Blogroll Updating

I’m really bad about keeping the sidebar updated.  The category “Politics and Religious Philosophy” has remained particularly neglected, and it’s time to put a stop to this neglect.

Wintery Knight is hereby added (hat tip to Stacy McCain and Wombat-socho).

Loopy Loo is hereby added (I can’t remember how I first ran into this lovely lady).

Also, Lady Liberty 1885 is added to the “Moms” category.  She’s a firecracker.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Easter Sunday programming.

What’s that on ABC, you ask?  Oh that’s just GCB.  After which follows GJB, GMB and GAB, right?  /wink/ 

Prayers of the Faithful

As you may already know, our boys attend a Catholic school.  Hubs and I are more the non-attending, non-denominational Protestant type, but frankly Catholic tuition is more reasonable.

Older Son has practiced this prayer so that he can lead during the next children’s mass.  I’m not going to critique this prayer.  With the exception of the Scott Foresman “Communities” curriculum, I have remained stoicly mute about certain aspects of this school all . . . year . . . long.

I’m continuing the stoicism, but I will offer this prayer to you for comment.  An objective third-party opinion.  Ifn ya got one.

Please respond:  Lord, hear our prayer.

For people around the world that they may learn to live and work together peacefully through Jesus’ love, we pray to the Lord . . .

For President Obama that he uses his gifts and talents as he serves our country and the world, we pray to the Lord . . .

For all of our armed forces here and abroad that they remain safe, we pray to the Lord . . .

For the continuous growth of Catholic education around the world, we pray to the Lord . . .

For Father ____, Mrs. ____, and Mrs. ____ as they prayerfully lead our school, we pray to the Lord . . .

Blogroll Mashup

This may be a pointless exercise, for the simple reason that if you are reading this post, you have probably already read the posts I’m about to link.  Heck, there is a significant statistical chance that you authored of one of ‘em.

Ah well, nevermind.  I’ll go ahead anyway.

Fleecy has knocked one out of the park.  Before I send you over to read it, here’s a quick quote:

“are we, because of the overtly politically correct nature of our society, blindly sticking our heads in the sand hoping our leaders will get rid of the icky terrorists?”

Well, yes.  But this is what happens when a culture backs away from its moral high ground.  Read the rest here.

Now.  If you have time after Fleecy’s post, go to Puma By Design and watch a video debate between Pakistani-Muslim-turned-Bollywood-actress Veena Malik and some god-awful mufti.  My heart ached as I listened to Ms. Malik.  It must be terribly hard to reconcile an instinctually kind, soft heart with the religion upon which you were raised, when that religion is Islam.

These two posts, when taken together, add a real depth to the wisdom they both have to offer.  Kind of like when you combine jelly belly bean flavors.

Finally, if you haven’t seen Missy’s latest shopping adventure, please do.  Very entertaining.

The Virtuous Wife

I’m going in a new direction tonight.  Not sure if you guys want to follow me in this new direction . . . but anyway, at least it’s Sunday, so there’s a reason to quote the Bible right there.  The other night, I happened upon the well-known description of a virtuous wife.  You know, at the end of Proverbs. 

I’m fond of the passages, mostly for the obvious reason that, like most women, I want to be told that I’m aweshuuum.  But I found myself mentally rewriting some of it, in part to help understand how it applies today, and in part to admit where I fall short.

It was kinda fun.  Maybe a little irreverent?

I dunno.  Here is the result.

Proverbs 31, The Virtuous Wife

 Who can find a virtuous wife?

For her worth is far above rubies.

The heart of her husband safely trusts her;

So he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good and not evil

All the days of her life.

She shops clearance at TJMaxx,

And willingly works with her hands.

She is like the merchant ships,

She brings her food with her car.

She also rises while it is yet night,

And packs lunches and makes breakfast for the children,

But admits that her husband fixes his own peanut butter bagel.

She saves and makes investments;

From her profits she pays off the loan on the F150.

She stays strong with regular exercise,

Although really her arms could use a little toning.

She knows she is doing a good job,

And her laptop does not go out by night.

She doesn’t do any spinning or weaving,

But she totally plans on learning to sew one day.

