A Religious Game Show?

My family and I were watching Family Feud on GSN last night. During the show, Jeff Foxworthy appeared on a commercial to advertise a new game show that starts at the end of August. The name of the show... The American Bible Challenge. The first thought that ran through my mind after the commercial ended was "Really?" And the expressions on my family's faces said they were thinking the same thing. I even said, "I expect this on the Bible channel or the Gospel channel. But not on the Game Show Network."

This is the description of the show from gsntv.com,

"The American Bible Challenge is a spirited game show that will celebrate the Bible and its place in American culture. Bible enthusiasts from all across the country will compete in a variety of challenges that put their knowledge of the Good Book to the test."

I have a few issues with "The American Bible Challenge."

The first, does this show belongs on GSN? I think that as it gets closer to the air date this might be a question on a few people's minds. In my opinion, I don't think it does belong on GSN. My personal opinion. If it was on a religious channel, I would understand. Before anyone gets on my case, I do understand that nobody is forcing my to watch this show. If I don't want to see it, I can change the channel.

The second, should we turn religion into a game show? Honestly, this is the thing that bothers me the most. I don't mind questions about religion on Jeopardy. But when you make an entire show on the subject, in my mind, that is when you start crossing a line. Are the producers of the show out to create a entertaining program? To promote Christian religions? Just to make money?

The one thing that I am okay with is that, according to the promotional video on the website, the contestants are donating the winnings to charity. At least people are not going on to make money. However, in an article written by the Washington Post,

"...teams of contestants will represent 'worthy faith-based organizations,' said GSN, without elaborating as to how it planned to weed out the unworthy ones."

I guess we will have to wait an see what is "worthy."

Let me make something perfectly clear. The idea of making religion into a game show bothers me no matter what religion you are talking about. I guess for me I think that religion should be treated with more care.

The whole thing just rubs me the wrong way. Thoughts?


Websites:
http://gsntv.com/shows/the-american-bible-challenge/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jeff-foxworthy-to-host-the-american-bible-challenge/2012/03/21/gIQAtYcYSS_story.html

Weighing in on Health

In the last post I discussed my weight and health. In this post I would like to discuss something I would like to see both inside and outside the pagan community.

Over the past several months I have been reading books and watching documentaries about food and the food system in America. Honestly, I have been disgusted by the things that I have found.

-The way animals are treated before the are killed.
-The amount of food that comes from corn and soybeans and the amounts of these plants that are genetically modified.
-The chemicals that are put into processed food.
-The amount of people, especially in inner city areas that do not have access to fresh food.

Overall the message that comes from these sources is that our food system does not work and that what we are eating is making us sick.

So instead of worrying about how to deal with obesity in the pagan community (your body, you decide how to live), we should instead be thinking more about what we are eating. We should be encouraging people to make healthy choices about how they treat their body.

I don't care it you are heavy or thin, young or old, tall or short. What I care about is that you are healthy.

I would like to read posts that encourage people to live healthy.
I would like to see discussion on how we can help people who don't have access to fresh food.
I would like to hear people's opinions and ideas and feelings on healthy living.

I want to know if people even care.

I am not perfect. I am working on leading a healthier life because it is important to me. I want my body to be healthy in the same way I want my spirit to be healthy. I think that living a healthy lifestyle should be part of pagan life.

Weighing in on Weight

One of the hot topics of the past couple of weeks has been obesity in the pagan community. I knew that I wanted to write something on the topic the last week, but I thought it better to wait and think of something constructive to say. I have decided to break it up in two separate posts because this is a topic that I feel very strongly about, and I've got a lot to say.

Body image and obesity is something that hits very close to home. I don't think that I have ever been "thin" before. Through middle school and up through college I just let myself get bigger and bigger. I did not feel good about myself or my body but didn't really do anything about it. There was one summer my between my junior and senior year of high school that I went on Weight Watchers and lost some weight. A soon as I left, I gained it all back and then some.

It wasn't until the summer before my senior that I realized that I couldn't take it anymore. I was is a dressing room a found that the size 14 shorts that I was trying on were too small. I remember standing there thinking, "I can't let this get anymore out of hand." I went up to my mom after I left the dressing room and told her, "I need to join Weight Watchers." Same day I bought a scale and when I return to my apartment joined the program. I choose Weight Watchers because they talked about changing your lifestyle and that is what I needed. Over my senior year of college I lost about 25 pounds, which is a lot considering that I am only 5"2'.

It is now about three years later and I have gained a little bit of the weight back. I am not obese, maybe about 7-10 pounds outside my medical "ideal" body weight. And as all these pieces about obesity have come up I have done a lot of thinking. While I do think that obesity is a problem for America, not just the pagan community, I am not here to condemn anyone for what they weigh. It is your body and your choice about your health.

However, at this point I am not okay with the way that I look and feel. I would like to lose some weight for me and my health, not because society or my community wants me to. And it is not just about losing weight, it is about take better care of my overall health. I have started exercising regularly and have been thinking more about what I eat.

