's lives betters, he's no god at all.

If God really is Love, I'm going to follow whichever God best teaches me to Love, by loving me to the extent I cannot help but give it away. I'm not perfect, I will fail at this mission...but I will try, because it is what is in my heart.

Whose God?

I do have more to say along the lines of the previous two posts, but while those thoughts gel, I have a question. It might be more of a rhetorical one, but feel free to share your thoughts.

Do you think we could determine whose God is the true God?

People of different religions, and different factions within religions, have different understandings of God. If we could look at what these religions believe the earthly benefit of knowing their God is, then determine which followers most often experience that benefit, could we have found God?

Is there a litmus test that could prove which God is most true?
Why or why not?

(Please, no Biblical circular reasoning here...i.e. the Bible says it,
I believe it, that settles it. )

Self-Flagellation

When Kathy Escobar, co-Pastor of The Refuge, visited The Bridge this weekend, she spoke about something she calls "The Flogging Machine".

I was going to write a recap of what she said, because it was so encouraging to me, but today she posted about it herself, and she says it better than I can.

"a flogging machine is the place i go in my head to beat myself up after i do or say something that makes me feel uncomfortable, when i make a mistake (for me, mistake-size doesn’t necessarily matter), when someone gives me negative feedback, when i have a conflict, or sense disapproval. whenever these things happen, my first inclination is to go into the flogging machine and waste some time in there for a little while."

I encourage you all to read the rest of her post.

Harlots, Heretics and Hussies

Gypsys, tramps and thieves
we'd hear it from the people of the town
they'd call us gypsys, tramps and thieves
but every night all the men would come around
and lay their money down.
-Cher

There is rampant depression and worthlessness among Christian women. I know some people reading this will differ with that perception, but I was an intercessor, women confided in me. They secretly shared this longing for freedom with me. The phrase often was "I just don't feel good about myself". Well, why the hell not? Every women's bible study, ministry event and leader only told us that in order to be Godly women we must have an immaculate home, well-behaved children, a fit body, a sexually gratified husband, classy taste in clothes, be a gracious hostess, and serve the church willingly; all the while having at least an hour per day of "quiet time with the Lord". What's not to feel good about?

Maybe the effort to conform to the idealistic image of the Better Christian Woman robs women of their ability to feel good? Maybe if women could be free to be the women they are and not the women they are scolded, shamed and shushed into being, this depression would lift?

I know it did for me; without a doubt. The most interesting thing to me is, as I ventured into this freedom outside the pressure-cooker, some of these same women who admittedly longed for freedom struggled to accept that I was actually experiencing it. When a woman finds true freedom, suddenly she is almost seen as a harlot, prostituting herself out to the secular world. I see a discrepancy between what is in the heart and what is in the mouth; while desperately seeking freedom, they also speak evil towards the free. Why?

Christians fear freedom because they don't know where it leads. I have found evidence of the same thing somewhere in the Old Testament, where slavery is desired over freedom, because at least slavery is predictable, with regular (if insufficient) meals and permanent (if inadequate) housing. Because the journey to freedom is treacherous and ongoing, with a host of hazards and temptations, it is seen as somehow undesirable. Yet, where did God really want them to be?

In the song by Cher, the men of the town took advantage of the fruits of the gypsys freedoms, all the while labeling them something evil and wretched. I intend to draw no literal comparison there, but a metaphorical one; how many Christians long to experience the freedoms of the secular world, even as they curse those same things?

Freedom and it's fruits are lusted after by the oppressed; this same freedom is often fearfully criticized by the oppressed, and evidencing a hypocrisy. Those who peddle righteousness covet the freedoms enjoyed by the unrighteous. Yet people who truly walk in Christ's freedom, where all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial, are considered to be heretics. We are perceived as biblically deviant and immoral, hustling some snake-oil freedom which has to have a catch or at least an unpleasant side effect; as if it is not what we claim it is.

Freedom really is what it seems to be. Christ does exist outside the walls of the Better Christian Woman world. I have a greater, more powerful, more intimate, more loving relationship with Jesus than I ever did when I was constantly beating myself over the head with unrealistic expectations.

There is nothing to fear in freedom, as long as we take Christ there with us. Sometimes I think people fear that Jesus can't go there with them. I promise, He is able to breathe even in the real world. He will never allow us out of His reach, so stretch and be yourself. You will be so much happier for it.

Yet, is there something you fear losing in your freedom? And what about sin? Stay tuned.

