Ozma of Oz, Eon/Eona, Song of the Lionness and coming out of the closet.
Reblogging this in honor of http://www.queertheology.com synchroblog on Oct 1
Here are some of the thoughts I had earlier about this
“If I’m in disguise, and I think all of this is a part of being Christian, what parts of Christianity are being unexplored when we are exclusive. What do gay men and lesbian women experience in Christianity that I miss out on? How about single parents, immigrants and the transgendered?”
“Why is there no down?” the boy-boy asked the librarian, looking for the elevator button
“There is no downstairs” the librarian chuckled, “Well there is one, but you can’t get there from here?
“Why? What’s down there” child asked 2 more of his 300 questions a day (249 already, his mom didn’t mean to be counting, but she couldn’t help it once she heard that children tend to ask 300 questions a day)
The librarian raised her eyebrows “I think there are library monsters”
“Are they nice” boy-boy recklessly asked, (250 questions)
“I can’t imagine mean monsters living in the library”
The boy-boy went upstairs with his two little brothers, until the library closed.
As the library closed, the boy-boy (and his mom and brothers) went out to the steps to wait for his dad to join them)
While they waited, a natural game of chase arose up and down the steps and looping around the ramp…(and at times climbing upon the railing, although mom kept trying to say no)
Then a mumuring began…a kind of quiet celebatory roar
Naturally the boy-boy had to know “What’s that noise?” he piped out, asking the noise, then the stranger and then finally his mom (253 his mom thought).
“It could be the monsters” mom said, just as the noise quieted
The boy-boy imagined Library Monsters–Piling books up high….Sliding up and down the railings of the library steps, snuggling the animals, messing with the toys. He imagined the monsters had a million eyes, and would spend long hours looking at books–and that during the day they would listen in the pipes to the adults reading them out loud.
Just then the noise started again, and the boy-boy whispered “See you soon” as his dad came down the steps and the family got in the car, and he didn’t ask another question……until they arrived at home!
To me Church is like a Wedding, a Memorial and a Grand Opening, it’s like a party,
like a neighbor welcoming you in for cookies (fresh baked) and like a playground for children. It should feel like a space that can be sacred and quiet and joyful noise-y.
Church should feel like there is no “right” way to behave, just respect, love and mutual upbuilding. It should feel like a place to ask questions, to stumble and fall (figuratively and literally). It should feel active, alive and full of stories. It should feel imperfect and incomplete (because we all are), it should be rich in tradition yet lacking in all stuffiness. To me church’s should feel more like AA, College Ministries and
Children’s Museums. It should feel like birthdays and Christmases, Yoga and Meditation, Gardens and Sunsets. It should be full of music and laughter, whispers and wahoos, hugs and kisses. Every single door of the church should be wide open, it should be advertised on craigslist and facebook, there should be huge signs welcoming everyone thru the door, and it should be as easy for crawling babies to find a comfortable spot as those in wheelchairs or who have to pace constantly.
It should be a place to find surrogate grandparents, helpful aunts and uncles and annoying brothers and sisters….It should be a place where interruptions are welcome, surprises are a good thing and change is associated with growth! Church should be Home; at least that’s what it is for me.
This is an interesting perspective on discourse between believers and nonbelievers…Two counterpoints I would make 1. I VERY much disagree with the fundamentalist’s perspective. I believe everyone is on a different journey of faith but HATRED disguised as gospel or LOVE is WRONG. Period, end of story. SO that’s another Christian pastor preaching against hate and fundamentalism (going to school at an extremely liberal school I had to plead with my fellow students that the God fundamentalists talked about was nothing like my God and please don’t be offended by my faith and love, which hopefully are a better way of being). My second problem is 2. Jesus was against crazy religious leaders too, as was Eli, and a Isaiah, Moses and Aaron certainly took the crazies down a peg. Yes there is some language (particularly in Deuteronomy and the Pauline language) that I disagree with, strongly…..but I focus on what I DO agree with. I use my mind and my relationship with God to discern what is right. God gave me a brain so I can use it. I also know (which the author probably doesn’t) of the GROSS mistranslations that exist ALL over the Bible, clearing up some of what is read as hatred ex: Sodom and Gromorrah was against Gang Rape<—-who doesn't agree with that! That being said, I am Reblogging this! Let the discourse begin!
CNN’s Belief Blog posted a short article yesterday by Rachel Held Evans calling for atheists to avoid using the worst of Christian extremism in their critiques against Christianity, offering to return the favor by not doing the same in reverse against atheists. Evans is a favorite Christian writer of mine for the simple reason that she speaks prophetically to the Christian church as an insider. By speaking “prophetically” I mean that she openly speaks up when she sees her friends and fellow Christians saying and doing things which she feels are contrary to the faith, no matter how important or influential those people may be. She holds the professors of her faith accountable to the ideals she feels are central; and those ideals are, in my opinion, some of the better tenets of the Christian faith. Incidentally, those elements which I find praiseworthy are the same principles which can be…
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Hey all,
My all time favorite author is releasing her new book!!
Do you love fantasy author Robin McKinley’s books Blue Sword, Sunshine, Pegasus, The Hero and the Crown, Spindle’s End, and others? SHADOWS is coming in September 26th! http://tinyurl.com/RMcKSHADOWS #RMcKSHADOWS Tweet it, Facebook it, blog it to enter a drawing for a signed copy http://robinmckinleysblog.com/contest/ Repost to share with fellow book lovers.
