Jesus Radically Conservative and Radically Liberal

I was listening to a podcast recently and the speaker mentioned that Jesus was radically conservative and radically liberal, by our definitions of liberal and conservative. The speaker then used the example of when men brought before Jesus the adulteress to be stoned. Liberal in setting her free, conservative in telling her to "sin no more".
Can you think of other examples?
It's late so I can't.

Is it fair?

Is it fair that I was born in late 20th century America and millions if not billions of people weren't? Because here and now is wonderful and I thank G-d for it. Oh, pity those poor folk born in 16th century England. Or anyone born in China during the Ming Dynasty, or later during the time of the Opium wars.
Now is pretty cool.

Well that's stupid

I have a sense of how I got on a certain email list. I support a certain libertarian and I'm gun rights friendly* Republican. However, with that they should not assume Christianity. Yes, I am a Christian, but I can think of a non-Christian libertarian leaning gun-friendly person right now.
I got this email from a conservative mailing list, that normally I would have deleted without looking at it. Well I looked. And it's stupid. The main gist of the email is, "Stop Muslim Sharia and Foreign Law from enforcement in American courts by activist judges."
Apparently somewhere in Ohio some judge banned pork from a prison so everyone would eat, "muslim food." There is kosher, there is halal but no food can be Jewish or Muslim, any more than food can be Christian. Unless a peanut butter sandwich can give itself up to Jesus Christ.
I just unsubscribed. I still also get emails from the libertarian Republicans, so I'll still be aware of whatever the secular right wing of the party is getting its panties in a bunch about. I'll stick with any mailings (which right now are very few) from my Church to keep up with issues of religious freedom.

*I do believe in some limits and that people shouldn't be stupid with guns. Like with cars. And like with cars, but more so, you should have the right to own and practice with a firearm and other defensive items.

"Communicative sex life"

In an article in the Washington Post today there is an article about Catholic women being supportive of the Church's position on artifical birth control, "communicative sex life." That is what NFP (less so that and more TCOYF ) has given the Help and I. He plays a part. In the morning he measures my tempurature. Every morning. And he records it, along with other information that relates to our attempts at pregnancy. He is very aware of my cycles and what's going on, and I am more so now. A little less so on the cervical fluid part, as I haven't gotten past the "ick" factor. But I'm aware of it and more aware of my body than I was when I was on the pill from big pharma.
The idea in there is that NFP needs to be brought into the 21st century. It has, because there is an app for that. I just don't know if I want to pay that much for an app, and the free/cheap ones look like a waste of space on my phone.
We do communicate. The tempurature measurement is a daily thing, a first thing in the morning after the alarm clock goes off thing. Okay, thwacking him on the chest and mumbling "measure me" is not the most romantic thing, but it makes him an equal partner. With the pill, it was just me. A solo thing, in my then solo life. Guys only cared if you were on it, not if you were actually taking it every day or going along to doctors visits for the depo. Here he is a true partner, and active partner.

Our Christian History- Grandma

I've been thinking of how the Help and I practice and live this label of "Christian." But before I even touch that I have to start with my grandmother, the mean one.
She lived and died in North Carolina and really didn't care to leave it. Before she married my grandfather, she was a Methodist or maybe AME, not really sure. Granddaddy was a deacon in his Baptist church and apparently grandma had to become Baptist in order for that to occur. She became a deaconess at the little NC church where many decades later she had her funeral.
She can claim some small part in my faith walk. Well besides the Baptist history in the family, there were the monthly, quarterly phone calls I'd have to make. Usually I'd wait for 2 different family members to get on my case and say I had to call her. She was an unpleasant woman.
Anyway, she'd ask if I'd gone to church. At the time I was in college and I'd say yes. I guess it would  have been easier to lie, but instead I made sure I was in a church at least once a month. That was my loose tether, keeping me in the fold of G-d, or at least visiting a community of his people. From there I eventually decided one Lent, sometime after college, to go to church once a week.
But back to Grandma. There is something, I believe my mother said about her that is beginning to haunt me. Grandma did not believe in doing any work on Sunday. She would not even pick up scissors. I am trying to reduce if not not do anything on Sunday, except cook. I'd like to resist the temptation of making anyone work for me, such as the cashiers at IKEA, the movie house staff, even the operators in Delhi, on the Sabbath. I'm not there yet.
Despite being Christian, she was mean. She seemed to love to find your buttons, and push them. I credit her with her second husband's death. Of course, she could have been a much meaner, nastier person without Christ.

