Redemption

The problem with encountering Bt early in the norning is that he has read the paper when the only thing I've done is pick the thing up out of the yard. On the train he pointed out the article in the Metro section about the little boy who shot a 7 year old classmate. He asked me if I thought the child was evil and the father was creating an evil machine. I didn't read the paper but I heard it on the news, my answer is no. No, I don't believe the child or the parent is evil. Stupid. But not evil. The kid is 8. There is a chance for redemption.
I found myself arguing the liberal side of my church regarding hell and evil. On the way liberal end of my church there is no hell or there is a hell but no one is in it. I don't really believe that but it is really rude to tell people they are going to hell, how Episcopalian is that? On one level I guess it would be lovely if Stalin is hanging out in heaven, because then I have a chance. Bt wasn't buying it. When do these people get redeemed? He asked. I almost mentioned the loving power of Jesus, but I just said G-d. Yeah, it is a weak arguement that criminals and mean people will come into heaven because G-d loves us all sooooooo much that he won't let not one soul escape his loving grace. I don't buy it myself. I'm going with hell is the place where one is far from the love of G-d. Heaven is closer to him and his love. The more love the closer to heaven. Oh and I'm not going to tell anyone they're going to hell because, that's just so rude.

Apparently I'm incapable of independent thought

I'm not going to link to the post that annoyed me, because it isn't just that one I've seen this pop up several times.
Children, people, raised in a household with religion squashes independent thought, is the assertion. Being surrounded by friends, who are liberal and one level of agnostic or downright athestic I'm accustomed to hearing it, but not agreeing. Strangely, I was raised Baptist, stayed with the church till college where I latched on the the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches. All through then, apparently not one single independent thought entered my head.
Yet my memory tells me different. I wasn't a mindless automiton. Actually I wasn't too aware of whatever the Baptist party line was. Drinking bad. Heck, I coulda figured that part out on my own after dealing with drunken relatives. I had to get out of a alcohol abusing environment such as grad school to see that alcohol had other uses besides getting drunk off your ass. Sleeping around bad. Pregnant girls on my school bus, I'm sure they knew the risks but didn't care. People fighting because of sleeping around, yeah, witnessed that in my neighborhood growing up.
My mother was the more religious one where my dad was very suspious of religion. Mom could not pray in dad's presence because he was afraid that she was "reading the Bible" on him. Just because you don't believe in G-d doesn't make one less supertious. That I observed with my own eyes.
But back to kids or religious people in general who strangely enough are able to build up an independent thought on their own. Faith is not a form of abuse, and depending on the group there is disagreement and divergent thought. There are groups that get caught up with "group think" but it is not limited to religion. See communism. And strangley, some people who grew up in strict or even not so strict religious families have been able to move away from it in adulthood. There are people driving around in cars who grew up Amish and are no longer so. There is probably some guy who grew up in a conservative Jewish family, eating a crab cake sandwich. I know a girl, grew up Buddist but is lapsed. I know a lot of lasped people.
My faith gives me strength to endure and peace, why wouldn't I want to pass it on? We all have our own political and philosophical beliefs that we treasure and want to pass on, is that abuse? It is only true independence when you allow others to disagree with you and have thoughts and ideas that are opposed strongly to yours. I have listened to my friends who have thoughts strongly opposed to my own, and it is their right as Americans to have opposing thoughts, as is mine.

No really NBC needs one more L&O: Cow Bell

Some of my fellow conservative episkys have bothered to complain about the new NBC program "The Book of Daniel" (link to BoD blog). On the surface it doesn't even look remotely interesting. If all you are selling is "look created 'controversy'" and no real character development then screw them. They aren't even worth protesting. Give me a dead body every week, maybe I'll watch.
No what NBC needs is a new L&O: Stolen Vechile division. I watch the L&Os, of course Trial by Jury was a bit dull. Think, L&O: Stolen Vechile Div. mix Grand Theft Auto with what we love about L&O. Car chases, tough guys, NYC, good stuff. Or just bring back Homicide: Life on the Streets.
Better yet L&O: BWI/DC Homicide. Move the action down to Bawlermore and the District of Columbia. Mix Homicide, lovely views of the Inner Habor and then a few shots of the Mall. Have all crime occur in PG County but suspects, witnesses, possible alibis all live somewhere between Woodbridge, VA and Baltimore Co, MD.

Songs that make you cry

...but I couldn't cry because I was at work and you don't cry at work!

