Not sure where to start, because I have a lot on my mind, but maybe we could start with a good book?
I’ve been struggling with my association with Christianity for a long time, but like many of us who grew up evangelical, the inflection point was the 2016 election cycle.
When Supreme Court Justices began to be appointed during that presidential term, they included someone credibly accused of sexual assault, and another person shoehorned in just before the next presidential election. That’s the very thing the Republicans had blocked the Democrats from doing prior to the previous election, except in the case of the Republican appointee, the timeline was so much shorter that the hypocrisy was eye watering.
This is all tied intimately to evangelical support of the Republican party, a party which regularly chooses to persecute the most vulnerable in our society. They look to force sexually nonconforming folks back into hiding. They would rather let immigrants die rather than give them safe passage into our country, which has plenty of resources for everyone, if we choose to share them. They oppose feeding food-insecure kids. They say All Lives Matter when their white lives matter more than Black lives in our society, if not in word, then in deed.
I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!
Matthew 25:40
I turned to the other party, only to have the carpet ripped out from under me this year as I’ve seen Uncle Joe become Genocide Joe before my eyes. A professed Catholic, no less.
When I was at the Victorian Stroll, I mentioned to my friend that I’d wanted to make a new gown for the Jane Austen Tea the following weekend. I hadn’t gotten to it, and it felt like I’d run out of time.
She casually replied something like, “Well, Regency gowns aren’t too difficult.”
At the Red Herring, there is exhaustive editing taking place behind the scenes. I read and reread my posts before publication to make sure I’ve gotten everything right. Even with every word forced through a fine tooth comb, I still regularly find errors after publication.
Sometimes, though, I miss the forest for the trees.
I attended March for Gaza on January 13, 2024 with six of my kids, along with thousands of other people. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when there was almost no news coverage of the event.
Even when I searched for coverage, anemic articles a couple of paragraphs long described the protest. Longer articles mentioned the DC event, but focused more on other protests that happened around the world the same day, particularly in Paris and London. Several articles implied that the DC protest was characterized by violence.
I was at the DC protest.
I will bear witness if the media won’t.
