Saturday, March 25, 2017

HOW WE TREAT THE POOR

This seems to be the most obvious thing to all followers of Christ. How can politicians who SCREAM that they are Christians not understand this? (and in particular, follow the current administration in cutting all sorts of care for the poor!?)


Poverty in the scriptures: An introduction

D.T. Bell lives in Salt Lake with his wife and three kids. He works in technology, but used to work in international aid and development. He first developed an interest in issues relating to poverty while serving a mission in Argentina. He was into the Bloggernacle before it was cool. Just kidding, it will never be cool. 
jesus-and-the-poorI've been trying to read the Book of Mormon sequentially, which is something I don't usually do as part of my scripture study. As I've read sequentially, I've been surprised by the amount of scriptures I've encountered that deal with how the disciples of Christ are to treat those who are poor, as well as by the intensity of the content of these scriptures.
Curious to see whether my impression of the frequency and intensity of poverty-related scriptures was borne out by a more analytical approach, I cracked open my old friend, the Topical Guide. It turns out it was.
I've posted my analysis below, wherein I looked at every scripture in the Topical Guide for Poor, Almsgiving etc., as well as scriptures I found by looking at every footnote for every verse I read. I then created a framework that could contain the concepts I found in those scriptures. There are obviously different ways to approach it, but almost all the scriptures I found fall into at least one or more of the following categories:

  1. Commandments for how we are to treat the poor;
  2. Promises of what will happen to us based on how we treat the poor (both blessings and punishments);
  3. Statements of fact with regard to our treatment of the poor.
I'll dedicate some successive posts to some of the main ideas found in these categories, as well as some of the thorny issues they present to the modern Latter-day Saint who seeks to follow the Lord's counsel regarding the poor. But for now, I'll leave you with the scriptures I found and the categories they fall into. (If you'd like to read all of the scriptures I used in my analysis you can go here):

Commandments:
Promises:
Facts:
If you know of other scriptures - or key concepts - that I've missed, please weigh in in the comments. Thanks!

Friday, March 24, 2017

BIRTH CONTROL = LESS ABORTION - WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND THIS?

I really don't understand conservatives.

They are fanatical about stopping abortions.

But by making it illegal - making it difficult if not impossible to get - they are talking about JAIL TIME for women who do have abortions.

But at the same time, they make it impossible - difficult - as painful as possible - to get birth control.

SO WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF MEN GOT PREGNANT INSTEAD OF WOMEN?

Just think of that for a minute.

If the MAN got pregnant, then abortion clinics would be on every street corner.

Birth control would be delivered to your front door - in every flavor of alcohol that you can think of.

The "morning after" pill would be available in vending machines on every corner. And every convenience store.



But that isn't what happens.

Women get pregnant - and the men walk off free and clear.

Women have to deal with nine months of pregnancy.

And most likely the next 18 years. Of child-rearing. Child-feeding. Child-housing. Child-education

Hmmm.





Monday, March 13, 2017

WHY IN THE WORLD


"When someone is convinced

they deserve only unhappiness, 

they gather the coak of dread 

bind themselves tight

resist and possible sting of joy

happiness or positive energy.

They righteously defend their gloom, 

and attack anything

that might scatter sunshine at their feet. 

Anger flies any imagined insults,

criticism

and especially hint of change.

They know they deserve to be unhappy

and have worked for years

to get to this position of misery."






Sunday, March 5, 2017

FOR THE LOVE OF A DOG




One of our lessons in church today was about the importance of service.

It turned towards getting over having your service rejected - or perhaps worse, made fun of.

The teacher told of her experience with offering a homeless person a sandwich - and then having that same person throw the sandwich back at them.

We discussed our experiences with homeless beggars at WalMart - and someone mentioned casually....

"And maybe if they are begging for food, they shouldn't have a dog with them."

Oh, my.

That opened  up an interesting can of worms.

We live in a military town - there's an Army base here - and we have more than our share of homeless vets living on the fringes.

We've known people with PTSD.

So a rather contained UPROAR began of how an animal, in particular a dog, can SAVE a homeless person.

To have another being who UNCONDITIONALLY LOVES YOU.

Who NEVER JUDGES YOU.

