What would Jesus' Facebook Page Look Like?

This is unabashedly swiped from the blog of my favorite Blogging Bishop, the Right Reverend Kirk Stevan Smith.

I got so wrapped up in it, I tried to write on His wall, 'friend' Him, and look at His picture albums.

For those of us who want to know Jesus, this is pretty right on!

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Policy Changes Making Ya Crazy?

So does this mean it is hard for old men to keep up with young ideas? If so, count me as a young 'un!

New to Me: Why Is This Not Widely Known?

Apparently America has been given the gift of another monument.

And this monument has been placed opposite an earlier monument given us by France, just across the water from the Statue of Liberty.

We said thanks to France. But have we given thanks to Russia for the Teardrop monument erected in Bayonne New Jersey in.....2006? Where has our press been? Why is this largely unknown?

This beautiful monument memorializes the loss of nearly 3,000 people who died when hijackers on four flights downed the World Trade Center Towers, a segment of the Pentagon, and the heroic people of United Flight 93 who downed their plane rather than allow it to be used for more deaths and destruction.

By the way, the next time I think contemptuous thoughts about suicide bombers, let me remember the heroism of our suicide squad on Flight 93. They surely knew they would not survive.

For more information about the Teardrop monument, click here. I thank the people of Russia for their kindness and sympathy.

To get an idea of the press' skepticism when the memorial was being proposed and offered, read this New York Times opinion piece by Peter Applebome. "...thanks but no thanks[?]" Not a nice way to behave when a gift is offered. Later the Times reported with an absence of gratitude that there were 40 names too many inscribed on the monument.

Hat tip to Jim Goodwine for educating me about this.

From "I Can Has Cheezburger"

Respiration

Breathe in....
Breathe out....

Inspire....
Expire....

All living beings breathe. People do, animals do, plants do, and even each cell of our being ‘breathes’. We take in what we need. We let out what we don't need.

When I watch a sleeping child or pet, I look for the rising and falling that demonstrates respiration. In that regular motion, I see life.

Waves in....
Waves out....

Is the ocean the respiration of the earth? Probably not in a scientific sense, but it is a vision of life in our planet for me.

In....
Out....

Does the whole universe breathe?
What an awesome creation we are!

Good News and Not-So-Good News

From Episcopal Cafe's The Lead comes this update about a tutoring program that's raising reading levels and reducing (we hope) dropouts in the future:

LAST WEEK The Lead mentioned a children's circus performance. Looking more deeply into the program behind the event, we find that the Diocese of NY and Trinity Wall Street have funded a program called All Our Children. The Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam, bishop suffragan, and Joyce Coppin Mondesire, who is on the faculty of the City College of New York and a member of Trinity Wall Street’s vestry, created the program. All Our Children asks that parishes commit 40 hours per year for five years to public education by becoming tutors, advocates, etc. Parishes are already making a difference in partnership with local public schools. Bishop Roskam says of the children, "Since participating in [these programs] their overall grade average has sky rocketed."

Roskam continues, "On a visitation to St. Ann's in the South Bronx in 2005, I was given a a copy of Jonothan Kozol's book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. I was shocked to learn that not only are American schools as segregated as at the time of Brown vs. the Board of Education, but that the worst offenders are not in the south, but in the North, including New York, Michigan, Illinois and California. Schools in poor areas often operate without the basics, without adequate classrooms, no textbooks, inexperienced teachers. It is no wonder that minority students fare so poorly compared with their white counterparts. And most insidious is the school to prison pipeline, by which some states build prisons based on projections from third grade reading scores. As a society we seem reluctant to spend the $15,000 per year to support a child adequately in school but are more willing to to spend the $150,000 per year to keep that same child in prison when the schools fail him.
[Emphasis mine; this applies in Arizona as well.]

"It seemed to me that all the anti-racism training we were doing in the church was meaningless if we could face this level of racial inequity and do nothing. So All Our Children was born."
More information here and here.

