Why So Angry?

I try to live my day to day life without getting too angry. I have a history of heart disease in my family and I do not want to die early because of a tirade at something that I basically have no control over. There are some things that I will come unglued over--someone in my house using my socks (both my sons do), my cats trying to sharpen their claws on my wife's new furniture, and someone taking the last piece of dessert pizza at the pizza ranch buffet! Other than that, I try not to get angry.

The Word Alone president, Jaynan Clark, needs to take a chill pill. In her latest diatribe of garbage, she loses her composure over Presiding Bishop Hanson's response to the Nation of Israel's response to the aid shipment. I mean she completely comes off her rocker, as if she was ever on her rocker. I think she has some pent up anger at the world, but that is really not what she is angry about, that is just her jumping off point. She is really angry that the ELCA has taken a different direction than she wanted it to go. Along with all her Word Alone, LCMC, and NALC compadres, she truly doesn't understand the polity of the ELCA. The leadership in Chicago did not force anything down the throats of the people. The people voted. The people sent representatives to the Churchwide assembly. The people have the power, not Higgins Road in Chicago. That is the truth. I just don't understand why she and her minions cannot understand that! But then again, evangelical fundamentalists need help in more ways than I can begin to fathom!

Get a grip! It is sort of like two pastors I used to work with! They both needed therapy and still do, but that is another story. I hope she learns a little anger management. Bless her heart.

The Creation

I just watched a bird dying on the gulf coast. I am ashamed of the Human Race. We have let our addiction to the easy life ruin our world, the world God created, and the world we are charged to care for. I cannot believe that with all the advances in technology in the world, we cannot cap a well 1 mile deep in the ocean! Is it that we cannot or that we will not? I think it is the latter.

All of creation is our relation! Even the dirty scoundrel the mosquito! I dislike those blood sucking little buggers, but if we did not have them, something would be wrong with the world. How many things are dying in the oil soaked coast line of the Gulf, and how many species are dying that we did not even know existed?

I am guilty. I am guilty of driving when I could have walked. I am guilty of taking the easy way instead of doing things the right way. I am guilty, but that won't change the plight of the Gulf. Will we have the will to change? Will we take this as an educational moment and do the necessary hard work and change our habits? Will we finally see that free market capitalism WILL destroy us and everything we hold dear? I hope so.

The Way of Peace

I have been reading a lot of martial arts stuff lately. I find it fascinating that many of the wisdom sayings of different traditions are the same. It is sort of like the creation stories of different ancient peoples--they all basically have the same stories in them! What does that mean? I think it means that God had a hand in all of those stories just as God has a hand in all the wisdom of different religions and traditions!


I am interested in learning the Way of Peace--The Way of The Peaceful Master. Some would say that taking things from different philosophies and different religions is heresy, but I say hogwash. If one has the eyes to see and the ears to hear, God speaks in many different ways. I love this aspect of God. I am not afraid to let the Peaceful Master teach me in the way that the Master wants.


I wish that more people could see this aspect of God. So many are afraid of a different path to the Peaceful Master. So many are afraid that maybe God speaks in different ways to different people. So many people say that there is only ONE way, but even Jesus said that he had others not of this sheepfold that are coming in. Doesn't that mean that there is more than one way? Some would say no. I would say who cares!


The Peaceful Way is a path that is open to difference. The Way of Peace is a road that can be traveled by many different people. Thanks be to God.