Kenya_day 1
OK there is a story behind these pictures I will try to tell them. You may want to skip reading and just look. They tell a whole lot more than I do.
This is a mother daughter who have tested positive for HIV. I wrote no stigma because one of the things that compassion does is teach people how to live with the virus without shame. This is a strong family.
Here we are being shown the daily regiment of pills that they each have to take. 9:00 in the morning and 9:00 at night.
Jared met his sponsored child today. His name is Paul. They became fast friends.
OK last one. This is how i feel right now. Got to get to bed. I’ll get some more on tomorrow
We saw some pretty cool stuff today. It ended with meeting the LDP students that will be heading our way soon. Them being excited is an understatement. I spoke with Faith and I’m exhausted. I also had the biggest convicting question asked of me. She asked “What do you do at your church” I said, “what do you mean?” She replied “How do you serve at your church?” I said “I go” How about that for a kick in the teeth” I would cuss here but I hear that I may have some visitors. . She then ran down the list of what she did. I am a failure. Faith. How about that?
Awight kids we goin shopp’n
After I finished writing my school stuff at the old Starbucks I stopped by to see my old friend scott ross. he sells mobile homes. now the only mobile anything i had ever been in are the trailers that every church i think has or the class room i taught in. i was just going to give a howdy do when he said we should take a tour of a couple. i have to admit i wanted to make sure every one knew that i wasnt looking for a mobile home. there is this stigma that has been placed on them. so i make sure i say that i live in a house in pelham. yeah i know pretty lame. anyway it was not what i expected. so to give full disclosure the pictures are below. 
yes this is all one house. make you want to buy a mobile home doesnt it. All you need is some land and call my buddy up. In all seriousness this was something. i take it all back. Oh and this was the smaller of the two that we went in.
Short memories
So I went to the Civil rights museum. I dont have much to say other than it wasnt so long ago. I wonder how many people really know what I think. At the end of these videos ive attached King’s response to Bham clergy that asked him to calm down. Thank you for heros.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYqsJizN4gI&hl=en&fs=1]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&hl=en&fs=1]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAoyrMjH0bU&hl=en&fs=1]
I also have attached some of his response to clergy in Birmingham that wrote him while he was in jail.
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I it” relationship for an “I thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: “Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.” In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: “Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.” And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.”‘ But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent–and often even vocal–sanction of things as they are.
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Published in:
King, Martin Luther Jr.
Read this awhile ago and forgot
The Spin
Friday, September 12 2008 @ 07:39 EDT
Contributed by: Invictus
(H/T Judy. Thanks.)
Black teen pregnancies? A ‘crisis’ in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A ‘blessed event.’
If you grow up in Hawaii you’re ‘exotic.’
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you’re the quintessential ‘American story.’
Similarly, if you name your kid Barack you’re ‘unpatriotic.’
Name your kids Trig and Track, you’re ‘colorful.’
If you’re a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you’re ‘reckless.’
A Republican who doesn’t fully vet is a ‘maverick.’
If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review,create a voter regstration drive that registers 150,000 new African Amerian voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor,then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.
If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, you’ve got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.
If you are a Demoratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an ‘arrogant celebrity’.
If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are ‘energizing the base’.
If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are ‘presumptuous’.
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a ‘shoot from the hip’ maverick.
If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are ‘an elitist ‘out of touch’ with the real America.
If you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Annapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.
If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an ‘empty suit’.
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an ‘experienced executive’.
If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are ‘extremist’.
If you believe in creationism and don’t believe gobal warming is man made, you are ‘strongly principled’.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years with whom you are raising two beautiful daughters you’re ‘risky’.
If you’re a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you’re an irresponsible parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.
But if you’re a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you’re spunky.
If you’re a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you ‘First dog.’
If you’re a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you ‘beautiful’ and ‘courageous.’
If you kill an endangered species, you’re an excellent hunter.
If you have an abortion you’re not a christian, you’re a murderer ( forget about if it happened while being date raped)
If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
church visit
I went to visit a church today. wont say where. i watched this guy fall asleep. he was how I felt.
Hooker in church
You ever feel like hooker in church? For some reason I felt like that today. Hands sweaty, eyes kept looking around. Yes weird I know. I hadn’t been in a while not for any good reason or some fundamental difference with Church policy laziness. Pastor said it best lazy Christian. While sitting there I realized God had been whispering or maybe yelling all day. Like I noticed this father talking with his some. Dont know why I just did. he was about 3 or 4. I dont know what the kid did but I know he was in trouble. Here is the part that caught my eye. He wasn’t yelling down to the kid. He was eye level with him. I heard the phrase “do you understand?” So he came down to this Hooker and said “do you understand?” When your job is doing ministry work you can become a lazy Christian. Ive been a lazy Christian for a bit. But he didnt yell down to me. He came down and asked me. No I have no argument of the theological argument of how God speaks to us. I just know I was a hooker in church today. Feeling like I shouldnt be there. feeling like I got stuff to work out before i can come back here. Feeling like im a failure right now so let me work it out and then I’ll come back. Hmm hooker in church. Well tha’s kinda all I got.
Oh I also think the phrase may be whore in church.
Oprah’s big Give
The show is starting soon but Im right in the middle of across the universe. Ive never really listened to Beatles music. Anyone willing to share their music let me know. Any way. I will be joining Oprah as soon as the movie is over.
Ok so I ended watching the movie and dont really want to go back to it. I had thought that i coudl live at that time that this movie was made. I think I woudl have like to watch I think. I have realized something about myself. This isnt a recent thing. I dont really write too well and not really good at math. The stuff that Im good at. I think about that sometimes. What are those things that im good at. I Think that many times we assume that the things that come easy are the things we are good at I dont know i’ll have to think about that. Many of the songs that were in this movie were song that i like and its sad to say that I didnt know that there were beatle songs. Eric a friend of my is a great lover of the beatles. I never really thought about it. I actually bought the album because of this movie. I wouldnt say it was a good movie but it was a good sound track. So Im working on a project for my church right now. I dont know if its something Im good at. So I enjoyed the movie. I really enjoyed it I did the old vod really made it easy. I return to work this week. It will be a good time I think. In fact this week will be a good week. I havent spoken with some friends for a bit so I will try to reconnect with them. The porch is still a great place for me. You dont buy a house for a porch right.
Well I guess oprah will have to wait.
