So this is my official sad last day on xanga.  I haven't been on in over a year, and Liz and I have a new blog now!  If I haven't talked to you in a while, we're on facebook.

Here's our photo blog if you're interested:  www.lizwangphotography.com

For those of you who know me well, you know that, while I usually have a stance on political issues, I rarely speak out in a forum like this on them.  As you've noticed lately on my facebook, or on this blog, I've become a little more expressive of my observations.  Maybe times are changing, or maybe I'm just waking up to the fact that we really are living in difficult times. 

This post was prompted by a letter my brother received, which he allowed me to read today, from an angry neighbor.  Now, if I told you that this letter showed closeminded judgement, and repeated several times that the reader would face the judgement of God, you would assume based on the stereotypes in our society(and the title of my blog entry) that the letter you are about to read was written by some conservative "right-wing nut" or a "religious fanatic," and that my brother was the brunt of misplaced "religious fanaticism."   If so, you would be mistaken.  Instead, this letter was written by a gay neighbor in the neighborhood I grew up in, where my father and brother still live.  Though my brother strongly believes in Christian values, he has always been kind and considerate to his neighbors, introduced his family to all the neighbors, and encouraged his children to be respectful to all, regardless of differences.  His only "crime" was to place a "Yes on Prop 8" sign on his own lawn. (For those who don't know about Prop 8, it is a proposition to reverse the decision by the state to allow gay marriage.  Basically, it is a proposition that would revert back to a protection of legal marriage as between a man and woman).

For all my friends, but especially those who think Christians should not get involved in political issues, that there is no connection between the recent political shakeout and our ability to worship and believe as we choose;  for those who think many of the big issues of the day are merely political, theoretical issues that do not strike home in our daily religious freedoms, our right to vote the way we choose, our right to speech in America, I'd ask you to please read this.   For all my brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray that this would be a sober reminder that we are sojourners, and we should expect and rejoice in persecution...

I hope you are as sobered by this as I was.  There's a little more of this letter, but you get the point...  The time has long been coming, and may have arrived, where "tolerance" is now a word for alienating anyone who believes in moral absolutes; the time has come where bigotry is wanting the freedom to stand for what you think is right, where having a strong moral belief is being equivocated to racism, to the Ku Klux Clan, or worse.  This is not an issue of protecting human rights- those who would affirm this letter would turn around and vote to force all children to be taught that homosexuality is morally and socially acceptable, that moral conviction is bigotry, and the only sin is believing there is sin.  Yet, that is not seen as religious non-tolerance.  Despite veiled and not-so-veiled threats of harassment against my brother, sister-in-law, and my 5 nieces and nephews, it was less upsetting to me personally, but more of a reality check for me.  I will admit that I was bothered when I heard that my brother's car had been vandalized twice in recent times, and when I heard that his Prop 8 signs were stolen off his front lawn twice.  But, again, that is not the real issue here.  The Bible has already laid out that this will occur, that we should count persecution to be a blessing.  And, while I cannot condemn homosexuality any more than the sins I see in my heart and life every day, nor can I fault an unsaved person for needing the world to affirm his man-made moral code in order to feel less guilty and better about himself, we are called to call sinners to repentance and the grace of God.  All sins are a rejection of the purpose for which we were created, to give glory to the Creator that made us for a purpose, and I must hate all sin, including those thoughts and actions which my flesh often gives into on a daily basis.   That being said, homosexuality is a sin against the Creator, and as with other sins that prevail today, we as Christians are now being labeled as bigots, racists, and worse for choosing to believe and vote based on the conviction of God's Word. 

For those who would claim that Christians are hatefully trying to silence and restrict people from exercising their freedom to live and believe as they choose, I would submit this letter as evidence that it is those who would cling to any idea of right and wrong who are, and will continue to be, persecuted for having a moral standard.  We are faced with the great hypocrisy and political of those wanting to justify their sin, a hypocrisy that we well know was a part of us before we were saved.  I hope you had a chance to read through the letter...I've included my thoughts below, and why I feel this letter is so indictive of today's society.

1. I have often heard my gay co-workers and acquaintances state that Christians are unloving, that they condemn people as evil instead of allowing everyone the freedom to believe and live as they choose.  They say that we are unforgiving, ungracious to those who believe differently.

Quote: "I will personally NOT FORGET or FORGIVE and neighbor or other community member who proactively campaigns against my human rights...God help you, because you are doing a VERY EVIL THING against us."

I wonder how much flak Christians would take for making a statement like that, when the next generation is being forced to learn nothing but evolution, and force-fed homosexuality as early as elementary school.  By the way, do we even have any rights if the world decides to teach in schools that polygamy is acceptable, or that cheating on your spouse is a normal part of life?  Do we really have rights if we cannot send our children to our tax-paid public schools because they will not respect our beliefs in the classroom?

2. Think that the debate of whether you're born homosexual is just a pointless moral debate? 

Quote:  "...why don't you just burn a cross in our yard and make your true intent known?  ...God forgive you, if you are raising your children with this bigoted attitude..."

The reality is that if our society can be convinced that people are born homosexuals, adulterers, even murderers, then they will have succeeded in labeling anyone as a bigot who would choose to teach biblical morals to their children, or vote based on their beliefs.