She extends her hand to the poor,

Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of snow for her household,

For all her household is clothed with Columbia gear

Bought on sale at the outlet mall.

She does not make tapestries for herself

But she does make pastries from time to time.

Her clothing is, well, usually not fine or dressy, whoops.

Her husband is known in the neighborhood, though.

Strength and honor are her clothing;

She shall rejoice in time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom (uh, usually),

And on her tongue is the law of kindness (uh, mostly).

She watches over the ways of her household,

And does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and call her blessed;

Her husband also, and he praises her:

“Many daughters have done well,

But you excel them all.”

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing (and passing fast!),

But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands,

And let her own works praise her in the gates.

When Topics Collide

When topics collide in an unexpected manner, then it feels postworthy.

Of course, a lot of blog brethren wrote about the horrow show that was Dr. Gosnell’s Murder Mill. 

But I didn’t realize that the woman he killed was a recently arrived refugee.  Ms. Corcoran over at Refugee Resettlement Watch points this fact out.  (If you don’t read her stuff regularly, you should.)  Karnamaya Monger had been in the United States only four months.  The bitter irony of it:

“She was born in Bhutan and then survived nearly two decades in refugee camps. She had finally immigrated to Woodbridge, Virginia, only to die in a squalid, Pennsylvania abortion clinic, filled with bags of aborted fetuses.”

Corcoran asks the question, who resettled this woman?  The question is a good one, because these resettlement agencies are 1) usually church-affiliated, and 2) remain involved in the refugee’s new life for months, in order to help her settle into the new culture.

So, was a Catholic or Lutheran agency involved in getting this Virginia-settled refugee up to Dr. Gosnell’s abortion clinic in Pennsylvania?

Aren’t Catholics and Lutherans supposed to be pro-life?

Just a question.

Pat Condell’s Latest Video

Via the Gates of Vienna comes Pat Condell’s latest video, about the trial of Lars Hedegaard for some sort of hate speech against Islam/Muslims (since they are more equal than others):

“This week, Lars Hedegaard, President of the Free Press Society, is on trial in Denmark, for accurately referring to the comparatively high number of family rapes in Islamic culture.  As most people know, violence against women and girls is one of the things that makes Islamic culture distinctly inferior to Western culture.”

Apparently, he was acquitted.  Still.  The video is well worth it, ifn ya got the time.

P.S.  A commenter at the Gates of Vienna has the Hungarian translation of Mr. Condell’s video.  How cool is that?

On the Fence?

I ended up commenting at length, over at Citizen Tom’s fine establishment, on the topic of religion.  When I spend that much time on writing something, I reckon it would be a shame not to use it as a post.

Warning:  I am really not interested in protracted philosophical debate.  Feel free to comment thoughtfully, but don’t expect a response.  It’s all about priorities, my peoples, and mine is spending time out and about on a lovely weekend . . .

Without further ado, here is my take on religion:

Wow, you fellers must have a little more time on your hands than me.  Absolutely not meant to be an insult.  It’s just that my boys are 8 and 5, and my husband is in the Navy. 

So I probably won’t be back on this particular string.  I spent a lot of years on the fence too, faith-wise, and whilst perched there rather uncomfortably it dawned on me:  pick. 

Either believe there is no God, or believe there is God.  No person or event will make my mind up for me.  Turns out, that is part of that whole “free will” thing.  C.S. Lewis books (and the awesome nature of our universe generally) convinced me on an intellectual level to pick choice B:  God exists.

If you are serious about deciding whether Christ is your Savior I wholly recommend Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and A Grief Observed.

From that point, intellectual belief, I took even longer to move towards a personal belief.  To move from believing in God to loving God.  The quote Jack chose is very interesting for me, as it also troubled me greatly:

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

It just didn’t make sense:  does God expect me to abandon my family?  To place some invisible (by the way omnipotent so He doesn’t really need my help does He?) being’s desires above the needs and desires of loved ones around me?

