COMING SOON

My first post in like a year! I've been hiding, growing, working, studying...

Ok, to sum it all up, I've been evolving. You know. That thing that we should all do.

I'll update you guys soon so hold tight!

Thought Provoking Tuesdays

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A Plead for Responsibility

So many Christian organizations such as this one, attempt to rationalize and somewhat weaken the ties of Christianity with slavery.

It really disheartens me to know that many Christians refuse to acknowledge the church's wrongful participation in and agitation of enslavement in the Americas.

Not only because I am an African American does it bother me, but as a Christian, it really builds walls of separation when one feels as though he/she cannot speak freely about the past atrocities committed with full honesty and understanding being reciprocated.

One thing that really got under my skin about the featured article , is the fact that this "Christian" organization dares to say that the European- Christian slave trade participation was not nearly as horrible due to the fact that, "While the European involvement in the Trans Atlantic slave trade to the Americas lasted for just over three centuries, the Arab involvement in the slave trade has lasted fourteen centuries, and in some parts of the Muslim world is still continuing to this day."

For those who may have a hard time detecting my sarcasm used frequently throughout this post, I've especially noted the corresponding comments!

Oh, and before I begin to think how horrible it is to see the results of the slave trade, I need to keep in mind that (sarcasm) "While the mortality rate for slaves being transported across the Atlantic was as high as 10%, the percentage of slaves dying in transit in the Trans Sahara and East African slave trade was between 80 and 90%!"

My ancestors had it made then, right? (sarcasm)

I almost forgot that all American black slaves were lucky because (sarcasm), "While almost all the slaves shipped across the Atlantic were for agricultural work, most of the slaves destined for the Muslim Middle East were for sexual exploitation as concubines, in harems, and for military service. "

What? Were African American slaves not sexual exploited, whores of their masters, did many black men not fight in a American wars that only liberated their masters?

Oh and then it goes on to say that, "While most slaves who went to the Americas could marry and have families, most of the male slaves destined for the Middle East were castrated, and most of the children born to the women were killed at birth."

I must have read it wrong many times when it was stated that many forms of punishment were executed on slaves such as the separation of loved ones, branding, whippings, lynchings, amputations, and dare I add castration (sarcasm)?

How more noble are the Christians than the Muslims (sarcasm)? Well according to the article, "While Christian Reformers spearheaded the anti-slavery abolitionist movements in Europe and North America, and Great Britain mobilised her Navy, throughout most of the 19th Century, to intercept slave ships and set the captives free, there was no comparable opposition to slavery within the Muslim world. "

Not only is the article an obvious and horrible display of intolerance and hatred towards the Islamic people, but it also shows how much in denial many self-proclaimed Christians are in regards to the issues and effects of slavery as with many other things I plan to discuss in the coming weeks.

I could quote so many things that are easy to refute from this article , but nothing boiled my blood more than the author attempting to show how slavery has pagan roots, therefore cutting its ties from Christianity completely.

What I find is that although it's true that forms of slavery were practiced in many ancient civilizations such as the Roman, Egyptians, Grecian, and Babylonian empires, Christianity not only adopted the customs, but revolutionized it.

How?

It added the factor of race as a mark of inferiority. Yes, slavery is ancient and has been cruel for centuries before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but it was usually initiated by war, or greed for power, wealth, and/or land.

I don't find it surprising that the same racial method of separation used on African American slaves was later modernized a bit and used against the Jewish people. Another catastrophe!

European and white-American powers had to devise a way to sustain slavery amongst so many "conscience"- driven people. By claiming blacks, indigenous Americans, etc. to be inferior to whites and needed to be "Christianized" and "taken care of", many were somehow "released" from the guilt of such obvious hypocrisy of the Christian faith. The worst of this is that church condoned it and saw to it that the message was interpreted in such a way that it could be stated as Biblical!

Even the great and oft quote Martin Luther King, only a few decades ago, had to beg white moderates, including Christian ministers, to rise to task of ending segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South and join the now- famous Civil Rights Movement in his letter from Birmingham Jail. Please read in its entirety if you haven't already. You can read it here.

In 2009, I am pleading with Christian leaders, organizations, bloggers, and such to please acknowledge the wrong and show exactly how responsible Christianity was to the extinction of numerous tribes and people!

Although it may be hard to swallow, Christians must still rise to the occasion of attacking this issue with full out honesty and remorse for the tragedy that it is. To me, it's not a wonder why so many people have very radical views and opinions against Christians and their moral beliefs when some Christians still to this day try and rationalize Christian involvement in the slave trade and involuntary conversion of many people in America amongst many other questionable topics. Many others just ignore it all together.

