Here's where I went to church this morning while everyone else was asleep, reading or at the beach.

Nice place, they did a very good job of welcoming a fairly diverse group of worshipers. And they sang! I don't know if it was the acoustics or the enthusiasm, but it was loud in the sanctuary.

Anyway, it's a pleasure to be in the pew for once instead of up front, even if I did zone out halfway through the really very good sermon.

This one just makes me giggle!  I am just about to leave for my 6th day in a row of work--I'm tired!!!  I worked last night, so I only watched a bit of the forum last night--I didn't get to watch Obama at all.  I mostly heard the flap about how well McSame did...well--he should have.  I was put off by the quick, simplistic answers--haven't we all had enough?  We have had eight long years of over simplistic answers that simply do not work.  I am so tired of the lies about Obama's tax policies--Tony Perkins should ashamed of his lies last night on CNN.  Very interesting definitions of Christianity these people have.  Anyway....doesn't anyone believe we have to PAY for this war and all this spending one of these days?  Sheesh.  

Have you seen the lies against Unions?  Groups like Unionfacts.org are running anti-union ads constantly around here.  McSame spouted their rhetoric.  Somehow, I just can't imagine these groups, funded by the likes of Wal-mart REALLY have the worker's best interests at heart!  They don't want to lose the ability to harass workers themselves. Americans are just so dumb--we have fallen for the management arguments hook, line and sinker throughout our history--unlike Europeans.  Why do we protect the wealthy--are we really stupid enough to believe the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" myth?  Maybe it's the "I'm gonna win the Lottery" myth.

As I type, I sit wedged between Zanzibar and Maggie May--they were groomed on Friday and look glorious.  I woke up yesterday morning with Zanz, lying on her back in the crook of my arm (all 50 pounds of her).  Her paws were draped across my body and her face was on mine.  No one has dared to tell these two that they are actually dogs.  They bring such joy and laughs.  

So, what are you up to?  What are your plans for the week?  We are going to head up north to Polly's Pancake Parlor on Wednesday morning for the annual pilgrimage.  I really need to start painting--I'm tired of my wall colors!!!!  Will post photos when done!

Help yourself to coffee or whatever--grab some danish or a strawberry cheese croissant and a chair and chat with us for a while!

Some shows that were perhaps ahead of their time are finding new life on cable and satellite channels.  I’m discovering some for the first time and am finding strong spiritual elements in them.

I don’t know how I ever missed Joan of Arcadia but I am glad it is being replayed now.  The show is about a young woman, played by Amber Tamblyn, who receives instructions from God speaking in the guise of ordinary people.  The reasons for the instructions are never clear to Joan at first – and she balks at following them.  But when she does follow them, it turns out to be to her benefit.  This show is now marked for recording at my house – I don’t want to miss a bit of Joan’s journey.  She gets more explicit instructions than most of us – but we all follow clues without really knowing where they will lead, don’t we?  And if we look closely enough, we can see God working through everyone we meet.  I think so, anyway.

Promoted by Rain

Friends, this is Grant from the Matthew 25 Network.

Tomorrow will mark a turning point of the faith and politics dialogue in America as Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain come together to discuss faith at Saddleback Church.  The Republican Party has nominated a man who has failed to ignite the GOP’s traditional Christian voting bloc.  While, the Democrats have nominated Sen. Barack Obama who is unabashed in speaking about faith, and who is igniting the imaginations of Christians nation-wide.

The forum will also be the first time clergy have appeared in a commercial to speak out in support of a Democratic Presidential Candidate.  Clergy are tasked with counseling families through health-care crisis and job-losses, with helping congregants inject a moral-mindset in world-affairs, comforting families of those lost at war, and continuously being the voice of ‘the least of these’ to those who often have the most.  Thousands of Pastors, Priest, Sisters, and Brothers who have stood on the sidelines in the past are speaking out this year for one candidate – Barack Obama.

