…it is very hard to expect change from people who benefit from the system as it is. Change requires us to listen to voices outside of what has become our norm.”
Danielle Strickland
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Rene Descartes
Do yourself a favor
Once we stop expecting, needing, or demanding that something or someone be perfect, we’re much happier. We’re doing ourselves and the world a favor. It’s not easy to do apart from the life and grace of God flowing through us. That’s why, for me, the notion of God as Trinity, the flow of relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is so important. Without that daily flow, we get trapped in the negatives. We all do. We all will, unless we tap into the love of God flowing through us.
Richard Rohr
Men
· Men are 50% more likely than women to struggle with alcohol and substance abuse.
· “Men died of overdose at 2-3 times greater a rate than women.”
· “Men outnumber women… about 2 to 1 among people with gambling addictions.”
· Married men are almost twice as likely to cheat on their wives than vice versa.
· The male suicide rate is approximately 4 times higher than the female rate.
· Men commit 69% of violent crimes.
· Men comprised 98% of active shooters in 2022-2023.
· Men comprise 90% of the prison population (1,653,600 men, 174,000 women; not a typo).
· Almost 400,000 men in the prison population are Protestant.
· An appalling number of male pastors and ministry leaders, including 700+ SBC pastors, have sexually abused girls and women, then attempted to cover up the abuse.
It’s important to note that the above behaviors and statistics do not apply to all men! But they nevertheless provide compelling evidence that an enormous number of men engage in emotionally driven behaviors that ironically fit the Merriam-Webster definitions for irrational, illogical, and dare I say… hysterical. Yet the false belief that all women are irrational, illogical, and hysterical endures, due to its underlying premise: that women are allegedly inferior to men.
https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/confronting-systemic-cultural-sexism
Reading Scripture
Imagine that every time you receive the Holy Eucharist, your mind is filled with thoughts of the chemistry of bread and wine. Indeed, the thoughts become so dominant that the presence of Christ is largely forgotten. In particular, the relationship of heart to sacrament is disrupted. If, in such circumstances, someone began to absent themselves from communion, it would not be surprising.
The reading of Scripture in the life of the Church is quite properly compared to the reception of communion – for the Scriptures are best described as sacramental in nature.
If the whole time you read, the question is, “Did this happen? Did it happen like this?” etc. there is no engaging of the Scripture as Scripture. The distance between reader and text could hardly be greater.
Fr Stephen Freeman
A dose of reality
I have had an X (formerly know as Twitter) account for several years. I do not recall ever posting to it, but regularly scrolled through to get a feel for what was going in the Twitter world. I did not find it to be particularly beneficial. in my opinion, since Elon Musk bought Twitter , the cesspool seem to descend into an even darker realm.
Discovering Bluesky, a new social media platform that presents itself as an better alternative to X, I deleted my X account and signed up for Bluesky — @grezell.bsky.social . I have no anticipation of posting on a regular basis but I am interested in seeing how it contrasts to X and follow some relevant users.
To introduce myself, I decided post a link to one of my recent posts. I usually only share my posts with subscribers to my blog, a small number of faithful readers I know and who seem to appreciate what I write. Needless to say, my post on Bluesky did not go viral, but I did one comment :
“What an absolute heaped and steaming pile of shit. The authors need to reevaluate their conscience as do anyone who agrees with this utter nonsense.”
It is hard to describe the impact that comment. It was a dose of reality on several counts:
- Clearly my subscribers are an echo chamber. I do not get a lot of comments but they are, almost without exception, positive. My posts are generally unchallenged. As a result, agreeable comments have produced an inflated and unhealthy self-perception about my writing. Don’t get me wrong, I love positive comments. They are wonderful and a positive reason for echo chambers. The shocking negative comment I received was a reminder of the necessity of dissenting voices for a healthy echo chamber and ego.
- The comment disabused me of any idea that there is any “safe/sane” social media platform. Living in an echo chamber creates a false notion that everyone is basically a good person. Reality is, there are mean spirited people who live for an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction in hateful and or destructive ways. Social media is a petrie dish for evil. There are positive aspects to social media but the likelihood of getting a serious infection is dangerously high and requires careful precautions.
- Receiving that comment exposed my spiritual vulnerability. Despite my “love your enemy” conviction, my first reaction was anger and resentment followed by an impulse to retaliate — a “Nathan/David” moment. Her comment was a needed wake-up call.
- I would have preferred some thoughtful, cogent criticism but I must say,”steaming pile of shit” and “utter nonsense” got my attention. I have re-read the post several times and continue to reassess my thoughts and conclusions. Some times you beed a slap in the face. OUCH! I struggle between dismissing the comment out of hand and deleting the post. Those are false choices. I need to reassess and, revise my post if needed
- I have not decided to post any more on Bluesky or whether I will even keep my account. Withdrawing from social media most likely would mean seeking comfortable confines of an echo chamber. Not a bad idea. It is a lot easier to love my enemy from there and feel really good about myself and my writing.
STILL ON THE JOURNEY