Bumper Sticker says I can't be Christian and Pro-Choice

but I beg to differ.

Although I have to admit it took me awhile, because the bumper sticker really had me thinking, "Does Jesus Christ really mean I can't be pro-choice?" and I felt a little sick inside, thinking that my compassion toward women who make a delicate and devastating decision is misguided. Does Jesus not want me to have concern for them? Does He order me to demand that they don't have a right to make a decision?

and the answer is no. Absolutely not. In fact, God, the almighty God, the tripartate God, the Father-Son-Holy Spirit God, yes that one . . . IS PRO-CHOICE!!!

Why do I say this and a dozen evangelicals' heads explode?

Because they haven't read the Bible with open minds.

Follow the simple logic: God created us humans to be above the animals. The thing he gave us that sets us apart from trees, water, plants, dogs, cats, bacteria, etc is the soul. He gave us this soul for us to use at our discretion, because He is pleased when we

CHOOSE

to come to Him.

Now, He could have made us a whole bunch of robots who blindly love and follow Him and are forever happy on earth in peace love and harmony.

But that would have been not only boring, but it would have made him a controller just like an overgrown child controls the Legos that he/she builds. God wanted better from us. This is why He gave us Free Will over our souls, and the choices to make.

And He is so happy when we make the right choice - the right choice out of our own free will.

Therefore, God is pro-choice. He also commanded us not to judge each other, and I think a female making this hard, difficult, heart-breaking, and mindblowing decision doesn't need any further derision or scorn or anger or blame hurled her way.

And by the way, if you really want to further the message of Christianity and if you really want to spread the word of Christ's love, then blaming, mocking, or insulting a woman who makes the choice for abortion is absolutely the wrong way to go - and YOU lose the opportunity to make another beleiver.

How much better are the centers that don't condemn, but simply accept with open arms the women who have made or have to make such hard decisions and give them the tools to make better choices.

But back to the bumper sticker . . . telling me what defines me as a Christian, well, they have a very narrow definition, and ultimately the wrong one.

God bless, and have a good night.

VG

Lockerbie Anger

We Christians (and as a subgroup "Westerners") have missed a great opportunity to push forward Christ's message of peace and compassion and the Western message of compassion with the public reaction to the Scottish court allowing a man to return home to die.

All I have seen in the news is how disappointed are the families of the victims, how angry all people are, especially incensed because he returned home to cheering crowds.

Yes, he might have been greeted as a hero, which basically says, "Yay! You killed almost 300 demons! Go, boy!"

But really, we should see it from a different perpective from our emotional knee-jerk reaction, which is anger and plots for revenge.

We need to look at it from the position of Jesus Christ, who taught forgiveness at every turn, even when people were stoning you to death (St. Andrew, was it? It's in Acts) - and we as Christians could have said, "Yes, we're releasing him because we are Christians . . . unlike you guys, who chop the heads off reporters and splatter the blood all over YouTube."

Similarly, we could have supported the decisions as a triumph of the compassion of Western culture over Muslim (Arabic) culture - we could have used this opportunity to tout our superiority in grace and compassion (that's for those who think more of us as Westerners than Christians) - as Christians we must state that it's Christ's love that we are sharing.

I believe that the Scottish Court acted in Christlike manner, and they will be blessed for it. We who are crying out for revenge should do the same.

NPR this morning

Thank God for NPR!

They finally presented an article that traced the origins of this supposed "death panel" lie that has been circulating throughout America. It was actually started by a conservative pundit in the Clinton era, early on when he tried to reform health care. It was killed in nearly the same way.

Conservatives have again spread this lie (very adroitly, I might add) in order to stir up blind fear and anger among the easily duped American public.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the conservatives are very good at pushing the hot buttons of the average American, and that the reason why liberals fail to do so time and time again is because liberals try to get the average American to think.

THINKING!!! Ah, now there's the rub.

You see, the average American truly wants to listen to Limbaugh for an hour and believe themselves well informed. Or, if they're not that hate-minded, a dose of Fox News daily will suffice.

Americans want to believe themselves free.

They want to believe they are the best.

And they don't want to pay for anything, but still get the best of everything.

