This is a rerun. I wrote this two years ago, after my first Yom Kippur services in Asheville.  Last night, despite the colds and yuck, we trekked back over the mountains to celebrate the holiday again with the family we love so much.  As for atonement, I have with everybody around me.  As for all of you – okay, if I pissed you off this year, I’m sorry.  Let’s call it even and move on.  Okay? Thanks!  Anyway, the scenario with services was the same again this year.  Police cruisers sitting outside, and we had to have tickets to get in, so they’d know who we were.  So they could identify any outsiders and stop them before they came in.  BTW – love the new Rabbi at Temple Beth HaTephila!!!  Gutsy broad is the best description.  Gave an in-your-face message about standing up for what is right and pointing out wrong.  We should all learn that lesson, not just the Jews.  Anyway, enough yammering, here’s your history lesson from 2006, read and learn:

Okay- call me a Cotton-headed Ninnymuggins or maybe a Pollyanna if you like, but up until last night I thought our country was one of the few places in the world where freedom of religion was a guarantee. It’s in the Constitution, and that gasbag in the White House sure yammers on about it as being one of the reasons we are fighting that travesty of a war in Iraq, so I thought becz. I am in the Christian majority that this was the case – appeared to be that way to me anyway! Now the christian conservatives will tell you that this isn’t the case at all becz. they no longer have the freedom to cram their religion down everybody’s throat’s in school and everywhere else, but I never hear or read of issues with anyone else’s ability to worship unmolested and I stupidly didn’t realize that being quiet wasn’t translating to being free. I am very ashamed to have to say that I found out in a very large way how terribly wrong I was, and I feel a huge burden on my heart to share my feelings about this, even with the limited audience my blog entertains.

Last night was Evr Yom Kippur and because we had been on vacation for Rosh Hashanah, Bob had promised his Mother that we would attend Kol Nidre services with them as a part of the marking of Yom Kippur – The Jewish Day of Atonement and the Holiest Day of the Jewish Year. So, after much grumbling and vexation, we dressed up in our Sabbath Best (Sunday Best to all you Christians), and after a nice Brisket Dinner we went off to Congregation Beth HaTephila for what I figured would be much boredom and lots of unintelligible Hebrew the meaning of which is indecipherable but which sounds suspiciously like a roomful of Cats simultaneously coughing up Hairballs.

I wish I could tell you that the service struck some deep down chord in my soul that suddenly gave my life a new meaning, but that would be bullshit. The service was nice, if unintelligible, the music was beautiful, and I’m sure from the reaction of the congregation that many were moved- to tears in some cases. However, the service wasn’t what made me awestruck (or fear-struck as the case may be). The thing that made the largest impression on me was the presence outside of this house of worship in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC of at least 3 armed police officers providing security to the good parishioners of Beth HaTephila as they worshiped God in their ancient ways. I was to be blunt in shock. When I asked about the security detail I was told that "Temples still blow up, so we need them". The Jewish people even here in America still do not feel secure enough in their freedom to worship to go to church without armed law enforcement present at the doors to protect their right to do so, and that’s a sad statement on the country we live in today. However, it did give me some very powerful insight into this faith and the people who live that faith every day. These aren’t people who consider themselves any better than anyone else. They don’t consider their views to be the only views, they don’t even consider themselves the only ones who will make it into Heaven. They just consider themselves children of God and they only want to be able to praise and worship in their way without fear and free from persecution. That, however, is all they have ever known, throughout time. They may be God’s Chosen People, but Man has spent thousands of years trying to eliminate them from the peoples of the Earth. Everyone knows the various ways they have been harmed and the names that did these crimes. But, I ask all who are reading this to pause and think about this- if your religion had to be practiced with the protection of Law Enforcement and with the constant threat of persecution, who would be strong enough to practice it in public? Who would choose it if that choice meant danger and threats, public humiliation, and all the other horrible things that Jewish people have lived with throughout history?

