Glad I'm not RC

Pope Benedict XVI has forgiven and reinstated four breakaway bishops. You can read Time Magazine's article here. One of those denies the Holocaust ever happened. It is one thing to forgive. It is another to allow these men to preach their hatred, prejudice, ignorance. Is his church so desperate for clergy that he must resort to this utter lack of conscience?

I don't know where this man is living but it is not in the 21st century. Will someone please tell him that the first world has moved beyond him and the rest of the world will follow eventually making his office irrelevant. Of course, many of us believe that already. How long will it take for most of his flock to agree? Those wheels grind slowly but they do grind.

More Friday cat blogging

Gave PuddyTat a new box and a cleaner area today. The box is somewhat larger than I would like but it is all I could find other than ones that are too small. I fastened a towel around the top so it will sag a bit making the top slightly lower. Of course PT will not allow Tim or Dude to occupy her space but she will cuddle with Tommie. Tim has her foam in the garage so I don't worry much about her. The only thing these two share is orange and PT is more tannish than Tim. They probably have the same father - Tancat. Otherwise they are radically different people. Tim is much larger and has a much heavier coat. PuddyTat is gentle unless she's mad. Tim is feisty. I hold out my hand and Tim moves her head to where she wants scritched. She will bat me if I withdraw too soon. She used to do it with her claws extended but she seems calmer now. She doesn't want petted elsewhere while PT likes me to scritch the length of her body. Tim is a year younger than PT who will be 11 this spring.

Tom must have found a lady as he hasn't been around today. Neither has Jellico. One or both will probably be back with a bloody spot eventually.

Another reason to avoid the label "Christian"

Biblical Battered Wife Syndrome: Christian Women and Domestic Violence

By Kathryn Joyce
January 22, 2009

"What is a good enough reason for divorce? Well, according Rick Warren's Saddleback church, divorce is only permitted in cases of adultery or abandonment—as these are the only cases permitted in the Bible—and never for abuse."

Read the rest of this scary and revealing article at Religion Dispatches.

For the life of me I can't understand how anyone who claims to follow Jesus could abuse anyone, especially someone supposedly loved. But then, it seems to me that many of the people who claim the label "Christian" have no clue about the message of the Gospels. I will share the eucharist with them but I don't want to be grouped with them.

Friday cat blogging

"Warm" and sunny weather lured Tommie out of shelter.

While PuddyTat contemplated joining him.

Friday shuffle

1. Britten: The Succession of Four Sweet Months - Sixteen
2. Living in the Past - Jethro Tull
3. My Guy - Mary Wells
4. Bach: Sonata in C Major - Stephen Preston, flute
5. Barrel of Fun - Country Cooking
6. Little Brown Jug - Glenn Miller
7. Bang a Gong (Get it on) - T.Rex
8. American Woman - Guess Who
9. Satie: Première Pensée Et Sonneries... - Riri Shimada
10. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, When I am laid in earth - Jennie Blackham

Loss

A college classmate committed suicide. His partner died intestate on a cruise. The parents apparently took control and left my friend out. He never got over it. I wonder if the parents are "good Christian folks".

Sometimes I dislike religion intensely. I find it difficult to respect people who blindly follow the pronouncements of the pope or the Mormon prophet or anybody claiming to have a direct line to whatever god and know all the rules for salvation, whatever that is. Most but not all of God's creation are less interested in one sex than in another. If it isn't rape or abuse, it is normal. If it doesn't produce offspring who will add to the rolls and the coffers, it is not wrong or harmful to God's plan. It is normal.

Sheez. I wish people would learn to value each other, especially people who claim to follow Jesus. They wouldn't have to worry about salvation or much of anything else. The world would be much more peaceful.

Somewhat speechless

I don't seem to be able to put into a coherent message how I feel about our country and the future now that Barack Obama is president and Bush and his administration are gone. Will people maintain the atmosphere of good and evil, right and wrong, black and white that group fostered or will we put that ugliness behind us and get on with life? Will people who call themselves "Christian" maintain the arrogance the previous administration preached - they are right and all others are wrong - or will they read the Gospels and learn the message of loving service Jesus brought?

President Obama. Wow.

The Invocation HBO didn't include

The annual meeting

ECW provided subs and drinks before the annual parish meeting this morning. Four vestry members were elected. A new era begins with a new Senior Warden. And someday soon I will be an Episcopalian.