Can't we all just get along

A painting of President Obama in white face.

A photograph of President Obama with a Hitler mustache.

A sign that says essentially: This [picture] is an African lion and he [President Obama] is a lyin' African.

And none of this is racist? Yeah, right.

They say they want to take our country back. From whom? The black guy in the White House? Those of us who (this time) legitimately elected the president? You lost. Get over it. Take an anger management class and a racial sensitivity class, and send away for the Hawaiian newspaper clipping that shows Barack Hussein Obama was born in America, not Kenya (which would make him an African-American, not an African). He doesn't want to kill old people or take away your guns. He just wants to provide healthcare for all Americans and reduce the huge deficit left by W. He deserves time to do that without people harping at him, don't you think?

The Death Of Truth

They say truth is stranger than fiction, but what about when truth IS fiction. Lots of people are showing up at town hall meetings held across the country by senators and representatives. As the senators and representatives begin talking, these people, mostly old people, begin shouting about how President Obama wants to kill old people with something called, "Death Panels." The fact that he doesn't just seems to make them shout the lie even louder.

One senator, after hearing the crowd say they oppose "socialized medicine," asked how many were on Medicare. Almost everyone raised their hands. She then asked, since Medicare is "socialized medicine," how many want to give up their Medicare. No one raised their hand.

Jesus said, "the truth will set you free." But these people wouldn't know the truth if it sat up and bit them on their Depends.

The Eye Of Newt

Well, it's all over for President Obama. I just read online that Newt Gingrich says Barack Obama has failed as president, because he hasn't been able to undo 8 years of depressing Bush Administration economic policies in a mere 4 months. Ah, the eye of Newt never misses a trick, so to speak. 20 years of the past 28 years and 4 months have seen Republicans in the White House, and yet it's a Democratic president's fault that he hasn't been able, in a third of a year, to repair the drip, drip, drip of the leaky faucet known as conservative trickle-down economics.

Perhaps we need to give President Obama a year or two to fix the GOP mess. Republicans should know it takes time to do things. After all, George W. Bush had nearly 8 years to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. And how'd that go?

The Pope & The Holocaust

The Pope visited Jerusalem recently. Critics say he did not appear compassionate or contrite about the Holocaust. They wanted the Pope to apologize for the Catholic Church's complicity with or indifference to the Nazi death camps. I remember reading how guards would attend Mass on Sunday morning and exterminate Jews in the afternoon. (Of course, I imagine many guards were Protestants, too.)

It took the Catholic Church centuries to apologize for its treatment of Galileo, who had the audacity to proclaim that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than the other way around, as the Bible indicates. 

This Pope, who was a member of the Hitler Youth (yikes!), is apparently not about to apologize anytime soon for the Catholic Church's role in the Holocaust. Too bad. 

Legalize marijuana

Why is it illegal to use marijuana? Does it cause more deaths than cigarettes? Alcohol?

A Grand Valley State University student was recently shot by a cop when authorities raided his apartment after he sold undercover officers $60 worth of pot. Is that a lot of pot? Does it make him some kind of drug lord?

I admit I don't understand Michigan's new medical marijuana law, but couldn't the student have said he sold the marijuana strictly for medicinal purposes?

Couldn't America follow the example of Ann Arbor and make possession or sale of small amounts of marijuana (like $60 worth?) punishable by a small fine? That would still make it illegal, but would signal to police they need to find bigger fish to fry (or to shoot somebody over). Next, maybe we could decriminalize all drugs and make their use a health issue rather than a legal issue. 

Where have these protesters been?

On April 15, anti-tax folks appeared like mushrooms after a spring rain. Nobody likes paying taxes, but these folks seemed to be about more than just that. They complained about Barack Obama being a socialist or a communist or a fascist. Where have they been the last 8 years? The president they supported took a budget surplus from Bill Clinton and turned it into a huge deficit. He drove the economy into the deepest ditch since the Great Depression. He invaded a sovereign nation, Iraq, shedding U.S. soldiers' blood and innocent Iraqi citizens' blood and hundreds of billions of tax dollars. And for what? No weapons of mass destruction. He ignored international law, supported torture, denied prisoners' rights, wiretapped U.S. citizens. And Barack Obama is a fascist? 

