Channeling the Ghost of Annie Oakley

Tags

Book Reviews, Christ, Congress, Good Friday, health care reform, life in the meadow, Obama, Roman Catholic Church, stupid sayings, teabaggers, The Contrarian

My world is a bit upside down today. The Contrarian has disappeared and been replaced by a strange man who wants to cook my dinner and cook Easter dinner besides. More of a convenient excuse to avoid the church possibly, but hard to turn down in any event. So, I’m at some odds this day, wandering around without “things” to do regarding the main meal of the day.

Sure, I did some wash, and made a carrot cake for tomorrow (the Contrarian has his limits you know). He is making some deviled eggs, and well, perhaps a good deal of the rest is secret at this point. I’m essentially banned from my own kitchen.

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I’ve been reading blogs and otherwise just thinking. I ran across this and thought it was quite neat. It purports to be the most twittered tweet of the week:

Obama’s not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare.

You’re thinking of Jesus.

It made me smile.

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I’m hot on the trail of a new book to review. Haven’t done any in a while. Delivery was tough given our winter woes, but that is past and it’s time to get back into serious stuff. MacCulloch has written a huge tome on Christianity. He’s the author of the Reformation, another tome I”m presently reading. But I must say, I’m learning a heck of a lot, so I’m ready to give his 1,000+ pager a try.

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Going to Good Friday services is always a bit of a gamble with me. Never know how I’m going to feel about it. I usually feel some sadness, some horror at my paltry efforts in the face of so great a sacrifice, and not a little shake of confusion. I can’t explain it well, but I always feel a bit lost.

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The Episcopal Cafe has an amazing letter by Rev. Marie Fortune, which outlines what she would tell Pope Benedict about the scandal  should he be interested. Follow the link and read, for it’s well worth it.

One thing I believe in totally, is blaming the media for a witch hunt is exactly the wrong approach. You’d think they would get that.

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If you don’t already, catch Dr. James McGrath’s blog, Exploring our Matrix. He scored second in the blog popularity wars. It’s a great blog, and I get lots of good food for thought from it. He also is busy on Facebook where I usually catch up with his posts.

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The Wild Reed, has a lovely excerpt from Andrew Harvey’s book, Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ.

Frankly, I could recommend a lot of poetry, but it’s impossible to choose among so many entries. The times do inspire great thoughts no doubt, and I’m in awe as always at how talented so many of my blogging friends are. Do stop by Tim’s Straight-Friendly today as well. His reflections are so beautiful that I’m urging him to collect them for publication. What a lovely inspirational book they would make.

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Hate to do this to a Democrat but hey, stupid is stupid. Georgia enters the fray as a new contestant in the weekly show–My Congressman is Stupider than Yours! I have a sneakin’ suspicion they could well win out this week with this one.

It seems that Hank Johnson (D-Ga) weighed in on a discussion of adding more folks to the island of Guam as the Pacific fleet is increasing its presence. It seems that this worries the congressman who is afraid that the the addition of 8000 more people might be one or two too many and cause the island to capsize and drown all the inhabitants.

Yep, that’s right. Don’t know what else to say about it, but I’m swearing off Georgia grown peaches this year just in case. I suggest detours around the state also. And before you think it was an April Fools shenanigan–there is a UTube link to prove it.

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And, well, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t hope for a little of this:

It never takes long to find another chuckle in the teabagger repertoire does it? Seems our mayor has a bit of brushing up to do on his English spelling? Perhaps Chester is the village idiot?

The Disturbing Truth

Tags

abuse of children, Benedict, cover-up, pedophelia, Roman Catholic Church

One need not go far into the blogosphere, or to any media outlet for that matter, to find a plethora of stories about the Vatican and the problem that will not go away–the abuse of children at the hands of church clergy.

Indeed, there are times when I can say, that all that can be said has been, and it’s time to put this sad chapter behind us and move on. But, the stories seem unending, and just exactly when you think it’s “old news” new information comes forth.

The Vatican, in its usual and current frame of mind, tends to take the “backs up against the wall” mentality, and to attack the messenger. Recently, Vatican spokesmen, have decried the “witch hunt” mentality of the NYTimes and other media for their remorseless attack on the institution of the Roman Catholic Church.