Pt 1: Chili All Over the Kitchen
Pt 2: Harlots, Heretics and Hussies
Pt 3: Liars and the Men who Love Them
pt 4: A Narrow Path, a Crooked Line, Fly

Chili All Over the Kitchen

Tonight, Pam and I had the great fun of spending a couple hours with Kathy Escobar, co-Pastor of The Refuge in Bloomfield, Colorado. She has been in Portland this weekend with her husband José, visiting with the folks at The Bridge. She spoke at church this morning, and I do want to talk about some of what she said there...in another post. Right now I want to talk about our "girl time" this evening.

If you know any of the three of us, you can guess what subject we spent most of our evening on: Women (and girls) in the Church. Their roles in church leadership, marriage, and their relationships with each other. We even spoke for awhile about the issues facing young women who are growing up in the church today.

As the last year or so has gone on, I have found myself increasingly aware of something I am passionate about. I desperately want to see women set free from evangelical bondage...that of their roles as women, wives, daughters and mothers; for some of you, those statements reek of feminism. I won't apologize for it, but I will qualify it. I don't want women to become men, I want women to become themselves.

I have spent most of my adult life in the biblical womanhood role, and this is a dangerous thing, one which I liken to a pressure-cooker. While I have heard there being some disagreement as to whether or not an actual pressure-cooker will ever literally explode, this imagery in reference to a situation is widely accepted as meaning such, and so I choose to use it.

When a woman is subjected to years of traditional teachings about submission and subservience, when she is taught how to dress, how to behave, how to talk, how to think...which like it or not is what is happening in much of modern Christianity, even in progressive Christianity...eventually she will explode; meaning any turn of events which will release the pressure, and often it will be ugly.

Because the food my husband and I had been fed about biblical roles for husband and wife are so twisted and wrong, neither of us could ever completely swallow it. I tried, mind you. I read all the books, I did the good wife thing, I served every way I knew how. I choked it down, making every effort not to retch in the process. But in the end, not only did this pressure destroy my personality, my husband hated that I had gone from colorful to shades of gray.

When we met, I was windy and wild; all vivid, Technicolor me. That is the woman he fell in love with, he told me so. But over the years, decades, evangelicalism washed all the color right out of me...load after load of cheap detergent and hot water. Burning and washing, taking great care to strip from me every last bit of who I was as an individual, and raising up a monochrome stepford wife. Some of you might call this process transformation, I call it oppression, for nothing in my heart of hearts was ever transformed, it was simply controlled, pressurized.

You might feel I am speaking too strongly about my experiences; I assure you I am not. Words cannot convey the ways in which I compressed my true self, smaller and smaller, until it became the black hole of who I used to be. For years I strove to be that Better Christian Woman; it damn near killed me, that is not an exaggeration. Three years ago now, I struggled intensely not to kill myself, it was only facing the reality of my kids growing up without me that prevented it. I no longer had the strength to be Better Christian Woman, and I collapsed. There came a place of meltdown, a critical mass when my evangelical cooker failed and suddenly there was chili all over the kitchen. There is no Quicker-Picker-Upper in the world that could have handled it.

All those years of pent-up, pressurized, Technicolor Erin exploded all over the place. She was dying to get out. Yes, it was messy for awhile, but something strange happened. Jesus came along with His transcendental paper towels and began cleaning it up. It's taken three years to come this far, not to say I am healed, past-tense, but healing, Present Perfect Progressive. He's still cleaning, but I'm complete in Him, as I am, in who I am in this very moment. I don't need to be pressure-cooked, I'm already done.

Never again will there be chili all over my kitchen.

Pt 1: Chili all Over the Kitchen
Pt 2: Harlots, Heretics and Hussies
Pt 3: Liars and the Men who Love Them
pt 4: A Narrow Path, a Crooked Line, Fly

A Little Humor

These jokes came in my e-mail today from my husband, who received it from his sister. I never forward this kind of stuff because I know not everyone appreciates it, and I have no idea of the origin, so I can't pay credit. But I laughed so hard I cried. Literally. There is a good chance some of you have already heard these, but I'm sure some of you haven't. Warning, PG material ahead.



NUDITY
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, "Mom, that lady isn' t wearing a seat belt!"

KETCHUP
A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. "Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle."

DRESS-UP
A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, "Daddy, you shouldn't wear that suit." "And why not, darling?" "You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning. "

DEATH
While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister's son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: "Glory be unto the Faaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes."

