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In the news
by James Wiegel via OE 13 Jun '14

13 Jun '14

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321380585/remembering-a-civil-rights-swim-in-… Jim Wiegel One question that is helpful is, "What could we do right now that would be very scary, what of all the things on the list makes you go, 'Huh?!'" Let's do that one. Niyonu Spann James F. Wiegel jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com 623-363-3277 401 North Beverly Way Tolleson, Arizona 85353 Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP® Facilitation Methods: Sep 9-10, Nov 18-19, 2014 Click to watch video. Facilitation Graphics: Click to learn more. ToP® Secrets of Implementation (TSoI): Click to learn more. ToP® Strategic Planning: Oct 7-8, 2014 Click to learn more. Facilitation Mastery: The Mastering the Technology of Participation program begins on the East Coast on Feb 5-7, 2014 (contactNJackson(a)myfairpoint.net) and in Minneapolis on April 16-18, 2014(contact Linda(a)mntop.us) Click to watch video. (Preview) For online registration go to https://icausa.memberclicks.net/ The AZ ToP® Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday, 1-4 pm, at ACYR, 648 N. 5th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85003AICP Planners: 14.5 CM for all ToP® courses

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Suburban mindset ?
by James Wiegel via OE 13 Jun '14

13 Jun '14

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/13/big-houses-art-museums-and-… Jim Wiegel One question that is helpful is, "What could we do right now that would be very scary, what of all the things on the list makes you go, 'Huh?!'" Let's do that one. Niyonu Spann James F. Wiegel jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com 623-363-3277 401 North Beverly Way Tolleson, Arizona 85353 Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP® Facilitation Methods: Sep 9-10, Nov 18-19, 2014 Click to watch video. Facilitation Graphics: Click to learn more. ToP® Secrets of Implementation (TSoI): Click to learn more. ToP® Strategic Planning: Oct 7-8, 2014 Click to learn more. Facilitation Mastery: The Mastering the Technology of Participation program begins on the East Coast on Feb 5-7, 2014 (contactNJackson(a)myfairpoint.net) and in Minneapolis on April 16-18, 2014(contact Linda(a)mntop.us) Click to watch video. (Preview) For online registration go to https://icausa.memberclicks.net/ The AZ ToP® Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday, 1-4 pm, at ACYR, 648 N. 5th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85003AICP Planners: 14.5 CM for all ToP® courses

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Canonball
by Tracy Longacre via OE 13 Jun '14

13 Jun '14

Listening to NPR just now. President Obama is going to Canonball today!— Sent from Mailbox

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6/12/14, Spong: Part XXI Matthew - Yom Kippur and Sacrificial Blood
by Ellie Stock via OE 12 Jun '14