Some things I have seen written seem to give the impression that wanting to change your body is not an okay feeling to have. Lots of people seem to think that you should be happy with how you are now regardless of how you look or how you feel. I don't necessarily think that is the right attitude to have. If you are unhappy with your health and lifestyle, change it. I know that once my body feels better, than my spirit will feel better too. I believe that part of my spiritual path involves eating healthy foods in the right amounts and exercising regularly.

Anyway, to get the the point of this post.

As much as we should support people who are happy with their body's as they are now, I believe that is important to support the people who are making positive changes for their health.  We shouldn't assume that people are doing it because of the pressures of society. We should use language that is positive and encouraging. We should create a positive atmosphere to have these types of discussions in. And we shouldn't be afraid to have these discussions.

Pagan Festivals

I have never been to a Pagan Festival before.

That seems like a bit of an odd statement on a post about festivals, but it is true. Right now, I am a solitary "cyber-pagan." Any contact I have had with other like-minded individuals has been over the internet.

The reason I am talking about festivals at all is because over the past week it has been a hot topic on many blogs. When I am talking about festivals I am a talking about large gatherings of people for an event not related to a holiday.
Some people believe that big festivals are going to be a part of the community for a long time. Other say that they are on the way out and that local events will take over. Some discuss the reason for low attendance. Is it the economy? Lack of interest? Concern that long distance travel negatively effects the environment?

I think there are two problems with pagan festivals.
1) Lack of advertising
2) Lack of accessible festivals 

Lets start with lack of advertising. If nobody knows that the festival exists, nobody will attend. Sure you can go to an internet search engine an search for "Pagan Festivals." Then you are trapped in a world of outdated or broken links, outdated pages, and outdated information (that seems to be a pretty common theme on a pagan website).

Then comes the lack of accessible festivals. I live in Georgia. At the moment I do not have the money for an airplane ticket nor is it feasible to drive hundreds of miles to attend a festival. That is probably true of most people. So that leaves local festivals. Sadly (unless the have fallen victim to lack of advertising), there seems to be a lack of them. For example, according to Witchvox, there are only seven dated events for Georgia with a little bit less than half the year left to go. I don't think there is a lack of interest. I believe if they were available people would want to attend.

These are just the problems that I see from the point of view of a pretty brand new pagan. I understand that planning big events like the ones I am talking about is a huge undertaking. I also believe that I takes a special group of people to organize, plan, and staff such events. Do I have an real solutions to the problems I am talking about? Not really. The only thing that I would say is to get the word out when there are events going on.

So the questions remains... what is the future of pagan festivals?

N is for Losing Negativity

Unfortunately for me, as much as I would like to look on the bright side of everything, I am truly a pessimist. When ever a situation arises my mind tends to go to the worse possible outcome. I have even caught myself imagining situations and found myself worrying about the worse thing that could happen, no matter how unlikely it may be.

And that's a problem.

If you think negative thoughts that is what is going to come to you. And I would really like some positive things to happen in my life.

So I think that in the morning, I will think about all the good things that could happen to me that day. And at night, instead of focusing on what didn't happen or what went wrong, I will think about the positive things that happened.

That will probably take some getting use to. But I hope that over time, the good will outweigh the bad. Maybe I will become an optimist.

"What we focus on, we empower and enlarge. Good multiplies when focused upon. Negativity multiplies when focused upon. The choice is ours: Which do we want more of?"
-Julia Cameron

A Little Vacation Victory

So I skipped this weeks Pagan Blog Project post since I was on vacation. I will have to come up with something really good for this coming week.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes going on vacation makes you more tired than you were before  you left? And here I though vacations were meant to be restful.

Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about something that I would like to consider a little victory for my pagan path. First though, a little background.

I spend a lot of time reading different people's blogs. There are some that I try to read everyday. One of them is Pantheon written by Star Foster over on Patheos.com. (By the way, the have a great group of bloggers over there. Check them out if you get a chance.) A few weeks ago, she had a posting called "Slacker Paganism". In the post, she talks about picking out five things you can do everyday in your practice. She talks about trying to do each one everyday, even if it is on the fly. Since I am really just starting to incorporate Paganism into my everyday life, I thought this would be a good way to get started. Instead of picking five things, I decided to start with three and build up. My three things were a morning prayer, meditation, and an evening prayer. Surprisingly, up until I left for vacation, I did all three everyday.

My little victory comes though on my vacation. While I didn't mediate (way too many people around to find a quiet spot), I was able to do a little prayer both in the morning and at night everyday. It takes me a long time to build up a routine, so the fact that I kept that part of my practice up is a little win for me. And it really makes me feel better and more connected to my path.

Thank goodness for little victories.


Websites:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2012/06/slacker-paganism/ - Star Foster "Slacker Paganism"
http://www.patheos.com/Pagan.html -Patheos Pagan Channel