With these three factors, it is easy to see how they can be duped.

Present them with HEALTH CARE REFORM, and the way to kill it, you do this:

Tell Americans that HEALTH CARE REFORM will take away your FREEDOM to choose (a "death panel" will meet to decide how to kill you); say that it will make them LIKE SOCIALIZED COUNTRIES (I.E. the WORST - such as Canada where a lady had a tumor in her brain and couldn't see a doctor until it exploded out of her skull, or that backwater island called Great Britain where DOGS are treated better than humans!); and lastly you tell them that it will COST THEM ALL THEIR PRECIOUS MONEY.

and voila!

It's dead.

Deader than I would have been the day my appendix ruptured and the hospital wouldn't save my life until I gave them my insurance card (which I couldn't find because I was in gut-wrenching pain)

The liberals need to stop trying to educate the masses and proselytize the good message

1) The Health Care industry is KILLING YOU now.

2) We are the BEST and as the best we have the capability to give EVERYBODY the best care.

3) Options mean more choices for the best!

4) You get to choose the best for you!

5) It's gonna be less money out of your pocket to cover your whole family!

I don't know, come up with something, but at the very least let's start by coming out hard hitting and saying, "Listen if you scumbags are going to lie to the American public we're gonna call you on it! There are no 'death panels' to kill grandma. Palin's baby is never in any danger, and by the way, she can pay for the best care for her baby, unlike 90% of her constituents, who can't afford the health care that she can afford . . . what happens to their babies? They go without care!"

The conservatives are fine for giving the people the best - only so long as you are rich like them. The American masses need to be told THAT message, time and time again, until they finally come to understand.

OK, I'm done now.

Til next time!

VG

Town Hall Nightmare

It's amazing, it's truly amazing, it's incredible how the conservative right has stirred up the citizens, most of whom can't afford good health care, into demanding the right NOT to have affordable health care.

Wow. I gotta hand it to you, you guys are good!

Rush, Sean, all you other hatemongers out there, you guys are

GOOD!

Good at what you do, good at how you mobilize your masses. You, all you conservatives, are very very smart at how you get this done. and you do it ALL and STILL make us believe that the liberals control the media.

I'll tell ya, I'm amazed. The ability to make people fight against their own best interest is truly a skill of the best, the grandest, the most adept charistmatics. Truly.

Hats off to you,

And when health care reform dies, and I'm still stuck with $200 a month out of my paycheck, a $1000.00 deductible, and paying 50% of all charges above that, so that my out of pocket expenses for health care for my family is STILL 10% of my annual household income, well, I'll thank you again!

Thank you sirs, can you dump toxic waste in my stream while you're at it?

VG

Palin calls Healthcare a "Death Panel"

[Note: I tried to post this as a reponse to the news service that ran the story, but it wouldn't let me post - it was limited to those who have been warped by the conservative news media]

The only "death panel" is your HMO, which already determines whether or not you will receive medical care, depending on if you've met your deductible (which increases 20% annually) and if it doesn't hurt thier profit margin. What the conservatives don't want America to know is that the Insurance industry makes more money than the oil industry and never never never has a loss. We in America have the resources to cover all Americans at a limited cost and it is a shame that we refuse to do so, simply because an aspect of this society has convinced the majority that providing healthcare is somehow wrong.

VG

Riots in St Louis

OK, so the conservaNazis have riled up the lemming-public enough to be openly scornful and even violent to their Representatives, by creating riots at town-hall meetings, and hatemongers like Hannity have the NERVE to blame the unions! Yes, actually, today he said that the anti-democrat and anti-health care riots were the fault of the unions.

Do you really believe this? Do you really believe that the Democrats would deliberately incite riots against themselves?

No, and you would be stupid to think so. The Democrats are simply campaigning and trying to speak logically to their constituents and trying to rationally discuss possible advances in social policy, but the Republicans, being so darn good at setting a fire under the masses, have stirred them up so that they're so blind with anger they won't listen to any rational thought.

Uh OH! Conservatives have come to my door! They're wanting to drag me out of the house so Rush can spit on me!

Help! Help!
Hel - !