Happy Hour has begun!  Hope your day is going well.  I need to run off to work.  It is the BIG sale weekend.  I took Mom this morning and we spent way too much money, but got some great stuff.  I got some sweaters and a great jacket which will all work for my real job!!  The Poodles got groomed--they look so gorgeous!  They are exhausted...it's hard work to look so good!  Other than that, not much happening at this end--how about you?  Any plans for the weekend?  What are you eating and drinking?  Grab a libation and pull up a chair and chat for a while!  

Promoted by Rain

About a month ago, we announced the creation of Living Liberally's new network of religious progressives: Praying Liberally. Now, the first chapters are beginning to get off the ground starting with Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday, August 21st. We're really fired up about getting  this great new network into action.

As Wilmington chapter leader Frank Bell puts it:

As I see it, the point of this thing is give persons of a reality-based persuasion a chance to look at issues from a perspective informed by faith without anyone's giving them funny looks because they profess a faith--and to allow those who may not have a religious perspective to participate in the discussion without penalty.

Troops Abroad Donated 6:1 To Obama  Seems Ol' McSame's message just isn't hitting home.

Unfit For Publication: Obama Camp Debunks Lies In Right Wing Smear Book

Larry King: Media Matters Confronts and Destroys Obama-Smearer Jerome Corsi

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] Early morning for me....see you later!

Today's Meditation:

Thank you, God,
for your messengers that you send to us.

Thank you for your angels
that show us your mercy, power and judgement.

Help me to remember that you are with me in many ways.

Make it part of my mission today,
dear Lord,
to seek the angels that you have sent just for me.

Today's photo was taken at the New Hampshire Veteran's Cemetary.




There's more......

I know relatively little of the Bible and possibly a tiny bit more about Jesus, and to be frank, most of what I know, I dislike. I am deeply troubled by a God who kills the firstborn of the captors of his Chosen or who would not merely allow, but actually plan for his son to be nailed to a tree.

Yet after attending pastordan's interfaith service at Netroots Nation I caught myself thinking :

The Jesus that pastordan talks about... that Jesus I could accept as the Son of God. That Jesus I could follow.

pastordan has not converted me; I still worship under the full moon, but I suspect that I am not alone in finding Christianity more welcoming not just because of pastordan but due to a host of caring, committed people of that faith who gather here.

pastordan has asked us more than once what we can do, as a community, to carry our progressive beliefs, rooted in our various faiths (or lack thereof), out to a wider audience. It seems to me that it is possible that as a result of the attack on pastordan, we may well see a wider audience coming to us.

For any visitors over the next few days, I say welcome. Pull up a chair, join us for coffee or Happy Hour. If your heart is heavy or you have a joy to share, please visit the Daily Prayer Closet. I think you will find us a friendly bunch. Feel free to ask questions contribute.

Be aware that as in most houses of worship, those who are disruptive, hostile or rude first receive patient benefit of the doubt but should it continue, they are firmly invited to find other places to share their thoughts.

And please rest assured that regardless of what others may say, the proprietor - pastordan - is indeed a man who is committed to the truth of the Word of God. It just seems to this biblically ignorant Pagan that pastordan often finds that truth in places like the The Beatitudes.

I don't know if there's a formal substitute plan in place during the Pastor Family's vacay, but I figure if it's 8 pm EST and no Coffee Hour's up yet, it's anyone's gig. :)

[Bumped by brillig, who isn't sure who was supposed to set out the coffee, but agrees that coffee should be set out :-)]

Is it any accident they waited until I went on vacation?

On this side of the Atlantic, Rev. Schultz would be an obscure United Church of Christ pastor of a tiny congregation in rural Wisconsin if it were not for the power of the Internet and his own passion for new-media publicity. Under his pen name, pastordan, he has become perhaps one of the premier liberal Christian voices in the public arena (how liberal? Consider that he is just as likely to verbally trash Sojourners president Jim Wallis as he is more doctrinally correct Christian leaders like former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and American Values president Gary Bauer).

