Hodge-podge

Moving has started the inner monologue or whatever you want to call this increased thought process. Looking at pictures, deciding if the wallpaper from the orphanage bathroom is really something I want to keep. I now have two large boxes of paper recycling, cardboard etc and three large boxes of stuff to give away - so if you are interested in all my MCAT stuff from Kaplan you can have it - personally I'm tempted to burn it. I also have box of textbooks I haven't been able to sell - if you wondering about the title on the blue one it's Theoretical Inorganic Chemistry very useful for transitional metals theory, although it's old. All this remembering has made me feel lonely - I was talking to Dr. Sara about this, and while Cheryl grumbles when I bemoan singledom, it isn't the fact that I'm single that's an issue there are just nights or even days when you feel like your life has this void. Fundamentally we are interactive, and need interaction despite what we would like to hold on to - and this whole moving transition is the removal of an interaction knowing that there maybe very little to fill it. The flip side being there is very little to distract from the gaps, holes in this developing self.

I started this blog with the hopes that I would be able to write my way through a growth period - knowing full well that I need to come to grips with being 25 and nowhere close to what I thought I would, like moving. I was sure I would be married before it would happen again, I guess I'm learning nothing is sure - there are no guarantees...

On to the other side of the stuff going on in my brain - I was reading the Business section of today's newspaper, the main article was talking about Elizabeth Arden's/Britney Spear's fragrance's appropriation of a BC firm's marketing slogan. This firm sells t-shirts and products from which 1 dollar goes to the charity of your choice. Okay, this smells of the GAP's AIDS fundraiser where being "charitable" became a fashion statement while increasing GAP profits. Explain how a product price doubles - like their jeans but the donation price is a pittance? It frustrates me, as many things do, when there are organizations that donate the majority of their funds i.e. http://www.bloodwatermission.com/ granted they are a Christian organization, so if you have a problem with it - then go with Oxfam or another related organization. There are hundreds of reputable organizations working outside of the consumerist culture - so while you do buy your free-trade organic coffee or what have you from Starbucks consider other firms, local and more grassroots - like Ethical Bean from Vancouver- their Family Blend donates to Adoption Services of BC, not to mention they are carbon neutral... speaking of coffee I need another cup of their Folk Festival blend - smells like chocolate.

As well this discussion of Dobson et. al - leadership is a very defined role within Scripture, and yes leadership is of importance. But the key note is that it is to be Godly leadership - and a concern with mega churches, capitalism and a complete ignorance of true need in N. America right now is not that. Concerns should be with the health - physical first, spiritual second and economic dead last of the population - in that there is an obesity epidemic - we over eat to fill the voids - and yet we do nothing to address those issue - poor living conditions, inadequate access to education and health care. The success of the white middle America has come on the backs of everyone else - be them the poor, the Migrant workers or the African American population. We've missed that the first shall be last, and the last first in our grapple for the biggest portion of the pie. The other aspect to leadership is a population that must be able to discern false prophets - I don't know if I am prepared to go as far as saying Dobson is, but he's sure pushing the envelope. 1 Peter 2: 3 (NIV) "In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up." In addition the focus on wealth/capitalism is a clear throughout the Scriptures. I am not without fault - but the first step here is acknowledging and then making the small but meaningful steps towards change. The first meaningful step is for our population to grab a hold of their faith - and start thinking and learning for themselves.

This is why I'm moving...

We've been watching for the most part the "God's Warrior's" Special on CNN - not out of a desire, but I guess research would be the best description. Research may not be the correct term either, as while Christiane Amanpour is for the most part out of the Americanize scope of CNN, she's still on CNN, nor would I take her documentary as "gospel truth." Regardless, it has been a sad couple of nights. The Jewish warriors - aided by misguided Churches in N.America who believe in the Zionist mentality, and their counterpart - the Muslim Warriors, with moderates apparently few and far between. However the "warriors" that offended and saddened me the most of course were the Christian warriors - the Moral Majority/Religious Right - the population are lemmings lead around by men who represent everything that is wrong with the US and even to some extent Canada. In essence a synecdoche, Falwell or Dobson or Robinson - take your pick, portray Christianity as a blinders on, empty headed, status quo, patriarchal/anti-feminist, pro-Republican, pro-Capitalist, white middle class religion. It's not, never has been, nor should it have ever become one. It is at its heart - controversial, it is not concerned with popularity contests - it's a take it as it is -all of it, or leave it - that's fine with me. I took it on, maybe you haven't and that's your choice. Just as it's my choice to ensure my vote is my vote - not my marionette pastor's - thank -you Greg Boyd for taking a stand on that. For the record I did vote Green in the last Federal Election - Green? Yes, sure it was a protest vote, but that's my choice. My heavily active with the Conservative Party family was of course unimpressed.

