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Writing about what I have been reading and encountering in the media. |
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WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I comment on things I am reading, thinking about, encountering in media, and spiritual issues. I hope you will find something interesting. PS. I love feedback... |
| A notice on the Google tabloid indicates that a school administrator in Wisconsin has forbidden first graders from singing "Rainbowland" recorded by Dolly Parton and her goddaughter, Mily Cyrus.* It is a song about inclusion of people who are different using the rainbow as a symbol. I find this administrative decision offensive for two main reasons: children love rainbows and have loved rainbows for decades at least. Children who have been abused are more likely to draw rainbows than those who have not. Unless they have been told a rainbow is specifically about people with different sexual orientations, they don't know this. Even if they have been told, only those who are born with some sort of different sexuality that they are experiencing have any basis in experience to understand what it is about. Rainbows are about hope. Anyone who has been exposed to the Old Testament of the Christian Bible knows the story of God sending a rainbow to show Noah that he intends to never wipe out all people again. It is presented as a covenant between God and man that the vengefulness of God will not be released upon mankind ever again. Why in the world would a school want to take this away from children? I suspect they never thought about God's promise to Noah and to all of humanity. There are children's books about rainbows representing hope for humanity to get along with each other that long predate any national dialogue about sexual identity or orientation. This literature is suddenly anathema to people who claim to be Christain. I wish they would read the story of Noah and re-think this decision. * LGBTQ Wisconsin School Bans Miley, Dolly Duet From Class Concert Parents say the decision was made because the song encourages LGBTQ acceptance and references rainbows. By Harm Venhuizen • Published March 27, 2023 • Updated 5 hours ago Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File FILE – Dolly Parton, left, and Miley Cyrus at the 61st annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 2019. Administrators at a Wisconsin elementary school stopped a first-grade class from performing a Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet promoting LGBTQ acceptance because the song "could be perceived as controversial." Students at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha had prepared a rendition of “Rainbowland" for their spring concert, but school officials struck the song from the lineup last week. Parents in the district say the decision was made because the song encourages LGBTQ acceptance and references rainbows. Superintendent James Sebert, who did not immediately return a call on Monday, confirmed to Fox6 that administrators had removed “Rainbowland” from the first-grade concert because it might not be “appropriate for the age and maturity level of the students." He also cited a school board policy against raising controversial issues in classrooms. Sebert has previously prohibited rainbows and pride flags from being displayed in Waukesha classrooms and suspended the school district’s equity and diversity work in 2021. “Let's all dig down deep inside, brush the judgment and fear aside,” the song from Cyrus' 2017 album “Younger Now” goes. "Living in a Rainbowland, where you and I go hand in hand. Oh, I’d be lying if I said this was fine, all the hurt and the hate going on here.” First-grade teacher Melissa Tempel said she chose the song because its message seemed universal and sweet. The class concert's theme was “The World” and included other songs such as “Here Comes the Sun," by The Beatles and “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong. "My students were just devastated. They really liked this song and we had already begun singing it,” Tempel said Monday |
| I read a report this morning that shared about 25 examples of reasons people have left religion. They include abandonment of the speaker by their religious group in a time of need, victim blaming, sexism, racism, and observed hypocrisy. All reasons put together suggest that instead of people experiencing hope that the group can change and improve, people come to understand that the group is a danger to their well-being and escape is necessary. I read an article on the Religious News Service, one source of good information, that shared research into participation in religion in the USA. Since the 1960’s, participation has declined dramatically. One need not look at research to know this. Simply look at church parking lots on Sunday mornings or other religious gathering places on holy days and remember what they looked like in the 1950’s. Of course, most of you don’t remember the 1950’s so reading is a good choice. All churches that I have visited in the past 20 years are full of grey headed people and almost totally devoid of children. If you listen to politics, you get the idea that the “Evangelical” churches are the exception. In fact they are shrinking faster than other groups. I left the church for more than 30 years after attending every time the doors opened for most of my life. I left because I was looking for guidance and support in living a Christian life using the parts of the Bible presented as the words Jesus spoke as the basis for my efforts, but finding I was alone in my way of going about it. I am not inclined to be a leader. I like to share, to discuss and debate, but I don’t like trying to get people to go in the direction I am heading. If they want to go with me, fine. If not, fine: I will go anyway. I have plenty to do without gathering people around me. I find others distracting. So, I left as it seemed the others had different goals and I just didn’t fit in. Besides, every time I said the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicaean Creed, I felt like I was lying. I don’t believe the “resurrection of the body,” or “the life everlasting” have anything to do with my goals. I don’t see myself as burdened with sin. I think that perspective is destructive. I just want to be as skillful at loving as I can be. “Love your God and love your neighbor” are what Jesus told us to do. I want to do that. I want the people I associate with to be doing the same thing. I’m much less interested in how they feel about God than I am with how they treat the people around us. The people I read about this morning seem to think the same way. It appears to me that Christian religious organizations most often see their role as controlling the members of their organization. They want to control things over which they have no authority, things Christ never mentioned, and things they know very little about. They get upset if someone looks or acts differently but don’t take time to learn if it is a hurtful thing, or just another way of being okay. They use fear to control their members: fear of sin, fear of death, fear of abandonment. How do they do this? They tell people they will be abandoned by God for sinning, then abandon people they judge. They tell people they will die if they do wrong, but if they believe the right thing (not do the right thing so much as believe) they can come back to life. They have nothing but a story that has been passed down for two thousand years to base this on. They are so busy controlling others they seem unaware of their own needs and behavior. I find this painful. I returned to church when I found a group of people that is focused on how to love others and the other things are of little on no import to them. They study about how to be antiracist, non-judgmental, and helpful to those around them. They do not blame. They work to make the environment of the church safe for everyone. They share each other’s burdens. This seems right to me. I have been active with this group for three or four years and they are very consistent in their efforts. This is a place I can belong. I hope you can find such a place to support your spiritual journey. |
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