It’s important to me to protect the forum of discussion on everyday epistle so people of all views are able to respectfully comment here. In order to do that, all comments will be held in moderation until approved.
Thanks for reading. Please continue to pray God will work in this and in our country as He sees fit. It is my hope we can continue the tradition of the rule of law and the First Amendment, agreeing to disagree with civility and respect for each other.
scarlett macaw, image by rotorod, creative commons license
Admit it. We subscribe to news sources slanted toward our beliefs. We listen to commentators we like. We friend people on Facebook with the unspoken expectation they won’t offend us with their status updates.
We block or unfriend them if they do. We leave snippy comments or stop reading bloggers when they push it too far.
Creating a room full of parrots is a piece of cake. Imagine an island.
Welcome to Parrot Island! Your feathers are lovely. Your feathers are lovely. Your feathers are lovely! Margarita? Margarita? Don’t mind if I do. I do. I do!
Conflict is not my thing. I like to read and relate to folks who see things my way. The world’s all warm and fuzzy when people agree with me.
I don’t have to venture very far offshore before I’m troubled by the other side’s point of view. The surf. The waves. The water. Where’s the drop off? How far does it go down? Is there riptide? Who lives across the water?
Beyond the hype, beyond the labels working or stay-at-home, conservative or liberal, Christian or atheist, gay or straight, there’s a person. And possibly an opportunity.
Another writer with a razor sharp wit. We could spar over dinner. An old classmate who seems like a sibling now. We share years. A stranger who savors mint tea as much as I do. Pour me a cup. Or not.
I may never become best friends with the person on the other side, but we can still be polite. We can agree to disagree. We might even learn something.
I am not a parrot, image by rotorod, creative commons license
Don’t get me wrong, dear readers. I treasure every sweet comment you keyboard as I’m certain do most bloggers.
People thrive on being in community with others who share common interests, goals, and beliefs. It’s unhealthy to remain in relationship with those who abuse you or trample your boundaries.
But I wonder if Wading Across was onto something when he said the folks benefiting the most are those who read all the positions. You know, the ones taking it all in. The ones listening.
And I wonder if their thoughtful comments of agreement or disagreement serve to promote understanding.
Novel concepts, listening and understanding. Might come in handy as we enter the heat of election season. Easier said than done of course. Because birds of a feather flock together.
Care to leave a comment? Don’t mind if I do. I do. I do!
Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Romans 12:18 NLT
Island music with Bob Marley and the Wailers: Stir It Up, little darling.
What do you think can be gained by sharing and listening to different opinions? What can be lost?
This post was syndicated by BlogHer on July 30, 2012.
The ruckus over Chick-fil-A raises the question: Who’s behaving like the hater here?
Chick-fil-A president and chief operating officer Dan Cathy’s recent comments in Baptist Press should come as no surprise. The company is privately owned. In 45 years of existence, their restaurants have never been open on Sundays. They’ve always supported a traditional, Biblical definition of marriage and family.
drive thru
“We intend to stay the course,” said Cathy in the article. “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”
So, let’s see. They haven’t changed their religious views. They aren’t refusing to serve people who disagree. We’re free to express our beliefs in this country.
Why the uproar now?
Chick-fil-A’s charitable donations were being criticized before the Baptist Press published their story. When Cathy reiterated his long-held convictions, in a religious publication mind you, Chick-fil-A critics were poised to pounce.
Another commentator wants public schools and sports facilities to stop doing business with Chick-fil-A because they support families through non-profit groups that share their beliefs. Are you kidding me?
Attacking a successful company is unlikely to change anyone’s mind. It won’t help the economy either. Plus it’s mean.
I suppose I could stop buying clothes from J Crew, write nasty grams on their Facebook page, insist they be thrown out of malls that have received tax breaks, and start picketing their stores.
But that would just make me a bully who’s missing out on some mighty fine fashion, now wouldn’t it?
family night meet-and-greet the cow
Chick-fil-A uses their resources to support and care for families in ways they see fit. That includes contributing to non-profits that share their beliefs.
Speaking from experience, that also includes family activity nights at their restaurants, refreshing beverages for free, and politely carrying trays to tables for mothers like me who have their hands full. Besides, the food is delicious.
