[Vision2020] OFFLIST: Test results

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Keely and Scott,

At the risk of sounding insincere or cheesy, my pal Lois has a bumper sticker I like: God bless everyone.  No exceptions.  I responded to Scott's test message, first with a joke, and then with a "God bless you, too."  I did the joke first because, frankly, I was touched.  Scott sent the message to Melynda and me, and having read his posts now for a couple of years, I knew he meant it.  And I meant it back.  All Jews are unitarians (small "u").  I'm also a universalist.  I would not worship a God so cruel as to receive some in heaven while condemning others to hell.  I believe that Doug, for his own vain reasons, is tearing Moscow asunder.  I believe that he martyrs himself to the dismay of people of faith, and to the discredit of the God he claims to defend.  Does God need any man's defense?  Isn't God always God?  Isn't that the point.

I was also touched by Aaron Ament's message to 2020.  I have had productive conversations with members of Christ Church -- but all, sadly, were members who had been hurt by Doug, and who had asked me for my help.  I find it hard to get past the anger I feel over the way in which he treats the members of his flock, people who rely upon him for spiritual guidance.  To put that kind of trust in a fellow believer and then receive dunning and abuse as repayment is truly horrifying.  I will never stop fighting him, and I know many others who feel the same as I do.

But those of us who actively oppose Doug are, I shudder to say it, middle-aged.  Most college kids don't give a rip.  Those of us who attend Planning and Zoning meetings, who write letters to the editor, who fight for our town tooth and nail are forty and over.  I don't doubt that Eric E. has experienced some discomfort as a result of his association with Doug, but harassing phone calls?  Spit?  Vandalism?  I don't buy it.  The NuArt is right around the corner from John's Alley, one of Moscow's rougher bars.  New St. Andrews is just across Friendship Square from The Garden Lounge.  For heaven's sake -- can they really not tell the difference between drunken shenanigans and religious persecution?  Melynda's piece about the vandalized chicken was right on target.  I'm sorry about that chicken -- I loved the silly thing.  But I know for a fact that every business on Main Street mops up spit and other unsavory bodily fluids from their windows and stoop each morning before beginning business.  And not one of them ever posts a complaint to 2020 or writes a letter to the Daily News.

Och, well.  I won't despair.  There's more to worry about than Eric E. and his fretful musings.  God bless you both.  No exceptions.

Joan

PS: Perhaps one of you (or both) might be able to answer a denominational question?  I'm over in Olympia, WA, and on my way to the Fred Meyer, I pass a church called The Christian Assemby and the Church of the Firstborn.  Any idea what this is?  I thought Assembly of God, but what's the Firstborn?  A denomination that accepts that Jesus had brothers and sisters.  (The Hebrew in the NT is clear on this; the Catholic Church is not.  They insist that Jesus had "cousins.")  I'm tempted to stop by on Sunday and see what it's all about in person, but I don't like to disturb others in their worship just because I'm curious.  And besides, I don't think they'd believe me if I introduced myself as George Fayne.