Stand Up, Speak Up, Be Heard!

It’s Day 85 of my 100 Day Challenge and this is my first controversial blog. I am encouraging you to stand up, speak up and be heard! That’s right, I’m voicing my opinion. I’ve got a few issues, so here goes:

Issue #1

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is re-grouping all the churches in the archdiocese into Parishes of Families. Friday is the big “reveal” day when we all find out where we are going. Parish lives will dramatically changed as each parish will come together to form a family with up to 6 parishes. Some areas may not change too much as there were are already some churches that have been “clustered” in the past few years.

The lack of men wanting to become priests, the large number of retiring priests and the decline of Mass attendance in general over the years has contributed to this overdue need to combine. We are going from 212 parishes to just 50-60 families of parishes. Each family have 2-3 priests.

Some churches will close. People will drive a little further to attend Mass. Some staff will lose jobs. That’s just the reality. People are going to be upset. The Archdiocese is asking for our input. They have a website just for comments and suggestions from people so stand up, speak up, be heard. Voice your concerns and opinions. If you are in the Cincinnati area, the website is www.beaconsoflightaoc.org. There are many older people in our communities who don’t have computers and internet, so If you know someone, offer to help them out.

Which leads me to my next issue…

Issue #2

I’ve been a little frustrated with people in general lately. It seems we’ve gotten lax, gotten a little too comfortable in some areas of life. I recently noticed at local high school football game, most people are ok to not sing the National Anthem. At this game, a lot of the fans didn’t even stand and cheer their kids on and they were winning! The poor kids on the other team faired worse. They didn’t even have a busload of fans in their stands.

We’ve all just become so complacent. We’ve become zombies in life and we are giving up our freedoms in the process. It’s time to stand up, speak up, be heard.

Issue #3

I’m not an anti-vaxer, but I believe I should be able to say whether or not I want chemicals injected into my body for a disease I’ve already had and lived to talk about. I have the antibodies to fight it off. If they mandate this vaccine, will the government then be able to tell me I have to have every vaccine for every disease that poses a threat?

My objections are mine and I own them. I don’t want to be injected with something that potentially in the future could use aborted fetal cell lines to develop and test. Furthermore, I don’t want anything from a company that would think it was ok to use these cell lines to develop anything in the first place. I object! That’s my right, isn’t it? This is America, after all or it used to be.

At the time of this writing, 693,000 deaths had been attributed to COVID in the US. In 2017, over 850,000 deaths were attributed to abortion in that year alone! Where is the outrage, the mandates against killing innocent children in the womb? My body, my choice seems to work for abortion rights but not vaccines.

Action Steps

Stand up, speak up, be heard. By not speaking up, you will slowly lose your freedoms and then wonder what happened. Share your voice. Sing the anthem. Stand up for your beliefs and values. But do it through love and respect because other people have opinions, too. Don’t demean or devalue them. Their opinion may not be the same as yours, but that’s ok. But at least, let yours be heard. That’s how we learn from each other.

Things are changing in this country, especially this week in my little corner of the world. I guess I needed a way to vent my concerns and let go of some stress.

“Church” is going to look very different for many people, especially those who identify their faith with a building they’ve always attended. So stand up, speak up, be heard.

Sing the national anthem at your next sporting event, even if no one else does. Have the courage to stand up for your faith and your beliefs. Share your opinions, comments and suggestions. What do you believe? And why?

Ask God to intervene and heal the division in this great country, in our neighborhoods and families. Help us not to be so lax in life. Let’s go back to church, wherever it may be before we lose that privilege, too.

My prayer for today is “Jesus I trust in You.” Bring your concerns before the Lord and after each one just repeat, “Jesus I trust in You.”

Thanks for reading. God bless.–Barb