Occasionally I Think

"Lucien Black," grandson of an Apostolic Lutheran pastor, has a blog describing his journey from faith to atheism. I thought he raised some interesting questions about the Genesis creation / fall story and its implications on the nature of God as depicted through a biblical literalist interpretation of the Bible.

from Why I'm an athiest

First off, one should know that I come from a very religious background. My grandfather has been an Apostolic Lutheran pastor for my entire life, and my mother became "born-again" at some point after getting pregnant. When I was a child, the family would play "Bible Trivia," and I kicked butt because I enjoyed me some Bible stories.

Around about the seventh grade, I started thinking, and one thing that kept going through my head is that the deck was stacked against humanity from the start, if one believed the book of Genesis. God was omnipotent and omniscient, so he knew exactly what sort of creation he'd made, and the consequences thereof. So, here's Adam and Eve, with one rule to follow: don't eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. What follows is well known of course, the "Fall of Man." What got me though is that God should've, indeed must have, seen it coming from the very start, and took no steps to prevent it. There are many that could've been done: don't let Satan in the garden, don't make the bloody Tree, make sure Adam and Eve really are obedient and not prone to disobeying just cuz of a few honeyed words, just to name a few.

Does anyone else remember playing Bible Trivia? I was not the best player, although I could hold my own against most. :-) I was pretty good at New Testament and Pentateuch, but major and minor prophets could stump me pretty easily.

On a more serious note, Lucien illuminates an issue that I think is common with people who leave their original faith for a new formulation of the faith, or even no faith at all. The stories or the meanings behind the stories no longer "make sense."

Still Learning After All These Years

Despite how long I've been "learning to live free," (32 years) there is always more to learn. I think I have things fairly balanced and life is going along swimmingly, and every day I'm counting my blessings and feeling hopeful for a happy future, and then BANG, I hit a rough patch and question whether I've ever healed since leaving the OALC. The trigger this time is a rough patch at work. I'm finding it hard to sleep. No appetite.

Plus, a BIG birthday looming in a few weeks. I've been feeling sorry for myself, and rather entitled to a midlife crisis.

Thank goodness I checked for comments on this site -- which I started so many years ago as a way to deal with all my Laestadian angst. (Yes, the blog that has become less and less active, but is nonetheless dear to my heart.) Reading the latest comments, I began to laugh. This is the first time I've laughed in weeks and it felt like it cleared my head. Thanks to all of you but especially krissy/jaydamae, for sharing her strength & spirit & spunk. For making me laugh with joy.

Agree, disagree, whatever. Just get it out there. Share your authentic self. Because when you tell the truth about your life, you help others live more authentically.

I can't regret my Laestadian past when I see that LEAVING gave me the confidence to question everyone and everything. This is a value I'm trying to teach my kids. That, and pulla skills.

What strengths did you gain from Laestadianism that you are now sharing with others?

Laestadian Women Sharing Wisdom

A friend sent me this link to a site called Prime On A Dime, apparently written by Laestadian women in Battle Ground, Washington. It features cost-saving advice for homemakers. While you can (and frankly, you should) question the nutritive value of the recipes, it is entirely wholesome that these women are sharing their skills with "the world," not just those in a like-minded community.

I might even try making my own (phosphate-free) laundry soap.

In this economy, I think we will find modern twists on taking in wash or boarders (as my grandmother did to make it through hard times). After seeing advertising on the website above, I decided to try it here. Let me know what you think. I've written this blog for many years now, and it hadn't occurred to me to make it a source of income. But hey, times are tough!

"I'm a Finnish guy . . . "

By googling "Laestadian," I discovered a new blog called Trying to Live Free (hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) that was started last December, apparently by a Finnish guy seeking pen pals. His first post:

I´m a Finnish guy. My English skills are limited. My backround is SRK (in America LLC).I want to share experiences with others, who have left the LLC or other Laestadian brances.I haven´t lose my faith, and I often notise myself think like laestadians. I have visited in America 5 times in my life. I know the culture and love America.

I´d like to get American friends more, despite in witch Laestadian branch.

