Ann Coulter as quoted in The Mole Hole:
For now, we have a new president-elect. In the spirit of reaching across the aisle, we owe it to the Democrats to show their president the exact same kind of respect and loyalty that they have shown our recent Republican president." --Ann Coulter
Thanks, Joel.
What an exquisitely tempting thought!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
ECUSA – POLITICS AND PRAYER
It used to be said, a ‘lifetime’ ago, that the Episcopal Church was the Republican Party at prayer.
The ‘used to be said’ needs revision now, a ‘lifetime’ later.
Now, with the leadership of the ECUSA calling for a variety of sexual orientation and gender ‘reforms’; for reformation of US foreign policy directions; for ‘modernization’ of theological concepts; for a redefinition of rational approach to international law and international relations; for new directions in almost whatever-you-name-it, it should now be said that the ECUSA is really the democratic party at prayer.
The leadership of ECUSA appears to be way ‘ahead’ of the ECUSA ‘followers’.
What can I say?
That which was taken as given for hundreds of years, hundreds and hundreds, is now held up, or down, as wrong-headed, ignorant, prejudiced, biased.
Doctrines which were matters of faith are now labeled as superstition.
The denomination is declining in numbers, much as is the stock of GM and Ford.
Inane resolutions are passed by national church leadership and diocesan leadership which further alienate longtime members.
It has been said elsewhere by others: when the unwise and undefendable becomes the norm, the acceptable, that which was the norm will become the undefendable.
The two will not exist together.
And there will be consequences.
There was wisdom in the world before the revisions of these days.
Let our lessons be learned with the least cost possible.
The ‘used to be said’ needs revision now, a ‘lifetime’ later.
Now, with the leadership of the ECUSA calling for a variety of sexual orientation and gender ‘reforms’; for reformation of US foreign policy directions; for ‘modernization’ of theological concepts; for a redefinition of rational approach to international law and international relations; for new directions in almost whatever-you-name-it, it should now be said that the ECUSA is really the democratic party at prayer.
The leadership of ECUSA appears to be way ‘ahead’ of the ECUSA ‘followers’.
What can I say?
That which was taken as given for hundreds of years, hundreds and hundreds, is now held up, or down, as wrong-headed, ignorant, prejudiced, biased.
Doctrines which were matters of faith are now labeled as superstition.
The denomination is declining in numbers, much as is the stock of GM and Ford.
Inane resolutions are passed by national church leadership and diocesan leadership which further alienate longtime members.
It has been said elsewhere by others: when the unwise and undefendable becomes the norm, the acceptable, that which was the norm will become the undefendable.
The two will not exist together.
And there will be consequences.
There was wisdom in the world before the revisions of these days.
Let our lessons be learned with the least cost possible.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
THE FINER THINGS
The year is hurrying on toward conclusion.
Today, Thursday is wife’s volunteer day at Granddaughters’ school. She assists in three classrooms: classrooms of Granddaughter One and Two, and in the room of a good friend from her days of active teaching.
Here at The Study we did ‘homefront’ things, The Study things: we wrote and filed papers; made phone calls; monitored tv, radio, and ‘net’ info sources; read newspaper(s); and then progressed on to provisioning The Study; feeding feathered ‘friends’; working in the ‘back forty’; cooking; making cocktails for ‘the hour’; and on it went.
In the course of this most pleasant day, a respite day from the depressing news of politics, we are reminded of the finer things as referenced by Gus McCrea in that splendid Lonesome Dove:
The smile of a beautiful woman; the taste of good whisky; and a beautiful sunrise or sunset.
The glass is not half empty. It is half full.
The Republic is resilient.
We have all sorts of reasons to be confident.
Smile at your wife or significant other. Or, for that matter, at any fellow human you feel like smiling at. Pour a finger or two of a single malt. Get out and enjoy the rising or setting sun.
This is the day Our Lord hast made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Don't substitute 'she' for 'he'. Don't substitute 'God' for 'He' in a prayer.
Recite the prayer: Lord, I may be busy this day and forget Thee.
Please do not forget me.
Today, Thursday is wife’s volunteer day at Granddaughters’ school. She assists in three classrooms: classrooms of Granddaughter One and Two, and in the room of a good friend from her days of active teaching.
Here at The Study we did ‘homefront’ things, The Study things: we wrote and filed papers; made phone calls; monitored tv, radio, and ‘net’ info sources; read newspaper(s); and then progressed on to provisioning The Study; feeding feathered ‘friends’; working in the ‘back forty’; cooking; making cocktails for ‘the hour’; and on it went.