The fact remains that they do choose it, daily, because it’s part and parcel of who they are. They didn’t get a choice, they are Jewish. Even if they don’t practice it, even if they assimilate to the point that they live just like Christians, they have still been killed for their heritage and birthright. So, why, why do they do it? I don’t know the answer to that question but I venture to say that a large portion of Christianity today, if put in the same situation, would walk away and deny their faith as fast as possible. Their faith isn’t their birthright, they chose it, and no one at their church is telling them that it would ever be uncomfortable, let alone dangerous. They sure as Hell wouldn’t be willing to suffer or die for it – even though they hear in Church every week that their Savior did exactly that. "Good enough for him" you hear them think, "That’s his job, he’s the son of God". But we are all children of God, and any of us might have to die for that reason, just like the Jews have done through ghettos, and pogroms and holocaust throughout time. I’m sure, though, that none of us have ever thought about any of this, but we certainly should. Don’t take from this posting the idea that I am toying with conversion… I’m not. However, I do have a newfound admiration for these common simple people who only want to worship and praise their God in their own way, with no fear that ever again will they be persecuted for that action. And, if we can achieve anything in our lifetime, it should be that our country lives up to that promise of Religious Freedom that was specifically spelled out in that ragged old Constitution that everyone takes such pains to reinterpret all the time. This is simple and was made quite clear – we should do everything we can to make this country safe for all religions, not just one!

Just read this over at WBIR.  And, sadly, it pretty much fits with exactly what I have long believed to be the truth about the Pro-Life movement.  I’m sure more than a few of you who read that are simply amazed that the only person who doesn’t support this research is the Right to Life activist, but I’m not.  Instead, his reaction of negativity and suspicion at the survey results lets me know I’m right.  Because, for many years I’ve believed that a large portion of the Right to Life movement isn’t so much about saving babies.  Instead, I think their focus is more toward punishing all of those "Whore of Babylon" mothers who made their birth control choice when they spread their legs and got themselves into that condition to begin with.  I know, shocking, that good Christians would judge like that.  But they do.  I can truly and honestly tell you, they do.  The phrase "making your birth control decision when you spread your legs was actually spoken to me by a former member of the Knox County Commission.  And, the comments I got last week on my Obama posts are more evidence of the crazies that inhabit that movement.  If you don’t believe me, then email me, I’ll send you copies.

To be clear and upfront, for the three people who might not yet know this, I am most assuredly Pro-Choice.  For a number of reasons, but mainly because I feel that the day we open the doors to our Doctor’s offices up to governmental regulations and allow the government to tell us what we can do with our bodies, is only one day before the Government tells us what we can’t do with our reproductive rights.  I’m referring to China, where there is federal law in place that prevents more than one child per family.  Yes, dear readers, taking away a woman’s right to reproductive freedom and putting it in the hands of the government has the potential to go in a completely different direction than originally planned if that right is put in the hands of the wrong government.  And, though you might not think so given the last eight years, our country was founded for and about freedom.  And having choices is part of the responsibility of freedom.  Even if we don’t agree with the choices our fellow Americans make, like all those fools in Galveston.  But we’re free to make bad decisions.  People do it every day.  And then we have to live with the consequences that follow.  It’s as simple as that. 

Regarding reproductive rights and choices, for some of you it may come as a shock to learn that as a dedicated member of the Pro-Choice movement, I am not pro-abortion.  In fact, almost none of the people I know who share my beliefs are pro-abortion.  Actually, most all Pro-Choice advocates like myself look at abortion as the last choice that any of us would ever want to make, for ourselves or any of the girls and women in my life.  However, as realists, we know that things happen that you don’t plan for.  Pills fail.  Condoms break.  Stupidity happens.  And, if you have no other choices, no support group, no healthcare, no place to live, no way to feed or clothe a child, then your choices are limited indeed.  If your minimum wage job offers no insurance, no maternity leave, and no child care assistance, what other choice do you have?  If you are young and scared, or poor, or both, then sometimes there really isn’t any other choice.  To be frank, I want to see the day when I am truly living in a world where our girls and women are given real choices.  Choices like a real sex education (like my step-daughter gets at the private school she attends).  Choices like real options for continuing your education and not being left illiterate if you make an error in judgement.  Yes, a child is more than a choice, but if you have no tools for caring for it or raising it then it becomes simply a problem.  I want to live in a world where having a child isn’t a problem, isn’t a poorly disguised punishment for some perceived moral failing of it’s Mother.  And that’s why I am Pro-Choice, just like my Mother and her Mother before her.  But, as I learn more, I’ve come to realize that quite a few people in the Pro-Life movement are anything but that.  Because, if they were truly Pro-Life, then they’d be the ones leading the research and coming forward with the assistance programs for all women so that they wouldn’t ever have to choose abortion again.  But they aren’t.  They’re only concern is the biology part of the equation.  They don’t care about the life that child is born into, or the mother whose life  is permanently interrupted because of the birth of that child.  So the next time somebody says to you "I’m Pro-Life", ask them what being "Pro-Life" really means.  Be prepared, the answer will shock you.  

