Please Stop Yelling and Start Listening

I fear my "left-wing radical liberal" card is about to be revoked.  I'm also treading Biblical waters I don't understand.  But I'm genuinely hoping someone can help me understand what the HELL is going on in this country right now.  Here's the question I'd most like answered: why are the so-called open-minded left-leaning people all up in arms over the now infamous Phil Robertson interview in GQ?

Apparently I'm supposed to be offended by Robertson comparing homosexuality to bestiality...and also adultery, greed, drunkenness, and slander.  OK, the bestiality thing - I guess if I was gay that would really piss me off.  But seriously - let he who hasn't committed one of those sins call for the first boycott.  Since the media is pulling quotes left and right out of the article, I'm going to do the same:

Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”
...
“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?”

Anyway, what *I* interpret there is "love the sinner but hate the sin."  Am I so off-base there?  As far as I can tell, Phil has just as much of a problem with me going out for too many drinks after work as he has with gays.

Is the problem with him calling homosexuality a sin?

I think the big problem that we all have decided that our own interpretation of the Bible and the sins it includes - be it not eating pork, not having sex strictly for the purpose of procreation, not getting tattooed, not having gay sex, or not gossiping - is the only correct one.  And somewhere along the line we have decided the only way to convert others to our point of view is to scream at them that they are wrong until they relent and agree with us.

Duck Dynasty is a guilty pleasure of mine.  It's silly and staged, but at the end of the day the show has heart.  It's about an extended family who, though they usually think each other are doing things the wrong way, love one another.  Every episode ends at the family table with a pre-meal prayer of thanks and not a request for the salvation of the rest of us sinners.

Phil Robertson thinks that being gay is icky.  His quote about anal sex? Well, you can read it for yourself.  But he's not advocating any anti-gay legislation, hate crimes or even "pray the gay away" activities.  He's saying, if I'm allowed to interpret one more time, "I think homosexuality is wrong, but that's their eternal problem, not mine."  I personally think hunting is icky.  And while the Robertsons eat what they kill, their vast multi-million dollar empire rests on folks who I'm certain only kill for sport.  Is that a sin?  Who am I to judge?  I'm pretty sure I commit at least one sin a day, and I'd be willing to bet you do as well.  And I'm also willing to bet that we each judge someone whose life choices don't align with our own at least once a week, if not once a day.  What's the damn difference?

Frankly, Robertson's thinly-veiled racism in the same article was more offensive to me than his opinion of various sins.  And yet the NAACP doesn't want to re-educate him.  GLAAD seems to want Phil Robertson to change his moral compass to one that they find more palatable.  "Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil's lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe," said GLAAD spokesperson Wilson Cruz. "He clearly knows nothing about gay people..."

Where were the lies?  I've read the article fully through twice, and I have found nothing but opinions likely shared by a lot of people in his demographic.  And what do "true Christians" believe? 

I'm not saying he's right.  But I think that rather than scream and shake our fists and threaten boycotts every time someone makes a statement we disagree with, perhaps we should ALL step back and consider things from their point of view first.  Maybe we should look deeper than the quotes pulled for the evening news or the memes posted on Facebook.  Maybe we should stop our pearl clutching that an old Louisiana redneck Bible thumper said something offensive.  Maybe we should take a second to sit our kids - or nieces or nephews or neighbors - down and have a heart-to-heart about how we are all God's children, and if God is willing to love us despite our shortcomings, then we should be willing to extend grace to those around us as well.

OK...I know that many of you disagree with me on this.  Can you tell me why?

Giving Peace a Chance

...And there's growing Islamophobia in this country.

How else would you describe the fact that mosques around the country are now being attacked? We are Americans, too. We are treated and talked about today as if Muslims are not Americans.

We are Americans. We are doctors. We are investment bankers. We are taxi drivers. We are store keepers. We are lawyers. We are part of the fabric of America.

And the way that America today treats its Muslims is being watched by over a billion Muslims worldwide. And the battleground today... is not between Islam and the West. The battleground has been moderates of all faith traditions in all the countries of the world against the radicals of all faith traditions in all parts of the world.

--Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to Christiane Amanpour (transcript)

I think this is a really smart guy. And as someone who grew up in an incredibly diverse community, and who had friends of nearly every faith and ethnicity, I wish that the majority of Americans would stop persecuting the many for the crimes of the few. Here's an analogy I got from The West Wing: Islam is to Al Qaeda as Christianity is to the KKK (or more recently, as Christianity is to Terry Jones). Stop and think about that for a minute.

Today, let's practice tolerance. It's easy if you try.

Happiness Is...

