I just can't write a terribly serious blog about all this. Maybe next time.
I have a suggestion to help we the people deal with the madness in D.C.
And I have to give the Republicans credit on this one. A special nod to Karl Rove.
Republicans are brilliant at reducing messaging to one word, or a short phrase. The message machine meets over the weekend (or more often in fast changing situations) and comes up with a new word for the week or day. This week, for instance, the word is "conversation". The context, of course, is that President Obama is not willing to even have a conversation with them about the government shutdown, the continuing resolution, or the debt ceiling. Speaker Boehner used the word no less than fifteen times in the span of twenty minutes during a presser this week. And he was not alone. Republican officials, from dog catcher to U. S. Senator, whenever they were on camera or in front of a crowd, used the same word.
It is very effective. Seriously. We Democrats are too prideful to participate in such a tactic. And we certainly don't like the idea of being limited to one or two select words. Despite what some think, we have a little libertarian bent. And, like others think, we like to talk.
But it can also be a means of help for we the people during this stressful time, a way to deal with our own frustrations over the situation, no matter your politics.
And you can choose how to use it. If you believe you need to be more intentional with your spirituality, to increase your discipline of prayer, you can use the word or phrase of the day like a centering chime, or a call to prayer. To use the name of God for something other than a prefix for a curse during these frustrating times. Each time you hear or read the word of the week, simply face the south wing of the Capitol Building and hit your knees. If cable news watchers adopt this spiritual discipline, Dish network dishes will adorn monasteries as the monks just try to keep up. A big boost for EWTN ratings.
Or, if the whole thing has just depressed you and you desperately need to party, desiring more spirits than spirituality, then perhaps you would like to use the tactic as a basis for a drinking game. You know the one. Whenever a certain thing happens, or a word is spoken, a drink must be taken. For instance, during Boehner's presser mentioned earlier, participants would have had to down fifteen shots in twenty minutes. It was numbing enough without the alcohol. Passing out might be a blessing.
So thank you, House Republicans, for the opportunity to pray more, and have a reason to take a drink or two.
...
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
There's no need to SNAP . . . just feed my sheep
. As usual, I will give a disclaimer here. This is written from the point of view of a follower of Jesus Christ. Atheists, agnostics, and believers of other faiths are welcome to read and chime in if you want.
Sometimes I get all het up
Take for instance the present law proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives to cut funding for the SNAP., the federal program which provides food assistance for low income Americans. My friend R. G. Wilson-Lyons, United Methodist pastor of Church Without Walls in Birmingham's West End area, wrote a well reasoned, brief and compelling post on the topic.. I would rather you read it than the rest of this, so, click here if you want to go straight for the good stuff..
The long and short of it, if the cuts proposed become law, is that millions of Americans will not get the food assistance that they need. R. G. included relevant information about who the program really serves.
But I have had an epiphany. It is all going to work out. God is good.
Here's how it works.
The funding is cut. But, being the followers of Jesus that many of us claim to be, we will be true to Jesus' mandate. No longer will the money we have be sent to Caesar to distribute to our hungry brothers and sisters to purchase food. Like Jesus commanded, we will give it directly to them.
We have no choice.
Unless we are not really following Jesus. He was all about feeding folks. And not just the poor in spirit. If we stand with Jesus, we will be standing behind the serving counter, we will be gleaning the fields, we will be bringing home the groceries and giving them away, we will be donning the hair nets. We will serve up the food. That is not in question. If we are followers of Jesus.
But don't worry, here is how it works out for everybody.
Knowing that one of the primary commands of Jesus' is to feed people, then surely all of our churches already give at least a paltry twenty five percent of the budget to feeding the hungry, right? So, twenty five percent of what each of us give to our church goes to feed the hungry. If our annual income is fifty thousand dollars, then our tithe is a minimum five thousand, right? So, the amount of our tithe that goes to the hungry is at least $1250.00 each year.
Here's the beautiful part. Each of us is going to have to increase our giving to the hungry by a multiple of 23 times. Not 23 percent. Multiply what you give the hungry by 23 times. So, if you make $50,000.00 each year, in order to feed those who are fed by the government, you will have to increase your giving by somewhere around $27,000.00.
