Dancing Down Joy

Feminine Divine #15

She stood tall and golden,

this dry summer grass

beneath a setting sun that was

still smacking the ground like

a leather belt

and anger

but
when the breeze blew

she grooved a little

and when the wind gusted

she danced like a storm

and soon

she danced the rain into being

and all the earth danced along

 

Biblical Take on Sin?

Bubba, who has re-appeared on Marshal's website, recently has been suggesting he wants to ask me questions and have a conversation on the notion of sin and morality and harm. He said:

what it is I really want to discuss -- sin vs harm, and whether calling an act sinful qualifies as harmful!

Let's take a look at what he probably means by "Sin." Even though I've done this repeatedly for their sake... I'll take a shot at it again. Not so much for their sake but for mine, to put down in words what I'm learning from what I consider their bad example.

"Sin" is a problematic word. It has all kinds of baggage. Humans have been using their preferred notions of "sin" to beat up on and further marginalize people for a very long time. "Sin," in relatively modern conservative religionist's circles has been used to heap guilt upon people and as a tool to say, "YOU are not one of us, YOU are not a decent human in "god's" eyes. YOU are "totally depraved."

LOOK at that. TOTALLY depraved. AAAGH! That sounds horrible! What do they mean by it?

According to the conservative religionists at "Ligonier Ministries..."

"The doctrine of total depravity
does not mean that all humankind is as evil as it possibly could be.

Phew!

Rather, it means that sin affects the whole person. We are born
corrupted,
poisoned, and
polluted by sin.
Our minds are darkened and we
cannot see or understand the truth.
Our hearts are defiled so that they do not love the truth.
We love what we should hate, and we hate what we should love.
Our wills are in bondage to sin, and we cannot believe the gospel in and of themselves.

Ugh.

Sin, the word typically used in the New Testament... the word used by Jesus... is literally translated as
missing the mark
as in shooting for a target and coming up short. Not being perfect. Not achieving perfection.

Well, of course, humanity is not perfect. No one who is human and self-aware suggests that.

But merely "missing the mark of perfection" is not the same, in any way, as DEPRAVED, much less TOTALLY DEPRAVED.

It is not the same as being "corrupted, poisoned and polluted by sin" (by "missing the mark..."?)

The word SIN has been stained, it seems to me, by the human traditions found in conservative evangelical Christianity and other more repressive religious traditions. So, I'm reluctant to use the word, "sin." It has become a mark of abuse and oppression. It causes nightmares and PTSD in people who have been terrorized by the use of the word, "sin."

But biblically, "missing the mark..."? Failing to be perfect? That, I'm fine with. We humans are, after all, imperfect. We miss the mark of perfection. But what of it? Does that make us actually evil? Worthy of the hatred and punishment of God? I do not think that is rational or biblical.

I'd suggest that it's when you add all these human interpretations, opinions and traditions that "sin" becomes problematic.

This is why I prefer to deal with notions like, "Is this harmful or helpful? Does it promote wholesome healing and community... or division and hatred?" That which is harmful is wrong, is a "sin," in the more negative sense that some human traditions and opinions suggest.

Further, "the Bible" has made no "opinion" on "sin." Rather, human writers and thinkers have offered opinions, in the Bible and afterwards. And those opinions are sometimes helpful and sometimes harmful.

As a starting point.

Kamala Harris, Our Next President?

 Contrasting Harris and Trump

1. Kamala Harris was a respected prosecutor
Trump is a disreputable actual criminal felon

2. Prosecutor Harris is highly educated and demonstrably intelligent
Trump is... not

3. Prosecutor Harris prosecuted sexual predators
Trump IS a sexual predator

4. Prosecutor Harris prosecuted the owners of scam colleges that ripped off students
Trump WAS the owner of a scam university that ripped off students - until he was stopped by law enforcement

5. Attorney General Harris helped win a settlement against five banks that helped homeowners harmed by those banks
Property owner Trump defrauded homeowners and was caught and forced to repay nearly all the money from the defrauded victims of his crime

6. Harris has released her tax records and been transparent about her business dealings
Trump has famously never released his tax records and been intentionally vague and obtuse about his wealth and business dealings, beyond boasting boorishly about how wealthy he is

7. Harris supports women's rights to self-determination as it regards health care decisions and pregnancies and would work to restore women's rights on this front
Trump boasts that he caused the overturning of Roe v. Wade

8. Harris is a stellar role model for women, girls and all good people
Trump is a stalker of women and girls and just not a good man - Trump boasts and laughs about sexual assault and abusing his wealth and privilege to ogle teenaged girls while they were dressing

