Its a strange world

When I first read in the newspaper of a pastor in a church in the United States of Yankeeland having a "bring your gun to church" Sunday I thought it was a spoof. A joke. Surely this cannot be real!
But it seems there are enough people in his little world who believe in their God given right to bear arms that they want to include this right in their religious observance.
It has increased my resolve never to go to the USA. What are these people so scared of that they all need guns to defend themselves at all times - they must live in a really terrifyingly bad place like central Baghdad at its worse! But no- it seemed the pastors church was in some small rural town in a little known state that no-one out of the state would ever have heard of. It is just beyond my comprehension.
The Celtic way was to bring all of life to God and look for God's presence in all things and see God working through all things. I am baffled as to how God is seen to be working through a handgun. I cannot in my wildest imaginings see Jesus ever having need for a weapon, defensive or otherwise.
I wonder what sort of bible this pastor is reading - and what sort of Jesus he is preaching about. They both sound different to the ones I have encountered.

Poem - topical - political by anon

It's Voting Day!

I want a floating duck house
I want to clear my moat
I need to mend my tennis court
That's why I need your vote.

I have to build a portico
My swimming pool needs mending
My lovely plants need horse manure
And the Aga needs much tending

A chandelier is vital
Mock Tudor boards are great
My hanging baskets won awards
And I've earned a tax rebate.

I need a glitter toilet seat.
My piano so needs tuning
Maltesers help me stay awake
And my orchard must need pruning

I could have said the rules were wrong
And often thought I should,
But somehow it was easier
To profit all I could

The public really have to see
That the rules are there to test
And by defrauding taxpayers
We only did our best

The Speaker of the House has gone,
Our sacrificial beast,
But the public are still braying
For our corpses at the feast

What do the public want from us,
Those vote-wielding ingrates?
They really should be grateful
To be financing our estates.

The message is so very clear,
(you're merely learning late)
That the MP's way of living well
Is to screw the ruddy state.

Tempus fugit

Last night I was at a parents information evening for those with youngsters applying for university admission next year. Can time really have flown so fast that our youngest is now ready to follow his sister away from "the nest" and make his own way in the world. Is he really 17.... where did those 17 years go?
Parenting has been a continuing gradual process of letting go. When he was a wee baby we did everything for him. Gradually he became more and more independent and self reliant and now he is by some definitions a man. Yet as those links of dependency have lessened they have been replaced by other links which are potentially much stronger and will ultimately we hope be longer lasting.
Many parents find it hard not to be needed in the same way. And from my distant memories of teenage years, I recall it is hard to be as independent and strong as you think others think you should be. But then no relationships are easy. The word means that we have to relate and in doing so we have to be prepared to change and any change can involve pain.
Albert F Bayly's words come to mind:

Grant those entrusted with the care
Of precious life from thee,
thy grace, that worthy of the gift
and faithful they may be.

Teach them to meet the growing needs
of infant, child, and youth;
to build the body, train the mind
to know and love the truth.

(Hymns and Psalms no 372)