FUN'S FUN, NOW BACK TO WORK

Okay, truth be told. It ain't easy being green, like the famous faux frog sez. Lived on the Left most of what passes for an adult life- more than 30 years now, and counting. Practiced my Catholic faith for longer than that - despite feeling a great deal of angst, anger, frustration - indeed rage, at the so-called "leaders" of the Religion, for their acts and omissions over the period of time that happens to coincide with LOSTs lifetime. Still, felt that enough about the faith - particularly the importance of works and faith, Matthew 25, and the "two greatest commandments" - were worth passing on to the next generation that we incorporated same into our child raising efforts. Along with that effort has been to acknowledge that all people are creations of the creator - irrespective of color, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.

It just gets a little sickening to be part of the progressive "movement" and yet at times feel every bit as much an outsider as LOST would be at a Concerned Women for America Rally. All Progressive/Liberal folks are not atheist. That also doesn't mean that all progressives with a Faith think less of any atheist or agnostics. Well, maybe the agnostics. After all, they are, to paraphrase Dante, preserving their neutrality in times of moral crisis.

At Saturday night Mass this past week, our visiting presider spoke of the gospel reading which contained the fairly straightforward "I am the way, the truth, and the Life" passage, and effectively turned it upon its ear. That is to say, he dared, in a very conservative venue (these are red-State wannabes, most of 'em) that the meaning of that passage isn't the requirement to accept a Personal Savior as the key to salvation but to believe in the works of the Savior. In that one bit of oratory, this admittedly flawed old man acknowledged that the goal was to try to "right wrongs that one sees," to "sow love where one sees hatred," and to bring "joy to those in sorrow." There is nothing wrong with those sentiments. They are, in plain fact, a call to act by the Golden Rule, which itself devolves from New Testament scripture, and is as altruistic, and as laudable a goal as anything the Progressive/liberal element in American society has ever advocated.

So can the left grow up - just a bit, at least - and acknowledge room in its decidedly bigger-than-the-alternative-element's "tent," for progressive/liberal folks who still work to practice a Faith in a higher power, an unmoved mover who supports a Greater Good? It's not too much to ask.