12 Jun '14

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Part XXI Matthew Yom Kippur and Sacrificial Blood The primary Christian mantra incorporated into our hymns, prayers and sermons is some variation of the phrase: “Jesus died for my sins!” It comes out of a Christian definition of human life as fallen, corrupted by something we call “original sin.” It has given rise over the centuries to a fetish connected with “the blood of Jesus,” to which is attributed cleansing power. Protestant hymns in the gospel tradition include a wide variety of what might be called “bloody hymns.” One thinks of such titles as “Washed in the blood,” “Saved by the blood” and “There’s a Fountain filled with blood.” Salvation comes directly, these hymns suggest, from the “shed blood” of Jesus on the cross. This same mentality is also reflected in such familiar hymns as “Amazing Grace,” where that which makes God’s grace so “amazing” is that it “saved a wretch like me,” and “The Old Rugged Cross” where the blood of Jesus was shed “for a world of lost sinners like me.” In Catholic worship, the emphasis shifts, but it does not disappear. Catholics suggest in their liturgy that they are “cleansed” internally when they consume the wine of the chalice, now miraculously transformed by ordained hands into the “cleansing blood of Jesus.” Catholics tend to lean toward internal purity; Protestants toward external purity! All of these diverse words and practices derive originally from the Jewish Day of Atonement called Yom Kippur. This derivative, however, results not so much from Jewish practice, but from a later Gentile misinterpretation of Jewish practice. So today we seek to understand the Jewish practice of Yom Kippur. In subsequent weeks, we will seek to understand how atonement got so distorted in Christian circles. I am convinced that the possibility of having a Christian future depends primarily on getting “atonement theology,” as it is presently understood, out of Christian practice. Some of this material will be repetitive of the recent series on the use of the symbol of a “lamb” in Jewish worship. Bear with me in this one more time. Yom Kippur was conducted on one single day in the liturgical year of the Jews. That day was a time of deep penitence observed in a solemn assembly. Yom Kippur was sometimes called “The Sabbath of Sabbaths,” for on this day no work was done and the synagogue liturgy consumed the entire 24-hour period. Yom Kippur, even if limited to one day, still had about it some of the penitential feeling of Christian Lent. I have previously called it “instant Lent,” but the intensity of that one day exceeded anything we know of Lenten practice among Christians. Yom Kippur is described in the Torah, specifically in Leviticus 16 and 23. It was to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month. It was marked by animal sacrifices and the animals named in Leviticus were specifically a bull and two he-goats. Over the centuries, however, as the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, first by the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE, and then by the Romans in 70 CE, the sacrificial animals changed their identification, finally reaching the place where animal sacrifice ceased. During that evolution of practice, the sacrificed animal was no longer a bull. In the Yom Kippur liturgy the two he-goats became a lamb that was sacrificed and a goat that played the role of the “sin bearer.” Atonement, which literally meant an act designed to create human oneness with God (at-one-ment), also came to mean something quite different to the Jews from what it would later mean in Gentile Christianity. The Jews did not see human nature as fallen and they did not interpret the story of Adam and Eve in the garden as a description of how human beings spoiled the perfection of God’s creation by eating the forbidden fruit and plunging the world into what came to be called “Original Sin.” That was a later Christian idea born in the 4th century when the creeds were being formed. This was never the Jewish understanding. What we think of and call atonement in Christianity developed primarily under the influence of a theologian named St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, a town in North Africa. If one reads the Confessions of St. Augustine, which is still regarded as a Christian classic, one gets a sense of the deep, permeating guilt that was present in this man, usually attached to his feelings about sexuality. This guilt idea permeated all of Augustine’s theology. This was where the traditional Christian understanding of atonement found its origin. Today, in my opinion, this guilt-laden atonement theology threatens to destroy the Christian faith. It is certainly fair to say that post-Augustinian Christianity wallowed in a definition of human sinfulness. Guilt became the coin of the Christian realm. Overcoming guilt was the primary meaning of salvation. Gentile Christianity defined human nature as hopelessly corrupted by what they called “the fall,” teaching us as its theological presupposition that all life was born in “original sin” and was therefore destined for hell unless this “original sin” was overcome. It suggested that the crucifixion was to be explained in terms of Jesus saving us from condemnation by absorbing the punishment that we deserved, a punishment which God presumably required. Even though you and I were the guilty ones, God decided to punish Jesus in our place. Only when the idea was accepted that the pain and bloodshed on the cross cancelled our sin, then and only then was salvation achieved. This “original sin” theology went so far as to teach that babies, who died without being baptized, were not only hopelessly lost, but they were doomed to an eternal hell. This conviction, harsh and unloving as it was, became too much even for the Christians to absorb and so in time, a section of “Limbo” was set apart for unbaptized children. This meant that while unbaptized infants were deprived of heaven and the beatific vision, they could nonetheless, along with such noble pagans as Plato and Aristotle, inhabit Limbo and thus avoid the flames of the “damned.” It was a compromise based on heightened sensitivity. This guilt-laden mentality, however, was not what the Jews understood Atonement and Yom Kippur to mean. The Jews had a sense of what human life was created to be, which they compared with what they had actually experienced human life to be. They did not want anyone to forget the fact that each of us could actually be more than we are. Therefore, Yom Kippur was their liturgical way of remembering who they most deeply were. Thus memory was awakened and renewed through the use of symbolic sacrifices. The animals chosen from their flocks to serve as the Yom Kippur sacrifice had to be physically perfect; they could have no scratches, bruises or broken bones. If these animals were to stand for that perfection for which human life had been intended, then these animals must reflect physical perfection. In