Headline: Robertson Suggests the US Assassinate Chavez


You can't make this up! Pat Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition, influencer on thousands of Evangelical Christians, right-wing, conservative, God-fearing pundit -- has encouraged the US to assassinate Chavez, the Venezuelan President. Allow me to repeat: a presumed messenger of God and Christ is calling for the assassination of another individual. Since when has that become the Christian message. I do not speak these words as a secular individual criticizing what I do not understand. I speak from the perspective of a person who knows all too well the message of Christ, of one who spends time reflecting, meditating, and praying on those things that are spiritual. What is going on in the mainstream evangelical church? Many of these leaders, as well as their flock, scare me to no end. They are making moves politically that have become the antithesis of Biblical endorsements. They are influencing and pressurizing the political powers in hopes of creating a new world order -- and this, my friends, concerns me. I know the wielding power of this movement, the narcissism that is coursed like rabid blood in dying veins. And it's only going to get worse.


I pray for the love of God to invade all of us. I don't pray for war or violence or assassination or any of these political messages so desperately infiltrating our minds, our souls, our solar plexus'. We need to move away from this religiosity that is disguising itself as being from God; we need to find our spiritual selves and question everything -- authority, presumptions, and those insidious messages of "I know the TRUTH." It is messages like Robertson's that will set the atmosphere for discord, for disdain towards Americans, for more attacks. This atmosphere is becoming tenuous, and it is starting to reek of times that have passed.


In all fairness, I realize that Robertson has apologized for his comments, as did I when I was caught for burning down a park and shoplifting when I was younger. So we'll forgive him -- he is human. We'll just have to watch and listen very very CAREFULLY.

Quote of this Blog: "I play Wheelchair Rugby. What's the worst that can happen -- I'll break my neck? Again?" -- Mark Zupan, quadriplegic, rugby athlete.


To fight against the odds. To live in spite of death's taunts. I am blown away by all who can strive to live when peril is all around them.


Knew about a girl in a Michigan high school who had no arms or legs. She wasn't born that way, but when she was an infant and toddler, her parents thought that it was a good idea to throw her out of windows when they were upset. Eventually, she lost the ability to use her arms and legs, and they had to be amputated. If you could have met her, you would not know she suffered such abuse and pain. She gave back peace to the world which gave her pain.


I know of others so consumed by their pain -- or their imagined pain -- that they do nothing but cause disharmony to all those around them. Or they invest in causing additional woes within their own lives. I am so saddened by this inauthenticity. I have friends and loved ones involved deeply in drugs, in alcohol, in depression, in self-hatred, in anger, in the awkward loneliness, in disconnection; they are my friends and loved ones; I do not reject their presence, their lives; I surround myself with all shapes and sizes in hopes that my love will be a link to a higher love, a connection to a life unfulfilled.


The beauty of this life often shrouded in mystery or under some sandy lot or locked away in a remote canyon alludes all of us at times. The mountain blows its message, yet we fail to see the sun's voice, the wind's shadow. We fail to know love, not our creation of love, tattered and bruised with ego and jealousy and possession; love -- one on one, one soul touching another. To risk it all -- broken neck or not; to be fueled by this passion that does not quit because of hurdles, because of brokenness -- that is this life. That is this love.


"What you dream in the mornin', may you dream at night
May your love light be so bright it diminish the darkness
That comes without warning and in no particular way
And threatens to blow you away . . .
I wish I could tell you all the pain's in your head
That it all would be better if you'd just do what they said
But if the voice that is talkin' is never your own
There's no one to tell you that you've finally come home"

-- Ferron, Never your own

Quote of the day: "Since the American broadcasting system has more restrictions against sexuality, you can get away more with amplifying violence than you can with amplifying sexuality. It results in this weird sadistic element. Putting women in these sexual situations is a backdoor way of getting more flesh in." Jeffrey Sconce, associate professor at Northwestern University


I read this quote in Entertainment Weekly. It triggered a few thoughts that I would like to share with you. This quote, along with the larger article about violence toward women appears to be a theme that is being played out in much of my reading lately. I am currently reading this book called, "Because I Remember Terror, Father I Remember You" by Sue William Silverman. By far, this book has been one of the most unsettling books that I have read in a long time. It is the autobiography of a woman who survived sexual abuse. It is a tough book to stomach, not because of overly graphic details, but because of the nature of the material. And if the material were not enough, add Saskia, my daughter, into the equation. It's hard to comprehend how or why a father would invade, dismantle a life he partly created, yet it happens too frequently, and girls are the overwhelming target of this tragedy. Humph!


Why so much violence toward the female gender? Why does this hunger for power over girls and women exist in so many boys and men? The networks are increasingly having story lines where women are raped or tortured. Why? Is there an unspeakable sexiness about putting women "in their place," by any means necessary? Even in the most purest and noblest forms of our society -- RELIGION -- we are besieged by the overt sexism and patriarchy that exists in the texts. Look at Christianity, Judaism, and Islam -- look at their texts: the Bible, Torah, and Qur'an -- all subtly and overtly make harsh distinctions between men and women, with women on the losing end most of the time. If the holy books do not bring about true equality amongst gender, what's that to say for everyone and everything else?


I listen to bar talk from men about women. I have heard sermons preached about women submitting themselves to their husbands. I have seen female friends stay in abusive relationships because they justify their man's behavior. I know of a guy who spoke openly of his fantasy of tying a woman up . . . then putting her in the trunk of his car -- (and this is the fantasy that I can actually mention in my public blog; there are more disturbing ones than this one). I watched my parents embrace this gender atrocity. Growing up, I benefited by having a later curfew than my sister, strictly because I was a male.


I get tired of men, of me, being male. I hate the fear in a woman's eye when I walk past her during night time, if she is alone. I'm tired of the women who don't have the strength to leave when they are being abused -- because of commitment, or love, or religion. I understand fear. I know women who stay because they fear for their lives. I understand this. I am not tired of these women who stay for this reason, but I am sickened by the men who make these women feel this way; who threaten out of their own illness and weakness. I'm tired of men making women feel less than what they are. I'm tired of my own voicelessness, my own loud silence.


O, men! We are so pathetic, so pitiful. We believe we are greater because of physical ability. We believe we are greater because we are ordained to be the head. We are nothing but a pathetic lot.


I pray for women around this world. I pray that you will be able to stand against us; fight back, and like Sojourner Truth speak it with passion. "Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women--indeed, for all strong women." She once addressed a man who was trying to put women in their place by saying: "That little man in black there! He says women can't have as much rights as men: 'Cause Christ wasn't a woman.' [Sojourner] stood with outstretched arms and eyes of fire. "Where did your Christ come from?"
"Where did your Christ come from?", she thundered again. "From God and a Woman! Man had nothing to do with him!"

To all my friends and family who are girls or women, I say -- Stand up to the fathers and brothers, the uncles and bosses, the boyfriends and husbands, the religions and governments who have tried to steal your souls, who have tried to make you less than what you are: a Princess, a Queen, a Brain, an equal, a Goddess.


much love.