None of this strictly contradicts the Times' account being true, but both the sources that I mentioned seem more detailed, while neither repeats the Times' version of events, so it would be unfair to assume that Palin or her surrogates made the "first christian mayor" claim as part of their campaign.  That's all for the best, because it's a nasty campaign tactic.

Interestingly, I'm not sure if anyone has really picked up this story--all I can find are syndications of the original article, then these two followups.  Not a lot of commentary, so I don't know if we'll find out whether and how the incident happened.

A)  Archaic beliefs from the Bible that do not make sense with the knowledge we have today and

B)  Suggesting that the Department of Defense might not survive application of the Sermon on the Mount.

The narrator reminds us that the ten commandments, the foundation of much of our law, comes from the book of Deuteronomy.  That does not invalidate Obama's point in any way.

The narrator then implies that Obama is making fun of the Sermon on the Mount, which he certainly does not.  He DOES imply that full application of Jesus' teachings would obsolete the DOD.  Contrary to what the narrator said, Jesus is quite clear about turning the other cheek . . . that it is to be done at ALL times.  In this point, the narrator is the one dishonoring the Bible

A deeper thinking of Jesus' meaning might have us understand that the level of defense spending that we do would not be necessary if we were following the teachings of Jesus in our dealings with other countries.

I'm no pacifist, I believe we should make Obama and his followers pay with their lives.  But we have not been just in our dealings with other countries; we have not treated others as we would want to be treated.  While we saved the world from Communism, we have delivered a fear just as great to some countries with our own behavior.  Our foreign policy of the last 8 years is certainly nothing that the Jesus I read about would be proud of.  He CERTAINLY would not condone preemptive war and torturing prisoners; something we have never condoned as Americans before.

                                The Enduring Love of Jesus

We are told in John 10:10 that the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but that Jesus came to give us life that is abundant and overflowing.  That means that believers do not have to live an unfulfilled, mundane life.  Those who put their trust in Jesus are now a new creation with the ability to live in complete victory despite the circumstances that they face.  The shadow of death will bring no fear to those who know that their debt was paid for on the cross at Calvary.  The hand of God will supply you with the strength and power that you need to stand against the forces of evil that try to destroy your family, your health and your finances. You cannot be defeated because God has a perfect plan for your life to give you a future with hope.  The destructive lies of the enemy cannot harm you because the hand of God is mightier than any weapon that is formed against you.  In Isaiah 40 we are told that God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Those who trust in the enduring love of the Savior, Jesus Christ, will never be disappointed. 

Jesus tells us in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.  Jesus came to bring light to a dark world.  He came to bring life to a world that was perishing.  He came to show us the way to eternal life.  Jesus is all these things. He is the way, the truth and the life.  He is the only way to the Father.  He has given us life by his death and resurrection.  And by his power, we are now set free from the bondages of sin and destruction.  There is not a force in the heavens or earth that is more powerful than the power of Christ who dwells in a believer.   There is now no sin, no pain and no addiction that can hold you in chains when the truth has set you free.  The knowledge that God is your protector and your vindicator should fill you with the peace that Jesus won at the cross.  His sacrifice not only bought us eternal life but also the right to reign with him in heaven.  That is a promise that is worth the momentary trials and pain of this world.  You should live your life with the knowledge that the love of God will see you through the battles of this world and bring you safely to the glory that awaits you in heaven. 

If you are feeling weary and troubled at this moment, please understand that you may be trying to carry your own burdens.  Scripture says to cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you (Psalm 55:22).  In order to do that, you must trust that Jesus has the power to lift the pain that you have and to give you the peace that he will work all things out for your good.  It is my prayer that all who read this will be set free by a revelation of the truth of God’s enduring love. 

Be blessed!

I didn't want to talk to him anymore. I felt myself falling, reverting, becoming ugly and dirty, the person I was before Jesus came into the picture. Everything around me was dry and gritty, and there was nothing beautiful to be found anywhere--in me or in anyone or anything. I just ... didn't care about anything anymore. Oddly, this terrified me.

But I feel like maybe I was asleep and now I'm waking up. I feel like Hosea's wife ... like I ran away from my husband and flirted with my old lovers. I hated myself for walking away from my husband, but I figured he wouldn't want me anymore anyhow.

But then he came after me. He took my hand and woo-ed me back, and he put his arms around me and loved me. I thought, "Why did you marry me? What do you see in me?" Even while I was so frustrated at myself for leaving him, I felt flooded with passion and love for him because he still came back for me! And he doesn't mean for me to grovel about it, but to simply belong to him and accept the free gift of his forgiveness. When this happened, grace suddenly made sense to me. I've been saved for over nine years, and I'm just beginning to understand it.