9. Harris would not try to deport "all" undocumented immigrants, nor would she refer to them crassly as "the illegals"
Trump has promised to try to deport all undocumented immigrants as soon as he wins (IF he wins), never mind the shattering economic impact such a policy would have on average US families and employees

10. Harris has zero instances of her being indicted or convicted of crimes and no impeachments on her record
Trump, as we all know, was impeached twice and in the last four years has had dozens of indictments against him, resulting (so far) in 34 actual felony convictions

Additionally, so far as I can tell, Harris has no criminal colleagues or close allies in her coterie
Trump surrounded himself with many corrupt people resulting in at least 9 criminal convictions of his allies and staff (or former staff)

To be clear, I have policy disagreements with Harris and I hope she has learned from some of her policy mistakes in the past... Harris does not speak with the overwhelming fluid, compelling elegance of the Obamas... She (like the rest of humanity) is a flawed person running for an important office. But from all appearances and given the known data, there's just no contest between Harris and Trump as to who the better, more intelligent, more decent candidate is.

We'll see where this goes.

Is Deporting ALL Undocumented Immigrants a Rational Theory/Policy?

No. The answer is, No. Not even close.

Set aside the human rights notions that humans have human rights including the right to self-determination and to move from places they view as unsafe to places they view as safe. Just forget that.

Also, forget the overwhelming biblical and faith-based notions of welcoming immigrants and doing unto others as you'd have them do unto you.

Forget human kindness and decency.

The GOP and the "project 2025" types are saying that, given a chance, they will deport ALL undocumented immigrants. That's something north of 10 million people.

But think about it. What are the economic results of suddenly removing/deleting 10 million people from the US economy... from the US workforce? Do we know?

Yes, we do. According to a wide variety of economic experts, the result of such a policy (IF they could pull it off) would be economic disaster for the US economy. The data from experts:

Of those 11.3 million, we estimate that 7 million are workers. What is the economic contribution of these unauthorized workers? What would the nation stand to lose in terms of production and income
if these workers were removed and returned to their home countries?

Mass deportation of 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants would also remove these 7 million workers from the U.S. economy, reducing the total number of U.S. workers by nearly 5 percent.

[They crunch the numbers and...]

The main findings of this report are as follows:
• A policy of mass deportation would immediately reduce the nation’s GDP by 1.4 percent,
and ultimately by 2.6 percent, and reduce cumulative GDP over 10 years by $4.7 trillion.

• Mass deportation would cost the federal government nearly
$900 billion in lost revenue over 10 years.

• Hard-hit industries would see double-digit reductions in their workforces.

https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/massdeport1003-summary.pdf

And economist after economist, research after research say the same thing. And it's only reasonable. You can't just delete 5% of the workforce and the income and consumption and tax base that those people represent and expect that it won't harm the economy. Indeed, it will probably harm the "regular US workers" the most (Trump and his level of super-wealthy may well not be impacted significantly, but most of us are not super-wealthy, are we?).

Trump's proposed mass deportations would backfire on US workers

...The immigrants being targeted for removal are the lifeblood of several parts of the US economy. Their deportation will instead prompt US business owners to cut back or start fewer new businesses, in some cases shifting their investments to less labor-intensive technologies and industries, while scaling back production to reflect the loss of consumers for their goods.

Prior episodes of mass deportations and exclusions have occurred at several moments in US history. Research has shown that, far from generating economic benefits, their net effect was to reduce employment and earnings for US workers—in the short run and long run.

https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2024/trumps-proposed-mass-deportations-would-backfire-us-workers

I could go on and on. But just read what scholars and economic experts are saying about this very bad idea. Trump's policy change (which he probably can't implement now any more than he did in his first adminstration) would devastate our economy and have widespread negative consequences.

One of the starting points for conservative ideology is reasonably weigh the consequences of an action or policy, and that we should watch out for unintended consequences. Indeed.

We All Need More Kindness

We all need more kindness, more patience, more grace, more love.

We desperately need less violence, less vitriol, less demonization of the other, especially the Struggling Other, the marginalized and poor, the ill and down and out.

Prayers for Donald Trump and the person killed in the shooting, as well as those harmed in the shooting.

Prayers for the shooter - who was not much more than a child - and their family.

Prayers for the violent and those who promote violence, that they will choose other ways.

Prayers that we all take action to see an end, or at least a lessening, of violence. Especially violence and harm towards those who struggle.

