After reading numerous posts from you, GeoFee and Ritafee, I have to confess I'm far more interested in your upbringing and early family life than anything you have to say (repeat) on the pandemic, state and church influence, etc. etc........
Rita is right about the difference between father and mother. Father was the Law and mother was Grace. Thank God mother's influence was deeply rooted and over time Father's influence declined. I am encouraged in this as the Bible regularly presents various women as the way opening to new life. This rooted in their acceptance of God's presence and determination.
Another key point in my development was my Friesian birth. The national motto of the Friesian people is "Freedom is the highest law." This concept is deeply rooted in my being. From adolescence I have refused conformity to the patterns of power. This got me kicked out of school before I was fifteen. From there I set off on an adventure of learning. This by living on the road with no income and no home. This brought me much insight concerning the meaning of human being and its lostness in error. It also inspired me to pursue the prophetic vocation. Studying and praying has led me to the place where I now am. I do not say I am fully mature spiritually. but I am well on the way.
In my young adult years I was very angry concerning the way of the world. This anger has gone away and left sorrow in its place. I now realize that anger can be a hiding place for sorrow. Letting sorrow rise has brought me forward along the way of compassion. This is expressed in my consistent advocacy for the poor and the broken. Such advocacy has led me on various occasions to be arrested and jailed. It has also placed me outside institutional norms of both Church and State.
I am well aware that following Jesus in spirit and truth will lead to rejection by the powers governing the earth in service to profit and power. It will also lead to rejection by persons who have no interest in hearing of the danger waiting in the wings as we go faster and faster along the way of progress. This motivated by the modern desire to overcome nature and establish the works of our own hands as the norm.
Rita and I are not unkind persons. We are persons longing for the waking of consciousness in the population and hoping for the ending of exploitation and oppression by the powers. Which is, in essence, the message of the prophets in all times and places. Sad to say they were mostly ignored. When they could not be ignored they were imprisoned and often sentenced to death. We see this clearly in the life and times of Jesus.
We have a choice which we must make. Either we will serve the way of life or we will serve the way of death. Sad to watch as the principalities and powers destroy the earth and its peoples. All while the great majority have no desire to know what is actually going on in and around them.
I will leave it there for the moment.