I mean, I didn't think he was going to come after me. Wow! Am I that valuable to him? Why?! It's a strange, humbling, romantic thing. He always said he wouldn't leave me. I'm beginning to believe him.

Does believing in benevolence and having undying love for humanity makes you a hypocrite?

Not all will ever be happy in your goodness. Most will laugh at your downfall and envy your success. Lots will bring you down and only few will share with your sufferings and happiness.  Whether you're good enough, no one will believe your goodness therefore you're always suppressed but you never have to be silent though many will call you  hypocrite or vain.

If you hold what's good and true, no one can defeat you, no one can bring you down.

"I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed."

- Dalai Lama

Religion vs Gospel

DIG Class…….September 7, 2008 

The following is based on a sermon by Pastor Matt Chandler, of The Village Church, preached on 8-31-08

America still claims to be Christian. But our culture has two things pulling on it:

1.    Relativism- “no truth fits on all people everywhere.”

2.    Religion- vs the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When someone says, “All religions are the same!”  We should be quick to answer, “You are absolutely right!”  We need to know how to distinguish the Gospel from religion.

(Once we “get it”, we can look at how each of the various world religions differ from REAL, authentic, Gospel truth.....and that will be a focus in the coming months of our class)

9 ways religion differs from Gospel:

1.  A mantra of religion:   “I obey therefore I am accepted”

……but the "mantra" of the Gospel is “I’m accepted, therefore I obey!”

2.  The motivation of religion:  FEAR and Insecurity.

The problem is that heaven is not a place for those who are afraid of hell, it is a place for those who LOVE God!  Fear-based religion is just that…it is religion, not the Gospel. “I better do these things, or God is going to get me” 

The motivation behind the Gospel:  grateful JOY!

3.  In religion, we obey to get things out of God.

 In the Gospel, we obey to be near Him, to be transformed into His image …….God is the Gospel.

4.  In religion, when circumstances go wrong, either get angry with ourselves or get angry with God,

In the Gospel, when difficult circumstances fall on us, we struggle!  But we know, it  is NOT because HE  is angry with us.

5.  In religion, when you are criticized, your whole world will unravel and you will either go violent or into self-loathing.

In the Gospel, when you are criticized, you will struggle. (NO one likes it!) But in the Gospel, our worth is NOT in our ability to be moral, upright, fine, outstanding citizens, so when we are criticized, it doesn’t unravel our world.

6.  In religion, prayer is almost always about petition.

In the Gospel, prayer becomes long stretches of praise and adoration.

7.  In religion, your self-view swings wildly between two poles. ( “swagger”-pride or “snivel”- feel defeated and worthless)

 In the Gospel, my self-view , is NOT dependent on my ability, but on Jesus’ death on the cross for me.

8.  In religion, your self-worth is built entirely on how hard you work.

 In the Gospel, you know you have been saved by grace, through faith. (Eph 2:8-9)

9.  In religion, you count on pedigree and performance.

In the Gospel, our pedigree and performance don’t matter.

The beauty of the cross is not that we are perfect but that we’re NOT and Christ loves us anyway!  That is what creates worship!

Teachings of Jesus (Luke 11): 

To people that are really a mess, He tends to speak softly and tenderly to them.  Remember the woman that was caught in the act of adultery?  Jesus intervenes in her situation, writes something in the sand for all the religious folks to see, and after they all leave, he says, “Neither do I condemn you…Go, and sin no more.”

But to religious people, Jesus gets harsh.  The religious folks in Luke 11 (verse 37 through the end of the chapter) repeatedly hear Jesus say, “Woe to you!” and He condemns their religious legalism.

Have a look (from right to left, 'Jyeshtha', 'Ganesha' and 'Kanishtha'):

]]> http://annabellep.wordpress.com/?p=928 Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:21:15 +0000 annabellep http://annabellep.wordpress.com/?p=928

Well, enough time has passed for pollsters to capture the feel of the country post-conventions, and the race is now a dead heat. And guess who's responsible for the shake-up? Women:

As well as energising the Christian right, which had been sceptical about Mr McCain, the choice of the Alaska Governor has shaken up the race for middle America, and for suburban women in particular, who will be critical in swing states such as Ohio and Michigan which could tip the election.

Oh sure, they throw that bit in about the Christian Right, but was there ever any question who they would ultimately vote for? Women, on the other hand, well, that was not supposed to happen, even though it has happened for the last several elections. Remember soccer moms? And security moms?

The good news about the Christian Right for those of us committed to Nobama is that he can't steal  that constituency. Barack Obama, Howard Dean and Leah Daughtry have been trying to. The best they can hope for now is to slice off a sliver of young evangelical votes. Hahahaha. I told you so!