I think we’ve made a mistake,” he says softly. “We’ve all started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own. I don’t want to do that. I want to brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.” p. 405
p. 405 Divergent by Veronica Roth
My family, when its hard to do something, says “If I’m wise and brave and kind..I will” I think the Hedges-Goettl translation for this is If I’m able to be heroic
Heroes are a weird breed, ones who are able to balance a great number of traits and ACT on what they think is right, even after they have made mistakes.
Puts the whole “being Christian” thing in a new perspective…what if “Being Christian” meant being a hero…that tend to be my interpretation 🙂
Here’s a great article about expectations
I think that expectations might be really high, but on the other hand, most people I know are struggling to pay the bills. Its deceptive because I will never starve–we were on WIC in seminary–
so I don’t look that bad off, but on the other hand my debt is more and more a problem, and it feels like I’m barely staying afloat (nevermind paying stuff off)……….Its hard, because I guess I could have made different choices (ie not have 3 children and a grad degree, maybe one or both of these things should not have happened) but I’m not sure that I had UNrealistic expectations (that my husband would be able to work fulltime somewhere?) ….and the ONLY thing we spend money on for fun is eating out (and with kids sometimes thats a survival technique)…….
In a completely informal survey among friends, it appears there was this change between the babies born before the 80s and after…..apparently those born before the 80s got the “work hard and you will succeed” line and those after got the “Work hard and you will succeed and be happy.” But my observation is we aren’t succeeding, we aren’t happy and in reality we aren’t even making it……so I disagree about the exceptional expectations thing…..
The “whole you guys think your TOO special line” is a little annoying—“you guys are delusional” is angering……(and your solution to this situation is to change us? Is there a way other things can change too?). Adults who have careers, children and houses and are talking about retirement, those who get to refinance houses they actually own and that their kids are in a hard place that they don’t understand….. (those who tell me about how they worked part time to make it thru college where I worked 2 or 3 part time jobs seeming to make almost no difference, and I had WONDERFUL HELP paying for college)………
Then there’s the whole you need two parents working fulltime now to pay for kids–which is a socio-econmic problem.
But seriously other adults talk about refinancing and retirement, and meanwhile my ONLY capital (my car) got totalled by another driver which means no I have absolutely no capital, and lots and lots of debt…….
Here are my expectations
I expect my children to choose college based on their own finances and debt decisions, because we have no means to save to for them….
I expect Social Security to be gone by the time I am older, and I should not count on it
I expect to have nothing saved for retirement
I expect to be 100K in debt at least until my youngest starts school
I then expect that if my husband needs to live somewhere else to work fulltime, that we will be able to somehow manage it after my youngest starts school…….so that we can actually start paying down our debts….
I expect my two cars to last at least 5 more years as I am currently making payments on both
I expect my husband and I to continue tutoring, to trade off babysitting as much as possible to save money. I expect to rent out our car, trade favors and otherwise barter as much as possible to save money.
I expect to continue to never buy movies, books or clothes for myself or my husband unless we have an interview, or the shoes are leaking profusely
I expect to garner clothing for my children through wonderful grandparents and extended family for as long as possible, the same being true for extracurriculars, and the majority of toys received during birthdays and Christmas (because we can’t afford much more), and am SO lucky this is the case
I expect to continue to miss out on movies, shows and adult activities due to lack of funds/babysitting and to continue to do introverted/at home activities because they are cheaper and require less coordination
I expect if I ever am out of work to have to move the entire family back with our families because we are barely making it as is…
I expect that all the people my age will continue to look for second and third jobs to help finances–making our chances of being able to socially hang out all the less…(everyone I know my age is looking for fulltime/second/more work)
I expect to be unhappy whenever I think about money, but happy because I am in a steady career that I like and that I got to have a family
I expect never to own a house, ever.
I expect the library will continue to be our best friend.
I expect my kids will play outside a lot, because its free and because its good for them.
I expect Netflix, free arts and crafts and recycling, I expect a lot of creativity as we figure out how not to buy things (ex: I jimmied together a Spiderman Costume today, because my son wanted one)
The snarky part of me wants to ask “Do you think I’m setting expectations too high” Read: I am SO not a GYPSY
The realistic part of me wants to say “What do you make of my expectations?”
Robin McKinley: street Pastoring
My favorite fairy tale author is a recent not-scary-Christian-convert (who really likes bells)! YAY
“I believe in therapy”
True Story from a Pastor-type-friend
On Oct. 1st I’m going to be asking my sister Nat to help me to do a queer theology syncroblog since I am depressingly straight and normal (luckily my theological fascination with fantasy tends to make up for it)
Here are the questions I hope she will be answering…..
If you know someone who can enrich your perspective be sure to have them guest blog or interview them for Queer Theology!
Nat, in the Christian faith we are dedicated the job of “namers” in the world. To me naming has a lot to do with storytelling, naming things/storytelling helps us to real-lize our embodied experience…so I have a couple of questions about stories, being transsexual and embodiment…
What is your favorite series to read? How does it relate to your real life experience? Does it help to inform who you are/want to be?
The story God gives us is that we are both female and male in God’s image. Do you experience yourself as being in God’s image? (I like to think that transsexual’s have a more (w)holistic sense of what God’s image is)
How important was naming yourself as female? How did the naming effect the embodiment? Or how did the embodiment effect the naming? Was there an order to it, or did all come together?
What questions and wonderings do you have about God or the human existence that are informed by your being/experience/embodiment on earth?
katyandtheword 