I Speak of Dreams

Christianity In Trouble

The Holy Trinity are breaking up

Holy Trinity to Break-up
Father, Son will remain; Holy Spirit to launch solo career Rome, Italy. - The long-rumored break-up of The Holy Trinity became fact yesterday, when The Holy Spirit held a press conference to announce his departure from the group. The other members of The Holy Trinity were not immediately available for comment. The break-up rocked the theological community, casting doubt on the belief that the Holy Trinity was not really a trio, but rather one God revealing himself in three ways.
Citing “artistic differences”, The Holy Spirit said that the trio had been bickering for years, and that he feels that the break-up will be best for all three members of the original power trio. “Even though we are all kind of the same God, we were stuck in a rut, artistically and personally. We’ve basically been doing the same thing for thousands of years”, said The Holy Spirit, “but we had a very popular and successful run, and I think we did a lot of great things together.”

Scott is blaming Yoko Ono

What I think is sad is the disclaimer on the blue brick site:

The Blue Brick is a newspaper parody and satire website. This is not an actual news site.

Evidently, people will believe anything:

Microsoft Buys The Catholic Church

Headcovering Christian Women

I do not understand the fundamentalist mindset.  I have to seek understanding, because it is this way of being in the world that is becoming more dominant all the time.  Perhaps Christian fundamentalists are my way in to understanding, as at least I have been exposed to Christian doctrine. 

(Note: by "veils" the following means a partial or total covering of the hair, not the face.)
In 1983, the Lord directed the ladies in our family (there are five of us) to wear the head veiling in obedience to an ordinance in 1 Corinthian 11."

Testimony on beginning to cover from another woman
Then, the issue at hand...the headcovering. I approached my husband about it and asked his interpretation of 1 Cor. 11. He read it and said the covering it spoke of was the hair. I said okay, but my spirit would not rest. I spent the next year researching, studying, reading, and praying. I read commentaries, articles, and books. I joined a headcovering loop for a while, and asked more questions. They were all so patient with me, and helped me in my understanding even more. About a year later, I shared with him all my research. He read the verses again in different translations even, and said the covering mentioned was the hair.

Now, I was at a crisis of belief. Was I going to submit to my husband's interpretation? Was I supposed to just take all the information I had gathered, and just toss it? I prayed so much for guidance. How could I not submit to my husband on this? I had been taught to submit, and I was sharing with others on submission.

God's words rang in my spirit: It is better to obey than to sacrifice ( 1 Samuel 15:22 )...If you love me, keep my commandments ( John 14:15) ....let her be covered ( 1 Cor. 11: 6b) I asked my husband's permission, and he reluctantly agreed to a 2 week trial. I was so thrilled!!

So, I officially began covering on April 2, 2000. Was it easy? No. It quite possibly was more difficult than chemotherapy!! My husband was so angry with me. He was insulting to me, mocked me, and laughed at me. He hated the headcovering so much. I was not prepared for his reaction. He would not walk with me in stores, and he stopped introducing me to his peers. He did everything he could to make me take it off. He even questioned our future together as husband and wife. I was so frightened!! I desperately clung to the Lord during all this. I was constantly in prayer, in tears... being persecuted by my best friend. My other friends were not much better. They could not understand why I would purposely disrupt my happy home for a piece of cloth on my head.

I was so ashamed. Surely no other husband would be so cruel! I found out I was not alone. Many sisters shared the same pain as me. Eventually, my husband asked me to forgive for his angry outbursts. He said it was as if he was watching himself and hearing himself say these hurtful things, but he was not doing it. We both felt satan was up to something there.

Later, my husband had lunch with a man that basically told him he did not have a leg to stand on. He taught him about the covering. The Lord sent this dear man on my behalf!! He told my husband how fortunate he was to have a wife who wanted to please the Lord in this way!! My husband heard and received this teaching. He came home again, and gave me permission to follow the Lord as He led me. He said he felt he had no choice. There was wisdom in his words. I believe we must obey God over man (Acts 5:29)

I still don't understand, on a conscious level.  Around here (Silicon Valley) you are more likely to see a devout Muslim woman, with modest dress and at least hair covered, than the Mennonite or Amish style of veiling.

A message for Dawn Eden

Dawn Eden wrote (relative tho the vile behavior of Abercrobie & Fitch, and the boycott):

With a company as intransigent as Abercrombie & Fitch, a boycott may be the only thing they understand. However, I believe that if more people were unafraid to take a stand and register simple disapproval with businesses and individuals who purvey sexual messages to children and teens, at least a few of those purveyors would find a way of expressing themselves in a less prurient manner.

For a Christian like myself, it can be difficult to imagine how, without faith, large numbers of people could be moved to vocally resist the popular culture's morally destructive messages. But I believe it is possible to appeal to the higher sensibilities of those who have different faiths or no faith, without diluting the objective.

As for myself (not particularly faithful Episcopalian), it is because popular culture is so vile.

Encountering First Nations Cultures With Respect

[a person on one of the lists I frequent] wrote, [snip] "I've occasionally had a vision of what appears to be a kind and gentle Native American, who's named "Uhmgoo" wearing Indian garb made from pure white feathers."[snip]

I responded, [Name of person] I am sure you did not mean to cause offense. However, here are some pointers to what many Native Americans feel about non-Indians usurping what the non-Indians assume to be Native American religious practice.

Native American [First Nations, American Indian] spirituality
[snip] This page is to discuss the borrowing of Native American spiritual rituals. This issue has become a grave and very sensitive issue to many of us. They say that imitation the sincerest form of flattery, but we don't view it this way. While I feel that learning about others views is a good thing, borrowing from our beliefs or otherwise bastardizing them is a very insulting and bad thing to do.

Gohiyuhi means respect in Cherokee.
The goal of this website to educate people about the myth of 'Native American Spirituality'. That there is, essentially, no such thing. Every Nation has their own spiritual beliefs and practices. Some of them are as close to each other as say, Protestantism and Catholicism, some are as far apart as Hinduism and Shintoism. Each are unique and beautiful. You can not learn them through workshops or reading books, because they are practiced by communities, for the communities.

We are all familar with the typical stereotypes of Native Americans.
[snip] We are so used to seeing the Land o'Lakes Indian maiden, the various school mascots, mascots of professional sports teams, etc. that we forget what effect these images have on the ideas we have of the people they represent, or on the personal image of the children of these people as they must learn to live in this society. [snip] Here we present a reading list for those who would like to learn about real Native Americans, from Native American writers writing both fiction and non-fiction. We hope you will gain a far better sense of who the people who populated this continent before the invasion that began in 1492 occured.

Techniques for Evaluating American Indian Web Sites

American Indian peoples live in the real world, and Web sites by and about Indian peoples live on the Web. Just as Indians are sometimes treated fairly in the real world, the Web contains sites that show Indians in respectful ways with accurate information, quality products to sell, and as whole human beings with real lives. Just as Indian peoples are sometimes treated wrongly in the real world, the Web also contains sites that use inaccurate and damaging "information", and portray Native peoples as either less or more than human, or as products to be exploited and sold in some fashion (especially Native spirituality).

Declaration of War against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality [In 1993] At the Lakota Summit V, an international gathering of US and Canadian Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nations, about 500 representatives from 40 different tribes and bands of the Lakota unanimously passed a "Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality."