update

3 files changed, 151 insertions, 108 deletions

diff --git a/faith/culture-wars-why.rst b/faith/culture-wars-why.rst
index f660554..f3301cf 100644
--- a/faith/culture-wars-why.rst
+++ b/faith/culture-wars-why.rst
@@ -28,110 +28,131 @@ think there are many better ways how to decrease number of abortions
 than by banning them, etc. I have not got though an opportunity to say
 it, because once I was labeled as one of **them** nobody was interested
 in hearing my opinions. And it seemed to me nobody was really interested
-in the discussion about (dis-)advantages of the anti-abortion law. I was
-just starting my PhD program in Law & Society at the Northeastern
-University and part of the program were courses in the political
-science. I have found that there is a big volume of study about cultural
-wars, the biggest one about the history of the alcohol prohibition
-movement (if anybody is interested the classical book on the subject,
-read Joseph R. Gusfield. Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and The
-American Temperance Movement. ISBN 0-252-01312-3). The main conclusion
-of these studies (and this one particularly) is that the focus of the
-struggle in the prohibition politics wasn’t that much the question of
-alcohol itself, but struggle for preservation of status of the
-established Anglo-Saxon society threatened by the ongoing immigration
-wave of Irish, Italians, and Germans. And best dividing factor between
-**us** and **them** was then the attitude towards alcohol, because there
-are apparently much more casual non-addicted drinkers of alcohol among
-these new nations (where for example a glass of wine or beer is standard
-part of dinner) then in the Anglo-Saxon culture, where much bigger share
-of population tend to be on extremes in relation to alcohol.
-Generalization from the prohibition movement to current cultural wars
-was then obvious: these are much more status struggles than struggles
-for the issue itself. Should the America be governed and run by
-pro-life, marriage defending, gun holding (to mention just few most
-obvious examples) Bible belt Christians, or by pro-choice, gay marrying,
-anti-gun “Godless” population of coasts? Of course, the question is how
-does this rather obvious conclusion (when you think about it) relates to
-the topic of this blog. What is the proper Stage four relation to the
-cultural wars? It seems to me that if we accept these four stages as
-describing something about the groups in the society (and I have hard
-time to do it, but for lack of other models, I do accept it), then the
-fourth stage believers are back in their uncomfortably lonely position:
-on one side there are stage two conservatives fighting for the “Ol’ time
-religion” against the slaughter of stage three liberals from the coasts.
-And our 4th stage believer is somewhere between them trying to question
-firm conclusions and strongholds of both sides. One more piece of
-history: I was in Boston when the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowed
-gay marriages in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the parliament
-was discussing possibility of adopting some kind of “defense of
-marriage” amendment which would overrule the court’s decision. Suddenly
-whole pro-/anti-gay cultural war was very strictly localized, and the
-Boston Commons around Beacon Hill (seat of the government in
-Massachusetts) changed into one big battleground of this cultural war.
-Majority of participants were local supporters of gay marriage, but
-there were substantial groups of opponents mostly coming from the
-outside of Massachusetts. I remember watching the posters of both sides
-(something about extending human rights from African-Americans to gays,
-and on the other side I remember slogan “God hates fags” with some
-Biblical quotations by Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, owners of the
-website `God Hates Fags`_). I was thoroughly confused by both sides,
-which seemed to present these two positions as the only ones possible,
-and yet I knew very strongly that I would like to be as far as possible
-from both of them. A friend, apparently battling the same thoughts, said
-suddenly “This is as close to the Hell as I’ve ever got.” To be specific
-and considering the gay marriage issue as an example, let me show what I
-would think could be a reasonable thinking of a stage four Christian
-(and of course, I don’t think it is the only one, I guess many of you
-won’t agree with many of my premises and conclusions; it’s more about a
-way of thinking than about particular issues). So, first of all I have
-to declare that I believe homosexuality is a sin (in the sense “missing
-the best God prepared for us”, not that I would believe homosexuals are
-bad people). Although I have never struggled with homosexuality myself,
-I have been actively participating in the Desert Stream Ministries (the
-inner healing ministry founded and mostly still led by former
-homosexuals) and I count some former homosexuals as my friends. However,
-I am also persuaded that beating sinners with a big poster “You are a
-sinner” usually doesn’t bring healing, and my role is not to persuade
-gays to give up on their lifestyle, but to be present and willing to
-help them in the moment they decide they would like to find a way back
-to the fullness of life God has prepared for them (be it a single life
-or eventually even marriage). Given these two premises, I am in the wide
-arena of possible conclusions with not very certain opinion on possible
-legislative dealing (or non-dealing) with the matter. If I accept as
-given, that there are many people who are still living in the homosexual
-relationship (or in other words, who haven't accepted God’s plan for
-their life yet), then it would be probably humane to make for them
-living conditions acceptable. That includes certainly some kind of
-official acknowledgment of their relationship allowing them wide variety
-of legal advantages otherwise provided by law for husband and wife
-(e.g., right to visit each other in hospital, getting sick-leave when
-caring for a sick partner, inheritance, let’s abstain for sake of
-brevity from discussion on the issue of adoption by gay partners). I
-wouldn’t call this legal arrangement “marriage”, because that really
-signifies approval of what I believe is not a healthy lifestyle, but
-otherwise I would go long way towards making supportive environment for
-the life of gay couples. One observation from this side of the Pond. It
-is interesting that the “Godless Europe” has in this issue much less
-problems than people in America. Given the long history of ateism (and
-tendency towards socialism) most European countries have an institute of
-some kind of non-marriage official relationship (originally for
-heterosexuals who didn't want to have anything to do with Church in
-times when marriages were still closely linked to religious ceremony).
-They are usually not very popular (I believe every European country has
-now as an option secular marriages in the town hall), I think many
-Europeans don't even know such institute exists, but their mere
-existence made it very easy for most European countries to adopt some
-kind of registered partnership for homosexuals as an option and (with
-some exceptions) I don't know about much struggle to open classical
-marriages to gay couples. Again, I don’t think this is the only possible
-solution and I am not willing to defend it with putting on the line my
-honor, my property, and my life, but I would love to participate in the
-discussion about these questions with other people interested more in
-discussion than in cultural wars. However, even more importantly, I
-would hope that Christians would be able to distinguish when they are
-fighting for The Right Thing™ and when for promotion of their status in
-the society. And I am afraid, many times with many Christian
-organizations and politicians, I am not persuaded they see it.
+in the discussion about (dis-)advantages of the anti-abortion law.
 