So the reason why I want to move - while my mother seconded my Amen to Boyd's message, she cringed when Rev. Richard Cizik was introduced. For those of you who do not know of him, he is one of the leading Evangelical voices in the campaign against Global Warming and Pro-Environmental under the premise we were gifted the Earth and designated to be stewards - and we aren't (the foundational premise behind me being vegan -but whatever). One of his most vocal opponents is Dr. James Dobson. Now, I have to confess I have not ever been a fan of Dobson - he's far too Conservative and egotistical for my taste - I find he functions on a sexist platform demanding the minds via the hearts of his followers. Fortunately I have been able to find the quote from a radio address, that made its way into the documentary "The Great Warming,"

“Cizik is convinced that global warming should be the most important social issue that confronts us,” Dobson reported. “In fact, he has stated last week that those who are skeptical of global warming are immoral, that is pretty close to being a quote.” Dobson complained that Cizik was elevating global warming over defense of marriage, sanctity of life, God in the public square and teen-age sexual abstinence. Dobson worried that anti-emissions regulations that Cizik supports would “paralyze industry and put millions of people out of work.” The “net effect” of proposed international regulation of emissions, targeting the U.S. but omitting much of the world, is “anti-capitalistic and an underlying hatred for America,” Dobson alleged. (http://www.examiner.com/ - Mark Tooley).

Anti-Capitalist? What the #%&*@, since when has Christianity had even a shred to do with Capitalism? Let's recall here: rich man parable, tax collectors, angry Jesus in the temple courts, poor/subsistence apostles... last time I checked Jesus didn't set up a company specializing in personalized wine vessels as method sharing him message. If you happen to find one, I would be happy to change my opinion. Rather he used the most basic and sincere method, He lived it outside of all that could overshadow. So began the bickering that ensues in our house - the hippy liberal save the world child vs. her conservative, let the government and my taxes do the work parents. I don't believe any structure should or will ever be responsible for my faith - in that home school or private Christian schools, especially as universities are a travesty. Yes, I did attend a private school through high school - but I was blessed with very liberal teachers - how they got in there God only knows - Mr. T who spent years teaching juvenile offenders in Michigan, Ms. Patekau who was just fine with independence and singledom, Mr. Rauser who's Masters in English started a fire - primarily with his passionate readings of Atwood's "A Photograph of Me" - we read as controversial as could be pushed literature and even Mr. Neufeld.... The heart of a private education is not to avoid what is out there - the world - we are ultimately to be a light on hill, not a cloistered, spineless feeble minded fool. Children raised in a society without challenge or dimension to their beliefs are ultimately punished in the long run. At the university level to believe that a Christian education is equivalent to an secular one is outrageous. A peer from high school graduated with an English degree from one of two acredited Christian universities in Canada - when questioned about her readings I was not entirely shocked to hear that she had read none of the same books - no feminist or no Canadian literature, no Booker/PEN Hemingway/Giller prize winners - nothing - just vanilla junk. How can we be the same when she was never challenged, rather read censored material? Horrible!

I never intended that this would morph into this and I haven’t even discussed the whole Creationism debate – simply I’m an evolutionary creationist – the Bible is not to be taken literally on the creation issue – as it’s a visual depiction given to Moses – he was not there. The direct translation that 7 days must be 7 days is absurd. And lastly science while fallible through the years has made a decidedly consistent case for evolution. I don’t believe we arose from the primordial sludge, however, we’ve most definitely changed – even humans, just look back over the centuries as conditions have improved our bodies have changed – transfer that over hundreds of thousands etc. of years and change is most definitely possible – science and faith are not mutual exclusive.

Needless to say after all the heated discussion from my opinion the book should be thrown or maybe even used to beat Vick, and that justice is not longer blind - but rather consumed with Perez Hilton to the religion issue. In the end I do believe there are more important battles then the sanctity of marriage (you'd be more likely to see me supporting a GLBT group then any right wing Christian group), abstinence training (just because the Bible says No, isn't going to cut it) or whatever is being touted as the disease affecting America, when it's the slight imperfection on the surface of a fruit rotten to the core - I'm tired of being a heretic in training. I want to be one, don't get me wrong - but not by picking battles with my parents - they fight enough as it is.