GOD MUST LOVE VARIETY BECAUSE HE CREATED SO MUCH OF IT!

 

Today's post is a bit of a Sunday ramble, but I think it holds up, at the end.

Every Christian knows that one of the basic understandings of our faith is that God created each of us in His likeness and image.

"And God created man to his own image: 

to the image of God he created him: male 

and female he created them." Gen 1:27

 

What I find very interesting is that, while we are all created in God's image, none of us is much like any other! Even twins have physical differences, what to speak of the vast psychological differences of each person.

I find this fascinating. What could it mean about God's motives, or is God Himself intrinsically one and a variety? Father, son and Holy Spirit and SO much more?

I am not a theologian, and can't tell you the answer, but I suspect even the theologians probably do not really know. It is likely one of those delicious Catholic "mysteries." Even our greatest minds cannot know much about God's intentions, in particular. We only really know what God Himself has told us about His reasons. There isn't a lot of that. Instead, we have to trust that everything He created is "very good" and behave accordingly.

"And God saw all the things that He

had made, and they were very good."

Gen. 1:31

The fact that God created us in freedom, especially in our freedom of choice, is a concomitant factor of our diverse natures. I imagine that God did not want to create slaves that would love Him and engage with Him out of pre-programed, forced duty. 

Whatever his reasons, He obviously intended to create each one of us as a unique individual, like no other. There must be something intrinsically "very good" about this plenteous expression of diversity, otherwise the Lord would not have done it. And each of us is beautiful in His sight, I am sure of it. He would not create anyone who is not basically "good" in their natures. But that "free choice" I mentioned determines what we do with it.

Whether or not we glorify God by the free exercise of our decisions is another matter entirely, as the history books are full of tales of the mistakes of others who have gone before us, so we can't say that everything every human does is good. That is another topic, separate from the innate goodness of variety.

A related, but more mundane example about how diversity is essential to even the health of our bodies: 

I recently consulted my doctor about some dietary changes, and she talked about older patients needing much more protein (because of reduced ability to digest, as one ages), as well as the necessity for variety of animal protein sources. She told me about how animal protein is better than plant protein because it is "complete" in amino acids, for one thing. The multiplicity of available vitamins, minerals, and whatnot in our food sources are another indication of the need for and goodness of variety that our bodies express.

Given all the variety I've discussed, I am naturally wondering how we are "made in the likeness and image of God." I strongly suspect that we are "like" Him in our spiritual souls, our heart of hearts.

A deceptively mundane example: I really love watching wholesome family dramas in which the members are expressing love and affection for one another, within the context of the ups and downs of life. I rarely watch television, but occasionally, on Sunday, I will watch PBS. Today there is a marathon of "Call the Midwife," one of my favorite television series.

I find it very interesting that, although I was raised without parental love and was, in fact, emotionally brutalized by a sick and self-absorbed mother and an opportunistic and sociopathic sibling, I enjoy watching the family-oriented television dramas very much, and I easily understand the love and caring, the values and higher aspirations of human love.

You'd think I would be unable to understand any sort of love at all, given how I was raised, but instead, I feel tremendous affection and empathy for the human race altogether. I have no trouble loving people, no matter how odd, obstreperous, or difficult to get along with. I can't even work up animosity for the folks who treat me badly. I want the best for everyone. It isn't that I do not notice the cruelty. I do what I can to protect myself. I know that being loving and kind will not prevent them from mistreating me again, so I am careful to guard against future abuse, but it just isn't in me to join them in the dark place in which they live.

Everything depends on that free will and what we choose. Will we be true to God's most wonderful gift of our creation? THIS place of love that resides within us all is where we are most like The Lord. This is where we are made in His likeness and image. But, at the same time, we must choose to be faithful to it.

My family was anti-religious and, particularly, anti-Catholic. My mother had gone to Catholic school, and the nuns had been mean to her, I am told. From the time I was a young child, then throughout my 20's and 30's, I was on a journey in search of God, studying various religions, and even joining a Hindu-based convent for some time, but this search culminated in a radical conversion to Catholicism that began when I read the Catholic mystics while a nun in the Hindu convent. Gradually, gradually, I turned to the Catholic values and religion. From one choice to another, I learned of the faith, followed it, committed to it. It hasn't been easy, and there are no earthly rewards for adhering to the faith. In fact, it is usually a painful cross, but once I understood the stakes, I was "all in."

I am particularly focused on the topic of diversity today, thanks to the toxic public comments of the vulgar convicted felon that currently resides in the White House. Before allowing the families time to grieve, and without reference to any facts whatsoever, he is blaming Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hiring practices for a recent mid-air collision that killed many people.

"D.E.I." is the shorthand he uses for his idea that women, minorities and the disabled are being given jobs for which they are not qualified, and this idea is just another lie he is passing off - like all his other misogynistic, racist and ableist prejudices.

The D.E.I. programs were created because minorities, women, the disabled and the otherwise different were being denied the opportunity to COMPETE for jobs and housing.

The preference is for white males, and there is a descending order of prejudice below that.

People of color were mostly denied access to the higher paying jobs and/or were underpaid in comparison to white people occupying the same or similar jobs.