The real irony of the featured article though, is that the magazine is based in South Africa.

Think about it!

Maya

Spring Cleaning

My spring cleaning relates more to the clutter in my head, rather than my house. I don't know about you guys, but it's so easy for me to cloud my head with so many dreams, ideas, and notions.

Last week, I made a decision to drop two classes I was taking; I had already complete 2 this semester and still have one that I attend on Monday and Wednesday evenings. I'm telling you, I was beginning to forget my own name!

Anyway, I must say that relieving myself of some of the pressure of finishing school before Princess P is 5 has really lightened the weight on my head!

My God, I would go through this long list of what ifs, and what did I forget, and Oh man, I still have two more chapters to read...

It was crazy.

I'm still learning to pace myself with this whole wife/mom/teacher/daughter/sister/friend/employee/student/sane-type-o-woman deal.

Pray for me guys! I'll write a more thoughtful post when my time and my thoughts finally align!

:)

Update: School and Working

As most of you may know, this blog is my spiritual and physical journey to homemaking and homeschooling. So get ready to ramble...


Weekly my daughter and I take a trip to the local library (my constant reminder that not all social government programs are bad!) and I started to explore the many resources of home skills available with just a swipe of my library card. It got me to thinking of how much stuff I could be learning for practically nothing if only I had the time.

Time-what a sweet and rare commodity these days! I feel so bad when my daughter cries for me to stay home with her when I leave for class right after finishing a 9-hr day at work; it all breaks my heart, yet I'm in no position to make any drastic changes now, nor is my husband.

I know it can be a lot of pressure on him and I completely understand his logic in approaching this situation of homemaking/homeschooling. To be quite honest, we both desire a lifestyle that at this point requires both of our income. I'm just struggling to strike the balance of supporting my husband and staying on top of my other obligations. Only now do I understand that homekeeping is much more than maintaining chores and baking fresh bread (no offense); it's creating regimine that edifies your husband and family as unto the Lord. It's not necessarily what all you accomplish each day, but what your motives are for juggling several competing tasks. After re-reading Proverbs 31 and 2 Tim, I've come to the conclusion that overall our priority should be to provide the best life for our loved ones; we are to be a Godly example through our tenderness, compassion, devotion, and constant sacrifice. It's not necessarily about going to whether or not I should go to work, but rather know why I'm going to work whether or not I am using my earned income to support my husband's role. My income should not be made solely to adorn myself in the latest fashions, jet set on girls-only vacations to Vegas, or flaunt my wages in my husband's face to bring him shame. Yet to show support to him by maybe absorbing the cost of our health or car insurance, paying for those tiny utilities we "need" like cell phones, internet, and cable. Perhaps I choose to work so that we can take a family vacation every two years. I've got my reasons at this point, but for the future, as our daughter gets older, we will really need to re-establish what our motives for my earned income will be for.
I also must admit that I've grown more flexible with the homeschooling thing. It's still the primary form of education we want to use for our children, but not the only. I'll discuss that later.I warned you that through my process, I'll be changing. I think that marks a geunitiy of someone really striving to get it as close to right as possible.


I believe my current state of frustration has been the clash of morals I constantly confront in my studies. School has been so frustrating, particularly English, because it constantly challenges my moral and idealistic views. I'm flexible, but sometimes it's overwhelming to constantly defend myself and beliefs against the whole class on issues of feminism, gun control, marriage, etc. Professors toss their opinions around as truth and any challenge just makes me have to work harder for a decent grade on a class that I pay for! It's absurd! This constant bombardment of oppositional views have really weighed heavy on my heart and more recently has caused me to hide myself from the world of homemaking. I've noticed my house has not been cleaned as it should-dishes stay in the sink for days at a time, I haven't cooked in at least of week nor made lunch, and let's not even talk about paying attention to myself physically! I've fallen into this abyss of "what to do?". This sememster, thankfully so, is almost over. I think I need to go back to the drawing board and examine how many classes I can take. In fact, I really abhor the academic freedom that professor have, because they can choose to give you as much or as little work as they fancy; you never really know what your workload will be like until you sign up for the class. There's always the option of dropping, but new laws have just been put in place in my state that students will acquire more fees if they've dropped classes more than 6 times.

On a lighter note-the family enjoyed watching Fiddler on The Roof this past weekend as a string of storms hung over our city. It reminded me that I must stay optimistic even in the most dire of situations. I'm truly in awe of those of you who are have a heart after God's desire for the woman and who follow that as best you know how whole-heartily and with earnest intentions. God bless you all!