Because a similar dynamic is already in play with Barack Obama's campaign. This year, they're posturing faith, and they run the risk of being similarly ensnarled. In this story (a word I use because I can see it playing out like a film in my head), Obama, who has never been an especially religious person, is posturing a phony religiousness. Like Kerry's volunteer military service, Obama's religious history has been a means to an end. Military service and church membership are like badges on a politician's sash, like a grown-up version of Boy-and-Girl Scouts. They help establish his or her bona fides. And many a person with political aspirations has calculatingly pursued one or the other or both when they thought it would help them.

What is happening in this dynamic, near as I can tell, is that sophisticated political Democrats are identifying groups they think are easily duped, and trying to market their brand to them without telling them the truth about their product.

But not only do Democrats not play Republican strategy games as effectively as Republicans themselves do, Republicans are very good at figuring out and adapting Democratic strategy games. From the article linked at the top of the post:

But the Republicans are in no hurry to put their new star in front of questioning journalists. She has been shielded from the media since being picked and will begin giving interviews in a "few days", Mr McCain said yesterday.

While the other contenders have faced more than a year of intense scrutiny, Governor Palin is a newcomer to the national scene.

This game is called Building Hype. Obama played it with his VP selection. McCain couldn't play it with his VP selection because of the small amount of time between Conventions, so he played a little game called Surprise! Not Who You Thought! But now he's going to play Building Hype. See, he only has to keep momentum going for about 60 more days. In another three or four days, the media saturation of Palin will be very high, higher even than right now. Everybody will know who she is, and that she's been unavailable for a few days. Meanwhile, the media will continue to speculate and play the same game they played with Hillary Clinton. While Americans of all political persuasions watch. So when she does give that interview, millions will tune in. We're talking Bill Clinton-explains-Gennifer Flowers territory.

But back to those stats:

Lydia Saad of the pollster Gallup said: "Barack Obama's advantage over John McCain has been shrinking since the start of the Republican National Convention." By last night it had disappeared altogether with Gallup's rolling three-day survey showing Mr McCain three points ahead of his rival on 48 percent.

In the days after Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver, Gallup had shown the Democrat candidate briefly touching 50 per cent. That has since slipped to 45 percent.

John Zogby found Mr McCain had surged into the lead in his survey, which puts the Republican candidate on 49 per cent, to Mr Obama's 46 per cent. "Clearly, Palin is helping the McCain ticket," Mr Zogby said. "She has high favourability numbers, and has unified the Republican Party."

Even Zogby, baby. The outlier polls have McCain in the lead. Oh yeah. Go, baby, go!

Finally, regular readers know I've been touting the election of 1948, trying to snag that narrative and push it into the mainstream. It really is analogous in so many ways. I've been telling my husband for two months now that McCain should pick Palin, then go on a Truman-style cross country campaign trip.

Another feature of Truman's 1948 race was his famed "whistle-stop" train campaign in which he gave speeches to crowds from the back of the special "Magellan" train chartered by the Democrats. In Boston, an estimated 20,000 people greeted him at the station, and in all the President traveled over 30,000 miles and made 201 stops on the "whistle-stop" route. In addition to allowing Truman a relatively efficient, economical way to get his message out, the use of the train also reinforced his popular image as a leader who avoided pretense and understood the problems of the average voter, a perception that ultimately won over voters when faced with the choice of the rather aloof and haughty Dewey. Truman's success with the "whistle-stop" campaign continues in contemporary political races, where candidates seek to replicate the Truman image of reaching out to the people, now often through marathon bus or walking tours[.]

Not that they've taken my advice or anything, but they've done it. I just couldn't fit in coverage of it in what I've been writing about recently. The McCain-Palin bus tour left the station August 29^th. Momentarily interrupted by Gustave, it resumed immediately following the convention. And it is playing well. I'm sure they'll be doing more of it too. I hope they come to Indiana!

]]> http://xfiless.wordpress.com/?p=44 Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:19:37 +0000 alvidk http://xfiless.wordpress.com/?p=44 The initial Spanish avarice for gold and treasure obscured their amazement at encountering in Peru, this unknown land at the world’s end, an advanced civilization with cities and roads, palaces and temples, kings and priests - and religions . The first wave of priests accompanying and conquerors was bent on destroying everything that had to do with the Indians «idolarity «,

But the priests that followed - at that time their country scholars - found themselves exposed to explanations of the natives´ rites and beliefs through Indian noblemen who had converted to Christianity.

The realization that the Andean Indians believed in Supreme Creator and that their legends recalled a deluge, increased the curiosity of the Spanish priests. It then transpired that many details of those local tales were uncannily similar to the biblical tales of Genesis.