Don't Thank Me; Thank MadPriest

Here's a shocking thought:

madpriest's thought for the day

If 53% of Californians were either Jewish or Muslim you could end up with a Prop 8 situation where every man, no matter what his age or beliefs, could be forced to undergo circumcision. I may be wrong but I don't think even the Iranian government insists on that from its few non-Muslim citizens. This means that the majority of Californians have a less enlightened attitude towards personal rights and freedom than those peoples their previous government regarded as barbaric.

Comment: Actually it would be 51%--truly frightening.

If you've been locked away from all news sources since November 2008, Proposition 8 in California took away equal marriage rights for LGBT people. It is now being settled by the Supreme Court of California, and we will learn more in two to three months about their ruling.

Creation Stories

Every culture has its creation story, an oral or written explanation of how the world and its inhabitants came into being. Some are whole histories of what has happened since creation.

One of the most widely recognized creation stories is carefully preserved in writing in multiple language translations. This creation story is generally agreed to be The Correct One by adherents of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But the Creation Story of the Torah, the Pentateuch of the Old Testament, is only one creation story. For as many cultures that exist, there are creation stories with respective histories.

Many of these are not written, but told from generation to generation orally. Spiritual leaders of each generation's culture preserve the accuracy of oral tradition and carefully teach the next generation.

So what makes a creation story codified in written form more valid than those of oral tradition? What makes one written creation story more valid than another written one? I suspect the oral recounting of Navajo creation is just as sacred, just as valid, and just as much an allegory as the creation story of the Israelites. By this, I don't mean that none are valid; I mean all are valid.

For a sampling of cultural creation stories in short form check out Creation Myths in Wikipedia.

A Musical Reminder of Diversity

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition, I learned that written musical notation in China pre-dates the earliest known written music, Gregorian chants, in the western world.

I was momentarily surprised. Then I thought, of course! Just because I am a product of western society, I'm inclined to think we are the beginning and end of Civilization. This is a massive fallacy of thought. Our historical perspective reminds us mankind has lived through culture after culture, civilization built on civilization. And this yeasty boiling up of civilizations happens throughout human history in all of the world--perhaps in all the universe.

Predating European civilization that produced Gregorian chants came Egyptian and other African civilizations, Mayan, Aztec and other American civilizations, Chinese and other Asian civilizations, not to mention Greek and Roman civilizations in place at the time of Christ. And let's not forget Hebrew civilization from which Christianity derives. Surely all of these civilizations experienced, played, and perhaps wrote music. Just because we don't have written notation of older musical culture, doesn't mean it didn't (or doesn't) exist.

We are not the beginning and end. We are not alpha and omega.
Creation happens!

What is Right? What is Wrong?

What is right? What is wrong?

What seems right to you may seem wrong to me, and vice versa.

I strive to remember that judgment is God's business, not mine.

When I catch myself identifying a person or situation as 'wrong', I try reframing it as different rather than wrong.

Funny how things that are different become interesting--or even right!

(See also Good or Bad?--Just Different)

I have to keep reminding myself. I'm a fallible human being, not to mention a self-centered, self-righteous, and self-absorbed one, ...she reminded herself with a smile!

Pitching In To Help Feels Good

In response to Timothy Schmaltz's timely opinion in this morning's Arizona Republic, I advocate pitching in to help.

If you have a severely disabled child; if you have a parent needing round-the-clock care because of dementia; or if you are losing your employment because there is no childcare assistance, then you understand where Mr. Schmaltz is coming from. I work as a provider to severely disabled young people. Services to them are essential, so rather than reducing essential hours I am absorbing a reduced hourly rate of pay. I think of it as a way to pitch in and help.

In a small community, everyone chips in to help when someone is in need. Everyone feels proud of being able to do so. And everyone knows the community will be there for them when they need a hand. In Arizona we are a big community, but we can all pitch in and help. One way we can all participate in helping is to encourage our legislature to approve Gov. Brewer's suggest sales tax increase. We also need to expect our budget and finance experts to restructure our tax bases in a fair and productive manner.

