Bigotry Is Not a Christian Value

Bigotry is not a Christian value.
Christ did not say, "Kill the motherfuckers!"
No matter which translation you prefer.

Christianity is easy to explain:
Love, forgiveness, charity, kindness.
Do these things and your World is free
Because you have freed
Your mind,
Your heart,
Your soul.

Christianity is not always easy to do.

Practice what Christ preached,
Not what the men on your cable television channel urge,
Not what the false Christians in your Facebook feed urge.
Hate is easy,
That's why so much of it fills our world.

Find love, forgiveness, charity, kindness
In your mind,
In your heart,
In your soul.

Bigotry is not a Christian value.
Hate is not a Christian value.
Violence is not a Christian value.
Selfishness is not a Christian value.

Christ did not say, "Those people deserve to die."
Christ did not say, "Bomb them into the Stone Age."
Christ did not say, "Buy more guns."
Christ did not say, "Shut your doors.
Leave them by the side of the road.
To starve."

Love, forgiveness, charity, kindness
Free your mind,
Free your heart,
Free your soul.

Free your World.

Peace. Shalom. Salaam.


--John Magee

Be Brave, America

Be brave, America
When they say fear
The World.

Be Christian, America
When they say hate
in Christ's name.

Be courageous, America
When they say cower
Behind stony walls.

Be generous, America
When they say hoard
Your treasure.

Be kind, America
When they say close
Your heart.

Be just, America
When they say
Kill them all.

Be hopeful, America
When they say despair
Of the future.

Be great, America
When they say your time
Has passed.

Be strong, America
When they say you are too weak to be
Brave
Christian
Courageous
Generous
Kind
Just
Hopeful.

Great.

In the face of death and hate and fear
Be brave, America.

We can do this.

--John Magee

Final Sunset Cruise of 2015 (Short Version)

Usually I try to curate these little photoblog posts down to a reasonable batch of good pictures before posting them. But last night I posted an entry with a batch of 61 photos for our final sunset cruise of 2015. I'm not even the least bit sorry, since it was crazy nice outside yesterday: 75 degrees and sunny in early November in Michigan. I expect paging through the photos in that blog post to keep me warm through the approaching winter.

(And in my defense I did whittle that batch down from the 200+ pictures I took while we cruised.)

But here's a considerably more reasonably sized best-of batch from last night's cruise for normal people. Enjoy!

Final Sunset Cruise of 2015

It was an unbelievable 75 degrees and sunny on Tuesday, November 3. Since we had already scheduled the removal of our pontoon boat the next morning, this was our final sunset cruise of the year.

Come along for the ride

This is what the sunset looks like through Monique's rose-colored glasses:

 

Goodbye, West end of the lake. Goodbye, sunset.

Back at the dock our neighbor was burning a pile of branches out on the island.

Home again, home again.

It's been a fun and busy year of redecking and refitting the ol' Stealth Pontoon, so we didn't get it in the lake this year until mid-August. I'm glad we've had a nice long Fall to enjoy the lake.

See you in the Springtime, Stealth Pontoon. I've got more electrical doo-dads still waiting to be installed.