Finally, the Bored Again Christian, put out a new podcast and it was his Very Sufjan Christmas (mp3), where it was primarily all one band, Sufjan Stevens and their Christmas and non-Christmas songs. Anyway, I'm listening to the songs and after "Three Ships" (I think that's the title) and the next one is Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing and I found myself near moved to tears. I think because of one part of the song just gets to me:

...Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

At least it wasn't Mahalia Jackson's His Eye is On the Sparrow, then I would have burst out crying.

One Jewish view of the X-mas bruhaha

CH sent out this letter to friends. It was good to read.

Recently, many articles have been published concerning the Christian right's anger about the amelioration of the word "Christmas" from retail establishments and schools. Although, the right's assertions are a bit overblown, there has been a dilution of Christmas into the muck that has come to be know as "Christmakwaanzakah". Since I have read nothing concerning the Jewish point of view, I am hoping that none of you will mind if I use my holiday greeting to express my opinions on the subject.

In a misguided attempt to offend nobody, our society has become one that offends everybody by throwing individual traditions into one group pot. This time of year it is most apparent with the muddy stew composed of three holidays of different genres and weight.

Chanukah commemorates victory over the Assyrian-Greek armies attempts at obliterating Judaism.The holiday is a celebration of the Jewish people's freedom and ability to serve G-d, but does not serve G-d directly. Its significance is not on par with Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Passover, or any of the holidays commanded in the Torah.

Kwaanza is a modern holiday, created in the '60s to demonstrate black pride and reconnect black Americans to their ancestral past. Its significance is cultural, but not religious.

Christmas, along with Easter is the foundation of the Christian faith.

As a Jewish woman, it embarrasses me when my commemorative semi-religious holiday is equated with one of extreme spiritual significance for Christians. It also offends me that my holiday is only recognized as a part of a Christian holiday season. I am appreciative of holiday greetings, but if the greater society needs to recognize me in the name of diversity, I suggest Autumn, a time of Jewish spiritual reflection, as the season for Jewish holiday songs and media attention. Besides, if we truly want to be all inclusive this time of year, we will need a much longer holiday name. How about "Christma-kwaanza-kah-dawali-eid..."

Please forgive me for my pontification and whatever you are celebrating this holiday season, I hope it is happy and that you all have a chance to reflect on the purposes of your celebrations.

What kinda Catholic Am I?

Considering I'm an Anglican....

You scored as New Catholic. The years following the Second Vatican Council was a time of collapse of the Catholic faith and its traditions. But you are a young person who has rediscovered this lost faith, probably due to the evangelization of Pope John Paul II. You are enthusiastic, refreshing, and somewhat traditional, and you may be considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. You reject relativism and the decline in society that you see among your peers. You are seen as being good for the Church. A possible problem is that you may have a too narrow a view of orthodoxy, and anyway, you are still a youth and not yet mature in your faith. http://saint-louis.blogspot.com - Rome of the West New Catholic 57% Traditional Catholic 55% Evangelical Catholic 43% Neo-Conservative Catholic 40% Liberal Catholic 36% Lukewarm Catholic 33% Radical Catholic 26% What is your style of American Catholicism? created with QuizFarm.com

Advent 2005

Jesus is coming.
Get out the good china.

Love of fathers

I'd been meaning to make note of a sight that I see on those odd moments I sit through the 9AM service at TCOTRRBP. The 9AM service makes me want to rename the church the church of the little squirmy people as it is a 'family friendly' service with the whole service in the program (no BCP).
Anyways I was observing the number of men in the church. Married men, but oh well, I apprieciate their being. One of the reasons why I like TCOTRRBP and TCOTGL is the male presence, a female dominated church seems lacking. But I digress. I also noticed how the men interacted with their children. They were very attentive. Not doting but a touch on the should here. A reciprocated hug there. My favorite was the pass off from grandpa(?) to dad of one kid as granddad held up kid in pew and dad, not missing a beat as he came back from communion grabbed kid and continued to the back of church.
The Church (big C) needs more of that. More loving fathers who do not shirk their role in the lives of their children.

My G-d

My G-d is a very mobile G-d.
He takes up the universe
but fits in my heart.