Okay, I’ve tried the eloquent, heart-felt, heavy-worded, seriously backgroundy angle on this.  Not working.  So I’m going spare, bare-bones, to the point.  Something sad and shameful happened in our area three weeks ago, we had a hate crime.  A hate crime that nobody talked about.  And by keeping our silence we are saying that this is okay, and we are acknowledging that this can and will happen again.  And we let this happen because we still find it acceptable for our clergy and ourselves to preach a message of hate against people who are homosexual.  Because we do not speak up and stop this message, I am afraid for us all.  Afraid that the day will come when the people who preach this message against homosexuals will preach against the rest of us, after they’ve taken everyone we didn’t defend, and there will be no one left here to speak up for us.  So I’m speaking up, because it’s the right thing to do, and because I feel like I have to.  I may make you angry when you read my indictment of the faith of this area and the community.  If so, you need to ask yourself why?  Why would my words about a crime of hatred, against a gay man, make you mad at me, the messenger?  Because you see yourself in my words?  Keep that in your heart and mind while you read my tale.

Yes, you read my statement above correctly, there was a hate crime in rural Cocke County, TN.  Oh, it wasn’t labeled that way in the Newport Plain Talk.  It was labeled as a domestic, family disagreement, that just happened to cost one person everything they owned – including their home.  And I learned about the hate crime aspect when I read the rest of the story over at Smokey Mtn. Breakdown – here, here, here, and here.  As you will read, the victim – Friend Scott – was a dear friend of Rosie’s.  I didn’t know him at all, but I’ve known other people like him, and I wish I could have known him and publicly called him my friend.  Because he could have been any of us, or our child, or our brother, and he is mine, even though I never met him and probably never will, and because of that I will fight his fight.  Because somebody has to.  I mean, really, think about this.  This man was a taxpaying member of the community up there.  And even though he paid for law enforcement with those tax dollars, he will not get any justice for his money.  Because, as Rosie said, Cocke County will not investigate or attempt to prosecute this crime.  And it is a crime, however you feel about his lifestyle, he is still a victim of arson.  His only hope for any kind of justice, as usual, is the FBI.  Because, once again, they are having to investigate and prosecute another crime in Cocke County.  As we all know well, the FBI has now become the de facto law enforcement agency in Cocke County.  Because Cocke County law enforcement consistently chooses as a group to not do the right thing.  They do not prosecute drug dealers, dog or chicken fighters, or money launderers.  So, really, what hope did one gay man have for getting justice from a system so corrupt and ineffectual as that? 

