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Answer Number Nine!
9. I voted against the marriage amendment.
TRUE. For those of you who might be unclear, the Grand Ol' State of Michigan attempted - and succeeding - in passing a state amendment declaring that the term "marriage" could only be used to refer to a certain relationship between one woman and one man. In other words, no same sex marriage.
I voted against it.
So much for the secret ballot...
I should say that I knew it was going to pass, regardless of how I voted, so in a way, it was a protest vote. And I want to say that some of my friends who voted for it had some very good reasons to do so. In otherwords, I am saying that I recognize that there are legitimate reasons to discuss the issue, and that sincere people voted differently than me because they came to a different conclusion than me.
That's fine.
The reason I voted against it is this. I think true marriage is a "sacrament" of the Church, meaning (from a Protestant's view), that marriage extends from and has its birth in the validation that the community of Christ (which includes Christ) gives to the couple to be a couple. Or, to say it in a more popular - yet often misunderstood way - marriage extends from the authority of the Church.
Ok, well hell...we sold the term "marriage" out long before the gay community decided to come play. Pastors all over have stood up and "married" all kinds of people who have nothing to do with the community of Christ. What for? I don't know. Maybe the pay is good.
The divorce rate is sky high. People are beat up and scarred up and limping around because we're "marrying" people who don't know the first thing about marriage. And then (the audacity and shame of it!) when some gay couple comes along and wants to use the word "marriage" in an "unsanctified way" - suddenly, there's this huge uproar!
Please.
Gag me.
And while, as I said above, I know there were good honorable intentions on the part of some of those who voted for it, it seemed to me that the movement (again, not necessarily the individual) was nothing more than culture-clasping, remember-the-good-old-days version of homophobia veiled with Jesus words.
And it made me sick.
It makes me sick that Jesus has been used as a "culture club" to beat people into submission. And it makes me sick that the "Jesus club" doesn't work all that well anymore either - not because the general population knows the truth about Jesus and therefore dismisses the misuse of his name - but because Jesus has become a joke to them.
As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." Romans 2:24
As far as I'm concerned, we ought to let the term marriage go. It's mangled beyond use anyway (ok - so that's somewhat overlydramatic). But hey, let everyone get married. We haven't been discriminating in the past, why start now? If we did this, maybe THEN, we'd realize that we need to speak more accurately when we open our mouths and have more integrity with the "authority" that is given us.
And we'll also get to come up with a new cool word for marriage - which will be fun!
Practical Application: If its an either/or question, Headless doubts that very much.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/27/2005 08:40:00 PM | (3) comments
Answer Number Ten!
10. The less I know about a subject, the more questions I ask.
FALSE. The more I know about a subject, the more questions I ask. When I know nothing about a subject, I (attempt) to suspend my own reality for the moment and simply "walk a mile in the shoes" of whomever it is that knows more than me. If I'm reading a book, I try to "be" the author. If I'm listening to someone, I try to live in their world, breathe their air, stand where they stand. I have found that if I carry my own reality into their world, I either will find their's very disjointed, or I will never hear them, only myself echoing off of them.
When I know much about a subject, I find that I know so little. What is most important about this statement is what it is that is compared. In most ventures in life, humans tend to compare themselves to one another. So, to say, "I know so little" is often taken to mean, "I know so much less than you." However, when you come to know a subject, say Geometry, you find that you are no longer comparing your depth of knowledge to that of another person, but to a truth.
And all truths are eternal. Because they belong to the one Truth. There is no truth apart from Truth.
So...there are endless questions to ask of an eternal subject, which is, as all things true are, an eternal mystery that is endlessly being solved.
Like Geometry, which speaks of God.
Practical Application: If Headless asks many questions, it is best not to patronize her with baby food, lest you rouse the anger of a sleeping giant! Roar!!!!.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/27/2005 08:24:00 PM | (5) comments
This Changes Everything
I'm blogging...from my dining room table.
OHMYGOSHI'MBLOGGINGFROMHOME!!!!
I've got internet.
At my house.
I love my wireless card. And my neighbors.
Don't hate me.
"All the evils which we suffer politically may be traced to the existence of an immense mass of ignorant, illiterate, or semi-educated people who assist in governing the country while they possess no insight into the true nature of the issues which they attempt to decide."
-William T. Harris, US Commissioner of Education
Speech given to the NEA in 1874
(Just an interesting quote, that's all!)
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/26/2005 10:15:00 PM | (2) comments
YOU. SHALL. NOT. PASS!
"And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord."
A wandering spirit caring for a multitude of just concerns, you are an instrumental power in many of the causes around you.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/22/2005 05:35:00 PM | (0) comments
Big Girls Don't Cry
But they do get edited out sometimes...