Qualified women were denied access because of their sex. Many times, women were rebuffed because they were not sexually attractive to the men who run every corporation and business. Countless numbers of women have been fired for not agreeing to sexual relations with their bosses. I myself was pushed out of more than one job for this very reason. Once I was pushed out of a secretarial job for gaining weight.

Disabled people were being denied jobs and housing because of their disabilities. Most work facilities were built or occupied buildings which did not allow for wheelchair access, for instance.

In short: Perfectly qualified individuals were being denied access to the same field of competition. The purpose of the D.E.I. programs is to make sure that qualified individuals are competing on an equal playing field.

These D.E.I. programs were NOT created to give UNqualified people preference over qualified persons. Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed or blatantly lying.

In addition to the sexual harassment I experienced in some of my clerical jobs, I witnessed people of color being actively discriminated against in housing.

More than 40 years ago, when I was apartment shopping in Los Angeles, I was standing in front of an apartment complex, talking to the landlord, when two young black women approached us. It was immediately apparent that they were already very upset, and they proceeded to yell at the landlord because she had told them just the day before that the apartment was already rented but, just as they suspected, she continued to show it to other people - to white people.

The apartment manager seemed stunned. It was an unexpected confrontation and she clearly did not know what to say. Clearly, the accusations were true, as was apparent by the "the look" that the landlord gave me. Clearly, she was expecting that this pretty young white girl standing in front of her would be sympathetic to her racism. But she was very wrong. 

As for the two young black women, what could they do but make their charges and then walk away? I noticed, as they turned their backs and made their way down the sidewalk, that they were dressed as well as I was, well-groomed and shod. But they were black and, upon meeting them the day before, the landlord, seeing that they were not white, told them the apartment was rented in order to get rid of them.

Without missing a beat, I gave the landlord a "piece of my mind," and told her that I would not want to rent an apartment from someone who had racist housing policies.

Then I ran toward the two young women, who were walking away from us, and I tried to talk to them, to reassure them that I would NOT cooperate with this travesty, that not everyone was in agreement about this toxic social ill, but they were so angry, they assumed that I had gone ahead and rented the apartment out from under them, and accused me of it. 

I tried, and failed, to get them to listen to me and understand that I had rejected the apartment. I imagine that lifelong suppression of their dreams and basic survival had given them assumptions about ALL white people so that they were unable to perceive a "friendly" when they ran across one. So both "sides" are prejudiced against the other - something that would, at least in part, be rectified by rubbing elbows with one another on a job site, office, or apartment complex.

They turned their backs on me, and walked away. This is a perfect example of why we need D.E.I. policies, in order to counteract racism, sexism and ableism.

D.E.I. policies are those policies that ENSURE that the best qualified person is hired, no matter their race, gender or disability. Donald Trump has turned this reality on its head. Right now, he is in the middle of a wholesale firing of expert government workers so that he can replace them with know-nothing, incompetent, disqualified lackies whose only qualification is that they are devoted to HIM. But he blames D.E.I. policies for everything bad that happens in government.

Trump and his movement is the worst thing that has happened in government in a long time because he deliberately exaggerates the animosities between different groups of people, using dishonesty as his primary tool to separate people from one another. 

While he is encouraging people to face off against one another, Trump is making diabolical changes to our government, using illegal methods. There are such a flurry of Executive Orders that I imagine he is intentionally flooding the zone to cause further confusion. What do we fight first?

"You are of your father the devil, and

 your will is to do your father's desires. 

He was a murderer from the beginning, 

and has nothing to do with the truth, 

because there is no truth in him. When 

he lies, he speaks according to his own 

nature, for he is a liar and the father of 

lies." John 8:44

Photograph by "Z"

on Unsplash

Does this mean that Trump and his minions are NOT "made in the likeness and image of God," since he uses Satanic methods and has values that are the antithesis of Christ's specific commandments?

No. What it means is that he chose the way of lies and this free choice deformed his nature. He isn't the first corrupt leader to claim to be an adherent to Christianity so that he could bamboozle the public. Claiming to be Christian but behaving otherwise is a path with a terrible price.

Christ's parable about the tares being sowed among the wheat is instructional on this topic.

24. Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed 

good seed in his field; 25. but while men slept, his 

enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and 

went his way. 26. But when the grain had sprouted 

and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 

27. So the servants of the owner came and said to 

him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? 

How then does it have tares?

28. He said to them, “An enemy has done this. The 

servants said to him, “Do you want us then to go and 

gather them up? 29. But he said to them, ‘No, lest while 

you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with 

them. 30. Let both grow together until the harvest, and 

at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First 

gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn 

them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Matthew 13:24-30

Obviously, people who claim to be Christian but whose choices and behavior are not in concert with Christ's commandments are the tares among the wheat. The "enemy" that planted the tares is Satan.

One thing I LOVE about Catholicism is that there is always time for the repentant to come to Christ, confess their sins, and be forgiven, in a very definitive fashion, until the time runs out. But Hell is not empty, unless you think Christ is a liar.

"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ 

will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who 

does the will of My Father who is in heaven 

will enter." Matthew 7:21

Clearly, the free choice to follow the will of God the Father, to the extent He has made his will known to us, is crucial to whether or not we go to live with Him in Heaven when we die. 