time, these creatures were also judged to be morally perfect. Animals, they argued, lived beneath the level of human freedom so they could not choose to do evil. So the animals to be sacrificed at Yom Kippur represented the human yearning for physical and moral perfection. By the time the gospels were written the attempt had already been made to associate the meaning of Jesus’ death with the sacrificial animals of Yom Kippur. This correlation was first introduced by Paul in I Corinthians, written about 54 CE, when he stated: “He died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures (I Cor. 15:3).” The sacrifice associated with Yom Kippur was the only Jewish worship symbol about which it was said that one “died for our sins.” So by that time, at least in the mind of Paul, Jesus had been connected with the Yom Kippur liturgy. Mark, the earliest gospel (ca. 72)) heightened this connection by saying that Jesus “gave his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).” The word “ransom” was also a direct link with Yom Kippur. When the Fourth Gospel had John the Baptist say of Jesus the first time he saw him: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29),” the identity between Jesus and the sacrificial animal of Yom Kippur had been fully established. In the Yom Kippur liturgy, the sacrificial lamb was slaughtered and its blood drained. The high priest, armed with the blood of this “Lamb of God,” would after elaborate cleansing rituals, enter the Holy of Holies, which was that part of the Temple in which God was thought to dwell. Once inside the Holy of Holies, he would smear the blood of the “perfect Lamb of God” on the “Mercy Seat,” which was thought to be God’s throne. With access to God now covered by the blood of the perfect sacrifice, the people believed that even in their sinfulness, they could still on this one day of the year symbolically be welcomed into the presence of God. They had achieved at-one-ment. They could come to God through the “blood of the perfect Lamb of God.” The other part of the Yom Kippur observance was the “liturgy of the goat.” The goat was brought to the front of the solemn assembly, where the high priest, taking its horns, would begin to confess the sins of the people. As this confession poured out the people were taught that their sins literally exited them and landed on the back of this goat. Thus the people would become sinless, at least for that liturgical moment, while the goat became the “bearer of their sins.” Later the sin-laden goat was presented to the assembly, which responded with curses and calls for the death of the goat. Something that evil should not be allowed to continue living. The goat, however, was not killed in this liturgy. Instead it was driven out into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people with it, leaving the people clean and sinless at least for a day. So on Yom Kippur, evil was set aside symbolically and the people were called to remember their creation and the perfection in which they had originally been made. Matthew must now develop a story in which this meaning of Yom Kippur can be connected to the memory of Jesus. When this series continues, we will see how he does that as his narrative of Jesus walking through the liturgical year of the synagogue continues. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer The Rev. Jim Clinefelter, via the Internet, writes: Question: Thank you for your insights into the Sermon on the Mount and The Lord’s Prayer. I am a retired Presbyterian minister and for some time I have had difficulty praying the traditional words of The Lord’s Prayer. So much of it is devoted to asking, indeed begging, God. I find myself praying a modified form of the prayer that recognizes God’s presence on earth and alters the begging into affirmation. Here is how I pray The Lord’s Prayer: Ever Present Holy One, we hallow your name. Your kingdom comes and your will is done on earth through those who trust the vision of your realm. You give us daily bread; you forgive us and call us to forgive others. You do not lead us into temptation; you deliver us from evil; for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. Do you have any suggestions for modifying the way I pray The Lord’s Prayer? Do you see any possibility of churches ever modifying the traditional Lord’s Prayer or is it too deeply entrenched and therefore beyond conscious awareness of most worshipers? Answer: Dear Jim, First let me thank you for your years of service to the Church as a Presbyterian minister. In our time, I believe clergy are too little appreciated and I am convinced that the pastoral role is still a vital and important one so I hope you in retirement are able to hear the words that Jesus was said to have spoken in one of his parables, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” In your translation of the Lord’s Prayer, you address in a sensitive way some of the problems that these words have produced because of their time and place in history. I will never forget a conversation I had with Buckminster Fuller at the Chautauqua Institute some years ago. The Lord’s Prayer reminded him, he said, of a bargaining session at a Middle Eastern local market as buyer and seller haggled over an acceptable price. I suggested to Dr. Fuller that he try his hand at rewriting it in contemporary English to reflect a contemporary world view. He did, but he edited his version of the Lord’s Prayer more each day of the week that we were together. By the end of that week, his version of the Lord’s Prayer was three pages long! My relationship with Bucky Fuller, as we called him, was one of the happier memories of my life. He even came to my diocese to lead the clergy conference for me. It was a mind expanding occasion for us all. No, I do not think that the churches will ever engage this issue. Most of them still introduce the Lord’s Prayer with some version of the words: “And now as our Savior has taught us, we now pray.” It is quite difficult to change words that for hundreds of years we have attributed to Jesus himself. It is interesting to note that they Lord’s Prayer is not found in either the writings of Paul or in the first Gospel, Mark, to be written. The Lord’s Prayer is, quite clearly, a prayer composed not by Jesus, but by the early church asking for the realm of God, which they believed they had experienced in Jesus, might be revealed to the entire world. “Thy Kingdom come; the will be done on earth as it is in heaven” makes sense only in that context. I think your words translate that purpose very well. Thank you for sharing it with me and, through this column, with my reading public. John Shelby Spong Announcements This month, at ProgressiveChristianity.org, we continue our discussion about Sacred Community as we delve into the topic of Prayer. Its bound to be a doozy! Sign up today, if you haven't already, for our free monthly eBulletins. They are full of articles, liturgies, books, events, and more. View some of our recent eBulletins here!

