motherhood, politics, faith & whatnot

motherhood: home with boyo #1 who has the swine flu. He seems to be fever free, but is pretty lethargic and doesn’t have a great appetite. I’m working 1/2 days which I kind of like.
Faith: We are changing churches and I’m hopeful that we’ve found a true church home, sense of community where we can be spiritually nurtured and grow in our faith.
politics: eh. I wonder if Obama is becoming overexposed. He’s not as savvy as he was on the campaign trail, which is to be expected, really. Running a campaign is not exactly like being President. I’m hoping he finds his footing and I suspect he will — he’s a fast learner.
whatnot: I’m exploring different career options, paths. . . more in another post.

Maybe a resurrection of the blog? I changed the theme, but would like to find something different beyond the stock blogsome ones. No time for that now, so this will have to do. I’m changing the theme in another way, as well which makes me think that I need to check my privacy settings . . .

Cat’s ‘Sixth Sense’: Predicting Death?

It’s interesting that the country can have this impassioned discussion about the Imus thing or Anna Nicole’s babydaddy, but not about bring the same attention to Iraq. I don’t think it’s because we aren’t thinking about Iraq or want to be distracted from it, although perhaps that is the case for some. It’s more likely that we feel at a loss to impact the situation at all. In the Imus/Rutgers debate, people can speak up and the companies made decisions accordingly. With Iraq, there have been all kinds of advice and opinions offered up, like, say, the Iraq Study Report, but to know avail. This administration is going to do whatever the hell it wants. That’s not to say that we should just sit passively by and let it happen. I’m just saying that it’s different and much more complicated than having an opinion about the Imus/Rutgers situation.

what the whole Imus debate has taken away is the spotlight from the fact that the Rutgers women’s basketball team had an incredible season . . .

Said Stringer: “While all of you come to talk about this great story, this Don Imus story, in the translation you have lost what this is really all about. At the beginning of the year, we were humiliated. But through perseverance and hard work, determination, ultimately they ended up playing for the national championship. And no one believed in them but them. That’s the greatest story. It’s not where you came from, but where you’re going, not where you start, but where you finish.”

With five freshmen and no seniors on its 10-player roster, Rutgers lost its first two games of the season and stood at 5-5 after 10 games. Players studied film and practiced for 10 hours daily over winter break, Stringer said, and from that point the Scarlet Knights won 22 of 25 games before Tennessee beat them in the national championship.

Along the way, Rutgers demonstrated its perseverance with stunning victories. It lost to Connecticut by 26 at home on Feb. 26, then beat U-Conn. by eight points eight days later in Hartford, Conn., to win the Big East tournament, the school’s first league championship. In the NCAA tournament, the Scarlet Knights beat No. 1 Duke, which had throttled Rutgers by 40 points in December. Stringer told her players then they were her worst defensive team in 35 years of coaching. In the Final Four, Rutgers set a semifinal record by allowing just 35 points against LSU.

“You are familiar with what you might think is the story,” said Rutgers Athletic Director Robert E. Mulcahy III, who attended the team’s news conference along with Corzine and the school’s president, Richard L. McCormick. “But the real story is not the despicable and degrading comments issued by Don Imus and his producer. The real story is about the 2007 Rutgers women’s basketball team: their incredible accomplishments, where they came from and how far they went.”

for Rutgers Players, a Great Run Spoiled

Born into Brothels — a must-see in my book.

Kids with Cameras

The 15 British hostages were released by Iran yesterday. Phew. Maybe we won’t be in there, just yet.

Obama has raised almost as much as Hillary for his Presidential campaign. Her amount, about $26 million, I think, was record-breaking and quite a good bit ahead of the others in the race. For him to have gotten almost as much, and possibly more if you compare who the money is coming from, is amazing.

I like Edwards, too, though, and his wife had some good news yesterday, finding that her cancer is actually of a more treatable kind than they thought.

We were out eating dinner tonight at a local pizza place.  The TV was on headline news and they were doing a bit about “Purity Balls.”  Have you heard of them?

At Purity Balls, 11-year-old girls and their fathers go together in formal attire for an evening of dancing and dinner.  The high point is when the fathers sign some statement to be men of integrity for their daughters and pledge to fight for their daughter’s purity, or some crap like that.  While I don’t think the girls actually have to sign anything, they apparently lay white roses underneath a cross to symbolize a pledge to remain abstinent until marriage.

Is that just creepy or what?  Have a father-daughter dance?  Fine.  Have fathers promise to take care of their families?  Fine, whatever.  Have fathers publicly show their affection for their daughters and be an example of the kind of stand-up guy that a girl should eventually choose in a mate?  Fine.  Celebrate girls’ coming of age?  Fine, people have been doing that for both boys and girls for a long time.

But, what this is really about is trying to keep the girls from having premarital sex, but dressed up in the pageantry that’s usually reserved for romantic events — weddings, proms, etc.  There are all sorts of good reasons for waiting at least until you are more emotionally mature and in a long-term relationship before having sex, but because Daddy got all dressed up, learned some ballroom dancing and signed some stupid pledge. . . creepy.  Why is it creepy?  It blurs the line between sexual love and parental love.  Is Daddy all dressed supposed to be the substitute that gets you through until you get married, when your own husband will get dressed up and dance with you? 

Fine.  Tell your daughter that you’d like her to remain abstinent until marriage and explain why, but don’t conflate your concerns about her “purity” with romantic love that she will naturally desire and seek.  Your love for her is not meant to be a substitute for having sex before marriage.

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http://online.historicebenezer.org/mysite3/PastorRobertsBio.htm

the retired pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church (Martin Luther King’s church) spoke yesterday at our church.    He talked about how the African, African-American, and Asian Christian churches, as well as the Latin American read the Bible differently than those in the European/American tradition.  They read it more as the inspired word of God, literal.  Supernatural elements such as miracles and healings are believed and not explained away.  He was pointing out to us liberal Christians that we can’t dismiss other ways of viewing the Bible.  We read the Bible from privilege, not oppression.  For those who have been oppressed the Bible reads quite differently.  

He pointed out that it used to be that these views could be dismissed easily because the African ministers, for example, did not have any theological training.  That has changed, he says.

It really puts the liberal Christians of the reformed tradition in an interesting spot.  Our church is quite liberal.  We pat ourselves on the back for inviting African-American speakers to our church, for incorporating spirituals into the service, but is our faith more about our politics than true faith.

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