That may or may not be true, but alas, it changes nothing; certainly not the facts that continue to leak forth from the hidden nuclear waste bin where they have been secretly confined to for so long.

Some cast severe blame on Benedict himself, mostly for his inaction while a Cardinal, head of the Vatican Department dealing with the crisis. Some defend the Pope, claiming that many of the charges against him are over blown and only tell a partial story.

This is not about who is to blame or what is to blame. It is not about matching numbers from one faith tradition to another, and concluding that one has “more” deviants than the other. It is not about our Christian duty to feel compassion and empathy for those that so deeply lose their way that they would do such acts.

It is, and always was about the cover up. To the victims, of course, it is about more, but to the rest of us, ex-Roman Catholic, and Catholic alike, Protestants, and agnostics, and atheists, and those of other traditions entirely,  it remains mind-bogglingly incomprehensible that a CHURCH could under ANY  circumstances come to the conclusion that silence was the best answer to such a hideous crime.

Have we so completely forgotten Jesus’ teachings? Do we forget how he gave such special favored place in the world to the “little ones?” Did we miss that such abuse was completely and utterly devoid of anything Christian? Did we push aside that our purpose is to live out our faith in ways that signal to others that there is a better way of life?

All seems forgotten in this mixed up world of due respect for church law and procedure, and the rights of the accused. All seemed forgotten in the desire to “save” the soul of the miscreant who would do such things. Could such a one as these actually preach anything that would be worth listening to? Could they be admired in any fashion whatsoever, when they committed such mind-numbing assault on children?

You may make all the fine statements you wish about a “priest is a priest forever” and the human soul is always redeemable. Those things may in fact be utterly true, but that changes nothing. The ONLY proper and right response to such allegations was always the same–turn the information over to proper authorities and cooperate fully.

The religious hierarchy of the Roman Church has the right and means to offer all the therapeutic treatment it wishes. It was always free to reassign during the interim, any priest accused. It was always free to do all in its power to assist victims and their families.

What it was not free to do was to hide behind the phrase, “taking care of our own dirty laundry behind closed doors, much as any family would wish to.” It was not entitled to hide behind the defense of “the atheists/Satan/secularists are out to get us, and always have been. ”

This was a moral outrage of monumental proportions, on a scale that at least approaches the inhumanness of the Holocaust, and other genocidal actions throughout history. This was the often permanent destruction of children, the most vulnerable and most sinless among us.

Somewhere within church culture, offending priests determined that it was “okay” and some how justifiable to pursue such conduct rather than turn themselves into bishops and other clergy and beg for help. One can only shudder at the “excuses” and “explanations” offered to both themselves and to their victims as they found some foundation for their crimes.

The public is outraged, and frankly I cannot fathom how the Vatican could have thought it would react otherwise. There seems, upon any theory, no possible resolution other than to report such crimes to the police and as I said, cooperate fully. Surely our entire criminal justice system is based on the theory that a crime is a crime. Punishment is tailored to the individual and their personal level of responsibility. But we cannot, indeed, we should not, decide to pull certain malefactors from the system because of who they are.

This is and remains the reason that people like myself cannot let go of what happened. All those who are so misguided as to think that this “transfer, treatment, and forget it” mentality was right, need to be removed from their positions, NOW. This is not an area of grey, it’s as black and white as it can get as I see it.

That such things have occurred to other clergy in other faith traditions, is not in dispute, and we respond with the same clear direction. TURN THEM IN.

For as surely as God forgives his misbegotten priests and pastors, and all those who do grievous wrong to human beings of any age, he weeps for the pain inflicted upon the innocents and demands that we do everything to stop this. WE have not, and we are deeply shamed that in this day and age, we prove but again that we are far far from the mind of Christ.

No U-Turns, Follow the Map

Tags

basketball, blogs, Books, Contrarian, crafting, health care reform, Hollywood, life in the meadow, March Madness, pedophilia, right wing, Roman Catholic Church, Sandra Bullock, snow, spring

Oh, excuse me. Don’t mind me. I’m just dribbling. A little idea here, a little factoid there. Nothing much to alert the press about. Surely no need to take to the bomb shelter. Just the sleepy weekend fare.

