you won't make yourself a name if you follow the rules

Has anyone else read Roger Walsh's Essential Spirituality? I am only a quarter through but it is most intriguing.

Premise seems basically to be kaberett's theory of religion as "here is what we have learned over the past several millennia, this shit is important". Walsh draws from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism to discern what these major world religions have in common—and, surprise surprise, a lot of it looks familiar from the reading I've been doing on ancient Greek philosophy and modern Western polytheism. Walsh identifies what he calls the "seven perennial practices" as:

Transform your motivation: reduce craving and find your soul’s desire.
Cultivate emotional wisdom: heal your heart and learn to love.
Live ethically: feel good by doing good.
Concentrate and calm your mind.
Awaken your spiritual vision: see clearly and recognize the sacred in all things.
Cultivate spiritual intelligence: develop wisdom and understand life.
Express spirit in action: embrace generosity and the joy of service.

And the thoughts I wish to express are not coagulating properly. :(

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/19/13365269-missouri-republican-legitimate-rape-rarely-causes-pregnancy?lite

Surely, Mr. Akin, you or one of the doctors you mention can get on national news and explain in detail how a woman's body, unaided by hormonal or barrier contraception, can prevent pregnancy, and why that mechanism works only when a woman is raped, not when she has consensual sex without intent to be pregnant. Explain in detail, mind, not simply assert that it happens. And while you're at it, explain how your branch of Presbyterianism can defend their opposition to contraception given that the female body has natural contraception; as Wiki assures me your college degree came from a Presbyterian theological school, I'm sure you're up to this.

Listen, jackass who shall not be named (and isn't reading this anyway), we do not hate you for being Christian. Some of us are Christian, and it'd be damn hypocritical of us to hate all Christians.

We don't, in fact, hate you at all.

What we hate is what you are doing to us in Jesus's name. Amendment 1. Proposition 8. Shit like that.

For the record? I sincerely doubt Jesus would have had a problem with marriage equality.

Y'all enjoy your Easter. I'm gonna be over here trying to sleep through the excess of Christianity.

My sister, the one who's officially helping out with Sunday school but is unofficially teaching the class, is assembling a great many Advent garlands. Strips of paper with instructions on them, stapled into interlocking loops, and the kid removes one loop per day and follows the instruction. Clean your room without being told. Help your parents with the dishes. That sort of thing. And one of the instructions is 'pray for the homeless'.

Uh, sister? Sister's students? Hi, I'd like to introduce you to my UU congregation's pet project: the local interfaith men's shelter. They're looking for groups of four to cook dinner for forty several nights of the week between Christmas and New Year's, and they're looking for donated food to be cooked, and they're probably looking for new socks (because when are homeless shelters not looking for socks), and and and. And it being an interfaith shelter, the last thing they're going to do is turn up their nose at donations from Catholics.

Know what's not actually going to keep those men from being hungry and having chilly feet? Prayer without action.

(Authored by the Flying Spaghetti Monster Hirself.)

1. I'd really rather you didn't act like a sanctimonious holier-than-thou ass when describing my noodly goodness. If some people don't believe in me, that's okay. Really, I'm not that vain. Besides, this isn't about them so don't change the subject.

2. I'd really rather you didn't use my existence as a means to oppress, subjugate, punish, eviscerate, and/or, you know, be mean to others. I don't require sacrifices, and purity is for drinking water, not people.

3. I'd really rather you didn't judge people for the way they look, or how they dress, or the way they talk, or, well, just play nice, okay? Oh, and get this into your thick heads: woman = person. man = person. Samey = Samey. One is not better than the other, unless we're talking about fashion and I'm sorry, but I gave that to women and some guys who know the difference between teal and fuchsia.

4. I'd really rather you didn't indulge in conduct that offends yourself, or your willing, consenting partner of legal age AND mental maturity. As for anyone who might object, I think the expression is "go fuck yourself," unless they find that offensive in which case they can turn off the TV for once and go for a walk for a change.

