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Category Archives: politics
And now a prayer…
Quote
I am typing one-handed at the moment because I have a kitty purring under my chin. She is watching my fingers move on the keyboard. She seems fascinated with the workings of humans and their machinery. She is keeping me sane.
And now a prayer: Please, Love, give me courage. Fill my heart with kindness and hope. Help me nurture what is good in the world. Help me heal what is not.
Amen.
Separating the “Fake” from the True
I’ve been thinking a lot about “communication” – how I can do it better; how I can recognize true communication from “fake” – and this quote from Science and Health (by Mary Baker Eddy) has been helpful to me: “The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man.” I’m trying to know that nothing can stop God’s communication (the only real communication) to us; that none of us is outside the reach of God’s communication; and that we’re all – each and every beautiful one of us – receptive to Truth.
“Come now, and let us reason together.” (Isaiah 1:18) “Fake news” isn’t just the news we don’t happen to like, and “facts” aren’t just opinions that we happen to agree with. I know that all of us, as the reflections of Mind and Truth, have the ability to reason and recognize the false from the true. And no one individual is closer to Truth than anyone else.
Not even me. 🙂
– Karen
This is Not Hearsay
Note: When someone admits, on national television, that he tried to get favors from foreign governments – that is a primary source – that is not “hearsay.”
Just thought I should point that out. In case anyone was wondering.
Alrighty. Carry on then.
Coming to the Surface to be Healed
I think there are things coming to the surface right now that need to come to the surface. And no – it’s not just about Trump – in the last few years I’ve seen corruption exposed in both of the major parties, and in big corporations, health insurance, and the way we’ve treated our environment, women, and minorities. I’m grateful it’s coming to the surface so we can correct it, but it sure ain’t pretty to behold.
I want to add this: I’ve also witnessed a reverse kind of bigotry – directed towards people who happen to be white, straight, and male. I think we need to be careful not to get sucked into that kind of bigotry, either. There’s a lot of self-righteousness and puffed-up indignation coming from both sides. I find myself doing it, too. I’m trying to be conscious and self-aware. I’m trying to be grateful for those times when my own flaws and foibles come to the surface. But it ain’t always easy to admit to them. Ego does not like to be shown it’s wrong.
I’m thinking we’re all dealing with our own nonsense – each and every one of us. Let’s give each other grace. We’re all in this together.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
“Ignorance, subtlety, or false charity does not forever conceal error; evil will in time disclose and punish itself.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
“A sinner is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality… A sinner is afraid to cast the first stone. He may say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal, but to know it, he must demonstrate his statement. To assume that there are no claims of evil and yet to indulge them, is a moral offence. Blindness and self-righteousness cling fast to iniquity.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
For there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.
– Matthew 10:26
“Trust.”
Quote
Revisiting this one from 2016. This experience I had on the night of the presidential election has kept me going for the last three years…
Trust
Taking the dog for a walk,
the shooting star got my
attention when it flew across
the heavens on the evening
of November eighth. I stopped
in my tracks, looking skyward,
alert now, and the voice said,
“Trust. Everything is happening
as it needs to happen.
Don’t be afraid. Trust.”
And crap. I knew then. I knew
who’d won the election – why
else would I need to be reassured?
I went inside. And saw my fears
confirmed. And felt weirdly
stilled inside. Holding on
to that message: “Trust.”
The voice didn’t say what was to come
would be easy, or without struggle
or challenge. It didn’t provide
details of how, where, when or why.
It just said, “Don’t be afraid. Trust.”
And the earth rises now.
Thirsty for Truth. Joining in Love.
Crying for justice.
In the streets. From the rooftops.
Through the wires of computers
across the world.
“Everything is happening
as it needs to happen.
Trust,” said the voice of Love.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
via “Trust.”
God Doesn’t Need Evil to Accomplish Good
To my fellow Christians –
If you are under the belief that God needs lies, dishonesty, and concealing the truth to accomplish His will then I believe you sorely underestimate God. If you believe that God allows corruption, hypocrisy, misogyny, racism, greed, bigotry, bullying, mocking the handicapped, inequity, injustice, greed, bribery, and extortion in order to bring “salvation” to our nation – then I believe you are missing, entirely, the whole point, the fundamental message of the Christ – “love your neighbor” – “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” – “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” – “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me” – “behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
The God I worship doesn’t need the help of evil to accomplish Her will.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
“…on earth peace, good will toward all.”
Rejoicing in the Truth
It seems to me that – whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican – you’d want an opportunity for the truth to be revealed, right? Who wouldn’t want that? The truth can prove guilt OR innocence. It seems to me the only people who wouldn’t want an opportunity for the truth to be revealed would be those people who believe someone is guilty and want to hide that.
“Love does not rejoice in evil but rejoices with the truth.”
– I Corinthians 13:6
“…he who loves will love Truth not less than men. He will rejoice in the Truth—rejoice not in what he has been taught to believe; not in this church’s doctrine or in that; not in this ism or in that ism; but ‘in the Truth.’ He will accept only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for Truth with a humble and unbiased mind, and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice.”
– Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World
This Has Been Bothering Me for Three Years
Here’s a letter I wrote to The Seattle Times back in 2016:
My eighty-nine year-old mom just called me in a panic. She wanted to know if we’re “all going crazy.” I asked her what was up. She said she’d just heard that “they” were going to get rid of Medicare. I asked her where she heard this, and she said on the news. I told her to turn the news off right now. She said she would, and we bid each other good night.
Eighty-nine year-old mothers are allowed to turn the news off and go to bed. I wish I was.
And ARE we all going crazy?! What has happened to the nation I love?
Karen Molenaar Terrell
***
And here’s how the letter appear when it got published in The Seattle Times.
News Creating Medicare Panic?
My eighty-nine year-old mom just called me in a panic. She wanted to know if we’re “all going crazy.” I asked her what was up. She said she’d just heard that “they” were going to get rid of Medicare. I asked her where she heard this, and she said on the news. I told her to turn the news off right now. She said she would, and we bid each other good night. Are we all going crazy?! What has happened to the nation I love?
Karen Molenaar Terrell
***
You see what happened there? Yeah. That’s been bothering me for three years. I figured it was time to say something.
Moving on…
The Worst in Us
My letter was published online in The Seattle Times today. Click here.
Karen Molenaar Terrell
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 