The Contrarian is cooking today. “Stay out of the kitchen, woman–I’m in charge!” Okay, as I creep away, hiding behind a computer. Forewarned is forearmed. Naw. Actually he produces a great meal sometimes, and an edible one at all times. It’s safe to continue.

We got a couple of inches of snow last night. I did not explode in expletives however. I took it in “stride” as my new found peace dictates. I’m embracing the beauty, smiling at the bright blue sky, and recalling the three fat robins perched outside the bedroom window on the lilac bushes. “Agnes, I said we should wait a week. Now we have to get all wet in this mess!”

We are up to our eyeballs in March Madness. It’s the year of the upset. They predicted there wouldn’t be any or darn few. They were wrong. So were  those folks who created the brackets this year. So wrong. Being right, means four one’s end up in the final four. Not this year. Prince charming is gonna have his choice of Cinderellas this year.

The Roman Catholic church continues to grapple for a hold on sanity as it spirals into hell for it’s treatment of pedophile priests. The cover up seems to still be uncovering and it’s dirtying more and more of the higher ups. It’s sad, pathetic, horrific. The harm that they have done is so far reaching as to be nearly incalculable. All Christendom is tainted. I cannot not imagine how this was reconciled as somehow being Christ-like by offending clergy and superiors.

The health care reform bill seems poised to pass amidst all the hoopla. Everyone is counting heads, trying to maintain the suspense. There is no end to the lies and silly walks the opposition seems ready to pull. Now it’s some vast mean offense against God to vote on Sunday. I think Jesus actually spoke to that–the sabbath being created for man and not man for the sabbath? Something like that. But Monday should be interesting. If it passes (as I suspect it will), we shall wait and see if the earth still spins on Monday, or if it is burnt to a cinder by Satan’s minions. Cast your bets.

Sandra Bullock, after making all kinds of speeches about her wonderful husband, Jesse James (the name should have alerted the girl no?), has left him for his years long infidelity. Some people care, and I wonder why. I mean as a human, I am sad she is sad, but beyond that? Doesn’t cross my radar. Yet, we, the great egalitarian society (so we protest against clear evidence to the contrary) continue to place people on pedestals and expect them not to be like “us.” Go figure that one out.

I’ve bogged down in my knitting, which always happens. Remember, I am not addicted to any craft–no passion. So, after a few weeks, I get tired of purling and knitting and yarn overing and all that. I’m poised to return to crochet, some lacy edgings that I can sew together for a spring shawl? I’ll get a quarter or so done, before that wanes too. It’s me, and I’ve come to accept it. Somehow, they all get done, over time.

I’m about to finish a book on Christian women in the fourth century. It’s not as good as I expected. Next on the agenda is a tome on the Reformation. It’s a subject I’m woefully not well versed in. I’m interested in reading some Camus and some Philo as well. I’m itching for a trip to the bookstore next week, if the weather allows it.

I’ve spent some hours this morning reading blogs. It’s so refreshing to do. I learn a lot, am uplifted. I laugh, I nod in agreement, and once or twice, I yelped in horror. Thanks Randal, I really really needed that pic seared into my skull! I try always to spend some time with cheeseburger and hotdog pics. They always make me happy. Jan always has words of wisdom. Madpriest takes us to task on things we should be taken to task for. Dave reminds us of things that fully sensory folks take for granted. Blisterina takes awesome photos that just make the spirit soar. I could go on, but you probably read them all too, and more than me.

So, have yourselves a pleasant Saturday. Remember to take some time to have fun, relax and stop to smell a rose or two along the way.

What is the Message? (Part I)

Tags

bible, biblical exegesis, Episcopal Church, faith, God, Jesus, religion, Roman Catholic Church, theology

I was asked a question the other day, and though I answered it, it seemed there was more to say, and what better place than here.

Paraphrasing, the person said, “the Episcopal Church seems like it reflects  60’s cultural liberalism,” and “what you declare as conservative, I see as mere orthodoxy.”

Now I think the question is really broader than that. Polling suggests that most main stream Protestant denominations as well as Roman Catholicism have strong “liberal” wings, if not outright majorities, at least on some issues. Are we just hippies turned religionists?