It was therefore inevitable that among the early theories regarding the origin of the «Indians» and their beliefs, an association with the lands and the people of the Bible emerged as the leading theory.

As in Mexico , after various other ancient people have been considered , the Israelites of the Ten Lost Tribes seemed the most plausible explanation not only for the similarity of native legends to biblical tales , but also to such customs among the Peruvian Indians as the offering of the first fruits , an Expiation feast at the end of September that corresponded to the nature and time of the Jewish day of Atonement , and other biblical commandments such as the rite of circumcisions , abstaining from the blood of animal meat , and the prohibition against the eating of fish without scales .

In the feast of First Fruits, the Indians chanted the mystic words Yo meshica , va meshica ; and some of the Spanish savants discerned in the word mehica the Hebrew term " mashi´ach " - the Messiah .

The discovery of the story of Genesis, in its original Mesopotamian version, depicted on the Inca temple´s Holy of Holies, raises a host of question. The first obvious one is , How - how did the Incas come to know these tales , not just in the general manner in which they have become known universally ( the creation of the first Epic of Creation including knowledge of the complete Solar System and the orbit of Niburu ?

One possible answer is that the Incas had possessed this knowledge from time immemorial, bringing it with them to the Andes. The other possibility is that they had heard it from others whom they met in these lands.

In the absence of written records as one finds in the ancient Near East, the choice of an answer depends to some extend on how one answers another question: Who, indeed, were the Incas?

Interestingly, the two customs are in line with biblical commandments from the time of the Exodus. The prohibition against making and worshiping idols was included in the Ten Commandments. And on the eve of the Day of Atonement, a priest had to sacrifice a «sin- goat «in the desert.

No one has ever pointed out that the quipos used by the Incas to recall events - strings of different colors that had to be of wool, with knots at different position - were in make and purpose akin to the tzit-zit, « fringes on the corner of a blue thread, " that the Israelites were commanded to attach to their garments as a way to remember the Lord’s commandments.

And there was the custom of circumcisions in the Inca royal family .

Official Brazilian teams have visited many sites . At one site near the mouth of the Amazon , pottery urns decorated with incised patterns that remind one of the designs on earthenware jars from Ur ( the Sumerian birthplace of Abraham ) have been found ,

Similarly decorated urns and vases " of superior qality " have been found farther up the Amazon

Everyone equally wondered who had build this unique sity and how , and puzzled over its untold antiquity .Yet the greatest puzzle of all is the location itself : a barren , almost lifeless place some 13,ooo feet - four kilometers -up among the highest Andean peaks that are permanently show - covered .

Why would anyone expend incredible efford to erect colossal edifices out of stone that had to be quarried and brought over from many miles away in this treeless, windswept desolate place?

Still it is uncertain that the Incas themselves came this way. One of their ancestry versions attributes their beginnings to a landing on the Peruvian coast. Their language, Quechua, bears Far Eastern resemblances both in word meaning and dialect. And they clearly belong to the Amerindian stock - the fourth branch of mankind that, we have ventured to suggest, stemmed from the line of Kain.

(A guide in Cuzco , asked whether In-ca might stemmed from Ca- in by reversing the syllables . )

The evidence at hand indicates that the Near Eastern tales and beliefs, including knowledge of the story of Niburu and the Annunaki who had come from there to Earth - the pantheon of twelve - were brought to the predecessors of the Incas from overseas. It took place in the days of the Ancient Empire; and the bearers of these tales and beliefs were also Strangers from across the Seas .

Machu Pichu, or Great Pichu, is the Quichua name of a sharp peak which rises ten thousand feet above the sea and four thousand feet above the roaring rapids of the Urubamba River.

God is good.

Though I am tired, I am so jazzed about the upcoming week that I want to get busy doing what needs to be done right away.  I have two lessons to prepare for next Sunday - one for adults and one for high school.  One is about connecting with God and people and the other is about Missions... so I guess, they are both about the same thing - sorta ;) .

I think I am so jazzed because I love connecting with people.  Seeing their hearts and then challenging them to think on Christ and His desires for their lives - is there anything better?

Do you guys ever have that good kind of tired?  If so, what does it for you?

Well friends, we're back from a whirlwind 72 hour tour of Charlotte, North Carolina. Some of you may be looking at that picture and saying..."that looks like Columbus, Ohio". If you did, you're right. It is. On the heels of the big announcement from Friday, I have an even more wild and crazy one.

The Conrad Family is STAYING in Columbus, Ohio!

The details will be coming in future posts, but to give you an idea of what the next week to two weeks holds. I'm off to Denver Colorado on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm in Indianapolis on Thursday. We're still scheduled to close on our house on the 19th. You read that correctly. As of the writing of this post, we are bound by our contract and due to sell our existing home. We could use a miracle on that minor detail.

