WHAT MANNER OF MAN WAS HE ?

I discovered the following monogram (BY Mark Townsend) on my FaceBook page. It was "too good" to allow it to disappear (as most things on FB usually do). It is repeated here "with the Author's permission".

FYI: Mark is a Parish Priest (Open Episcopal Church)
at the Parish of St. Francis and Mother Earth, Diocese of The Midlands, Hereford, Herefordshire, UK


‎(from "Diary of a Heretic")

I’ve been doing a little more theological thinking about the cross. I've always found the cross of Jesus helpful. I still wear two of them. Of course I can't cope with the “his blood washes away my sins” stuff but, rather, I see it as a deep and powerful symbol of the cost of being true to one's own deepest inner call / vocation. For Jesus (the man not the God) it was impossible for him not to offer grace to those to whom religion and politics had given the finger. It was what he knew deep down to be the way, to welcome the un-welcomable, to love the un-loveable. That’s why I can’t buy the idea that Jesus was an Essene either. I mean, those guys were the strictest perfectionists in the area. They wouldn’t have even visited regular people, let alone allowed fallen woman to kiss their feet or touch lepers. They made the Pharisees look like liberals.

Jesus was doing something new. He even parted company with his own teacher / leader John the Baptizer and took the gift of grace into the towns and back alleys from the desert, saying things like “come to me all who thirst.”

And as he welcomed them (the ones at the edge and way outside the box) so he also put his own head on the block with regard to those who ran the boxed up system, those who’d created religious boxes for the “pure” and “worthy” and who held down the lid tightly by sitting down on top.

And as his popularity grew so he became more and more of a threat to the tight buttocked establishment. But even knowing this, he continued undeterred by the reality of what may happen. He died for the sake of love and compassion (not unlike dear Gandhi). His rebellion was simply that he chose to say, in the words of the latter day saint Jeffrey Lebowski (a definite Dude in his footsteps), “fuck it” to the high and mighty, and do his own thing man.

His was a gentle rebellion. No guns. No ultra-left wing terrorism. No holier than thou attacks. Just a simple refusal to be controlled from above and a brave and daring mingling with the messed and muddled up section of society, where he could lovingly give back some of the treasure that had been stolen by the big men who ran the show. Yet it cost him everything!

And I (as a pretty lame follower of this first century Dudely hero) now wear the image of his death with pride. Oh I hate what they (the new messengers of boxed up religion) did with it to be sure. But fuck it I’m going to wear it anyway, because I know what it means to me.

Keeping the Faith in Social Security

Today's post is a serious departure from the usual subject matter that I try to deal with here. This post is not about "God" per se... It is, however about living in the world in a righteous way... and not being a sucker, a sap, or a doormat. Today I want to talk about "Social Gospel" and the most important program that our government has ever established... one that addresses the corporal works of mercy, within the social fabric of government. Today I am speaking about Social Security... and about never letting anything "bad" happen to it. This is the promise. Social Security will be around 100 years from now... IF we don't let a bunch of greedy assholes "privatize" it. And why is there even "talk" about Social Security "being in trouble"? Because the Baby Boomers are starting to retire!. NEWS FLASH: Our elected representatives have known about "the bulge" that would be heading toward retirement years for...oh SIXTY-FIVE YEARS or so! Everybody in elected office has been "kicking the can down the road" with the attitude of let the guys who will be in office when the shit hits the fan sort it out". That's right... they ALL knew that there would be a "retirement bulge" starting around ...now...and lasting about 20 years or so...before population trends would "go back to normal" (whatever that means). And NOBODY (well, ALMOST nobody... but I have to credit Clinton for trying to "save Social Security First" with the big surplus he had amassed, but George W. Bush had "other ideas" and gave it away to his rich friends INSTEAD of using it to shore up Social Security). So...now that SIXTY-FIVE YEARS of seeing the problem coming...has been WASTED by "doing nothing to prepare for the coming bulge"... and NOW they want to queer the deal??? Bullshit! The "full faith and credit of the United States" stands behind the Social Security program...And we ARE NOT letting "Uncle" off the hook. Since all the politicians who saw it coming did nothing to address an EXTREMELY PREDICTABLE crunch, "Uncle" will just have to pay the retirees out of general revenues for the next 20 years, and stop spending our hard earned tax dollars on the Pentagon's latest wet dream.... OR they can raise the maximum income subject to SSI witholdings to $250,000.00 per year, and let the high earners in our society pull some weight for a change... and trust me, if they are earning 1/4 million per year, they CAN AFFORD IT. Bottom Line: Republican Quislings have been "spinning the yarn" that "Social Security wont 'be there' for our kids", and they keep repeating this LIE, hoping that we will fall for it, hoping that they can make OUR FEAR of a failure of the SSI fund panic us into allowing THEM to "privatize" (i.e. "steal") the fund. NO FRIGGIN' WAY! Social Security is THE LAW OF THE LAND, and it will BE THERE for our children's children's children if we INSIST UPON IT. For God's sake don't be frightened out of the most important social protection EVER in these United States... (and ditto with ObamaCare...its not perfect...yet...but it's only just begun. KEEP THE FAITH, GOOD PEOPLE... keep the faith.