Really It Just Jumped Out At Me!

(Disclaimer: Rather then emailing the following to a handful of my professors and telling them that I will hold them accountable for inclusion, I am simply posting this here.)

I finally get it! I finally understand why Claremont School of Theology does not include the disability perspective in the program and none of the classes require Nancy Eiesland's The Disabled God: Toward A Liberatory Theology of Disability as required reading . . .they can't . . .it might cause rebellion:) They really don't want us to read this:

"People with disabilities are subject to prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory acts by the able-bodied majority, who consider people with disabilities inferior and use environmental segregation by way of built architectural barriers, as means of keeping a social and physical distance. A prime example is colleges and universities that ostensibly admit academically qualified people with disabilities yet do not provide specialized facilities or necessary services, thus making matriculation for these students exceptionally difficult. Simply ignoring the special needs of people with disabilities constitutes discrimination."
(Nancy Eiesland, from the book "The Disabled God", page 63)

Oops! I wonder if they know there are copies of the book in the library and the bookstore . . . So much for breadth and depth of theological knowledge, much less a commitment to social action and justice!

Just a Thought About Economic Plans

I am all for Barak, and all for Main Street rather then Wall Street However, I don't think that homeowners facing foreclosure are completely "innocent"--they made bad financial decisions and they should have some consequences. (They are only innocent in that they were allowed to have for a while what they cannot afford; but all any of us have is only given to us temporarily.) I don't think homelessness is what foreclosed homeowners deserve, but neither may be staying in homes they cannot afford. Things change--it happens--roll with it. I have not bought a home, or ever foresee doing so, because I know I can not afford it. I have been evicted, once, and I have lived in my car--you do survive. I don't think individuals should be bailed out for bad decisions any more then Wall Street should--unless it serves a purpose of bettering the whole community, and in some cases keeping people in their homes may do that. We have to learn to accept that we can not all have everything we want. There is enough wealth in this nation for all to have what they need-which may not be the same as want. Let us all be reasonable. If we must have a bailout it should be for families and not banks--Main Street not Wall Street. Ussery is immoral--scripture has told us this for several thousand years--if we continue to base our economy on lending and charging interest, then of course we are headed for disaster! Duh!
What we really need is an interest moratorium!

Passing By

I was struck this morning by this quote:
As Jesus Passed By: Most of the really important things, which Jesus said or did, seemed to happen casually, "as he passed by." He dispensed health and scattered happiness naturally and gracefully as he journeyed through life. It was literally true, "He went about doing good."

The Urantia Book, Page 1875 (171:7.9) http://www.truthbook.com/index.cfm?linkID=1423#U171_7_9

Consider that--how the doing of good and the comforting of others can be done simply doing what seems human as we journey through our days. That is the simplicity of soul!

Contemplative Practice #1-3

I am taking a class on spiritual growth this semester. I love it!! We are practicing a prayer technique devised by my professors, who after having studied many prayer practice found that multiple prayer practices pretty much came down to a few steps--so we are learning these. I thought this would be a good place, not to reveal my prayers, but to note the practice. Therefore I'll post more as the semester goes on but for now as far as we have gotten in three weeks is:

1) Pay attention to your breathing. What is the silence like? What is the feeling there in the silence of your own breath? Sit with it.

2) Breathe. What is in the silence? How does what comes up feel in your body, and where do you feel it?

3) Breathe. What do you feel in the silence? Sit with it. Will it show itself to you? What does it look like?

Prayer is vital to our spiritual lives, vital to becoming our authentic selves, but prayer is not always as easy as it seems, nor as easy as we think it should be. Prayer is "the real work" of our lives and sometimes it is quite hard. But we must sit with it. We must be. and allow ourselves to be as we really are.