Of course, I can only speak for myself. I am truly a child of the 60’s, and I learned about racism, sexism (gay and women), and ideas of justice and fairness during that era. I learned that what my government told me and taught me was not always true, and that American entitlement philosophy often led to “anything goes” as long as it furthers American interests both at home and abroad.

No doubt I do bring that sense of justice and fairness and equality to the table when I approach faith. No doubt others of my generation do as well. Except that some of my generation didn’t see it that way at all, and it has confounded me ever since that they don’t. But they don’t. So I figure they are as equally dispersed within the religions as us “liberals” are. I think on balance it’s a wash.

But the Episcopal church on balance is liberal, I cannot deny that, nor would I wish to. In fact, it is in the vanguard so to speak, and perhaps this explains some of it’s troubles of late with various parts of congregations splitting off in anger and dismay as the Church proper seems to be moving toward even more inclusiveness.

I’m way to new to the Church to discuss these issues with any authority, but I can speak generally I think. I give my thoughts alone.

This comes at a propitious moment in time I think, as I’m reading a book that is making my heart soar a bit, Robin Meyers, “Saving Jesus From the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus.”  And then our Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schiori gave a speech at the General Convention last week and said this:

The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of use alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention. Ubuntu. That word doesn’t have any “I”s in it. The I only emerges as we connect – and that is really what the word means: I am because we are, and I can only become a whole person in relationship with others. There is no “I” without “you,” and in our context, you and I are known only as we reflect the image of the one who created us. Some of you will hear a resonance with Martin Buber’s I and Thou and recognize a harmony. You will not be wrong.

All this seems to fit it seems to me into a theme. I guess the question is why are you Episcopalians and others so bent on upsetting the apple cart here? Surely we are about that business it seems to me, but for only good purposes I think.

First let me explain how I come to where I am. As many of you know, I was formerly a Roman Catholic. I came to that faith eagerly, fulfilling a life long dream. I was taught the faith by what I would define as a very orthodox nun of some 50 years experience. I was not taught the bible was “the word of God.” I was not taught it was infallible. I was taught that it was “inspired.”

I took that to mean that God graced the various writers with the ideas he wished to get across and left it to them to develop the stories, commensurate with their time and location. Thus Genesis was not “real” in the sense that God created the planet Earth in six days, but that he stood as Creator of all that is. Similarly, Eve didn’t talk to a serpent, rather humans have forgotten who their creator is, in their  grand ability to think and “create” themselves. Our sin is in thinking we do this all by ourselves.

I tried very hard to accept all the teachings of the Church, on homosexuality, divorce, abortion, and so on. I believed as a matter of pure faith in the resurrection, and salvation, and the efficacy of confession through the priest and so on. I was taught that birth control was within the personal conscience of the persons involved, determined by their best belief as to what they could personally sustain within their marriage and family.

Then I went back to college into graduate school at a Catholic college. There my teachers were theologians and biblical scholars, one priest and two nuns, all with doctorates in these fields. I learned to read critically and I learned that there was a good deal of the bible that was suspect in terms of being both original, and true. Much had been reorganized and added to, subtracted from, and so forth for the purpose of convincing others of what the writer truly personally believed, and what the early church had come to believe. Much of it back filled and made Jesus say things that justified the situation the early followers found themselves in.

Again, this wasn’t out of a desire to deceive so much as a desire to further the legitimate cause of convincing others of what they truly believed to be true.  Jesus, it seems never meant to start any church, he lived and died a committed Jew, wishing to reform his community. The church, later added those words, to combat various “heresies” and to give legitimacy to their  place as THE church, from which they could claim direct linkage to Peter and the other apostles.

That’s a sampling of what I learned. To learned to see the Bible as a document, that served many purposes, political, and economic. It helped support nationalism, tolerance, intolerance as times required. It was overlaid again and again with later additions to account for changes in circumstances. But it still retains truth, and  historical “facts” about a Galilean man who had an extraordinary impact on people that has never ceased. I think that most “liberals” within the church have also come to see a similar reality. It doesn’t at all make us non-believers in God or Jesus, but it certainly changes the approach. Tomorrow we can look at that.