The real shame of this tragedy is that the victim – Friend Scott – does not feel safe enough or that he has enough protection from the authorities in that area in order to stay and fight for his right as an American to live his life where he chooses, without fear of molestation or harassment.  So, he has chosen to leave there, leave behind his life and all the connections he has to that place.  Leave not only his possessions, but also everything else he has, behind in the smoldering ashes of his home.  And, really, I don’t blame him for making that decision.  You have to keep in mind the reality that in order to be martyred, you have to be dead.  No one would stay and fight with that as a probable outcome.  No one who values their life that is.  Not me anyway.  And, not Friend Scott either.  But that’s why I’m mad.  Because there are many good Christian people up there (and here too) who have piously intoned “hate the sin, love the sinner” and then turned around and condemned people like Friend Scott for living their lives the only way they know how.  Live their life as it was dealt to them.  Yes, the life they were dealt, not chosen, dealt.  What is it going to take to finally make people understand that homosexuality is not a choice?  It is a birth trait, a genetic switch that is set differently, like the ones that make us blue-eyed or red-headed.  That’s how it is.  To put a sharp point on this particular Number #2 Pencil, who in their right mind would ever choose a life that will get them harassed, discriminated against, and possibly even result in their death?  No one, I’d hazard to guess.  But, as is obvious from the actions of this one person and the words of many others, ignorance is a choice, and apparently so is stupidity.  And it appears that many people up there (and around here) are making those two choices all the time.  And, while the good Christians he lived among were so busy condemning Friend Scott’s life, they apparently completely forgot the part of the Bible that told them very clearly “judge not, lest you be judged”.  And, if they had gone even a little further into their Bible, they would have also learned that Jesus instructed us to  “love one another”, and he also told us that “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.  To my recollection, Jesus never said to “burn down that damned faggot’s house ’cause he’s a sinner and he needs to see what Hell’s a-gonna’ look like so maybe he’ll change his sodomizing ways before it’s too late!” Um, no, not in my Bible anyway. 

So, let this be a warning to whomever chooses to preach the message of “hate the sin”.  If there is blood that is shed from delivering that message, then that blood is on your hands too.  You need to accept that there are people among us who take your words of “hate” to heart, and feel that that they are supposed to deliver God’s message of hate to sinners by their own force.  They feel that they are doing God’s work when they deliver that retribution.  So how are these people any different from jihadi’s in the Muslim faith?  They aren’t.  Fundamentalism, no matter what faith, is most frequently heard as a message of hate.  Against women, homosexuals, other religions.  Examine your faith, and ask yourself if you hear hate or love.  Because I know what the Bible said the message was supposed to be.  If you believe in hate, then I’m afraid you won’t be getting into Heaven with that in your heart.  And, trust me, the rest of us don’t want you there with us anyway.  As it is now, everyone involved in this sorry tale should be very glad that no one is dead or injured.  One thing you can be sure of, if there had been, is that the poor ignorant perpetrator would have been shown far more mercy and understanding than he ever offered Friend Scott.  All he gave Friend Scott was hatred and anger, judgement and evil, and then he burned down his house.  Because Friend Scott was gay and that was wrong.  I’m sure, if the perpetrator could speak, he would say that God hates gay people.  Because his preacher said so, over and over, in church on Sunday, and his Preacher wouldn’t lie, would he?     

In closing, Friend Scott is gone, and Cocke County is poorer for the loss.  Once again, that sad, forgotten pocket of the state has lived down below the already abysmally low standards we have set for it.  I’m sure there are a few people there who have attempted to do the right thing.  Some have come to Friend Scott’s aid, but not enough and not soon enough to make a difference.  I know from Rosie’s words that he appreciates the help he has been given.  But the people there should know that there was much more that they could have done.  They could have tried harder to prevent this from happening at all.  That’s the saddest part - that this is a place that possesses many gifts of God-given beauty and people of unending kindness, and they sit side-by-side with ignorance and evil.  I guess that is God’s real message about Cocke County- there is good and evil in everything - just like there is in all of us.  We all wrestle with doing the right thing.  Someone in Cocke County lost that battle, but so did we.  I’m sure Friend Scott is finding it hard to remember that Jesus said “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”  I know I am.  But I’m trying.  I hope that no one ever forgets, though, that evil is in our midst.  Only we can stop it.  By preaching love, not hate.  Learning, not ignorance.  By speaking up for him and letting evil know that it has not won.  I’m sure Friend Scott thanks you, and so do I.

