Them's Fightin' Words by Pope Francis

More fascinating and wonderful things from Pope Francis emerged during his recent trip to Brazil. Today, let's focus on two very surprising statements he made regarding women and homosexuals.

Visit: Pope Says Gays Must Not Be Judged or Marginalized

Let's start with women because that one is a lot simpler to discuss. Pope Frances says that he wants to see women assume higher-level administrative roles in the Catholic Church. He stopped short of agreeing to make women into priests. That's not quite so radical, as this involvement of women has been slowly evolving over the years, but it's good to hear the Pope support it. He is restrained by an interpretation of the Bible that shows Jesus choosing men as his apostles. I don't favor that interpretation. I believe that Jesus' selections were based on what was feasible in his culture during the period in which he lived. Since that time, society has evolved considerably, and now women can be prime ministers, secretaries of state, Queens, and—I hope one day—President of the United States. I'd love to see a female Pope.

Now here's where things get really interesting: Pope Francis made this startling comment regarding homosexual priests:

If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?

He also stated that homosexuality is not a crime and that we should not marginalize people who are gay.

Hmmmm. Is homosexuality a sin, then? Well, again, constrained by Catholic theology, the Pope says it is a sin, but still affirms that this does not justify maltreatment of gay people. Here, again, I differ with the theology. My definition of sin is doing something that will harm oneself or another entity (person, animal, nature). The other things that people call sins are merely expressions of cultural disgust at practices that have long been frowned upon. Human beings look at such practices and then attribute their own disgust to G-d.

Indeed, some scholars argue that homosexuality was not discussed by Jesus but appeared more in the Old Testament. We are evolving away from disgust to understanding and acceptance. Perhaps in the future, people won't even blink an eye at this. They will understand it as a natural part of being human with a certain set of genes. 

I believe that we sin by not being compassionate and understanding and by not fully accepting people who are different from us. When gay people marry, it upholds the institution of marriage as the gold standard. It makes me happy to know that people I love can enjoy what I am enjoying in my happy heterosexual marriage. My marriage is childless for physical and economic reasons. It is nonetheless a great marriage that was not formed primarily to procreate in this sadly overpopulated world. It was formed because two souls felt connected by G-d and wanted to share their life and love in this lifetime. So, if people love each other, I can't call that sin regardless of their genders. 

Despite these constraints, I am glad nonetheless that the Pope is pushing the envelope on these issues. He cannot make women priests and tell people that practicing homosexuality is not a sin—even if he thought so, he could not do these things! If he did, there would be a huge schism in the Church, and it would simply fracture. That is the last thing that this Pope wants. He wants inclusiveness as far as he can push it so that more people will want to be Catholics. What is more, he says that he welcomes the ideas of people who disagree with him. That is remarkable. None of this papal infallibility nonsense.  This is his compromise between the treacherous waters of Catholic theology and changes in our understanding of what it means to be human.

For a person of his generation and from the priesthood up through the ranks to the papacy, what he had to say was not bad at all. In Uganda, where the government and the priesthood hate homosexuals to the point of wanting to murder them, people must be freaking out. Their reaction to Pope Francis' words is likely to be: "them's fightin' words." Good for Pope Francis!

 Here's Where I AGREE with the Pope

Today's post was not sparked by any particular news about Pope Francis, but it is about three things in Catholicism that matter a great deal to me—faith, intelligence, and purity.

Far too many people think only in dualistic terms. If one believes in evolution, than, according to these terms, one cannot believe in G-d. No matter how much I try to explain this to people, they are fazed and confused. Yet, this is an area in which the Catholic Church has grown tremendously. Instead of throwing people who note what is going on scientifically into jails and turning them on racks, the Church tells us that evolution is real and so is G-d. I've never read any explanation for how this can be but I've always thought that evolution was simply how G-d was expressing Divinity. When we see all the amazing things that science shows us, it seems quite clear that all of this could not be an accident. There had to be a Divine Spark that let it all loose to happen. So. . . .