-.. _God Hates Fags: http://www.godhatesfags.com/
+I was just starting my PhD program in Law & Society at the
+Northeastern University and part of the program were courses in
+the political science. I have found that there is a big volume of
+study about cultural wars, the biggest one about the history of
+the alcohol prohibition movement (if anybody is interested the
+classical book on the subject, read Joseph R. Gusfield. Symbolic
+Crusade: Status Politics and The American Temperance Movement.
+ISBN 0-252-01312-3). The main conclusion of these studies (and
+this one particularly) is that the focus of the struggle in the
+prohibition politics wasn’t that much the question of alcohol
+itself, but struggle for preservation of status of the
+established Anglo-Saxon society threatened by the ongoing
+immigration wave of Irish, Italians, and Germans. And best
+dividing factor between **us** and **them** was then the attitude
+towards alcohol, because there are apparently much more casual
+non-addicted drinkers of alcohol among these new nations (where
+for example a glass of wine or beer is standard part of dinner)
+then in the Anglo-Saxon culture, where much bigger share of
+population tend to be on extremes in relation to alcohol.
+
+Generalization from the prohibition movement to current cultural
+wars was then obvious: these are much more status struggles than
+struggles for the issue itself. Should the America be governed
+and run by pro-life, marriage defending, gun holding (to mention
+just few most obvious examples) Bible belt Christians, or by
+pro-choice, gay marrying, anti-gun “Godless” population of
+coasts? Of course, the question is how does this rather obvious
+conclusion (when you think about it) relates to the topic of this
+blog. What is the proper Stage four relation to the cultural
+wars? It seems to me that if we accept these four stages as
+describing something about the groups in the society (and I have
+hard time to do it, but for lack of other models, I do accept
+it), then the fourth stage believers are back in their
+uncomfortably lonely position: on one side there are stage two
+conservatives fighting for the “Ol’ time religion” against the
+slaughter of stage three liberals from the coasts. And our 4th
+stage believer is somewhere between them trying to question firm
+conclusions and strongholds of both sides.
+
+One more piece of history: I was in Boston when the Massachusetts
+Supreme Court allowed gay marriages in the Commonwealth of
+Massachusetts, and the parliament was discussing possibility of
+adopting some kind of “defense of marriage” amendment which would
+overrule the court’s decision. Suddenly whole pro-/anti-gay
+cultural war was very strictly localized, and the Boston Commons
+around Beacon Hill (seat of the government in Massachusetts)
+changed into one big battleground of this cultural war. Majority
+of participants were local supporters of gay marriage, but there
+were substantial groups of opponents mostly coming from the
+outside of Massachusetts. I remember watching the posters of both
+sides (something about extending human rights from
+African-Americans to gays, and on the other side I remember
+slogan “God hates fags” with some Biblical quotations by Westboro
+Baptist Church of Topeka, owners of the website `God Hates
+Fags`_). I was thoroughly confused by both sides, which seemed to
+present these two positions as the only ones possible, and yet
+I knew very strongly that I would like to be as far as possible
+from both of them. A friend, apparently battling the same
+thoughts, said suddenly “This is as close to the Hell as I’ve
+ever got.”
+
+To be specific and considering the gay marriage issue as an
+example, let me show what I would think could be a reasonable
+thinking of a stage four Christian (and of course, I don’t think
+it is the only one, I guess many of you won’t agree with many of
+my premises and conclusions; it’s more about a way of thinking
+than about particular issues). So, first of all I have to declare
+that I believe homosexuality is a sin (in the sense “missing the
+best God prepared for us”, not that I would believe homosexuals
+are bad people). Although I have never struggled with
+homosexuality myself, I have been actively participating in the
+Desert Stream Ministries (the inner healing ministry founded and
+mostly still led by former homosexuals) and I count some former
+homosexuals as my friends. However, I am also persuaded that
+beating sinners with a big poster “You are a sinner” usually
+doesn’t bring healing, and my role is not to persuade gays to
+give up on their lifestyle, but to be present and willing to help
+them in the moment they decide they would like to find a way back
+to the fullness of life God has prepared for them (be it a single
+life or eventually even marriage).
+
+Given these two premises, I am in the wide arena of possible
