Let's inspire each other!

[wallyb]

Funny reaction to the image-

It's almost Pavlovian -

Every time I see an image of Jesus I immediately go -
"oh. that's not for me -Jesus people hate my people."

Kinda like a big - STAY OUT H0M0 - sign.

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Funny reaction to the image-

It's almost Pavlovian -

Every time I see an image of Jesus I immediately go -
"oh. that's not for me -Jesus people hate my people."

Kinda like a big - STAY OUT H0M0 - sign.

Oh Wally -- that is SO sad. Jesus loves EVERYBODY! (Besides that, he was a guy who quit his job, never got married, and traipsed around the country-side with a bunch of other guys. I gotta think people were raisin' their eyebrows and droppin' hints about THAT, back in the day.)

I'm not a big fan of the "typical" western image of Jesus either -- he probably looked a whole lot more like Yasser Arafat than Jackson Brown.

 

[OrlandoMike]

Oh Wally -- that is SO sad. Jesus loves EVERYBODY!

Even Wally?

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Even Wally?

Of course WALLY -- I bet Jesus would have thought Wally's 800 count Aubergine bed-sheet get-up was the bee's knees!

 

[wallyb]

Oh Wally -- that is SO sad. Jesus loves EVERYBODY! (Besides that, he was a guy who quit his job, never got married, and traipsed around the country-side with a bunch of other guys. I gotta think people were raisin' their eyebrows and droppin' hints about THAT, back in the day.)

I'm not a big fan of the "typical" western image of Jesus either -- he probably looked a whole lot more like Yasser Arafat than Jackson Brown.

Funny though - how I've bee conditioned.

Hey - Have you read Lamb by Chris Moore?- Great book and so funny.
It's an alternate telling of jesus' life.

 

[OrlandoMike]

Of course WALLY

Well if Jesus can love Wally, he cant be that bad of a guy then can he!

 

[wallyb]

Of course WALLY -- I bet Jesus would have thought Wally's 800 count Aubergine bed-sheet get-up was the bee's knees!

See Mike ... even me!

Boy - that Jesus is a bad judge of character!

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

Funny though - how I've bee conditioned.

Hey - Have you read Lamb by Chris Moore?- Great book and so funny.
It's an alternate telling of jesus' life.

I haven't. You've steered me right in the past and I AM looking for some new stuff to read on the plane to Florida in a couple months. I'll get my DD to order it for me. THANKS!!!!

 

[wallyb]

I haven't. You've steered me right in the past and I AM looking for some new stuff to read on the plane to Florida in a couple months. I'll get my DD to order it for me. THANKS!!!!

I love Christopher Moore Books - very twisted

 

[dwheatl]

LDS Members in Support of Equal Marriage Website URL:

http://signingforsomething.org/blog/

Well, I spent a little more time on this site after I posted the URL. Andrew Callaghan is a dead ringer for Tommy Chong before he cut his hair. He's apparently facing excommunication because of his beliefs. When I first saw part one of his video -- I'm thinkin "OH MAN -- I wish he'd cut his hair and stay on message better. By Part 2, I'm thinkin "whoda thunk we'd up and grow a Holy Fool?" Remarkable development, really.

If you don't know what a Holy Fool is, Wiki has a wonderfully concise description:

Foolishness for Christ refers to behavior motivated by real or assumed craziness, to serve a religious purpose of Christianity. The term fools for Christ is attributed to Saint Paul. Saint Francis of Assisi and other saints acted the part of Holy Fools, as have the yurodivy of Eastern Orthodox asceticism. Fools for Christ often employ shocking, unconventional behavior to challenge accepted norms, deliver prophecies or to mask their piety.[1] There are also parallels in non-Christian Oriental religion, notably amongst Zen monks, and the Mahasiddhas traditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurodivy

I'm a big fan of the Holy Fool. I loved as a kid reading about St. Francis stripping nekkid in the church to renounce his father's authority over him. However, I'm not planning to strip in church over prop 8. The attention it would draw would not be positive.

