July 6

I've been at this job for nearly 4 months. When I came on board, I was aware of some degree of dysfunction, but what I'm finding is just sooooo sad. There's fiscal mismanagement to the extent that I don't know if people were stealing or simply stupid. My program directors don't seem to understand what they're doing, and I get clients calling up and spilling their guts to me. Mad, mad rants indicating a (IMHO) a lack of case management. We arranged a deal to get us out of debt with the TWO copier contracts we're in, only to find at the last minute that the deal didn't go through because of our poor credit rating.

Most of our funding comes from governmental agencies. Governmental agencies are staffed by bureaucrats. These are people who follow processes without regard to common sense. So I have people all day asking me to jump through hoops for money, without being able to tell me beforehand which hoop it is, how high I need to jump, or what I'm likely to encounter when I land. However, if I fail to execute a brilliant jump, the agency stands to lose its funding.

I have helpers who are probably well-intentioned, but who seem a bit challenged, each in various ways. People told me before I started that I should clean house; I regret not having done so, and have sort of left myself the option open. I'm currently plagued by some staffmembers who pull the "cat's away" syndrome. Which is cool with me; I'd said back in May that I was looking to make changes at the end of the summer, and my IMHO, people who have more important things to do than work should be freed up to do those things.

So my church has a gay bishop!!

They didn't mean to, of course, but there's a sitting bishop who admitted to having an affair with an underling, stating that it was consensual. My issue is only with the fact that the bishop chose to have an affair while married to a woman. When he reported it to the College of Bishops, they sat him down, putting him on administrative leave. Somehow they allowed him back, but he reportedly states he doesn't have to acknowledge anything to the people. There was a vote on whether or not his character should pass. Over 200 people said that no, his character should not pass. but over 400 people said his character should pass. What that tells me is that over 400 people in the CME church are OK with adultery and fornication. It also suggests to me that those 400 plus people are gay affirming, since at the last General Conference the church made some homophobic law about not allowing clergy to perform same-sex unions of any type, even when they're legal in the state you're in. OK, so we can't do the same-sex thing, but if you get caught in a same-sex act, that's not enough to cause your character to not pass. Hmmmm.... while I know they'd have a fit if I said it, the CME Church certainly is sounding to me like it's gay affirming. Personally, I think that's great, but somehow doubt that's what the people had in mind....