Sincerely Amanda
The Writings Of Amanda Read

Within his first few months in office, President Obama has been photographed bowing to a Muslim king and recorded telling the Muslim world that Islam has a “proud tradition of tolerance,” all the while keeping mum about the unprincipled election fiasco that is keeping Ahmadinejad in power over Iran…

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(Image by The Cross-Eyed Blog and Webzine)

I should be working on the several articles I need to write instead of this blog post at the moment, but I think I need to hurry up and post an update on my blog.  It helps to keep the pressure on me to accomplish things if I write on my blog that I’m going to do it.

- First of all, I’m now the Worldview/News Columnist for the Cross-Eyed Blog and Webzine (my most recent article can be found here).  Hopefully within the next few hours and days I will have a few new articles there!  Look out for my upcoming worldview topics on…

- The History Book of the Universe - fascinating things about the validity of the Bible, including new things I discovered about the Hebrew language and Biblically recorded scientific facts.

- The Devil’s Argument - how one of the most famous arguments against the Bible as the WORD of GOD is unwittingly one of the greatest arguments for it (something of my own observation).

- Commentary on President Obama’s foreign policy vs. that of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush (and maybe a few other Presidents), and the debate over the roles of tradition, liberty and government, highlighting the Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine debates over the French Revolution…which will probably result in a discussion of the latest Home School Legal Defense Association’s very important message: http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200906161.asp.

- Abigail and I have had a great time learning to weave with Mrs. Nancy Lee, and if you would like to know more about it, I’ve got another Girlhood Home Companion article in the works…

- Through the grace of YAHWEH, I have every intention of some how working all these literary projects out to make sense.

Around the weekend of Rachel’s birthday (May 30th), a friend of Grandmomma’s said they needed extra models in a fashion show in Birmingham.  Our dear grandparents generously brought us on a trip to the beautiful Renaissance Ross Bridge hotel to spend a night and then try on a few expensive clothes at the mall (quite different from my favorite denim skirts!), along with a temporary makeover from the hair stylist and make-up artist.  Here is a collage of the wonderful time that we had:

We also had a tremendous amount of fun during a week spent with the Abbotts (read more about that on Ms. Lindy’s blog here and www.imaginatethat.blogspot.com) and the Clarks.

We stayed up late one night with the Abbotts filming The Called and the Chosen, and then we got up early just to get a nice morning scene filmed!  Here are some screen shots of our progress (there is some artwork related to the costume/character design that I can’t wait to finish and scan in as well!):

Colette, Adelia and Cecily

Cecily, Adelia and Colette. The sash that Angela (center) is wearing is the first piece that Abigail and I wove on the table loom.

Mischievous Eleanor...

The young Tavern maids confront Eleanor.

Eleanor explains herself away...

Jasyar is suspicious about the masked man in the corner...

Constance fusses over the guests' Tavern menu.

The ominous symbol tattooed on Sarkov's arm (Note: Just the work of my black ink and paintbrush ;)

"That symbol on his arm - I'm sure I've seen it before..."

Kinco

Sarkov goes ballistic (Andrew messed up the scene by misunderstanding the use of the command, "knock over the Chess pieces").

~Amanda~

Carrie Prejean. Photo by Steven Weyda www.misscaliforniausa.com

Oddly enough, the most famous Miss USA contestant this year did not actually win the Miss USA crown.  The name of the reigning Miss USA has slipped my mind, but the first runner-up, Miss California Carrie Prejean, has in some ways already been bestowed with a reigning platform: traditional marriage and Biblical correctness.

During the question round of the competition, judge Perez Hilton (who happens to be a homosexual man) asked her a controversial question regarding same-sex marriage.  As the reigning Miss California, in her response she dutifully represented her State, the citizens of which demanded the marriage-protecting Proposition 8 through popular vote.  Furthermore, she was asked for her opinion on the subject, and she gave it.  The pivotal scene and an interview with Carrie Prejean afterward can be seen here.  She explains the inner conflict she felt when presented with the question - which she believes was a test from GOD:

“At that moment, I was getting ready to answer my question, and I started saying I think that Americans, you know, we have the right to choose, but then something inside of me said, ‘Carrie, stand up for what you believe in and say what you feel and represent the majority of California. You’re Miss California!  The majority of voters believe that a marriage is between a man and a woman.’”

She also went on to say that she didn’t want to be politically correct, but Biblically correct.