If no miracles happen, we're combing Hilliard for available homes which we can relocate to. Again, the details are crazy right now, but this is our "home" and we believe God wants us here. Even after the sale of our home and the prospect of being "homeless" in 2 short weeks.

I told you to buckle up. Much, much, much more to come!

This is my last posting forever here. Go to my new site www.holidaylonging.wordpress.com  to read the rest of this post.

That was really interesting to me.

But I lost a bunch of students who could care less about bicolons, metaphor, and chiasm, who just wanted to sit around "feeling" the Psalms, talking about how they "touched their hearts."

That's not me. I am more a thinker than a feeler.  Just the facts, ma'am.

I'll take the Epistles over the Psalms any day.

That is, until recently. I am really getting into those Lament Psalms... and they may actually lead to a change in my life.

I just went on a retreat where, providentially, we discussed the Laments.  Did you know there are more Laments than any other type of Psalm? More Laments than Praises?

I'm not surprised.

As for me, I like to call them the Whiny Psalms.

I recently read Psalm 73 and, boy, did I identify. Here's a brief breakdown of the Psalm with my paraphrase of the author's intent:

Verses 1-16:  "I am about to give up because the bad guys (that would be my enemies) get all the good things and all the good guys (that would be me) get dumped on. Life is unfair. Life sucks. And I am mad."

An aside: I don't get so angry about my "enemies," but about my friends & acquaintances who seem to be sliding by on easy street and are being "used" by God while my husband waits and waits for a ministry job & struggles with health issues, I endure a pain in the rear job, etc. etc. (despite our deep knowledge of theology, our vast ministry experience, and, of course, our humility... LOL).

Verses 17-20: "Wait a minute: I had forgotten the end of the story. I've been short-sighted, looking at things from a temporal perspective. I forget that one day (that is, after we are all dead and in eternity), you will send those bad guys right to hell."

As an aside, again, I find it a bit tough to think about God "sweeping away with terror" those who I envy - and, apart from Christ's death for me, I would deserve the same punishment. BUT, I do think it helps a teeny bit to realize that the injustices I see and feel NOW (both in the world and in my life) will one day be completely set right.

Verses 21-22:  "Oops, I just realized it.  My heart is pierced in conviction!  In some ways, I'm as bad as my enemies. I've become a brute beast in my bitterness and arrogance."

Verses 23-28: "Wait! It's amazing that despite my sin, you don't cast me away! You are always with me, holding my right hand, guiding me, taking me to glory with you after I die! Oh, I praise you, who are all that I need -  my strength, my portion, my good, my refuge. I will tell everyone how wonderful you are!"

As I said, I relate to the Psalm... most if it.

I want to get back to that very last section, the one where the psalmist declares that God is all he desires...

But first, I think I may have to get through the in-between part, verses 21-22: that repentant part.

Fact is, I wonder if my recent bout of anger at God (and especially at Christians) is senseless, ignorant, and arrogant. Maybe. But I don't feel convicted.

Not yet, anyway.

I'll let you know when I do. (Keep tuned)

Meantime, Lord: Do your thing in my heart. Though I don't like it sometimes, I know it's good. My guess is there's some sin in me bigger than the sins against me. I just can't see it. Or don't want to. But, I know it's good for me to recognize my sin, repent, and let it go. Sigh. So convict me. OK, I said it:  help me to repent. Ick. Amen.

I'll admit, the first Sunday after we moved in, I malingered...alot.  I was too tired to go to church.  God saw how hard I had worked that week to get everyone settled and happy and ready to start school the next day.  He would let this one slide.  Right?

Well, of course He let that one slide.  But I couldn't.  I knew the reason I didn't go to church that Sunday was really that I was feeling sorry for myself.  I didn't want to meet anyone.  I didn't want to put the effort into finding this part of our new home.

I thought about it all the next week.  But I didn't do anything about it.  Just some good, old fashioned ruminating.

I don't know what actually lit the fire under me.  I do know that Saturday night I sat down with the phone book and looked up the denomination of church that we are interested in.  I found 2 that were apparently close by.  So I called to see what time their services started and since it was late in the evening I could do this without making any human conact, no commitment.

We decided we would try the church that was the closest to our new home the next morning.

When I woke up on Sunday morning (an hour before the alarm went off) I was full of those first-day-of-school butterflies that I always used to get.  I almost decided I was too sick to go to church again.  Instead, I made a big breakfast and reeted my family with a cheerfulness I wasn't feeling.

When we got to church, Bubba was insanely a bit clingy so I figured this was probably not going to be our new church home.  But Bubba and Lullibell left for children's church without much ado and I settled back with hubby to listen to the sermon.