Faith? What is that about? It's believing in things even when they are not necessarily evident. I've always believed that, when you pay it forward, the universe pays you back—and it's always been the case in my life. I've always believed that, when you pray, you get an answer. It may not be the answer you were looking for—no you did not win the Lotto—but it is the answer that G-d needs you to have. I remember feeling very low when someone I love had a third failed IVF attempt. I was mad at G-d. Then I talked to my dear one, and she said to me: "G-d has another plan. Eventually, it will all work out." I was stunned at her great faith against all these terrible odds that she was facing. Well, you know what? The doctors gave her a fourth attempt and it worked! She got her child. Now, THAT's a miracle, and it was given because she had faith.

Intelligence? Intelligence does not necessarily deny faith. Intelligence looks at all the mysteries of life and while examining them closely, still retains a sense of wonder. Intelligence knows that there are indeed "more things in heaven and earth, then dreamt of in your philosophy." Intelligence does not reject the paranormal out of hand. I've had far too many paranormal experiences to ever doubt it. And none of them ever prevented me from living life in a very practical and down-to-earth fashion.

Purity? That's a weird word. Almost nobody uses that word these days. It conjures up images of fundamentalists reading the Bible literally and demanding that everybody else do the same. But that's not my definition of purity. For me, purity simply means being absolutely true to oneself. It means being sincere and always attempting to turn toward the good and away from the bad (no matter how glamorous it may seem). It means honesty. Not the kind of nasty frankness that tells a person that she looks like a bathtub wrapped in gauze, even if she does. It's the kind of honesty that says rather, "I think that green is a lovely color for you." And most of all, it means that when you make a vow—whether it be in G-d's house or not—you KEEP IT! To me, the marriage bond is sacred. It's not just a physical and practical joining of two (or more) lives. It's a spiritual merging of souls. To violate that by seeking out thrills and being unfaithful is a sin against purity. If people in a marriage AGREE to have an open marriage, that is their business, and I don't aim to legislate it. But I can't stand it when people marry and then get bored and go rutting around. 

Rutting around. We live in a sex-obsessed society. Everything is sex, sex, sex 24/7. It's thrown at us from all the media—movies, books, art, you name it. Even the books I read in high school were full of illicit affairs. Even on the news, we see women's cleavages and legs. Why sex is so compelling is beyond me. What sex is is FUN. It's just a natural expression of being a human being. It feels nice. It's a great way to get high without drugs. But that's IT! It's no more than that. So why are people rutting around like cats in heat after it? Just how much of it do we need? After seeing so much of it shoved down my throat, sometimes the very idea of it makes me want to vomit. And that's a shame because it's not supposed to be that way. Sex should be a natural and good thing and it belongs between people when it has no potential to cause harm to anyone else. It doesn't belong in dirty books and magazines and movies. It doesn't belong on cell phones and facebook pages.

I'm sorry. I've been married more than 30 years, and any sexy dreams nonwithstanding, I have absolutely NO desire to break up a wonderful marriage with a wonderful man just for a thrill for a few minutes.

I'm fond of quoting Bob Dylan and Martin Luther King, Jr. Their words were always inspiring. I identify with the art and persona of Dylan. But when it comes to their sex lives—it's disgusting. I'm sticking with the Catholic Church on this (even though I married in a Unitarian church): My vows were made on an altar of G-d and I will not break them unless I am forced to (I believe in divorce). So far, so good. No reason to even imagine it.

Why are people so fascinated with Wills, Kate, and George? I think because it's about purity. Their love withstood a number of tests PRIOR to their marriage and now they have brought new life into being. We love their story because it is so very romantic. She had his picture on the wall and then she found him and married him. We love it because their eyes are not roaming around. They are looking at each other and at their newborn son. I never had any children, but I know that Kate and Wills have their priorities in order. We could do well to imitate them—decent people who are not cats in heat.

I think the Pope would agree with me on all counts here. That much Catholicism stuck with me—Faith, Intelligence, and Purity. Let's let Pope Francis guide us here. He is very much filled with faith. He is very intelligent. And he is very pure.