In need of some inspirational wisdom...

Controversial Series: Divorce

Let me just start this series by stating that this is not solely about our moral beliefs. Although it's impossible to completely detach the two, I would like for us to dig deeper to sort through some of the toughest issues at hand and how we feel the GOVERNMENT should respond. In contrast to the sort of whining about our administration we've all been guilty of at some point in time, I thought it would different and refreshing to submit well-thought proposals and/or resolutions on the issues that plague every home, regardless of race, social status, sex, religion, political party affiliation, etc. Plus, this can be a great critical thinking and writing exercise for anyone with teenage kids! Now, let's begin...

First read this article and then return here to read my thoughts. Then chime in on how you feel the GOVERNMENT should play a role in response to article; please don't forget to provide some form of a solution. Thanks!


My Response:

I believe that the era of Romanticism gave birth to the "ideal marriage" and since then our society has idolized the power of emotions. In acknowledging that, we can see how it has complicated things, especially for lawmakers.

When you teach a baby that it's ok to cry when they feel pain, to laugh when they're elated, and that love is a feeling rather than an act, it can be rather hard to enforce regulations that undermine that very principal. We're not taught in this day and age that acting on our emotions is selfish; we're taught that it may be irresponsible and can show signs of naivity, but nonetheless, our society was built and thrives today on the prinicpal of "freedom" and "natural laws".

Ok, so let me relate this all. Our society, following many ideals of Romanticism, is empowered with the belief of absolute "freedom". Not many will be quite interested in giving up their "freedom" for new "chains", so to speak.

Warner's article gave suggestions on how lawmakers could possible curb the amount of divorces with cases with children being especially targeted, but I believe that any changes like that will only result in less marriages, but not necessarily healthier and more psychologically sound kids.
The root of the problem is not really what needs to be in place to curb divorce, but rather why are people more so feeling the urge to get divorced instead of staying married? Can our society begin to limit the power of emotions and begin to teach the new generation about the responsibility and consequences of emotional judgement ?

Kids who are left broken from divorced parents tend to be that way when emotions are conveyed inappropriately and/or someone forgoed their responsibilities; I don't believe the act of divorce itself is what psychologically disturbs involved children. I am a product of a single-parent home and I can say that my outlook and difficulties with marriage are no different than those of my counterparts who came from two-parent, married households.

Bottom line, as long as we are taught to act upon our emotions and to praise and exalt the way we feel, someone will always get the short end of the stick. Divorce is usually a result of emotions, and frankly, laws don't necessarily keep people from acting on their emotions. Until then, the future of a high divorce rate seem more probable than not. This obession with how we feel and our wreckless ways of responding to our emotions is where we've been miseducated. I think we should focus more on shredding this image of the "ideal marriage" that is so often perpetuated through movies, songs, talk shows, soap operas, novels, celebrities, etc.

We should want people to be more realistic going in so that if counseling is necessary, it's done with a voluntary motive, not because the government feels it's their role to reestablish the sanctity of marriage. THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE CREATER OF MARRIAGE, NOR SHOULD EXERCISE THE RIGHT TO DEFINE IT. It's the heart and perception of man that needs to be changed and I just don't see that happening anytime soon in this day and age.

Can I Be Honest For A Moment...

I find it really hard for many to relate to me, my blog, my conversation for long because I MUST be honest. Sometimes honesty isn't the best thing to say, so I try to choose the nicest words, but it never fails that someone is disenchanted by my thoughts expressed.

The reason why I haven't posted anything for so long, assuming there's anyone wondering, is that I find many bloggers to be very condecending, unrealstic, extemist, and judgemental. While I can appreciate the rhetoric of housekeeping, homeschooling, etc. I think it's just as important for us women who are avid "enlightners" of the such to keep it real. Life is so much more than just the same two topics many want to beat with a hammer weekly.

If you're having a hard time following how I feel about self righteousness, check out this post.

I hope I am being clear that not everyone in blogland is how I just described, but I do feel as though I am part of the minority here. Really, I enjoy reading varied opinions, but without pride and haughtiness I find more often than not . I am really contemplating on terminating my account. There's just little room for a third p.o.v. You're either one extreme or the other. Anything in between is just straddling the fence; how absurd!

I'm just wanting to connect with other mothers/wives who believe in a balance as I do.

If you're out there...

I will return...

I've taken a break from the world of blogging, but once I get my thoughts together I promise to make it up to you all.

Until then, God bless and keep blogging!