My blog has a new Follower: Masondan, whom I found and commented on his post arguing that women should not be police officers because it is against their “God-given nature”, or something. Looking round his blog and its comments, I thought he could be a BDSM satirist spouting fantasies with a thin veneer of Evangelical jargon, to see how many Christians he could get to agree; but from my brief, yet too detailed knowledge of Complementarians, he may be well within the bell-curve of Evangelical views, not at the nutty extreme. Come on, Masondan! Comment! Tell me it ain’t so!
I don’t know I will get anything from my avowed purpose of going to London, but I really enjoyed the conversations. My hostess was out when I got to her house, so her son Felix, who is 14, gave me something to eat and a cup of tea, then we chatted. Living in D’Israeli Gardens, he knows of that Prime Minister, and something of the House of Commons and House of Lords; he knows perhaps more of US legislative government than Americans his age, including that Lincoln was a Republican, but on the Left of politics then. He observed that the German Democratic Republic was Communist, so we discussed the meaning of Democracy. I was impressed. Then his mother returned, and we talked until midnight over wine, of our concerns, and noted we have formed a deep connection.
On the tube, I got chatting because of an ice-cream spill on the floor.
-Don’t worry, it won’t mess your shoes too much.
She is Texan, quite happy to be old enough that people give up their seats for her. She is over to visit her husband’s family in Wales, after three days in London. You have to visit London. It has the buzz of New York, but much more charm. She and her husband live in an RV, with the van 52″ of space which is quite enough. They winter in Florida and spend the Summer in Colorado. For Thanksgiving and Christmas they are with her relatives in Texas. It is surprising how little space you need. Have I thought of what I want to do when I retire?
I even got chatting in the hospital, queuing for a blood test, to a student. He is studying forensic science- how bodies rot when left outside, that kind of thing, you need a certain type of mind. He hopes to specialise in forensic genetics. He has wide hips and an unbroken voice- that was my way of getting chatting- is transitioning aged 19, and this is his first visit to that hospital: I congratulate him.
Clare Flourish 
Good Sunday morning to you. 🙂 I am not going to write much as the fibro has kucked in well and truly tjis morning, but I wanted to comment and Masondan; What a pratt!!!
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Fibromyalgia? I am sorry to hear of that. I have had friends who suffered that way.
Have as good a day as you can.
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Thanks Clare, its not the greatest thing, I am returning to the neurologist just waiting for the appointment, I have additional problems, the neurologist she is a Functionality neurologist as I now been diagnosed with a blockage in my brain and spinal cord which is stopping nerve signals going to my legs, its also started in my hands. Nothing I can do about and she is going to try and make sure I can live with it both physically and mentally as the symptoms can cause depression. The fatigue is the worse makes you instantly tired, its like the tiredness after a few beers, but I cannot just sleep so its fighting it and smiling at the same time lol I have some funky drugs though.
Fentanyl is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine, with 100 micrograms of fentanyl approximately equivalent to 10 mg of morphine and 75 mg of pethidine (meperidine) in analgesic activity. I have it as a patch and I get 25mg per hour through my skin, I don’t get a kick from it unless I am in the shower and a good hot shower spray on it gives me a little extra lol I also take Dihydrocodines on top most days 1 in the morning and 2 before bed to get me through the night, but I have seen me taking 8 in one 12 hour period and I just sleep all day, no food just sleep, the pain is just far to much.
Imagine the worse toothache you have ever had and then image that toothache in the whole of your body, throbbing away, then your joints screaming and you cannot be hugged as your body is hypersensitive to being touched, just gentle touched in a hug is so painful, it can be just a few hours to a few days. I am lucky today its only been a few hours, well since about 3am and its now fading away.
I hope you are well 🙂
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I too feel it’s my duty to educate the world. Re fundamentalists, I find it’s best to outflank them/avoid the frontal attack.
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I actually quite enjoy posting on Evangelical blogs- God loves gays, St Paul should be interpreted otherwise, etc. I can walk away when I want to. Off line, I don’t think I know anyone who takes fundamentalists seriously.
Jews have the great advantage of not needing to proselytise. You can educate the World simply by being your beautiful self, mi duck.
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The sad thing, in my own personal experience, is that this is not an uncommon situation. The evangelical movement has always been a hotbed of extremism mainly because there isn’t a system of control over leaders and congregations. With a radical vicar there’s a bishop above him to keep him somewhat in line and ultimately Canterbury or Rome to give the “official line”. It’s not a perfect system but there is at least there’s a protection for the congregation and the population at large. While I have met a large number of evangelical Christians who I respect and care about there is nothing about the movement that I feel comfortable. So keep writing and giving your view, the evangelical movement hates to be disagreed with but the world needs all points of view.
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Welcome, Pete, and thank you for commenting. It is lovely to have you here. I like your long, thought out posts. Your telling of cholera in the manner of a folk-tale strips down the issues to their basic, mythic form and speaks to me on the level of archetype. Then you bring out the lessons for now. I was impressed.
Christianity is a great mess. There have always been people who want certainty, and who are comfortable with Unknowing; Christians on the Right, and the Left- Communist Christians and Fascist Christians, CS Lewis said, in 1942; now there are Christians for whom the most important issue for their Christian activism is preventing abortion by legal restriction, and Christians who seek a better environment, and that fits our history: some seek power over the Bad People Over There, some seek a better life for everyone. Evangelicalism at its best has intense seriousness and practical concern for the poor. We are all part of the conversation.
