The Social Porcupine

 We’d just finished watching the movie Jesus Freaks when Andy asked me to marry him. It was early September… he’d planned to wait until I’d met his family in November, but we were ready to start planning our future. By all legalist appearances, we might seem unequally yoked. I was raised in a niche of an already obscure messianic movement, and he, born in and again recently returned to the church, was a traditional catholic. And yet those who know the two of us well and are able to see past the doctrines of man into the mystical hearts of God and His children, saw the inevitability of our union. Never is the material yoke naturally equalized between the two called to work together, not initially. It takes some sort of supernatural strength to put oneself with another, and in that acceptance is harmony cultivated. Our spiritual experiences, though stemmed out of drastically varying circumstances, have bloomed toward the same aesthetical values. But such matters are not easily seen i...

Our life reflects the good decisions we make long after the moments are done. Years ago I went to Germany and realized my community was stifled because it was isolated to a single building, like a tree growing inside a greenhouse, unable to branch out and reach to the sky. I do not advocate forfeiting original roots, and yet when I turned that new leaf over I flourished. The fruits yesterday:  Three of my friends joined me and we visited the Holy Rosary in Bozeman for Easter service.  My heart is constantly drawn closer to a good catholic mass these days (I know of two catholic churches nearby that are not good).  We arrived just on time, therefore could not sit together but found random empty spaces and split up. And yet such services aren't meant to be experienced any other way.  The wholesome, rose-colored light, the incense, the hymns and abundant scripture reading predominantes the senses. It's all my favorite part. And then a small word ...

I've experienced responsibility much as Jonathan Button experienced age: rather opposite of most people, with an awfully lot at a young age and quite a bit less of it the older I've gotten. I'm turning into quite the gypsy, keeping my conservative appearances mostly because I like it. Some, mostly staunch conservative Christians have an issue with this. Why, I wonder, when it is they who sing old hymns such as  Wayfaring Stranger  and keep a copy of The Pilgrim's Progress next to their Bible.  They chide me on my wild ways, "You must have a home church. "  But this world is not my home. I am not meant to sit still, or to wait at home for the coming of some man or of the Messiah. We are all meant to be as children: wild and loud and happy. I should be able to pick my own flowers, thank you very much, without being accused of feminism.  I sometimes find churches to attend while traveling. Looking back on them I feel as if I experienced the same so...

Written 9/11  2022 A great place to meet someone you've only talked to online is at church... theirs, or some new place for both of you! Today I met up with a Twitter mutual at her Orthodox church. This is now the 4th Orthodox church I've visited. Each has been slightly different (this one had pews and no rugs and stained-glass windows), but what I've loved about the services has remained true and steadfast. I really do love the Orthodoxy churches, especially the A Cappella singing and long scripture readings. I've been having a hard time sitting down to focus on scripture reading these days. I just can't. A thought struck the other day: most people didn't use to read the Bible, but had it read to them. We modern Christians have been taught that we need much alone time to read and study. And I'm not necessarily against this. It just isn't working for me these days...  And yet I could sit and listen to just about anyone read passages to me for...

Have you ever passed a church building and wondered, "What am I missing?"  Not that you're searching. You just want to know what is inside. There are people inside calling this building their home... the same with the one around the corner, and the other corner, and the last. Sometimes two side by side. 2020 I visited over twenty churches.  There were many reasons I did this, all of them true, none of them dependently the whole truth. To the majority of people I said, "I'm visiting churches in our district to spread word of my dad's campaign!"  Deep down, I'd always liked the idea of visiting all the churches near us. The idea was scary, though. Besides. I really liked the church I had been attending.  Germany frazzled my heart, though. And I didn't feel very welcomed in the States when I returned. The church I'd been attending for the last few years felt like a distant part of my past, one I'd grown away from. I had stumbled upon a littl...