Jesus clearly tells us that prejudice and discrimination are the opposite of his most important commandments: 

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment

 in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with 

all your heart and with all your soul and with all 

your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest 

commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love 

your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and 

the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

God has commanded us to love one another as we love ourselves. We cannot be selfish and at the same time be obedient to what God has asked of us.

If we are really Christians, we want the best for our neighbor, in equal measure to what we want for ourselves. Prejudice is obviously, blatantly inconsistent with this commandment.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are meant to fight the prejudice that is abhorred by God.

There is nothing wrong with refining the program, better tuning it to its mission, but the wholesale destruction of it, without anything to replace its mission, is diabolical. Satan loves to see this chaos.

If God wanted to make SURE that all his people ended up in Heaven, He could have MADE us adhere to His two most important commandments, which would make prejudice and discrimination impossible, but He would have had to give up on the idea of being surrounded by his loving creation. Love, in order to BE love, has to be a gift given freely.

By trashing a program that works to demonstrate our love of neighbor, Trump is demonstrating values that are the opposite of Christian values.

By claiming widespread corruption in these agencies, without any proof, and destroying them without any due process or replacement of services, the current administration is demonstrating hostility toward the American people who are not part of the 1% of Americans who are rich white men and their families.

MOST of us, in one way or another, will suffer greatly by the elimination of services, just as we have suffered over the last 5 or 6 DECADES, as the wealth of our country has gradually been shuttled up to the top 1% of Americans. If you take a look at this chart, you can see that, since 1970, wages have stagnated, rising only 25% in actual money, but when compared to the increase in living expenses, have not increased AT ALL. CEOs of corporations, and corporate profits, however, have soared over those same 5 decades.

The above chart shows the years

1970 through 2005

In addition to the D.E.I. programs, this administration, using an unelected shadow government of gullible teenagers and young men barely out of college, led by an unelected immigrant billionaire (Elon Musk) are being given top secret information, as well as the private financial information of all Americans in an assault on the Treasury Department.

I pray today that Trump and the members of his unelected shadow government become real Christians, that they fall in love with God, fear His might and His reprisals and acknowledge His sovereignty, repent of all their lies and scams, confess all their evil intentions and that they choose to be obedient to the commandments of The Lord - before it is too late.

I pray that GOD take pity on the people who claim to be Christian but who are confused, who follow the lies of the enemy, thinking they are doing a blessed thing when they are actually trodding the road to Hell. May they be saved from their selfish orientation and illuminated with God's Truth and Love.

I pray that GOD take pity on the folks who claim to be Christian, but who know they are scammers trying to bamboozle honest people. May the fear of God be instilled in them so that they repent of their sin and turn their faces to The Lord.

We are all in need of God's pity, my friends, and here is my prayer of the daily recognition of it. I wrote it for myself and it has no imprimatur, but it can be an example for something that you pray for yourself.

My daily prayer of submission

Please Lord Christ, help me to perfectly follow 

each one of your commandments. 

My will is to be more faithful to Thee in every way. 

I pray that you help me do everything in exactly the 

manner and with the attitude that is Thy 

most perfect wish for me. 

Please, Lord, take from me every erroneous idea 

that I may hold, and replace it with the pure beauty 

of Thy ultimate Truth.

I know, Lord, how very easy it is to put a step wrong 

and start to follow the road to perdition, so I offer to 

Thee the ultimate sacrifice - that of my free will. Take 

all of it Lord, and replace it with your holy will.

Please, Lord, save me from every evil inclination. 

I submit myself to Thee.

Amen

Please, friends, join me in the prayers for the Trump Administration and also participate in some kind of prayer of sacrifice of our own will and replacement of it with His. Do we trust Him enough to abandon our selfishness and residual evil inclinations while we take the yoke of His will onto our shoulders?

I have the conviction that it will help us to order our behavior more perfectly toward the Lord's commandments, in order to find ourselves bathed in the light of the beatific vision when our time here on earth is done.

I pray for you, that The Lord enlightens you and helps you follow His holy road. Please also pray for me.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

BLESSED MARGARET POLE - MAY 28 - MARTYRED AT THE CONFLUENCE OF CHURCH AND STATE

 

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole,

Countess of Salisbury

Martyr

14 August 1473 - 28 May 1541

MY COUSIN, BLESSED MARGARET POLE

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole is my 6th cousin, 17 times removed. We share a common ancestor, who is Edward I "Longshanks," King of England, my 24th great grandfather. She was put to death in the Tower of London on the order of Henry VIII because she was Catholic, essentially and because Henry VIII was a brutal, maniacal ruler who did not want to follow the rule of the Pope with regard to his multiple marriages and his moral failings.

Henry had made himself the ruler of The Church in England, breaking off from the Catholic hierarchy and creating a new organization. Anyone who did not express absolute loyalty to him and his new church was in danger of losing their heads. Even the accidents of birth and relationship were enough to convict someone,  absent any other proof whatsoever.  

SHE WAS DEVOTED TO THE WRONG RELIGION

Margaret was given no trial and did not even know that she was going to be executed until an hour beforehand.  It was done so quickly, with so little advance notice, that many people doubted it had happened at all. The executioner was a young man with very little experience and, instead of a clean and swift chop, Margaret was hacked to death with multiple blows of the axe to her head and shoulders.

