You, Me and Traditional Marriage: UPDATED

Sometimes I am slow and so I did not get this emblem embedded until today.  I did write this on the day (actually I think just before) this was the day.  No matter - this is especially for the Central Valley folks.  I saw one No on Prop 8 and about a dozen Yes on Prop 8 commercials and I am frustrated that anyone thinks that somehow the passage of this proposition will do anything but create a permanent rank of second class citizens.  So let me steal the following from a good friend and blogger cany --

I also borrowed this from cany -- thanks and a hat tip to you -- I would like for everyone to concentrate on keeping our democracy free rather than attempting some back door process to screw up the first ten amendments.  

Please, if you have not read this yet read on but more to the point -- when you are finished go directly to your sample ballot mark the no block on Prop 8 and take the sample ballot to your polling place when you go.  Do not let hate and fear get the better of us -- we are all much better than that!

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I/We have been married for over 38 years.  I am unclear on how the passage of Proposition 8 will restore my "traditional marriage".  In fact, I did not know I had a traditional marriage.  At great personal risk, I always thought I was just married.
 
I do know this about our marriage. There is a feeling that at some point in time overtakes one.  I am not sure when it happens, maybe right away, maybe after a while or maybe after some profound experience.  I do not know when.  I do know that when I turn to my spouse and say something, only to find that she is not there, I get a deep, pit of the stomach ache that hurts like the dickens.  I think of the time when she will not ever be there and it brings tears to my eyes.  I cannot imagine a time when she would not be there.  It is quite literally, not within my world view. I hope you all understand what I mean by world view.  World view meaning: if gravity suddenly disappeared and I flew off the face of the earth it would be no less startling than not having my wife with me. 

I believe that anyone who has been married has this same experience from time to time.  It is not unique to me and it is not unique to you.  Would you wish that feeling on anyone else?  I cannot imagine me going through that let alone anyone else.  We, you, me, us in California have the power to end some of those terrible feelings.  Not forever and not for everyone but for some and for a lot of the time.  All you and I and our spouses and our friends and our neighbors have to do is on Tuesday, go to your polling place and vote NO on Proposition 8.  Let us all do something of lasting value.  Listen to what follows and then go to the pools on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 and vote NO on Proposition 8.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Sunday with James Taylor

James Taylor's classic Fire and Rain, a lovely version here with a little cello addition. Though a romantic legend surrounds this song, much of it is about Taylor's personal battle with addiction and despair. Please pray today for those snared by addiction - and thank God for those released to live new lives.

God's love

"We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God’s love."
-Henri Nouwen, Bread For the Journey, 1996

Sunday Music

Katherine Jenkins with the Morriston Tabernacle Chapel congregation, Wales, singing the hymn Here is Love Vast as the Ocean.



Peace and love, like mighty rivers,
Flowed incessant from above.
Heaven's peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.

Proposition 8

I am writing this from the heart of Southern California. We have mentioned this proposition here before. It is October 17 and we are less than a month away from the election. We have run a couple of the most pointed youtube type ads we could find. California has been labelled as one of the most liberal states in the union and yet this proposition still hangs in the balance. As you read this article ask yourself, "How does the marriage of two committed persons affect your life personally? I suggest it does not. Now ask yourself, "How does the marriage of two committed persons affect THEIR lives?" The answer must be in ways we can only imagine. So, what is so hard about permitting each and every person to enjoy fully the rights and privileges we should all enjoy.
How is your life affected when someone else cannot enjoy the full rights and privileges everyone else does? I suggest you/we are the lesser for that. When one person is harmed we are all harmed.

VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 8

Mid-week, somebody was praying -

for you, for me. Darn, it works!

Do listen through to the end, it's the best part.

A Favorite Hymn

Blessings to all this Sabbath Day...sing along even if you can't carry a tune, #657...

Sneaky :-) help those in need

We all know people who are living on the margins in the best of times - willing to work, but dependent upon piece or contract work that doesn't always pay high wages. That type of person is hurting now, and all of us want to help out in some way without worrying about hurting another's dignity.

In hard times, people often go without food and medicine to pay the rent. These aren't just stories in the newspaper, it's going on all around you. In harsh times our sense of community must grow, and sometimes that means looking a bit closer to home.

Many of you know that feeding the hungry is my way of answering Christ's call to help our neighbors. Here are a couple of easy ways to help those around you that you know, and don't want to embarrass. Intentional leftovers can become a habit; make a huge pot of hearty soup or stew, and have a "full freezer." If you don't cook much: go grocery shopping and when a little extra cash, and buy gift cards. You can slip them in an unsigned greeting card and mail them, or put the card under someone's front door. (Yes, I've been "outed" on the gift cards, but no one has ever been upset). If someone wants to repay your generosity, let them help at odd hours with their own talents - such as handyman work, sewing buttons on all those shirts you have set aside, or teaching you a skill such as knitting. Spending time with someone a bit different than your usual friends is a lot of fun - at the very least, then have some stories you haven't heard a hundred times!

We all have different talents we can share, yours may be different. Look around for those in need, and you will find yourself walking with the Lord and doing his work here on earth. Better than breaker annointing to call up the presence of the Spirit, I guarantee.

Peace to all this day.

Sentimental Sunday Music

Listen for the wonderful bass...a favorite old tune for yours truly: I Guess it Never Hurts to Hurts to Hurt Sometimes. Dedicated to our brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh - and everyone who is hurting today.



I think this is the Oak Ridge Boys at their finest. About 25 years ago I was in a city I didn't like (Las Vegas), and was talked into going to a country music concert - a genre that left me cold. Imagine my surprise when I became an Oak Ridge Boys fan a few songs into the concert...and this was the song I remembered best when I returned home. Don't you just want that bass in your choir?

Bishop Katharine Live - Oct. 5, 2008

Steaming hot - *streaming* video alert: the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, will be at the Washington National Cathedral this Sunday, October 5, 2008. She will be the Cathedral's Sunday Forum guest at 10:10 a.m.(The State of the Episcopal Church: 2008), and preacher at the 11:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist service.

I suspect the D.C. crowd will be well-informed, so expect a lively exchange with the Presiding Bishop. The email I received states questions will be answered from online viewers as well as the live attendees. I know this isn't a convenient time for many people, but I suspect a video will be available later in the day. What great timing - the day after the Pittsburgh vote.

*Hat tip to Fred, who noticed the original text's typo (announcing a "steaming" video alert); I just had to keep some of the joke intact. See comments...and my apologies to the PB, I'm sure all propriety will be maintained...

CANA Land "Surprise!"/Stealing the Silver

A local newspaper is reporting TEC's Historic Christ Church, Alexandria, might actually hold the title to land claimed by The Falls Church. If true, this includes the land with their original brick chapel, part of the sanctuary complex.

Our Fred has some fiery words for those other, Donatist Anglicans about stealing TEC assets and dioceses in a great post entitled "Stealing the Silver." He even went Biblical,quoting from Matthew and Mark.

For this and other goodies, pop over to our other blog: Real Anglicans.