A Wanderer No Longer

Well, this Blog's slogan has had to change. No longer am I a Libertarian Lutheran Lesbian -- today I was received into the Episcopal Church.

I've changed my intro. Now, as soon as I can figure out how to change the heading...

I was raised a Lutheran, and I will always be beholden to the structure and rectitude of my spiritual upbringing. Lutherans are great people. Most of my family are Lutherans, as well as a good many of my friends. But I have been restless for quite some time, looking around for a spiritual home that better fit my beliefs.

In my twenties, I became a Roman Catholic. For many years, I was at home there. When I came out as a lesbian, I realized its rigidity was due not to being "the only true church," but to human stubbornness and pride. So I moved on. For a time, this meant a return to the Lutheran fold of my youth.

Though I do not believe the Church of Rome to be the only true church, at heart I am still a Catholic. My dissatisfaction in the Lutheran Church was due to more than the brouhaha, in my last congregation, over whether one narrow-minded pastor could visualize it being big enough for two different minority groups -- both of which she wanted to patronize and manipulate. The real root of my dissatisfaction was with Protestantism, period.

Protestant churches are run like businesses. They certainly should be run on sound financial principles, but they are NOT businesses -- they are members of the Body of Christ. Catholic churches are also capable of getting off-track because of money -- that's why the Reformation happened in the first place. But essentially, Catholics of every kind belong to the apostolic body Christ intended the Church to be.

Episcopalians are Reformed Catholics. Though they recognize that the Pope is non-essential, and that the "rock" upon which Christ would build His Church was not Peter the individual, but the faith Peter displayed, they do carry on the apostolic faith tradition.

I will always be indebted to the Roman Catholic Church for nurturing my spiritual growth to the point that I was, at last, able to reconcile my sexual orientation with my faith and come out of the closet. For all the sins their hierarchy has committed toward gays, the inescapable fact is that I had been able to do this not in all my previous years as a Protestant, but only after several years of having been a Catholic.

Now I have truly come home. The more I learn about my new church home, the move I love it. Already I can feel my soul expanding, like a flower in the sunshine. Perhaps the full extent of it goes beyond explaining. All I know is that here is where I belong.

The discipline, the structure, the long and numerous centuries of wisdom, unbroken all the way back to the days of the apostles -- it is mine again. I get to refresh myself in it daily, as if in an envigorating ocean surf. And at last, all those years of wandering have come to an end.

This is, primarily, not a religious blog but a political one. I will, nonetheless, have more to say about my new Church later. For right now, I simply want to absorb what has happened to me, put down stronger roots, and continue to grow.

An Omelette on My Face

Well...okay. So the Suns laid another egg. And since I went out on a limb and built a nice little nest there with my prediction of championship glory, it's now all over my face.

When life as a sports fan gives you an egg, you might as well make it into an omelette.

I REALLY wanted a piece of those drunken, bean-eating, gas-passing bums in Boston. Especially after last night, when the Celtics beat Orlando for the Eastern Conference title and they were at it -- already -- with the "Beat L.A.!" crap. None of those idiots is the least bit clairvoyant -- they can't stay sober long enough to think their way out of a paper bag -- so it was not only premature, it was unsportsmanlike.

It's Boston. I've learned not to expect any better.

I still remember thirty-four years ago -- as if it were yesterday -- how they dissed the Suns in the '76 finals. How they threw beer at our players, assaulted a ref, threatened players (while their useless cops stood by and did nothing), and even -- in one instance -- passed out, drunk, on a Phoenix TV announcer's lap.

All class, that crowd. The Lakers fans may be blase and spoiled, may show up at games in Phoenix sporting purple and bling and acting obnoxious, but at least they usually manage to do a tolerable impression of being human.

I'll NEVER root for an Eastern team over anybody from the West. Beat Boston!

Who knows how many more years Suns fans will have to wait for a title? My Mercury have done it twice in the last three years, and if they get the starch out of their undies, maybe they'll do it again this season.

However, there'll be no more early predictions from me...

Series Tied! Hahahahahaha!

I know, this is supposed to be a political blog. But I can't seem to help myself -- the Western Conference semifinals of the NBA is absorbing me. My Suns tied the series tonight at two games apiece. They will beat the evil Lakers yet!

Those who are telling me to back down on my prediction will not get their way. It may take the Suns seven games instead of six, but they will prevail over La-La Land's band of whiny, overpaid mercenaries.

Watching Phil Jackson sulk his way through the postgame press conference was priceless. Is it even possible for a Laker to respond graciously to a loss? According to those golden-suited princesses, we never beat them -- they only beat themselves.

After all the ignoramus busy-bodies from California babbling about Arizona's immigration law and how they want to boycott us, it will feel ESPECIALLY great to send them home whimpering this time. Maybe Princess Kobe will threaten to quit.

Or maybe we'll pull the plug on the electricity we send to the L.A. area. Twenty-five percent of it comes from Arizona. Let the precious little darlings sit in the dark and cry.

There -- I got politics into this post after all.

Now, back to sports. BEAT L-A...BEAT L.A...BEAT L.A.! All the way to the trophy for the Suns in 2010!

Suns Sweep Spurs!

The first week of the season, I made a prediction that sounded foolish at the time. I said the Phoenix Suns would win the NBA championship in 2010. Everybody told me how silly I was. Sure, they were off to a good start, but it was going to be a long season -- and after all, they were the SUNS.

I've been repeating that prediction all year long, and I'm certainly sticking by it now. The Suns just swept the dreaded San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals.

Yes, THOSE Spurs. The ones who've humiliated us in so many playoff contests. But this is our year.

We've got to get past the Lakers -- and they'll be a bigger challenge than the Spurs. But we're going to do it. This is our year.

Seeing the Suns finally win it all has been on the short list of things I want to live long enough to see for forty-one years, now. I was at the first Suns regular-season game ever played, back in 1968, as a first-grader. I remember nothing about the game except the way the program smelled, and the fact that I dropped my dolly, Miss Turkey, behind the seat in front of me (my dad had to climb all the way under the seat to rescue her). But all the same -- I was there!

What would really be sweet is if the Suns won it all over the Celtics -- the team that beat us in our first finals back in '76. We've already had payback-time over the Spurs, so let the theme continue!

People have laughed at my prediction all year long. But when it's over, I'll be the one doing the laughing.