September 25, 2007

Nestar from Uganda

"When two elephants are fighting, it is the grass that suffers"

Nestar from Canadian Foodgrains bank.

Nestar has been working in Canada for 11 months. She grew up in war torn Uganda. She lost 3 brothers and 1 cousin when she was 5 years old.

If the link is still good listen to her speak on GodTalk.com

Note: Our Wonder Mill has no affiliation with GodTalk. Their views are not necessarily our views.

March 12, 2007

Blessing on WonderCafe

An Irish Blessing


May the blessing of light be upon you,
light on the outside, light on the inside.


With God's sunlight shining on you,
may your heart glow with warmth like a turf fire
that welcomes friends and strangers alike.


May the light of the Lord shine from your eyes
like a candle in the window
welcoming the weary traveler.


May the blessing of God's soft rain be on you
falling gently on your head, refreshing your soul
with the sweetness of little flowers newly blooming.


May the strength of the winds of Heaven bless you
carrying the rain to wash your spirit clean,
sparkling after in the sunlight.


May the blessing of God's earth be on you.
And as you walk the roads,
may you always have a kind word for those you meet.


May you understand the strength and power of God
in a thunderstorm in winter,
and the quiet beauty of creation
in the calm of a summer sunset.


And may you come to realize that,
insignificant as you may seem in this great universe,
you "are" an important part of God's plan.


May He watch over you
and keep you safe from harm.

( I love this song - part Gaelic- any Irish in our midst ?)

music Roma Downey and Phil. Coulter (Touched by an Angel)
Scroll down to the very bottom - click arrow on Real Player

http://www.jessiesweb.com/blessing.htm

February 14, 2007

Walter Wink and the New Testament

I think I want to explore Walter Wink. I never heard of him before WonderCafe. Here he is quoted by Rev. James Murray to explore homosexuality in the New Testament. Often when Leviticus is quoted, it is easy to counter those quotes as many of the beliefs found in it are dismissable - stoning rebellious teenagers, preventing women from leaving their homes during their menstral cycle, etc. I find wrestling with the translations of Paul not as effective, but do like the story of the baptism of the Eunuch as helpful.

Rev. Murray wrote:

Walter Wink makes this point about how we all interpret the Bible's injunctions about sexuality.

"For example, virtually all modern readers would agree with the Bible in rejecting: incest, rape, adultery, and intercourse with animals. But we disagree with the Bible on most other sexual mores. The Bible condemned the following behaviors which we generally allow: intercourse during menstruation, celibacy, exogamy (marriage with non-Jews), naming sexual organs, nudity (under certain conditions), masturbation (some Christians still condemn this), birth control (some Christians still forbid this).

And the Bible regarded semen and menstrual blood as unclean, which most of us do not. Likewise, the Bible permitted behaviors that we today condemn: prostitution, polygamy, levirate marriage, sex with slaves, concubinage, treatment of women as property, and very early marriage (for the girl, age 11-13).

And while the Old Testament accepted divorce, Jesus forbade it. In short, of the sexual mores mentioned here, we only agree with the Bible on four of them, and disagree with it on sixteen!"

I could respect the opinion of someone who spoke against homosexuality if they abided by all of these Biblical standards. Homosexuality is no better or worse than any of these other sexual issues. By how we are abiding by the commandments on this list, we are all either A) condemned to hell or B) part of an ever-evolving process of learning how to live together in an ethical manner.

January 26, 2007

Noah's Ark and the beauty of Myth

This was part of a thread on the Bible and whether it should be read as myth, fact or legend. I found it fascinating.

JamesK (Fri, Jan 26/07, 04:34 pm)wrote:

Serena
I believe the pile of pages we call the Bible is a fact. And history points out that it is a selection of old (and very old) writings, all of which were created by men and, possibly, women. The "selecting" and discarding was done by other men.

What they selected was a mixture of myths and legends.
Noah and his ark is a myth because it is totally unworkable (for one, you can't flood the whole earth).
Many of the Old Testament stories are likely legends because they contain some elements of what probably happened.
Most of the New Testament is likely fact but got a bit twisted in the telling and recording.
In short - the Bible is a huge mixture.

monasksit (Fri, Jan 26/07 08:38 pm) wrote:

Floating boats and Noah's ark, how about this tidbit I stumbled on from Genesis:

Gen 6:19"(U)And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.

20"(V)Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.

Gen 7:2"You shall take with you of every (B)clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female;

3also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

Almost like two versions of the same story, one, the one I was more familiar with, using the common two-by-two motif, then the lesser- known seven-by-seven (or I guess that would be actually 7 pairs so it would be 14 by 14), creating havoc in many illustrators lives for sure.

Beautiful, wonderful, mystical and inspiring myth that challenged our ancestors and still makes us pause to think even in this modern era. Amen and Awomen!

klaatu (Fri, Jan 26/07 08:40 pm):


"Beautiful, wonderful, mystical and inspiring myth that challenged our ancestors and still makes us pause to think even in this modern era."

You got it, monaskit!

StephenGordon (Fri, Jan 26/07 09:24 pm):

trivia tidbit I once heard but am not certain of, my math skills are terrible. The 7 clean was supposedly done so that while the land was flooded Noah would not have to eat of the unclean.... I'm just saying...

