Work to do!

Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles--well, you get the idea: I have some work to do this week!

It involves writing two grants for a small nonprofit, and as you might imagine, it is a job-and-a-half. Perhaps too much for a week, but I'm going to give it the old college try. A little challenge is a wonderful thing, for my brain could use something new to think about besides the sorry state of my finances and job prospects, believe me.

One other bit of sunshine--came across a discussion of the difference between religion and spirituality today that warms my heart and almost makes me wish I lived in Cleveland.

Yes, Cleveland.

It's called "Praying for the Demise of Religion," by the Rev. Kenneth W. Chalker, and it first appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It discusses the recent United Methodist Judicial Council ruling that reinstated a pastor who had refused church membership to an openly gay man. Choice bit:

"In these religious times, church organizations are forsaking their initial spiritual impetus and going over to the dark side. Employing labored, amplified heavy breathing, they have become religious institutions. Like most institutions, religious ones are very much interested in preserving their various ways of doing things. That is, in large part, why there are judicial councils. Their job is not to keep the faith. Their job is to keep the rules and make folks think that 'the rules' and 'the faith' are the same thing. Most often, they are not.

"While the decision of the United Methodist Judicial Council purports to protect a pastor's right to ascertain a person's readiness to affirm the vows of membership in the church, it does nothing of the sort. The decision does what religion so often does: It sanctified acts of hidden prejudice and self-righteousness."

Sorry, one excerpt isn't enough. One more:

"...In the meantime (and sometimes the times are very mean), institutional religion continues to be a mind-numbing reality. In all cultures, it preserves the status quo in ice. That is why religious folks often seem to be the 'frozen chosen' rather than ones warmed by the fire of the Spirit with tolerance, acceptance and love, and set ablaze with a passion for justice.

"Putting people out is a coldly religious thing to do. In the end, the rooms from which people have been excluded become empty. The temperature is turned way down to save expenses. Not much is going on in those rooms, but at least they are neat and orderly. Current judicial councils, like all of them over time, very much like it that way...."

Amen, Rev. Chalker!