tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.comments2023-06-13T10:36:03.712-05:00BilgrimageWilliam D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-35920480260714047182012-06-11T08:50:26.815-05:002012-06-11T08:50:26.815-05:00Hi, Kgrueneichcarey--for some reason, your comment...Hi, Kgrueneichcarey--for some reason, your comment isn't showing up at the posting proper, but in this version of the posting I've been able to retrieve through Google. If you want to go to the original posting at the Bilgrimage site and post the comment through the Disqus system, it would then appear with other comments on the page. In either case, I very much appreciate the comment and agree with you (and am suggesting that you go to the original page and post via Disqus only because then other readers could benefit from the comment.<br /><br />Thanks, Bill L.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-40104121822679933302012-06-06T00:28:21.873-05:002012-06-06T00:28:21.873-05:00The RCC Hierarchs seem to resemble the proverbial ...The RCC Hierarchs seem to resemble the proverbial 3 monkeys, rather than Christ!!KAYTHEGARDENERhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06602239552039855715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-13190998705325221952012-03-05T20:39:43.810-06:002012-03-05T20:39:43.810-06:00Well said, Bill!Well said, Bill!khughes1963https://www.blogger.com/profile/16118365554189078448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-16962572401457213572012-03-05T20:37:03.300-06:002012-03-05T20:37:03.300-06:00Sullivan is rightSullivan is rightkhughes1963https://www.blogger.com/profile/16118365554189078448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-47353371298563517452012-03-05T20:32:19.957-06:002012-03-05T20:32:19.957-06:00Our parish heard the recorded spiel to donate to t...Our parish heard the recorded spiel to donate to the appeal, but I won't give as long as the bishops use the money for non-charitable purposes , including finding anti-gay marriage campaigns .khughes1963https://www.blogger.com/profile/16118365554189078448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-47749146500482091972012-03-05T20:26:13.004-06:002012-03-05T20:26:13.004-06:00Dolan wants us to check our collective brains at t...Dolan wants us to check our collective brains at the door. No thank you.khughes1963https://www.blogger.com/profile/16118365554189078448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-48444955889852366712012-02-12T11:19:02.949-06:002012-02-12T11:19:02.949-06:00Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so muc...<b>Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is magnificent blog. An excellent read. I'll definitely be back.</b><br><a name="ucomment" href="http://sorelwomenshelentundrabothecheapest.blogspot.com/2012/02/kamik-women-jennifer-rain-boot.html" rel="nofollow">Kamik Women's Jennifer Rain Boot</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-80236705405904575832008-10-24T20:11:00.000-05:002008-10-24T20:11:00.000-05:00Steven, thank you very much for logging in and for...Steven, thank you very much for logging in and for this information. Those in the UMC who try to move against the widespread homophobia surely do have my support.<BR/><BR/>Recently, many faith leaders in Arkansas spoke out against a homophobic initiative on our ballot in November, which targets unmarried couples seeking to adopt. <BR/><BR/>I was heartened to see the names of the current and retired Episcopal bishop of the state on the list. I was saddened to see that the Methodist bishop did not add his name to this protest, though some individual UMC pastors did.<BR/><BR/>I also hear little of UMC opposition to the homophobic proposal to amend the FL constitution in the coming election.<BR/><BR/>At the same time, I should note that NO Catholic priests signed the protest of faith leaders here in AR. I have work to do in my own church, even as I applaud those of you working in the UMC to confront its homophobia.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-72956152270591780702008-10-24T19:57:00.000-05:002008-10-24T19:57:00.000-05:00Angelin, great comment. I couldn't agree more.Angelin, great comment. I couldn't agree more.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-21666083159975752302008-10-24T14:05:00.000-05:002008-10-24T14:05:00.000-05:00Hi,My name is Stevcen Skelley and I am the writer ...Hi,<BR/><BR/>My name is Stevcen Skelley and I am the writer who did the Florida Methodist News article you spoke about...<BR/>An article by Steven Skelley on the Florida UMC website today says that a workshop at the Annual Conference yesterday focused on “radical hospitality” as a mark of Wesleyan discipleship (www.flumc.info/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000048/004841.htm...