Category Archives: politics

“We keep each other on our toes.”

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“There are Democrat Christian Scientists and Republican Christian Scientists, ‘Green,’ and ‘Red,’ and ‘Blue’ Christian Scientists, and Christian Scientists with no political affiliations at all. Frankly, I like that about us. We keep each other on our toes.”
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist

A few years ago when my newly-graduated son was living with us while he looked for engineering jobs, he helped me set up a highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art recording studio (a set of Logitech headphones and the recording program on my husband’s Mac) so I could make an audiobook of Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist. It was an adventure, for sure. I do not believe I could have pulled it off without the son’s patience and technological support.

If you go to the link highlighted in blue above or click > here < – it should take you to my audiobook on Amazon. If you click the little arrow that says “Audible Sample” you’ll hear me reading the introduction to Blessings. Among other things you will hear me wax philosophical about Christian Scientists and their political affiliations.

And I was going to write a whole bunch of stuff about Christian Scientists and their political affiliations here, but I find I don’t wanna. 🙂 I want to go eat breakfast now and take a nice walk – it looks like it might be drizzling again out there, which is always fun. So I’ll just leave you with the audible sample to do with as you choose and wish you a wonderful day full of blessings and hope and kindness and progress and everything good.

audible blessings

Message to My Senators

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“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good. ”
– Mary Baker Eddy

Message to the esteemed Senators from Washington State, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell:

Regarding the proposed budgets for Education and Health Care –

I know you will stand, as you always have, with the poor, sick, disenfranchised, and struggling. I know you will do what you need to do to help our young people receive the education that will make their lives, and our world, better. I know you will do what you need to do to ensure that health care is affordable and accessible to all our citizens.

And I thank you for that. I am grateful to live in Washington State and to be represented by you in Washington, DC.

Karen Molenaar Terrell

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
– James 1: 27

Thinking for Ourselves

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Several folks have now shared the opinion that we should stop reading the news and “think for ourselves.” And… a few things:

1) The fact that several folks have parroted the almost exact same words about “thinking for ourselves” leads me to believe that they are not actually thinking for themselves, themselves.

2) “Thinking for ourselves” shouldn’t just mean making up “facts” as we go along, or pulling “the truth” out of our kiesters. To really “think for yourself” you have to be informed and knowledgeable.

3) It doesn’t take any special kind of talent to spout off a bunch of opinions – anyone can do that. To really be a thinker, you need to be able to separate opinions from facts. And to separate opinions from facts, you need to have some facts to separate the opinions from. And where do we get our facts? Well… by reading the news, right? And not by reading just one news source (one news source could easily be biased) – but by reading multiple sources. And not just by reading the editorials – which are, by definition, opinion pieces – but by reading actual news stories.

Okay. That’s all I’ve got right now. Carry on then…

“The time for thinkers has come.” –
Mary Baker Eddy

Thuggery, Thaggery, Thiggery Thoo

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Thuggery, thaggery, thiggery thoo
United unites us – the me and the you
Trumpery, trimpery, trippery trap
our corporate politicians are waking us
up from our nap
People-power, priorities pivot,
praise for kindness, boycott the bigot
Words are fine, speeches are cool,
but it’s time now to live it,
time now to pool
our resources of wisdom, talent, and heart.
time to stand up and do our part.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

If it doesn’t come from Truth…

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come-from-truth

A Hat with Cat Ears

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Note: This is me in my pussy hat. It is a hat with cat ears. It was knitted for me by an 80-something year-old woman who lives in my mom and dad’s assisted living place. She knitted me this hat so she could be part of the march. There was nothing vulgar about this hat. No, I did not wear a knitted vagina on my head.

That is all. Carry on then…

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Karen in her Pussy Hat

Coming Together for America

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So we have hunters uniting to save public lands, people coming together at airports to show their support for Muslim refugees, women marching in the streets for equality and justice, teachers calling their legislators to insist on being represented by a Secretary of Education who actually respects public education, National Park Service employees and EPA employees going around a gag order and using their First Amendment rights to keep the public informed, veterans rallying with the Native Americans to protect our water, scientists planning a march for the environment, Evangelical Christians picketing outside the National Prayer Breakfast on behalf of the refugees – and today I passed some folks on the street corner who were holding signs in favor of the Affordable Care Act… I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime – this is what democracy looks like – this is America!

AND we’re talking non-violent resistance here. There was no violence and there were no arrests during the women’s march – and that’s now estimated at more than 4 million people in the U.S. alone. No violence has been used by the National Park Service and Environmental Protection Agency to go around the presidential gag order – just wiles and wit. The Native Americans and veterans have had violence shown against them – but they have not resorted to violence themselves. The hunters didn’t resort to violence to protect public lands…

“… oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon’s mouth. Love is the liberator.” – Mary Baker Eddy

“I have discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“What if instead of resistance…we call it THE INSISTENCE? You all are clever enough to know what I mean. That is what I’m calling it now: The Insistence on protecting the vulnerable, teaching our children properly, standing up for justice, eliminating hate, bigotry , and greed….”
– Sharon Strong

To My Superhero Friends

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My dear Humoristian hooligan heroes,

I am inspired by you. Your humor, your courage, you ability to “lol” in the face of threats and intimidation, your willingness to stand up to bullies and bigots without a second’s thought – you are the stuff of Superhero legend. Maybe your arms can’t stretch like rubber, and you can’t burn through metal with your steely gaze – but you’ve got better gifts than those – unstoppable courage, irrepressible joy, pugnacious good humor, and hearts full of love for humanity. Bless you, dear friends. I’m so glad to know each and every precious one of you.

Let’s go out there and save the world!  
Karen

Is this appropriate?

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My study of Christian Science has informed every aspect of who I am – it’s had an influence on my family relationships, friendships, career, art, adventures, and politics. I can’t separate Christian Science from any part of me – I can’t compartmentalize it into some box called “religion” and only bring it out on Sundays and occasional holidays, and those times when I might be in need of healing..

When I share my blog posts, I am only speaking for myself and my own experience with Christian Science – I am not speaking for any other Christian Scientists. Christian Scientists are not a monolithic group. We don’t all think, feel, and believe the exactly same way about things. We don’t all share the same political views. Some Christian Scientists identify as Democrats, and some as Republicans, and some as something else altogether. And I think that’s awesome.

In the past year a lot of my posts have been political in nature. Again, I’m only expressing my own views – as this particular Christian Scientist. I am living Christian Science as I feel God is directing me to live it – and I make no apologies for this, nor do I expect any other Christian Scientist to live their lives as I feel God is directing me to live mine. We are individual expressions of Love, each fulfilling our own “niche in time and eternity” (Mary Baker Eddy) and I believe we need to allow each other to have these life experiences and expressions without condemnation or judgment. Where God is leading you is none of my business. Where God is leading me is none of your business.

I will never use my blog to tell anyone how to vote. I will never use my blog to try to convince everyone to be Democrats, or Republicans, or any other political party. I will, however, use my blog to address issues that I feel need to be addressed.

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts, and to being open to what I have to share. It takes epic kindness and generosity to listen to others, and try to understand their perspective, and I thank you for that!

(This blog post is in response to a comment from a reader: “I don’t think your comments are appropriate under the heading of Christian Science writings!”)

God loves