We’re promised typical August weather this coming week, warm in the mid to upper 80s, but thankfully the nights will be cooler, mid 60s. Windows open for the breeze with those temperatures. We’re far more fortunate than the southwest and central part of the country – so far.
We shudder at the stories from Maui, families being sked to provide DNA samples for bodies burned beyond recognition. The very thought of dying by fire sends a chill into our spines. Women presumed to be witches and heretics were burned at the stake to the point where nothing was left to be buried.
We, theoretically being more civilized, use other ways to contain those suspected of heresy – librarians, teachers, scholars. Death threats on the internet, including to the children of supposed heretics, have made many teachers and librarians resign. That’s what the new moralists want: no dissent, no tolerance or acceptance of the different, just a return to an imagined past that never existed.
Prayer for the Day
Fill our fearful hearts with a faith that transforms lives
Bringing us into your presence by caring for one another;
Free us from old fears that dampen our spirits,
Expanding our vision of what you are and what we can be So we walk in your ways of justice and righteousness;
Sharing the vision of a better world for all.
In the name of the One who has opens to us a new world,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. You just get people to stop reading them.
- Ray Bradbury, American novelist (1920-2012)
I touch the future. I teach.
- Christa McAuliffe, teacher, died when Challenger exploded (1948-1986)
For fear is nothing but a giving up of the helps that come from reason;
And hope, defeated by this inward weakness,
Prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.
The Wisdom of Solomon 17: 12-13