Last night was the first time since Monday that I got 6 uninterrupted hours of sleep. Elphie, for all her adorable quirks, is not a big fan of sleeping that long. She discovered the monsters under the covers (a.k.a. feet) on Tuesday, and it's pretty much been downhill from there. She's gotten a lot more rambunctious now that she knows her way around the house and is starting to relax around the big boys. So now she'll attack anything that moves, or that she thinks might move if she attacks it. This includes fingers, toes, furniture, walls, my beautiful shower curtain (thank God IKEA is so cheap!), and the occasional cat 10x her size!

So like I said, sleep has been fitful. We sleep when she sleeps.

Scott decided to take last night for the team, and managed to keep her occupied during her early-morning romp. The result? I had the best day I've had in years (ok, at least in the past 6 days!):

* After one snooze, I realized that Elphie was sleeping back-to-back with me. I rolled over and pet her and she purred that super-loud kitten purr that makes me forgive her for the scratches all over my hands and arms.

* Scott made scrapple and eggs for breakfast.

* God told me that he loves me**.

* Work was interesting and fairly busy, and I got to knock out a couple of very random projects and laugh at a cluster of really stupid people on my voicemail. (seriously - it was like someone hacked in and changed our outgoing message to something like "Thank you for calling The Restaurant. This is 'wildest dreams' week, so please leave your unrealistic request and we will definitely honor it." ha!)

* The Chef gave me a chicken sandwich,

* which I used to bribe Scott to come over and visit during my lunch break. He couldn't stay very long, but it's nice to spend a little time together awake.

** So yeah, about that one. As I was driving out of the apartment complex this morning, I saw two guys in bright green t-shirts talking to cars at the red light. So I locked my door. Generally, there's people who solicit donations for one charity or another (and sometimes a homeless person or two) on the other side of the street trying to get people coming out of Wal Mart and the gas station, but I've never seen them on our side of the street before and I was NOT happy.

Once I got to the light, I made a distinct effort to not make eye contact with either of the guys, who by this point I noticed had CHURCH in bright orange letters on their bright green t-shirts. I don't carry any cash, and I figured it would be better to just pretend I didn't know they were there than to turn down any donation request. One came around and knocked on my window and when I turned, I noticed a piece of paper in his hand. The words "FREE" and "ICE CREAM" stuck out to me. So I rolled down my window a crack and the guy (who, by the way, couldn't have been older than 16) handed it to me and said something along the lines of, "we're here giving away ice cream to remind you that God loves you. have a nice day." And he walked away. "Wow. Thank you!"

These guys were out handing out coupons for a free soft serve cone at the neighborhood ice cream place. Attached was a "business card" for their church that says "this is our simple way of saying that God loves you..." And you know what I did with my coupon? I brought it to work with me and told everyone that God loves me, and that I know it's true because he gave me free ice cream.

Ben Franklin may have believed "beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy," but I think it's ice cream!

Birth of a Miracle

For anyone out there having a crisis of faith, or who just needs some inspiration or a good cry, I urge you to visit Nathan and Rick's blogs.

Nathan is the husband of Tricia, who has cystic fibrosis, and father of Gwyneth Rose, who was born very very early. Both mother and baby are going to be in the hospital for a long time, but this family (Rick is Nathan's dad) have such amazing faith that it's positively contagious. They are all also amazing writers.

Gwyneth was born 2 weeks ago, so if you're looking for a place to start, I recommend this post, followed by this one, because it catches you up on how the story started.

My Serenity Mantra

God is bigger than anything life can throw at me...although things are out of my control, they are not out of His.

Talking to God

About a month ago, I asked my mom to pray for someone on an e-mail listserv that I belong to. She said she would, but that God would listen more if it came from me.

You know, I don't feel like I have that kind of relationship with God. I mean, I acknowledge that he exists (but can't quite bring myself to capitalize the "h" there). But we don't chat regularly. And I hate to be one of those crappy friends who only calls when they need something.

Well, I've had a lot of very personal Crap-with-a-capital-C in my life recently. I don't want to talk about the details here, but trust me - it's lousy. And hard. Really really hard. So this morning when Scott was driving me to the chiropractor, I was thinking about my Mom, and hoping that she was praying for me. And I remembered what she said.

So I asked God to please let all of my Crap-with-a-capital-C work out the way I wanted it to. And if I couldn't have it the way I wanted, then to please make me be ok with the way everything does sort out. And a little while later, I realized that I was at peace. I was calm like I haven't been in quite a while.

I guess that means God is looking into it. And I figure the best thing that I can do is to not make the situation worse by trying any irrational quick-fixes. My emotions are running really close to the surface, and it's really hard for me to quell those knee-jerk "fight or flight" responses. But that's what I feel like I need to do. Lots of deep breathing, and re-reading the Harry Potter books to escape reality a little bit.

Today's cliche: it's all in God's hands.
Tonight's activities: reading with Milo on my lap.
Tomorrow morning: back to the chiropractor to see how I handled my adjustment.
Tomorrow afternoon: pedicure with Cat.