Tiny Thots: Nothing in This World | 10.31.10

I wake up most mornings with a song in my head. Today's is "Nothing in This World" by Tim Hughes - good thoughts on my way to Sunday worship this morning.

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Tiny Thots: Lamenting | 10.30.10

From God on Mute, by Pete Greig (Regal Books, 2007), p 85

   Lamenting is more than a technique for venting emotion. It is one of the fruits of a deepening spiritual life that hs learned to stand naked before God without shame or pretence. In fact long before Gethsemane, Jesus Himself had pronounced that those who mourn are blessed (see Matt 5:4)? “Implicit in this statement notes Walter Brueggermann “is that those who do not mourn will not be comforted and those who do not face the endings will not receive the beginnings.” Honest lament can express a vibrant faith; one that has learned to embrace life’s hardships as well its joy and to lift everything — everything — to the Father in prayers. As the author Richard Foster says of the lament psalms, “They give us permission to shake our fist at God one moment and break into doxology the next.”

Walter Brueggermann quoted from The Prophetic Imagination, Fortress Press, 2001, p 57
Richard Foster quoted from Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Harper-San Francisco 1992, p 24.

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Tiny Thots: Really | 10.21.10

Do you-we-I allow people to be real? Really? Or do we stop them short of saying what they really feel, being who they really are…because it’s inconvenient, uncomfortable, unmanageable? I’m not talking about strangers, but friends – people we rub shoulders with regularly, daily. What would happen if we let them be real? How would we feel if we were allowed to be real?

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Tiny Thots: Speaking up } 16 Oct 2010

“If people cannot speak about their affliction they will be destroyed by it, or swallowed up by apathy…without the capacity to communicate with others there can be no change. To become speechless, to be totally without any relationship, that is death.”

—Dorothee Solle, Suffering, quoted by Pete Greig in his book God on Mute, p 71

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"Chasing Rainbows" | Hawaii Film Festival selection

via chasingrainbowsfilm.com

Excerpted from the site:

The Film

The battle between mainstream conservatives and the homosexual movement in America all started in Hawaii in the 1990s with the first lawsuit from a same sex couple suing a state over the right to marry.
Synopsis

Hawaii is still on the verge of joining several other states in adopting a same sex union law. HB 444, the Hawaii Civil Unions bill, generated tremendous controversy in our state. It is an issue that is dividing churches, families, generations and many in the workplace. Are a select few in our population pushing an agenda that if passed on the short term, will affect how the vast majority of us live out our lives in the long term?

We took a look at a number of profound questions in the search for answers:

What is a civil union, and how does it differ from marriage? Is this a religious, civil rights or political issue? Does a bill for civil unions represent the vast majority of the people’s needs? Who are the driving forces behind this movement and why is it so important to them?

Is being gay or straight a personal preference, an environmental influence, a hereditary or predetermined genetic factor? Are homosexuals in fact seeking equal rights and benefits under the law, or are they rather seeking to normalize and sanctify same-sex partner relationships and elevate those relationships to a plateau with the same legal and moral status of a heterosexual marriage? And why is Hawaii so pivotal in setting the standard for the rest of the nation?

Is this strictly a constitutional issue? What will be the long-term outcome from such civil unions or same sex marriage in the United States? How will it affect the traditional marriage, the traditional family? Can it possibly change the fabric of our society, as we know it today? And more importantly, what do established academically certified research studies tell us about these issues?

We explored the hard facts behind what’s driving the civil unions and same sex movement across America, who’s involved and why they believe what they believe. We took a fair and impartial look at each of the components involved in the proposed civil unions law and how they might affect Hawaii. And along the way, we met with the many people and factions that are for or against such a law and heard why they have taken the stance they do.

We talked with the legislators and others who crafted and introduced the civil unions bill and those who vehemently opposed it. We talked with clergy on both sides of the issue and examined their differing views.

We chatted with professional psychologists and legal experts to try and determine the effects of a civil unions law. We looked at what has happened in other states and bring you revealing stories from people who have been impacted by similar laws.

In Chasing Rainbows we meet, spend time with and get to know a few of the people in Hawaii that would benefit from such a law – and along the way we ask you, the people of America, what you know, think and believe, and why.

In Chasing Rainbows we take you down a fact-finding path in search of the truth. It’s our goal to be accountable to you and provide a fair, unbiased and detailed view of all the issues involved. In the end it will be up to you to decide just how you feel about civil unions and same-sex marriage, but we’ll warn you: the truth may be surprising.

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