Sick........and Tired

I am so glad "political season" is done for now. So tired of the lies and innuendos that are fired back and forth from both sides. When I say "political season", you can understand what I mean. Why can't we see how destructive this "us versus them" is to our nation. Never, since I have been politically aware (some 55 years) have I seen it as destructive as it is today. The "us versus them" is not restricted to America, but is spread all over our globe. When will we as humans learn that "us versus them" is the surest way to bring about the end of civilization. I am serious! Political gamesmanship has been the stock and trade of U.S. politics for centuries, but it has become particularly nasty in recent decades. And, "us versus them" is no longer restricted to politics. It has become just as nasty in the religious realm as well. Man has always attempted to explain the the unexplainable and describe the indescribable, to his and others of his group, to their satisfaction. Yet, there are other groups (of human beings) who see it differently, who explain and describe things quite contrarily. So we have "us versus them in the religious arena as well.
Some would say "hate" is too strong a word to use in describing "the other" in these areas (political and religious). Others would say "hate" is not strong enough. We need to think long and seriously about what we are doing to ourselves (the human race) when we make these two areas of life so contentious. Where is the brotherly love that is so talked about in the religious life of people. How can a so called religious nation not follow the simple directive of the one whom they claim to follow:

Love God with all your heart, and YOUR NEIGHBOR (your fellow human beings) as yourself.

Instead, we show vile self-hatred of ourselves by expressing an almost total lack of love for our neighbors in this "global" society. Quit saying you love God, if you don't show love for your neighbor, whomever he or she may be.

Here's one to Ponder

I saw this quote recently on Facebook:

"What can we say about anything that wasn't regurgitated to us by someone else".

I have been mulling this quote over in my mind. Perhaps it's time to start seriously thinking about this. When we're talking about spirituality, religion, life in general, maybe we need to think for ourselves rather than repeating what we heard someone else say. Is that even possible? I guess I really never thought about it before. There had to be original thinking on someone's part at some time about everything I listed above. But, now that we're further on down the road. Is it possible? I've been on a journey for over ten years trying to decide what I really believe about the above subjects. Maybe I don't believe anything about any of them in particular. Maybe I just "think" certain ways when it comes to those subjects. Maybe belief is not the best way to describe it. I have changed what I "believe" myriads of times in the ten years. So, maybe there needs to be another way to describe it. I'll keep looking...............

Parenting Adult Children is Like a Tightrope Act & a Minefield

All my kids are grown. Yes. I'll say it again for myself. ALL MY KIDS ARE GROWN. Just how long does it take for a parent to fully understand that fact once it's true? I never dreamed how hard it would be to simply assent to that fact. Unsolicited advice from a parent is usually not received by adult children the way the parent intended it to be. Therefore, once again, for the umpteenth time,  I resolve to not offer advice unless it is sought. Oh God that is a very, very difficult resolution to keep.

When disaster (in whatever form) strikes one of your own, it is a parent's instinct to step in and help. If the help is sought, fine. There have been times when each of my three kids have done just that. I was more than willing and did my best to accommodate each time. But, there have been other times when my counsel has not been sought, but advice was given anyway. The disaster was often made worse.

Parenting adult children is truly a minefield!

Someday, perhaps, all my children will come to realize that this job, this difficult, often impossible job of parenting never ends....at least that's the way it appears to most of us who have acquired that status. I hope all my kids understand, and in some cases, excuse their often bumbling parents for stepping over the line on occasion. Everything I do for them (albeit sometimes TO them) is done out of an all-consuming love for those offspring.

*I hereby highly resolve to withhold advice, unless it is sought. So help me God!
(regardless of the consequences suffered by that adult child who so carelessly failed to solicit my sage advice.)

Oh God! Here I go again......Kids you know I love you...right?! 

Get the Hell Out of My Bible

This is a Facebook post from a wonderful inclusionist, Carlton Pearson. Carlton expresses what many Christians have discovered in recent years. I gave up the belief in hell almost ten years ago and have never looked back. 

 Get the Hell Out of My Bible

 

The only "literal" hell there is, is the one we create for ourselves and for others. No one goes to hell, but we all go through it.

The belief in hell, as we've been taught and have taught it, is a concrete block tied to the ankles of trapped souls and minds. Until they are released from that single doctrine, it is difficult to progress into the wider experience of your God self, the part of himself that Jesus seems to have accessed within and encouraged us to. He loved to call himself "son of man", not "son of God", but recognized both aspects of himself and encouraged us to.

Gehenna is commonly used by misconceiving Christians to mean Hell, when in reality it was a garbage dump. I now believe that the entire concept of Hell in traditional evangelical Christianity is erroneously based on both superstition and the influence of ancient pre-Christian pagan mythologies. Yet the idea of Hell remains the most pernicious myth of Christianity and one unique to Christianity. Judaism does not have a place called Hell; Islam has one but it is not a central feature of the doctrine. What about our theology — and what about us as people — compels us to perpetuate the idea of a cosmic torture chamber where our brothers and sisters will be tormented in brutal agony forever? What does this say about the kind of people we have become? Just as important, what does this fervent Evangelical belief say about where conservative Christians stand in relation to most Americans, who, according to that previously quoted study, think people can save their souls not by adhering to some outdated doctrine but simply by being good people? As I see it, the evidence is incontestable: Christians risk becoming utterly irrelevant in their own culture if they continue to separate people into “We, the Saved” and “They, the Damned.” Again, I ask, do we need Jesus to protect us from God? Is that what Christianity as we’ve known it is about? Are we saved from God by God?