Ohhhh, I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to blog. There is a lot going on on blackberry hill.
We've been trying to keep up with the blackberries and I have finally relinquished them to the june bugs. I have suffered the last of the thorns this year and I won't be going to work again with berry stained hands, feeling the need to explain to everyone that I'm not a mechanic and that's not dirt under my nails!
Our 19 year old son flew home from Florida on Saturday, he's been gone for 4 months and it was a happy reunion! I've missed him terribly. He is happy to be home but left a girl in Florida so the saga is not over, I'm afraid. Having all of my children home where I know they are safe and happy gives me such a sense of peace. I will enjoy it while I can!!
Dad's 60th birthday is August 8th and he let us know a year ago that he wanted a party although he hasn't said a word about it since. Grinny, dad's S.O., my cousin Marcia and I have been working on a plan. My dad is a sweet, kind-hearted, loving person as evidenced by the number of friends he has; we have put together a list of his closest friends and there are at least 35. That, along with our family will amount to about 60 people, YIKES! I've never planned such a large party!
The summer is almost over and we will be starting school again soon. I've been online ordering books, pre-reading the books I already have, making schedules, etc., etc.,. Dh will be home to help this year and I'm looking forward to it. He has a photographic memory (if there is such a thing) and can tell you who the president was on a given year, what party they stood for, the first lady's name and numerous other interesting (or useless, depends on how you look at it*grin*) facts regarding the historical time period in which they served! He has a captive audience with the kids (he loves history so much and it's hard to find others who are quite as passionate *smile*).
I promise to try to be a better blogger from now on!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
Real Christians Don't Gay Bash
by the Rev. Jim Rigby
Progressive Christians tend to be nonjudgmental and to feel that challenging the intolerance of others is itself intolerant. For that reason we often sit by silently when Fundamentalist Christians criticize homosexual persons. We tend to think of this as being open-minded.
Not that long ago, it was considered consistent to be a Christian, and yet, hold slaves. The day came when slavery was understood as an affront to the gospel itself. I want to suggest that the day has come when Christians must declare that gay bashing is an attack on the gospel and that real Christians do not participate in any form of discrimination.
Several years ago, I was asked to do the funeral of a gay man who had been beaten to death in a hate crime. At that time, I had never thought deeply about the danger many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people face in this culture. That week as I worked on the service, I kept hearing a local “Christian” radio station blaming gay and lesbian people for everything wrong in America. By the end of the week I understood the link between religious hate speech and the funeral I was performing.
I know that critics of homosexuality do not consider themselves to be hateful. They would say they “love the sinner but hate the sin.” If the shoe were on the other foot, however, and someone were attacking their families, trying to take their children away, and constantly working to pass legislation to deprive them of basic civil rights, at some point they would understand that “homophobia” is too mild a word for such harassment. “Hatred” is the only proper term.
I was raised in Dallas, Texas and had classmates who were in the Klan. I remember that they did not consider themselves to be attacking other people. They perceived themselves to be defenders of Christian America. Their “religion” consisted of an unrelenting attack on people who were black, Jewish, or homosexual. If anyone challenged these views, these Klan members considered themselves under attack and believed that their right to free exercise of religion was being threatened. In other words, they felt that harassing other people was a protected expression of their own religious faith.
In the Gospel, biblical literalists and judgmental people were the negative example in many of the stories. The point of those stories was to teach us the hypocrisy of judgmental religion. When a woman was caught in adultery, the Biblical literalists lined up to protect family values. They pointed out that the Bible literally says that adulterers are to be stoned. If Jesus took the Bible seriously, they claimed, he would have to participate in the mandated biblical punishment of an adulteress.
Instead of following scripture, Jesus tells the woman to get her life together and tells everyone else to drop their stones of judgment. The only way to take this story seriously is to conclude that real Christians don’t use the bible to condemn other people.
It violates the teaching of Christ to say that God will get angry if America does not confront homosexuality as a sin. Jesus did not mention homosexuality and it is a lie to say he did. Furthermore, Jesus said “judge not or you will be judged.” These false prophets are saying “judge or else you will be judged.”
Jesus was kind and understanding, but he was not silent about those who abused the vulnerable. He called them “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Christians must follow the example of Jesus and confront those vicious predators who use the Christian religion as a camouflage for bullying. We must be as understanding and kind as we can be, but to be tolerant of the oppression of others is not true tolerance.