<BR/><BR/>I agree with you as do MANY Methodists. The denomination's lack of support for gays is reprehensible. The recent dicision in Texas by the Methodists at Conference that homosexuality is INCOMPATIBLE with Christianity is disgusting. I don't remember Jesus ever saying any such thing.Steven Skelleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00650334338383843024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-26550742695792569202008-10-21T00:39:00.000-05:002008-10-21T00:39:00.000-05:00Worlds within and upon worlds are now threatened b...Worlds within and upon worlds are now threatened by the sin of all sins being committed by those difficult, dogmatic conservates, that of ’sectarianism’. Loyalty to denominational structures and the unity of ‘The Church’ is preached with increasing conviction to those who have the audacity and bad manners to challenge the illiberal ‘liberalism’ of certain ecclesiastical hierarchies.<BR/>------------------<BR/>Angelinjones<BR/><A HREF="http://www.drivenwide.com" REL="nofollow">Buzz marketing</A>angelinjoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07855854811826839292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-27272964912318157662008-09-04T13:57:00.000-05:002008-09-04T13:57:00.000-05:00Colleen, I hadn't thought of the downside of this ...Colleen, I hadn't thought of the downside of this political discussion for hockey fans--but you're right, it involves you all in a personal way! And I know from my years studying in Canada how intensely folks react to that sport and those who play it.<BR/><BR/>I'm glad to know there are some hockey moms like you who speak a language that makes a little sense to me.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-21673903115274984472008-09-04T13:47:00.000-05:002008-09-04T13:47:00.000-05:00I don't Bill, we may see this whole family on Jerr...I don't Bill, we may see this whole family on Jerry Springer before this is all done.<BR/><BR/>On a personal note, as a rabid hockey fan myself, these folks aren't doing much for the reputation of the sport. Canadian and European hockey parents must be cringing. I know I am.colkochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03432916690101599393noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-41849321227168564142008-09-04T13:04:00.000-05:002008-09-04T13:04:00.000-05:00IronKnee, I appreciate the response--and to me, yo...IronKnee, I appreciate the response--and to me, you didn't sound negative in your comment. I was just talking over lunch to a mother with two teens now in college, and she was saying (in the context of this same discussion) that she emphasizes to her teens how important it is to remember anything they put on a site like MySpace will one day come back to them.<BR/><BR/>You're just quoting what Levi Johnston wrote, after all.<BR/><BR/>I find it strange--really appalling, to be honest--that these young folks are being put front row center in a political campaign, by the very folks who have tried to tell us their family is off-limits. I suppose it's inevitable that, if you declare yourself to be a model family, people will want to gawk.<BR/><BR/>But when a teenaged daughter is dealing with a pregnancy and is not married? This has to be excruciating for her.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-50395057537251789862008-09-04T10:54:00.000-05:002008-09-04T10:54:00.000-05:00I probably sounded pretty negative in my last comm...I probably sounded pretty negative in my last comment about Levi Johnston, so I should balance that with a positive note. He's 18 years old, he has a "big potential" (new code word?), and he's only been arrested once.IronKneehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06960578366044341478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-15622258465164527812008-09-04T10:37:00.000-05:002008-09-04T10:37:00.000-05:00And let's not forget the splendid and classy "baby...And let's not forget the splendid and classy "baby daddy," Levi Johnston. He described himself in his MySpace profile as follows:<BR/><BR/>"I'm a f**kin' redneck who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes. But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some sh*t and just f**kin' chillin' I guess. Ya f*ck with me I'll kick ass."<BR/><BR/>Only he didn't leave out the vowels. Sarah Palin is now parading him on stage at the RNC as her future son-in-law and another exemplar of family values.IronKneehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06960578366044341478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-89814454260689231962008-09-03T18:26:00.000-05:002008-09-03T18:26:00.000-05:00Curioser and curioser, isn't it, the more we learn...Curioser and curioser, isn't it, the more we learn about Sarah Palin? <BR/><BR/>I had never heard of hockey moms before. The term in my neck of the woods is soccer moms. But, admittedly, I don't live in an area where hockey is even a possibility.<BR/><BR/>What's mind boggling is, as you point out, that some mothers who previously have been stout defenders of stay-at-home motherhood are now leaping to her defense. It's a variation of the getting-pregnant-before-marriage = family values argument!