Who Says?

When it comes to religion and politics, people should ease up on the guilt trip.  I'm tired of the divisions they try to create in all parts of our lives because  as far as I'm concerned,  these divisions do nothing more than reflect their narrow-minded and judgmental attitude. Take Christians for example. I'm a christian. I'm a Catholic Christian. There are Protestant Christians, Baptist Christians, Adventist Christians, Episcopalian Christians, Jeovah Witnesses and many more. Except for Jeovah Witnesses who don't think of Jesus the same way Christians do, these groups all have one thing in common: Their members define themselves as Christians. That's the bottom line. Why then do people pick on one group to make it the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong in the Christian communitiy? Catholic priests who have abused minors when they were trusted with their care should be held accountable. Absolutely! Anyone who commits lewd and lascivious acts against children should be held accountable whether they are catholic, protestant, muslim, baptist or jewish.  I don't care. If you are preying on young kids and are taking advantage of them, you are a sick, dangerous individual and you should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
But what about the distinctions people are trying to make between religion and politics?  For example, there seems to be a view out there that anyone who calls him/herself a christian should automatically be a republican, or tea partyist. Really? Where is that written? Is it in the bible? And before we go off running to try and look it up, let's just remember that the bible is open to interpretation. That's what created all these different factions of christianism in the first place so, we should expect to be challenged on everything we say.  There is a subtle movement toward intimidation and guilt in the christian community these days.  Church members are sometimes attacked because of their political affiliations, especially if these affiliations tend to lean toward the democratic party.  Why?  People vote according to their conscience and whatever they decide to do at the ballot box is between them, their conscience and their God if they worship one.  No one has the right to exert pressure on constituents to make them vote one way or another simply on the basis of their religion.  It's a matter of conviction and, of freedom of choice.  A republican voter is convinced he/she's doing the right thing when he/she is casting a vote just as a democrat or independent voter is convinced of doing the right thing when he/she votes. Of course, I'm only  referring to the people who are subject to that sort of pressure.  Some people don't embarass themselves with these considerations because they either don't worship a God or, they are able to keep their religions and politics completely separate.
Democrats tend to be cast in an ugly light in Christian forums because their republican counterparts feel they are being hypocrite by voting democrat.  Really? What about the "religious right" who does not want to help the poor? The religious right who strongly feels that each man/woman should fend for him/herself? What about the fight to cut services to the most vulnerable parts of our population? The senior citizens, the disabled, the babies, the kids whose parents may really not be able to pay for their healthcare? They want to use Jesus in their fight to justify their actions but would Jesus tell us not to care for our sick and our weak? Would Jesus ask us to cut off services to the poor because they need to get a job and take care of themselves? Where in the bible does Jesus say that we should work to enrich ourselves only? Does Jesus encourage racism, prejudice and discriminatioin? I'm tired of this game that's being played out there. It's dirty politics and manipulation. It only serves one purpose and it is to divide. I, too, believe in God and just because I'm on the left side of politics does not mean that I'm less devoted to my faith than those on the right. I just think differently.  Let God be the judge of my actions, not men and certainly not one party or another.

Sunday Mornings

Last Sunday, I was driving through a very quiet, very beautiful street. When I looked up, I could see the towering green trees with a little bit of the blue sky peeking through.  It was one of those special mornings. It was sunny, breezy... At that moment, I was feeling completely at peace, thinking of God and of this beautiful world He had given to us.  Then I reached the end of the street and my moment ended suddenly. Right there, across the street were two cars that had gotten into an accident. My previous thoughts now felt almost like an aberration.  Here I was, completely lost in the beauty of nature, enjoying the peacefulness of this glorious Sunday morning when, not even half a mile away, people were getting into accidents. A young woman, obviously shaken, was sitting on the curb holding an infant baby girl  and next to her stood another woman dressed in medical scrubs.  She must have seen the accident and stopped to make sure they were OK.  "Was she a nurse" I wondered as I drove past them... Further down, another car was parked and two men were walking toward the scene of the accident, one gesticulating and appearing more upset than the woman sitting on the curb.  "What does he have to be upset about? I thought a little grudgingly.  ( I think I had already taken sides but c'mon, the woman was holding an infant!) He seems to be fine!  His car is not all crushed up like that poor woman's car." To be fair, one of the men was actually pushing a little boy in a stroller so there had been kids aboard both vehicles when the accident happened.  One driver had just been luckier than the other.  My beautiful Sunday morning was over... I wasn't sure whether to thank God for the beautiful moment I was having just before coming upon this scene or, for sparing the lives of the people involved in the accident.  I thanked him for both, not right away but eventually.  Because, regardless of what had happened just after, I did experience something beautiful driving down that street that Sunday morning.

A Proper Introduction

When I was writing my first post for this blog, I was thinking of my day and all that I had to do in just a few hours. As a result, I impulsively launched into a quick rant about how busy life was and how fast time went without properly introducing myself.  All the Little Parts of Me reflects how I think of myself: I'm a person. I'm a christian who likes the left side of the aisle; I'm a mom and I'm a wife.  I'm a daughter and a sister, an auntie, friend and cousin...  And I'm not done: There is my race, my heritage, my gender and my age. I think career path and dreams, future and financial security. I consider the environment, worry about the planet but I'm not a vegeterian. I'm just aware of the dangers.  So in a snapshot, that pretty much summairzes all the little parts of me. Some parts consume me almost completely while others lie there, almost forgotten.

Either life is going too fast or I'm just too slow to keep up.

I can't believe how many things go through my mind on any given day. Too many things to count that's for sure. The human mind as I envision it, must be like a small but powerful computer with some sort of filtering system that just "knows" to automatically dismiss or add information to different shelves neatly lined up inside our head as we go through our day.  We zip and zap this way or that and as we do, we take note of our surroundings even as we keep going:  "Oh, there's a sale at this store: Click:"  It's added, stored. A little further away,  fares and wares are waved in our direction. Without even missing a beat, we are quick to assess and to decide: "What? No, no thank You. I don't need it".  Discard. And then there's the news. So much going on in the world, especially these days! It's just frightening in an almost fascinating kind of way... How can we keep up? Every day something else is going on somewhere in the world. I feel like I have just run a marathon after I've watched the news. But still, I want to know.
And of course, there is life at home. That never stops! I'm not sure it's supposed to but sometimes I wish I could freeze it for just a few minutes, for an hour, for a day... How about a couple of months or an entire year? I know many people who've said the same to me so there at least, I know I'm not alone. It's hard not to look for an easy way out when there's so much going on. I can thank God and my guardian angel(do we have more than one? I often wonder about that) for keeping me grounded cause things sure have not been  'hmm' shall we say quiet on my side of the road... Bumps on a camel's back... One minute I'm sitting flat in the middle, and the next, I find myself on top of a bump, jolted there by one of life's powerful thrusts. That's pretty much how it's been so far.  Well, at least I can't say that life is boring.