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Thanks for the welcome. I agree totally that Christianity is a mess. When I came to the USA from Britain I found that the mentality which drove the Mayflower here is still very much alive. The sad fact is that those pilgrims didn’t come to escape persecution (a popular myth) but rather to claim a promised land and dictate how everyone lived here. The early settlers had a lovely habit of putting anyone to death who didn’t conform with their views. That the likes of Scott Lively are able to spread that out in the world is just a retelling with Russia and Uganda becoming the new Plymouth Rock. What I don’t want to do is diminish those in the church who genuinely follow the tenets of their faith and allow others to live the way they choose but the church has and always will be a powerful force in the homogenization and subjugation of the human experience.
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Its that ‘official line’ that stole babies from unwed mothers and confined them to work houses, its that same line that hid away the pedophile priests and nuns, it was same line at the very top that ordered that mouthsbe kept quiet over the destruction of millions of jews, men, women and children. I knew a woman who was taken into care by nuns when she was very little, she was beaten, starved, given ice baths and made to wear the sheet she wet during the night all day. At her funeral the priest asked Gid to punish those women for crimes against Mary and other tormented souls, he didnt even class them as nuns. The man making the decisions who claims he has direct communication with the Almighty directs millions of people and unlike a democratic organisation there is no one to stop him changing the lives of millions, which has been done on a wim throughout the centuries, wiping out whole cities all in the name of God. Sent extremists to the wipe out Muslims and take Jerusalem even though it belonged to neither, it belonged to the Jewish faith.
I was brought up in the Penticostal church and I lived every single minute of it, I had my faith strengthened in many ways, I have seen miracles, which didnt have to be approved, I have felt the Holy Spirit and watch it move through people, which I was told by a RC priest that the Holy Spirit does not move through just anyone. As for extremism in the evangelical movement, the only extremism is people wishing to tell of the good news about Christ who along with the disciples in fact was classed as an extremists by the Jewish faith and the Romans and put to death for his teaching.
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While I agree Pete with your assertion that there are a litany of sins that the Church of Rome and Church of England need to answer this wasn’t my point. Where there is an internationally recognized body with a clear system of management it is easier to challenge the behaviour of individual clergy as is being shown with the Catholic church at the moment. In the evangelical movement where a preacher is responsible only to himself then there is the opportunity to hide behind the rights of being a private citizen. This quandary is part of what is making it very difficult to prosecute and stop people like Scott Lively from encouraging other countries to commit genocide against homosexuals. Any religion which teaches it is the one true faith is by default going to allow itself to be open to the abuse by leaders of congregations. Indeed the issue of child abuse is being studied at the moment and there is growing evidence that evangelical preachers are just as guilty of child abuse as the Catholic church the trouble is that in identifying it you are looking for private citizens and small congregations not an institution. As someone who has been censored by the Catholic church I have no problem. As someone who has suffered from physical and mental abuse from the Evangelical movement leading to post traumatic stress disorder and other psychological issues I have an intrinsic issue with a preacher then hiding behind the fact they were only following their personal beliefs and taking no responsibility. There s good and bad in the hearts of all people it’s the choices we make and how we are accountable that matters in my mind.
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Masondan is following me too. We’ll see what he thinks of the blog of an openly queer trans woman who’s also a Christian Witch.
-Connie
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I have no idea which evangelical preachers you have been going to but in the UK they all have to be CRB checked and jyst no one can set themselves up as ministers and open a church, this is neither the 18th century or the deep south of the not so great US of A. No minister I know do not have their own selfishness at heart, they work hard for their church hard for tge people who work hard for the community, even the gay ministers which are not afraid to ‘come out’ in the pulpit in front of their congregation, one of them being Scott Rennie, Church of Scotland.
In all communities from lawyers to childminders there are bad eggs, but in the UK we are extremely vigorous in procedures when employing anyone who will be near or working with children, young adult or people who maybe at risk. If you have been scared I suggest you report it, if you dislike the way we do things in the UK either try and change it or leave. If there are any members of the church who have gone against the church or God they will be dealt with by the Lord or the courts which ever comes quicker. I will defend the evangelical church not for the people that run it but in the name of the Lord.
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I don’t know who you are Connie, whether you are just having a joke with Clare or at her expense if its the latter then I suggest you back off and leave her alone, you know that homophobic abuse is illegal. Its neither funny or clever, makes you look like a jealous, gay basher who has nothing better to do then abuse people. If you are a friend of Clare then Hello.
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I am not having a joke at anyone’s expense. I am a bisexual, male-to-female transgender person who blogs quite often AGAINST homophobia and transphobia. Additionally, my religious practice is an amalgamation of Christian and Pagan concepts, literally making me a Christian Witch.
I would respectfully request that if I make a comment that is confusing, that you please ask for clarification before branding me “a jealous, gay basher who has nothing better to do then abuse people.” If that were the truth about me, I would not be the facilitator of my local Transgender Parent Support Group and a regular at the LGBTQ night at my favorite cafe.
If you don’t know who I am, please ask first before leaping to conclusions.
Thank you.
-Connie
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Hello, Connie. I don’t think Masondan reads us, but you never know. He is interesting as a specimen.
Pete, I can’t see why you thought Connie was getting at me. The only possibly insulting word was “queer”, which has been to a great extent reappropriated, that is, drained of its poison by use by- us queers. Her blavatar, the wee picture on the left, has the trans symbol between the male and female symbols- it indicates a bisexual trans person. If you could not read it fully, you might see that it has something to do with gender, with the symbols.
Pete and Pete, if you slag off the worst aspects of each others’ churches, you will both have plenty of material, but not generate much “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control”.
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