Just how “out there” is pastordan? Consider this: when a Beliefnet columnist posed some questions Rev. Rick Warren could ask presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain on the question of abortion when they meet Aug. 16 at Warren’s Saddleback Civil Forum, Schultz exploded at the suggestion that Warren seek “common ground, moving the conversation beyond the question of the legality of abortion and move towards (sic) actually reducing the need for abortion by investing in programs that will reduce both unintended pregnancies and abortions.”

Here is pastordan’s reply, quoted at some length to preserve the context:

“This all sounds very nice, and I’m sure it’s well-intentioned. But it uses right-wing frames to build the discussion, then appeals to a center ground that’s actually skewed pretty badly.

“The only reason to refer to abortion ‘on demand’ is to depict it as unnecessary, an elective procedure like plastic surgery. We don’t speak of ‘heart catheterizations on demand,’ after all. Children demand things, and that sort of infantilization is what this language is about. Because God knows that women are never faced with moral and existential crises like men. They’re not capable of them.

“And why, precisely, do we ‘have a moral obligation to find common ground’? I suppose to help women and families ‘make other choices.’

“But think this through with me. On the one hand, there are people who want to preserve the right to bodily self-determination given to them by the law. On the other hand, there are people who are determined to take that right away. . .They are philosophically and doctrinally and politically and every other way imaginable opposed to abortion. Along with preservation of the ‘traditional family’ (read: patriarchal authority), opposition to abortion forms the center of their moral and political self.

“They are, in short, extremists.

“And we have to split the difference with them why?

“ . . .(T)he only way to make sense of the argument as he’s framed it is to assume that abortion is a moral bad, and that women need to be guided away from them (sic). . .

“The strategic mistake here is to assume that the conservative interest is in reducing abortion. It’s not: that’s only a positive result of the real interest, which is in regulating women’s sexuality.”

We see overheated, knee-jerk, amoral “reasoning” like this all the time from the rabid abortion lobby and other enemies of faith and freedom. What’s especially discouraging to us is that this drivel comes from an ordained Christian minister – a man who is supposedly committed to the truth of the Word of God. Instead, he’s become a tool of the most hysterical fringe of the death industry. Disgusting.

If you wonder will happen when the Body of Christ fully abandons a biblical worldview and embraces postmodern thought, consider pastordan Exhibit A.

This is a classic case of "punching down," as Markos says in his new book Taking On The System. I'll expand the thought later, but the basic point is that having been thrown over by John McCain and shunned in disgust by the political establishment of Ohio, Parsley's authoritarian stooge think tank, the Center for Moral Clarity, has decided they needed somebody new to bully. And that's me.

I'm actually in Ohio as I write this, but since I'd rather enjoy my vacation time with my family than drive down to Columbus to tell Parsley what a fathead he is in person, I'll issue only the briefest of responses.

1. In my world, we customarily give links to views we oppose. This makes it easier for our readers to evaluate for themselves the argument of our opponents. Seeing as how the CMC hasn't seen fit to do likewise, I'm assuming they're too cowardly to allow a free exchange of ideas.

2. Anytime somebody like Rod Parsley - whose ordination consists of allegedly having a "sword of anointing" passed on from another revivalist, who lives in sumptuous wealth, whose family all seems to live in sumptuous wealth, who has been sued multiple times and had to settle lawsuits against his own father and teachers at his church, who lives in the pocket of war-mongers and free-market dogmatists, who wants to establish a theocratic government - anytime Rod Parsley wants to compare notes with me on what the penniless itinerant preacher and Prince of Peace Jesus Christ had to say on abortion, I'd be happy to consult with him. Until that time, he can stick his definition of orthodoxy where the sun don't shine.

Or is it too "out there" to suggest that Christians live faithfully and with a realistic, applied ethics? Apparently that's too frightening a prospect for some folks to tolerate.

Don't worry, it's cool . . . they left me the keys, we're supposed to go in!