In the course of this most pleasant day, a respite day from the depressing news of politics, we are reminded of the finer things as referenced by Gus McCrea in that splendid Lonesome Dove:
The smile of a beautiful woman; the taste of good whisky; and a beautiful sunrise or sunset.
The glass is not half empty. It is half full.
The Republic is resilient.
We have all sorts of reasons to be confident.
Smile at your wife or significant other. Or, for that matter, at any fellow human you feel like smiling at. Pour a finger or two of a single malt. Get out and enjoy the rising or setting sun.
This is the day Our Lord hast made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Don't substitute 'she' for 'he'. Don't substitute 'God' for 'He' in a prayer.
Recite the prayer: Lord, I may be busy this day and forget Thee.
Please do not forget me.
PUTTY, BRASS, 'N PAINT
Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about England which went something like:
If England was what England seems,
‘n not the England of our dreams…
But only putty, brass, ‘n paint,
‘ow quick we’d drop ‘er,
But we ain’t.
I paraphrased these lines some years ago to:
If the Episcopal Church was what the Episcopal Church seems,
‘n not the Church of our dreams…
Etc., etc….
Now, having watched and read and thought about what is going on in the leadership of the ECUSA and the Diocese of Michigan, I am thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, the ECUSA is really NOT the Church of my dreams. Perhaps the leadership is really “…only putty, brass, ‘n paint.”
Not a happy thought.
If England was what England seems,
‘n not the England of our dreams…
But only putty, brass, ‘n paint,
‘ow quick we’d drop ‘er,
But we ain’t.
I paraphrased these lines some years ago to:
If the Episcopal Church was what the Episcopal Church seems,
‘n not the Church of our dreams…
Etc., etc….
Now, having watched and read and thought about what is going on in the leadership of the ECUSA and the Diocese of Michigan, I am thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, the ECUSA is really NOT the Church of my dreams. Perhaps the leadership is really “…only putty, brass, ‘n paint.”
Not a happy thought.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
KEEP THE FAITH
It is late.
We have filed papers and watched the returns.
We voted this AM. It took ca. an hour. It was a pleasure.
Had a number of conversations, all pleasant.
We had a bad feeling.
A sense of what was about to happen.
And it did happen.
Our day was pleasant. We voted. We took car in for service. We ate an upscale lunch at the dealership. The dealership is 'green'...and there is a hair salon...
It is superb.
It is a GM dealership.
We have owned GM for over 40 years.
We buy American.
We must not lose GM.
These days, anyone who buys any car other than a Ford or a GM product needs their heads examined...
Chrysler is ok...but not as good.
Anyway, we did the car thing and came home and washed windows; caulked cracks; fed the birds - woodpeckers of all kinds are frequenting our feeder - and we were cheerful.
And we declared a cocktail hour for evening watching of the returns.
We do not normally imbibe on Tue PM.
We needed the drinks tonite.
The Republic is resilient.
It has been.
It is now.
It has to be.
More later.
It is late.
Keep the faith.
This United States has been thru some tuff times.
This is one of them.
But there have been others.
More later.
We have filed papers and watched the returns.
We voted this AM. It took ca. an hour. It was a pleasure.
Had a number of conversations, all pleasant.
We had a bad feeling.
A sense of what was about to happen.
And it did happen.
Our day was pleasant. We voted. We took car in for service. We ate an upscale lunch at the dealership. The dealership is 'green'...and there is a hair salon...
It is superb.
It is a GM dealership.
We have owned GM for over 40 years.
We buy American.
We must not lose GM.
These days, anyone who buys any car other than a Ford or a GM product needs their heads examined...
Chrysler is ok...but not as good.
Anyway, we did the car thing and came home and washed windows; caulked cracks; fed the birds - woodpeckers of all kinds are frequenting our feeder - and we were cheerful.
And we declared a cocktail hour for evening watching of the returns.
We do not normally imbibe on Tue PM.
We needed the drinks tonite.
The Republic is resilient.
It has been.
It is now.
It has to be.
More later.
It is late.
Keep the faith.
This United States has been thru some tuff times.
This is one of them.
But there have been others.
More later.
FROM THE GOOD BOOK
When we at The Study look out at the hopping and chanting crowd in Chicago, we think of many things.
But one thing that occurs to all of us is a quote from the Good Book, paraphrased:
Forgive them, for they know not what they have done.
But one thing that occurs to all of us is a quote from the Good Book, paraphrased:
Forgive them, for they know not what they have done.
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