And you can deduct that on your income tax.
Voila.
Lower taxes for everyone. Hurray. Isn't that what's this all about?
And after we give that much away, a lot more of us will be eligible for SNAP.
But of course, that won't exist anymore.
But that's okay, cause people like us will be glad to take care of people like us in hard times, right?
"But Bob," you may be saying. "Your figures are wrong. There's no way that twenty five percent of my church's budget goes to feeding the poor."
Yep. Doesn't it feel good to be right?
The truth is, the Body of Christ could, and ideally should put SNAP out of business. It has always been that way. But we haven't. And there is no sign that we will. In the meantime the elderly, disabled, out of work, and children would be hungry, except for the government programs.
It is not the government that is failing Jesus, and the least among us whom he seemed to care for the most.
It is us.
...
Sometimes I get all het up
Take for instance the present law proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives to cut funding for the SNAP., the federal program which provides food assistance for low income Americans. My friend R. G. Wilson-Lyons, United Methodist pastor of Church Without Walls in Birmingham's West End area, wrote a well reasoned, brief and compelling post on the topic.. I would rather you read it than the rest of this, so, click here if you want to go straight for the good stuff..
The long and short of it, if the cuts proposed become law, is that millions of Americans will not get the food assistance that they need. R. G. included relevant information about who the program really serves.
But I have had an epiphany. It is all going to work out. God is good.
Here's how it works.
The funding is cut. But, being the followers of Jesus that many of us claim to be, we will be true to Jesus' mandate. No longer will the money we have be sent to Caesar to distribute to our hungry brothers and sisters to purchase food. Like Jesus commanded, we will give it directly to them.
We have no choice.
Unless we are not really following Jesus. He was all about feeding folks. And not just the poor in spirit. If we stand with Jesus, we will be standing behind the serving counter, we will be gleaning the fields, we will be bringing home the groceries and giving them away, we will be donning the hair nets. We will serve up the food. That is not in question. If we are followers of Jesus.
But don't worry, here is how it works out for everybody.
Knowing that one of the primary commands of Jesus' is to feed people, then surely all of our churches already give at least a paltry twenty five percent of the budget to feeding the hungry, right? So, twenty five percent of what each of us give to our church goes to feed the hungry. If our annual income is fifty thousand dollars, then our tithe is a minimum five thousand, right? So, the amount of our tithe that goes to the hungry is at least $1250.00 each year.
Here's the beautiful part. Each of us is going to have to increase our giving to the hungry by a multiple of 23 times. Not 23 percent. Multiply what you give the hungry by 23 times. So, if you make $50,000.00 each year, in order to feed those who are fed by the government, you will have to increase your giving by somewhere around $27,000.00.
And you can deduct that on your income tax.
Voila.
Lower taxes for everyone. Hurray. Isn't that what's this all about?
And after we give that much away, a lot more of us will be eligible for SNAP.
But of course, that won't exist anymore.
But that's okay, cause people like us will be glad to take care of people like us in hard times, right?
"But Bob," you may be saying. "Your figures are wrong. There's no way that twenty five percent of my church's budget goes to feeding the poor."
Yep. Doesn't it feel good to be right?
The truth is, the Body of Christ could, and ideally should put SNAP out of business. It has always been that way. But we haven't. And there is no sign that we will. In the meantime the elderly, disabled, out of work, and children would be hungry, except for the government programs.
It is not the government that is failing Jesus, and the least among us whom he seemed to care for the most.
It is us.
...
Saturday, July 6, 2013
I say tomato, you say "what is that smell?"
Saturday. Sofa. Coffee.
I was walking around the back corner of my mother's house to check on a leak in the sewer pipe that runs through the yard.. The plumber had come and unblocked the line, but the leak has not yet been repaired.
There was a thriving, creeping, lush, verdant tomato vine full of small green fruit and pale yellow blooms.
Growing out of the sewage. Not the edge of the sewage. Out of the hole that went to the leak.
I felt a surge of hope. As well as a weird curiosity as to whether I could ever allow myself to eat any of the tomatoes that it is producing.