I’ve come to realize, though, that God really is good, even if He is beyond my comprehension in certain circumstances.  That God will not lead me to wrong my family, or anyone else for that matter.  I can trust Him.  And I wouldn’t even have these loved ones, were it not for Him.  My mother, father, sisters, husband, and sons:  all precious gifts.  But merely loaners, not forever.  Only God is forever.  If I lose one (or all!) of my family tomorrow, well I may not be able to comprehend why, but I’ll be glad I had them while I did.

Jack’s comment resonated with me on another point too.  He said, “I often wonder, what is it that makes your own faith valid, and Islam invalid? How do you come to a mindset that relies utterly on the teachings of Jesus Christ, and shuns the teachings of Mohammed? I’d hate to imagine that it was a mere accident of birth.”

I too, have wondered whether I would have just ended up accepting the culturally accepted religion, had I been born in a Muslim area of the world.  The answer is, likely so. 

But that does not make the Islamic belief system equal with Christianity.  Absolute truth is not relative.  Many religions have some truths, and some more than others.  I am not an expert on religions.  But Islam loses the test quickly, because lying is an acceptable part of it.  What possible truth could that religion hold, when it accepts lying?

This leads us to the uncomfortable fact that whether you get saved is based in large part on what part of the world where you are born.  Hardly seems fair, especially if God is good and just.

No, I don’t have the answer to that.  Perhaps someone else can pick up the baton now.  Anyway, my point is that we don’t need all the answers before we choose.  In fact, that would be impossible.  We flawed humans can never hope to figure out all of life’s riddles before we die.  We will never have all the facts before death takes us off that fence.  So the way I reckon it, you may as well climb down into the believer’s side for a while, and have a look around before that happens.

One Smart Worm

Everybody, meet my new friend:

Well, okay.  Maybe this picture is not representative.  Anyway, he is the World’s Only Rational Man, at wormme.com, and he is running mental circles around me.  His take on “When Libertarianism and Religion Collide” is so good that I have to post it here:

“Wow, the W.O.R.M. has really low self-esteem.  Even a compliment from no one of any import makes my day.

Then I see her most recent post is on libertarianism and Christianity. 

If you read it you’ll see this lady attended both the 9/12 rally and this week’s 8/28 rally.  (Note to progressives…it seems her confidence isn’t waning…)

What puzzles me is part of her Honor Rally title, ”When Libertarianism and Religion Collide”.

Linda, sweet lady…they don’t…if one is a Christian.  Since you are, I can easily prove it: 

When has God ever forced you to do right? 

Has God ever prevented you from exercising your will?  Can God do so?  (that one is actually an interesting theosophical inquiry…and the answer’s ”no”.  Because He chose not to.)

I’m a Christian…a terrible, horrible, carnal Christian…but when emulating Christ I’m libertarian beyond the pipe dreams of Reason.com.  If God doesn’t force you to do right, nor prevent you from doing wrong…how should you treat others?  Give them the freedom God gives you…

…or are you smarter than Him?”

Spot on.  I think I want to kiss a worm!

The Restoring Honor Rally: Why?

By linking to The Mahablog in my previous post, I started a discussion with the Maha and her commenters.  The basic gist of this conversation began like this:

Maja:  Teabaggers don’t actually have a cause, just a lot of resentments; and their slogans and symbols are displays of tribal dominance only.  Most teabaggers have no idea what the slogans and symbols mean.

Me:  That is a mischaracterization of tea party types and/or Restoring Honor Rally attendees.

Maja:  No it isn’t.

Me:  Yes it is.

Illuminating discussion, is it not?  Ha ha.  If you want more specifics, follow the links. 

After a couple of days, I reckon curiosity has killed this cat, for I went back to the Mahablog to see what else was said on that string.  Oh sure, I found more insults (are you really calling me chicken because I didn’t watch that video?), but I also found appreciation for my civility, and some sincere enough questions.

Questions worth trying to answer.

First, the easy ones:  “Why is anger a hobby now?”

Sorry for the confusion here.  By hobby, I was referring to my blogging.  I mean, really.  What with my association with libertarianism, the tea party movement (“TPM”), and/or anything Glenn Beck, you should know that anger is not my hobby, but a full-time job!  Ha.

“Where are your links to these ‘specifics’?  Why don’t you care about facts?”

I am far, far too angry to bother with links, or care about facts.