Bomb Physically and Spiritually No Good

The Huffington Post reports that a homemade bomb was found at a shrine where Pope Francis was scheduled to visit on Wednesday, in Brazil.

Visit: Pope Bomb Scare at Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida; Explosive Device Found Where Francis Is Scheduled to Visit on Wednesday

Now this is a really sad bit of news. The Pope came back to South America so soon after his election and happily greeted crowds on his first outings there.

I have to ask, aren't there people we can agree to disagree with? Sure, very, very often, I gnash my teeth at some of the miserable things people say about various topics. The bigots and racists make me want to throw bombs myself. But something always stops me. Not just laziness or whatever. . . .I mean it's pretty bad karma to throw bombs around.

What IF somebody got killed that had nothing to do with any of the issues that made me angry? What IF it was a person who was loving and had a family who would be in terrible need? What IF the nasty person who said the rotten thing was eventually going to see the Light and change his or her ideas? And how exactly would G-d view me if I became a killer? I don't like the answers my conscience gives me regarding these questions. Visions of prisons and hells and terrible lifetimes in the future are enough to keep my momentary rages well in check.

I can go out and protest or write nasty things online about the rotten things people do and say. I can discuss these things with my friends and family. I can even decide to pray about the problem. And, one way or another, surely, my eyes are opened about the source of the rottenness. One way or another, I learn that there is a backstory. It doesn't excuse the badness but it does explain it.

G-d knows—and anybody who has been following this blog knows—I have my areas of disagreement with Pope Francis. Yet, I still perceive that he is a well-meaning person who is just trying to live according to what he has learned. I feel that he doesn't place himself above anybody else. I see that he tries to teach by example. He is not a bad man and he would not see me as a bad woman. I can learn from him. And maybe he will learn from people like me as well.

Bombs and guns we don't need. That is one thing that the Catholic Church has been saying for centuries and it's an area where I totally agree with the Church.

If somebody hates the Pope, then that person has a right to speak out and tell people why. But NO ETHICAL person—believer, agnostic, or atheist—has the right to kill the Pope or anybody else.

All I can say is THANK G-d the bomb was found before Pope Francis got there. G-d was looking after one representative on Earth.

Gotta Serve Somebody

Hello, dear readers. I've been absent, I know. Two reasons for that: (1) excessive heat/humidity made me feel exhausted and ill and (2) all the negativity surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court's (SCOTUS) decision to support same-sex marriage. Number 1 just made me need a lot of rest. Number 2 made me start wondering if I was an atheist or worse because I was highly repelled by the religious fanaticism expressed by antigays. To his credit, Pope Francis did not comment on the SCOTUS decision. We know where he stands: He doesn't want same-sex marriage in the Catholic Church, but he renders to Caesar what is Caesar's in the civil sphere. Some day in the future, when the Church becomes more progressive, maybe in another lifetime, I'll be a Catholic.

But, as you all know, this unchurched writer, still gets very impressed by things that Pope Francis does. In a very ironic twist of fate, the Italian Vanity Fair named him its Man of the Year. That made me laugh—a man so against vainglory on the cover of a magazine devoted to complete superficial narcissism. I love it. It shows that his example is reaching even the frivolous people among us.

Now here's a new one: Paul Brandeis Raushenbush reports in HuffPost Religion that Pope Francis demanded that a statue dedicated to him should be demolished.

Visit: PopeFrancis Statue Must Go, Says Pontiff, Who Demands Removal of Buenos Aires Cathedral Monument

Citing the dangers of a "cult of personality," the Pope called the Buenos Aires curia and said he wanted the statue eliminated immediately. It's interesting that he used a term that was invented by Communists to describe the problem—that's very eclectic of him.

