Clamour & News
from Underbridge
Labyrinth Walk September 21, 2008
explore the Laby-
rinth at Louis-
ville Presbyte-
rian Seminary.
Weather permit-
ting. Please
check the PPF
website for bulle-
tins. We will
begin at 5:30
p.m. There will
be no service at
Mellwood Arts
and Entertain-
ment Center that
day.
According to
Wikipedia:
Labyrinths can
be thought of as
symbolic forms of
Labyrinth pilgrimage; peo-
Louisville Presbyterian Seminary ple can walk the
path, ascending
toward salvation
Join us on Sunday 21 or enlightenment. Many
September 2008 as we people could not afford to
Anonymous Satanism
Clamour Underbridge
for September from The Letter
God does not hear my When I checked The Bap-
prayers. That’s the word tist Faith and Message
from a particular South- after the fact I discovered
ern Baptist believer who a few discrepancies from
informed me that it was my witness’ testimony
important that I sit down but who am I to dispute
and listen to his witness. an expert.
travel to holy sites and
lands, so labyrinths and
prayer substituted for
such travel. Later, the
religious significance of September 5, 2008
labyrinths faded, and
they served primarily for
entertainment, though Please note that:
recently their spiritual While Father Jim is co-
aspect has seen a resur- pastor of Progressive
gence. Pathways Fellowship in
Louisville his opinions
Path, travel, pilgrimage
and any opinions and
and the search for the
information found in
center are all key images
Clamour Underbridge or
in Progressive Pathways
Clamour & News from
Fellowship’s mission to Underbridge are those
study the various routes of Father Jim or other
into the presence of the writers as they appear.
Divine. In our work to They do not usually rep-
bring accord to our per- resent the official policy
sonal spiritualities, the of the church.
life of our church and the
larger denominations and
faith traditions around
us, we hope to continue Inside this issue:
learning new ways to be
church and community. Labyrinth 1
Anonymous Satan- 1&
ism 2
I also plan to
What’s Up with Book 3&
keep on pray-
ing. As a mat- Chat 4
ter of fact, I’m
a professional
pray-er. The
divine ones
hear my prayers just like
always. They haven’t
checked The Baptist
Faith and Message either.
But according to my wit-
nesser my prayers are
being spoofed.
Page 2
Anonymous Satanism
continued
Spoofing is something that happens to
email. It’s part of the junk mail and
spam phenomena. An email arrives in
your mailbox that seems to be from a
friend or perhaps your church. Sur-
prise! The email is actually from some-
one who knows all the secrets of in-
creasing your breast size, penis length,
disposable income or stock portfolio.
Face to face this is referred to as bait
and switch. In the world of computers,
emails and prayers, it’s called spoofing.
It was explained to me like this. Since
I am not a Christian there is no chance
that god listens to me unless I am re-
penting. A few observations from my
perspective--the god being discussed is,
of course, the jealous god and the
Christianity of my witnesser is prac-
ticed by the scrupulous and self-elected
set. To me it seems this particular
clique of Christians worships the Bible
and has very little use for Jesus except
as a human sacrifice and the agent of
their get-out-of-hell-free insurance pol-
icy. I also wondered how the “this is a
prayer of repentance” determination
gets made. Maybe somebeing is read-
ing prayer subject lines as well as re-
routing their destination addresses.
Then it gets even better. I was told
that not only am I not a Christian but
I’m actually a Satanist, an anonymous
Satanist. Believe it or not, this is one
of those times when being gay has
nothing to do with it. My prayers are
being diverted to the in-basket of the
devil. As a matter of fact, all the god-
desses and gods are just the devil in
disguise. Color me incredulous.
Even though the jealous god is suppos-
edly all powerful, all knowing and pre-
sent everywhere at all times he has
given his cast-out chief of staff, Satan,
the power to hear and answer all the
prayers of those of us who don’t grovel
properly, read the Bible the proscribed
way and follow the “Jesus is a human
sacrifice” line. That devil really has the
inside line on the world and billions of
people.
The flip side of anonymous Satanism is
anonymous Christianity. Father Karl
Rahner, SJ proposed the theory of
anonymous Christianity way back in
1966. Father Karl said “I hold if every-
one depends upon Jesus Christ for sal-
vation, and if at the same time I hold
that many live in the world who have
not expressly recognized Jesus Christ,
then there remains in my opinion noth-
Clamour & News from Underbridge
ing else but to take up this postulate of
an anonymous Christianity.” I would
prefer to be neither an anonymous
Christian nor an anonymous Satanist
but it seems my feelings on the issue
just don’t matter.
The jealous god is not the only divine
one. He is one of many goddesses and
gods that love and care for the world
and its peoples. I pray to exactly whom
I intend to pray and whether or not my
prayer is heard depends on me and
those numbered among the divine. The
jealous god gets one vote and I tend not
to talk to him much anyway. Inciden-
tally, it takes a lot more faith than I
have to believe in Satan’s power and
might in the same way as my wit-
nesser. Nevertheless, Lucifer is not in
the prayer spoofing business nor does
he creep hither, thither and yon imper-
sonating other deities and gleefully
leading the faithful of other religions
down the road of perdition. He’s quite
busy enough pestering the jealous god
about Job and other faithful believers.
Volume 1, Issue 2 Page 3

What’s on the shelf for Book Chat?

