Merry Christmas Isn't an Insult

Mentioning Christ, Now Them's Fightin' Words

 

 

 

A couple Millennia ago (or so) a Philosopher was born in the Middle East who spawned a religion that has grown ever since, and inspired both the love and admiration of Billions. He also inspired the disdain and mockery of others who don't like what he said, or the history of some of his followers whom didn't always listen to what he said with close enough attentions.

 

 

Lets forget his parentage, or the attributing of magical powers to his story for the sake of staying focused and concentrate on his messages to see what exactly seems to rub some people the wrong way every time his name gets mentioned.

 

 

Many deny he ever existed. They are like those who claim Shakespeare never wrote any of his own plays, or that it was really Francis Bacon who did the work on the side. In both cases, whoever said the words, be they Biblical or the Bard, the message and delivery were something remarkable. Whoever said (or penned) them as the case might be, was a person of exceptional talents and insights. That kind of thinker doesn't just pop out of the woodwork every day. I prefer to think Jesus said what he said and Shakespeare wrote what he wrote, even if there was no register at the copy write office to back that up.

 

 

But if you are on the "Dis-Christian" bandwagon, the preferable leap of faith is toward the other direction and that conspiracies were responsible, rather than what seems to me a greater likelihood of Jesus being a historical as well as Biblical figure.

 

 

And what were the things Jesus said that rub so many the wrong direction? The biggest one I have come to believe is "Love God and follow His instructions." That one right there seems to raise more ire than all the rest of his controversies combined.

 

 

 





Jehovah literally means "God with no name" and His old Testament antics cannot under any stretch of the imagination be called politically correct. Heck, before the first book of the Bible was over He had already wiped out all life on Earth (except a small boat load of animals) and He went around blasting cities and cultures who didn't agree with Him like an omnipresent Norman Schwarzkopf. He instructed us for several more books, how to live, what to eat and what to  avoid if we didn't want the same treatment. That included no outside of Marriage dating, no premarital sex, and certainly no homosexuality.

The sex edicts tend to rub the wrong way a great many people with frisky tendencies. Naturally the sexual revolution in the 50s and 60s had a hand in upping the antae on provocative behavior and dismissiveness of traditional morays,  but lets be honest folks, men and women have always chafed a bit on the "Just say no to sex " rules. Its nature to want it and somehow God instructing otherwise is a bit counterintuitive to our thinking on the subject.

Jesus went further in making enemies in the secular world by putting down wealth acquisition and suggesting we all act a bit more collectively. That tends to chafe Conservatives almost as much as sex rules chafe Liberals. Jesus can be said to be non-discriminative in taking on the classes by torpedoing everybody equally for their unruly behaviors.


Between the two extremes of disobedience Jesus covered a lot of ground I don't believe too many people of any religion or political persuasion can find fault with. Love your Neighbor. Be generous. Forgive others. Walk softly and be willing to take a blow or two for peace. Those of us Christians who can even get that much right are actually doing a great deal more than  most of the faithful manage to achieve. Unfortunately, even one of the 12 disciples turned out a murderer and the rest of Historical Christianity has even a poorer track record than that for doing his will.

So there is a lot of bad history the modern Christian has to live down, as well as a basic tendency for many to reject parts of the Christian message even if we had no baggage to deal with. Take the Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered movement as an example. I know quite a few people who profess allegiance or sympathy with that cause and because of some Old Testament scriptures, reject all of Christ's teachings right along with the Laws of Moses that condemn homosexuality. This is most unfortunate and I believe a lot of them missed an important point.

Jesus did not come to cancel Old Testament rules, but he did come to reinterpret how to deal with them. "Let you who are without sin cast the first stone" was his ruling and none of us are any less sinful than the other when it comes to Heaven-worthy perfection. Even if Homosexuality is a sin, it is only one of many and therefore nothing we should single out for special ostracism. I am sure there are those who will maintain with angry breath that Homosexuality isn't a sin. If they are right, they will have to ignore certain Old Testament Teaching and statements made by Paul after Christ died. Of course the Old Testament also forbids eating pork and shell fish. That's bad news for Red Lobster and Famous Dave's BBQ.

Its getting so if a Cross is erected in public, someone sneezes in school and someone says "bless you" that some great American freedom of thought has been violated. I would point out there is freedom of religion, not freedom from being offended. The state may not exercise an endorsement of a faith, but they also can't stop anyone from doing so, even if its on their time. If Religion can't be expressed in school by non employees of the system then neither can science. It is the new religion regardless of what secularists claim. It would be a damned fool idea to ban science so I say open the door to all thought, and allow it's expression. Yes that includes Islam and Atheism as well. Christianity need not be excluded because of Historical monopolies it once held.

Then there is the notion that Christianity is a male dominated religion that oppresses women and has no place for them. I reject that entirely, especially as a Catholic. In that original Christian Dogma, Mary has a cult following that certainly eclipses all 11 disciples and Paul combined. If Christmas is about anything, it is a celebration of that young girl, her trials and tribulations, and her success as a Mother in bringing a son into the world who changed things for the better. The story of Christmas is the story of Mary. She may not have any scriptures she left like the apostles, but her role in things was without question far more influential to the whole beginning of things. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with Thee.... Think about that when someone says "Merry Christmas". Joseph, you still have my vote for Step Dad of the Year as well.

Green Acres is the Place to be, Farm livin' is the Life for me...