Okay, so here’s that post I mentioned.  You know, the one about Franklin Graham and his message of love (?) at Thompson-Boling this weekend.  I’ve followed the comments about him being in the public schools and our governmental leadership attaching themselves to his message of intolerance and hate over at KAG’s place.  Almost every one of the commenter has written bemoaning the loss of a time not too long ago, when prayer wasn’t illegal in school, when Jesus had his place front and center in this country, and to a person they all keep saying repeatedly how much better things were back then.  Okay, you might think things were better back then, but if you say that then I (and anybody else who knows anything about all the hidden history and racism that existed everywhere in America that BTW was secretly condoned and fostered by the churches) will know without a doubt that you are truly an idiot.  And if you are that idiot, if you actually do believe that things were better back then, then maybe we need to send you back there again.  But not as a white Christian male or female, oh no.  We’ll send you back as a Jewish man.  You know, like my husband.  Because back then then, in the good old days that you speak of, men like my husband- a Jew – weren’t allowed to stay in many motels or hotels, would never be invited to join the Country Club, couldn’t join the YMCA, and had people like the KKK (many members of all churches were card-carrying bedsheet wearing members, BTW) and Father Charles Coughlin fomenting hatred of them as a people and a religion on a daily basis.  Um, yeah, that’s how it was.  Can you imagine being a Jewish child, in a public school, being forced to pray a prayer to Jesus.  And not being excused on religious grounds, even though your faith teaches that he hasn’t come yet?  Or worse, being stigmatized by your non-conforming status, because you want to live your faith?  Yeah, that happened too, all the time.  And can you imagine growing up black, and being told by white people that "separate but equal" is perfectly acceptable and in fact is the way things should be, because it said so in the Bible.  So, you sit upstairs, ride the back of the bus, never get called Mr., all because the Bible says "it’s okay!"  Yes, that’s how it was.  My late husband used to tell the story of taking a young black friend with him to his very white church up in Oak Ridge back in the 60s.  To be mild, there was a scandal.  To be clear, his parents were told that this could not happen again, or they would be asked to leave the church.  The church that committed this horrible offense is still there, and not surprisingly it’s still more than 90% white.  And it is not alone.  In fact, churches in America are remain the last holdout to integration.  They represent the most racially divided organizations that remain in our country today.  Which makes me wonder what hidden messages are being taught to our children when they are worshipping God in a single-race sanctuary?  More likely they learn from inference that this is the way God wants things, even though Man is the one that made the rules.  And that’s not what I want any child to learn, when I take them to church to learn about God and his love.  That’s a perversion of his love and that’s a bad message. 

To put a sharp point on this – life was bad in this country for everybody except for white Christian males.  It was bad, in the worst ways possible.  Intolerance was the rule, it was accepted and it was condoned.  I think it’s worth noting that nothing that is happening in our world today is new.  The difference is that back then things like homosexuality were hidden and hatred for people different from the white Christian "norm" was okay.  You can be sure that homosexuality didn’t just happen all of a sudden in 1970.  It’s been with us forever, just like all the many peoples of the world and the many Gods that they worship.  Now, though, we at least talk about it.  We don’t pretend that it doesn’t exist.  And some of us have learned to love the people who live life differently, believe differently, because we’ve learned that there’s more than one way to G-d or Allah or Buddha or Krishna.  But we’ve also learned that intolerance and hatred will ensure that we aren’t among the number that do get to Heaven.  Not if you believe what Jesus said.  Sadly, I don’t think Franklin Graham knows that yet.  And I for one think he might be in for a big surprise.  Speaking of Mr. Graham’s knowledge of the Bible and the message contained therein, I wonder if he’s aware that the Apostle Paul wasn’t the one who died for our sins.  Paul, who wrote against women, homosexuals, and people of other races, wasn’t God’s son.  Jesus didn’t preach Paul’s message.  Jesus taught "Love one another."  Not just everybody who lives and looks and acts like us – everybody.  Because everybody deserves love and acceptance.  Someone much wiser than us is in charge of judgement and condemnation, we are only charged with "love one another".  