The sermon series was on scary stories of the Bible...I like a good scary story...so I figured this could be interesting.  The story they were talking about was Joshua and the wall at Jericho.  The sermon was really good and Pastor John made a couple of really good points that I could feel God drawing to me.

Then we picked up the monsters and Bubba announced that this was the best church ever and he would never go to a different church!  SOLD!

Today PJ started a new series on the Revolutionary and Radical Sayings of Jesus Christ.  Now, I don't know about you but, I really like the idea of Jesus being this, wild eyed radical, bucking the system, saying these insane things about God and love and grace.  So again the sermon series was very interesting to me.

This morning, the sermon was called "Self Must Die" and is cited from Matthew 16:24-25.  For me the two major ideas that I have been kicking around in my head were the quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that PJ cited and the idea of what is my "cross".

Bonhoeffer said that "security is man's biggest idol."  Wow...that really struck me.  I would do anything to make sure, above all else, that my children are secure...then next is myself and hubby...I mean anything...scary, huh?

And the cross...what is my "cross"?  Pretty much everyone I know reads the verse Luke 9:23 and thinks of carrying a cross of burden.  But today Pastor John asked us to look at out cross as God's will for us, his plan or desire for us.

Funny,  I have been struggling with that very question recently.  So tonight I went to the study group about the sermon to hear more.  I was not provided with a flash of light and an awakening that gave me all of the answers.  I was however more clear on what I need to think about over the next few days and I felt more peaceful than I have in a very long time.

I am happy when I am with my monsters doing Momma things.  I am happy when I am being of service, helping others, loving my neighbor.  I believe that somewhere in those two things is my cross, God's desire for me.

It's Her Birthday!

It's Mary's Birthday today!

 What's distinctive about the Catholic Faith is that we recognize the place of Mary in the Salvation History. It is THROUGH HER AND WITH HER our salvation become flesh and human. It's Her who said YES to God and gave birth to our Christ Jesus

It is Jesus who taught us the Mary is also our mother.He placed His mother's care in the hands of the only apostle present at the cross, the Apostle John, "Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son.'  Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home." [John 19:26-27]

Now it's Her birthday! as our gift to her of the bringing the Man who saved us. Lets us recognize and give thanks to our giving Mother!

My new bloggy friend Heidi emailed me yesterday to say that she loves my blog so much that she's giving me some sort of prize...

I hope it's chocolate.

Oh, I kid. As I'm sure you already know, a blog award is a - um - pretty button to put on my site. Kind of a cyber certificate, I guess?

I'm totally new to this blogging biz, and now I'm getting an award! Thank you very much, Heidi! Your encouragement has been so valuable to me. And thanks to anyone who clicked over here from her site. I'm happy to meet you!

I guess I should introduce myself?

Okay. Ahem.

Hi, my name is Stephanie, but my friends call me Steph. As you might guess from the blog title, I live in rural north Georgia, and I love it here. I grew up a redneck in California (yes, really), so I feel right at home. Just me though. Not my mom. She is NOT a redneck.

I'm married to Charlie, writer, former chef, handyman extraordinaire. No, I did nothing to deserve him.

We have three kids who are at this moment wrestling watching TV in another room. They do everything enthusiastically and loudly. Plus, they try to fit wall-climbing into their schedule as much as possible. This post contains about all you need to know about them.

I've done enough traveling to embarrass myself on three continents.

I used my first two children as practice kids so that I could kinda figure out parenting for the third. Then again, she thinks she's Queen of the Universe, so I might have swung the pendulum too far the other way.

I blog because of this. I have no business giving advice because of this.

My readers - please return the favor and journey over to Heidi's blog. She writes about her ordinary life in an out-of-the-ordinary setting: Asia. I love what she has to say, and I think you will too.

By the way, you thought I was kidding about the wall-climbing, didn't you?

LIE 1: ISLAM TRANSLATES FROM ARABIC AS "PEACE" AS IT IS DERIVED FROM SALAAM WHICH MEANS "PEACE"

Here I will quote from a reader's comment to another reader's similar claim that "Islam literally translates as peace" to one of my posts:

"Actually “Islam” does mean “submission” and not “peace”.

“Islam” is derived from the triliteral root s-l-m. The root means to “submit”…Salaam means peace… Islam means submission. Some confusion exists because people don’t understand how the term “peace” is arrived at, from s-l-m. There will only be peace when one side “submits”. That is why Islam dedicates so much time to subjugation. Once an enemy is defeated, they will be subjugated, at which time peace will ensue. Islam, as in the religion means submission to God, not peace.

