Over the bloggo bay....
It's taking time in part because I'm reading most of you. So amazing, you are.
Warning. This is a religious post from a religious woman. I thank God for EVERYONE who participated in this blogswarm.
I always cry at least once during the Easter service, in part because I feel so undeserving of Christ's sacrifice, his love, and yet I bathe in it. I bathe in it.
But this Easter was different. I started to cry during The Lord's Prayer, which I say all the time, ya know? But the part that in this particular church goes,
"...forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."
and I thought about those who trespass against us, the James Dobsons. The Jerry Falwells. The Right Wing Theocrats. I can work on forgiving them. I can do that.
Then I went backwards to MY trespasses. As an American.
Baghdad.
Abu Gahrib.
Guantanamo.
How many secret prisons? How many, Mr. President? To keep me safe? To keep me so I can get GAS for my MINIVAN at under 3 dollars a gallon?
I wept. I absolutely shook with rage and regret at the spoiled American I see in the mirror every. fucking. morning.
I know better, I have matured as a Christian, to know when there is regret and grief and when there is simply worshipping at the altar of my own self-importance. As if I matter. I know. I know.
And I talked with Mr. BG about this on the way home. Cradle Episcopalian, but smart guy, too. He pointed out (standard theology, but still) that I must fight the sin of the world at every turn but not be surprised that it's still there when each battle ends. That's the whole original sin model and I don't buy it but yeah, I get his point.
UPDATE: Mr. BG takes issue with this characterization of his theology, and I can see his point. The tack Mr. BG takes is that humanity is innately self-centered, and in a community/society that is evil. Witness Darfur. Witness Hummer drivers. We are born self-centered, all of us. That is original sin.
And he also pointed out that the rest of the world gets it, really gets it, that George Bush is not Blue Gal and vice-versa. "I've talked with people around the world and they know you and a great many Americans don't support him."
Which is why I think it would be really funny in a sick way if Pammy at Assless suggga got her wish and we elected John Bolton for President next go around. The look on Scandinavia's face alone.
KIDDING! KIDDING!
But look. Here's a poem I wrote about what I believe about God and humanity, and it applies so much right now. To all of you bloggers, whether you believe in God or not (and I really don't give a rat's ass if you do or don't.)
We are artists.
We all are.
All of us.
And spiritual enlightenment
comes from connecting
with the creativity God has sent us to do.
You can be brave
and do it
or you can watch American Idol, chew on numb mindless shit all the live-long day,
and shut it out.
so many people shut it out.
Someone said I'm channeling John Coltrane when I talk like this.
so many never, ever, don't connect.
but when you connect,
the Angels rejoice.
the Angels rejoice.
All these new crazy smart lively amazing bloggers. You. You've done it. You have done it.
A woman stood at meeting yesterday and said that she, too, was thinking about Christ dying for our sins. And then she talked about how she feels like we're killing him over and over and over agin every day, with all the killing that we do, some of it in his name. And how she wonders how much forgiveness he might think we're still entitled to.
ReplyDeleteFirst "Thank you, friend" responses I've heard in a while followed.
And, BG, just remember: this swarm didn't get done without someone organizing it.
Blue Gal, I want to thank you for the tremendous effort you put into the blogswarm.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the posts, I kept scratching my head at the reactions of the "religious right" - because I didn't see one blog that was anti-religion; I didn't see one person attack Christianity in specific or religion in general. There were any number of paths that people take, and everyone said the same thing: keep Church and State as separate entities, just as the First Amendment states.
One of my dearest friends is a Jehovah's Witness - I love this guy. We absolutely do not agree on anything religious, but I still adore him. Why? Because we give each other the dignity to be different.
The religious right does not want people to have the dignity to think or believe independently. And what the blogswarm did was to show just how strong dignity can be.
Thank you for your efforts.
Thank you for the opportunity, BlueGal!
ReplyDeleteArt o'any sort brings a message with it.
