As my life is highly chaotic now, I’m not going to be posting a lot. I have a house to pack up, an ordination to help with, moving vans to arrange… As I’m feeling frenzied right now, I thought I’d list the good things that have happed to me and in the world lately as a reminder that there is good in everything.
In My Life
In the world
Reading this has reminded me of why I loved my church in high school. I know that there were definitely differences of opinion on a lot of issues, but everyone could still worship together. I love being able to go to my grandparents’ church and understand what was going on even though I maybe attended there once or twice a year when I’d go visit them. Heck, things were a piece of cake for me when I was in Canada because I could walk into an Anglican church and feel at home. I agree with Chris that it is wonderful to know that on 6 of 7 continents, people are saying the same words as me and have for hundreds of years.
I also agree that the church needs the conservatives to stay in and keep the liberals on their toes. The “via media” doesn’t work if things are only one-sided. This means that those who are opposed to Bishop Robinson might want to stay put and make sure that their viewpoint is known. (Having said that, I do not condemn those who leave over this because they disagree with the actions of the General Assembly in Minneapolis.)
I love that being Episcopalian (or Lutheran for that matter) means that “Christ died to take away my sins, not my mind.” I’m leery of any religious tradition that asks members to divorce their intellect from their faith and to blindly conform. I love that the Church of England produced such thinkers as C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams. As for John Shelby Spong, well… every church has its mistakes.
I also totally agree with Chris’ take on why hymns are so cool:
I have yet to be moved by any praise song as much as ??Let all mortal flesh keep silence??, my favorite hymn, moves me. That hymn always weirds me out, in the good way. Singing about the ??six winged seraphs?? reminds me of the utter strangeness and power of God. That??s praise. ??Praise?? songs, on the other hand, in addition to being bland folk or folk rock (I did not go to church to hear rehashed Eagles), always have that ??sunny, buddy Christian?? feel that I so despise.
While I can deal with some of the praise and worship music out there (I kind of have to as a pastor-to-be because there are some people who can only be reached through it), most of the songs don’t do for me what “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” (the Lutheran fight song), or “Thy Strong Word” do. The folk services really struck me as Peter, Paul and Mary breeding with the BCP, though I did find the one done for Ann’s funeral to be comforting. (Ann was the wife of our former rector who died of bone cancer last December.)
I also enjoyed the formality of the ‘Piscopalians (and enjoy the formality of Jon’s current parish) because I think that one should dress up for Sunday worship. I don’t mind tossing on a dress for church (though I have to remind myself that the choir robe increases the temperature by 50 degrees so I need to be judicious about what’s under my robe) and I’m starting to be appalled at the people who come to worship dressed as they would to do yardwork. (And yes, I’m saying this as someone who wore jeans to church throughout high school and part of college.)
Don’t misunderstand me — I’m not forsaking Lutheranism (mostly because no other church claims its teachings “[to be] most certainly true”). I’m just a little nostalgic for my past. And for those who ask why I don’t just go back, we’re moving to a state where Lutherans are denser than anywhere else. The nearest ECUSA parish is about 50+ miles away.
You know it’s the weekend of THE BIG GAME when…
-the only thing they talk about on the news is THE BIG GAME even though other important things happened that day.
-you hide the tassel from your diploma that has been hanging on your rearview mirror because you hippie college on the Left Coast has the same colors as Michigan and you’d prefer that your windshield not be smashed.
-your church choir’s anthem is based around the hymn “Come Christians Join to Sing” which has the same tune as the OSU fight song. (I’m wishing we could sing the Doxology to the tune of “Hail to the Victors”.)
-the basses in your choir explain to you that if Michigan wins, you will be tarred and feathered.
-there are more OSU flags up in town than American flags.
-the streets are bare at noon on a Saturday that is 5 weeks before Christmas.
Question: Why hasn’t Jen updated much this week?
Moving
We move to Minnesota in 3 weeks. We accepted a call (which will be announced here when all the papers are officially signed). We don’t have too much stuff so we really don’t have all that much to pack but… it’s still been stressful. My in-laws were paranoid about Jon and I doing the move and the driving ourselves, especially since I have no license yet. (I take the test on Tuesday at 10:15. I’ll post news if I pass.) As a result, my brother is going to fly out and help us.
If you have any advice on moving, leave me a comment here or at Domesticated.
Call Papers
The church we wanted voted 61-2 in favor of calling us. We should hopefully have the call papers in the next couple days. *crosses fingers and toes* I have a journal set up for my pastor’s wife adventures. If you want the location, e-mail me and I’ll tell you if I know you.
The other church would only let us keep 2 of our cats and that’s fine for them — it’s their parsonage and therefore their decision. I’ve refrained from screaming at the various people from my current church whose response to the situation has been “WELL IT SERVES YOU RIGHT FOR GETTING TWO MORE CATS!!! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?” Everything worked out, we can keep our girls, and those people have no leg to stand on.