By the way, later on in the letter he goes on to say:

"If you family was still in China, you might have a different stake in the human rights issue." 

Any doubt that they are trying to make this an issue of racism?

3. Lastly(and I could go on)...we are often accused of being closeminded, unwilling to hear others opinion, so worried about our "outward" goodness, and that we act outwardly holy because we want others not to think of us as sinners.  This last quote really illustrates what the Bible says of all sinners, that they close their mind to the truth, they "suppress the truth in unrighteousness," and they do need society to declare them holy in order to sooth their conscience.

Quote: "WE HAD NO IDEA that you felt that way, do not understand your point of view, and at this point I am not the least bit interested in hearing it...Are you introducing us [to your family] as 'the nice gay couple across the street,' or 'the sinners across the street'?"

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Like I said earlier, I hope that you have been sobered by this as much as I have.  When people like Bill Maher choose to berate Christians publicly onLarry King Live, they are heralded as bringing a "fresh" viewpoint.  I have really been challenged this last week to truly understand the times we live in, and not be put to sleep by the seeming comfortableness of life today.  Please pray for my dad and my brother, as they both live on the same block. 

I'll leave you with a quote from Bill Maher from an August 2008 interview on Larry King Live, as one final reality marker of where our society is now, and how it's acceptable to insult and stereotype Christianity, even when it is coming from complete ignorance:

"One reason I have always been anti:-Evangelical and people who take theBible literally is because it allows you to be horrible to animals,people, too. Slavery is OK with the Bible, keeping women down, andhonor killings and let's not even go into how bad they are to people.But animals, you know, the Bible says man can have dominion overanimals. And also they believe people have a soul, whatever that is,but animals don't. So do whatever you want with them."  - Bill Maher, on an interview with Larry King live, in respond to a caller question on environmentalism.(Taken from the CNN transcript).

So last week was very eventful in the food department.  This week, I've been sick.  My co-worker thinks I have the whooping cough.  If you want to know what that is, check out www.whoopingcough.net.  There's actually a place on this site where you can listen to what a whooping cough sounds like.  I don't think I have the "whoop".

So back to last week.  I finally tried out a dessert recipe, Brown Sugar Apple Cobbler.   It wasn't much of a looker, but it was really tasty, especially with Breyer's Vanilla ice cream. 

Supposedly, the original cobbler wasn't the crushed-up pie that we see a lot of, it was a soft, flaky cake that was baked around the fruit. 

Liz cooked up a hearty Mexican recipe she got from Maria Yamshak, and we had a feast.

Later that week, Jason graciously invited us to this food festival fundraiser in Valencia.  I would seriously pay the admission to get in next year($60), but Liz thinks it's a little steep.  But for me, 4 hours of all you can eat from 30 of the best food places in Santa Clarita...gotta consider going back.

Here's just a small sample of what we saw and ate:

The festival

Music from a LA vocal group called M-pact...American Idol fans, recognize this guy?

(answer: Rudy Cardenas, 2007 Season, eliminated in 20th)  Liz got some longer clips but the files were too big to post.

The food was great. New Orleans brisket and slaw

Salt Creek Grill- this place is really classy.

But Jason, who got us in, had the best food at his booth:

Maru Sushi- Pulled Pork and Cornbread

BBQ Beef and Mashed Potatoes

This was just the start.  There were so many other restaurants, and we tried them all, plus all you can drink sodas, wines, frozen lemonades...and ice cream.

Anyone want to go with us next year?

So I've recently resumed my world history reading, starting with several accounts of the battle of Thermopylaes, one of the deciding battles between the ancient Greeks and the Persians and depicted in "300," the movie.  I'd recommend the one above, at least so far.

So for those who are not already bored...

At least from what I've read so far, the two accounts vary so much, it's hard to tell what's fact and fiction.  For example, Herodotus records the Persian army to be around 3,000,000, while other accounts say 200,000.  Still very interesting.  The "300" specially trained men were part of 7000 Spartans that held off the massive Persian army, almost, but spurred a revolt that chased Persia out of Greece.  Funny thought, had the Greeks been overrun, much of the ideas of democracy, which originated in Greece, would have been significantly altered or nonexistent. 

Other interesting tidbits-

Xerxes was the Persian king defeated, and King Cyrus, one of his predecessors, I think his father or grandfather, was the Persian king that allowed Israel to return to their land from captivity after the time of Daniel.  Ironically, during the previous wars between Sparta and Athens, two Greek region city-states, Persia had funded Sparta's army in order to defeat Athens. 

I read a recent Newsweek article where the Iranian government is upset because they believe the movie "300" was made to humiliate the Iranians, who are the modern day descendants of the Persians, and propagate US action in the Middle East.  A recent Iranian newspaper, according to Newsweek, had an article which headlined "Hollywood declares war on Iran."  Their basis for outrage is the depiction of the 300 Spartans as manly men and the Persians as effeminate and weak.  Newsweek also reported that many marines stationed in the Middle East associate themselves with the Spartans and "Gates of Fire," a novel based on this story is on the Marine commanders' recommended reading list. 

It's snowing!!!!!!!!!!