ReplyDeleteThere be artists an' then there be artistes, Me BG. Ye be definitely in th'latter category.
Ye produce a message with flair.
Thanks for taking on this task. I know it's close to your heart, but that doesn't make the time and effort any less. Or less meaningful.
ReplyDeleteThanks, BG, now *I* am crying.
ReplyDeletei love the poem.
ReplyDeletei loved the bat.
i can not understand how anyone could say any of the writings was anti anything unless it was anti-tolerance and THAT i think is what sticks in the craw of the right wing fanatics among us.
thier understanding of christianity leaves no room for tolerence.
tolerence is a sin to them.
to them , everyone must convert, and convert to THEIR narrow beliefs.
you did a very good thing with this blog.
be proud.
be happy.
be strong.
in other words, stay as you are.
and i meant that they are anti-tolerence not us, i get to rambling you understand. : )
ReplyDeleteBlue Gal,
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the B.A.T.
I'm inspired by the way you blend christianity and progressive politics without diluting either one.
Also, I'm new to the south and give a little shout of glee every time i find another progressive christian here.
How many ways can I say, "You got me"?
ReplyDeleteI was raised as some variant of
Christian, (I don't know! Presbyterian, Anglican, United Church), but lost anything to do with faith in the holes of the Falklands War and the Gulf after that. That's me and I know you accept me for what I believe.
Until today I can never say that a believing modern Christian had ever written anything which, literally, moved me.
You've done that. You are a beautiful person for having done that with taste, distinction and humor.
I love you for doing it. (No. Mr. BG may not kill me. It's an expression over distance of feeling for your willingness to share.)
It is the words you wrote which affirm in my mind that I would defend your right to worship to the death. (Please don't ask. I've done it and I truly don't like it.)
But I would if that's what it took to preserve that simple human right.
I thank you for taking the lead. Following was one of life's great pleasures.
Blue Gal,
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the blogswarm. Keep your ideals and give your fingers a well deserved rest!
As someone who has lost their own faith, I applaud yours BG.
ReplyDeletespirituality is separate from religion for many folks- others entwine it with their faith. the one thing that has always united us has been the constitution. may it ever be so. thanks for everything bg.
ReplyDeleteAnything worth knowing about my notions on God are contained in this simple dialogue:
ReplyDelete________________________
QUESTIONS FROM ANOTHER GOD
ANOTHER GOD: Where is the light emanating from your living?
TPM: Snuggled tightly to our ashen mother of sustenance, her concrete cloth lashed tightly `round our mouths while decaying organs clang upon their rusty pipes; a reverie to the stone dragons sleeping in our dark.
ANOTHER GOD: Where are the soft, milk-filled breasts of your suckling mercy? Have they too been punctured by the weight of your sins? Oozing out offerings at the foot of tyranny’s trough?
TPM: All’s been drained, shipped away in barrels.
ANOTHER GOD: How do you endure, pitiful as you are?
TPM: We are homeless upon these darkened streets. Homeless and hungry in our unremarkable dwelling, begging that we might buy back scant drops of her nectar.
ANOTHER GOD: Above the granite facing of shadow yonder stands your emaciated lady. She stares eyeless toward the spanning ocean, might she not save you?
TPM: No. Her light has long been gone, spent, sold.
ANOTHER GOD: Was she ever beautiful?
TPM: Her light once spread out over the world.
ANOTHER GOD: She’s nothing to offer you now?
TPM: Just her prostituted limbs rising lightless above the water.
ANOTHER GOD: No light? No dawn? No curve of fervent hope?
TPM: Hope?
ANOTHER GOD: Yes. Hope.
Copyright © 2006 mrp /thepoetryman
(I had a dream where Pam Atlas said something about Sanjaya being an immigrant who was stealing the job of lousy singer clearly meant for an American... And then all the GOP candidates sang on American Idol but were voted off... Oh.)
ReplyDeleteBetmo, I agree.
Rock on, Blue Gal and Poetry Man!