What IF Biden Steps Down?

Great Cloud of Witnesses

I do not pretend to be a genius when it comes to politics and I sure don't know if Biden should or shouldn't step down. This is not a call for him to step down. Having said that, however, if his health is failing, it would not be unreasonable for him to step aside. He's certainly earned his rest. Clearly, him considering stepping down is now on the table, so let's talk about it.

So, IF he steps aside (many are asking), who could possibly run? I've seen conservatives say things like...

"All the names put forward have significant negatives and don't seem to be particularly strong candidates."

I would just respond to THAT notion by saying... setting aside that conservatives disagree with Democratic policies for whatever reasons, are you kidding me? "Significant negatives..."? Especially as compared to the GOP alternative (but truly, even aside from that)? Really?

Just three examples of many great choices.

1. Kamala Harris

A. She's the vice president!

B. Before that she was a successful senator and before that, a respected lawyer.

C. All of which is to say she is highly educated, smart and has political history and savvy.

D. Additionally, she's been an inspiration to girls, women, women of color and their allies in reaching the heights she has. She is the first woman vice president. She's the first person of color in that role.

E. She's relatively young, so no worries of her being "too old."

F. And, of course, she's not irrational nor does she talk like an idiot or make promises of prosecuting her political enemies.

For 1,000 reasons, she's an extremely qualified candidate and far and away better than the convicted candidate. I'd love to see her debate Trump.

2. Andy Beshear
(I'm sort of hoping that IF there's a shift away from Biden, it would be a Harris/Beshear ticket, but then, I'm prejudiced for the Kentuckian)

A. Governor of Kentucky

B. The very popular Democrat governor of a very red state. Kentuckians, by and large, love Andy.

C. Highly educated, clearly intelligent, well-spoken and familiar with and experienced in politics.

D. Like Harris, although he is a highly intelligent and skilled lawyer, he has never promised to use the justice system to prosecute his political enemies.

E. Like Harris, I would love to see Beshear in a debate against Trump.

F. Also quite young and yet, educated and experienced with a clear history of wise political leadership.

3. Pete Buttigieg

A. Another highly educated, clearly intelligent, very experienced politician

B. All of the above points about Beshear are true for Buttigieg, as well

C. Military service

D. Multilingual (maybe not completely fluidly in all cases, but clearly familiar with multiple languages and able to answer questions in multiple languages - that compared to Trump, who tends to speak English at about a 3rd to 5th grade level).

E. Would destroy Trump in a debate.

That's just three super strong candidates right off the bat.

In ALL of these, it would be nice to have intelligent, respectful, respectable adults in office. In each of these people, they have lovely and supportive marriages (not that this is a requirement) and are actually part of and relatively faithful to their particular faith tradition. They each have demonstrated that they know the Bible better than the other candidate (not that knowing the Bible is a prerequisite for being president, but if you're going to present yourself as a religious person, you should actually be familiar with that religion - Trump is clearly not, although he is willing to shill a poorly-made, overly-expensive Bible to people willing to lose their money in Trump's name).

None of these very intelligent, very experienced leaders have any scandals or arrest records, whereas their opponent is NOT intelligent and is a moral disgrace for many reasons and is clearly corrupt and a felon, to boot.

With each of these candidates, none of them are perfect people, of course. Each of them have things I strongly disagree with in their politics and policies. But are they qualified and strong candidates? Of course, they are. "Significant negatives" for these (and other) candidates? I just don't see it.

++++++

I will note that I didn't mention Michelle Obama. I think it is a given that she is of course an extremely qualified and strong candidate for the office if she wanted to run. I think she would almost certainly win in a landslide, so strong she is as a candidate and just a clearly wise, good person. But she's been consistently clear that she's not interested in the job and so, I didn't mention her.

Beyond her, the list of qualified, strong candidates is pretty long. I just chose three of the most obvious candidates from my point of view, not to say there aren't other qualified candidates.

Happy Birthday, Edwin Way Teale!

“Time is the river.
We are the islands.
Time washes around us and flows away and with it flow fragments of our lives.
So, little by little, each island shrinks…
But where, who can say, down the long stream of time, are our eroded days deposited?”

“The long fight to save wild beauty represents democracy at its best.
It requires citizens to practice the hardest of virtues--self-restraint.
Why cannot I take as many trout as I want from a stream?
Why cannot I bring home from the woods a rare wildflower?
Because if I do, everybody in this democracy should be able to do the same.

My act will be multiplied endlessly.
To provide protection for wildlife and wild beauty,
everyone has to deny himself proportionately.
Special privilege and conservation are ever at odds.”