She was 68 years old - the same age I will be in a few months.

ENGLISH FLEE TO THE NEW CONTINENT

About 100 years later, the English nobility have sent their "second sons" to the new continent to grab land and create wealth from the natural resources. Those who chafed under the tyranny of official state religion escaped here for religious freedom. When the yoke of the British had been thrown off in another few hundred years, the separation of church and state was a primary principle. No more would the citizens suffer under the religious declarations issued from the seat of government.

2022 - A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL BLACKMAILED BY A BISHOP

I did not become Catholic so I could spend time arguing about POLITICS. I was attracted to the faith because of the experience of the mystics, most of whom were monastics of one stripe or another. I was warned by a mother superior of a modern convent that I would not find that mystical life in the parishes, and she was right. 

This obsession with trying to make abortion illegal again has gotten on my ninth nerve. There is a huge movement in the Catholic Church at the moment and they call themselves "Pro-Life" but most of them that I encounter on social media only seem to be interested in one political method that supposedly addresses ONE issue (abortion) but that method never worked in the past. So it is neither logical nor inclusive of the myriad ways in which life needs to be supported from conception until natural death. I have friends who have a more global perspective so I am obviously not talking about everyone in that movement. It is the PUBLIC face of the movement that is the problem.

Anyway, I did not leave the Hindu convent to get furiously involved in political life, but today we are deluged with news items about Nancy Pelosi and how her Bishop has publicly shamed her by denying her communion in light of a position she has taken in her government job, and I find it hypocritical and upsetting on many levels.

I myself am Catholic and I LOVE the faith, but I am not in favor of forcing it on anyone else. It would be a LOT more comfortable if everyone around me was Catholic. That would be super! But you can't make someone behave as if they belong to your faith and believe as you do. It just doesn't work and it isn't what Jesus had in mind when he sent out the evangelists, I am sure of it. Nowhere did he say that Christians should dominate the government and force non-Catholics to adhere to its views. 

Criminalizing abortion did not stop them before, and Pelosi knows this. I remember 1973 when the result of Roe v. Wade was announced. It made NO impression on me or any of my contemporaries because abortions were already widely available. There were people who were relieved that abortions would thereafter be SAFER, since they could be done in a medical setting, but that was the only change that we talked about when we learned that abortion was legal.

In fact, I was pregnant at the time. I was only 18, newly married, and I was glad that I was too far into my pregnancy for my new husband to pressure me to get an abortion because we REALLY could not afford to have a child. We were Scientologists, living in the Sea Organization, and the Scientology hierarchy ended up refusing to pay the hospital bill (after promising that all medical bills would be paid if we joined.)  In fact, I only saw a doctor ONCE while I was in the Sea Org, and they never did pay that bill, as far as I know.

Prior to Roe v. Wade, I could have gotten an abortion but I personally did not want one, and the fact that it was illegal was another tool in my arsenal of defending myself against pressure to abort. I could say they were dangerous, which was true, and illegal, etc. But anyone who wanted an abortion could GET one. They are always available to anyone determined to have one. I just wasn't one of those people.

If the hard right has its way and abortion is criminalized again, I am assuming it will go back into the alley it came from and a lot of women will die, along with their babies, in botched back-alley abortions. So I am wondering what the "pro life" crowd is accomplishing by making it illegal instead of addressing the CAUSES behind the high numbers of abortions in our country.

THE HYPOCRISY OF UNEVEN APPLICATION

I don't see anyone getting publicly shamed and refused communion for supporting capital punishment executions. 

Nor is anyone being denied communion for advocating for the free sale of military style rifles in the wake of all these mass murders that are endemic to the U.S. and unknown elsewhere. 

Some types of contraceptives are considered abortifacient by The Church, but no one is being banned from communion for speaking out in favor of them.

In the Catechism, vasectomies are considered equally as evil as abortion, but there is no one trying to criminalize them and I do not see any bishop publicly naming every man who has ever had one and telling them they are banned from receiving communion until their vasectomy is surgically reversed!

THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS

First of all, Pelosi is not having abortions or encouraging people to have them. She has a job in a secular government that is founded on a first principle of separation of church and state.

She is also aware of the fact that abortions continue at a fair clip regardless of whether or not they are legal. Fewer women die in abortions when they are legal. That seems to be the only difference I can ascertain.

Criminalizing abortion will do little to stem the tide of abortions because abortions are not CAUSED by a law approving them. Most women cite financial reasons for having them. Some people will not be able to afford them, so we will have more poor women with fatherless children on our hands. Is THAT "pro life?"

On the other hand, if the causes of abortion were addressed, you could have an abortuary on every corner and every operating room would be silent and empty.

I DON'T HAVE A DOG IN THIS FIGHT

I am too old to have an abortion myself and I would do my best to discourage anyone I know from having one. But many years ago I realized that there is a very easy way to avoid having to deal with this issue at all, and that is to not have sex with anyone to whom I am not married. 

