Happy Hexennacht!

Tonight is Walpurgis Night, the grant exit to whatever Halloween let in and/or the grand entrance for whatever snuck out on All Hallow’s Eve.  It was believed that tonight was the grandest gathering time for witches and it marks the end of the Great Hunt for the year.
For sure there are other times during the [...]

Bridgett, Speaking of Weird Dreams

So, I had this dream last night that I found myself in possession of a good occult shop in an old building with good high ceilings.  The only thing wrong with it is that the walls were a bright yellow-orange.  So, I’m standing there and a guy comes in, kind of crouched down, and dancing, [...]

Tennessee–We Love Babies!

So, Campfield, in his effort to keep the state tied up in expensive lawsuits for the next ten years which will be paid for by, I don’t know, magic fairy dust, since his party is against raising taxes (but not against blowing money the state doesn’t have on lawyers), is floating the idea of having [...]

My First Seder

Back a while ago, NM invited me to her family’s seder dinner and I, being the curious sort, agreed to go.  Since then, it’s been a non-stop shattering of beloved beliefs–not just that I could make a simple salad without throwing lettuce all over the floor at two different houses but that Jesus and his [...]

Proselytizing

Portly Dyke over at Shakesville has a brilliant post on Obama’s, shall we say, less than stellar understanding of how gay people work.
Folks talk at length about the ongoing homophobia in the Black Church (see Pam, pretty regularly, for instance), but reading Obama’s comment–”And he was just a terrific guy. He wasn’t proselytizing all the [...]

If I Were Going to Get a Tattoo…

I think I’d want this.

Just Who Were These Dog-Headed Men?

I’m not a medievalist, and so I’m about to advance a theory that may be so bloody obvious that it’s the equivalent of someone coming up to you now and saying “You know, I’ve been watching Lost since the beginning and I’m starting to think there’s something funky about that island.”
But I’ve been giving some [...]

Crossville Flying Spaghetti Monster

Y’all, today I received an email so awesome that I’m a little in awe of the fact that people this cool think to write me and tell me about their coolness.
Before I get to it, let me just give you a little background, for those of you who are not from Tennessee.  Because, while I [...]

Those Little Things that Trip You Up

So, I’m doing what everyone does while sick, sitting on the toilet reading Davidson’s Gods and Myths of Northern Europe and two things catch my eye and have stuck with me all day.  One is a small matter–of parts of Prussia not being Christianized until as late as the 1500s.  This seems possible to me, [...]

As It Happens

I got an email asking me to clarify a little bit what I mean when I talk about luck and fortune and such in a theological sense and since I thought maybe others might be curious, I thought I’d expand on it here.
I think, first, though, we need to talk about the broader law(s) that [...]

Anansi Boys

I just finished Anansi Boys even though it arrived on my door step months ago.  I’ll be honest with you, my job has broken something in me, ruined my love of reading like a fingernail in my chicken salad wrap ruined Arbys for me.
I have a hard time reading for pleasure any more, of seeing [...]

Ya Think?

Via Campfield:
Mahathy said BrainPOP also contains information about AIDS, gay and lesbian sex, and various religions, including Wicca. That nature-based religion has been linked to witchcraft.
Why the Rep feels that an online encyclopedia containing information about various religions, including Wicca, is worth noting is beyond me. But I just wanted to state for the [...]

Do I Look Like a Bible Scholar?

So, a faithful reader (I’ve already started with the puns!) has written to ask what I consider to be the most feminist chapter in the Bible and what I consider to be the most liberal. I have kind of found that to be a more difficult question to answer than I anticipated because I’m [...]

Where’s a Girl Find an Acacia Tree in These Parts?

There are some parts I really love in the Bible.  I adore how, even though we’re all supposed to be good girls, it’s the bad girls who do all the fun stuff.  I love Wisdom refusing to be relegated to a ametaphor.  “No,” she says, “I was there with God in the beginning, helping him [...]

Breaking News about Hillary Clinton!!!!!!!!

I was reading along to Bill Hobbs, as I regularly do when I need a laugh, and he’s trying to defend himself from the accurate charges that he’s attempting to make hay out of the fact that Obama’s middle name is the same as Mohammad’s grandson’s first name (and the same as a certain dictator’s [...]

Here’s My Question

I know the Southern Baptist Church doesn’t have the same level of hierarchy as other denominations, but when the Convention decided that women couldn’t be ministers, that was the end of it. Baptist churches can have women ministers, but then they don’t get to be Southern Baptist.
So, to say that you can’t have some [...]

Old Methodist Men Score 2

Another man has just showed up with chili and plants.  He’s now visiting.

Good Work if You Can Get It

I went over to see the College Professor yesterday and she was telling me the craziest story, about how the woman who used to be the English Department secretary when I was there has gone on to write a book and become a famous Christian self-help author.  We went to look at her book’s website [...]

Oh, Dear Methodists, part dos or dios

I did want to say, though, how wonderful it was to have all the ministers show up on Monday, while Dad was in surgery.  There’s a part of my dad’s work that we’ve not really been privy to–his work with other ministers.  I mean, I could tell you that he’s always sought out or started [...]

Oh, Dear, Methodists

I’ve seen more ministers in the past few days than I’ve seen in years.  But folks seem to be coming out of the woodwork to check in on my dad and pray and hear that they, too, are being prayed for.
I respectfully bow my head and hold hands and wonder what keeps these folks going.
I’m [...]

Prayer Warriors & Black Magic

Busy day, folks.  Sorry.
I just want to point you to this article about the growing Christianist movement in the military and to this analysis by Jason over at the Wild Hunt, which, I think, is spot on.
It never ceases to amaze me how this strain of Christianity, so bent on believing that anyone who’s not [...]

Arts & Crafts, With Woo-Woo Thrown In

I was trying to explain to Malia’s husband, DB, how much of paganism, especially when you’re bringing folks of a lot of different backgrounds and beliefs together, involves ritualized arts and crafts.
This post, I think, which isn’t even pagan, illustrates precisely what I mean.
I tease because I love, but I do wonder if people who [...]

Some Thoughts on Land

–I believe that the land has a spirit, or spirits, or a soul or souls of sorts.  What I believe is that the land has luck, fortune, built up over time and passed along to the people and things on it.  You can work with the land on a physical level and work with the [...]

Afghan Again

I’m having a real problem with my current afghan.  I haven’t ever made one like it before.  I’ve never even crocheted with cotton string/yarn and I didn’t know how to do a half double crochet until just last weekend.
But as I work on it, I’m repeatedly overcome with the most overwhelming sense of deja vu, [...]

The Parable of the Talents

I am sick, sick, sick, so the fact that this story made me cry like a baby starting at about half way through should be taken with a grain of salt.  I’m sure most of you will make it until the end without tears.
Anyway, there are so many ways that this whole thing could have [...]