So, after all that, those are the many reasons why I’m glad we don’t live in the "good old days" anymore, and the reasons why I will fight with all I hold dear any efforts to turn back that clock.  Today, thankfully, society in general has become more accepting and the things that were hushed up and swept under the rug are now part of life.  Only in the churches and with the ultra-religious do the old ways persist.  Only there does hatred continue.  Hatred, taught in the name of Jesus, who gave his life for our sins.  But, because God gave us free will, if you want Franklin Graham and his ilk talking to your kids, then feel free to take that path.  It’s a free country, I remember that very well, and you are welcome to take them to Montreat, or Thompson-Boling, or your all-white church and let them listen.  But as an American, living in a free country where freedom of Religion also means freedom from Religion, I do not make that choice.  And I draw the line at bringing him into our public schools, because they are public and we the public don’t all believe the message he preaches.  Furthermore, we aren’t all choosing to listen to sanctified racism and intolerance and to force our children to hear it, in a public school, is not just wrong, it’s criminal.  We should demand that our public schools be kept a place of learning and tolerance.  They should teach our children about the constitution, not that the loudest groups force their agendas onto everybody.  Remember, kids see the message behind the message.  They know.  So do we.  Somebody in our public school leadership should be held accountable for this gross violation of civil rights and should be punished for this gross violation of our constitutional freedoms.  Today.  Because we live in America, today, where this is now unacceptable, finally at last.  Tell our government and our school board that it is.  Now.

Dear God,

I realize there’s that whole inscrutable plan thing that you’re using to manage us, but we need to talk.  Yeah, I know we aren’t supposed to ask too many questions, and seriously, there are lots of stuff that I just don’t want to know.  You know, like how you got the first guy to look under a cow and say "whatever comes out of those, we’re so going to be drinking it." That alone gives me faith in miracles, and a deep distrust of anybody who says "hey ya’ll watch this!"  Anyway, so, since I established early on that I’d be your lightning rod, always with the whys? and stuff, I’ve got to question your wisdom on something else.  Why exactly does everything in the Northern Hemisphere have to bloom at once?  I mean, would it hurt to delay stuff, stagger it around some, you know mix up things a bit?   Instead of having everything all busting out at once, then floating around like pollen daggers flying through the air, waiting for me to suck them in and erupt into a Volcano filled with snot & eye boogers.  I know red is good, it’s a happy color, but not on my eyeballs.  Seriously, WTF!  Today, no joking, my eyes look like a roadmap of some large metropolitan area, with all the intersections highlighted and circled.  Two words- Not attractive.  And, seriously, breathing, that’s beginning to fall into the "not too much fun" category.  Not cool God, not cool at all, in fact, it’s too much.   So, because I care, and because I’ve heard your name being thrown around with lots of different words tacked on that I think aren’t on your birth certificate, I’ve got a suggestion.  If you could work on the whole blooming timeline, tweak it a bit, we’d really be much better with you and that whole plan thing.  I mean, everybody says that plans are made for changing, and life happens while you’re busy making plans, so this little tweak involving blooming shouldn’t be too hard.  Otherwise, I’m thinking that maybe you need to rewrite the plan to include a move for me to the desert.  Vegas would be nice, what with the bright lights and sand yards.  I’m reasonably sure that Cactus Pollen can’t be all that and a prescription of Zyrtec, not like a yardful of green, leafy trees and weeds growing from everywhere.  Yes, God, Spring is bursting out all over, especially out of my head.  Please help.  Send Kleenex.  Or Chuck Norris.  Chuck Norris doesn’t get allergies.  Allergies get Chuck Norris, and then they die.  So, he’d help too. 

Thanks for your attention!  See ya in front of the Mellow Mushroom or in church sometime.