Now, I have very strong monastic leanings, so I am going to assume that avoiding sex outside of marriage may be harder for some other women to do, given the strength and power of hormones, etc. But STILL.... you have to admit that the choice to have sex IS, at least, the FIRST choice in matters having to do with this topic. So, if you are going to talk about "choice," I think it is disingenuous to ignore the opportunities for choice prior to finding oneself pregnant. There were a few choices made BEFORE the pregnancy that would have derailed getting pregnant to begin with. (Obviously I am not talking about rape, which is a violation of all a woman's choices.)

Even so - I would not legislate sex outside of marriage as a criminal act any more than i would criminalize contraceptives, etc.

The Tower of London

where Lady Margaret Pole lived

the last two years of her life

THE CARROT VERSUS THE STICK

There is a strong faction speaking loudly into the public space that is advocating for shame, force and punishment. This is a negative approach that does not work because it causes a lot of "unintended" consequences. Personally, I think that attracting someone to something POSITIVE is a lot more helpful to society than public shaming, forcing behavior to mimic moral belief systems and punishing people who don't get in line with them.

If we really want to be a society that is pro-life and pro-family, these positive measures would do more to limit abortions than the "shame, force and punishment" method:

1. Government provided maternity and paternity leave for the first year after a child is born.

2. Government provided childcare options through age 12 or 13.

3. A decent "living wage" that allows for the support of children. CEOs are actually taking vacations IN OUTER SPACE because they have more money than they know what to do with, while their employees can't afford proper food, housing and medical care. It is a sacrilege!

4. Universal health insurance for all Americans.

5.  Make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. The degree to which one benefits by conducting business in the United States is the degree to which one should pay for the privilege.

6. Abolish capital punishment.

7. Outlaw military style assault weapons and enact other laws around ensuring the safety of all citizens against being murdered by guns.

8. Provide education through 4 years of college. An educated population is a healthier, more productive population - which is good for everyone.

I am sure there are more I would agree with, but you will notice that I am in favor of the carrot, rather than the stick. In my experience, force and punishment do NOTHING to convert anyone to a point of view.  

Besides which, I believe we need to stop acting like we hate one another and that we are all in competition with one another for limited resources so that only a small handful can arrive at the top of the survival pyramid. It is toxic and UNTRUE. We are the most wealthy nation in the world and we do not suffer from limited resources. OTHER countries with far less money manage to support their citizens with the benefits I have outlined, above, and there is no reason we cannot do it as well.

OTHER BISHOPS DISAGREE WITH CORDILEONE

Calling out a parishioner publicly and publicly announcing their sin and that you are banning them from receiving communion is hardly a positive pastoral approach! If my bishop doesn't talk to me but instead issues a public shaming, I would not take it well.

Here is a letter from the bishop of Dubuque, Iowa with his thoughts about this topic. You may have to fiddle with your zoom function to read it. Let me know if you have a problem and I will try to get you a copy.

SATAN IS THE FATHER OF ALL LIES, NO MATTER WHAT SIDE YOU ARE ON

It makes me sad to see each side lying about the other. "Pro-choice" people claim that the opposing side "just wants to control women," when the fact is that Catholics and other Christians believe that people must be open to the grace of God and be receptive to life which begins at conception and ends at natural death. 

On the other side, "Pro-life" people claim that "pro-choice" people are "pro-abortion." NO ONE is happy to have an abortion. Pro-choice people believe that a woman must be free to choose what happens to her body and what children she will have. They are not seeing MY point - that the choice was made when they chose to have sex - but I am regularly laughed out of conversations when I posit this solution. It isn't something that even Catholics are willing to take seriously.

Each side lies to make their side sound better and few people are trying to see the point that the other side is actually making. How can any progress be made under these circumstances?

You can fool yourself into thinking you have made progress by forcing people to do what you want with laws and punishments, but it isn't going to work because you have not evangelized.

Or you could fool yourself into thinking that all you have to do is keep abortion legal and then the "problem" is solved.

"The problem" is not that abortions are legal. "The problem" is that people want them or think they need them. A law that criminalizes abortions is not going to fix that. It did not work before. It won't work now.

Instead of continuing this fight into the next few decades, we need to change our approach.

But, like I said, I do not have a dog in this fight. I am going to go back to prayer and meditation, writing and painting, and hope that the movers and shakers in charge of the world will somehow get it right.....and I hope to God I don't have to talk about this topic any more because I am just sick of it.

God bless us all.

Silver "Rose"

PRAY FOR THE LIARS

Wanted:

"The one whose walk is blameless,

who does what is righteous,

who speaks the truth

from their heart;

whose tongue utters no slander,

who does no wrong to a neighbor,

and casts no slur on others.

Psalm 15:2-3

It disturbs me to see what seems to be an increase in the willingness of people to lie in order to further their own ends. We see this happening in Washington with that governmental circus of professional prevaricators who have honed blatant dishonesty to the level of high art and use bald faced lies to cement control and wield power, but, to be fair, I find deception to be heavily represented throughout society in day-to-day life, even among people whose professions lead one to expect much different and better.

My original draft of this blog post had three paragraphs of stories about several different liars in my orbit and how they lied to, about, or near me over the years and this week, but I realized that this problem is so common that I needn't provide those stories. I am quite sure that you all have enough of your own tales of the mendacious.

