Sitting in my basement room at Mom’s house I’m not so inspired to dredge my heart for something “original.” So I thought I’d pass on a couple of quotes from the book I’m reading, The End of Religion, by Bruxy Cavey.
“The problem with organized religion is not that it’s organized. The problem with organized religion is that it is religious – believing that its own set of rules, regulations, routines and rituals are the exclusive way to God.
If I am right , then the antidote to organized religion is not disorganized religion, but organized irreligion – a collective effort to use organization and structure to help encounter and experience the subversive spirituality of Jesus. Cups can be useful to hold water as long as we remember it is the water that refreshes and not the cup. Licking the cup leaves us unsatisfied.”
“Religion is the archrival of intimate spirituality… Religion, a tiresome system of manmade dos and don’ts, woulds and shoulds – impotent to change human lives, but tragically capable of devastating them – is what is left after a true love for God is drained away. Religion is the shell that is left after the real thing has disappeared.”
-Doug Bannister
Dispatches from the Shadowlands 
How amazing that just this afternoon as some of us waited in the lodge for our weekly blood pressure check one of the ladies said she had been visitng an old friend in the Manor- the nursing home part of our small retirement village and she had been telling him some jokes, but wasn’t sure how they would be received because he is very religious so I asked her what she meant by ‘religious’. She said she meant he has always been very ‘proper’. She isn’t always and I know I’m not always. Can you believe, I have been made the president of our residents association !! I never cared to be president of anything. They are a rowdy bunch and in the past the meetings have degenerated into long discussions about things already settled so when I agreed to take the job I warned them I might seem highhanded in how I ran the show. Was telling my daughter about what was going on and she said-“Sounds like this presidents power has gone to your head !” Hey- me and Obama !! The only way to keep people working toward our common goals.!! Besides since we only meet every other month, nobody remembers what we decided !! It is funny and I may yet be’impeached’., but so far they seem to love me enough to make allowances for my bossy ways !! Keep us posted on what you find God doing in Bosnia and europe. I juat had a delicious e-mail about some good stuff He’s doing in Kershaw.!! I am now an official resident of NC. Paid my taxes and got a library card. But Kershaw is still home,too,’cause we lived almost 37 years there!! Bon Voyage- Hugs and smiles-Janet
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good stuff
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