+conclusions with not very certain opinion on possible legislative
+dealing (or non-dealing) with the matter. If I accept as given,
+that there are many people who are still living in the homosexual
+relationship (or in other words, who haven't accepted God’s plan
+for their life yet), then it would be probably humane to make for
+them living conditions acceptable. That includes certainly some
+kind of official acknowledgment of their relationship allowing
+them wide variety of legal advantages otherwise provided by law
+for husband and wife (e.g., right to visit each other in
+hospital, getting sick-leave when caring for a sick partner,
+inheritance, let’s abstain for sake of brevity from discussion on
+the issue of adoption by gay partners). I wouldn’t call this
+legal arrangement “marriage”, because that really signifies
+approval of what I believe is not a healthy lifestyle, but
+otherwise I would go long way towards making supportive
+environment for the life of gay couples.
+
+One observation from this side of the Pond. It is interesting
+that the “Godless Europe” has in this issue much less problems
+than people in America. Given the long history of atheism (and
+tendency towards socialism) most European countries have an
+institute of some kind of non-marriage official relationship
+(originally for heterosexuals who didn't want to have anything to
+do with Church in times when marriages were still closely linked
+to religious ceremony). They are usually not very popular (I
+believe every European country has now as an option secular
+marriages in the town hall), I think many Europeans don't even
+know such institute exists, but their mere existence made it very
+easy for most European countries to adopt some kind of registered
+partnership for homosexuals as an option and (with some
+exceptions) I don't know about much struggle to open classical
+marriages to gay couples. Again, I don’t think this is the only
+possible solution and I am not willing to defend it with putting
+on the line my honor, my property, and my life, but I would love
+to participate in the discussion about these questions with other
+people interested more in discussion than in cultural wars.
+
+However, even more importantly, I would hope that Christians
+would be able to distinguish when they are fighting for The Right
+Thing™ and when for promotion of their status in the society. And
+I am afraid, many times with many Christian organizations and
+politicians, I am not persuaded they see it.
+
+.. _God Hates Fags: http://www.godhatesfags.com
diff --git a/faith/give-me-your-tired.rst b/faith/give-me-your-tired.rst
index 9199d12..5c7ce93 100644
--- a/faith/give-me-your-tired.rst
+++ b/faith/give-me-your-tired.rst
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ Give me your tired
 For all those who consider themselves to be my friends I have one
 rather depressing message: couple times in my life somebody
 pointed how many of my friends are losers. I have always found
-among my friends many people who were strangely unsuccessful in
-the basic business of living their lives. People on the edge or
+among my friends people who were strangely unsuccessful in the
+basic business of living their lives. People on the edge or
 beyond the of being unemployed, people with mostly failing
 career, people on the edge or beyond the edge of their divorce,
 but also people whose disaster was pure force majeure: one of my
diff --git a/faith/good-petunia-stories.rst b/faith/good-petunia-stories.rst
index 901e77b..032f341 100644
--- a/faith/good-petunia-stories.rst
+++ b/faith/good-petunia-stories.rst
@@ -32,6 +32,19 @@ I know about these:
 * “`the family evans by dirgewithoutmusic`_” with the most
   awesome Petunia, which is rather unpleasant, but still she
   cares about both of her boys.
+
+* “`Petunia Takes Charge by Leath1`_” which is one of those
+  Petunia-is-secretly-witch. The author meant well, but the
+  result is weird, but I am certain some may like it.
+
+* “`Harry Potter and the Magical Guardian`_” is absolutely
+  perfect story, where Dursleys turn out to be very different
+  than in the canon.
+
+* Dursleys in the stories by `Stephen Ratliff`_ are not
+  automatically good, but they are usually not comically bad, and
+  their relationship with Harry is much more complicated and
+  redeemable than in the canon.
   
 There is a one where Petunia lives in Diagon Alley with both her
 boys (Dudley and Harry) above the bookstore running a kind of
@@ -99,3 +112,12 @@ I have found these later:
 
 .. _`Acceptance by AsphodelWolf15`:
    https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11956922
+
+.. _`Petunia Takes Charge by Leath1`:
+   http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4067744
+
+.. _`Harry Potter and the Magical Guardian`:
+   http://www.fanfiction.net/s/13308768
+
+.. _`Stephen Ratliff`:
+   https://www.fanfiction.net/u/62350/Stephen-Ratliff