Still Catholic and Republican

I'll be happy when the primary rolls around so I can vote for a guy who has a snowball's chance in Hell of winning the nomination. I am going to buy into the notion that my vote on national matters don't mean a hill of beans, all politics is local, which has it's level of crazy. But it is local so there is a chance of confronting my local Councilman, in person.
Today, after a nice nap we went to church and engaged in the low impact aerobics that is Mass. The priest is still male and  I'm pretty okay with that. If female priestly leadership was ever a main concern of mine, then I would have remained in the Episcopal church. But I found I really like a male presence in the church and my criticisms of the Help's conservative PCA church is the music can be too feminine. The male leadership is one of the few things keeping it from breaking out in to all out girlishness. Those praise songs are sung in a key that is too high. First it starts out with the girlie music and then before you know it you'll have church dancing and an overwhelming female congregation and female leadership. Okay, I'm making that up, I just despise the praise songs.
On the radio and other media the Left is claiming women will leave the church and the Republican party. Nope. No plans on leaving. I left the party once, mainly because it was on a RHINO witch hunt and you know, I didn't need that crap. This, some radio loudmouth and Republican candidates supporting "traditional family" (soon you're gonna tell me the Pope is Catholic) does not shake my preference for the GOP. Not leaving the Holy Roman Catholic Church anytime soon either. Of course if Fr. Watkins starts giving long and mind-numbing homilies I might start shopping around for another Roman Catholic Church.
I like CS Lewis' the Great Divorce and listen to the audiobook often. In Lewis' Heaven, there are no 'rights'. We do not have a right to anything the Lord grants us. Heaven is not a democracy and the Triune G-d is not elected by the citizens. There is no difference between Greek or Jew, slave or free, male or female, but I don't think this means "equality" as we have been defining it. It doesn't mean we're interchangeable. It means, to me, that it does not make a difference in his love for us. His love is for all.

Pointing out sin and failure is no excuse to impose policy

Hopefully by now that whole 98% of Catholic women use birth control bs has been examined and debunked. I've been a Roman Catholic for about 3 years now, and have not used any sort of birth control, of course, I'm trying to get pregnant so that sort of defeats the purpose. It has been well over a decade, guessing I stopped sometime in 1998 in grad school, since getting depo provera shots, and the last time I was on the pill, I was an undergraduate, so lets say 20 years ago. And when I was a broke college student with no insurance, somehow I managed to afford it (generic), so I don't see why there is a big deal to make women pay for it themselves if they so need to have it.
And while on birth control I was not engaging in an activity that would be approved by the Roman Catholic Church, nor was it in line with the commandments. I wanted "love" and "stuff" and the path of sin seemed to be an efficient road to both and I got neither. My faith walk has greatly improved since being an undergrad in the late 80s, early 90s, but still there is lots of room for improvement. So that's why three years ago I threw my lot in with the RC church, to enrich my faith and to feed my desire for the risen Lord. I trust the Church not to support anything that will make me trip and fall into sin.
Another difference between then and now is Jesus (and the whole Trinity for that matter) is in more parts of my life. Before he was limited to Sunday visits in a building. Now he's in my home, he hangs out in the kitchen, the living room where we watch movies and TV, and in the bedroom. His presence is becoming greater in our leisure time and our checkbook.
I cannot judge anyone elses' walk with the Lord, because thankfully I do not have the window into people's lives as G-d does. However, I don't think failure of many American Catholic women, regardless to the adherence to their faith, to abstain from big pharma birth control, should give the state license to dictate to the Church how to run its schools and hospitals and other faith based initiatives. But then again, the Church shouldn't have gotten into bed with the State over mandated health insurance in the first place.