“For the millionth time, where were you when G.W. Bush and his administration were wrecking the country?”

Me, personally?  Part of the time, I was serving in the U.S. Navy and unable to criticize my boss.  (It’s like, a rule or something.)  As for the rest of the time, I admit it:  I was neglecting my civic duties.  Ignoring politics.  Like so many people on either side, or no side, of the political spectrum, I threw my hands up in disgust and turned my back on the whole sorry mess.  I also foolishly trusted that, as long as I voted for the party which had principles nearer to mine, that would be good enough.

My bad.

But my prior negligence does not invalidate my newfound diligence. 

It seems like some lefties wish there were some sort of statute of limitations:  “Sorry, but you weren’t politically active for five straight years of adulthood.  Your activism authorization has expired.”

Okay, on to the more difficult questions:

“What I don’t know, is why the rally occurred. Why were you there?”

Me personally? 

Reason #1:  To prove to D.C. and the nation that I, the reasonable conservative, actually exist.  That we exist, and in large numbers.  Numbers larger than you previously realized.  Numbers larger than we realized, prior to 12 September 2009′s Taxpayer March.  Beck was right, we surround them.  We just didn’t realize it at first.  We were alone, and silent.  But no longer.  Which leads to . . .

Reason #2:  to stop being silent.  How many years have I held my tongue?  Starting in high school, the lessons came that if you expressed a conservative view, you would be in for an attack.  How often have I heard that conservatives are mean, stingy, don’t care about poor people, old people, black people, purple people eaters?

Now, these are just my personal reasons for attending.  Beck had his own reasons for holding the Rally, in part to introduce his Black Robe Regiment and his 40 days and 40 nights challenge.

“What is it that made all those people get on buses and planes and come out to this event?”

A single word:  fellowship.  (I’ve thrown a lot of links on this post, but this one you should definitely follow.) 

Some came primarily for fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. 

But.

This is very important:  some, like me, came for the fellowship with conservatives, regardless of religious beliefs.  I’m talking about a big conservative tent, my peoples.  Before the Obama/Reid/Pelosi trifecta, we conservatives were too easily divided into separate camps:  the drug-legalizers, the religious right, the fiscal conservatives, etc.

No more.  We are uniting now, in a common purpose:  stopping the inexorable shift towards statism.  Scott Brown, Chris Christie, and Joe Miller are only the beginning.  I can see November from my house.

“What were you supporting?”

True color blindness, instead of identity politics.  The free market.  The idea that our rights come from God, not the government.  Limitations on our ever-hungry federal government.  The revival of constitutional understanding.  The sanctity of life.

Plenty of facts and details in the links I’ve provided.  Whether you actually absorb them is up to you, dear reader.

Finally, to get to that video that the Maja said I didn’t have the courage to address (calling me chicken worked, I watched the blumin’ thing). 

I gotta help the older boy with his homework.  Get some laundry done.  Get them outside to play.  And fed.  Oh yeah, there’s a bleepin’ hurricane on the way, too.  Yikes!

So I must be quick.

Where you see dummies spouting pointless platitudes, I see my friends and neighbors, doing their best on the spot.  I see regular, everyday folks, talking about the deficit, about fellowship, about getting away from political rulers and back towards representative government.  I see a man who knows Glenn Beck was going to introduce something new and was very interested to find out (Black Robe Regiment, etc).  I also noticed that many clips were cut short, in mid-sentence even.

Suffice it to say that we are seeing things with different eyes and hearing things with different ears.

The only questions are:  who is truly listening?  Who is truly blind?

Restoring Honor Rally: When Libertarianism and Religion Collide

It has been an interesting year.  It started with the 9/12 March on Washington in 2009, and finished with the 8/28 Restoring Honor Rally of 2010.  Those two events are bookends to the blurry whirlwind that was one year of my life:  parenting, traveling, listening, reading, blogging.

The 9/12 event was not the beginning of my interest in politics.  Shoot, I’ve been conservative/libertarian since age nineteen (based on that old adage, I must have no heart).

