Something from Alison and the Inquisitor...

http://www.warriorofthelight.com/engl/index.html

Just a little something on Sloth and its resonance throughout the faiths. Very interesting. The quote from the Bible (well you can verify that it is) made me laugh a lot!

Sloth is something I find I have to be careful to avoid (though only because I get scared and try to hide behind things, like food and sleep!).

Here is the first day of the holidays. Holy Thursday. There have been processions every day and night since Sunday. The most extraordinary of which was the Procession of Silence. This is the only one without a morbid band or simple drum roll. Instead they have little symbols and bells throughout the line which gently ding to keep everything in time. They did this against the back drop of the Cathedral (Minster) and a full moon. It was really spooky! These are the guys with a pointy hats (maroon ones) and last night was the one with the white pointy hats that look terrifying because of the Klu Klux Klan resemblence. But I think these guys are nicer.

I'll be writing more about this and adding photos. I also took a lot of video footage but I need to transfer it onto my laptop and edit it and all kinds.

Then tomorrow I'm going home for four days because Easter is my absolute favourite time of year. In England it is just beautiful as the notoriously bad weather changes and always feels very magical. I've asked my aunt if I can accompany her to Church (midnight mass) because I'd like to experience it. And I can buy a bra which is far too traumatic an adventure in Spain.

So this is one email that ain't dark and miserable. I'm frisking about like a fluffy lamb.

It takes courage to be positive you know, and you should be proud of yourself.

That's my little penny's worth for today!

Ali


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....and from the Inquisitor...


I totally agree with everything you said here:

Child molesters, animal abusers, wife-beaters, Osama bin Laden, terror networks, and President Bush are examples of this epidemic. (I'm sure "W" would object to being on this tawdry list but, sad to say, the shoe fits! He has lied, deceived and shamelessly plundered our environment and the good will of the people who believed in and supported him for years, not to mention everyone else! I truly believe he will -- and should -- go down in history as our worst President to date. It gives me no pleasure to predict this. It's a terrible tragedy.)


Try as I might, it's hard to get one's head around the concept of "loving" someone like Bush, who is responsible for so much death and suffering in the world. I suppose it's through the "power of" that change can be made. But what I find often happens is that others must pick up the pieces, sometimes generations later, left by legacy of a Bush. (And a Reagan....his contempt towards the middle class in America. There is a great -- very Christian! -- talk show host named Thom Hartmann who has written books about this so-called war on the middle class and how it is traceable to Reagan. His show is on Air America and Sirius now.)

I know, as a leader, he is reviled by the right, but Jimmy Carter is, to me, one of the more decent human beings around. He walks the walk. We don't seem to get many of those these days! And look where honesty gets you. You get sucker punched by the right whenever they can. Yes, politics and religion (or a world view of some kind) go hand in hand.

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I agree wholeheartedly with you about Jimmy Carter. I always liked him, even as President, long before I was born again. Decency in the White House is what most people want to see;even expect to see when they cast their votes.

Belligerency in political office is just plain dangerous. There's a whole bunch of that going around all over the world, which is what makes a world conflagration seem almost unavoidable at some point. Madmen seem to be in charge!

The reason it's important to love the unlovely is that love is the only thing that can defeat their plans and redeem them. Who can out-belligerent bin Laden or Saddam Hussein or Bush or a Hitler? Not you and not me! We battle on an uneven playing field when we try to beat them at their own game.

And when I realize that Christ died for them as well as for the "piddle-shit" sins I have committed (by comparison), it makes all the scourging and the blood of the crucifixion seem almost justified. Jesus carried THEIR sin, every heinous and corrupt and vile sin ever committed -- not just mine. He paid the price they deserve to pay for what they have done and are doing. That doesn't let these guys off so they can go and keep on sinning, in any way shape or form... but it helps me to realize that even these folks are redeemable in God's sight. So that's why there has to be something in each of them -- in each of us -- that He finds worth dying for.

Trying to find what that something is, is where agape love comes in. Each of these men were infants at one time. What twisted them into the people they became? My first thought is, "A lack of love. A lack of time spent letting them know they were precious and that everyone else is precious, too. They got things in lieu of time being told they were special to God."

All of these guys except Hitler (and possibly Reagan) were rich peoples' kids. Rich peoples kids generally don't have even half a clue how other people live and what it takes to even approach what they have had handed to them on a plate. They think people aren't as well off as they are because they're lazy or stupid or clueless. Lower class people and immigrants in America work three jobs to stay solvent -- they work their butts off.

Go see THE ULTIMATE GIFT and you will get an inkling of what would happen to the Bushes and bin Laden's of the world if they had to figure out how to survive like the rest of us do in America (and most of us in America, even in the lower and middle-classes, are spoiled rotten compared to three quarters of the rest of the world).

It may be true that monsters are born, but I don't think any of these men (except for maybe Hitler) were born monsters. Maybe not even Hitler.

Agape love extends God's grace (unmerited favor) to everyone, not just the ones we would put on our own personal "give them a break" list.

He loves us that much! That's the amazing thing about grace. It's like our heavenly father posting a sign: "If you're heading in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns!"