Panthers
Edda had a parasite which was causing her bowels to be a little on the loose side. After spending 3 hours cleaning carpets before putting her under suite arrest and layering the floor of her suite with garbage bags, we took her to the vet and they dewormed her (basically some meds to kill any possible worms) and put her on some antibiotics. Our vet was not the sharpest crayon in the box and gave us a syringe of meds that was bigger than Edda, telling us to just depress it a little each time. Uh yeah… that’s really going to make medicating my cat easier, I ended up calling the vet after trying it and telling them to just give me the pills so I could split and dissolve them. (They ended up disolving the meds and giving me a small syringe and dropper… which is how it should have been done the FIRST time.) She’s doing much better though she hates her meds (which is just tough because she has a week left on them).
I have been quiet about the Senate talkathon because there have been other things on my mind lately. However… MeanDean decided to reference me in his cache on the sitch, which is a sign that I should probably be itchin’for a fight. So… LIVE FROM THE PUNDIT SECTION OF JEN’S PSYCHE,HEEEEEEEEEEERE’S JEN’S TAKE!!!!!
[MANAGEMENT DISCLAIMER: These views are Jen’s and may not necessarily be the views of whatever site links to them, especially if it’s a link being fisked. We welcome constructive criticism as long as it is civilly put. Any hatemail can be sent here. Threats against me, my husband, my cats, or my firstborn child will cause some heavy I.P. banning and your email address being given to the nice folks at Spamorama.Com. That is all.]
I think that the Republicans need to stop their whining and accept that the government is working the way it should. Our three branches of government operate on a system of checks and balances which keep one branch from having too much authority. This is why the Senate confirms nominees, the President has veto power on what is passed in the Senate, and the Supreme Court can strike down laws it finds to be unconstitutional. To answer the accusations that it’s bad politics, I’d like to remind the Republicans that they are calling the kettle black. They did this to quite a few of Clinton’s nominees. As for the ludicrous assertions that this shows the Democrats to be anti-women and anti-minority, many of the Clinton nominees shot down by the Republicans were also women and minorities.
I will also OPENLY and HONESTLY admit that I have been part of the effort to keep these people from being nominated. I have emailed/faxed my senators (who, in my not-so-humble opinion, should not be re-elected and have heaped much shame upon themselves for supporting these nominees) and the Senate judiciary committee to not confirm these nominees. Why am I so against these nominees? Well…
Miguel Estrada: His judicial integrity was compromised in my eyes by his failure to answer questions on how he views civil rights, abortion rights, and women’s rights. How can people honestly expect to get a fair trial from someone who hides the basis for their decisions??? I was really disappointed because I’d love to see more minorities on the bench.
The others are all anti-abortion and I feel that they were nominated simply for that reason. Bush has LONG been trying to overturn Roe v. Wade and he actually re-nominated some of these people when their nominations were overturned. THAT is dirty politics. It’s an attitude of “I-will-get-my-way-no-matter-what” and even Clinton didn’t resort to that.I am fine with them having their convictions — I just do not think that they can divorce their convictions from their judicial duties and that prevents the judicial ideal: “justice for all”. If anyone can show me differently with those people, go right ahead and send me your source. (Mine are TrueMajority and Million4Roe.)
Among the other reasons I don’t want these people on federal benches:
Janice Rogers Brown: She would protect racist and sexist speech in the work place under the First Amendment. Sorry… calling someone a “nigger”, “wetback”, “b*tch*”, or making racist or sexist statements is not something that should be tolerated. Sexual harassment is a reality and I’m not protecting a crime by declaring it to be free speech.
Carolyn Kuhl: She supported tax-exempt status for Bob Jones University, who should not be tax-exempt. They aren’t a non-profit organization or a ministry — they make money. I admit that I’m not an expert on tax laws for private schools, but I don’t think Bojo deserves special treatment. They don’t admit everyone who applies regardless of race, religion, gender, or orientation by choice and they can support themselves with money from like-minded people and pay taxes on said money.
Priscilla Owen: She is considered one of the most pro-business/anti-worker judges on the Texas Supreme Court. Do I really want her trying a dispute between me and my company when my company is doing me wrong? (This would be stuff like unlawful termination, denying me benefits for no legit reason, illegal practices on the part of the company that cause me to lose my pension…)
Charles Pickering: He attempted to reduce the sentence of a convicted cross burner. Do I really want a judge who is pro-racist? I think not! He is opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment, which means that I am not an equal citizen in his eyes because I’m female.
William Pryor: He is a leading figure in the “states’ rights” movement which advocates protecting states from claims of discrimination. States do not have a right to discriminate against minorities. Again, this means that “justice for all” is not going to happen.