I don’t hate gay people. I don’t believe the Cathy family and their franchisees hate gay people. I don’t plan to stop eating at Chick-fil-A anytime soon. I understand if your convictions differ. You can stop eating there if you want.
You’ll be missing out on some mighty fine chicken if you do.
But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. from Joshua 24:15 NLT
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
Walking through Target when a t-shirt catches my eye in the girls’ department.
Excuse me?
I’m a proud member of the MOB (Mothers Of Boys). I don’t see a shirt in the boys’ department reading, “My Skills Make Girls Run.” That would never be tolerated. As a grown-up girl, I’d be unhappy if it were.
Then there’s the sign I saw in Kirkland’s.
Where’s the one reading “Boys Rule: Your IQ Test Has Come Back Negative?” Kirkland’s would be boycotted post-haste if that sign ever made it to the shelves.
sorry. your IQ test has come back negative
The battles for women’s suffrage, educational equality, and Title IX were difficult. Necessary. Admirable.
Is this how we want to do it? By using little girls to demean little boys?
The notion that it’s acceptable to degrade boys isn’t new. I love the old Schoolhouse Rock songs and often feature them in my posts. My seven-year-old son and I can sing the lyrics to nearly all of them.
But there’s a line in Unpack Your Adjectives that makes me want to crawl under the table. My heart breaks as my son laughs along, unaware of the politically-loaded, mean-girl, angry-woman sentiment behind it:
“Girls who are tall can get taller, Boys who are small can get smaller, Till one is the tallest And the other’s the smallest of all.”
This is 2012, not 1950, 1969, 1975 when Unpack Your Adjectives first aired, or Thelma and Louise’s 1991. The vitriol is overkill.
Sisters, hear me when I say I’m indebted to you. Now can we please celebrate the partial victories, keep on keeping on, and leave our kids out of the combat?
you’re right. you’re not worthy
Think about what we’re communicating to our daughters. What we’re allowing to happen to our sons. Will this attitude ameliorate animosity or deepen it? Solve inequality or perpetuate it?
Teach respect. Work for equality. Rise above the hurt and the hate. Burn the cattiness with all the gusto once used to burn the bras.
My son isn’t responsible for your pain. No amount of discrimination justifies using our children as pawns in an ongoing, grown-up fight.
And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:16 NIV
Must have been around 9 p.m. when it began. Shouting rattled our hotel room.
My husband turned up the volume on the TV as the argument continued, peppered with expletives. I picked up the phone.
“Yes, there’s a hostile conversation in the room next door. Well, I think it’s next door. Can you check? It’s really loud.”
We waited. The yelling permeated the walls. My husband called this time.
“Will you send someone up to our floor right away? Sounds like a fight.”
I stood on my toes and watched through the peephole. A man in a uniform appeared and knocked on our neighbors’ door. “Security. Open up.”
A sing-song voice answered. “Everything’s all right in here.”
“Open the door!” said the security guard. He knocked some more, but the door was shut tight and the yelling inside escalated.
“He’s gone!” I said as they guard left. My husband held our wide-eyed son.
elevator going down
The voices cut loose, cursing and screaming. Then we heard what sounded like fists punching a feather pillow in staccato jabs. Thump, thump, thump!
I grabbed the phone again. “This is the third time we’ve called! You have to do something! Call the police! It sounds like he’s hitting her!”
Through the peephole I watched four officers rush the hall.
“Police!” Bang, bang, bang, they pounded on the door. “Open up!”
“I’m scared,” said our son.
Finally our neighbors opened their door. A middle-aged man dressed in pajamas marched out into the hallway. The police checked his identification.
in the hallway
“Who’s in the room?”
“My wife.”
“Were you yelling at your wife?”
“Yes.”
“You argue with your wife a lot?”
“No.”
“You ever hit your wife?”
“Never.”
An officer entered the room. Minutes later, he came out of the room, released the husband, and the police left.
Guess she didn’t want to press charges. No law against punching pillows, right?
clean up, exit
The room next door was quiet the rest of the night, but our room lost sleep.
Our neighbors were gone by morning. Our business-class hotel was apologetic. No harm done, right?
