Black Gold and Unphiltered: DOMA Oregato Mr. Roboto

Black Gold and Unphiltered: DOMA Oregato Mr. Roboto: ya....I don't even know what that means. Thank Defense of Marriage Act Mr. Robot? I'm pretty sure robots are sexless....but what do...

DOMA Oregato Mr. Roboto

ya....I don't even know what that means. Thank Defense of Marriage Act Mr. Robot?
I'm pretty sure robots are sexless....but what do I know....and Dennis DeYoung of STYX may have been gay.

Whatever....

I'm blogging today for two reasons.

1. I opted for this instead of a straight status message on Facebook. Those back and forths with close minded people really make my heart hurt.....literally.

2. Man am I pissed.

The ruling of DOMA as unconstitutional has brought a huge issue for me to a head and I have to get it out there once and for all, and try my best not to offend close friends.....so here it goes.

I literally read from the Bible every day, as many of my Christian friends probably do.  But I'm not talking about randomly chosen phrases and devotionals. I read and reread it as a whole and I will continue to do so for as long as I can read.  More the New Testament than the Old but I read it as a whole...as it was written throughout the centuries......with some guidance from scholars like the great N.T.Wright - maybe the best of New Testament scholars out there. It is how it was written and how it was meant to be read. A history of our faith, and if you really understand it, a history of humanity.

My point is this....not to make myself sound better......for I am truly at the bottom of the barrel as far as Christians living out their faith and witnessing to it......I know that. I suck.

But I can not stand by anymore and watch Christians miss the BIG picture.
Whyyyyyyyyyy do we focus so much time, energy, and hatred on homosexuality????

When you read and reread the Bible as one big testament to our faith and the human race and God's relationship with us it is so much bigger, so much better, so much more meaningful and beautiful.....and then so many of the issues that have caused so much pain sort of drip away into the background and merge with the rest of what makes us human.

I will not comment or make judgment on someone's personal feelings or views on homosexuality....but I will comment on their approach and reaction to it.

Stop reading the Bible as a constitution or a rule book. That is NOT what it is. We are becoming no different than the Jewish hierarchy that Jesus came back to admonish for making life and faith ONLY about the Law and pretty much making their faith like an elite club.......Jesus, and what he did, abolished the law.

I'm not saying anything goes obviously and that there are no rules or sin.....but Jesus, if I may paraphrase the Lord (is that wise?).....Jesus was saying "It's not the LAW stupid......it's your LIFE"
The law comes along for the ride when you live your life as you should. It is written on your hearts.

Look, if couples are getting married IN YOUR CHURCH and you feel it's wrong then take issue WITH YOUR CHURCH...single out and.cite a few phrases in the Bible all you want.....but my guess is most of these people aren't getting married in YOUR CHURCH because they are probably not accepted there.....so leave it alone. This (DOMA) was a civil issue today.........and thaty is different and separate whether you like it or not.

I love our  God and Jesus just like some of you........but I also love my neighbor......or try too!!!! And hey....some of those neighbors are gay......and wonderful people.....some are even Christian.....and much better Christians than some of the hateful believers I know....and the Lord loves both.

Leave it alone. Please. Tend to the logs in your own eye. Shore up the glass in your own house. Love your neighbor no matter what HIS house is made of......or what goes on inside.  If you think Jesus wouldn't do the same.......then you're just not getting the big picture.....or maybe even getting it at all.

Just love. It's really that simple.

Blindsided by DNA

So if anything is going to bring me out of my blog hibernation I guess it should be this.

While wandering the house with insomnia the other night I was hit while reading something my daughter wrote harder than if  I had been blindsided by James Harrison. (By the way James….I will miss you dearly. Thank you.)

Given an assignment in English class to write a sonnet about someone that meant something to her, Adeline chose to write about my mother, or “Nana” , which was her grandmotherly title.

I found the following sitting out by the computer and read it out of curiosity.  Needless to say, I lost it.

 

How I love to visit her house each day.

We creatively laugh, cook, dance and sing.

In times of sorrow she knows what to say,

To see my smile she’d try anything.

Decorations are hung for holidays.

She loves her family above all the rest.

Awesome cooking deserves more than just praise.

I adore being held against her chest.

But like all flowers she withered away,

Her memory slowly faded with time.

Now in heaven she hears me when I pray,

Speaking through letters she composed of rhyme.

Nana, I am so lost without you here,

First best friend, I hold our memories dear.                                                            

 

                                                                                                                        Addie Macioce

 

The crazy thing is the only other person I know who could have written anything like this was, in fact, my mother.

She would routinely write me poems like this on holidays or even just a letter left by my pillow when I was down.

I always saw alot of my mother in Adeline……turns out maybe there’s more than I thought……and I don’t think it’s just DNA.

Sort of humbling that this person I held in the middle of the night to get her to sleep is now writing things that can pull a dozen different emotions out of me with a fourteen line sonnet. I don’t think my heart was meant to take all of that in at once…..

 It hurt for a while that night, but then pride took over and I was just in awe.  Both of my kids can do things I can’t do…..or ever COULD do….That’s the kind of thing that’ll stop you right in your tracks. 

I can only hope my mom was half as proud of  me as I am of my kids….but one thing is for sure. Carol is alive and well and all over the place in my house and that is a very reassuring thought. 

If I don’t sign on here before next month, Happy Mother’s Day mom…..I miss you.