BIBLE
A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. "Mama, look what I found," the boy called out. "What have you got there, dear?" With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, "I think it's Adam's underwear!"

Spirituality of Blogging

Last week, Barry tagged me with Rob Harrison's (The Spyglass) meme:

"In what ways can you use blogging as a spiritual discipline?"

I have had a lot going on lately, but promised Barry I'd get to it as soon as I could, so here I am.

I have never really been into spiritual disciplines, as such; I'm not a very spiritually disciplined person. Oh, I've learned a lot about them, and I have studied them tried to practice them, but I've never been very good at it, I have always ended up feeling like a failure. So I'm not going to try to compare blogging with fasting, prayer, etc. as disciplines; instead I will write this from the standpoint of blogging as something which is spiritually beneficial.

Blogging has been a spiritual life-preserver for me. I started about 6 months after I left church, when I was barely hanging on to any kind of faith at all. At first it was simply a place to vent, to voice my anger and frustration with my experiences. As time went by, I began to meet others who have shared similar experiences, who have offered encouragement and friendship.

I can honestly say if I had not met so many people to share my spiritual experiences with, people who have validated my struggles and soothed my pain, I would likely no longer call myself a Christian. When I began, this place was a cry for help in the darkest time of my life, and you all responded with love and grace and a shoulder to lean on.

As much as I have enjoyed writing here, there have been many times I have wanted to quit. Sometimes I tire of it, almost view it as a chore, but I press on because I have learned the value of the relationships, and the learning and growth I experience because of these blogging experiences. I suppose in that respect, it is a discipline.

Today, I have outgrown and healed from most of my bitterness and anger. But I continue on this journey because it is forever stretching me and forcing me to expand the boundaries of my faith. I have met so many wonderful, encouraging, and interesting people, and my spirituality is the better for what I have learned from you all.


I'm not going to tag anyone with this one, but if you'd like to write on this subject, I strongly encourage you to.

Foolish Heart

Anyone remember that Steve Perry song?

"Foolish Heart, hear me callin'
Stop before you start fallin'
Foolish heart, heed my warnin'
You've been wrong before
Don't be wrong anymore"

For many years of my life, I believed that being a Christian meant blindly believing church leaders...whichever leaders those were, in whatever church I was attending. Of, course, I believed I was supposed to believe the leaders simply because they themselves told me I was supposed to believe them. How's that for some killer circular reasoning?

I have heard it said that it is good to be a fool for the Lord; often this ideal is modeled after King David, who danced naked in the street, singing and shouting in praise of the Lord. In other words, being unashamed of the God we worship and being outspoken about it.

But there's a wrong way of being a fool.

I devoted almost 30 years to trying to believe the earth was created in 6 literal days, 6000 literal years ago. I tried to believe that we must legislate reproductive health and human sexuality. I really wanted to believe that a banana was ultimate evidence of the existence of God. I gave it my damnedest, trying to believe science is evil and every word of the bible is literal. I wanted to believe it because I was told to believe it. What a fool was I. Not because I believed the things I did (or tried to), but because I let the church perform a lobotomy on me many years ago, enough to think I was not qualified to think for myself.

So I say I "tried to believe"...because deep inside, I knew some of these beliefs were wrong. I have mentioned before that I secretly read National Geographic for years, hiding it from my Christian friends, because this publication teaches such heresies as evolution, global warming, and that being gay is genetic. The truth is, I soaked it up...it was an island of reason in my otherwise illogical belief system. Not to say that I blindly follow science, either, but that so much of it makes sense to me. I strongly believe God is behind everything, I have just 'evolved' out of my prideful notion that I have any idea at all how God goes about anything, like, oh, say, creating and sustaining THE UNIVERSE...do we not think God created scientific evidence, as well?

Somewhere along the way, I began to grow a brain of my own. I'm not sure how it happened, but it is part of what led to my eventual church-leaving...for I could not maintain the facade any longer...I could no longer claim to follow beliefs I did not truly subscribe to, and, as many of you know, people who grow brains in some churches do not always continue to be welcome.

The lyrics I quoted above say, "You've been wrong before, don't be wrong anymore". When I hear that, in this context, I can't help but think of all the people, immediate family included, whom I have hurt with my foolish beliefs. And how much I really don't want to be wrong again...pushing the wrong agenda to the wrong people. I know I will continue to get it wrong sometimes, probably often. I am still a fool for God; but I hope I will no longer be foolish for some supposed Godly agenda, which in the end, only hurts people...which cannot, in my mind, be of God.

