God Is Not 3 Guys

http://jeanetteblonigenclancy.com/   NOW is the MOMENT,   May 12, 2020 Now is   the moment to change the world , writes  Rutger Bregman   in  Time   magazine. He quotes Milton Friedman: Only a crisis . . . produces real change.   Bregman strengthens my hope that this crisis may be a catalyst for changes that help heal the planet and its inhabitants. The coronavirus pandemic is laying bare grotesque inequities, making a return to the “normal” before it unlikely. Like a forest fire letting sunlight reach the forest floor, it shows the rot of injustice and inequality preventing the whole of society from flourishing. It exposes the craziness of our economic system. In Bregman’s words, “the more vital your work, the less you are paid, the more insecure your employment and the more risk you are in the fight against the coronavirus.” I add that performers of the least vital work—hedge fund managers, multinational elites, Wall Street fin...

March 8, International Women's Day and the whole month of March is Women's History Month. In celebration,  Time  magazine  devoted an issue to 100 women of the year with short summaries of each. Luminaries known are joined by women unknown to me that I feel I should have known about. Just one—Recy Taylor—helped to shape Rosa Parks, known for her courageous refusal to surrender her seat on a bus, thus sparking the civil rights movement. Years earlier, Recy Taylor was gang-raped by white men and refused to stay silent. Despite death threats and firebombing of her home, she insisted on prosecution. Rosa Parks was sent by the NAACP to investigate. Find the story in  Time 's stellar issue. Super Bowl Halftime Show — Sexploitation I never watch the Super Bowl, biased as I am against pro sports, which I hold responsible for many problems in our country. I still can’t say who won because I don’t remember names of teams. They mean nothing to me. But “everybody” was ta...

http://jeanetteblonigenclancy.com/ There is much to despair about—the planet heating up, inundating cities and island nations; humans continuing to aggravate climate change; unprecedented income disparities; nuclear threat; military arms races; forced global migration; corrupt political leaders . . . I struggle to avoid crippling worry and contempt for some American voters. After the impeachment of Trump, 49 percent approve of his job performance as president. It floors me. Did they not pay attention to evidence of his guilt? Or don’t they care that the president of the U.S. tells a foreign power to meddle in our election? You see, I waste time trying to figure out the minds of voters. I wonder: Why don’t people care about his lies? His sexual assaults? His verbal assaults on desperate asylum seekers, on all people of color, all critics of himself? Don’t voters care about corruption in his administration? Its withdrawing of protections for consumers, for clean water and air...

Ron Howes, husband of my high school and college classmate, Hazel Ehrnreiter Howes, tells the story. When Hazel was diagnosed with cancer this past Spring, all plans for travel were put away, we moved into the family lake cabin, making those 40 mile one-way trips to see the doctors. Tests and more tests, radiation treatments, a trip to the Mayo Clinic, where three doctors told us thyroid cancer was normally slow-moving, but this one was especially aggressive. When a CAT-Scan revealed a new mass that wasn't seen in the one taken just a month earlier, Hazel was hospitalized and radiation treatments were to begin again. It was at that point that common sense stepped in, with the medical team admitting they couldn't get ahead of this one, recommending Hazel be transported back to our cabin by ambulance.   A hospital bed was set-up in the living room with a good view of the lake, and nurses came in to help us attempt to keep her comfortable. I asked the doctor, "how lo...

In a StarTribune article analyzing the New York Times “1619 Project,” Katherine Kersten wrote, Man’s seemingly boundless capacity for inhumanity to his fellow man  is one of history’s indelible lessons. It is typical male-centered language, using “man” to mean “also women.” For centuries women have been expected to accept this without minding it. I mind it. So I revised it: Humanity’s seemingly boundless capacity for inhumanity to fellow humans  is one of history’s indelible lessons. I’m pleased that the StarTribune published my letter with this revision and publishes my other feminist letters. I thank them and other media for helping to correct what I call sexist language. The following comes from a book I find thoughtful and nourishing, but irritatingly full of he-man language. I changed it from male-centered  to woman-centered language: Important data comes to woman from the inner self. What happened, however, is that woman was taught to accept...

With my son and daughter, I watched "The Two Popes" on Christmas Eve, depicting fictional conversations between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. The film accurately depicts the debate between right and left in the Catholic Church. In a PBS Newshour interview, the director voices my bias by saying he began thinking of Benedict (played by Anthony Hopkins) as the bad guy, but when working through the project he could see the grey areas. Although the two never had those conversations, "The Two Popes" accurately presents right and left positions. It is also historical in showing Francis' conversion as a result of his experience when Argentina's military waged a "Dirty War" against the Catholic Church. We see that guilt and suffering have the power to enlighten. 

I will be on  “Voices of the Sacred Feminine,” an online radio program by Karen Tate on the day after Christmas, December 26, at  11:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Central, 2:00 Eastern time.   My topic will be "The Goddess in the Bible."  Follow the link and do it five minutes early in case you have to sign in.  The Bible is suffused with feminine God imagery, but redactors and translators have made Her hard to recognize.