“ Pastors would be free to marry gay and lesbian people if they chose, but more conservative pastors would not be forced to,” said Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson
The conflict over a Georgia Methodist church escalated this month when a Georgia bishop and the North Georgia Annual Conference made the unprecedented move to seize control of the assets of the 8,000-member congregation.
I first wrote about this last spring, when the North Georgia bishop appointed another minister to replace Mt. Bethel’s lead pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jody Ray. Instead of being assigned to another Methodist church, Dr. Ray was assigned to a staff position on racial reconciliation.
Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church, wanting to keep its pastor, maintained that the bishop did not follow the Methodist Book of…
Humor
There’s no place like home when you’ve stayed in a motel
“You’re standing naked in front of the window again,” my husband said. Then he closed the blinds.
You’re probably thinking, if you know me at all, that this doesn’t sound like me, to be standing naked in front of a window. And you’re right. At 68 years old, I don’t gyrate nude for all the world to see.
But I had a perfectly valid reason for dressing with the blinds open. The motel room was dark as a cave.
Maybe my vision is failing, but I don’t think so. I can still read the fine print, and the eye doctor…
Other species get in on the act
My mother’s caregivers told interesting stories about their native countries, which included Zimbabwe, Uganda, Haiti, Kenya and Nigeria. But the most remarkable story was a tale of continued abuse and harassment heaped upon the village women in Kenya.
What makes the story unusual is that it wasn’t men who were harassing the women. It was monkeys.
According to Rachel, a native of Kenya who has been in the United States for 9 years, monkeys pelted women with rocks as soon as the women walked outside.
“They didn’t throw rocks at the men. Only…
But we don’t want to sell the property out from under the tenants, either.
My mother, who passed away last week, left four rental properties to my brother, my sister, and me.
One property is a duplex that could be beautiful. It’s a solid brick building built in the early 1920s and still has the original hardwood floors, along with some amazing woodwork. But it needs a major overhaul. One side of the duplex is rented and the other side is vacant.
The second property is a building that used to be a laundromat and is now being used as a church.
The other two properties are houses that have housed the same tenants…
None of them would be considered influencers
If you watch the news or spend any time on social media, you might get the idea that we have all devolved into a world of angry, entitled, selfish, lazy people.
Where are the heroes; people who, despite life’s challenges, are kind and compassionate?
I know where they are. I met them in the last three months of my mother’s life.
After taking care of my mother with my husband’s support for a year and a half, her deteriorating condition forced me to recruit help from hospice and a caregiving agency. Up until then, caregiving had been a challenge. But…
This is the first day of the rest of my life without my mother
The room is empty. Yesterday, it was full. Caregivers, hospice nurses, family members bustled in and out, creating the chaos and stir that goes with life.
My mother still breathed and groaned and sipped Ensure through the straw I held to her cracked lips. My hands caressed her mottled, sunken cheeks. My lips brushed her forehead.
Today she is gone. This is the first day of my life without my mother.
I tiptoe to the bedroom, listening for her labored, rattled breathing; ready to ask one more time, Can I get you anything, Mama?
But her room is empty, the…
Some say it’s wishy-washy and others say it’s brave
During the Covid-19 pandemic, our church was closed and I had time to observe it from a distance. There were some things that didn’t make me happy, like church politics. I mentioned this to my sister and told her I wasn’t going back to church.
But I kept up with my Sunday School class via Zoom. The class includes a great group of friends, far removed from politics and church committees, and when classes resumed for the first time in over a year, I went to Sunday School in person.
My sister texted me later that afternoon to ask what…
It reminded me of my days as a roving newspaper reporter.
Every time I drove past the Pickens County Flea Market in South Carolina, it piqued my curiosity. Rows and rows of empty tables stretched for almost a mile, but there were never any people; no vendors, no customers, and no merchandise.
Then one day I slowed down long enough to read the sign and found out why. The flea market is only open on Wednesdays.
Women of child-bearing age should not drink alcohol, says WHO
I have just watched Season 4 of the Handmaid’s tale, the story of a dystopian future in which fertile women are enslaved to have babies for the powerful men in Gilead, the new society that replaced the United States. Fertility rates have dropped dramatically due to environmental factors, and procreation becomes the major role of the Handmaids.
In one episode, vegan Handmaids are forced to eat meat and butter so they will have a better chance of conceiving and having healthy babies. And of course they aren’t allowed to consume alcohol, because they are birthing machines.
I couldn’t help thinking…
Humor
“We are trying to make the experience more authentic”
Facebook shocked and angered thousands on the social network platform this week when it decided to purge the friend list of everyone who isn’t a “real friend.”
“My friends went from, like, 600 to 30,” Monica Braveheart complained after discovering her news feed had no “feed.”
“There was, like, nothing there. WTF were they thinking?”
People addicted to the Facebook notification button indicating that someone has “liked” or commented on a post have reportedly been wandering around in a daze. …
