James Wolcott: Pointers
he's a little harsh on jesus as a deficient philosopher, but i don't think jesus was here to be a philospher anyway.
in other religious news, i've been nominated to be a deacon at my very large beautiful church. i laughed my ass off when i got the phone call. then, when i told my father, he actually cried.
a friend told me of a thing they call intercessory prayer; most deacons avoid this duty because it may require them to actually pray with someone in crisis. (oh, presbyterians. so in touch with your emotions.) i actually look forward to it.
what else...what else? ah. the UCC tried to air a commercial on their church's tolerance for everyone (ahem) and CBS and NBC refuse to air it because of its controversial stance on...tolerance.
this world is absurd and we are so stupid to follow it, we deserve whatever horrid comeuppance is out there.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
it's like the thorn birds...
...but more disturbing.
i'm no catholic, but i'm sensing a celndar of hot italian priests would open the door to all sorts of, um, inappropriate thoughts.
i'm no catholic, but i'm sensing a celndar of hot italian priests would open the door to all sorts of, um, inappropriate thoughts.
the year of compassion
CNN.com - FBI: More than 7,400 hate crimes last year - Nov 22, 2004
well, that takes care of race. let's start a pool on how long it'll take for gender specific crime to spike now that it's federally banned for women to receive information about abortion.
well, that takes care of race. let's start a pool on how long it'll take for gender specific crime to spike now that it's federally banned for women to receive information about abortion.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
what we're forced to do
Shooting Spurs Iraqi Uproar, U.S. Inquiry
long story short:
faking death (i.e, living) forces marine to kill unarmed insurgent (who'd already been shot and taken prisoner).
i don't know if the word 'absurdity' quite describes what is happening over there.
in the final calculation of history (here below and before God) who will answer for this? who will bear the blame for this huge loss of human life and humanity? who will answer for this outrage against decency?
long story short:
faking death (i.e, living) forces marine to kill unarmed insurgent (who'd already been shot and taken prisoner).
i don't know if the word 'absurdity' quite describes what is happening over there.
in the final calculation of history (here below and before God) who will answer for this? who will bear the blame for this huge loss of human life and humanity? who will answer for this outrage against decency?
i'm going to hell
and all because of this.
my tattoo is over my right shoulder blade. it's a cute little salamander winding down the curve of my upper blade. i named it jake.
the summer i successfully defended my dissertation plan and passed my prelims, i decided to mark the moment. so, with some friends, i picked a clean tattoo salon on sunset blvd, ruched up my skirt, took off my shirt and straddled the back of a chair while tony, the ex-con from east la, etched a tattoo into my skin with black ink.
rebellion? whatever.
my tattoo is over my right shoulder blade. it's a cute little salamander winding down the curve of my upper blade. i named it jake.
the summer i successfully defended my dissertation plan and passed my prelims, i decided to mark the moment. so, with some friends, i picked a clean tattoo salon on sunset blvd, ruched up my skirt, took off my shirt and straddled the back of a chair while tony, the ex-con from east la, etched a tattoo into my skin with black ink.
rebellion? whatever.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
article update
so the article i've been working on for the past week and a half has changed in direction. at first it was about how progressives need to get with the god program and start talking jesus. then i started to refine that position.
the issue isn't that progressives aren't churchy enough - it's that we honestly don't know how to maneuver in this new 'faith and values battleground.' it's my opinion that faith is a linguistic cover for class, urbanization, gender and race. in other words, the anxiety (or certitude) people are showing over the values/faith debate is actually the byproduct of good old-fashioned isms. so i've also expanded my focus to talk aboutpeople of color and women, as well (write what you know, after all). to find the way out, we progressives are going to have to remember what it's like to be activists again.
i want to have this done done done by the weekend.
the issue isn't that progressives aren't churchy enough - it's that we honestly don't know how to maneuver in this new 'faith and values battleground.' it's my opinion that faith is a linguistic cover for class, urbanization, gender and race. in other words, the anxiety (or certitude) people are showing over the values/faith debate is actually the byproduct of good old-fashioned isms. so i've also expanded my focus to talk aboutpeople of color and women, as well (write what you know, after all). to find the way out, we progressives are going to have to remember what it's like to be activists again.
i want to have this done done done by the weekend.
now it's old ladies.
when did being a christian mean losing all common sense? when did being a pastor mean that all sense of boundaries and civility could be totally forgotten?
hey, here's a heads up for all those pastors out there: when you make elderly women call the police you have officially become scary.
when did being a christian mean losing all common sense? when did being a pastor mean that all sense of boundaries and civility could be totally forgotten?
hey, here's a heads up for all those pastors out there: when you make elderly women call the police you have officially become scary.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
god-whipped
The New Republic Online: The Elect
i differ in intensity with this article (i think the left must engage in this faith fetish if it wants to put some fire in its movement) but i agree wholeheartedly with the idea that morality and virtue aren't the same thing.
i differ in intensity with this article (i think the left must engage in this faith fetish if it wants to put some fire in its movement) but i agree wholeheartedly with the idea that morality and virtue aren't the same thing.