Green Acres: Two City Slickers become Country Good Ole Boys

 

The Summer dragged on and I soon discovered, living out of a suitcase in Susan's Basement had it's clear disadvantages. Number one among them was what miniscule organizational skills I had were lost in a clutter of disarray and bad memory. I quickly misplaced such important things as my password to Google, who is the parent of this blog and thus the gate was barred to me for several months doing posts.

Finally in early October we were able to take possession of the property I hope to raise tomatoes next spring up at Nomad's Bluff, which is a ten acre, (mostly wooded) location.

Having practically no furniture made moving easy, but left Sean and I with little to recreate on, (including chairs) so that our farm house was more like a big hollow filled with a few pieces of camping equipment. I learned to use a painting pallet knife as a spatula and we drank out of two coffee cups, ate off of either a frying pan or a tin pie plate and did the laundry and the dishes in the same sink.

Fairly soon people began to donate their cast off dishes and soon I had an acceptable supply of cutlery, knives and forks and commemorative football glasses earned at Hardies during various promotional give-aways. We are still sleeping on army cots, have neither a couch nor a Television and trash we dispose of by making a large pile in the middle of the back yard and soaking it with barbeque starter fluid.

The previous tenants left us two moldy old couches that we disposed of in this way making a bon fire of them that lit up the night sky and smoldered as embers for several hours. I considered loading them down with russet potatoes first, thus creating a new way of preparing "couch potatoes". But since the couches were of suspect cleanliness (I found a snake and two field mice having a party in one) I decided to fry the potatoes up in my only salvaged cast iron skillet I brought with us from Virginia.

Sean's Smoker has come in handy quite a bit up here. He finished it at last and it can cook up meat finer than an old Whore can polish a door knob. We cooked on it so often we actually got tired of smoked meats and had to let it idle for a while till out pallets forgot the savory flavor over exposure.

This is our house, a prefabricated double wide trailer home combination on steel girders and cinderblock moorings. The only internet we get is so-o-o-o slow that the USPS can deliver mail faster than I can send out e-mails. Its an all electric house with well water that has so many energy saving features one has to argue with the light switches to keep a bulb on for more than 5 minutes. I ain't complaining and have lived in far worse, even in the city. We bug bombed the hell out of it when we moved in and I repainted the entire interior.

This is the back yard where many of the tomatoes will grow. Behind it is a short section of woods and a rather steep cliff that allows a view of several miles when the foliage is removed from the trees. At night the stars are so clear one can see the milk of galaxies and the faint features of dim stars one never sees in a light polluted cityscape. It is very quiet at night (except when a train passes at the bottom of the cliff) and one hears owls and coyotes hooting and howling on occasion to punctuate the stillness.

The green barn at the top of the page is also on the property. It was once used as a dungeon for SM sex parties by the local patrons of the Wiccan Church next door. I understand this is not part of the Wiccan routine, but merely a diversion of some of it's former members who have moved on to other dens of iniquity elsewhere. It currently holds a lot of broken appliances and dusty deteriorating furniture. No doubt there will be more bon fires in the back yard to clear if for livestock in the Spring.

The house also came with it's own feral cat, known to the locals as Critter . When I arrived she was thin and covered in ticks and fleas, but after some medication and a lot of cans of tuna and chicken she has fattened up and adopted me as her person. She shows her gratitude by once a week bringing me a dead mouse which she leaves on the front porch. She is small for a full grown cat but has a nice temperament, uses the litter box and likes to sleep on my bed now. I have been told before I arrived she refused to go indoors except for the coldest days of Winter. I suppose I arrived just in time for her to go into retirement and become a house cat.

Sean recently turned 21 and since I was broke and couldn't buy him a proper present, I acquiesced, allowing him to adopt his cousin's dog Kodiak who I had serious reservations about since if there was ever an evil Jinn in the form of a dog, it was in this one. But Sean's love quickly reformed him and he is turning out to be quite a good dog. Huskies have a reputation for being wild and Kodiak is no exception. But Sean has managed to bond with him and gotten him to respect our things with minimal destruction. He does like to dig up the yard going after burrowing moles, but otherwise is content to chew on chew toys and scraps of wood we give him.

We made him a doggie door to the back porch and a gate on the railing to keep him in. His romp on his own nearly got him shot by a local chicken farmer so we are working to get him to recognize that the ten acres we live on aught to be his boundaries. He looks a lot like a wolf which does not endear him to local owners of livestock.

I build him a bed which he sleeps on and he walks twice a day with Sean exploring the woods and sniffing all the interesting trails left by game. He even tolerates me, but Sean is his boy and there is no mistaking they belong to each other.

Critter of course found the dog to take some getting used to. She stayed alive this long by avoiding coyotes, and this looked like an especially large one of those. For a couple of weeks she refused to return to the house, but her love of home cooked meals finally strengthened her resolve and now we are one happy family with only an occasional hiss or growl.

I have been working odd jobs to pay the rent while Sean has largely been unemployed. Winter is now here and Christmas is close at hand. I designed my own card this year. Here is the cover.

I am hoping to soon recue the remainder of my furniture and art studio from Virginia. Sean is heading back there in two days and will return with a Budget rental Truck and our things (God willing). I have to work and stay here if we hope to keep the rent paid and the wolves from our front door.

In closing, here are a few shots of the surrounding countryside.

Our Barn at Sunset















The Oak Spirit Sanctuary (The Wiccan Church Next Door in a circa 1920's Farmhouse

The Bluffs on the Missouri River a mile or two from the house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main street of Wooldridge, (The closest town)