We finished The Llangollen Ladies by
Mary Gordon. Gordon’s book is a
1930’s take on the extraordinary lives
of Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829) The
Honourable Sarah Ponsonby (1755–
1831)
Susan S. Lanser, Professor of Compara-
tive Literature and English at the Uni-
versity of Maryland at College Park has
this to say about the ladies. See her
original essay at http://www.glbtq.com/
literature/butler_ponsonby.html.
An enduring emblem of female roman-
tic friendship, Lady Eleanor Butler and
Sarah Ponsonby eloped to Wales where
they lived together for over fifty years
and entertained several important
writers.
Best known as the Ladies of Llangollen,
after the Welsh village where they lived
in "delicious Retirement," Butler and
Ponsonby were daughters of the Anglo-
Irish Ascendency who eloped together
in 1778. Ponsonby, sixteen years But-
ler's junior, lost both parents in early
childhood and her stepmother when she
was thirteen. Given into the care of her
father's cousin Lady Betty Fownes,
she was sent to Miss Parke's board-
ing school in Kilkenny.
There, in 1768, she met Butler,
youngest daughter in a Catholic
branch of an ancient and noble
family of Kilkenny. Educated in an
English Benedictine convent in
France, Butler became Ponsonby's
intellectual mentor and intimate
friend. After Ponsonby left Miss
Parke's in 1773, the two women
entered upon a secret correspon-
dence and determined to live to-
gether.
Butler and Ponsonby's first elope-
ment failed; they were discovered,
returned, and separated by their
two families. Eleanor was urged to
a convent, whereas Sarah, it was
hoped, would be married. When
both women resisted these pres-
sures and Sarah threatened to
make public the attentions of her
guardian's husband, the families re-
The Mists of Avaolon by Marion
lented and the women fled to Wales.
Zimmer Bradley
They took a cottage, which they named
Beginning October 7 through
Plas Newydd, and there settled for the
rest of their long lives. November 25

The Ladies' pastoral retreat drew many

Queen Eleanor by Polly Brooks
September 2, 16, 23 and 30
prominent visitors, including Edmund
Burke, William Wordsworth, Anna
Seward, and Stéphanie de Genlis.
Their mutual attachment, and their life
of shared reading, writing, walking,
and gardening, were celebrated and
mythologized in such contemporary
writings as Seward's "Llangollen Vale"
and Wordsworth's "Sonnet Composed
at Plas Newydd."
The women shared bed, board, books,
income, and daily walks; dressed simi-
larly in men's waistcoats and women's
skirts; signed their correspondence
jointly; named one of their dogs Sap-
pho; and refused to spend even one
night away from home. Butler's jour-
nals refer to Ponsonby as "my Beloved"
and "my sweet love," describe physical
attentions bestowed for headaches and
illnesses, and express the couple's long-
ings, when visitors were too plentiful,
to be alone again.
There has been considerable debate
about whether Butler and Ponsonby's
union should be labeled "lesbian." Dur-
ing their lifetime, implications of homo-
sexuality circulated occasionally in the
press and among visitors, although their
upperclass status and connections un-
doubtedly protected them.
Their homophobic neighbor Hester
Thrale Piozzi suspected them of Sap-
phism; Genlis considered them impru-
dent victims of an excessive sensibility.
Anne Lister, the Yorkshire woman who
recorded her own homosexual activities
in coded diaries, wrote after visiting
Llangollen in 1822, "I cannot help think-
ing that surely it was not Platonic.
Heaven forgive me, but I look within
myself & doubt."
Whether the Ladies of Llangollen have
been regarded as celibate or sexual,
their relationship has emblematized
"romantic friendship" for over two centu-
ries. Deeply immersed in the literary
culture of their day as readers, conversa-
 Book Chat Continued You are invited to any and all services of
Progressive Pathways Fellowship.
tionalists, and occasional writers, they
have also remained literary subjects.
Colette speculates about them in The
Our studio and education center is at
Pure and the Impure (1928), Constance 208 1/2 Mellwood Arts and
Stallard dramatizes their relationship in
Entertainment Center
"The Ladies of Llangollen" (1955), and
novels by Doris Grumbach (The Ladies, 1860 Mellwood Avenue
1984) and Morgan Graham (These Lov- Louisville, Kentucky 40206
ers Fled Away, 1988) imagine their life.
Elizabeth Mavor's 1971 biography re-
mains the major resource for scholars; Visit our website for more information, maps and direc-
Mavor's selections from Butler's and
Ponsonby's private writings is also a
tions.
valuable textual source.
We meet on Sundays at 5:30 p.m for informal worship and

Clamour Underbridge
a bastion in defiance of the jealous god, an outpost of refuge for the
Queandom. This is a gay, lesbian, queer and questioning space. Be
welcome and beware. Abusers and miscreants will be fed to the troll.

Mary Poppins http://clamourunderbridge.typepad.com/

December 2008.