I think the more mystical, interpretive tidbit to chew on is that Noah knew what was clean and unclean before the giving of Torah on Mt. Sinai. This is also apparently when humans began eating meat. =)

monasksit (Fri, Jan 26/07 09:47 pm):

Oooh, good point! Noah was not only 600 years old, but he could see the future and Moses's orders about diet. Cool! Too bad he didn't warn his descendants to not sew coats of many colors for their spoiled youngest sons :)

Myths are meaningful, I repeat, Myths are meaningful!

StephenGordon (Fri, Jan 26/07 10:11 pm):

Noah is a good place to also see the influence the time period had on the importance of recorded events.There were eight people remaining in the entire world. They were Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth... and??? and??? well Noah's wife and the son's wives.... their names were???
Some things were important in ancient times and some things were not.

January 19, 2007

Reading Scripture the Jewish way

A wondercafe poster has been explaining scripture in a very unique way. She has a lot of experience with Judaism, and the way it looks at the Bible is very refreshing. She sent me the following info:

It is PaRDeS. like a dreidel the letters are initials. They stand for Peshat, Remez, Derash, Sod.

Peshat = the surface meaning
Remez = allusions or allegories
Derash = midrash way of finding new lessons
Sod = the hidden mystical Kabbalah way

January 03, 2007

The Bible on Homosexuality

Sighsnootles posted this on WonderCafe.ca and I think it is a great summation of the Bible's stance on Homosexuality.

Genesis 19: 1-28 - The ancient story of Sodom and Gomorrah

first of all, i want to say that the common reaction to this story ticks me off right from the get go... the fact that lot was going to send out his two daughters to be gang raped by an angry mob, and nobody has a problem with this?!?!? anyways, i digress....

there a few errors in the translation from the hebrew scriptures to the english version we have now that i feel are pretty major to the interpretation... the word that has been translated as intercourse is 'yada', which means 'get to know'. had the author of this scripture wanted to say that the mob wanted to have sexual intercourse with lots visitors, he probably would have used the word 'shakab'. this word denotes sexual activity. the word 'yada' appears in the hebrew scriptures over 900 times, and in every other context is used as meaning to get acquainted with someone. yet, in this particular passage, it somehow was changed to mean 'intercourse'.

therefore, that entire passage should read something more like this... 'where are the mortals who came here tonight?? bring them out here so that we may get acquainted with them.'

now, if you look at it again, there are a few other problems as well... for the story to be a condemnation of homosexuality, the ENTIRE CITY must have been homosexual. this is impossible, but even if it were true, why on earth would lot have sent his DAUGHTERS out to a homosexual male mob??? it states that lots daughters were virgins, and we know that sacrificing virgins was something very common in pagan idol worship. and we also know that lot lived in a pagan city.

elsewhere in the bible, sodom is refered to again, in ezekiel 16...
"Look! This is what proved to be the error of Sodom your sister: Pride, sufficiency of bread and the carefreeness of keeping undisturbed were what happened to belong to her and her dependent towns, and the hand of the afflicted one and the poor one she did not strengthen. And they continued to be haughty and to carry on a detestable thing before me, and I finally removed them, just as I saw fit"

the hebrew word that was translated as 'detestable thing' is towebah, and this word literally translates out as 'to commit idol worship'.

therefore, the problem of sodom and gamorrah isn't homosexuality at all. the sin commited here is idol worship.
______________________________________________

Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13

leviticus is an interesting book. if you look at the context of the time it was writeen, the isrealites were living in a real 'get out there and multiply' kind of time... they were the chosen ones, so they had a duty to be really fertile. therefore, even masturbation was a HUGE sin.
leviticus is also part of the 'mosaic law', which also forbade haircuts, shaving, and wearing clothing with blended fibres, among other things. the law was such that if you broke one law, then you were guilty of breaking them all.

so, for us to use the leviticus passages to condemn homosexuality, we would also be equally condemning people who shave and get their hair cut.

we allow people who shave and get their hair cut to get married, accept sacraments, and share equally in our church, so it doesn't make ANY sense whatsoever to forbid equality to homosexuals based on the levitical text.
__________________________________________
Romans 1:26-27
1 Cor. 6: 9-11
1 Tim. 1:9-11

i've discussed this one on another thread, but basically, the words that translated out as homosexual or 'men who lie with men' in these texts were 'arsenokoites' and 'malakos'.

arsenokoites litterally means 'lift bed', but bible scholars now believe that at the time, it was used to denote a male temple prostitute. malakos litterally translates out as 'spineless', or coward.

now, in my 'new american bible for catholics', there is an asterisk by the term 'homosexual' in these particular passages, which states...

'the term translated as 'practicing homosexuals' refers to adult males who indulged in homosexual practices with boy prostitutes, i.e.boys or young men who were kept for the purposes of prostitution, a practice not uncommon in the greco-roman world.'

therefore, i'd suggest that the texts above are a condemnation of pedophilia, prostitution, promiscuity, and idolatry, and not at all a condemnation of a consensual, committed homosexual relationship.