<BR/><BR/>In the world of neoconservatism,up is down, right is wrong, false is true, and bad is good. It would take a Lewis Carroll to do justice to the madcap irony of so much we're now being told about the reason this candidate just fits the bill for our nation.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-65613834456746286262008-09-03T17:37:00.000-05:002008-09-03T17:37:00.000-05:00A hockey mom? Give me a break. I'm sorry but wit...A hockey mom? Give me a break. I'm sorry but with a career that big you just don't have time.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07026099426503180472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-68971012087490809022008-09-03T17:29:00.000-05:002008-09-03T17:29:00.000-05:00Raises some real questions about values, doesn't i...Raises some real questions about values, doesn't it, Amanda? Of course, she's being profiled now as a "hockey mom," so maybe books are a lower priority than hockey sticks--especially when there are indicators she leaned on the library in her town to censor books.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-39908972265147026352008-09-03T16:56:00.000-05:002008-09-03T16:56:00.000-05:00Have you seen this? I just read this on CNN:"She ....Have you seen this? I just read this on CNN:<BR/><BR/>"She ... reduced spending on the town museum while opposing a bigger library. She also was mayor when the local sales tax was increased to build a popular sports complex."<BR/><BR/>Why waste money on libraries when we can have bigger sports!?!? Yeah.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07026099426503180472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-49562517885016022682008-09-03T14:02:00.000-05:002008-09-03T14:02:00.000-05:00Colleen, you say, "Apparently her husband Todd has...Colleen, you say, "Apparently her husband Todd has unlimited access to her Alaskan office, sits in the executive chair no less. Who did Alaska really elect as governor?"<BR/><BR/>Excellent point, and one that underscores my argument that Palin's religious worldview is dangerous. Susan Brooks Thisthethwaite, a theologian who teaches at Univ. of Chicago, has written an editorial for the Washington Post noting that Palin's brand of religion requires women to submit to their husbands.<BR/><BR/>Which would mean, as Thistlethwaite notes, that it wouldn't be Palin, but her husband, making decisions if she occupies the v-p chair. You know, the one that once belonged to an Alaskan separatist party and addressed its convention....<BR/><BR/>The Thistlethwaite editorial is at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_brooks_thistlethwaite/2008/09/palin_is_she_subject_to_her_hu.htmlWilliam D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-83851851014627821422008-09-03T13:45:00.000-05:002008-09-03T13:45:00.000-05:00Great insights Amanda, and thanks Bill for posting...Great insights Amanda, and thanks Bill for posting this. I, myself, am still too incoherent to write anything remotely sensible. I understand exactly where Amanda is coming from.<BR/><BR/>I too, did not know that Palin was pregnant when they eloped. No wonder the Abstinence Only message didn't get through to her daughter.<BR/><BR/>Bill, this piece is a brilliant expose of the twisted vicious logic of the religious right. When you wrote about Murphy Brown and the out of wedlock baby controversy I just laughed. What a perfect choice to expose this blatant hypocrisy. <BR/><BR/>However, when you also wrote that Palin prevented funding for unwed mothers in Alaska, I wasn't laughing. <BR/><BR/>I wasn't laughing when she allowed the righteous right to use her son Trig as a political football. <BR/><BR/> I wasn't laughing when I saw the pictures of her daughter holding Trig to cover up her as of yet unannounced pregancy. <BR/><BR/>I wasn't laughing when I heard she practiced the ever so courageous sport of hunting from helicopters. <BR/><BR/>I wasn't laughing when the president of the NRA gushingly stated: “How can you go wrong with a moose burger-eating, fishing governor?” <BR/><BR/>And I haven't been laughing as the pro life bunch lauds her and her family as perfect examples of Family Values.<BR/><BR/>I keep thinking of all the crummy paying jobs I took so I could spend more time with my own daughter. All the opportunities turned down, all the ambition stifled. I cannot imagine towing small children around in a wagon showing them off in the furtherance of my own political ambition. I can't imagine my own mother who had a family of five leaving us high and dry to pursuit political ambition, essentially leaving us to raise each other.<BR/><BR/>I just read another article which makes me cringe. Apparently her husband Todd has unlimited access to her Alaskan office, sits in the executive chair no less. Who did Alaska really elect as governor?