Who is ALWAYS HAPPY TO BE WITH YOU.



Maybe everyone, but EVERYone needs a dog.













Wednesday, March 1, 2017

WAITING... AND WAITING... AND WAITING....



There is an old expression when you are in the Army - or probably any government service...

"Hurry up and wait."

Standing in line is part of the deal, and it isn't just if you are a soldier.

It's also if you're a family member.

And it doesn't matter if you're just alone - or if you have three small children with you.

You get in line.

And you wait.

And wait.

And wait.

So I'm an old hand at waiting in line.

I have a couple of tricks.

I ALWAYS always always have a book in my purse/backpack.

And I am WONDERFUL at striking up conversations with ANYONE.

People always like talking about themselves.

And if they don't, they love complaining.

Time just FLIES then.







Monday, February 27, 2017

GOSH, WHO IS THAT?


I don't really remember who this little girl was.

I do recollect a kinda bratty kid who lived in Highland Park - she was the youngest by far in your typical dysfunctional American family - and was pretty smart. Unfortunately, she also knew it.

I do remember having the long hair - and my mom complaining about it. I didn't like brushing it, and she ended up washing it about once a week. It wasn't until I had my own daughters that I realized how thick and unmanageable my own hair was.


And it's funny now to think that girls HAD to wear dresses to school. EVERY SINGLE DAY. It wasn't until high school that we could wear pants. NOT jeans, but what they called "nice" pants.

I got bumped up a grade or two in elementary school, simply because they didn't know what to do with a kid who started kindergarten and already knew how to read. I honestly don't think I was that bright, but I was extremely logical, and I could figure out reasonable answers fairly easily.

So - I'm not really certain how this little girl turned a 60 year old woman, who plays with horses and dogs and is owned by a cat. She's a grandmother (the coolest calling in the world), writes wildly and tries to manage several people in her life.

But she's okay about it.


Sunday, January 29, 2017

WHY IT'S DIFFICULT FOR LIBERALS TO TALK TO CONSERVATIVES

I didn't write this - not one word. But it expresses so well what I am feeling lately.

So here it is.

28 Reasons I’m DONE Talking To Most Of My Conservative Friends And Family Members

By Tiffany Willis on February 11, 2015

1. You support revisionist history.
 “Why teach our children at length regarding the horrors of slavery as we have eliminated that curse from our society? We don’t deny it occurred here or anywhere else in the world, but, why dwell on a segment of our past that has been corrected? I don’t think it is appropriate to drag our dirty laundry through our history lessons at length.”
Because it’s HISTORY. You don’t get to just rewrite history books if it’s unpleasant. What are you thinking? Shall we rewrite the Revolutionary War? “A minor disagreement with Great Britain.” How about the bombing of Pearl Harbor? “A spat with the Japanese.”

2. You cite Jesus as your reasoning for rejecting marriage equality.
Yet the Bible only mentions homosexuality six times. Six. Times. 6.
So why is this one of the biggest issues on your agenda? Why are you putting so much energy and hate into an issue that clearly wasn’t one of God’s major concerns?
As Christians who are pro-family, why would you deny people the right to the sanctity of marriage? If marriage strengthens families, why would you not want everyone to have this, even if you disagree with their choice of mate?
YOU (we) have destroyed the sanctity of marriage. There is no possible way that gay marriage can do more harm to marriage than heterosexuals have done. Yet we seldom hear a sermon bemoaning the divorce rate or people living together before marriage. Why is that? Because the pews would be empty.

3. You use Biblical scripture to excuse yourself from feeding the hungry.
There is nothing you do that makes me more disgusted with you than your abuse and misuse of 2 Thessalonians 3:10.
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat. 2 Thessalonians 3:10
You are deliberately taking the scripture — ONE VERSE! — out of context when you use them to justify your own hatred of poor people. And again, you’re showing your ignorance.
Biblical scholars have pointed out that the author of 2 Thessalonians was referring to Christians who stopped working in anticipation of Christ’s return.

4. You lie when you say you value “freedom of religion.”
I had lunch with some conservatives a while back, and the topic of freedom of religion came up. They expressed concern at the “war on Christianity.” I cited a recent event that had occurred in which protesters interrupted the U.S. Senate’s first Hindu-led prayer. The response from my fellow diners? “Good.”
I don’t know how educated people can be so ignorant. Seriously. You can’t even see your own contradictions.