Supposedly, beauty pageant contestants are not judged for the opinions they give when answering during the question round of the competition.  I remember a similar supposition when I prepared to take the ACT Writing Test, which asked questions that reminded me of Miss-America-type queries (by the way, I failed that test - basically because I responded that the question I was asked shouldn’t be an issue).  For Miss California to be so close to victory, it appears that the one thing that incited at least one judge to lower her score enough to miss it was her answer to the question about gay marriage.  Why on earth a homosexual man was on the judging panel for the Miss USA competition is beyond me, but the entire scenario has brought the issue into a spotlight for heated debate.

One thing that people need to understand is that the debate has been incorrectly defined.  Gay marriage is not a civil rights issue.  Properly speaking, you might call it an “uncivil” rights issue.  It is not dealing with prejudice and discrimination against people due to naturally occurring superficial differences such as ethnicity.  Rather, it is dealing with unnatural choices that a tiny minority of people chooses to impose upon society - choices that the majority of the world population - probably down to the most primitive tribes imaginable - considers to be wrong.  Nevertheless, any of us who refuse to accept such nonsense are called bigots…or, in the case of Miss California, berated with far worse language.

Imagine that a group of fifteen children are playing a game and two children enter the room demanding the game rules be changed to accommodate them because they have a different standard and insist they can’t do anything to change themselves.  If the fifteen players refuse because they view the two others to be wrong, and those two then repeatedly harass them about it, who are the real bigots - the stable majority or the quirky minority?

This is what mystifies me: if someone chooses to be a homosexual, they are already breaking traditional rules, so why do they even care for a pinnacle of traditional rule - marriage - to be open to them?  Evidently, it is their attempt to normalize the abnormal, and make the insane appear sane.  Just as many an elite analyst has attempted to prove that Jackson Pollack’s chaotic paint splashes have the delicate designs of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, all the while trying to make Mona Lisa’s smile out to be some sort of mysterious omen, and others have elevated the Big Bang to sacred history while laughing at the Bible, humanists that are obsessed with one thing or another devote their lives to making sense out of nonsense and nonsense out of sense.

Like all outspoken conservative Christians, Carrie Prejean was bound to experience public backlash.  As Ann Coulter stated, “Take a Christian position in public and Satan’s handmaidens will turn all your secrets into front-page news”.  Some of the dirt dug up by Miss Prejean’s opponents included scantily clad photographs that Prejean said were a requirement for a modeling resume and not intended for publication.

“I am a Christian, and I am a model,” Prejean said in a statement released overnight to the media. “Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be.”

- http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30576251/

A liberal woman questioned Carrie Prejean’s Christianity because she appeared in the Miss USA contest wearing a two-piece swimsuit (along with the other contestants, I might add).  Interesting that a feminist never noticed immodesty before, isn’t it?  This brings to mind a clever quote I discovered as a World Views student:

“When the world goes wrong, it proves rather that the Church is right. The Church
is justified, not because her children do not sin, but because they do.”

- G. K. Chesterton

That statement is not encouraging us to sin, but rather pointing out that, sadly, the Bible’s teaching on sin is the one thing that we Christians tend to be so good at proving!  How humiliating!  However, true Christians never claim to be without sin, but rather to be redeemed from the condemnation that our sinful selves deserve.  We must repent to the best of our ability.  As a Christian woman, modesty is an area that I personally would refuse to compromise on, as we can see from the mistakes of prominent women that immodesty can give the devil an opportunity to hinder your mission and turn things to his advantage - and giving the devil an opportunity is one thing we are admonished against (Ephesians 4:27).

Back to the ideological aspect of this debate, I found the following article excerpts to be an interesting take on the blindness that is apparent in women that have fallen for the misogyny of liberal feminism:

“Liberals wouldn’t attack James Dobson with the amount of bile they’ve directed at a 21-year-old beauty contestant. It’s not just Christianity — it’s women liberals hate…liberals are ferocious misogynists. They share Muslims’ opinion of women, differing only to the extent that liberals also support a woman’s right to have an abortion and to perform lap dances…

…You’d be better off in a real burqa than under the authority of a liberal American male…

…But what is crying out for an explanation is why every bubble-head TV news anchorette from a nice, churchgoing red state ends up adopting the political views of Karl Marx…The only way to protect yourself is to do the liberal male’s bidding, as the bubble-head anchorettes do, or stand on the rock of Christianity.