The days of cutting taxes is over, but income, sales, and property taxes can be balanced to meet the needs of operating our state efficiently.

Oh dear. Did I just say fair and balanced? That's not like me! Let's keep our sense of humor while we are at it.

One Perp, Two Perps, Three Perps, and Counting

I'm waiting for Pope Benedict XVI to weigh in next and become Perpetrator #4 in this dreadful story.

Today Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, speaking for the Vatican, defended Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho's excommunication of the mother and doctors of an impregnated nine-year-old child for proceeding with a termination of the child's pregnancy.

Let's go back to the beginning. A nine-year-old Brazilian girl was examined after complaining of stomach pain. The examination revealed that she was pregnant with twin fetuses, twin babies who through no fault of their own, were conceived by repeated rape by the nine-year-old child's stepfather. He would be Perpetrator #1.

Under Brazilian law, an abortion to save the life of the mother is allowed. Let's remember this mother is a nine-year-old incest victim, who would not likely survive bringing two babies to term. The child's mother and doctors made the decision to terminate the pregnancy to save the life of the child/mother.

Archbishop Sobrinho condemned this action, citing the law of God as being more applicable than the law of Brazil. He excommunicated the mother of the nine-year-old and the doctors who terminated the pregnancy. Archbishop Sobrinho qualifies as Perpetrator #2.

Now, Cardinal Re, defends Sobrinho's excommunication of the people who saved the life of the nine-year-old at the expense (and I GET this) of the innocent fetuses. Yes, it is a tragic choice. But for his affirmation of Perp 2, I nominate Re as Perpetrator #3.

There is one more layer of Roman Catholic hierarchy left to weigh in on this. Will there be a Perpetrator #4?

Is there no representative of Jesus Christ who will raise up and heal the nine-year-old victim? Is there no representative of Jesus Christ who will cradle this young child and tell her she is God's own daughter, worthy of God's love and protection from evil? Will no one defend this child's dignity and humanity?

Read the details at this BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7930380.stm

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

The Line

I draw the line at tweeting on twitter. I draw the line at building a second life avatar and digitally romping through cyberspace.

I reserve the right to erase the line at some future date--lol.

Life's Not Fair

...but God is good. The Rev. Dr. Robert Schuler of Crystal Cathedral says that. And it's a powerful message when life seems unfair.

Sometimes a news story catches my attention and it dwells in my mind until I write down some response. Now I can't find the story, so much so that I question the efficacy of my memory.

The gist of the story amounts to a high percentage of people unhappy with Obama's proposed homeowners' mortgage rescue plan, proclaiming vociferously: That's not fair!

Well, no it isn't. But lots of life isn't fair right now. Jobs are being lost by the thousands. Homes are being lost due to the mortgage mess. Businesses are failing. Families who have worked conscientiously, paid their bills promptly, and never dreamed of homelessness are now clogging private and public social service agencies, seeking shelter and food and medicines.

The number of respondents to this 'fairness' poll question was something like 62-65%. Since I can't lay my hands on the article, let's be conservative and say 'over 60%' of respondents feel the proposed mortgage bailout isn't fair. Now I wonder what percentage of these respondents claim to be Christian. And what would the Christian response be? Of the Christian/lifes-not-fair contigent, how many are going to social service agencies offering to help a nouveau homeless person or family get their life back on track? How many are figuring ways to help a friend or co-worker carry through this tough time? How many are kicking in a little money to hold someone else's household together until the mortgage industry decides how it wants to solve this crisis? How many are being part of the solution, so government doesn't have to rescue people?

Many want to scream, "Socialism!" Many want government to let the economy fail rather than pour money and regulations into resuscitating it. Many feel that bailouts and administering them can't be done fairly, so they shouldn't be done at all.

Unless those of us complaining about the unfairness of it all are prepared to give people a hand up, we need to be supporting solutions that may work--not whining about fairness or lack thereof.

Just a suggestion...!