I kind-of felt sorry for the artist,  Fernando Pugliese, who had sculpted statues that included Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa. He did all that work to express admiration for Pope Francis only to have it slapped down. It reminds me of when Bill Cosby received a People's Choice award. Instead of thanking his fans, he lectured them on how wrong they were to give him the award. I never liked Cosby after that. I felt that his response to the honor was arrogant and mean.

So why then would I admire this in Pope Francis? It's not exactly a gracious act to express horror at being honored. But there is something more to this. Giving an actor an award is one thing. Erecting a statue of a religious leader is another thing. Religious leaders are not supposed to be glorified in that way; they aren't supposed to be on a pedestal together with G-d, Jesus, Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. 

I would hope that Pope Francis might talk to this sculptor and thank him for his efforts anyway and explain that the best honor for this papacy would be for Mr. Pugliese to live a life that avoids vainglory. He's got my empathy anyway. It's a tough lesson and it sure hurts to get Zen-slapped that way.

I don't know if Protestant churches have any such statues in their churches—not even of Martin Luther King, Jr. I've seen statues of King in public and political kinds of spaces, but not in churches that I know of. Correct me if I am wrong. Synagogues don't have statues. I don't think mosques have them either.

I've always found massive statues of people or beings extremely scary. Massive Buddhas are enough to give me nightmares, even though I love the gentle teachings of the Buddha. I never liked the statues of Pharoahs either. They are just downright creepy.

So, maybe it's a Catholic thing? Maybe the Pope got the creeps seeing himself made larger than life and graven in stone like that. I would not like to see a massive statue of myself like that either.

Now, here's the thing that's even more important here: Once again, Pope Francis is showing by example that vainglory is not a good thing—he firmly rejects it.

I can't count the number of times that I wished for fame, attention, and honor. Yes, that is one of my sins. That's a hard sin to get rid of. I'm human. I'd love to be the "Number 1" something or other. Yet, I seem destined to remain in the background, unhonored, unacknowledged, etc. I wonder: Am I a failure?

Recently, I got an answer to that question from a pagan source—a sample personal astrological reading about Career Strengths. It said this:

Not at home in a crowd, Billie can usually be found around the edges of a group, watching, perhaps criticizing, but always taking it all in. She runs cool, when others run warm (or hot). She thinks and plans, when others do. She serves, while others are served. She cares when care is needed. In the East (places like Tibet and China), Billie could be said to represent the Bodhisattva path, living to serve others.

Here in the West, the concept of serving others is considered a lesser position. In America it is considered much "more cool" to be served, than to serve. But this concept is slowly changing. (From CAREER ASTROLOGY-7-9_6-13-32 at Astrology.com)

The Bodhisattva path! Now that is strong stuff. That's talking about a soul who has wiped out all karma and comes back on earth to help enlighten other people. That's spirituality "on steroids," so to speak. That is the highest of the high. I'm far from being a Bodhisattva—way far from it—but it's nice to know that perhaps I have at least put one foot on such a path. Perhaps I can conquer my burning ambition to be famous and honored and simply use my talents to help people. Maybe I'll get a little recognition. Maybe it will always be simply one-to-one situations and incidents. In any event, I'll be helping people and serving G-d's purpose that way. I don't have to be a big celebrity to do this. It has to be what G-d wants—not what I want for my ego.

Maybe G-d gives certain people fame and honor for various reasons—honor for greatness in past lives, fame to push certain causes, and fame to teach lessons. Pope Francis is demonstrating that he is resisting vainglory passionately. He does not want the papacy to change him or his commitment to G-d and G-d's people. Oh that all famous and powerful people would heed this message-by-example!

You don't have to be Catholic to love this Pope. I do. Maybe I'm going to learn to feel fulfilled with whatever I can do instead of yearning for what is not mine.

Bob Dylan said: "It may be the Devil,/it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody." Even the Pope knows this. The road to being a Bodhisattva is a very long one for me. Disagreements aside, the Pope is well ahead of many of us on that road, and he is lighting the way.

The Beauty of Nature

The Beauty of Nature

These flowers look like 4th of July fireworks. They were by a bench at Hampton Court.