It is easy to find leaky sewage . . . you might not see it but you can smell it whether you want to or not. Turning your head away doesn't help once you've caught the scent. A steady drip, drip, drip from a sewage pipe under a house or mobile home will slowly rot the joists on which it rests. Sewage oozing openly through ditches or down alleys or streets breed deadly or debilitating disease. It is easy to be discouraged by the messes that seem to surround us these days, that threaten to rot our foundations and weaken our being.
And then a tomato vine shows up.
Have you ever seen a tomato seed? Probably not, unless you are a farmer or an avid gardener. Or unless you have looked at sliced tomatoes and wondered if those little bitty whitish-yellow specks were seeds. You would be right about that.
When I first saw the sewage leak, and smelled it, before the plumber came and unblocked the line, it was nothing but disgusting. I will spare you the description.
And yet, even when I was certain that there was nothing redeemable in that sickening mess, the tiny tomato seeds were there, dormant. Dormant, and yet full of life, waiting for the proper conditions to cause them to explode into being.
And so it happened. The conditions were right. Everything came together for the tiny seeds. Everything they needed to become a beautiful, lively productive vine. It all became perfect.
In the cesspool of a sewage leak, stinking to high heaven in the hot summer sun..
So, there's a lot of ways this parable could take me, and maybe it will on another day. But for this day let me just say, when you find yourself in the middle of a bunch of crap, do not despair. Consider what God did for the insignificant tomato seed.
Amen and Amen.
.
I was walking around the back corner of my mother's house to check on a leak in the sewer pipe that runs through the yard.. The plumber had come and unblocked the line, but the leak has not yet been repaired.
There was a thriving, creeping, lush, verdant tomato vine full of small green fruit and pale yellow blooms.
Growing out of the sewage. Not the edge of the sewage. Out of the hole that went to the leak.
I felt a surge of hope. As well as a weird curiosity as to whether I could ever allow myself to eat any of the tomatoes that it is producing.
It is easy to find leaky sewage . . . you might not see it but you can smell it whether you want to or not. Turning your head away doesn't help once you've caught the scent. A steady drip, drip, drip from a sewage pipe under a house or mobile home will slowly rot the joists on which it rests. Sewage oozing openly through ditches or down alleys or streets breed deadly or debilitating disease. It is easy to be discouraged by the messes that seem to surround us these days, that threaten to rot our foundations and weaken our being.
And then a tomato vine shows up.
Have you ever seen a tomato seed? Probably not, unless you are a farmer or an avid gardener. Or unless you have looked at sliced tomatoes and wondered if those little bitty whitish-yellow specks were seeds. You would be right about that.
When I first saw the sewage leak, and smelled it, before the plumber came and unblocked the line, it was nothing but disgusting. I will spare you the description.
And yet, even when I was certain that there was nothing redeemable in that sickening mess, the tiny tomato seeds were there, dormant. Dormant, and yet full of life, waiting for the proper conditions to cause them to explode into being.
And so it happened. The conditions were right. Everything came together for the tiny seeds. Everything they needed to become a beautiful, lively productive vine. It all became perfect.
In the cesspool of a sewage leak, stinking to high heaven in the hot summer sun..
So, there's a lot of ways this parable could take me, and maybe it will on another day. But for this day let me just say, when you find yourself in the middle of a bunch of crap, do not despair. Consider what God did for the insignificant tomato seed.
Amen and Amen.
.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Hello NSA, feel free to comment . . .
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
-Patrick Henry, St. John's Church,
Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775
I learned this quote in Mrs. Alexander's social studies class in eighth grade and performed it often in the ensuing years, with as much flourish and passion as a Shakespearean thespian, spittle and all. You would think I could have remembered it perfectly for this post, but I was not sure, so I Googled it.
That google search may mean trouble. If you don't see me for awhile, you might want to call Gitmo. No wait. Don't call. No reason for you to get involved. Oh crap, you're reading this post already. Sorry about that. Perhaps we can be roomies. Bring a file.
Considering the revolutionary bent of Henry's incendiary language, I would imagine my Google search and perhaps this post might be perused by PRISM, or some other National Security Agency software, and potentially appear as a data statistic in tomorrow's security report to the President.
Something to shoot for.
Oops. That probably didn't sound right either. I hope the computer program has a filter for folksy language.