Friday, November 12, 2004
t r u t h o u t - Evangelical Leader: 'Evangelical Christianity Has Been Hijacked'
t r u t h o u t - Evangelical Leader: 'Evangelical Christianity Has Been Hijacked'
i've been writing about this and i'll respond to this later, once my latest draft is finished. (if i can't find a place to submit it, i'll post it here because i'm afraid like that.)
i've been writing about this and i'll respond to this later, once my latest draft is finished. (if i can't find a place to submit it, i'll post it here because i'm afraid like that.)
fool me once...
t r u t h o u t - MultiMedia
i wanted to put the whole ohio thing behind me. it made us look like babies. whiners.
but now, it looks like perhaps we were right. again.
why, oh WHY did we concede before every vote was counted??
i wanted to put the whole ohio thing behind me. it made us look like babies. whiners.
but now, it looks like perhaps we were right. again.
why, oh WHY did we concede before every vote was counted??
Thursday, November 11, 2004
it's just too easy
Salon.com Life | Tex ed
hm.
banal sex ed books. highest teen birth rate in the nation.
think there's a connection?
idiots.
hm.
banal sex ed books. highest teen birth rate in the nation.
think there's a connection?
idiots.
the corruption of christianity?
Michael Feingold | Our Vanished Values
money quote:
"For make no mistake, this is the election in which American Christianity destroyed itself. Today the church is no longer a religion but a tacky political lobby, with an obsessive concentration on a minuscule number of social topics so irrelevant to questions of governance that they barely constitute political issues at all. These are the points of contention tied into what are blurrily referred to as "moral values," though they have almost nothing to do with the larger moral question of how one lives one's life, and everything to do with the fundamentally un-Christian and un-American idea of forcing others to live the way you believe they should. The displacement of faith involved is eerie, almost psychotic: Here are people willing to vote against their own well-being and their own children's future, just so they can compel someone else's daughter to bear an unwanted child and deprive someone else's son of the right to file a joint income tax return with his male partner."
money quote:
"For make no mistake, this is the election in which American Christianity destroyed itself. Today the church is no longer a religion but a tacky political lobby, with an obsessive concentration on a minuscule number of social topics so irrelevant to questions of governance that they barely constitute political issues at all. These are the points of contention tied into what are blurrily referred to as "moral values," though they have almost nothing to do with the larger moral question of how one lives one's life, and everything to do with the fundamentally un-Christian and un-American idea of forcing others to live the way you believe they should. The displacement of faith involved is eerie, almost psychotic: Here are people willing to vote against their own well-being and their own children's future, just so they can compel someone else's daughter to bear an unwanted child and deprive someone else's son of the right to file a joint income tax return with his male partner."
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Body and Soul: Onward, Christianist soldiers
Body and Soul: Onward, Christianist soldiers
i'm writing an article about this now. but this is a good post about some of the things i'm concerned with: the new heavily reactionist, anti-rational wing of the right. if this is the face of christianity, then we have a problem.
sorry i've been absent. the election knocked me for a loop.
but now i'm back.
i'm quitting my cushy job to fight for the left. so if you thought i was militant before, wait until i really get warmed up.
i'm writing an article about this now. but this is a good post about some of the things i'm concerned with: the new heavily reactionist, anti-rational wing of the right. if this is the face of christianity, then we have a problem.
sorry i've been absent. the election knocked me for a loop.
but now i'm back.
i'm quitting my cushy job to fight for the left. so if you thought i was militant before, wait until i really get warmed up.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
bush born again?
American Prospect Online - ViewWeb
for all of us who had to make a public confession in front of the congregation, receive the right hand of fellowship and wear a white gown before being dunked in an algae-infested baptismal pool.
for those of us who came to jesus because the thought of being left behind after the rapture scared the crap out of us.
for all of us who, when smoking, drinking a beer (or doing other, cough, stuff) still feel like jesus is standing on our shoulders.
for all of us who had to make a public confession in front of the congregation, receive the right hand of fellowship and wear a white gown before being dunked in an algae-infested baptismal pool.
for those of us who came to jesus because the thought of being left behind after the rapture scared the crap out of us.
for all of us who, when smoking, drinking a beer (or doing other, cough, stuff) still feel like jesus is standing on our shoulders.
Monday, October 18, 2004
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