Some of the other lyrics of that song go like this:

"I need a love that grows
I don't want it unless I know
With each passing hour
Someone somehow
Will be there
Ready to share"

I no longer desire to be a fool for foolish beliefs...instead I want to be a fool for Love...Loving so liberally that I will deliberately set myself up to be heartbroken. I haven't made it yet, but each day is new.

I want to have a Foolish Heart.


Please visit my fellow synchrobloggers for their thoughts on the topic of "God's Call to the Fools".
Post-links will be added as they become available:

"Quiet Now, God's Calling" / Jenelle D'Alessandro /Hello Said Jenelle
The Power of Paradox / Julie Clawson / One Hand Clapping
That Darn Ego / Jonathan Brink / Missio Dei
Won't Get Fooled Again / Alan Knox / The Assembling of the Church
A Fools Choice / Cindy Harvey / Tracking the Edge
Strength on the Margins / Adam Gonnerman / Igneous Quill
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right / Mike Bursell / Mike's Musings
Ship of Fools / David Fisher / Be the Revolution
What a fool I've Been / Reba Baskett / In Reba's World
Fool if you Think it's Over / Paul Walker / Out of the Cocoon
Hut Burning for God / Fr. Gregory Hallam / Antioch Abouma
Blessed are the Foolish... / Steve Hayes / Notes from Underground
God Used this Fool / Cobus van Wyngaaard / My Contemplations
Fools Rush In / Sonja Andrews / Calacirian
The Holy Fool / Phil Wyman / Square No More
What a Fool Believes / Sue / Discombobula
My Foolish Calling / Lisa / Let's Put the Kettle On
God Uses Foolish Things / Sally Coleman / Sally's Journey
The Foolishness of God and Christians / K.W. Leslie / The Evening of Kent

Icy

What is it about "snow" days that magically transforms my kids into morning people? We don't even actually have snow today, just some ice, and we don't even have the day off, just two hours late....but still...these babies, who beg each morning for 5 more minutes of sleep, who act like zombies or spoiled brats for the first hour each day....

Why is it that as wake-up time, when I gently tell them they don't have to go to school until later...suddenly they are wide awake, chipper as the dawn?

I can understand when there is enough snow on the ground to play in...I get why that excites them. But today, nothing. Just icy roads. Still, they couldn't wait to get up.

Reminds me a bit of something Shel Silverstein once wrote.

Someone thinks I'm quirky...

...so she tagged me to find out just HOW quirky. Oooh, this could be unpretty.

Here's the game:

- Link to the person that tagged you.
- Post the rules on your blog.
- Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
- Tag six people and at the end of your post, link to their blogs.
- Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here goes...





1) These are the shoes I've bought most recently. I've worn them almost every day since.

2) This is the color of my hair...at least some of it.

3) This is the most recent concert I have gone to. It was fantastic!

4) This is the #1 thing on my bucket list.

5) This is my favorite movie. Ever.

6) This is my dream car. This color. This car. The one in this movie. (Yes, it's pink.)

Sooo now I'm going to tag some people. It's been awhile since I've tagged, so this time I'm going to point fingers and name names.


Sue - Because she is at least as quirky as I am.
Jarred - Because I'm not convinced he's quirky.
Ché - Because I think she needs something fun to think about.
Helen - Just because.
Kathy - Because anyone who has a carnival in their head HAS to be quirky.
Barry - Because we're both going to "heck".

What Should the President Believe?

If you've been reading long, you know a post about politics is a very rare thing here. However, there is something on my mind which I would like to ask you.

With the upcoming US Presidential elections, there is much talk about whether or not it is of any importance that a President have any religious beliefs, and if so, does it matter what they are?

Obviously there are two perspectives from which to answer that question:

1) Does it matter to me as an individual voter; will how I vote be determined by the religious beliefs of the candidates?
2) Does it bear any significance on an individual's ability to effectively do the job of President of the United States?

I want to look at perspective #2. Something which has been on my mind lately; Mike Huckabee's responses to the creation vs. evolution question posed to him.

On June 6th, during CNN's Republican Debates (you can view the clip HERE), Govenor Huckabee was asked,

"What do you believe about the story of creation as it is described in the Bible?"