“It is those who have compassion for all life who will best safeguard the life of [humanity].
Those who become aroused only when [humans are] endangered become aroused too late.

We cannot make the world uninhabitable for other forms of life and have it habitable for ourselves.
It is the conservationist who is concerned with the welfare of all the land and life of the country,
who, in the end, will do most to maintain the world as a fit place for human existence.”

"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we shall have for destruction."

~Wise quotes from naturalist, Edwin Way Teale, who was born June 2, 1899 and lived up until 1980, my senior year of high school. (So, I'm a little late in noting his birthday, but it was the right month, at least!)

Wisdom from Rumi

Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
up to where you are bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open,
you would be paralysed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and
expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings.

~"Bird Wings," by the great Muslim Poet, Rumi

Be like the sun for grace and mercy.
Be like the night to cover others' faults.
Be like running water for generosity.
Be like death for rage and anger.
Be like the Earth for modesty.
Appear as you are.
Be as you appear.

~Rumi

Happy Pride Day!

"Goodness is stronger than evil.
Love is stronger than hate.
Light is stronger than darkness.
Life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours through God who loved us."

~Desmond Tutu

"Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?"

~James Baldwin

"and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive"

~Audre Lorde

"This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you."

~Jesus

"Hope will never be silent."

~Harvey Milk

"To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true."

~Bayard Rustin

"Without community, there is no liberation."

~Audre Lorde

She Dreamed

She dreamed of 

a rampaging river

ripping through the cold night sky

She dreamed of impossible

made practical

and doubtful

giving it a try

She dreamed of worlds clashing

and uniting

of day and and of night

of digging deeper holes

of black and of white

and all the colors, implied
in between

She dreamed 

of magick and mastery

of fear and of flight 

of hope and of horror

despair and of fright

but mostly

hope

Mostly

she dreamed of Hope

.

And then

she woke up

filled her cups with water

and took them 

to the river

and poured them deep within.

RIP, James Lawson

"...For me, nonviolence is that quality that comes out of all the great world religions, the notion that the creative force of the universe is love, that God is love, and that love is all encompassing. Gandhi insists—and I think this is Gandhi’s great contribution—that the creative force of the universe is the force that we humans must learn to exercise because that force is the only force that can cause the human race to do on earth God’s will.

And nonviolence is power. It is not, as I was originally told in college in 1947, just persuasion. Persuasion is a form of power. Aristotle says that power is the capacity to achieve purpose. It is a God given gift of creation to human beings. Nonviolence has its deep roots in the long journey of the human family as so many people operated out of love and truth in spite of all that was raging around them.

As Gandhi and King also said, nonviolence is the science of how you create your own life in the image of God. Nonviolence is the science of how you create a world that practices justice, truth and compassion."

"My mother’s word was you should not retaliate by fighting. At age eight, in the Spring of the fourth grade, I slapped a boy who yelled racist epithets at me on Main Street. And for the first time, when I returned home from this errand for my mother, I told her about the incident.

She continued to do what she was doing in the kitchen and without turning around to face me, responded, “Jimmy, what good did that do?” And there was a long period of silence in the house as I heard her voice telling me who I was–that I was loved, that I belonged to God, and that we were a family of the church, and how important that community was to us, that I did not need to use my fists on anyone. Her last sentence to me was, “Jimmy, there must be a better way.”"

The Reverend James Lawson, September 22, 1928 – June 10, 2024

A Song of Water and of History

Studying history begins

for me, today

with a long look at

the water running

in no particular hurry

in the stream next to me.

It is, I realize,

the same water my grandmother drank

and boiled her snap beans in

It is the same water we crossed to escape torture

and the same water they drowned us in

before we escaped.

It is the Water that gathered all in one place

and separated the Dry Land from the Dry Land

It is the Water over which the Spirit hovered

and within which life began.

And so, I went down to the river to pray.

Down by the riverside.

Where we laid down our sword and shield

where we hung our harps and wept

bleeding history from our face

for the captors demanded we sing a song

of Zion

of Home

of Sanctuary

and there was

no

Sanctuary.

And so, studying history,

I remembered and recalled and imagined

and I built an ark

a boat bound for the promised land

over Jordan's stormy banks

beyond the muddy waters of the Ohio

across the Rio Grande

and like the stream beside me

I sang a song

a song

of Water

and of History

and of that first pair of centipedes that

crawled out of the water

and made a home for the rest of us

and waited for Paradise.