I have watched all sorts of people lie over the years and I find myself having a spine-chilling visceral reaction to it. I can almost feel Satan brushing up against me. It is an ominous and unnerving sensation.

Most "modern" people do not believe in Satan, but I usually tell them not to worry about it because Satan believes in them.  HE will keep the relationship going. I say this to them in a joking way. No one wants to be such a downer as to bring up hellfire and damnation in polite conversation!

But even I don't necessarily believe in the personification of evil that is the personality of a being named Satan. For me, "Satan" is shorthand for primal evil and its movement in our lives. And, while it is common for people to opine about whether or not God will assign them to Hell when we die, it is my understanding that it is with our own behavior that we demonstrate that resting place in which we are most comfortable and most familiar.

We walk around in our own personal acre of heaven or hell and carry it around with us as we move through life. If we establish our mind in the Heavenly place, Heaven is most real for us. The Kingdom of Heaven is among us!

The condition of our mind is determined by where we place our attention. It is as simple as that. Concentrate on Heaven, and Heaven is most real for us  But please don't assume that, because I KNOW this, that I have a "lock" on the process. No. Not at all. I struggle like everyone else....and perhaps MORE than everyone else, due to the PTSD that assaults me daily. It takes work to continually redirect the mind to the feet of the Lord when it has become distracted.

Our prayers and meditations have a dual purpose: first, to establish ourselves in the Divine, and second to intercede for others who have wandered away into lies and other obstructions that stand in the way of their vision of God.

"Self realization" isn't enough. We need to include all beings in a unitary vision.

Jesus admonishes us to pray for our enemies. Satan is the biggest enemy of all, and all lies originate with him. He is the father of all lies, and we need to fight him by fighting dishonesty because dishonesty is his calling card, and when it appears, HE is lurking nearby.

This is exactly why a good percentage of us are somewhat exercised by current affairs. The presence of Satan upsets people who are possessed of refined sensibilities. We are like the canaries in the coal mine. When you see a bunch of us flapping our wings and chirping dispiritedly, then falling over in a dead faint, it is a cue to get out of the mine. Get out of whatever societal situation in which we are mired and seek out the fresh air and sunshine. Meditation and prayer are the fresh air and sunshine for the soul.

Our current situation has encouraged me to double down on my meditation and prayers and I encourage you to do the same. Think of this: all the blog posts on Facebook, the newspapers, the magazine, the videos that bring each falsehood to light are fine vehicles of information, but are unable, by themselves, to stem the tide of the very real damage that is caused by malicious disinformation.

As people of faith, we have to do this. The fetid material being belched into the environment from the professional liars has to be counteracted on the spiritual plane, as well as the material, and we must hold fast to our compassionate prayer for those who are seduced by the continual stream of disparagement, calumny and toxic fabrication in which we are awash.

But, even if you are on the other side of things, and you believe every word from the current rulers, you surely must also follow my advice since the Lord will only cooperate with good and would not do evil just because a bunch of people ASKED him to! You know He couldn't do that.

Our mutual faith in Him draws us together. Across the divide, we may hold hands in the common belief that God brings all things to the good and that the words of Jesus, to love our enemies and pray for them, can only bring good. To unite with one another and place ourselves at the feet of the Lord who is Truth personified, and to beg for Truth to prevail, can only result in Truth!
                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Please join me in my prayers for Truth and Justice. Whatever is True and Just will be strengthened thereby. Whoever is True and Just will be strengthened. We do not need to name them or decide who they are, in advance (although we all probably believe that we know the "who" of things!)

I send love to you all and ask you to join me under the common sheltering roof of the absolute.

Silver Parnell
Sannyasini Kaliprana

P.S. I also remind you that my Paypal button still works, just in case you'd like to help me purchase some eyeglasses or dental work, neither one of which are paid for by Medicare!

THE LEGACY OF TRUMP

As bizarre as this sounds, there is a sizable number of Christians who regard Donald Trump as a messiah. They believe that he has been sent by God to protect a Christian nation, and that he is a savior, of sorts. Despite the fact that Trump's behaviors and policies are less Christian than any other politician on either side of the aisle at any time in history, his evangelical supporters are willing to excuse all of it. I don't think it would ever occur to me to write about politics were it not for this weird and astonishing circumstance.

I myself was planning on voting for Trump, until the Access Hollywood tapes came out and I heard him say those horrible things and how he grabs women "by the p---y" and that was IT for me. The more I learned about him, the more I could not imagine him as president, so, despite my antipathy toward Hillary Clinton, I voted for her.

It was blatantly obvious to me that Trump was creepy and dangerous, and I was just stunned when he was elected. Granted, he LOST the popular vote by several million people and was put in office by the auspices of the Electoral College (a mystifying and nonsensical peculiarity of American democracy) but it frightens me that so many Americans, after hearing his disgusting comments and watching his outlandish antics, would not only vote for him, but hotly defend every crackpot thing he has done and said since - against all rational sense.

