When we moved to Texas, I did join a church, got baptized and the whole nine cubits. But I don’t think it “took,” since I always feel like a fish out of water. I think this cartoon by Roz Chast of The New Yorker, illustrates my dilemma.
One of my favorite people here in Texas is Kinky Friedman, formerly of the band Kinky and The Texas Jewboys, who is also the author of a series of best-selling mystery novels.
Kinky ran for governor a few years ago under the slogans of
“How hard can it be?” and “I’ll keep us out of war with Oklahoma!”What I like about Kinky, among many things, is his take on religion. He lives in the Bible Belt but that doesn’t stop him from telling it like it is—at least from his perspective:
"Well, I just said that Jesus and I were both Jewish and that neither of us ever had a job, we never had a home, we never married and we traveled around the countryside irritating people."The last couple of years in this country we’ve been bludgeoned with the “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” blunt weapon, where people actually threatened to boycott stores that didn’t proclaim the former rather than the latter. Can’t we all just get along?
"I even went so far as to become a Southern Baptist for a while, until I realized that they didn’t hold ‘em under long enough."
Kinky has it right with his own holiday greeting:
“May the God of your choice bless and keep you this holiday season.”As for religion’s place in politics, he said:
“Yes, I’m a Judeo-Christian. Jesus and Moses are in my heart, and… both of them were independents, by the way.”
In that same vein, I offer here a tongue-in-cheek ATC (artist trading card) I did awhile back—
Ima June, Sister, you are a card!
ReplyDeleteAnd I want to thank you so much for bringing up the R-word. Now that you've set the precedent (and a really nice job of it, too), I think we should declare Hen's Teeth as a Dogma-Free Zone, an Official Site For Philosophical and Spiritual Tolerance and Tomfoolery. D'ya think we could get non-profit status?
When we're visiting on the Left Coast, we attend services at a Unitarian-Universalist Meeting House, where they open each service with a welcoming statement for people of all beliefs and non-beliefs, all origins, and all affectional orientations. Every time I hear that, I get a shiver of pleasure. There's more IQ in that beautiful space than I've ever seen gathered anywhere other than a professional or science conference. Hallelujah!
They accept me just as I am, A Reform Evangelical Druid with a profound allegiance to Schismism. Amen.
I'm an Orthodox Agnostic from The Church of What's Happenin' Now.
ReplyDeleteGreetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are the Unitarian Jihad.
ReplyDeleteAm I in trouble here?
Not with ME, Octo, but we should await Ima June's opinion, this being her post. Personally, I'm doing some of those acronomics, invented by the kids, over this link: LOL, ROFL, LQTM, SUMS. Okay, I made that last one up; it stands for Snickering Up My Sleeve.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was great! Thanks for the link, Octopus.
ReplyDeleteYours truly,
Sister AK-47 of Harmony