One American gets arrested every 38 Seconds...

 

Allright, so the government is only telling you what you can and can't smoke while at the same time charging tax payers millions of dollars a day in order to keep you from doing so. But what's next? Tattoos? Piercings? Body Art? What you can eat, what you can read, what you can listen to or watch on TV?

Make no mistake, whenever anyone tries to keep you from expressing yourself or from doing what you want with your body and your life--that is a violation of your 1st Amendment Rights.

Where do you think it's going to stop?

How many starving artists do you know? How many people do you know that think that artists and musicians don't have 'real jobs', who aren't making any 'real' contributions to society? How many people do you know have to sacrifice their talents, their time or their livelihood over commitment to their art?

How many of you live in a neighborhood with a school that has removed music or art or drama from the curriculum for the sake of budget cuts?

Being a Minister allows me to speak publicly, legally, about these violations. This gives me the right to defend you--your people, your culture--in a court of law, to your coworkers and to the general public in exercise of preservation of your Human Rights.

Creative people are on the verge of losing their culture due to prejudice, hate and misunderstanding. And, most of all, due to government action.

Ministers maintain the traditions that are important to their community.

That's what Ministry means--the preservation of your rights, your culture, and your traditions. As Musicians, Artists and Creative People.

You are allowed doubt. You're allowed to doubt me and express disbelief in me and in your 1st Amendment Rights and my ability to defend them. At which point I invite you to choose another minister who might know better how this should be done. I, however, am not allowed to doubt myself or the methods I describe on this webpage.

I'm not allowed doubt, I'm not allowed to lose my faith or to allow people to express disbelief in me without some kind of response. Because once I start to doubt, I lose everything that makes me a minister--I lose my faith. And everything I've sacrificed in order to do this...is lost.

The Catholic Church is one of the richest religious organizations in the world. Through unity, volunteerism and donations they are supporting charities that are important to them, they're helping out disaster victims and families in crisis, they're volunteering in their communities, taking care of their children and keeping each other healthy and happy.

We could be doing the exact same thing by uniting ourselves around a common belief. So I say we follow their lead by creating a Ministry of Art & Music so that we can unite as a community behind the idea that we are a unique and vibrant culture with traditions that need to be preserved.

Brother Pateticus is an ordained Friar with the Universal Life Church.

For more information, please read:

Our Daily Bread
Sharing the Good Seed
http://www.ulc.org