From Katie Couric on CBS to Norah O’Donnell on MSNBC, the whole stable of TV anchorettes weirdly have the exact same politics as their liberal masters. It’s the ideological burqa women are required to wear to work in the mainstream media. As with a conventional burqa, it enforces conformity and severely restricts the vision.

Now, another beautiful Christian has thrown off the liberal burqa, thereby inciting mass hysteria throughout the liberal establishment. Prejean doesn’t care. She is blazing across the sky, as impotent nose-pickers jockey for a piece of her reflected light by hurling insults at her.”

- Ann Coulter

We have missions to accomplish, and though none of us followers of CHRIST will be perfect in this fallen world through our own fleshly power, if we acknowledge the LORD in all our ways, HE shall direct our paths (Proverbs 3:6)!

NOTE: You can also find my slightly revised version of this article on The Cross-Eyed Blog and Webzine.

Now that I’m finished with college for this semester, I plan to stay busy with a lot of other things.  Actually, I already have been busy.  I’m still working on that portrait of Beth and Jenny that I began last year.  I really want to work on my art this summer and perhaps start selling prints, etc. through an online shop.  We also have farm projects going on as well.  We have a setting hen on over a dozen eggs in the clutch pen and we have a lot of vegetables planted in the garden.  Abigail’s bee hive arrived in the mail yesterday, and LORD willing we’ll have some guineas to add to the menagerie later this month.

So, my goals for this summer are…

- Paint and draw as much as possible and perhaps make a little money in the process.

- Finish knitting projects.

- Finish sewing costumes for The Called and The Chosen (the designs are posted here).

- Film more things for Imaginate That Productions.

- Launch Not Just An Opinion (check it out! Anyone else interested in participating?).

- Begin new books/e-books.

- Possibly revise The Crusading Chemist yet again, or write a stage adaptation.

- Maybe start writing some new screenplays.

- Contribute more articles to more sources.

- Study Hebrew (which I began but didn’t finish when I was 12) and read all the literature I haven’t had the time to read!

- Get that Dramatizing History series launched for real (now that I’ve studied some interesting things about Theatre and Theatre history in my Drama class, I have a lot more to contribute!).

We’ll see what comes of all that.  I hope to write on my blog more frequently now.  I think I hear a tornado siren blaring.  Suppose I ought to go now…

MAY GOD BLESS,

~Amanda~

A few weeks ago we had a family Passover dinner.  Mom prepared unleavened bread (homemade tortillas), horseradish (the bitter herbs), chicken (since we didn’t have lamb), rice, vegetables and cranberry sauce.  Mom set two lit candles on our long dining room table, and I set up my laptop on the little corner table so we could watch the live Pesach (Passover) webcast from the ministry and church in Texas, Glory of Zion.

It’s a pity that more Christians aren’t in the habit of celebrating Passover, because Passover really is a Christian celebration.  It was given to the Israelites as a remembrance of their salvation in Egypt and as a symbolic foretelling of their salvation to come.  When the blood was painted on the door frames of the Israelite houses in Egypt, it was actually done in the formation of the cross (left doorpost, right doorpost, and lintel, Exodus 12:7).  The LORD’s Supper is actually the culmination of the Passover celebration, because it was during that Passover season with the disciples that CHRIST revealed HIS Blood and Body to be the unblemished sacrifice.  We are saved by the same one-and-only SAVIOR, and Passover is such a powerful testimony to YAHWEH’s perfect plan!

We had to wait awhile to eat as we watched and listened to the music and sermon, but I think it was worth it.  It was interesting that the speaker pointed out that Passover was originally meant to be celebrated in the home, as a home-church sort of gathering (which is very familiar in our household!).  So, doing your own simple Passover meal at home is the original way to celebrate!  Following along with the service, we drank the red grape juice and broke the unleavened bread.  The least favorite part for everyone is eating the bitter herbs straight.  It isn’t supposed to taste good, as it is a reminder of the bitterness of slavery that GOD’s people endured in Egypt.  It also now serves as a reminder of the suffering and bitterness that JESUS endured when HE went to the cross in our place.  Last year when we had Passover at our friends the Williams’ house, we ate the bitter herbs not quite knowing what to expect (haha!).  I didn’t realize how painfully strong horseradish really is!  This year little Benjamin (age 2) cried after tasting his horseradish. :-)  But the meal afterwards was delicious!  It is not doom and gloom and sorrow and wanting that is to be focused on during the Passover feast.  As followers of CHRIST, our focus is the rejoicing and giving of thanks that we are spared and our LORD is risen!

~Amanda~