OMG!!! My checks don't weigh what they say!

Just think.  If the republicans are right, then what's to become of the checks I use to pay bills? And god forbid if you use virtual checks and pay your bills via the web!

Because after all, a platinum coin, according the R's, would have to weigh in platinum its own face value. 

So when I mint money via paying a bill with a check...  these bozos think my actual, physical check should be worth what I write it for?  Even worse, if you pay your bills over the web...  your virtual check weighs nothing!  Credit cards?  OMG!

Politics - conservative style (Gangnam Guy, where are you?)...  is now interchangeable with this blog!

It seems to me that the repubs are going to bury themselves in craziness.  They are so far round the bend....  in an effort to try and defend insane policies!  And these are the folks pushing gun ownership??? 

Ban Nonsense!  And ban those who spout nonsense - from purchasing, owning, using, even carrying a gun!

Desmond Tutu: God (she's) not a Christian.

What a wonderful, wonderful treat is in store for you!  Here.  Oh, the joy of being old and telling it like it is!  The joy of being famous and holy and old and getting away with it!

Here's a flavor:

The two elderly spiritual leaders, for one short, unforgettable moment, became kids again, horsing around and thoroughly enjoying each other’s company. 

At one gathering in Oslo, after a particularly rambunctious episode, Tutu admonished the Dalai Lama in mock seriousness, “Look here—the cameras are on you, stop behaving like a naughty schoolboy. Try to behave like a holy man.”

Now Tutu tells it like it is:

 “The glory about God is that God is a mystery. God is actually quite incredible in many ways. But God allows us to misunderstand her”—at this, the audience went wild; the applause was loud and spontaneous—“but also to understand her.”

“I’ve frequently said I’m glad I’m not God,” Tutu continued. “But I’m also glad God is God. He can watch us speak, spread hatred, in his name. Apartheid was for a long time justified by the church. We do the same when we say all those awful things we say about gays and lesbians. We speak on behalf of a God of love. The God that I worship is an omnipotent God,” Tutu intoned, opening his arms wide. He paused to let this sink in. Then he said, sotto voce, “He is also incredibly, totally impotent. The God that I worship is almighty, and also incredibly weak.
 
“He can sit there and watch me make a wrong choice. Now, if I was God,” he said as the hall burst into laughter, “and I saw, for instance, this one is going to make a choice that is going to destroy his family, I’d probably snuff him out. But the glory of God is actually mind-blowing. He can sit and not intervene because he has such an incredible, incredible reverence for my autonomy. He is prepared to let me go to hell. Freely. Rather than compel me to go to heaven. He weeps when he sees us do the things that we do to one another. But he does not send lightning bolts to destroy the ungodly. And that is fantastic. God says, ‘I can’t force you. I beg you, please for your own sake, make the right choice. I beg you.’ When you do the right thing, God forgets about God’s divine dignity and he rushes and embraces you. ‘You came back, you came back. I love you. Oh how wonderful, you came back.’”

I agree with all of it, except the concept of going to hell. 

Whatever/wherever "hell" might be, to me it's an eternity of knowing (the consequences of one's choices), but with no possibility - any longer - of making good on wrong choices.  So an eternal anguish for those who've harmed others - children and women and gay people and people of different religious faiths, colors, political views.

I, being idealistic, hope it includes some way to mourn and grieve and find ultimate compassion.

People of Conscience Should Boycott Bigotry

This blog by Bill at Bilgrimage together with these thoughts from Colleen at Enlightened Catholicism prompted the following musings:

The time is coming, perhaps it's already here, when catholics of good conscience will simply refrain from attending masses where their beloved brethren are not welcome. Where they are are instead preached against and expected to adopt the masochistic role in a sadomasochistic (church?) relationship with those who castigate them. Wherein to "attend" or "belong" means to disown themselves and be disowned by their detractors.

It's time for the baptized to claim the priesthood of that baptism and to stand up, shake the dust off their sandals, and abandon a church where its hierarchy practices apartheid. A boycott is not only called-for. It's a matter of conscience!

One of the things that drew me to my present little parish was its subtitle: A Church for all people. I rightly assumed that meant gay people too, though I'm not gay. But that was important to me. We are also one of the few churches on a Sunday where blacks and whites worship together (about 40% black, mostly Ethiopian - with the Gospel read in Ethiopian in addition to English).

Those people who oppose gay marriage are deeply in trouble. For they imagine they can hold back a tsunami (of justice) - simply by ranting and raving that tsunamis are coming! Let them take cover if they're scared! But they have no right to restrict or admonish me for delighting in Life in Abundance.

I am horrified when our gay brethren are asked to suffer due to self-righteous bigots who expect them to take on a submissive role in an S&M ritual conducted by a church! Really... that's what it is!!!

Shun all parishes that conduct such perverse rituals! This has nothing to do with Jesus - who ate with ANYONE! This has nothing to do with a feast where all are invited to partake.

We Orthodox sing a lovely hymn at communion time. And recently I understood it in a new way - which pertains to what I've said. We sing over and over: "Receive the Body of Christ." I looked around. And I understood this as a commandment: To welcome each and every person. To "receive" each one. THAT is what communion is! And THAT is what the pope (and his minions) have FAILED to learn.

If you are a person of conscience, can you simply stand by as fellow human beings, fellow Christians, fellow baptized persons are castigated, cast out, or expected to be masochists?

Consult your conscience!  Shake off the dust from your sandals!  

End Gay Apartheid in the RCC!