Huckabee's response was this:

"It's interesting that question would even be asked of someone running for President. I'm not planning on writing the curriculum for an 8th grade science book...but you've raised the question, so let me answer it. 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' To me it's pretty simple; a person either believes God created this process or believes it was an accident, and that it just happened all on it's own...Let me be very clear, I believe there is a God. I believe there is a God who is active in the creation process. Now how did He do it and when did He do it and how long did it take, I don't honestly know."

Here, Huckabee is interrupted by the moderator:

"Mike, the specific question is, 'Do you believe literally it was done in six days and it occurred 6000 years ago'?"

To which Huckabee responds:

"I did answer that, I said I don't know. My point is I don't know, I wasn't there. But I believe whether He did it in six days or whether He did it in six days that represented periods of time, HE DID IT, and that's what's important."

In a nutshell, Huckabee feels that his beliefs about the creation of this earth are impertinent to the office of President of the United States.

So, today I was reading on Wired News:

"But the real problem is, he will be signing scientific research budgets into law, appointing judges that will be deciding evolution vs. creationism education cases at the state level, and setting a moral precedent that it is O.K. to dis science.

YouTube has a video of Bill Maher asking Huckabee about the evolution debate question. It goes a little further than the debate and shows how the mainstream-sounding "I just can't believe creation is an accident" line reveals more disturbing underpinnings under scrutiny.

Huckabee's main defense is "Why should it matter? It's not a question appropriate to a presidential debate", to which Maher says "If someone believes that the earth is 6,000 years old and every scientist in the world is saying that it is billions of years old, why shouldn't I take that into account when I am assessing the rationality of someone I am going to put into the highest office in the land?"

So my first thought about that quote is Bill Maher suggesting a person who believes in literal creation is irrational. I'm going to pass on that for the purpose of this post, reserving the right to take it up later.

Here's the thing: Due to the deliberate and unashamed religious-political antics of our current President, people are on guard. Many Americans, and rightfully so, are cautious about electing a new President who speaks outwardly about his/her religious beliefs. But political analysts can't make the question about religion, per se, because many Americans, especially republicans, are still firmly rooted in the "Christian Nation" mentality.

So instead they make the issue about science vs. faith. It's a way to divide on conquer on the basis of religion without actually making religion the issue.

What I want to draw attention to is this:

Does what a President believes about creation vs. evolution REALLY impact his/her ability to perform the job of President? If a President does not believe in evolution as the scientific process by which this earth as we know it came to be, does that affect this person's ability to make rational and educated decisions about science, medicine, education and the like?

What do you think? And all you non-Americans are welcome to weigh in on this question, as well, from the perspective of your own political leaders.

PDL Seeks Guest Editors for 2008

Hi All!

As many of you know, 2007 found Bill Dahl inviting guest-editors to Porpoise Diving Life. Porpoise Diving Life is an online e-zine and e-mail newsletter, inspired by Bill's book of the same name.

"There are millions of people, a species if you will, who are terribly confused, wounded, angry and fearful about life and God. No matter how deeply folks feel about their faith in God, their lives don’t seem to match up with all the promises that are being sold in the name of Christ in this world. Deep within every human being is a voice that whispers (some more frequently and intensely than others)..."What have I done wrong? I never expected this to happen? Life is not turning out as I had hoped or had been led to believe. What did I do to deserve this? Where’s God? Am I some sort of exception? Is there a reality for the rest of us?"

PDL is widely read and encouraging to many people who are on this unique journey:

"As of the beginning of 2008, we have welcomed tens of thousands of readers from over 135 different countries, in over different 1,000 cities, since we launched this site on February 9, 2006. "

In 2007, guest-editors included Jim Palmer, RobbyMac, and even Pam and I, just to name a few.

This year (2008), Bill is taking a sabbatical from writing for PDL to work on some other projects, and he is looking for guest-editors for every month of the year. I know there are a few months which are filled, but I believe there are many still available.

Guest-editing involves generating all of the content for a particular month's edition, including an editorial, several articles and/or items of poetry, at least one book review and one music review, although I do believe there is flexibility in the content. You would most likely write some of the content yourself; also soliciting submissions from other writers you know. You then would be responsible for selecting the content which will finally be published. If you would like to know what sort of content Bill would be interested in, please read his Best of 2007 article.

If you would be interested in guest-editing for a month, or know someone who might be, e-mail me (erinword at gmail dot com) and I'll put you in touch with him. Bill is an extremely gentle and kind person to "work" for, and I know he would be interested in any ideas you might have.

Thanks!