I would also like to remind people that of the 172 nominees brought before the Senate, 168 (97.7%) of them have been confirmed. The Republicans are nitpicking over 4 people (2.3%). This doesn’t look like dirty politics to me. This looks like people voting their conscience and trying to keep the
courts free of people with extreme views. I’m not against people being anti-abortion — I just want them to enforce the laws of the land and not try to promote their agendas. Attorney General Ashcroft is very anti-abortion but he has (excluding the stupidity in Detroit in December 2001 regarding the Patriot Act) kept his promise to uphold the existing laws regardless of how he feels.
Some may say that I’m anti-Republican because I’m criticizing them. Uh yeah… I vote for both Democrats AND Republicans so that charge is baseless. Some would say that I’m criticizing this because I hate Bush. I do hate Bush but I am also perfectly willing to call a spade a spade regardless of who the guilty party is. I’m criticizing this because I think that the talkathon was dirty politics on the part of the Republicans and I think that we need to look at the reason WHY the nominees aren’t being confirmed. If Bush wants to send some nominees with normal politics, I’ll support that. I will not, however, support the court-stacking in which he is engaging. It undermines the system of checks and balances in place and makes a mockery of the government our forefathers intended us to have.
1. Using one adjective, describe your current living space.
messy (at least my study)
2. Using two adjectives, describe your current employer.
non-existent, invisible
3. Using three adjectives, describe your favorite hobby/pasttime.
stimulating, intellectual, page-pounding (I read, therefore I am)
4. Using four adjectives, describe your typical day.
quiet, cat-filled, nocturnal, sleepy
5. Using five adjectives, describe your ideal life.
exciting, grace-filled, Christ-centered, worthwhile, God-seeking
I’ve been resisting the urge to get catty and fisk the following but… I need something to vent my frustrations upon and since this person ends his tirade with a sentiment that makes me utterly ashamed to be American, I thought “why not?”
The proof is in the numbers! They don’t lie.
President Bush so often accused of only helping his friends, you know all his rich oil friends, has pulled us out of a Bill Clinton recession faster than anyone would have expected.
On top of this productivity in the US of A grew at an 8.1% annual rate!
Now we all should be happy! IF you care for the poor or the rich, then you will be happy. The only thing to be hateful about is if you HATE Bush, and HATE the country that is being made better!
OK… let’s talk about what is wrong with this picture:
1.) This blogger fails to identify the sectors where the growth occured. Was it service, manufacturing, tech??? Those have an impact because the service sector normally grows faster and offers more jobs… but at a lower pay and without benefits. Indeed, the growth was service sector jobs… which means that the nation’s unemployed people can be treated to a bunch of McJobs. Wanna know why this is a bad thing? Read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenereich.
2.) This blogger has repeatedly ignored the fact that most presidents don’t have a lot of control over the business cycle. When Clinton was elected, we were in a recession. We rebounded during the Clinton years and actually kept things going well for longer than happened when Reagan supposedly rebounded the economy in the 1980’s. Bush’s economic plan is almost identical to Reagan’s. It didn’t work in the 1980’s (and increased our national debt) and it ain’t gonna work now.
3.) This blogger is quoting numbers… without looking at the other indicators. Yeah.. the economy grew 8%. Does this mean that all the unemployed tech people are working again? Does this mean that the laid off people are actually living without fear of forclosure on their properties? And does this economic boost apply to all areas of the country or is it focused in a region? I can tell you pretty honestly that the economy is still in the toilet and the Bush tax cuts aren’t helping a lot of people rebound. Wanna know my rationale for this? Looking at the people in my area, where I grew up (Silicon Valley), where we’ll be moving to, and looking at life in other parts of the country where my classmates are doing pastoral internships. Things still suck.
4.) This blogger is turning a blind eye to the fact that the Bush tax cuts mean that welfare mothers are having a hard time getting their kids daycare so they can go back to work. (This was in the November 3rd issue of the New Yorker in the quiz on the tenth 100 days of Bush.) If mothers have no place to leave their kids, how are they supposed to work? Head Start is a federal program which means that it needs funding. Funny how the numbers may say one thing but reality is another.
5.) The last paragraph indicates that this blogger is practicing idolatry as they are putting their country up on a pedestal and equating it with God. It’s one thing to love your country — it’s something else to ignore all the wrongs and not even consider that there is room for improvement. We had the world’s sympathy after 9/11 and we’re now hated. Am I the only one that sees a problem here?
As for loving the rich and the poor, I think our country does a crappy job of it. People can criticize France and Germany all they want but… they take care of their people. People can talk about how stupid Canada is but… they don’t have half the problems we do with crime, poverty, or terrorism. Why is this? They. take. care. of. their. people. Most things like Social Security and the FDIC were created in the Great Depression era to protect people. Why can’t our government think like this now?
Another thing: when all the right-wing fascists were complaining about Clinton, they were never told to go to Canada. (Most of us just patted them on the head and said, “Suuuuuuuure”.) Why is it that these people are telling those of us that disagree with our country (and unlike that blogger, have a brain) to go to Canada. If all of us went to Canada, I’d hate to see how messed up this country would be.
/rant.