Yr. BFF – Missy

Okay, so that title is provocative, right?  And, yes, it’s a Jesus post, from me, your disaffected Baptist pal, Missybw.  But there’s a point, you know, because there always is.  Last Friday night, because we girls had been in the kitchen all day, working on partay food and such, we didn’t want to cook.  I know, shocking.  So, under duress, the guys agreed to dinner out and we all chose Mellow Mushroom for some yummy ‘za and salads.  However, this isn’t the point, just setting the stage, don’t worry, we didn’t see Jeebus in our pepperoni or anything like that, just keep reading.  So, after dinner we headed to the exits, all 87 of us, with a box of leftovers which was being carried by my step-dad – Jimbob.  As we were trying to get out the door another large group was coming in from the rain and cold, and in the midst of that group stood a very dirty, very thin, very wet Mexican man, approx. 30ish, on the sidewalk, right in our path.  He immediately made eye contact with me, and approached, getting all up in my personal space in the process.  He looked sad, and somewhat embarassed, but he pressed up closer and gestured toward his stomach, said to me in very broken English "have hungry" and "you have food?"  Now, here’s where I have to confess, homeless people make me very uncomfortable, on every level.  I don’t feel safe.  I feel guilty.  I feel angry because of my guilt.  In short, they push all my buttons.  But this man did not.  Strangely, even given his extreme closeness, I didn’t feel threatened or angry, simply ashamed that I had to say "no pesos, sorry".  And I wasn’t lying when I said no, because (and all you purse-snatchers out there should make a note of this) I never carry any cash.  Snatch my bag and all you’ll get is a very nice purse, with nothing in it.  Sorry, you’ve been warned. 

Anyway, I still felt ashamed for having to say that, and that feeling of shame remains with me still.  Even more oddly, the image of that man’s face has stayed with me for several days now, and occasioned two seperate conversations with Thi Thi and one with the Bob.  I wonder if he found food.  I wonder if he had a family, in a van or a pickup bed, also cold and hungry.  I hope he’s okay.  And I also worry about this.  What if I said no to Jesus?  What if I told our savior and God’s only son "no pesos, sorry."  And that gets us to the meat of this post, how will we know it’s Jesus when he comes back?  I mean, really, think about these points. 

• If he comes back at the head of a mega-church, wearing a shiny suit, saying he’s the son of God, most of us will dismiss him as a charlatan and will not believe.
• If he comes back as a new-age hippy, wearing "jesus" sandals and preaching peace to all men, we’ll dismiss him as just another freak on acid and we will not believe. 
• If he comes back looking like the middle eastern Jew that he was, we’ll probably see our national threat level raised to Red, and he’ll be on his way to Gitmo faster than you can say "Amen".

Here’s a surprise for you folks, the pictures painted of Jesus aren’t what he really looked like.  I know, shocking, and amazing, but true.  He was Jewish, from the middle east, so the chances of him having blondish-brown straight hair and blue eyes are virtually impossible.  Despite that picture my Nana had hanging on her Living Room wall, presumably so she could identify him when he came to her door.  The reality is that his appearance would be much closer to the middle eastern visage that we see on terrorist posters today.  Don’t believe me?  Go to Tel Aviv and check it out!  And, because I’m the logical sort, I’m pretty sure that he’s not going to have a business card from God Inc.  In fact, I would also feel safe in saying that we wouldn’t believe in it, even it if he did.  The man could ride around on a donkey with a booming voice saying "this is my son, I give to you" and we’d be all "how’d he do that?  Where’s the speakers?"  Yeah, I’m pretty sure, to use a time-honored east Tennessee phrase, we wouldn’t know Jesus if he bit us on the butt!

But, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that he’s all around us, all the time.  I think he’s in the homeless Mexican man at Mellow Mushroom, the junkie sitting on the blanket beside the Gay Street Viaduct, the poor child enduring ridicule as he gets his free lunch because his Daddy or Mom used the last of their money to buy gas to get him to school, and in the Prostitute who sells her body (and her soul) because she was degraded and abused as a young girl and taught that this was the only value she would ever have.  And, sadly, I’ve crossed the street to get away from all of these people, as I shuddered and said "there but for the grace of God go I".  And I’m right.  They’ll all get to God before me, because I refused to see the Lord in their faces.  Because that’s not what I want Jesus to look like.  I want him to look like me.  Because I need to be safe, not saved.

I guess, after all my yammering, my point for all of you to ponder is this, next time you are approached by someone who isn’t like you, it wouldn’t hurt to think carefully as you look them over.  And ask yourself, as you squirm with distaste, what if Jesus came back like that?