The central belief and action of Islam is submission to Allah, not “Peace”. Rendering Islam as “Peace” makes the term senseless in the way of naming a religion. If you studied Qur’anic Arabic, as I did, you should know this. It is a pretty simple concept of Arabic. And my guess is you spent your time memorizing Arabic, and not studying it semantics or syntax."

LIE 2: THE QURAN SAYS THAT IF ONE  INNOCENT HUMAN BEING [all muslims or non-muslims] IS KILLED IT IS AS IF ALL HUMANITY HAS BEEN KILLED, SIMILARLY IF ONE INNOCENT HUMAN IS SAVED IT IS EQUIVALENT TO ALL HUMANITY BEING SAVED [FROM AL MAEDA]

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YUSUFALI: On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.
PICKTHAL: For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth.
SHAKIR: For this reason did We prescribe to the children of Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men; and certainly Our messengers came to them with clear arguments, but even after that many of them certainly act extravagantly in the land.

Apart from the obvious quotation from Hebrew sources, and the fact that we have plenty of Hadiths and Ishaq's biographical notes that show how far from truth the real practice of Islam was even by Muhammad himself  from this injunction, note that all three translations specifically mention "Children of Israel" - primarily the Jews. The propagandist always quotes this verse as a "proof" of peaceful intentions in Quran, but strangely they always drop the "Children of Israel" bit. If Muslims claim that by the various convoluted claims of descent, Arab bedouins were also children of Israel, then also this injunction becomes valid only for the identifiable Semitic ethnicities of the Jews and the Bedouins. A host of questions are not cleared, (1)  should we consider all Muslims as "children of Israel"? Does it mean then that all humankind are descended from the twelve tribes? If so then all humankind are "people of the Book"? Then no-one could be pagan by definition - including the early Meccans against whom Muhammad waged war - and different rules were applied to the "people of the book" and "pagans"? On the other hand if only the Arabs and the Jews are "Children of Israel", then does this injunction apply to  Muslims who are not of Arab or Jewish origin?

Who interprets what "corruption", "mischief" means? If we go by the Meccan episode, this could simply mean non-acceptance of Islam, or debating it, or challenging it verbally - as we can and will show in this sequence. This propagandist shouts a lot that the Quran is quoted without context, but he most carefully remains silent on the verse immediately following the above from the Quran.

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YUSUFALI: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;
PICKTHAL: The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom;
SHAKIR: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement,

So we have the first clause for not being "innocent" - waging "war" against "Allah" and Muhammad : Note that nothing here states about who started the war - for example, if someone wages a "defensive" war to protect themselves from looting of caravans and settlements being raided and attacked it still deprives the "wagers" of this defensive war liable for "Muhammad"ian punishments. In the next post I will describe at least six raids and attacks on the Meccan trade kafelas after Muhammad and his followers, who had began to physically attack their opponents in Mecca, were expelled or allowed to leave without any penalties on life, limb or property. Only after six such raids, did the Meccan Qureysh, took preparations to defend their life, property and means of livelihood - the "war against Allah" and his "messenger". This will also be related to another big lie about the "context" of the so called "hate-murder-unbelievers" verses in Quran, so I will take it up in a longer next post.

To be continued.....

So the decision remained unofficial, and I kept it to myself.

The reason for this was that I had too much else to do. Not so much because there just aren't enough hours in a day--and there aren't!--but because my identity as a crusader on social issues doesn't mix well with my identity as business person who has to get out there every day and make money one  way or another. I can't even put an Obama '08 bumper sticker on my van, because I don't want to mix personal beliefs and business. I need to be able to do business with absolutely anyone.

And then there is the personal crisis I face on a daily basis, of having to wear both hats. It's an crisis--who am I: a social crusader who wants her views known everywhere, or a business person who suppresses all of it for the sake of money? I have to be both, because I am both, and sometimes it's very confusing.

In order to successfully stop blogging, I should have not listened to the election coverage that's been assaulting my ears for almost a year now. But I can't. I can't keep myself from keeping a finger on the pulse of this country.

Eight years ago, when I left the strict Traditional Catholic community of St. Mary's, I realized I had a point of view that most people in mainstream America would never even begin to understand. I had experienced an unwanted marriage, daily abuse and rape by a man who thought he had absolute rights over me, absolute denial of my right to control my own body by using contraception, and three unwanted children. All at the age of 18 through 23. I was in a box created by my mother and the religious cult she joined, and was terrified of the eternal damnation that even entertaining thoughts of rebelling would bring upon me.

But I did entertain those thoughts. I can only attribute my escape to the resilience of the human spirit, and our natural instinct to fight for freedom and happiness. I fled with those three unwanted children I'd had, and never looked back. They were unwanted when I had them, but this was my duty now: to make sure that this organization, founded on the denial of basic human rights, could never touch them. As destroyed as I was, they gave me a reason to fight, and a reason to live.