You keeping things on the down-low? Think no one will ever find out what’s done in secret? Don’t kid yourself.
Sin is never a private affair.
Our behavior impacts those around us. Boils over. Burns bystanders as well as those in our line of fire. Leaves us all in dire need of redemption.
You spread out our sins before You—
our secret sins—and You see them all. Psalm 90:8 NLT
In America, one in four women and one in nine men will suffer physical or emotional violence at the hands of an intimate partner (Centers for Disease Control, 2008).
If you or someone you know is being abused or is an abuser, please reach out for help. Contact local authorities, your pastor, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or TTY 1-800-787-3224.
What does it mean that secret sin isn’t really secret?
Recently I ventured into the 630s and 338.19s at the downtown branch of the Wichita Public Library. Those are the Dewey Decimal call numbers for farming and production.
I was looking for a book that could help me address the concerns of yet another well-intentioned friend who watched Food, Inc. and hit the panic button.
Instead of books about the dignity of farming and food production, here’s a sample of the titles I found:
The End of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Food Supply–And What You Can Do About It
Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit
Stuffed & Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil
Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
Really?
Did you eat today? How about yesterday? Last year? Do you plan to eat again?
Did you have trouble finding food? Or did you have your choice of food at your choice of markets? Is someone preventing you from growing your own food if you want to do so?
I know your food didn’t kill you or you wouldn’t be reading this.
steak
I have a child. To borrow a line of reasoning from Katie Pinke, because I have a child, do you think I abuse him? How about my dog? Do you assume I abuse her?
If you have children or animals, should I assume you abuse them? How about livestock or poultry? If a farmer raises livestock or poultry, is it a foregone conclusion that those animals are abused?
Did you find insects in your produce? How about fungi on your fruit? Was your corn sweet and robust or wimpy and weedy? Was it dripping with chemicals?
Bad things happen in agriculture. There are accidents and outbreaks. There are crimes. Sometimes animals are abused. Sometimes people die.
There’s always room for improvement.
Bad things happen at local swimming pools. And at city halls. In factories. Police departments. Schools. Daycares. Animal shelters. Fortune 500 companies. Convenience stores.
There are accidents and outbreaks. There are crimes. Sometimes animals are abused. Sometimes people die. There’s always room for improvement.
Bad things happen, but they’re not the norm.
They’re certainly not the intention of the majority of people who work in these sectors. Crimes should be prosecuted. Innocent people shouldn’t be attacked.
Research, funding, and lifetimes of labor by dedicated farmers go into improving farming and our food. The result is one of the safest, most plentiful, least expensive food supplies in history. We have choices of what to eat.
Surely there must be something right about farming and food.
Much of what’s wrong appears to be grown and harvested on a bookshelf of misinformation. And don’t even get me started about what’s on the internet.
radicchio
Show me the right path, O Lord;
point out the road for me to follow. Psalm 25:4 NLT
The Farmer’s Song by Murray McLaughlin. Thanks for the meal, here’s a song that is real from a kid from the city to you.
I snapped the food photos in this post at The Fresh Market in Wichita, where conventional, organic, homegrown, and imported foods are sold from the same shelves.
What’s your take on this? What are your concerns about farming and food? What would you like to stay the same? What would you like to change?
I have a tiny bone to pick with Wellesley High School English teacher David McCullough’s assessment, “You’re not special.”
You’ve probably heard about McCullough’s “You’re Not Special” commencement speech. Delivered on June 1, the speech quickly went viral.
king of the world?
It’s not hard to understand why this speech appeals to folks. Much of what we teach our children and how we treat them hinges on overprotection. We work very hard to prevent bad things from happening to them. We do all we can to ensure their success. We treat them as if they are, well, special.
They may get the idea they are entitled to a life of ease without frustration. But the real world doesn’t work that way.
If you’ve ever struggled to earn a paycheck, overcome a hardship, or climb out of a dysfunction, you know life can be tough. The world is no respecter of persons when it comes to fairness. The sun rises and the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous, the special and the ordinary.
As an occasional helicopter parent, I agree with the gist of McCullough’s speech. But it troubles me for another reason.
I cringe because the speech’s implication is as dangerous as what it argues against.
“You see, if everyone is special, then no one is,” said McCullough. In order to be special, we must do something special. Our worth depends on our performance.