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Re: [Oe List ...] A Run-in With History
by Nancy Trask via OE 11 Jun '14

11 Jun '14

Dear Dick and Jack and all. So glad Jack included Dick's witness in his message. I must have been asleep at the wheel that day. Great luncheon miraculousness! Great colleagues and great friends! Thank you for sharing it. Nancy Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Jack Gilles via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> </div><div>Date:06/11/2014 5:55 PM (GMT-06:00) </div><div>To: Richard <dick_alton(a)hotmail.com> </div><div>Cc: Order Ecumenical <oe(a)wedgeblade.net>,Marti Scott <mscott(a)euclidumc.org> </div><div>Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] A Run-in With History </div><div> </div>Great witness Dick! Isn’t it awesome how our work still continues to address lives. Journey on brother. Grace & Peace, Jack On Jun 11, 2014, at 5:42 PM, Richard via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: A Run-in with History Monday, May 9th I am pretty involved with my local Euclid Av. United Methodist Church particularly as chair of the African T/F which supports ICA Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS and another project in South Sudan. So today is the Northern Illinois Methodist Conference and the Conference asked if I would do a table on our African work. Sure. So go to Conference that has about 1,000 people. Get table set-up and people stop by. Lunch comes and my pastor and the Euclid delegation ask me to go to lunch..sure, as they had a Conference special at Culver’s across the street. We go over and get in line which goes out the door. I am sort of not listening but know my pastor is speaking to two older men behind her. Suddenly, I hear them talking about Paul Tillich and You are Accepted. I look at the man talking and he has a retired pastor badge on. I said I had been with the Ecumenical Institute and knew the paper. The pastor said he had the paper in his brief case and carried it with him always. He asked if we could sit together along with his friend who turned out to be a seminary professor. This retired pastor (Thomas Babler) said he had actually met Joseph Mathews in Singapore. He was a seminary intern in Singapore when Mathews came there. Thomas was in a group of about 8 people who met with Joe. Two of the people in the meeting were from the Singapore House. They sat in a circle and Joe asked them to stand and he proceeded to walk around the circle and stand facing each of them, staring deeply into their eyes. As he stood facing you he would breath very deeply.. the pastor said it was like he was breathing spirit into you Then Joe gave a talk. The one thing that stood out for Thomas is that Joe said they were going to put a religious house in each of the 24 time zones around the planet Now the older seminary professor said he had actually been at Union Seminary when Tillich was a professor and heard Paul Tillich give the You Are Accepted sermon at Union. Amazing what can happen over a lunch The next Day I happened to be in an office of a friend of the Institute and on his wall he had what is an appropriate Tillichan quote: “ The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted” Mother Teresa Dick Alton, spent the best part of my life in a Religious House and may never have left. Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back Babe Ruth _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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A Run-in With History
by Richard via OE 11 Jun '14