5. You claim God speaks to you and tells you to do things.
Over and over and over, we see right wing nut jobs in the news saying they’re doing this horrible thing or that horrible thing because God told them to. This is, to quote the Christian Courier, “a very convenient method of authenticating what you want to do.”
These are the false prophets that the Bible warns us about, in my humble opinion. Most of you lack the courage to take a stand against these idiots even when you know they’re nuts.

6. You question my faith.
“Christian Left is an oxymoron.”
Oh my, I’ve heard that so much from the right, and believe it or not, I often hear it from my “friends.” First of all, your questioning of my faith genuinely means very little to me. What it does is destroy my opinion of you; I now view you as self-righteous hypocrites.
Recently, I found out that a woman from my church questioned her teen son for spending time here at my home with my children. I believe her words were “why would you want to be around someone so liberal.” I’ve never had a conversation with this lady. We’ve never even made eye contact. But alas, her comment (and more that she said) has forced me to now see her differently.

7. You care more about your guns than you do about children.
After the Sandy Hook massacre, and following other similar tragedies, I asked many of you if you loved your guns more than you do children. I made the statement of “I’d give up my gun forever if it would bring back even one of those children.”
I asked you if you’d do the same. You admitted that you would not.

8. You get excited about people dying.
You really, really like to see death. And not just to terrorists. You love the death penalty. You love war. You love seeing kids like Trayvon Martin being shot. They deserve it, you say. But his murderer has shown — again and again — since his acquittal that he is a dangerous person.

9. You assume that everyone who needs help are losers and parasites who refuse to work.
Approximately 47 million people receive food stamps, and most of them are children or the elderly, in addition to people who are employed. The numbers, from a 2012 USDA report: 45 percent of SNAP recipients are under 18 years of age. Nine percent are age 60 or older. More than 40 percent live in households with earnings

10. You weren’t concerned about uninsured people– including me.
Most of you know that when I made the decision to become self-employed that I would be giving up my employer subsidized health insurance. I’m 47 years old, and like most people my age, have at one time or another had preexisting conditions that would cause insurance companies to deny me a private policy.
I didn’t want a free ride. I was eager to pay for my own insurance. Obamacare opened that door for me and millions of other hard-working Americans and disallows insurance companies from rejecting millions of Americans who were previously rejected. But without even knowing fully what the Affordable Care Act is, you chose the path of ignorance. You didn’t care.

12. You’re liberal in youth, yet grow conservative in age.
I call this the Dead Peter Syndrome in men and/or the Formerly Hot Syndrome in women. A couple of years ago, a man confronted me on Facebook about my liberalism. I knew him when I was growing up; he was a friend of my parents and his children were my playmates. He called me a stupid, misguided, amoral, liberal. Yes, those were his words. I had one question for him:
“When I was a little girl, didn’t I sit on your lap while you smoked a joint and drank beer?”
I’m afraid I burned the bridge of that friendship — and good riddance.
Similarly, many women who embraced the sexual revolution are now taking a stance against women’s rights and suggesting that I’m killing babies with my IUD.
You don’t get to live it up as a young person and then try to take a moral high ground when you get old and aren’t interested in living anymore.

13. You don’t want people who disagree with you to vote.
Oh, Gerrymandering, you ugly devil, you. But do we question why this is so common and seldom questioned by people on the right? It’s because you, my conservative voter loved ones, agree with it. You think it’s perfectly acceptable (and necessary) to suppress the vote. It’s for the “good of the nation.”
I once heard someone tell his wife to not inform her Democratic friend how and where to vote. “She’ll cancel out your vote.” There you have it.

15. You scream about undocumented immigrant children at the border, but you hire Mexicans to do your dirty work.
I live in Texas. Duh! Every single upper-middle-class or wealthy person I know has at one time hired cheap labor to do their menial tasks like home repairs, yard work, housekeeping, and childcare. They actually seek out Hispanic people because they know that they do good work and that they’ll work for cheap.

