Open Letter

Like any other good, if late-born, Hippie, I was always drawn to Eastern spirituality...Hinduism mostly, though I looked at the Quran and familiarized myself with Buddhism. The problem was that emotional deprivation and psychological wounds almost always rendered my spiritual forays suspect:  was it God for God's own sake and spiritual liberation I was seeking, or just a way to lose myself; a way to hide in Something Greater Outside Of Me, or in other words, a Parent Substitute, that I really wanted?  Everything in the realm of truth and beauty is paradoxical. My understanding of paradox is:  two things appearing to be opposite, or contradictory, or in conflict, which are both true. These apparent contradictions are reconciled in a transcendant reality. (Thesis, antithesis, synthesis).  For example, the two, seemingly opposite, dominant aspects of God would be Mercy/Grace and Rigor/Judgement based on the moral law (Chesed and Gevurah).  To humans these appear to...

While catching up on news I spotted a story about the Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore, who recently decided to end her lifelong affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention.  She had come under attack for speaking out against trump idolatry and Christian nationalism in her denomination.  I felt so grateful to her that I,  yes, well, I just had to write her a letter:  Dear Beth Moore,  ...I wanted to thank you for your courageous and Spirit-led stand against idolatry of a wicked man (you-know-who) running rampant in the Evangelical church.  It surely is an evil I never thought I would see in my lifetime [at least, not on this scale], perhaps it is a sign of the End [Times].  I'm not a conservative.  I first heard of you at a woman's Bible study while attending Hill Country Fellowship in Burnet, Texas (Pastor Rodney McGee).  Prior to that, my then-husband and I were commuting to Shoreline Christian Center in north Austin.  Pastor Rob ...

This morning I had an unusual dream. The Nazis were coming after us --myself and a group of people...We were hiding and engaged in survival practices...I miss the details of this one.  Unusual because, though I've dreamed very often of generic 'bad guys', even once or twice of terrorists, they have never been actual Nazis.  Of course I had a depressed childhood and a youth spent focused on atrocities and I went through several periods where I consumed Holocaust history and literature voraciously. I identified not so much with victims as with, as it turned out,  the children of Holocaust survivors, but that is another story.  Maybe it was also because I just discovered an author, Arthur Magida, who has written a book about a Sufi princess named Noor Inayat Kahn, daughter of a great Sufi teacher from India who introduced Sufism to the West.  Noor fought the Nazis as a British spy and paid with her life.  She made the ultimate sacrifice.  Rarely have I ex...

On one of my walks recently the electronic bulliten in front of the church read something about "40 Days for Life" and there were a lot of signs and flags to mark the occasion. There were also several little white crosses on display, each of which are supposed to represent a million unborn children. I really wonder if these people ever for once considered what life on earth would be like if every fertilized egg were born into the world? Science or loving and respecting the Earth isn't their strong suit.  So I wrote this to the parish priest. I got no reply. Dear Father ___,  Re: 40 days for Life  Could you possibly also hold a 40 day effort to save Earth? Because without Earth, there WILL BE no life!  Turning America into a theocracy isn't going to stop abortion.  Crimiminalizing miscarriage and putting women behind bars isn't going to stop abortion.  Depriving women of their autonomy isn't going to stop abortion.  The problem with the society you s...

The abortion issue isn't simple or well suited to being reduced to red meat for political and religious strife, but such is what it has become. I am not going to examine this issue in full, but I want to share a few thoughts I addressed to an Archbishop who publicly questioned whether President Joe Biden was worthy to receive Holy Communion.  Archbishop ___, I cannot understand why so many Catholic clergy think it important to attack the faith of President Biden but did not object to the bigotry, lawlessness, sedition, violent insurrection, treason and immorality of the former occupant of the White House, who is not even a Christian. The culture wars are an abomination against Christ and a cause of scandal to countless many. HOW DOES IT SAVE THE UNBORN TO DESTROY AMERICAN DEMOCRACY??!   Right now there are countless extreme pieces of legislation in State Houses which would effectively remove all personal autonomy from pregnant women. Instead of promoting l...

I live very near to a Catholic Church which is just like the last one I lived near. These parishes are mostly Hispanic and very devout/pious. I have nothing against the Hispanic community except its voting patterns. The religious ones tend to vote on a single issue basis (abortion and sexual morality). My proof is that heavily Hispanic Texas is still a Red State. If Texas Hispanics decided to take over the Democratic Party and the Governor's office and the State House, THEY COULD DO IT EASILY. Hispanics in the Valley and elsewhere in Texas suffered horrendous losses during the peak of the pandemic here. Yet Texas GOP leaders care more about being third-rate ideological hacks than they do saving lives. So accuse me of being a patronizing, racial profiling White Woman all you want: pious Hispanics such as the beautiful people in the Catholic parishes I've been member of, are voting against their own interests in my view, and for no good reason.  Having said th...

Here are some excerpts from a letter I wrote to a courageous parish priest who had taken an unpopular stand against Qanon golden calf worship in his congregation:  Dear Father ___,  I know you are receiving hundreds of emails but i had to write and thank you for the consolation I experienced upon finding out that there were clergy such a yourself with the integrity to speak out against fascism... [ I had been a Catholic for many years] but culture warriorism, right wing ideology, and lack of charity in general drove me out and I've never made it back since... The Deacon I was consulting with was a trump supporter. I cannot for the life of me understand how people claiming to love Jesus Christ could commit idolatry of such a repugnant, disgusting, and vainglorious narcissist.  After arguing with this Deacon pointlessly for a period of time, I realized I was just acting out my childhood drama of trying to get my alcoholic parents to admit to the harm they'd done to me and m...

The Catholic Church since the beginning of the modern culture wars obsesses over abortion but ignores a whole host of ills, especially those within itself. I cannot understand the rationale seemingly adopted by American Christians of allowing the destruction of our democracy as a means to save the unborn. Jesus advocated a different revolution, a spiritual revolution. He did not advocate cultural warfare, fascism or any  -isms; rebellion against secular authority, or the demonization of secular society to the point of murderous hatred, sedition, treason, violent insurrection and the promulgation of a Kingdom of Lies.  Jesus did not need nor did he seek state power to practice his sanctity or ministry.  It is not the right purpose of the Catholic Church or any other self-identified Christian church to seek power over society.  The only authentic mission of any church claiming Jesus Christ is the preaching of the Gospel and the imitation of Jesus' ministry through...