11 Jun '14

A Run-in with History Monday, May 9th I am pretty involved with my local Euclid Av. United Methodist Church particularly as chair of the African T/F which supports ICA Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS and another project in South Sudan. So today is the Northern Illinois Methodist Conference and the Conference asked if I would do a table on our African work. Sure. So go to Conference that has about 1,000 people. Get table set-up and people stop by. Lunch comes and my pastor and the Euclid delegation ask me to go to lunch..sure, as they had a Conference special at Culver’s across the street. We go over and get in line which goes out the door. I am sort of not listening but know my pastor is speaking to two older men behind her. Suddenly, I hear them talking about Paul Tillich and You are Accepted. I look at the man talking and he has a retired pastor badge on. I said I had been with the Ecumenical Institute and knew the paper. The pastor said he had the paper in his brief case and carried it with him always. He asked if we could sit together along with his friend who turned out to be a seminary professor. This retired pastor (Thomas Babler) said he had actually met Joseph Mathews in Singapore. He was a seminary intern in Singapore when Mathews came there. Thomas was in a group of about 8 people who met with Joe. Two of the people in the meeting were from the Singapore House. They sat in a circle and Joe asked them to stand and he proceeded to walk around the circle and stand facing each of them, staring deeply into their eyes. As he stood facing you he would breath very deeply.. the pastor said it was like he was breathing spirit into you Then Joe gave a talk. The one thing that stood out for Thomas is that Joe said they were going to put a religious house in each of the 24 time zones around the planet Now the older seminary professor said he had actually been at Union Seminary when Tillich was a professor and heard Paul Tillich give the You Are Accepted sermon at Union. Amazing what can happen over a lunch The next Day I happened to be in an office of a friend of the Institute and on his wall he had what is an appropriate Tillichan quote: “ The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted” Mother Teresa Dick Alton, spent the best part of my life in a Religious House and may never have left. Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back Babe Ruth

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Fwd: GMCA Update June 9
by David Zahrt via OE 11 Jun '14

11 Jun '14

*Mon Jun 9*—As usual we ate breakfast, packed our lunch, packed the trucks, and sang the Thank You song to CB who has assisted us since Taos, NM and soon will be leaving us. It was sung as a Round. Dear friend, dear friend Shall we tell you how we feel? You have given us such pleasure. We love you so; we love you so. Then the route was reviewed, announcements made, and the Marchers set off. We drivers restored the barbwire fence and took the vehicles to Florence to get gas. We waited at the Coyote Café until Sarah could confirm our next campsite; an RV Park south of Colorado Springs on Hwy 115. We were directed to the campsite in early afternoon. I’ve been told that Ethan plans to return to the March when we get to Colorado Springs. He likes to drive the Gear truck. There are so many practical and technical details to get from one campsite to another that I would appreciate having the option of driving the Gear truck or Marching. On this trek I’ve discovered that there is a completely new daily routine from what I had at home to get all of my belongings packed up, tend to my health, and be able to find my equipment when I need it. I have my name on everything. Many of the younger Marchers leave their belongings--shoes, socks, duffle bags, blankets, etc. around, so when it’s time to leave, their stuff sometimes goes in the Lost-and-Found. The newly elected City Council had its first meeting. I sat in and found it difficult to hear the conversation. One of the topics was resolving issues that come to the Judicial Panel. Another was the continued conversation on the possibility of some Marchers joining the People’s Climate March in NYC in Sept. There were several new Marchers that have joined us. They plan to March with us for a short time. -- Peace, David

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Fwd: GMCA Update June 7-8
by David Zahrt via OE 11 Jun '14

11 Jun '14

*Sat Jun 7*—Since there had been some late-night performers and the camp was so spread out at San Isabel National Forest, the March took a little more time to get started again this morning. We moved campsite by going up Hwy 96 to Wet and turning north on 67. Our campsite was on a ranch. The owners have WiFi but they put the password in for us. I sent *The Impossible Dream* to Ed and several others suggesting that it should be our theme song. I’m hoping that we’ll get a printout for all the Marchers, and get it up on Facebook for the virtual marchers. We had a Potluck supper. One of the local attendees was an Episcopal clergyman. I asked him if he were familiar with J. S. Spong. He said he was and appreciated Spong’s work. I was invited to attend his church the next morning and accepted. During the meal the election of officers was announced. They serve a second 3-month term. Miriam was re-elected Mayor. Village Council was John A., Jeffrey, and Jerry. The Judicial Panel was Jane, Liz, and Marie. Some of the musicians went off to Florence, CO after dinner, but I went to bed. During the night there was some light precipitation. It came down as snowflakes. By morning there was a slight amount of moisture on the tents and the vehicles. *Sun Jun 8*—We ate breakfast, packed our lunch, packed the trucks, cleaned up the yard, and circled up to consider the day’s plans. One of the first things we did was sing a song to our host. It can be sung as a Round. Dear friend, dear friend Shall we tell you how we feel? You have given us such pleasure. We love you so; we love you so. Then the route was reviewed, announcements made, and the Marchers set off. I waited with 3 others for a 9 o’clock ride to church. The clergyman and his wife picked us up. We drove clear back to the town, Westcliffe, where we had played music on Thu and Fri nights. The service started at 10:30 and ended at noon. We were asked to introduce ourselves at the beginning of the service. I’ve been to a Sun. morn service at St Peters Episcopal in Carson City. The service in Westcliffe was far more complex and much longer. When the service was over I remembered that Spong had a category that he names* Church Alumni*. It defines those who have ‘graduated’ from the antique and much dated language and liturgy of the traditional church. I realized that I fit that category! It was very overcast as we came back into camp. The rector dropped us off and waited till I backed the Gear truck, with trailer attached, so I could make the turn out of the yard. As we left a thundershower began. The road out to the highway was dirt with a little gravel. The rain turned into hail and the windshield wipers quit working. I was relieved when I made it to the highway 67. I drove to Florence. It was still pouring rain and there was a question about where our campsite would be. We made a rest stop at a filling station. After lunch it had stopped raining and most of the Marchers went to a Hot Springs that was on the way to camp. We drove the vehicles to Ken’s Trading Post. The gate to the Trading Post was locked and the Colorado coordinator told us that Ken was in NE., so we parked the vehicles on the roadside and cut down the barbed wire between two posts so the Marchers could go out into the field and pitch their tents. After dinner we had a community meeting in the 9-person tent. One of the most serious questions discussed was the possibility of some of the Marchers joining a march in NYC scheduled for early Sept. Since I chose to sleep in the 9-man tent, I had to wait to go to bed until the tent was cleared. -- Peace, David