So, have I told you how much I love me some Sunday mornings?  No?  Well, I do, and I always have.  It’s my most favoritest part of the week in fact, no kidding.  Get up when I want, sip on a nice cuppajoe, leisurely peruse my paper, and just listen to the peaceful quiet here in the Island Home.  All these things are what comes together and ensures that for today anyway, life is good.  Yeah, I know that eventually life calls me back and I’ll be moving around, doing stuff, accomplishing, but not right now.  Now I’ll thank the world for leaving me alone.  Right now I’m content to just ”be still and know that I am.” 

I know. 

The Bob and I are heading to Nashvegas today… a quick trip to worship at the altar of crass commercialism known as The Mall at Green Hills, that’s all.  Yeah, I know, we have malls here in K-town… but not one that has a Tiffany in it Skippy!  So off we go for a happy joy funtime fieldtrip!  It should be fun, yeah, fun, that’s a word.  You know, because Damnit Bob’s already been threatened with a jackslap right in the middle of the Food Court if he starts getting all Bob-ish and gives me any crap about going into Macy’s, or any such nonsense.  Look for the 50 yr old man rocking in place on a bench outside of any of the bigger stores… that’ll be half of us… a nonstop party all the time!!  However, there is another point to this post, amazingly enough, other than damnit Bob and his potential bad behavior.  I need input from my Nashville readers, all 1 or 2 of you!  And you know who you are, so don’t try to duck the monitor, hoping I didn’t see you, because I already have!  The point is that we were looking at finding a good kosher deli for lunch today, while we’re over in civilization.  You know, since our options here in the hinterlands are “Nixon’s Deli” or Ham n Goodys, and while both are fine sandwich joints, neither would know how to spell kosher if you spotted them the vowels.  I can hear all of you saying now, ”why the need for good kosher deli?”  And the answer is, because, you know, it’s a jewish holiday and Damnit Bob’s suddenly turned into Tevye and apparently is feeling the need to bond with his faith.  His desire for a oneness with god’s chosen people, however, is confined to eating a pastrami on rye, and not actually going to shul or anything crazy like that.  You know, because we don’t need to go overboard or anything.  I guess my raised eyebrows on this one comes from the fact that I’m baptist but a fried Chicken dinner doesn’t represent a religious experience to me… unless it’s good fried chicken, after singing on the grounds.  But nu, that’s what he wants and that’s what I’ll find, because, you know, I like me some deli too!  And, in my experience with kosher foods, there are worse things he could want.  Like gefilthy fish, or wanting to go to some place that has jars of Schmaltz on the tables.  And yes, Schmaltz is rendered liquid chicken fat, in kosher cuisine it’s just like ketchup, and I shouldn’t need to add any more to that one.  But again, I digress.  Damn, staying on topic at 4:45  am is really tough!  The question, finally:  is Noshville really all that and a half-sour Pickle?  Or is there someplace else that does better kosher deli over in ya’ll’s neck of the woods?  Give me the 4-1-1 on this one if anybody from the 615 has an opinion that doesn’t involve hauling him to church or exorcising his inner Jew with a meat and three.  There, thanks, I feel better already!  Oy!

Read about the satanic Teddy Bear over at CNN.com.  Once again I am reminded why it is that zealotry of any stripe has no place in my world.  And, don’t be so quick to say that this couldn’t happen here, because if the strictest conservatives among us had their way then we’d be living life according to their beliefs, which really aren’t that different from Sharia, if you listen to them carefully.    So, yeah, I’m angry, but not at just the misguided individuals who have done this.  I’m angry at fundamentalism of all stripes.  It’s not tolerant and to me it’s repugnant.  But believing in a true democracy means that I have to stand up for and protect the rights of all people to hold beliefs and opinions that I do not agree with.  I do, but don’t try to make me live that way.  I have rights too, specifically the right to live contrary to your beliefs.  Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.  Don’t ever forget that, or we’ll all soon be living the life they have in Khartoum, or Saudi Arabia. 

Can I just say that and leave it at that?  Well, no, I never can, but this time I’ll try.  So here’s just this much… if you are successful at this stupidity then you will create more damage than you know within one house, and that’s just sad, for everybody.