Go visit his blog and say terve! Unfortunately I can't seem to post a link, so you'll have to google it.

http://eudokimos-tryingtolivefree.blogspot.com/

Technical Problems

Regrettably (or happily, depending on your views), users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are not able to see much of this site. In fact, if you are using IE, this is probably the only post you are able to read.

Please consider using Mozilla Firefox or another Linux-based browser. You can download Firefox for free here.

I've been told by techie friends that: (1) Internet Explorer is evil and (2) the alternatives are more stable, more secure, and more fun (lots of extensions, themes, and add-ons). So there you have it.

I've also been told that migrating this site over to Wordpress would be a good idea, but the very thought exhausts me. Maybe when the kids are off to college and I'm staring at an empty nest, in about 10 years.

Meanwhile, if you have any low-energy clues for how to improve the site, let me know.

UPDATE: My bad. Cheeks red. Turns out I mangled some "span class" code halfway through Friday's post. Thanks for the clue, Anonymous; it was a very low-energy fix :-)

Slow-Rising Blog

Hello friends. My apologies for the confusion over the shutdown. I had some difficulty managing my different blog and email accounts, and then vacation got in the way, and then, well, maybe a little inertia. Okay, a lot of inertia. Why? I dunno. I guess I'm bored silly by Laestadianism and religion as topics. I find myself increasingly distressed and distracted by world events, and eager to align my daily life -- my tiny sphere of influence -- with my values.

I'm not sure where this blog fits in.

But since "community-building" is one of my core values / hobby horses / compensating behaviors (pick one), I'll keep blathering away.

What's new with you? I just finished reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, and highly recommend it. What a vivid depiction of life behind the veil. You will find it difficult to think in stereotypes about Afghanistan and Muslims after reading this.

In the past few months, I joined a group of neighbors in bringing a farmers market to our hood. It has been incredibly rewarding. Not just for the glorious variety of fruits and veggies, but the event itself. In Bill McKibbon's "Deep Economy," he cites a study showing that there are 10 times the number of conversations at farmers markets versus grocery stores. Indeed, ours is a royal jabberfest, with the cental aisle so clogged with conversations at times that snits have snitted (can you DO something about those people who just STAND there and TALK while I'm trying to buy my PARSNIPS and get OUT?! Erm, no, We. Encourage. That kind of thing.)

At last week's market, I ran into an old friend, someone who danced at our wedding and lives just blocks away, but somehow, I'm ashamed to say, fell off the face of the earth when our kids were born (hers are older). She has aged so much in 10 years that I barely recognized her! No doubt she was thinking the same thing about me.

As they say, time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

So what's up with you?

Juletomte to the Rescue

Hi friends! Thanks to Tomte, who may in fact be Juletomte, I am back to blogging. No sooner did I kvetch about my computer loss than he mailed me a little Dell that happened to be "gathering dust" around his um, workshop. (Apparently reindeer prefer Apples?) My Powerbook is in California somewhere getting data extracted, and when it returns, my warranty will recover its replacement. After which, I pledge to be a good citizen and back up regularly. One very expensive lesson learned.

Nonetheless, I am feeling very grateful these days, to Tomte (who also gifted us with "recent comments" and the Label CLoud and the new search box) and to all you regulars and newcomers, who have made for some exciting catch-up reading. Wow. You are doing such a great job of welcoming new voices and respectfully asking and answering questions. This feels like a true community, doesn't it? Who'd a thunk?

Recently a cousin in the OALC phoned me and asked if I was "free2bme." I confessed. She had heard rumors about this site and they were personal and derogatory, to put it mildly. This saddened me. I hope that she is comforted by the fact that we are not slandering people here. I welcome anyone to post comments. I expect others' experiences to be different than mine (my cousin's family does not, for example, practice shunning). But I will continue to publicly reject a doctrine that I consider false and harmful.

And sometimes just unsavory. I was tempted to hit the delete button when I read OALCer's post with the "breast" Laestadianisms, but decided it is better to leave it all on here. Readers can weigh the tone and content of all the various messages, and draw their own conclusions.

Now, as for searching the archives, doesn't the search box work for this? I will try it and report back.