5. I'd really rather you didn't challenge the bigoted, misogynistic, hateful ideas of others on an empty stomach. Eat, then go after the bitches.

6. I'd really rather you didn't build multi million-dollar synagogues / churches / temples / mosques / shrines to my noodly goodness when the money could be better spent (take your pick):
I. Ending poverty
II. Curing diseases
III. Living in peace, loving with passion, and lowering the cost of cable
I might be a complex-carbohydrate omniscient being, but I enjoy the simple things in life. I ought to know. I AM the creator.

7. I'd really rather you didn't go around telling people I talk to you. You're not that interesting. Get over yourself. And I told you to love your fellow man, can't you take a hint?

8. I'd really rather you didn't do unto others as you would have them do unto you if you are into, um, stuff that uses a lot of leather/lubricant/vaseline. If the other person is into it, however (pursuant to #4), then have at it, take pictures, and for the love of Mike, wear a CONDOM! Honestly, it's a piece of rubber. If I didn't want it to feel good when you did it I would have added spikes, or something.

I vividly recall reading a series of PDFs on the pro-gay Catholic perspective on family members' coming out and what to do about it. There were words to the effect of "God made your child gay". I did not bookmark it. Does anyone have any idea where I might find these, or similar documents?

^ remix_redux. Not spn_j2_bigbang. *points at icon*

Mom's all kinds of stressed today. Apparently Dad has no health insurance. This should not be so, given that he's a military retiree. Dear Mom, this is why I want single-payer health care.

Also Mom forwarded me a chain letter. Something to the effect of praying the rosary in the 1500s turned back an invading fleet, and imagine what would happen if a great many Catholics all prayed the rosary for peace between noon and three on Good Friday. Dear Mom, not Catholic.

Rosary. Hm. There's a thought for the Big Bang. Do we have any idea what Mary's religious affiliation is, other than one of the sects of Christianity that likes angels? Because if 'Catholic' is plausible, I could get some good mileage out of a rosary.

So I worked up the nerve to visit the local Unitarian Universalist services today. (It helped that Mom was off at Girl Scout camp so there wasn't any issue over coordinating scheduling, because the service was eleven to noon and Mom does nine o'clock Mass followed by Sunday school.) I liked it, I'm planning on going back, but it really didn't help to tell Dad that the guest speaker was talking about this group going from being a community welcoming to LGBTetc folk to being a Welcoming Community (I admit the significance escapes me) and Dad's response was "probably shouldn't tell your mother that". Or, when Mom got home and went "Ellie church WTF" and "UU WTF" and read the about-UU pamphlet that's apparently standard issue to all visitors, she got to the bit about not having a creed or statement of belief and said "Oh, they believe anything and everything." With a gratuitous slam at moral relativism. Yeah, way to be encouraging, Mother. Also, don't try to tell me you attend a church that has the moral high ground over Unitarian Universalism, you're a Roman fuckin' Catholic.

( Imagine a United States in which it is unthinkable that the inauguration of a new president not include lighting incense before a statue of Ganesha and asking his blessing on the new president's administration. )

Do you have an idea of what it is to be a Christian in that United States?

That's what it is to be other than Christian in this United States.

ETA: This rant brought to you by an argument with my mother over Thomas Jefferson. I emailed her the text of it yesterday. Her response:

Your rambling makes little sense. And while there is religious freedom, and there is not a government-established religion (though the advocates of government-established secular humanism are making great inroads in restricting religious freedom), those who choose to move here knew it was a Judeo-Christian nation. Don't move next to the airport and then complain about the planes and expect that to be changed to accommodate them.

News flash, Mother: when I came to the US, I neither knew nor cared that this was a "Judeo-Christian" nation. I am a native-born US citizen, as you know damn well, and I am an atheist, as you have known for eight years, and this is my country too.