16. You insist on calling undocumented immigrants “illegals” and “aliens.”
They are human beings. They are undocumented immigrants. Many of them are children. It really makes me furious to see you deliberately depersonalizing these human beings who are doing nothing but seeking the American Dream that you are so proud of. And you do this on purpose. You know what you’re doing. You’re proud of your very unethical and un-Christian attitude towards these human beings.

17. You don’t mind using force against “lesser” groups to get what you want.
Case in point, protesting outside of abortion clinics. Or protesting at the funerals of gay people. And yeah, I know that is Westboro Baptist Church and not you, but if you refuse to speak out against them, then you’re a part of the problem.

18. You love war, death, and destruction.
And why do you love war, death, and destruction? Because ‘Murica. Because you think this somehow makes us superior. We may be militarily superior, but we are ethically inferior.
Even when confronted with the lies, now confirmed officially, that got us into the Iraq war, you don’t care. You like for America to be the world’s largest terrorist organization and the world’s most formidable bully.

19. Speaking of war, you think draft dodging is OK and military service is for the little people.
Why doesn’t it bother you that Dick Cheney et al are draft dodgers? Or that Mitt Romney has an entire baseball team of sons and not one of them served in the military? Or that none of the current generation of Bush children have served in the military. Let me tell you in one sentence, as was told to me personally by a wealthy draft dodger:
“Wouldn’t you get out of it if you could?”
Dying for your country is such a noble cause — if you’re not one of the elite. Right?

20. You claim to care about the Constitution, but in reality you don’t.
Oh yes, you scream “CONSTITUTION” at the top of your lungs, but when idiotic Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently tried to strip the Constitution of the 5th and 6th Amendments, where were you? Where was your outrage? You love the parts of the Constitution that please you personally — NOT the entire Constitution.

21. It’s impossible for you to see your privilege.
If you were born into a family and a place that allowed you to thrive, you’re blessed and fortunate. This isn’t the norm. A lot of success and stability depends on the structure that we have during our formative years. The vast majority of young Americans have not had your advantages and I can’t seem to make you understand that. I’ve stopped trying.

22. You don’t care about children.
You care about fetuses. Once those fetuses begin to breath outside the womb, your concern is gone if they’re born into a poor family that needs help. Or how about poor children who are in school? Most of you want to do away with free and reduced lunches, for God’s sake. And let’s not even talk about free breakfasts for kids. What is wrong with you people??? There is no better investment that we can make as a nation than in the early childhood health of our children.

23. You’re greedy and miserable.
You spend more time bemoaning what is being taken from you that you do in being thankful that you have enough to share.

24. You think our religion is the only one.
I’m a Christian — a proud follower of the most amazing man I’ve ever studied. Most of what is good about me comes from the teachings of Jesus. I love my religion and my Holy Book. I use the Words in Red as a compass. But who am I to look at other people who feel exactly the same way about their own religions and judge them? We’re all on this earth doing the best we can, making the best decisions that we can. And we’re all taking our best guess. The evidence for and against their religion is no different than the evidence for and against ours.

25. You are lazy and you refuse to read.
I provide sources for you that will debunk most of your BS, or at least help you to see it a little differently. You refuse to read it. You stick to Fox News, World Net Daily, etc…You refuse to ever entertain another point of view.

26. Your misfortune is God’s blessing.
When something bad happens to you, you sanctimoniously think it’s God testing you and making you stronger. When something bad happens to me (or gay people or atheists or etc…), you think it’s God punishing them. Really?

27. “Everyone has their lot in life.”
Except you, of course. Well, no…. you do have a lot. Your lot is to have every privilege and entitlement and make sure your children have the same.

28. You think you’re the only one working and paying taxes.
“My tax dollars….” Here’s a clue: you’re not the only one paying taxes. Liberals pay taxes, too. Just how far do you think your $2,000 a year in income taxes goes? Or your $10,000, or even your $50,000? No matter how wealthy you are and how much income tax you pay — and most of those complaining aren’t paying that much — you’re actually probably paying more for wars (that you love) than for food stamps for children in poverty.


Thank you, my dear ones, for being sane. For understanding that things aren’t always black and white. And for disagreeing with me without belittling my very existence. And for not rubbing midterm losses in my face. And for never once calling me stupid or amoral for being a liberal.