Barack Obama is trying to fix the mess he inherited from the previous president. It's going to take a while to see much progress. And yes, he's going to raise taxes on the have-lots rather than on the have-nots for the same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks: because that's where the money is.

As for the tax-day protests, this was a "grass roots" effort in name only. These folks were expertly manipulated by the rich, the Republicans and a certain right-wing news channel. This wasn't a movement from the bottom up, this was a movement from the Fox down. 

We'll have a gay old time

I'm going to be performing my first gay wedding (lesbian actually) in August. I can't wait! They asked me if I'd do a commitment ceremony for them. I said: I don't know what that is. I don't do commitment ceremonies or civil unions, I do weddings. Period. I marry Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve. I join two people who vow to love each other forever in holy matrimony. That's it. They were thankful for that.

I've wanted to do a gay wedding since I was in seminary a few years ago. In fact (hee, hee, hee), in preaching class, when we had to preach a wedding sermon, I preached a gender-neutral wedding sermon. I married Chris and Pat. One of my classmates wrote on my evaluation, "Chris and Pat?" The next day I asked him what he meant. He said, "I just wanted you to know that somebody got it." LOL!

I look forward to the day when I say, "You are now married in the eyes of your families and friends and you are now married in the eyes of God. God bless your marriage. I now pronounce you Kaity and Kim. You may now kiss your beloved. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the world's newest newlyweds, Kaity and Kim!" 

 

Obviously and unfortunately, they can't get a wedding license in Michigan, but that's not going to stop me from performing their wedding. (Promise me you'll visit me in jail.)

Same-Sex Marriage

Iowa? Iowa has legalized same-sex marriage? I can only imagine people in California saying: You mean Iowa is more progressive than we are? Maybe we should re-think banning gay marriage. 

The end of homophobia is on the horizon. Justice for all God's children - straight and gay - now seems closer than ever. As a pastor who supports marriage equality I say: Hallelujah! 

Although, I just thought of something. I was married a couple months ago. My wife and I are happy now, but once gays are allowed to marry in Davenport - OMG! - that could threaten my marriage in Michigan!  (Yeah, right.)

The Bible says, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one." And now, in Iowa at least, we can add, "And there is no longer straight and gay, for all of you are one also." Thank God! 

The Sabbath

Probably one of the silliest debates ever is: which day is the Sabbath? Friday night? Saturday? Sunday? Shouldn't we treat every day as the Sabbath, as a sacred day? I heard an idea the other day I hadn't heard before. What if God rested after the sixth day and is still resting today? Now it's up to us to care for creation and for each other. I think we should live every day like it's Sunday (or Saturday or Friday night). Why live a holier life on one day rather than another? Every day is created by God, is a blessing from God, is a gift from God, and we should be grateful for it. Actually, come to think of it, we should live every day like it's Thanksgiving.

Patriotism is in the eye of the beholder

How come Republicans know how to make people sound unpatriotic if they don't support a (Republican) president, but Democrats don't know how to make people sound un-American if they hope a (Democratic) president fails? 

Death to the Death Penalty

New Mexico has just outlawed the death penalty. Thank God. What a barbaric practice. I don't understand how people can believe the government can't do anything right EXCEPT kill prisoners. Huh? The government isn't the solution, the government is the problem, EXCEPT when it comes to the death penalty. Really? What if the government kills the wrong person? Oh, but the government can't make a mistake, ya know, except for its response to Hurricane Katrina and those missing WMDs, but that's it. It's not that I don't sympathize with victims of crimes, I do. I just think a life sentence with no possibility of parole is a harsher punishment and a more redemptive one. I wish Timothy McVeigh were still alive, in a cell wallpapered with pictures of every one of his victims in the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing, so he'd go to bed and wake up with them staring him in the face. Then, maybe, one day he would recognize the error of his ways and seek forgiveness. 

Is it just me?

Is it just me or does it seem like we're way too busy? I catch myself sometimes driving, cellphoning, eating and writing myself a note. Yikes! Then I wake up from my busyness and say: stop! I was hit from behind a year or so ago, while driving, by someone I think was distracted by busyness. We are often bogged down by busyness. How do we instead become steeped in the spirit? Is it just me or do you wonder the same thing?