Pledge season

WAMU the only station I listen to is going through another pledge season. Everytime they do it becomes unbearable to listen to and nearly drives me to commerical radio. But I do wander elsewhere. I can't stay at WPGC too long because there will be another hoochiemamma women are nothing but sex objects song that will sour the day. I did stop at some Christian fundi-lite station, it was around Valentines Day because the main topic for the whole 2 weeks was sex. Well the married kind. Strengthening marriages and whatnot. Being single, it was a tad frustrating to listen to, but better than having sex acts rapped out by Lil Kim.
Well it is pledge season, again. And instead of running to the fundi-lite station, again, I've gotten a bunch of podcasts and made my own stinkin' radio. I should last until they are done. What is it? 2 more weeks of Diane Rheme shakily telling listeners to contribute? So far my line up is a bunch of sermons and programs from Episcopal churches out west, the Bored Again Christian, for music, a few radio plays, Catholic broadcast stuff, the Catholic Insider (or Dutch priest walks around town), other NPR and PBS podcasts, and my own music. Yeah that works.

Cultural Catholic

"You are a WASP/Convert"


You've been to a parish bingo game once. Don't
worry, we won't tell. After all, WASPs are
allowed in the Church as well.

We just don't trust you very much.

Provided by


Are You A Cultural Catholic?
brought to you by Quizilla

Regarding belief

I do honestly believe in the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, yadda, yadda, nicene creed yadda. Really. No joke. I kid you not.
Believe me if I didn't believe and have a small amount of interest in learning about the 3-in-1 deal called G-d, I'd get more sleep and make better use of my Sundays.
It is not about being good or a nice person. Which I can fail at on a regular basis. It shouldn't be about getting into heaven for the sake of avoiding hell. It's about him.
So when members of my faith go on about little changes in theology I find it problematic because I think it is getting in the way of true worship. The changes seem to focus on making us nice people and less on being his people.
But what do I know? I'm just a pew warmer.

5pm or 11:15am?

Decisions, decisions. If I go to the 5pm 'sinners service' at the CotRRBP I can wear whatever and sleep late. If I go to the 11:15 service at the CotGL then I just might hit the tail end of the Dupont Circle farmer's market and get milk made by happy cows.
Nope, theology not an issue, but I do wonder if G-d said you have to wake up early on the Sabbath (yeah, I know sabboth is really friday evening till sometime saturday) and wear something nice.

You know 5pm mass is laid back, but really.

You know when your church's 5pm sinner's service is laid back when your priest's cell phone goes off in the middle of the sermon and no one gives him any flak for it. Last Sunday, I was going for a church marathon. 5pm service at the Church of the Blonde People, then hurry over to St. Paul's for evensong and an outing with the 20s and 30s group.
5pm service at Christ Church is more relaxed than my usual 11am service. You can show up in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops at 5. The priest, in this case Fr. Kentworthy, was in full anglo regalia, regardless of the time. I guess the full vestmests got in the way of him getting to his phone to turn it off. His voice never wavered as it rang, and rang and rang again. Either the person calling gave up or there was a short limit on rings. After that the phone was forgotten.
Laid back, casual and Rite II.

Orthodox outing

Well Saturday I met Federica Mathewes-Green in person. Wow!
I knew Bruce was dragging us, us being Charles, Corey, Bill & Catherine, and myself to Fr. Mathewes-Green's church Holy Cross out in BFE, MD. Since he didn't mention Frederica, I figured she had better things to do, lecturing, writing and what not. After the 1 hour long standing Vesper service, where I sat for about 10 minutes of it, we wandered out of the sanctuary and there was Bruce with Frederica herself. She was unmistakable with that long wavy grey hair of hers. Catherine was sorry she didn't bring her copy of Frederica's book to sign and promised that she will return to Holy Cross.
Then we went out for crab cakes. Ummmm crab cakes.

Forbearance

Forbearance is this week's magic word.
On the other blog I decided to practice it and instead of quashing a discussion going on in the comments, I just let it go. Eventhough it is my blog and my right to quash anything on the blog.
But forebearance. Fr. Kentworthy mentioned it but didn't define it, so a day after church I bothered looking it up. I figured if it is something I'm supposed to be practicing I should look it up and go back to not practicing all the other stuff I should be doing. I can hold back and give others leeway. I do it all the time. Mainly out of shear sloth. Who knew, laziness as a possible virtue?

Gonna be lazy today

Going to the 5pm service at the Church of the Blonde People and then the cookout at the Church of the non-Roman Catholics/Church of the Gay Lawyer. Which I emailed late about. Might just bring my salad and go home.

And you shall always have your poor

I didn't go to church today, so if I die before taking communion again, I'm goin' to Hell. Okay maybe not with G-d's grace.

