Poor Benedict and Pentecost

The face of the pope's church; investigating gospel inspired nuns, Vatican bank scandals, leaked papal documents, back stabbing cardinals, lousy new liturgy translation, and of course not honestly addressing the whole sexual abuse crisis. Poor Pope.

I worry about those little lambs at the wolf's feet.

Harvey Milk's Birthday, Belated

Yesterday was Harvey Milk’s birthday. Bill in Portland Maine reminded me of the event in his tribute to Harvey Milk in his diary over at DailyKos, Cheers and Jeers, which he posts every weekday Monday through Friday.

Bill in Portland, Maine's Tribute to Harvey Milk

I have been a follower of BinPM since my early days at DailyKos. I believe it was his daily entries that got me hooked at DailyKos. You might enjoy his writing, too.

The centerpiece of Bill’s post was Milk’s call to be hopeful. Before Milk’s murder in the San Francisco City Hall in the fall of 1978 he was an out gay man from the Castro who won one of the positions for supervisor of the City of San Francisco in the late 1970's.

I felt Milk’s call for hope resonating even more loudly yesterday when crazy anti gay preachers like the one in North Carolina who called for us to be fenced in and starved. I felt Milk’s call resonate in my own life as I reflected on my own journey of "coming out". I felt how important that call for hope is today for young and maybe not so young gay, lesbian, bi, and transgendered people as they mature into their own identities. I even felt that call for hope as the Roman Catholic Church, particularly the cardinals and bishops of the United States, struggle with their own demons of bigotry and ignorance.

So, I repost the heart of BinPM tribute to Harvey Milk commemorating Milk’s birthday yesterday along with an icon of Robert Lentz honoring Harvey Milk as a gay saint.

"It’s about the us’s out there. Not only gays, but the Blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us’s. Without hope, the us’s give up. I know you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. So you, and you, and you.....you gotta give em Hope."

I think this is a wonderful message. May it resonate with you as Pentecost approaches.

　

　

　

Future Church

So this is where Benedict is taking his church.

Here is an item to go with the picture. It's from a diary over on Daily Kos from a relatively new writer there. I like her spirit. The links are good also.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/06/1089266/-Power-Money-and-Clergy-Abuse-It-s-Time-for-Churches-to-be-Taxed

Bishop Jenky's Mind Is Terribly Screwed Up

Bishop Jenky compares Obama to Hitler and complains about Obama's "extreme secularist agenda".


Here: Diary on Jenky on DailyKos
and here: Article at Think Progress

Jenky is reading from the bishops' playbook and seems to have gone over the top. His mind is scrambled. I thought Obama was the socialist. Jenky has Obama coming after the catholics, but it really seems like Jenky and his version of the church are the ones coming after Obama and his followers. I mean Jenky and his republican cohorts have even been calling Obama the socialist.


Didn’t Martin Niemoller say of the Nazis: "First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Trade Unionist."  Who is coming for whom?


I will be polite and not go to the extreme of suggesting that maybe Jenky is the nazi. 


It does seem like it's time to speak out against bishops like Jenky. He's from Peoria. So what would you expect.