<BR/><BR/> For all the bashing Billary took as a couple, the boundaries seem even more enmeshed with the Palins. All in all this is no laughing matter. It's sickening scarey shit, and what little respect I had for McCain is entirely evaporated. Long live independent bloggers.colkochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03432916690101599393noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-34338443157973275202008-09-03T13:44:00.000-05:002008-09-03T13:44:00.000-05:00Amanda, these are powerful first-hand observations...Amanda, these are powerful first-hand observations. They mirror observations shared with me by a Mennonite family I met in graduate school. The husband was a classmate of mine. They had lived on the West Bank and saw much discrimination against the Palestinians.<BR/><BR/>To my mind, what's objectionable in the worldview Palin represents is how it twists biblical passages into some kind of justification for everything Israel does. I think that kind of religious gloss to give automatic justifications to what ANY nation does, including our own, is very dangerous. It's a kind of idolatry.<BR/><BR/>I can certainly understand the defensiveness of Israel and the passionate attachment many Americans have to the nation. At the same time, I don't think that passionate attachment should translate into a green light for human rights violations--particularly when bizarre apocalyptic views that distort the bible are used to justify that approach.<BR/><BR/>As an aside that's not really an aside, I always find it especially grievous when people who have endured terrible unmerited suffering turn around and inflict the same kind of suffering on others. The most painful experiences I've had as a gay man have occurred at the hands of African-American women.<BR/><BR/>I naively expect better of people who know what it feels like to have one's rights trampled on.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-17106620221904218622008-09-03T13:24:00.000-05:002008-09-03T13:24:00.000-05:00Ah, there's the point I missed. I meant to commen...Ah, there's the point I missed. I meant to comment on the whole everything-Israel-does-is-sacred idea. American support for Israel really irks me. My sister lives on the West Bank and is married to a Palestinian refugee there. They are having a lot of trouble getting him a green card to the US, not because of him, but because no one will listen. They were married in February, and my brother and I flew overseas to stay with her for a week and be with her in her marriage. I remember being very excited about going to a totally different culture. i read up on Israel and its history and learned a lot. What I did learn was what things were really like over there.<BR/><BR/>I'd always sort of dismissed my sister's sentiments about the situation because I know she had certain biases. She loves the Middle East and its culture, spent a year in Yemen before going to Palestine, and she always spoke about Israel in a degrading, disgusting way. When I landed in Tel Aviv, I was disappointed because everything was so modern, so westernized. I was surprised that things weren't so different. It was nighttime, and we drove all the way to Jenin. Once we crossed the checkpoint border (manned by army members with gigantic guns), suddenly, we were in a different world. We were in a world of poverty. The roads were so bad we needed motion sickness medicine just driving around. Everything smelled of sewage. People had nothing. My sister had always said that the reason they gave people such a hard time at the airport if they said they were going to the West Bank was because Israel didn't want the world to know how bad the situation was in Palestine. When I got there, I realized that this wasn't just a bias - this was true.<BR/><BR/>Over the course of a week, I spent a lot of time in both parts of the country. I grew to despite Israel. I heard all the stories about their human rights violations. About torture. About snipers shooting off the heads of 10-year-old girls. I watched the way the guards at checkpoints (which were all over the place) treated everyone. They aren't lying - Israel is NASTY. I can't believe we support them and give them millions - perhaps billions - of dollars every year. Israel is a terrorist nation, even if they don't terrorize the US. But the in the US, it's good manners to be friends with them. They're a good bully-ally. It's awful, and when I hear the rare person get up and speak against Israel, it makes me very happy.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07026099426503180472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-12942446066724412522008-09-03T13:03:00.000-05:002008-09-03T13:03:00.000-05:00"And I have no doubt at all, sadly, that if Obama'..."And I have no doubt at all, sadly, that if Obama's daughter were 17 and pregnant, there'd be all kinds of overt and covert racist rhetoric about the pregnancy."<BR/><BR/>Oh--ouch. I hadn't thought of that and just reading it made me wince. What a horrifying thought.<BR/><BR/>I guess it's politics and one should expect double-standards, but it certainly doesn't make them any easier to tolerate or swallow.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07026099426503180472noreply@blogger.com