I believe the time has come to say that genuine followers of Jesus Christ do not participate in discrimination against gay and lesbian persons. Is it intolerant to challenge intolerance? Are we doing the same thing as those we are challenging?
Gay-bashing is not just an opinion, it is an assault. Just as the Klan did, religious fundamentalists have a right to believe that homosexuality is a sin. They even have a right to preach a message of hate. But when they harass people in public, it is time for Christians to rise to challenge their intolerance. We have an obligation to protect our neighbors from harassment and slander, especially when it is done in our name.
It is time to say that gay-bashing is not only wrong, it is unchristian. If Christianity is grace, then judgment is the ultimate apostasy. If Christianity is love, then cruelty is the ultimate heresy.
The Rev. Jim Rigby is pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX, and a longtime activist in movements concerned with gender, racial, and economic justice. This summer he is finishing a book on principles for a New Reformation. Email to: jrigby0000@aol.com.
Progressive Christians tend to be nonjudgmental and to feel that challenging the intolerance of others is itself intolerant. For that reason we often sit by silently when Fundamentalist Christians criticize homosexual persons. We tend to think of this as being open-minded.
Not that long ago, it was considered consistent to be a Christian, and yet, hold slaves. The day came when slavery was understood as an affront to the gospel itself. I want to suggest that the day has come when Christians must declare that gay bashing is an attack on the gospel and that real Christians do not participate in any form of discrimination.
Several years ago, I was asked to do the funeral of a gay man who had been beaten to death in a hate crime. At that time, I had never thought deeply about the danger many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people face in this culture. That week as I worked on the service, I kept hearing a local “Christian” radio station blaming gay and lesbian people for everything wrong in America. By the end of the week I understood the link between religious hate speech and the funeral I was performing.
I know that critics of homosexuality do not consider themselves to be hateful. They would say they “love the sinner but hate the sin.” If the shoe were on the other foot, however, and someone were attacking their families, trying to take their children away, and constantly working to pass legislation to deprive them of basic civil rights, at some point they would understand that “homophobia” is too mild a word for such harassment. “Hatred” is the only proper term.
I was raised in Dallas, Texas and had classmates who were in the Klan. I remember that they did not consider themselves to be attacking other people. They perceived themselves to be defenders of Christian America. Their “religion” consisted of an unrelenting attack on people who were black, Jewish, or homosexual. If anyone challenged these views, these Klan members considered themselves under attack and believed that their right to free exercise of religion was being threatened. In other words, they felt that harassing other people was a protected expression of their own religious faith.
In the Gospel, biblical literalists and judgmental people were the negative example in many of the stories. The point of those stories was to teach us the hypocrisy of judgmental religion. When a woman was caught in adultery, the Biblical literalists lined up to protect family values. They pointed out that the Bible literally says that adulterers are to be stoned. If Jesus took the Bible seriously, they claimed, he would have to participate in the mandated biblical punishment of an adulteress.
Instead of following scripture, Jesus tells the woman to get her life together and tells everyone else to drop their stones of judgment. The only way to take this story seriously is to conclude that real Christians don’t use the bible to condemn other people.
It violates the teaching of Christ to say that God will get angry if America does not confront homosexuality as a sin. Jesus did not mention homosexuality and it is a lie to say he did. Furthermore, Jesus said “judge not or you will be judged.” These false prophets are saying “judge or else you will be judged.”
Jesus was kind and understanding, but he was not silent about those who abused the vulnerable. He called them “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Christians must follow the example of Jesus and confront those vicious predators who use the Christian religion as a camouflage for bullying. We must be as understanding and kind as we can be, but to be tolerant of the oppression of others is not true tolerance.
I believe the time has come to say that genuine followers of Jesus Christ do not participate in discrimination against gay and lesbian persons. Is it intolerant to challenge intolerance? Are we doing the same thing as those we are challenging?
Gay-bashing is not just an opinion, it is an assault. Just as the Klan did, religious fundamentalists have a right to believe that homosexuality is a sin. They even have a right to preach a message of hate. But when they harass people in public, it is time for Christians to rise to challenge their intolerance. We have an obligation to protect our neighbors from harassment and slander, especially when it is done in our name.
It is time to say that gay-bashing is not only wrong, it is unchristian. If Christianity is grace, then judgment is the ultimate apostasy. If Christianity is love, then cruelty is the ultimate heresy.
