Freaking Out And Making Plans – Welcome 2017

Happy New Year my friends, family, neighbors and dearest ne’er-do-wells! Take a deep breath…what’s that smell? Why, that’s the embers of 2016 dying and the crisp clean smell of a brand-spanking new year. And boy is 2017 going to be a doozie or what?

I am glad to see last year begin to fade away, but I would be lying through my wine-stained teeth if I didn’t say I enter this new year with equal portions of freaking the fuck out and dreaming fantastic dreams of all the good that is possible.

As Betsy and I awaken on this uniquely chilly morning in Florida, we are peeping out at the year we will get married. Wow. I am still astonished to have found my person, fallen madly in love with her, know deep in my bones she loves me and get to spend the rest of our lives learning how to love each other in passionate and sustainable ways. I know without a shadow of a doubt that this Buddhist woman is a gift from God. Thanks be to God.

Tempering our ebullience is the stark reality of the land in which we live and under whose rule we are making our wedding plans. Not only under whose rule, but in whose America. All pretenses of civility, integrity and safety have melted like daddy’s fresh-churned ice cream on a blistering August day. Millions of my countrymen and women, many claiming to love the very same Jesus as I, voted for He Who Shall Not Be Named. And as Betsy so aptly articulated it, “So essentially, Trump campaigned and said, ‘I’m gonna kill ten puppies and give you a cookie.” And when you challenge his voters pointing out that they voted for a puppy killer, they say, ”Oh no, I voted for the cookie.”

I am truly flabbergasted that any Christian of any theological underpinning could think that Trump is anything but a hedonistic, Mammon worshipping asshat who is antithetical to EVERY Christian value – conservative or progressive. The very thin veil has been lifted and we can plainly see that the vice of violence, savage avarice, celebrated selfishness and unleashed loathing are the pillars of the true religion of America. And so I am reminded that I owe no allegiance to a country or its leaders. ‘Tis my soul which is set on God, my heart that beats for my family and my mind that belongs wholly to me that I pledge loyalty and for whose liberty I will fight to my dying breath to protect.Help us oh God.

I hope you can imagine the fear and trembling that undergirds our joy as we plan our Big Fat Gay Wedding in the world, country, state and neighborhood where our civil and human rights are hanging by a rancid thread dangling from the hands of an unhinged sociopath.

So I have work to do, we all do. Each in her or his own way can fight the powers and principalities who peddle ignorance and profit from fear. My way forward is full of overly ambitious plans for:

Praying without ceasing. A great deal of this will occur with the online community I lead, Thin Places. There will be new opportunities for people to connect around spiritual practices, bible and book studies and explorations of social justice issues we are called as Christians to engage. There will even be a monthly feature called “Living Buddha, Living Christ” where Betsy and I explore a current issue from both sides of the spiritual spectrum. Thin Places is all about deepening our walk with God and each other while learning how to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Writing with integrity. With a renewed energy and commitment to my craft, I have not only the next three posts in process, I am working on two regular series of posts:

A Lesbian’s Lectionary where I take on each week’s assigned text from the Revised Common Lectionary. I’ll practice this as the 20th century Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth is often quoted as saying, with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (I’m paraphrasing). And all of course through the lens of being a queer woman of a certain age, recovering Baptist, living in the southeastern United States. It is my intention that these weekly posts end up as a full sermon once a month. God help us all.

This Week in the Homosexual Lifestyle where I share with you all the lascivious debauchery that is our life. Watch for a blog post later this week introducing this NSFW blog series.

Serving with passion. Soon I will be sharing with y’all a little thing that currently has the working title “Praxis Matrix”. It is a scaffolding tool that I have been working on for some time meant to help people of faith move from personal piety to social justice activism.

What about you? What plans do you have to be the hands and feet of God under the reign of an Anti-Christ?

Let’s get to work!

Freaking out and making plans – welcome 2017