Truthiness: The Easy Way Out

Truthiness, a term coined by Stephen Colbert, is defined by Wiikipedia as "a quality characterizing a 'truth' that a person making an argument or assertion claims to know intuitively 'from the gut' or because it 'feels right' without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts."

Read the original editorial at (http://www.episcopalcafe.com/handling-the-truth/) The Episcopal Cafe.

A church in my neighborhood is trying, with some difficulty, to get to the truth of this same topic of who is welcome, how we define them, how we can accept everything the modern world throws at us, simply through discussions and the reading of the scriptures, Old and New Testament.

Others have banded together to form new churches based on truthiness alone. "We don't feel as if any of this is right for 'us' and we will fight by flight - refusing to debate except on the podium of truthiness first and foremost."

It's simple to me. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

Wherein You Learn of the Five Baby Orphaned Kittens

Birds singing love songs from tree to tree. Boys out walking their Woofer dogs through the woods. Every one of US on the porch, napping.

Kitties don't know huge dog threat from anything, but Belle does. So do the 50 Canadian geese having a lazy day on the lake. Belle and I woke up at the sound of the barking and goose-type danger screeches and she headed inside but had to pass all five sleeping kittens to get through the door. 

"The best thing to do," she thought, "is to wake them with a loud warning hiss." It worked for sure. Five startled kittens jumped up from a dead sleep to red-flag-alert mode. "Hiss'" they replied right back to Belle as they bowed their backs in Halloween mode. Then, in one body, they curled back up and returned to dreamland. Belle finally stepped over them on her way to safety.

Quiet again. One little yippie dog out there somewhere. Oh, no. Woofer dogs have attacked yippie dog. Bedlam and mayhem. Maybe Belle was right. Whole neighborhood is barking now. Kittens sleeping.

A Few Things Done Extremely Well

The Healthy Churches' Handbook: A Process for Revitalizing Your Church by Robert Warren
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I borrowed this paperback from a Methodist Church. I visit churches besides my own a lot. I guess you could say that I'm still looking for my perfect fit. The group that can compete with my solitary Sunday morning garden and with the Papal and other Masses I watch on television.

There is a lot to like about so many of the churches I have attended in Tallahassee. Or not. Lately, I've been feeling edgy.

When I got a chance to borrow this book, I took it. I know what my own problem is. I like a very traditional worship service (leaning towards Catholic) with a liberal philosophy (definitely Episcopal ) with Baptist and Methodist hymns (from my childhood)- simple churches which don't have so much on their agendas that you can't possibly partake and still have a life with your family and yourself.

The Handbook, of course, was written for the use of the church and not for my use unless I was heavily into the administration of a specific group which I am not. It's an Episcopal missive by Canon Robert Warren, used by the churches of Scotland and England to assess the health of their churches. And to mend them.

I found a quote from The Healthy Churches' Handbook in my own Episcopal church bulletin this month. It was the list of the "7 Marks of a Healthy Parish," including the number 7 - the very thing that has produced this edginess in me personally. I like it so much that I'm thinking about making it my personal motto as well.

Number 7 says that the healthy church "does a few things and does them well." Approaching an older age, I need to make this my missive. I want to do fewer things now and do them better. Same with a healthy church. The energy should be used on what works. Then to make those things work very well indeed.

Pisgah Methodist Church, Tallahassee Florida. A few things done very well. 

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