The seven deadly virtues, those ghastly little traps
Oh no, my liege, they were not meant for me
Those seven deadly virtues were made for other chaps
Who love a life of failure and ennui
Closing the Courthouse rather than accepting a late appeal in a capital case, after equipment failure?
The highest criminal court judge in Texas failed to disclose nearly $2 million in real estate holdings and claimed it would be "financially ruinous" to pay lawyers to fight misconduct charges that could get her removed from the bench.
Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is seeking dismissal of charges by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct that she violated her duties in a death penalty case.
I realize most Americans are so tired of Texas Republicans they just tune out to what goes on down here. But this time your federal tax dollars are involved. San Francisco? Boston? Madison? Philadelphia? Do you think you should fund voter suppression or intimidation in Texas. Our Republican Senate assumes you won't mind at all.
The Republicans in the Texas Senate today amended their pet project, you know the one so important the Senate Rules had to be changed to insure a win in the Senate - Voter Intimidation with a Smile, or as I like to call it the Granny Get Your Gun Act.
I cannot imagine the horror and pain the residents of the residents of the shelter operated by Seed Sowers Christians in Action in Paris, Texas, felt as they fled the early morning fire which engulfed their shelter into the icy, frozen rain of the streets.
As our society retrenches with the fall of our economy we cannot forget those already living on the edge. I hope this event, coupled with the death of Jennifer Gale on the steps of the church where she slept in Austin last month, will serve as a clarion call. Jennifer was unable to find a shelter in Austin where she could be accepted as a transgendered person.
Just like Steve Jobs made iPods for fun. Well Apples had something to do with both, I guess.
Some of you understand this really is breaking news, but in theological time that is measured by millenia, so the tag would have been unrealistic.
Apparently in a sermon entitled "Gay is Not OK" delivered last Sunday Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas made the following points:
1. God made sex for fun;
2. Steve Jobs is like God because he made iPods
3. The FBC Pastor plugged his new iPod into the wrong outlet so it fried.
4. Whoever plugs his sexual equipment into the wrong outlet will fry just like the iPod
Remember, if God had wanted us to vote Republican, He would have ridden into Jerusalem on an elephant.
Today, I pray for Senator Obama and his family and community of faith. Much has been said of Pastor Wright, and much more will be said. I want to say I respect him and his ministry, especially his call for a social justice ministry by example - by deeds rather than by words.
Grace and Peace to this pastor, and to the church and its people, and to the Obama family, whose lives, faith and hopes are entwined and invested in this church.
Thanks be to Pastor Wright for helping me to see God's image in a shade of the rainbow other than the ones I reflect. And respect.
