On the other hand, I am also strangely pro-military for a pacifist. I believe that war is absolutely wrong and that it irreparably harms valuable people on both sides of any conflict. I acknowledge that this leaves me with no solution for a Hitler, so I preemptively-Godwin's law you. But I also have a deep respect for the men and woman who choose to put themselves in harm's way for my sake, regardless of how I feel about its necessity, so I am grateful to them on this holiday for fighting for my freedom.

Liese, that post was amazing! And thank you for breaking your rules. The quoted piece fits my sentiments on war rather well. I can't help but think of the Shakespeare quote "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them", and on a larger scale, we as a country were better when we were humble, and had greatness thrust upon us (WWI & WWII). And since then, we have slowly lost our humbleness, and developed a swagger. A conceit. And that is contributing to our fall from grace. Of course, our collective conceit is what is keeping us from realizing that we are falling from grace. Because we are perfect. We are Americans. The greatest country on Earth. Of course, if everyone thinks they are the greatest, and as the greatest, I can do no wrong, well, on a large scale like a country, there will be plenty of divergent thoughts. And it seems that is where we are.

That is only a theory from an undersleeped night person awake far too early in the morning. I hope it all made sense.

(BTW, totally marked your post Liese! It was beautiful!)

Liese, I hope you know that I know that there are wonderful Christians out there walking the walk, just as there are wonderful people of every religion and none at all. Do you ever feel attacked or belittled? Is there something we could do or a term we could use to delineate the faux Christians from awesome peeps like you?

Yeah, Firecracker Boy isn't getting a second date. He just texted me and called his friends 12 yo with no concern for his eardrum or flammability. To which I replied;

Pretty sure you chose to jump through the flying fish like a sprinkler all on your own, dude. And shoot off Roman candles from your hand. I don't know, I need all ten fingers.

Which point he conceded. The failure to own his choices combined with his failure to do anything in the moment to make me more comfortable (asking his friends to stop, stopping himself, or making an excuse for us to leave) all adds up to a marching band's worth of red flags.

Omnis, check out these colors: [link] a little green, but reads more gray on a wall. Or [link] Grey with some brown in it. It adds warmth. Worth trying a swatch or two.

Thanks Scrappy! If the two samples from last night fail, will give those a whirl.

Smonster... when it comes to the scuffing. Do I have to sandpaper every inch of the old walls? (I forsee a Karate Kid feeling of dead arms pending).

Did you tell him you were uncomfortable? While he's pretty clearly not your dream man, what you've said so far is pretty average goofing off, but enh--there's no need for you to be attracted to pretty average.

Liese, I'm grateful you made your post. I nodded right along as I was reading, I'm not far off your points myself, most of them. The thing that impresses me, over and over again, is how the Christians I knew growing up embraced other ideas and welcomed and worked with most people to accomplish things, no matter that those people had a different approach to life. Everyone accepted that people needed to be cared for, everybody had work to do, a right to succeed, to eat, to have clean clothes, shoes that fit, a way to school, the teacher's attention, and to see a doctor when they needed to. I'm sure there was some exclusivity, some prejudice, that as a child I was unaware of. But I grew up believing that every person had the same worth, had something to contribute, some thought to consider, some idea to welcome to make things better for everybody.

I don't believe that's the definition and description that comes to mind today for people calling themselves Christian. But you know, it should be.

Liese, I too loved your post and am humbled by the elequence of your views.

Being a lapsed Catholic - UU-er turned away from predatory sexuality in that community- married to an avowed atheist- living in Louisiana, I have a lot of mixed up feelings about organized religion, Christianity, and spirituality. I have far too much cynicism regarding the "Religious Right" as a political force in this country and the horrible, soulless patriarchy of the Vatican and its foul denials and coverups of its institutional culture of sustaining child rape.

I know spiritual beauty can be found in people and communities of every religion. But power corrupts and I have a great deal of anger and sadness about that.

At the end of the day, though, it's that I weep for humanity, regardless of what country or creed we're talking about.

I guess I do believe in fighting the good fight and working to help your chosen community. And I do take joy and satisfaction in that. I don't expect much more out of life and I am always more surprised by a hug than a slap.

I cannot believe I typed that whole previous post on my phone when my laptop was right beside me.

Anyway, when it comes down to it, I guess it's that I distrust institutions in general.

Yeah, definitely agree that institutions as a whole are prone to being problematic. It's the Soylent Green problem (they're made of people).

And smonster, thank you, but it's not necessary. The discourse on this board is helpful to me, and you have all earned your right to be angry at the church (not that you need me to say it). So I don't need a different word for the kind of Christian I am, because unfortunately I am a part of that greater whole that I believe contains a large passive and/or underinformed middle ground (who I think could be galvanized to action if they understood) , and radicals all around the edges like me and like the wingnuttier side of things. A large part of my work is focused outside of the church, of course, but I also regard it as my job to stand inside the church and wrestle.

Anyway, I appreciate all your thoughts. Now I have to go get the cigar box guitar I made tuned by the one of the best blues guitarists I've ever heard or the violin player from my favorite former Celtic punk band.

Wow, almost every single word that Liese said. I just point upward and say, "yeah, that."

And may I add that I have never felt any "Christian persecution" in Bitches, and the one time I did, a smidge, in Natter, I mentioned it and it led to much thoughtful discussion (as things are wont to do, here).