The Peaceful Gnome

   For a long time I've thought that all Christians should be pacifists.  I've thought it was very clear from the teachings of Jesus, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, that a Christian could not participate in a war for any reason.  This seems blindingly obvious to me.  Yet almost all Christians hold the opposite view, that it is a "Good Thing" to serve ones country as a soldier.  How can this be?  Is it because, as I've heard some pacifist Christians say, that once Christianity was entangled with the Imperial Government, beginning under Constantine, that it compromised on war and government in order to better serve the Emperor's needs?   I have been reading, slowly and painfully, through some of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, painfully because the version I have available on Kindle is from the 1800's and is translated in a pretty archaic form of English, but then again I read a LOT of 19th century stuff so I'm pretty used to it.  I'm hop...

   This morning, as I was reading about St. Adrian and Natalia and 23 other unnamed martyrs, I realized how weak my own "witness" for Christ tends to be.  Martyr means witness, after all.  These Saints withstood horrific tortures rather than betray Christ, while I can't even manage to fast a couple of times a week and make sure we have a brief family prayer time.  Traditional fasting in the Orthodox churches involves abstaining from animal products, basically vegan, except for shellfish.  I have never yet managed to do that for more than one day at a time.  I have attempted to integrate the idea of fasting into my Grain-Free diet by restricting the amount of food and times of day when I eat on fast days.  Today is a regular fast day and it is my intention to have only one moderate meal some time between Noon and Four in the afternoon.  I haven't talked to Abouna about this yet, but it seems a reasonable compromise to me.  Saint Adrian a...

Life is too short to waste it on Politics.  I have decided that paying attention to what those who think they are our rulers are doing is not at all helpful in my spiritual walk.  Pretty obvious isn't it?  You would think it wouldn't take so many decades for me to figure it out, but I have finally done so.  I intend this post to be pretty much my final comment on political matters. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.

Well now, we've been living in Ceres for a while, got the house all settled in, JD's been doing up the yard nicer and nicer, we know all of the neighbors finally, so, of course, we are going to move again. Mom and Lora both seem to really like Turlock.  They have their reasons, such as being close to church, nicer parks, etc.  Me?  My bedroom is on wheels dude.  It matters little where the family plants its several arses because I'll still be in the same "place" anyway.  I'm in my bedroom right now, before work, and I'm not in Ceres anyway.  :-) I'm going to prepare for this next move by completing my "minimizing" project.  It is my intent to dispose of everything that won't reasonably fit within my RV.  I have told the family they don't need to find a place with a separate room for me this time, 4 bedrooms will be plenty, as long as there is a place to park the RV close by.  I've also told them it's up to them to find a place...