I was just working on a draft of my letter to Fr. Wally about the political flyers attached to our bulletin. I'm waiting for DH to see it before I send it off, since he is "implicated" in it too.
Here's what I have so far:

"Dear Fr. Wally,
Brian and I were wondering if every parish in San Jose attached the bishops' pages to their bulletins, or if parishes chose to add those. We have strong feelings against proposition 8; you may have noticed the flyer in the back window of our car. We feel that living according to the values espoused by the Catholic church is a choice in this state and country, not something to be mandated by law. We have family members who have left the church, in part because of the church's dysfunctional views on homosexuality; for instance, ignoring scientific research indicating that it is an inborn trait, or the church's view that a seminarian or priest who is tempted by another man is unfit to be a priest, while one who is tempted by women is fine.

We also feel the separation of church and state should preclude telling parishioners how to vote on certain issues. We had pledged to give (specific monetary amount; let me just say it is more than 1% of our annual income) each year to support the Diocese, but since they seem to have enough money this year to spend on publishing and distributing propaganda, we will be sending this year's money to Sacred Heart Community Services.
Sincerely,
Danielle"

 

[OrlandoMike]

Great letter Danielle!

Let us know if you get a response!

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

TOTALLY GREAT LETTER, Danielle!!!!! and thanks for the shout out on the "Holy Fool" thing. I was totally scared nobody'd know what the heck I was talkin' about.

 

[dwheatl]

DH looked at it last night, and I mulled it over in the middle of the night. DH thought that "dysfunctional", while true, was a loaded word, so I changed it to "misguided". I decided that the phrase about the diocese having enough money was a little sarcastic, so I changed it to "(we) feel that the Diocese is not showing proper stewardship by choosing to spend its funds on publishing and distributing propaganda".

I don't want to make Fr. Wally so defensive that he shuts out the message. I just want him to see the situation through our eyes.

I'm sending it off now. Peace all , and happy Sunday.

 

[dwheatl]

OK, a flurry of activity on this front this morning. I emailed Fr. Wally. He read it, and emailed back that all parishes were required to distribute the information. He suggested sending the email to the diocese, so I sent it to the bishop and the head of the finance dept. I also included a letter in the donation envelope, explaining why we won't be donating this year. Finally, I wrote the check to the community service organization, with a note thanking them for living out the Gospel value of looking out for the least of our brothers and sisters.

 

[hematite153]

DH looked at it last night, and I mulled it over in the middle of the night. DH thought that "dysfunctional", while true, was a loaded word, so I changed it to "misguided". I decided that the phrase about the diocese having enough money was a little sarcastic, so I changed it to "(we) feel that the Diocese is not showing proper stewardship by choosing to spend its funds on publishing and distributing propaganda".

I like both of those changes; they make the message a lot stronger.

I'm glad to hear that your own parish didn't make the decision independently, but, if I were you, I'd still be responding to Fr. Wally that sometimes it is important to stand up against bad decisions. My own congregation has a bit of a reputation for sticking out because we don't always do the things we've been told are required.

I.e. sometimes our Minister just looks at material from the national church and says, "no, this isn't relevant to our congregation, I'm not going to distribute it." Sometimes our congregation puts in a small note that says something along the lines of "XX material produced by the Presbytery will be available in YY place for anyone interested." Sometimes we say, "there's this material, but, it doesn't allow people to engage with scripture and discern their own (and our church's) calling, so, let's run a short study series to discuss and explore the issue--we can make the materials available as part of that study group." Sometimes people in our congregation have been known to distribute materials just so that they can stand up and talk about how misguided it is and how much work we need to do in order to make alternative views heard. Etc.

Granted, I belong to the United Church of Canada which is a "big umbrella church" and it is much easier to express individualized views within such an environment than within some Catholic Dioceses, but, I truly hope that your own parish is able to find a way to be heard about how hurtful this material was.

 

[dwheatl]

Thanks, Hematite. It's a small parish with a chance for everyone to get involved, so I will definitely talk to Fr. Wally on how to address this.