But 9/12 was just . . . overwhelming.  A turning point.  On that morning, my family and I walked out of our hotel and towards Pennsylvania Avenue with no idea what we would encounter.  We did not expect to get swept into an ocean of families like ours, so wide and so thick I could not move nor see past it.  I did not expect that sea to wash over Pennsylvania Avenue for hours.

9/12 was the kind of rare thing that fills your soul.  To the brim.  One day, you are alone in your dismay at the political landscape and the state of your government generally.  The next day, you are not.  Not alone.  Not dismayed.  Worried?  Maybe.  But motivated to do something.

I could see my own surprise, gratitude, and hope mirrored in the expressions of everyone around me that day.

Fast forward now to the 8/28 Restoring Honor Rally.  This experience was certainly similar to 9/12, with one big difference.  This time, I am not surprised in the least.  Not surprised by the size of the crowd, or by the vastly different attendance numbers reported.  Not surprised by the way some media outlets equated the rally with the counter-rally, by lumping their numbers together.  Not surprised by the mischaracterizations, the twisting of facts (these links are via Legal Insurrection).  In fairness, one lefty blogger charitably offered that most of us are “probably not bad people,” although we still must be battled in order to “save civil society.”  Oh my, that sure sounds serious.  And sorta fear-mongery.

Anyhoo, having listened to Glenn Beck somewhat regularly this past year, I was not surprised by the religious nature of 8/28.  I mean, he’s been getting increasingly preachier and preachier all year long.  If you are a regular listener, you have noticed.  

And if you are a born-again, baptized-in-the-water believer, you probably don’t mind.  Even if Glenn Beck is a Mormon, a fact which some folks think should cause other Christians to recoil in horror.  (Hello, isn’t that a bit divisive?  Especially from that all-inclusive, all-tolerating left side of the political spectrum.)

Other folks also seem a bit flummoxed by the religious nature of the 8/28 event.  In the New York Times, one commentator describes it this way:

“Instead [of a political event], Beck served up something considerably stranger. This was a tent revival crossed with a pep rally intertwined with a history lecture married to a U.S.O. telethon.”

Well, yeah.  Fair enough.  But to me, it didn’t feel strange.  The event felt as natural as attending my parent’s nondenominational church or mass at my kids’ Catholic school.    We came, we shared a little fellowship with those around us, we prayed at bit, sang a bit, coaxed the kids into enduring boredom a bit, and that’s all.  Just like church. 

But with a slightly larger crowd than the usual congregation.

I kinda wondered what the not-openly-religious type of libertarian would think of the Restoring Honor Rally.  The approach of two thinkers, Glenn Reynolds and Nick Gillespie, can be found in this concise nutshell of Insty info.  Read the whole thing, and watch the Reason.com video embedded therein.  They are fair enough assessments.  A little reserved perhaps.  (As long as it’s Tocquevillian, it’s okay in Professor Reynolds’ book.)

But for the record:  nothing whatsoever about the rally left me reserved or unsettled. 

I am grateful for Beck’s melding of libertarianism with religion.  Mostly, the right side of politics has always had separate camps:  the religious right and, well, the rest.  I have never felt entirely at home in either camp.   Which is why I branded myself a “Christian libertarian” a long time ago. 

Then along comes Glenn Beck, an ex-pop music radio DJ, recovering alcoholic, and Mormon, who seems to be building a bridge between those two camps. 

I like it.

Okay, a bit of housekeeping before I sign off.  One, Tim Cavanaugh’s take is well worth reading, but here is my favorite line:

“the real reason I and my fellow coastal elites are wary of Glenn Beck is a lot more basic: He’s the fat kid you don’t want to be seen with at the lunch table. I’ll admit it! I find Beck a little bit creepy and gross and needy, and he gives me this sense that things are not going to end well.”

Ha!  Once again I say:  fair enough.

Next, guess what?  The President still does not take us seriously.  Yawn, no surprise there.

Finally, as far as that whole “saving civil society” thing goes.  Just look at the difference between the D.C. Mall after the Restoring Honor Rally, as compared to post-Obama inauguration.  Then tell me once again who is the more civil group, the lefties or the righties?  Just sayin’.

P.S.  My favorite parts of the rally were:  1) Alveda King, and 2) Amazing Grace with bagpipes.