I had given up hope that I would ever find a book which would reflect just "some" of what I would have written if I had written my second book, to be titled, A Single Christian Woman: What's the Big Deal About Sex? Of course, that was conceived as a title about 30 years ago and would have been my second book after writing Emotional Damaged: Living With Job Burnout...
And, of course that was before the time in 2015 I started moving from being a naive country girl who'd never really been far from home except for some very cool vacations or travels when I had a chance... Let's face it, if your life was predominantly home, church and work for nearly 40 years, you may have learned MUCH about working, especially, since I did go into Job Burnout from an excessive work load, together with 3 white men who taught me just how different military men could be... Actually, I now realize that the fact that they were from ROTC did not necessarily make them as they were within my narrow world-vision... Most will have noticed that I'm more specific these days-- white men with white supremacist's personalities... Maybe I'll even change that again, for the good white men... maybe...
Because of course, my life was introduced into the political world by one of the most egotistic white supremacists that, perhaps, ever existed? Time will have to tell... But we do know that across the world, that man is now The Enemy of the People which Jim Acosta learned personally of this man through his own experience as a journalist assigned to the government, which had acquired that man as president...
Me, at that point, I just nailed him as a male chauvinist pig when he boldly declared that he'd grabbed women...just because...he "thought" he could... Well, when the Women's March occurred on the day of his inauguration, millions of women wearing hats with cat ears was telling him what they thoughts of his opinions of what he could do to women...
That's when I started learning about the "me" I was in relation to at least one other woman in my family... I enjoyed and laughed at the guts those millions of women exhibited... Those same women, my republican sister...let's just say, did not laugh...
Of course, I had known I was different from my mid-teens... I had been baptized at age 13 and, of course, started reading the Bible, KJV, through... I was already a critic and wasn't impressed... Sure there was some excellent poetry... even some about loving another individual... but... on the other hand, one day, as many people have been known to do, I decided to pray and open my Bible and see what God's message was for me... My eyes fell on something to do with marriage...
Perhaps it was that my father was killed while my mother was pregnant... Perhaps I saw that she worked 24-7, it seemed, to care for her four children and did a wonderful job, in my opinion, or, perhaps, marriage just wasn't part of God's plan for me... In any event, I couldn't have been more than 15 when I decided, tentatively, that I wasn't too sure about marriage and all that it entailed... My older sister had already begun working as a secretary, and I was already dreaming and choosing in school to get the skills to do that support job as well...
But, you know, folks, I've had to start thinking about that possible plan of God, when I went into Job burnout... and also, at the same time, got involved in publishing and ultimately book reviewing... Which, as you know, I've been fully prepared, right now, to deal with not only reading and reviewing relevant political books, but prepared to evaluate this federal government in major comparable activities I've been involved in during that first career... I am not so bold or confident that this IS God's Plan... but, I'm smart enough to review my life and not be afraid to explore that very real possibility as a Single Christian Woman...
And, so, I think I was just as surprised as the author of this book I will be discussing on an ongoing basis... when she visited a group that gathered--women--and started talking...about...sex...
It was a hot and sultry July afternoon deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where cellphone signals can’t penetrate and sun-faded Confederate flags fly. I was part of a sweating crowd listening to a preacher. We sat in a big white tent with the sides rolled up, the type of tent religious revivalists might use when they’re crying out to the Lord to save us sinners from eternal hellfire. But this preacher was very different from that stereotype. In fact, that stereotypical pastor probably would have tried to exorcise what he would consider the demons possessing the crowd I sat with. And he would have started with our preacher — one Nadia-Bolz Weber, all six feet of her, dramatic streaks of gray in her dark hair, and a big Mary Magdalene tattoo on a bicep muscular enough to make Michelle Obama jealous.
As she wound up her talk, the crowd stayed with her, cheering and clapping. And then she said, “C’mon up and dance with me!”
And by God, I intended to write the book about it. --Rice, Kate. Jesus Is Not Republican : A Secular Liberal's Adventures with Religion, Politics and Sex...
Wild Goose Festival, part Woodstock, part Burning Man, part South by Southwest (SXSW) and 100 percent progressive Christian.
Sooo, as I was reading, I picked up on the word "progressive" Christians. Now I'd heard it before, in fact, I'm subscribed to a group, but I'd just filed into "blog" for some future use... But... as these issues between race and far left or far right, and all that crap started to be used daily in a very derogative way, I "clicked" that "I" was probably a very progressive Christian and that was a reason I felt so different in how I viewed today's world? Of course, that's just me... Your reason might be totally different, right? But, I believe there are many many people who are just as disgusted about how religion is now being used as a political took by which a claim is made that somebody is better than...just because...they think, believe, or, are, indeed, different from those who think that Christianity is a male white supremacist religion... Sooo, that's what I'll be talking about, probably from my perspective that was incited by my own life... After all, isn't that the very perspective by which each of us starts each day?
BTW, I've already been challenged on excerpts use, so I'll be doing a lot of, first, talking about what the book says about a topic and then moving into discussion... I'm hoping I can do it... If not, up front, I'll just recommend this book, wholeheartedly, at this important time when religion is no longer a private time with God, but is used to condemn our very neighbors who He asked that we love and care for...
I'll continue to do various types of posts, so, I hope things will keep your interest and you'll find your way back for the next post on this, in my opinion,boo, which could be one of the most important books of all... We'll see how it goes...
God Bless
Gabby
No comments:
Post a Comment