Recently there was the Live 8 concert and soon the One campaign will start to "make poverty history." That's nice. However I am a pessimist, the only way to make poverty history is to wipe out the human race, or at least leave one human. If I wasn't too lazy to go upstairs and grab my bible I would hunt down the exact phrase but Jesus said to Judas, when Judas was being a prick, that we will always have the poor, or the poor shall always be with you.
The context is Jesus telling Judas to shut up about the expensive oil that the women (Mary, Martha, Mary M?) was using, when Judas said they could have used the money better to give to the poor. So are we meant to read into the message or leave it as is because the main message was "Hey Judas shut your pie hole about the oil, 'cause we know you're REALLY not that concerned about the poor, ok?"
But I'm going to read into it. We will always have poor people. That is sad. But it is the way humans are. And no throwing billions of dollars at it will make it go away.
However, I think there is a glimmer of hope. We can try to change the face of poverty so that it does not mean death by starvation or easily cured disease, or lack of housing or clothing. In America literally dying of hunger due to poverty is rare. We have WIC and food stamps, non-profits with soup kitchens, food banks and churches that feed the hungry. In America our poor people can be fat as all out. Our food is loaded with calories so much so that eating the .99 menu at McDonald's can feed you, and kill you with fat and sodium and all sorts, but that's another problem. So we are doing a good job with hunger. Housing, not so good but there are programs, but lots of room for improvement. There is spotty medical care for people who can wait all day at free clinics or emergency rooms. Clothing, the church round the corner was giving away free clothes yesterday. They aren't the only church in the area giving away free clothes. Shoes are a problem, cloths or something to cover the body, no problem. Now compare this poverty to the poverty of some poor person in Africa or South Asia or South America.
Yet even if we could export American poverty to the rest of the world, the people are still poor because in their society there is a group of people with more resources and status then they. It is all comparative and relative. It would help if there was a better definition of poor than the guy who has less than the other guy. Because with that, you will always have the poor as long as there are 2 people in the world.
Poverty is not wiped out by making sure everyone is fed, it is more than that. Healthcare is more tricky because you need health providers (doctors, nurses, medical assist.) and you can't force people to be a doctor for a rural town. There is also a quality problem too. For more straight forward things like immunizations you can do good. If communism has taught us anything you can house and clothe a lot of people, mind you it will all be crappy but housing and clothing can be provided. Do you like the color blue? Yet in a world where everyone has access to blue robes, eating the same calorie rich sludge, in government issue apartments, and immunizations against the major diseases with free annual doctor's visits you will still have poor people. Because they will be the ones who have no options but to take the charity society gives. The non-poor will opt out or add on. There is no universal right to houses that do more than keep out the bitter cold and the damp. There is no universal right to clothing that confers status amongst your peers. There is no universal right, but there should be, to food that is well made and balanced.
The other problem with major actions particularly for rich nations giving to poorer nations is that some of the good can be undone by citizens of the nations they are trying to help. Pride, hate and corruption are the biggest enemies to pulling some nations up. Zimbabwe. That nation's leader is in denial that his country has problems. Aid groups are getting pushed out because of a politics. He who controls the food controls the votes. Corruption is something that can allow leaders to make rules that will keep the poor, poor, and strip citizens of their rights. Corruption can whittle away aid money by everybody from the prime minister to the project site foreman taking their little bit. Then if a nation is divided, like the Sudan, hate can keep any aid away from the people who are hated by those in power.
See so much easier than throwing money at it then addressing the serious sins of the soul that keep poor nations poor.

Sick

Well I'm home sick and feeling guilty. June has been a crappy month healthwise. I had the incident of the 1/2 cooked bacon, then the leg and now a cold. I'm sluggish and eh. So I decided I'll try cracking open a bible whilst waiting for the Nyquil to knock me out. Starting with Matt and reading who was the father of who till you get to Joseph, I'm wondering why is this important? If Jesus is the son of the Great Divine then he's not related to Jospeh so what is the point of the geneology? I put the book down and decided time would be better spent hunting down tissues.

Gay Lawyer church

Well another even numbered Sunday, it's the Church of the Gay Lawyer. Which seemed a little less gay yesterday. I didn't see the pew of 4-6 men who usually sit in the same pew, coupled up. I also didn't see the super butch acolyte either. I didn't even see the gay lawyer, for whom I named the church after. If this keeps up I'm going to have to rename it the church of the Super Catholics who aren't Roman.