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ST Wednesday from Jaime
by via OE 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Bonham’s bonfemme In the historic inauguration of Modi, the newly elected Prime Minister of India, attendedby invited Nawaz Sharif, PM of Pakistan, with Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, the attempt at bonhomie in the political camaraderie during event was evident. The euphoria was shattered by thenews that a pregnant woman in Lahore was stoned to death by members of her ownfamily for bearing the child of the man she loved rather than kowtow to thepractice of family arranged marriage. Her father arrested for murder was following the “honor killings”conducted by relatives of women as punishment for alleged “adultery or otherillicit sexual behavior,” aka, not following family elders’ lead. I am colleague to a self-consciousgroup within the Christian covenant that tries to overcome the normal patternsof patriarchy deeply embedded in the symbol system of 3,000 years oftradition. Renegades of institutional ritesand rituals, they try to rearticulate previous metaphorical expressions intoexistential language that might resonate on the reality of living in ourtime. Appropriately, the group is calledthe Realistic Living Institute, holding Christian Resurgence Circles in their localsocial net as a formation tactic to promote its understanding and behavior. There is no “bonfemme” in the French language as used in out title. I use it in lieu of “bonhomie” (from bonhomme, good fellow), which means“cheerful friendliness”; a geniality in the sense of, “he exuded good humor andbonhomie”. We often see it used like theword “mankind” and “manpower” for both genders, sticking with the masculineterm. Its insidious subversive qualityof patriarchal superiority is often not appreciated until we refer to a femalehead of a committee as the “chairman”! The man’s liberation movement of myfamiliarity appropriates intense sensuality in instinct, passionate engagementin intuition, comprehensive broadness in both lateral and longitudinal lines ofintelligence, and inclusiveness of corporate intent and behavior in acts anddeeds, qualities normally attributed to the influence of the female of thespecie! In the US, women finally voted in1920. The great lengths women wentthrough to break into restricted areas like journalistic covering of theNormandy landings to the running of the Boston marathon is viewed asheroic. We shall keep quoting the oldChinese saying that “women hold half of the sky” (Nu ren/fu nu neng ding ban bian tian), revived by Mao Zedongduring his Zhongguo watch, not because it accomplished the paradigm shift itwas meant to accomplish, for it didn’t, but the notion that the female of thespecie is a partner to their chosen counterparts highlight the wisdom that aperson is not complete without partnering with someone in a social net. (Partnering has since gone beyond the genderlimits as same-sex marriages are legalized.) Institutions of covenant, as it isbeing reasserted in marriage in all its forms, means a relationship of mutualconsent and trust where the French sense of vivela difference is not just assumed but honored and encouraged. This is most evident at the way we are askedto be sensitive in the use of our best social tool, language. The Ecumenical Institute (EI) ofChicago, and its related institutional offspring hold itself accountable to itsfaithfulness to its own “faith” statements mirrored in the practices of its owninstitutions. It was a hard awakening asit became clear how deeply embedded the assumption of male dominance was in itslanguage in spite of its enlightenment. The Realistic Living Institute, an offshoot of the spirit movement thatEI came to represent, struggles with the same contradiction within its memberseven with the heightened consciousness of its own duplicity, unconsciously asit often comes, in the sad affair. To their credit, the EI folks andtheir extended relations are, at least, conscious of the very contradiction itidentifies as also a part of its own body operation and is working on alternatives. Clearing up the language is just thebeginning; that’s why I was delighted to read of a young High School studentwho started using “ze” to replace the pronouns “he and she,” which I had temporaryslashed with “s/he”. “Ze” is morecreative and innovative! More importantthan retranslating historic sacred writs beyond their authors cultures of patriarchyto the core of experience, is the appropriation of soft technologies and traitsespecially those articulated by the female of the specie. MSNBC TV recently picked up researchthat indicated the casualty difference between hurricanes with feminine andmasculine names showed a higher rate at almost three times in the formeragainst the latter. Why anyone wouldmake this research is anyone’s guess; why MSNBC decided to air the result is,in my view, to cater to a high morning female TV audience! Still, we agree on awakening the femaleaudience to the biases we hold. My point: the female of the specieis still getting a bum steer. Bonfemme is a bombshell I recommend to the“fair thee well” crowd to use. j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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Fwd: GMCA June 5-6
by David Zahrt via OE 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