Speaking as a woman who has a wicked case of PTSD , thanks to rapes and assaults, the idea that this guy is president makes me really uneasy. He promotes grabbing women by their genitals without so much as a 'by your leave"; there are more than a dozen women suing him for that very thing (he claims they are lying); the hearing for his appointment of would-be rapist Kavanaugh to the bench was a nightmare (complete with yet another assault on the impeccable character of his ersatz victim); and, with the name-calling and generally vulgar attitude he broadly and publicly displays toward women, in general, if it weren't for my meditation practice, I would be a certifiable basket case.

I have had many days, when Trump's misogyny and explicit prejudice against disabled people have flowed into my life from random strangers, like that grocery store employee who claimed he believed in "Trump's law" and that I was not disabled enough to suit him so, in his eyes, I did not deserve to use my handicap parking placard. On days like that, when the PTSD has been activated by Trump lovers, it has been impossible to maintain my typically cheerful self.

Trump has cost me friends and the support of some of my Catholic community where I live. A few have dropped me from Facebook and shunned me at church because of him. Pointing out the lies and misbehaviors of Trump is "hateful," according to them. In order to keep their friendship, I would have been required to stick to the fantasy script that he is the messiah come to save us from the gays, the immigrants, the blacks, the browns, and the poor . I do not respond well to emotional blackmail, and I will be damned if I will pretend that wrong is right and bad is good in order to stay in the good graces of people who ought to know better.

A small number of relatives, with whom I was not emotionally close, did likewise. None of them speak to me now because I have had the temerity to point out that which is readily apparent to the rest of us. I am not a perfect person, but at least I aspire to the core values of Christ. Trump doesn't.

The idea that these Trump supporters cannot see what is right in front of their eyes gives me chills up my spine - because he is such an extreme case of explicit corruption. This psychological drama is like the worst horror movie I've ever seen. I used to wonder how these people would cope when they finally realized the amount of danger to which we have been subjected because of their slavish devotion to Trump, but it is slowly sinking in that they never will. I have to accept that this is the way things will be for probably the rest of my life. They'll never be able to admit what they have done, especially to themselves.

Thankfully, most Americans (and most people all over the world) see him for what he is: a craven, mentally unbalanced, morally and ethically bankrupt con artist - a wastrel who, after being given millions of dollars by Daddy, spent his life taking advantage wherever he could, at the expense of innocent people, a man whose level of narcissism is malignant. I also suspect, and I have read the opinion of a host of psychiatrists and doctors who agree, that he may be entering into a phase of some sort of dementia, probably having to do with the progression of disease and/or old age. Some days, his language is such a hash of words that he appears to be barely lucid. Who knows if all the cheeseburgers have clogged his arteries and rotted his brain, or whether he just has some as-yet diagnosed illness? In any case, not only is he temperamentally 'unsuited' for the job of president (that word doesn't do it justice), he is positively dangerous. Saying this makes me "hateful" in the eyes of the Trump lovers.

Once someone decides to shield their eyes and ears from the blatant, obvious, in-your-face reality of Trump, that decision imprisons them.  In order to maintain the fairy tale of Messiah Trump, they can't watch any news program except Fox, or they will hear a truthful narrative from all the professional journalists.  They choose to believe Trump's preposterous claim that CNN and other traditional news outlets are in some kind of conspiracy against him and that publications with strict journalistic standards have all thrown away decades of integrity in order to conspire to spread the exact same lies about him. (I wonder where they MEET? Is there a giant video chat, or what? Do they vote on the lie of the week?)

True believers can't read any news except extremist right wing rags. They will listen to what Trump says about the Mueller Report before they will believe anything Mueller himself says about it, and they will not read the report which IS available. These people won't even take the direction of the POPE, calling instead for the Pope's expulsion from the church on the basis of heresy because his guidance disagrees with Trump's view of the world. The Pope as much as blatantly stated that Trump is not Christian, criticizing his stupid sea-to-sea wall. All of this sounds like a science fiction movie - but it's real.

Walter Cronkite is rolling in his grave.

As I have mentioned before, I know a few people who voted for Trump because he promised to nominate right wing judges - and he has done that. Trump doesn't appear to really care about the Supreme Court. I doubt he understands its role, given how little he appears to know or care about any of the functions of government or basic principles of jurisprudence. His handlers have given him the list from The Federalist Society (another nightmare topic) and he dutifully proposes only the people on that approved list. People in the pro-life community whose focus is making abortion a criminal act are willing to let the rest of government fall down around our ears in service to this one goal. They see some of the craziness of Trump but they don't care because they are getting the judges they want. I am pro-life, but I don't agree with this tragic compromise because it is endangering our democratic process and putting America in real peril from foreign enemies to whom Trump has cozied up and/or aggravated.

I feel, and I have been saying from the beginning, that Trump will do his best to get us embroiled in a war in order to both distract us from his crimes and to lengthen his time in office. As I also predicted, he is making a tremendous amount of money from foreign governments, pouring money into his businesses, as well as the American taxpayer who have been hosting his adult children and in-laws at Trump's luxury resorts for golf trips and "meetings" held at Trump's luxury properties. The partisan Attorney General that he placed at the head of the Department of Justice has engineered a change to the interpretation of the laws around the emoluments clause of the constitution, to the effect that the president should be allowed to receive unlimited amounts of money from foreign governments, as long as those payments are washed through businesses owned by the president. This is very convenient to Trump, whose fortunes were flagging before becoming president. The longer he can extend his presidency, the more money he can pull into his businesses, and the more regulations he can remove for businessmen like himself, ensuring his future further enrichment. Money is usually at the bottom of all corruption, and his administration is no different.