The following is a True or False Test
1) I am a perpetual navel gazer.
2) I want to get married.
3) The first "charasmatic" experience I had happened in the last five years.
4) I believe all churches should have women preach from the pulpit - at least from time to time.
5) I believe we should love everyone.
6) I was in love with M. L.
7) I often deny my internal feelings in order to function in day to day stuff.
8) I believe in the supernatural.
9) I voted against the "marriage ammendment."
10) The less I know about a subject, the more questions I ask.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/22/2005 01:29:00 PM | (0) comments
Treffpunkt
Chris works at the coffee shop. He's some kind of visual arts major - a movie snob - like the Pickle-O's. I want Cold Yellow Grace to meet him so they can talk. I wonder what they would say...
Dorothy Sayers said that all language is metaphorical. We are forever explaining things in terms of other things. Do you really know what it means that the Father begot the Son? To the Muslim (I am told, though I'm certain this is an overgeneralization) the concept of the Son of God is quite offensive.
Do you congratulate yourself? Have you spread the Gospel when you proclaim Jesus as the Son of God to the Muslim? Not so, says my contacts. You have offended the Muslim all right, but not with the Gospel.
I have been told - and I am no expert, so hold this lightly - that during the decline of the Byzentine Empire and subsequent rise of Islam, many Muslims came to believe that the Christian Trinity consisted of God the Father, Mary the Mother and Jesus the Son. Following this line of thinking, they also came to believe that the Christian God (the Father) had sex with Mary in order to produce Jesus.
It's not really all that illogical. In fact, it's perfectly logically. And if that's what I had been taught? Well, I'd be offended too.
A couple of questions come in to play here.
First, how would we say to a Muslim what we really mean to say about Jesus? What metaphor would we use? Would we be ok with ditching the phrase "Son of God" for a different metaphor in order to really sharing the Gospel?
Second, is it ok to "retranslate" written Scripture culturally as well as linquistically so that we take words that even Jesus said and rework them? Can we erase the phrase "Son of God" out of the Arabic Bible and replace it with a more "accurate" phrase? Should we?
Third, do we understand the phrase "Son of God" differently than Jesus meant it? How did he mean it? And, most curiously, why do we use "Son of God" but never "Son of Man" - which of course is Jesus' most oft' used self-title.
Fourth, what is the offense of the Gospel?
Fifth, what is the Gospel?
As a brief disclaimer (HA!), I ask these questions as ways to find simple hooks in a much larger subject. In no way, shape or form, should one assume that I believe sharing the Gospel in the culture of Islam can be reduced to a retranslated phrase, or any other such nonsense.
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/22/2005 09:32:00 AM | (0) comments
Journal Entry
Dear Diary,
Today I ate a sandwich, when I really wanted breakfast. But I didn't have any breakfast and the store I went to was finished serving breakfast.
"We have sandwiches" she said.
"Ok, the Chicken Parmesan Panini" I said, because I was hungry for breakfast, but they didn't have any.
It was 9:45 in the morning.
I feel sick. I feel sick today. I feel sick today and it's only 10:15.
In other news, I read the book "Blue Like Jazz" the other day. The most memorable part of the book came when the author and his friends set up a "Confession Booth" at the "Wild Days festival" that occurs on campus at their extremely loose west coast university.
The catch?
All the Christians running the booth (a total of five or so) confess. They confess that they haven't loved like Jesus. They confess that they haven't fed the hungry or clothed the naked. They confess that - while they didn't personally have anything to do with the Crusades - they are sorry for them. Sorry for those people who may have been believers but not followers.
Here's another thing. The author tells about a time that he went to a conference where the speaker was discussing the power of language. The example that the speaker used was the language that we when we talk about cancer. We say "Win the fight against cancer." We say, "So-and-so is battling cancer."
We use war metaphors to discuss cancer. Apparently there is research that suggests that people who use different types of metaphors fare better than those who use the war metaphor. The idea is that war is a stressful situation and added stress does not aid in recovery.
Then the speaker asked people to talk about relationships. Shortly it was seen that relationships are most often talked about using an economic metaphor. We value relationships. Relationships cost. They are work. You have to sacrifice.
There were many other examples. Better than the ones that I remembered.
Hmmm...
Next subject. I have to figure out how to stay warm and not make my lungs bleed when I'm sucking the cold air up here trying to run. Any ideas?
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/20/2005 10:07:00 AM | (4) comments
Worth A Thousand Words...
I can't help it!!! I can't stop!!! I'm addicted to meme!!!
Google the town I was born in...
Google the town I live in now...
...And my name...
...my Grandma's name...
...and favorite food...
...and drink....
...song...
...and smell!
And there it is!
posted by Headless-in-GR @ 10/11/2005 09:59:00 PM | (3) comments
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