VG

Clinton Frees Captured Americans

Hooray! My man Bill just went over and did what we should have done months ago! He got two American citizens freed from an antagonistic military power.

However, I hear some grumbling from some sissy Republicans about him "making us look weak" and I just want to tell those rubes it's time for them to take a class at ST Frederick's University . . . that's right - S T F U !!!!

It's the height of arrogance to refuse to free our people based on how we "Look" - it's as though the conservatives would let us all die in order to maintain this veneer of "physical superiority"

and don't even talk to me about our "standing" in the world. Our standing has been damaged irreparably by that cowboy we suffered through the first eight years of this millenium, being spurred on by that bald fascist we called "Dick" . . . the conservatives should be cowtowing at the feet of the American people, begging OUR forgiveness for allowing our supremem arrogance to misguide foreign policy to the point where the world is sick at the very mention of our name.

and if you can't handle subtlety, I'll tell you straight:

REAL STRENGTH IS NOT SHAKING YOUR FIST AT YOUR ENEMY!!!
REAL STRENGTH IS OPENING YOUR HAND TO YOUR ENEMY!!!!


You got that, idiots???


VG

Tori Amos at the Library

You're probably thinking, "Man he saw her at the library?!" Yeah, well that would have been cool, but no, I was wandering the library, generally making the other geeks 'n' bums nervous, when I came across a display of musician bios, and Tori Amos's, written by herself and a music writer, a series of interviews and thoughts, etc, and I opened it up randomly and began to read . . .

I had always known, somewhere in my travels, that Ms. Amos had faced a violent rape early in her life, and as anybody who listens to her music knows, she has put that into almost her entire creative career, and the part that I read gave me a glimpse into how her family life probably did not help much for her to cope with that horrible part of her past.

Tori Amos mentions that, with regards to Christianity, her grandmother could see absolutely no merging of the Madonna and Magdalene. They were distinct and separate. and if she ever saw any of the Magdalene in her granddaughters, they would be "cast out" - she mentioned that her family believed that people could actually be possessed by demons.

I was so sad on reading this, because it is just further evidence how Christians have ruined Christ for yet one more person. Why is it that so many "fire and brimstone" damnation-preaching generations have totally given their children and grandchildren such a warped view of a loving Christ that it may be near impossible for them ever to return?

Many people in the faith, I believe, may be uncomfortable with my point of view. I may even be mistaken, and if I am, then I apologize to God for my arrogance; however, I am a devout Christian and I believe in the all-encompassing LOVE of Jesus Christ and it absolutely breaks my heart that time and time again I read about and hear about people who can't be Christians simply because someone, somewhere in their lives, put such a guilty "Jesus will damn you to Hell" attitude.

Basically, Jesus doesn't damn us . . . simply put, we're already damned, and HE's the way out. The way I see it, there's just no where to go but UP!

But, back to Tori Amos . . . I have loved her music ever since Little Earthquakes. "Silent All These Years" still ranks as one of my all time favourite songs. Boys for Pele still my favourite Tori album, loved Scarlett's Walk, but I have to admit that American Doll Posse somehow I couldn't get into.

So, with my Amos-credentials established, I hope she will understand when I say that I hope that she found the true love of Christ somewhere in the back pages of her autobiography, and I just happened to hit the sad part. and if not, well, I hope someday she just knows that Verble loves her . . .

but not as much as Jesus does!

VG


P.S. The Beekeeper was awesome, too!

America beginning to turn against President

Been watching the news lately and all the polls are so eager to show our President's numbers slipping and I don't think I can say it more clearly than this:

We stink.

As a nation, we stink if we think that six months into a new administration can take care of a problem that was brewing for five years.

We stink if we think that we can just buy our way out of a recession.

And we super-stink if we don't have the patience to reserve our petty judgement for one full year.

We need to stop answering polls, the media needs to stop producing polls - because polls are nothing but sampled opinions that are used to sway the overall popular opinion - the more polls you have showing approval ratings slipping, the more the approval rates will slip. Conversely, the more you show approval ratings going up, the more they'll go up.

How do I know this?

I read it on a poll. On the Internet, of all places!

To quote my favorite cynic "I Gotta Go!"

VG