The Rev. Jim Rigby is pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX, and a longtime activist in movements concerned with gender, racial, and economic justice. This summer he is finishing a book on principles for a New Reformation. Email to: jrigby0000@aol.com.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
The Sheep, the Pig, the Cat and the Dogs......
The pig and the sheep, Mr. Ziffel and Cardigan, are now happily coexisting in the same pen. Cardigan will not let the pig get more than a few inches away from him. I believe he thinks the pig is his mother.
The two unlikely companions sleep, eat and play together. Sheep are not known to eat slop but Mr. Ziffel has taught Cardigan that it's better than crimped oats any day. It's fun to bring the leftovers to them every morning and watch as all of our animals, kitten included, share a meal from the same bucket. Mr. Ziffel is not impressed when the other animals join in on his feast and tries to body slam them out of the way but they are persistent creatures, stealthily sneaking a piece of bread or apple core when Mr. Z isn't looking. To get Cardigan away from his feed trough, he grabs a mouthful of food and runs to another part of the corral, knowing that Cardigan will follow him. You can imagine him saying, "come look what's over here, you dumb sheep". Once Cardigan is sufficiently out of the way, Mr. Z races back to his trough to eat a few bites in peace.
Yesterday, as is the case more often than not, we were going on a hike. I talked dh into letting Cardigan and Mr. Ziffel go with us so we opened the gate to the corral and the animals eagerly walked out and started following us down the path toward the woods.
I've always heard that pigs are as smart as dogs and I believe it. Mr. Ziffel just took off walking along the path right along with the rest of us. Now, we love Cardigan but we're thinking his IQ may be a little weaker, or maybe it's just that he can't see very well. When he loses sight of Mr. Ziffel he just stands there and bleats continually until Mr. Z gets sick of hearing it. The pig will go toward the sheep until it is spotted and Cardigan happily runs toward Mr. Ziffel as if it has just been reunited with its one surviving relative.
Cardigan could not see Mr. Ziffel who had rushed down to the pond and was ecstatically coating himself with a layer of mud. The sheep was stopped midway down the hill "baaaaaaing" incessantly. Mr. Ziffel, newly energized, ran squealing back up the hill until he could be visualized by Cardigan and led him back down to where we all stood laughing at their antics.
So, we were a crazy sight, walking along our hiking trails in this order: Dh, Mr. Ziffel (pig), Cardigan (sheep), ds-5, Chewy (dog), dd-12, Beau (dog), ds-21, Shadow (cat) and me bringing up the rear. I was cracking up as I watched the animals just follow right along the paths as if they did this every day. They never once tried to stop and eat or wander off into the woods; they just hiked along with the rest of us.
As we were finishing our hike, I stopped to pick some blackberries. No one noticed that I was no longer with the group until Cardigan turned around, walked back down the path toward me and stood there in the path, looked at me and bleated, "baaaaa, baaaaa", as if to say, "come on, wouldya?". He kept on bleating until I finally said "OK, I'm coming," and started walking toward him. He immediately resumed his place in the convoy of hikers and walked joyfully back up to the house, content that everyone was accounted for.
The two unlikely companions sleep, eat and play together. Sheep are not known to eat slop but Mr. Ziffel has taught Cardigan that it's better than crimped oats any day. It's fun to bring the leftovers to them every morning and watch as all of our animals, kitten included, share a meal from the same bucket. Mr. Ziffel is not impressed when the other animals join in on his feast and tries to body slam them out of the way but they are persistent creatures, stealthily sneaking a piece of bread or apple core when Mr. Z isn't looking. To get Cardigan away from his feed trough, he grabs a mouthful of food and runs to another part of the corral, knowing that Cardigan will follow him. You can imagine him saying, "come look what's over here, you dumb sheep". Once Cardigan is sufficiently out of the way, Mr. Z races back to his trough to eat a few bites in peace.
Yesterday, as is the case more often than not, we were going on a hike. I talked dh into letting Cardigan and Mr. Ziffel go with us so we opened the gate to the corral and the animals eagerly walked out and started following us down the path toward the woods.
I've always heard that pigs are as smart as dogs and I believe it. Mr. Ziffel just took off walking along the path right along with the rest of us. Now, we love Cardigan but we're thinking his IQ may be a little weaker, or maybe it's just that he can't see very well. When he loses sight of Mr. Ziffel he just stands there and bleats continually until Mr. Z gets sick of hearing it. The pig will go toward the sheep until it is spotted and Cardigan happily runs toward Mr. Ziffel as if it has just been reunited with its one surviving relative.