The last couple of days the news has been dominated by reports that the United States government is snooping on we the people, sifting through phone records and Internet search engine records, mining data that might strike the terrorist mother lode. Verizon and other phone companies have been under continuing secret National Security Agency subpoenas to provide phone records. Google and Internet providers were probably ordered to provide search records.
Apparently the records of all of us who have used the subject companies were turned over. Probably all of us. Probably all of the U. S. of A. Wonder what they do with all those cute kitten videos.
Our government believes, if a government is capable of believing, that it is spying on us for our own good. To assure our security. To protect the peace and our lives.
I'm with Patrick. The suggested retail price for peace and security is getting too high for my liking.
The problem is, the snooping is probably legal.
No problem. If we the people, Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians are opposed to it, let's just change the laws. Finally, something we can agree on.
Not so fast comrade. That's revolutionary talk.
Unfortunately, the only thing in the universe which has strong bi-partisan support in Congress are these NSA actions to keep us safe. Democrats and Republicans alike have known what is going on, and are defending the actions en masse.
Still no problem. Surely President Obama will stop it. He never goes along with Congress.
Wrong again, traitor Joe. The President agrees with Congress. I'll give you a moment to ponder that.
* * *
Patrick Henry delivered his passionate speech to convince the Virginia Assembly to send Virginia militia to serve in the Revolutionary War against England It worked.
His words seem timeless. But now, it is not England that is taking our liberty. And while I disagree with the stance taken by Congress and the President, I don't think it is fair to say that they have taken our liberty.
We the people have willingly given away our liberty for over a decade because we are afraid.
Since 9/11 we have avoided the question. What is the balance between liberty and security?
To be free or not to be, that is the question . . .
.
-Patrick Henry, St. John's Church,
Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775
I learned this quote in Mrs. Alexander's social studies class in eighth grade and performed it often in the ensuing years, with as much flourish and passion as a Shakespearean thespian, spittle and all. You would think I could have remembered it perfectly for this post, but I was not sure, so I Googled it.
That google search may mean trouble. If you don't see me for awhile, you might want to call Gitmo. No wait. Don't call. No reason for you to get involved. Oh crap, you're reading this post already. Sorry about that. Perhaps we can be roomies. Bring a file.
Considering the revolutionary bent of Henry's incendiary language, I would imagine my Google search and perhaps this post might be perused by PRISM, or some other National Security Agency software, and potentially appear as a data statistic in tomorrow's security report to the President.
Something to shoot for.
Oops. That probably didn't sound right either. I hope the computer program has a filter for folksy language.
The last couple of days the news has been dominated by reports that the United States government is snooping on we the people, sifting through phone records and Internet search engine records, mining data that might strike the terrorist mother lode. Verizon and other phone companies have been under continuing secret National Security Agency subpoenas to provide phone records. Google and Internet providers were probably ordered to provide search records.
Apparently the records of all of us who have used the subject companies were turned over. Probably all of us. Probably all of the U. S. of A. Wonder what they do with all those cute kitten videos.
Our government believes, if a government is capable of believing, that it is spying on us for our own good. To assure our security. To protect the peace and our lives.
I'm with Patrick. The suggested retail price for peace and security is getting too high for my liking.
The problem is, the snooping is probably legal.
No problem. If we the people, Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians are opposed to it, let's just change the laws. Finally, something we can agree on.
Not so fast comrade. That's revolutionary talk.
Unfortunately, the only thing in the universe which has strong bi-partisan support in Congress are these NSA actions to keep us safe. Democrats and Republicans alike have known what is going on, and are defending the actions en masse.
Still no problem. Surely President Obama will stop it. He never goes along with Congress.
Wrong again, traitor Joe. The President agrees with Congress. I'll give you a moment to ponder that.
* * *
Patrick Henry delivered his passionate speech to convince the Virginia Assembly to send Virginia militia to serve in the Revolutionary War against England It worked.
His words seem timeless. But now, it is not England that is taking our liberty. And while I disagree with the stance taken by Congress and the President, I don't think it is fair to say that they have taken our liberty.
We the people have willingly given away our liberty for over a decade because we are afraid.
Since 9/11 we have avoided the question. What is the balance between liberty and security?
To be free or not to be, that is the question . . .
.
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