The MOST ironic thing about all this is that I originally became attracted to the Catholic faith, not only because of the mystics but because the values of Jesus Christ appealed to me. Now, I find myself part of a group of people, many of whom have abandoned these values for political expediency. It is heartbreaking for me, personally.

Between the huge sex abuse scandals and this wholehearted embrace of a toxic political administration that promotes unChristian values, the Catholic Church is getting a real hit, as far as reputation is concerned.

I realize that this post is somewhat rambling. This IS a diary, after all, but I should sum up my thoughts, and here it is:

I believe in the values of Jesus Christ and I won't abandon them, even if a large group of my fellow Catholics have traded them in for Republican talking points and have embraced the most unChristian of all politicians. I will not be dissuaded from trying, to the best of my ability, to follow the precepts of the church, and I will also throw myself into my meditation and prayer life with greater devotion. The only peace I get these days is from my meditation, formal and informal, where I tune in to the Divine and leave all the rest of this behind. I am sorry to be traveling this road alone, but I have been an accidental hermit for so long now that giving up the last shred of hope for community life or spiritual support is not such a stretch for me. The Lord does step in and assist me when necessary.

As I was writing this, two things happened. The first was a heated exchange between a reporter and one of Trump's people on the CBS Sunday Morning show in regard to Iran and its supposed attempt to blow up a ship in the Gulf of Hormuz. If he plays his cards right, Trump will get that war he has been wanting.

The other thing that happened as I was writing this: I was dropped by another ersatz "Catholic" who lives in my town. She defriended me on Facebook without a word, and when I questioned her about it, it was because of Donald Trump. This is how they keep the bubble small and the message consistent. God save them.



Silver Rose

GOD IS TRUTH

"The Devil was a murderer from the beginning,

not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in

him. When he lies, he speaks his native language,

for he is a liar and the father of lies."

~ John 8:44 ~

Christians with even the slightest Christian education know that lying is a terrible sin and that God is Truth in the ultimate sense. In the Ten Commandments, there is the admonishment not to give "false witness," there is the story of Annanias and Saphira, who were struck dead on the spot for lying to the Apostles, and most directly in the quote I have provided from John 8, we are told that Satan is the father of all lies. While the Lord is all truth, all goodness, all light, Satan is the opposite, and where you find a plethora of lies is exactly where you have found Satan, because Satan is the original author of every lie that is ever told.

The liar and those who repeat lies will have to answer for it on judgment day. Every lie that is told and willfully repeated without any effort to determine the authenticity of it is an occasion on which the "Christian" has said "yes" to Satan, the father of all lies, and "no" to God, thereby violating their baptismal covenant with Jesus, and establishing themselves as a servant of the dark one.

I realize the language sounds a bit archaic, but matters of heaven and hell often do.

Satan whispers into the ear of Jesus

We have a president who has told the American public more than 10,000 lies since coming into office. These lies are proven. These lies are not even hidden. There are copious videos that prove his lies.

There are also countless articles listing, demonstrating, and linking to proof that Trump is continually lying. His lying is EASILY proven. He constantly misrepresents himself and others, yet some self-described Christians repeat his lies. All they would have to do is watch the videos, read the articles and, most especially, read the Mueller Report if they want to learn about the most egregious lies and how they figure into his multiple crimes.

I am not telling you for whom you should vote. Voting is a political calculation. For instance, I have some friends for whom making abortion illegal is all they care about. They'd put their money on a barn-sour nag if they thought it would make abortion go away. Many of them will say, "all politicians lie," ignoring the fact that no one lies to the massive degree that Trump does. He is a world class, bald faced, unrepentant liar. In fact, he is the most prolific liar EVER.

You vote for who you vote for - but you don't have to repeat and perpetuate lies. That's what I'm talking about: THE LIES.

Instead of being a tool in the hand of Satan, check your statements with nonpartisan, reliable arbiters of fact. In the public sphere, that would be

FACT CHECK

SNOPES

POLITIFACT

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

There is no excuse to remain ignorant of the Truth, particularly if you are repeating the lies that are being employed to advance a political agenda.

I have a feeling that some Christians are repeating the lies and hatred of Trump and his cronies because they think that they have to do that in order to be considered a supporter of his and thereby a supporter of the hobby horse that made them vote for him to begin with.

Though the cognitive dissonance of supporting your hobby horse on the one hand and decrying the lies and dishonesty on the other may drive you mad, welcome to the club. I support the social justice platform of the democrats but I dislike the amoral engineering, such as when they talk about abortion being "health care" or act like it is some kind of positive good, which I find bizarre.

Neither party is suited to a Christian worldview, and that's just a fact. We are all trying to do the best we can to vote for what appears to be the least injurious platform, in a holistic sense, without losing our souls in the process.

Support what you find that is good but don't perpetuate the lies. Don't take on the sins of Trump and his minions or you will suffer for them personally.

Silver Rose