Cardigan could not see Mr. Ziffel who had rushed down to the pond and was ecstatically coating himself with a layer of mud. The sheep was stopped midway down the hill "baaaaaaing" incessantly. Mr. Ziffel, newly energized, ran squealing back up the hill until he could be visualized by Cardigan and led him back down to where we all stood laughing at their antics.
So, we were a crazy sight, walking along our hiking trails in this order: Dh, Mr. Ziffel (pig), Cardigan (sheep), ds-5, Chewy (dog), dd-12, Beau (dog), ds-21, Shadow (cat) and me bringing up the rear. I was cracking up as I watched the animals just follow right along the paths as if they did this every day. They never once tried to stop and eat or wander off into the woods; they just hiked along with the rest of us.
As we were finishing our hike, I stopped to pick some blackberries. No one noticed that I was no longer with the group until Cardigan turned around, walked back down the path toward me and stood there in the path, looked at me and bleated, "baaaaa, baaaaa", as if to say, "come on, wouldya?". He kept on bleating until I finally said "OK, I'm coming," and started walking toward him. He immediately resumed his place in the convoy of hikers and walked joyfully back up to the house, content that everyone was accounted for.
Born On The 4th of July
My niece, JL, was born on July 4th three years ago. Her birthday was celebrated at my brother's house. We arrived at JL's 3rd birthday party on the evening of the 4th, intending to watch the community fireworks display after the ritual opening of presents. JL is a beautiful child with dark brown eyes, a gorgeous olive complexion and dark brown hair, just like her Mom and Dad. When I walked in the house and said "Hi, Angel!", she replied in her usual third-person fashion, reiterating the reason for our being there saying, "JL is 3!".
After the requisite sugar bolus we received in the form of cake and ice cream, it was time to open presents. The children in our family are blessed to have many aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents to shower affection and gifts upon them. JL received a princess dress for her birthday last year and spends a lot of time in it, I hear. Her mother has washed it until it is shredded and thread-bare and the entire family proved sympathetic to the cause; JL received no less than 3 new princess dresses for her birthday!
It wasn't long before JL was newly attired in a princess dress, this one complete with a lighted skirt! She was mesmerized by the blinking lights (don't know how that one will hold up in the wash!). Littlewho was so impressed by her appearance, he sweetly and tenderly walked up to her and said "JL, you look like Cinderella!". There was an utterance of "aaaawwwwwws" heard throughout the room from ladies and men alike.
The fireworks started late, around 10pm but it was worth the wait. We had front row seats sitting in the driveway of my brother's home. It was a spectacular display of artistic brilliance, lasting about 25 minutes during which time there were repeated exclamations of "wow!", "oh my gosh!", "how wonderful!", "oooooooo!", and "Happy birthday, JL!".
Can you imagine what must go through a little 3 year old's mind when there is so much gaiety and merriment surrounding her birthday? JL has no idea that we are also celebrating our freedom but--who cares?--we should all be so fortunate to have such a birthday celebration!
After the requisite sugar bolus we received in the form of cake and ice cream, it was time to open presents. The children in our family are blessed to have many aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents to shower affection and gifts upon them. JL received a princess dress for her birthday last year and spends a lot of time in it, I hear. Her mother has washed it until it is shredded and thread-bare and the entire family proved sympathetic to the cause; JL received no less than 3 new princess dresses for her birthday!
It wasn't long before JL was newly attired in a princess dress, this one complete with a lighted skirt! She was mesmerized by the blinking lights (don't know how that one will hold up in the wash!). Littlewho was so impressed by her appearance, he sweetly and tenderly walked up to her and said "JL, you look like Cinderella!". There was an utterance of "aaaawwwwwws" heard throughout the room from ladies and men alike.
The fireworks started late, around 10pm but it was worth the wait. We had front row seats sitting in the driveway of my brother's home. It was a spectacular display of artistic brilliance, lasting about 25 minutes during which time there were repeated exclamations of "wow!", "oh my gosh!", "how wonderful!", "oooooooo!", and "Happy birthday, JL!".
Can you imagine what must go through a little 3 year old's mind when there is so much gaiety and merriment surrounding her birthday? JL has no idea that we are also celebrating our freedom but--who cares?--we should all be so fortunate to have such a birthday celebration!
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