*Thu JUN 5*—We packed up and drove N on Hwy 69 short of Westcliffe, CO (7800 ft alt). Sarah shuttled 4 of us into Westcliffe. The whole town has free Internet access. I checked out the pawnshop and the thrift store for music equipment. The thrift store had nothing. The pawnshop had a lovely acoustic 4-string bass guitar that they wanted $475 for it. I think I’ll try making a washtub or 5 gal pail bass. Izzy arranged a gig for the Great March Gypsy Band. He suggested that I should come sometime between 4 and 7 PM. Ed invited me to be a guest on the Fallon Forum at 5 PM and I accepted. This is a phone interview for an hour that he sends to the radio station in Des Moines. We talked about the GMCA and also the Loess Hills where I am from. *[I think you can check it out on an 800 #--you may have to Google it to get the contact info]*. I skipped dinner at the camp and got a shuttle into Westcliffe with some of the other Marchers. The Band has its own repertoire. Ed Fallon came later to the gig with his guitar and accordion. He invited me to sing *Iowa Waltz *with him. The crowd from CO looked astonished. Since he had the accordion there, I asked Ed to play *Don’t Fence Me In* as I sang it. I’m sure that some in the CO audience were familiar with the song. I’ll bet they thought I was singing about CO. I didn’t bother to tell them that I was singing about the Loess Hills of Iowa! Ed knew it was about the Loess Hills because I had indoctrinated him. When he was campaigning for governor in the mid 90’s, we donated periodic stays in our B&B to his campaign. I loved to play the tune on our player piano and sing *Don’t Fence Me In* for our guests. I informed them that the Loess Hills were the* “…ridge where the West commences…”* Izzy promoted the gig as a fundraiser for the March. The café/bar gave us a 20% discount on food and drinks and people there donated about $100. Some Marchers then went on to a different bar. I caught a shuttle back to camp and went to bed about 9:30. Later Izzy said the second bar was much better because they had a mike. He scheduled another gig for tomorrow night, again at the first bar. The March will only progress 15 mi. tomorrow so the Gypsy Band can do another fundraiser. *Fri Jun 6* The March took a little more time to get started in the morning because so many stayed out late for the 2nd gig. We moved our campsite by going up Hwy 69 to Westcliffe and then going through the Wet Mountains on Hwy 96. The campsite was in the National Forest. There was a long road up the hill and few places to put a tent. I was disappointed with last night because they didn’t have a mike. I tried to project my voice but their hall was too big to perform in without a mike. After dinner some of us went into Westcliffe again. Again, there was no mike so we did the best we could. The Gypsy Band asked me to sing my version of *Yesterday*. Afterwards they sang the Beatles’ version of it. Ed went back to camp early so I didn’t get to sing while he played the accordion. There were fewer people at the bar than Thursday night, but the Bar donated $100 to the March. I got home again at 9:30 and had to set up my mat and sleeping bag in the dark. -- Peace, David

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