Art Fix. Bethany Barton.
One of my favorite humans, a title I don’t throw around lightly, Bethany Barton is a mover, a shaker, and a creator. Historically, it has seemed that in order to elicit raw grit and truth, an artist has to have been certifiably insane, in a bad place in his life, cutting his ear off, wanting to kill himself etc. Bethany may be certifiably insane, but in no way is she the kind of artist whose work has been created solely out of her angst ridden, derpression laden humanity.
What’s impressive is how raw her work is. It’s real. It’s the truth. It connects. It’s like you layed down, fell asleep, and your dreams starting sketching over in the corner. But your dreams use pretty colors and make fun shapes. They even draw awesome little rawring dinosaurs to get their points across. Bottom line, is that despite their lack of straight lines and solid forms, they make sense to your soul.
Is this not what art is?
I think so.
Bethany has got it going on. Buy her book. Support her love.
Bethany sent this to me today. Few have appealed to the public this honestly, curtly, and profusely. Thank you, Betts.
Surrounded by Pharisees.
This campaign is bringing out the ugly in people.
The ugly in, mostly, sadly, those who call themselves Christians.
Not all of them, no, of course… but SOO many that it’s making me ill.
Some of them I know.
More than I ever would have thought.
Bringing the fire and brimstone.
Alienating beautiful, wonderful, people who have been put in their lives, who lead different lives; all in front of my eyes, and I am speechless.
It’s all I could think of all day.
All day while I painted trim semi-gloss white.
This abortion issue. I could write a novel.
The Jews of Jesus day refused to believe that Jesus was their Messiah (“anointed one”) in fulfillment of the prophecies because they expected a political hero. Someone to save them from the Romans. Someone to give them control of their state again. A king who would instate a Theocracy.
Imagine that state of mind, and you get a carpenter-turned-Rabbi. Not even a good lookin’ one, according to the scriptures.
I feel like modern Christians in America are looking for the same thing the Jews wanted.
(And NO, I’m not, in any way, comparing Obama to Jesus, so quit going there)
They want a theocracy. (HA! I just accidentally typed theocrazy and find that Freudian). They want their leader to govern their morals and the morals of their neighbors.
But that is not the job of the President of The United States of America.
The President exists to protect and govern our FREEDOMS. NOT our morality.
To make our neighbors follow our moral beliefs BY LAW does not keep them from sinning.
To keep a woman from getting a LEGAL abortion does not save her soul. Prosecuting her for breaking that law does not bring her closer to God.
To keep a gay couple from getting MARRIED in the eyes of the state does NOT have ANY EFFECT on their eternal souls. You are keeping them from a piece of paper. A contract. From health benefits. From hospital visits. From FREEDOMS that our government was created to PROTECT.
OUR GOVERNMENT WAS NOT CREATED TO PROTECT OUR MORALITY.
In the same sense, God made human beings free so that they might choose to love him. Our government should exist to protect our freedoms, thus allowing us to make free choices. Are we to choose “good” because all other choices are taken from us…?
“I know I shall have have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who choses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, litle 6655321.” - A Clockwork Orange (the awesome novel, not the movie I dislike).
A person should not be denied rights for not being a part of the majority religion.
“Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” people.
Jesus would have looked like a ROCKSTAR if he’d given the Jews a religious reason to avoid their unfair taxes. (Sure, he would have made a lot of leaders mad, but he was doing that already.) But he took the Pharisees question and answered, “This is a matter of legal documents, and taxes, and things that have nothing to do with our hearts before God. Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”
I have so much more to say. So many verses to reference. God is in my brain right now, feeding me more and more. But I MUST sleep. I’m in the middle of a job & SO many hours of work are ahead of me tomorrow.
My name is Bethany Barton. And I am filled with love. For just about everybody. I want us all to feel the same.
I shall go to sleep and await the crowds with pitchforks at my door in the morning. Don’t worry, I’ve been called a heretic before… (Hell, so has Jesus)