Two months after my flight from St. Mary's, the attacks of September 11th happened. George W. Bush had been in office less than a year. I had voted for him, as had everyone in my community, because we cared about little else other than electing the government that would be most in line with our "morals"--i.e, we had to vote for the candidate that was most in line with our "pro-life" beliefs. Foreign and fiscal policy didn't play much into the decision, since as my mother used to say "If he's for abortion, you have to wonder what else is wrong with him." Most of us voted based on abortion stance alone.

Over the next four years, I evolved as a person. I evolved, in fact, into the person I would have been all along if my mother or her religious leaders had not forced me into their point of view from an early age. By the time the election year 2004 rolled around, I deeply regretted casting my vote for George W. Bush.

My regret was not because of George W. Bush's response to September 11th, or the war in Iraq (which had already become extremely unpopular by that time). It was because I was watching the religious right become very mobile, and very vocal in our country, and they were supporting George W. Bush because of the religious and moral values they perceived he stood for. They believed that women should not have rights over their own bodies, that gays and lesbians should be treated as second class citizens. I realized that St. Mary's wasn't the only group that held the belief that the government should force every soul in this country to comply with their moral code, and that making the government do this was a god-given obligation.

I realized that--while we were fighting the radical religious group The Taliban, and claiming we would bring democracy and civil rights to the Middle East--that we had our own Taliban right here at home. When the reality hit me, I was stunned. I didn't understand why other people couldn't see this.

But that's where my personal story came in, and I wanted to release a book to share my experience with the world, so that everyone would understand. Our country could be great, if only we make our government about protecting human rights, not taking them away.

But I couldn't. I was a single mother with three children under the age of six, living  in a neighborhood where gunshots rang out, and gang fights happened right outside my front door. I was struggling to put myself through school and get the education my religious background said that--as a woman--I would never need to have. I wasn't in a position to indulge dreams of changing the country. All I could do was to make sure that three human beings I had saved from religious extremist oppression would live and perhaps someday make the contributions that I had wanted to make. With a meth lab in the apartment upstairs, and a prostitute standing in the alley behind my building, I wasn't done saving them.

Now it's been four years again, and it's time for another election. I find myself thinking back to four years ago, when John Kerry lost, and it felt like someone had died.

I'm not going to get started on how well Sarah Palin and her family embody the massive social failure that will ensue if abstinence-only sex education, and strict anti-abortion "morals" become the law of the land. I know what it's like to have an unwanted pregnancy, and give birth to an unwanted child. Think about what that means, especially for the child. Does Sarah Palin really think her daughters marriage is going to last?

Think about what it might be like to be forced into a marriage. My mother was pregnant with me, and married my father so her parents wouldn't reject her. For the first fourteen years of my life, I witnessed the misery both of my parents in this good and moral union. And of course, since my mother couldn't use birth control, she had three more children until a miscarriage apparently ended her fertility. And she got lucky: after those 14 years, her husband died.

I wanted my husband dead, and I hated myself. But because in our society marriage is permanent no matter what, that was the only way I was going to ever be free. I spent night after night sitting up, hoping that instead of hearing his footsteps coming into the house, I would hear a knock at the door--the knock of a police detective coming to tell me he was dead.

I realized I was my mother. I had just had my third child in less than four years, and was trying to think of some worldly pleasure--as if I had any--that I could vow away to God if he would only let me not get pregnant again. And I decided I wasn't going to wait to get lucky.

To make a long story short, my husband never saw me or his children again, and never will. Neither will any member of my family in St. Mary's.

Saving my children has been my life. I realize everything hasn't been proven yet, but read the story of Casey Anthony and her mother from my perspective. Most of us manage to suck it up and deal with it, but once in awhile, someone cracks.

If you don't like abortion, fine. Don't have one. If you don't like birth control, have a baby every nine months until your eggs run out. But don't force your beliefs on the rest of us, especially via the government. I, for one, believe it is morally reprehensible to bring a child into the world for the wrong reasons. Feeling forced, or obligated, or having no way to prevent pregnancy are wrong reasons.

This is why all this election hubbub infuriates me:

Because of having seen the end result of conservative social policies--how it devastates people's lives--I may have to watch a McCain/Palin ticket take office in January. All I can do is go and cast my one vote, just like last time.  The president can elect supreme court justices that can determine the future of women's rights in this country.

All the foreign policy in the world can't save us from our own inhuman abuse of women and children, and what that could eventually do to our economy. Just look at Ireland, prior to the 1960's when birth control became legal.

Think it can't happen? The "birth control is abortion" people have already been at it again this year.

So let's not push our luck.