And if no one is special, then is every one replaceable? Disposable even? If only those who perform and do something special—if only those have worth—who’s to say what’s to become of the rest of us?
Our children, including the young adults graduating from Wellesley High School this year, are special to their families. Or at least they should be. They’re special to their country as our best natural resource. Or at least they should be.
Most assuredly, they’re special to God. So are you and I.
With God, your worth doesn’t depend on what you do or don’t do. He created you, so you have intrinsic value. He loves you, so you have worth. He died and rose to save your life, so your life is beyond price.
all hands on deck
Maybe it’s semantics. I wish McCullough would have said, “You’re not entitled.” Of course that doesn’t sound nearly as provocative as, “You’re not special.”
And I suppose he’s right. Performance is our measure in this world’s economy.
Thank God it’s not our measure in His eyes.
God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT
This is not a political blog. If you want to know how to vote, there are plenty of other websites that will be more than happy to tell you.
red state vote 2012
Am I thrilled with either of the presidential candidates? Not really. Does that change my responsibility? Not really.
The larger question is, am I an American citizen who cares about my country? The answer is yes and the mission is clear: VOTE.
As ugly as campaigns get, the vote is sacred. Your ballot is secret, between you and God.
You could go from here to November without revealing your opinion about the issues or publicly throwing your support behind a candidate. Or you could shout your convictions from the rooftops. Doesn’t matter. When you cast your ballot on November 6, 2012, your vote will speak as loudly as Bill Maher’s, Rush Limbaugh’s, Rachel Maddow’s, or Ann Coulter’s.
blue state vote 2012
To me, that’s something to be excited about.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, use these months before election day to prepare. Get registered. Get informed. Get ready.
With courage for the process and respect for the privilege—without getting wrapped up in the histrionics—prayerfully, politely, powerfully, prepare to VOTE.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13 NIV
I can’t choose just one favorite Schoolhouse Rock song, but Shot Heard ‘Round the World comes close. “The continental rabble took the day!”
Please feel free to use the VOTE 2012 images from this post in your social media.
What does voting mean to you? Are you excited about it? Why or why not? If you are raising children, how will you talk with them about the election and voting?
Make a grand motion like running for office, or a quieter foray like taking a stand on an issue, and you feel it.
When you become involved, you expose yourself to attack. You lay your values on the line and offer yourself as a sacrifice for your convictions.
I suppose if you’re a fighter, nothing’s more exciting than the battle. The mudslinging, name calling, and scandal are all part of the game.
But at times, watching it bothers me. I think it bothers a lot of us. It’s scary. Hurtful. Unsettling and dangerous.
So we shy away from stating a position. Tread water in the middle, hoping no one will ask our opinion. Justify ourselves by thinking our views are personal and no one’s business. The personal is the political, after all.
We shield ourselves with tolerance. And we NEVER ever run for public office.
A friend of mine boldly stepped out and got involved on a local level. She took a stand and instantly made enemies in her own community. In her own party. From across the miles, I watch as she and her family are maligned.
Another friend of mine needs to run for office. He has the background, reasoning, patience, and wisdom to lead well. His life’s work demonstrates a love for his community. He would serve it selflessly.
But he hesitates. Is running for public office worth the beating that comes with it when real change seems next to impossible?
It’s tempting in this heated political climate to spew at the other side. Easy to take shots at politicians. I know because I’m ashamed to admit I’ve done it.
Those who run for office or take a stand on an issue are a brave lot, even if—especially if we disagree with them. They hold the frontline of our republic.
Capitol Rotunda
As Americans, we are all citizen soldiers in the fight to preserve our country. We can serve with our lives like people in the military. We can serve with our work like civil servants. Or we can serve with our votes, our taxes, and our abiding by the laws of the land.
It’s an election year. Prime time for us citizen soldiers to live out our heritage. Stand brave in the face of conflict.
We disagree because we can. Thank God for that privilege. With civility and respect, with the steady voice of our convictions and the sure voice of our votes, let’s keep it that way.
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with My victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10 NLT
as seen at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.; Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. (December 18, 1912 – July 4, 2002) was a United States Air Force general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen.5 days left
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