Steven Skelley

Virginia Margaret McWilliams - Gone But Not Forgotten Eulogy by Rev. Steven Skelley One day I walked past a large stone monument. Engraved on the side were the words, "Gone but not forgotten." Reading that inscription, I thought to myself, "How sad it would be to have lived your life only to be forgotten by those who once knew you." Or, "How sad it would be to be remembered, but only remembered for all the wrong reasons." There are some people, though, that don't fit into either of those categories. They may be gone but they are not forgotten. We remember them, not because of some unforgivable wrong but because they did so much right. Today, we are here to honor one such person. I want to welcome you on behalf of the friends and family of Virginia Margaret McWilliams. Your presence here shows your love and respect for the one we all called Grandma Mac. I thank you all for coming out to honor and pay your respects, to comfort the family an

MEMORIES OF MY MOM by Steven Skelley My mother’s name was Sherill May McWilliams (Skelley) but I called her Mom. Mom was very beautiful as a teen and twenty-something. I always thought she looked like Lucille Ball when she was young. She looked like an old-fashioned movie star. I’ve seen photos of her as a teen wearing a sleeveless, fitted dress blouse, Capri pants and sunglasses. She was young, fit, thin and beautiful. When I close my eyes and try to picture her as an adult, I remember her wearing pant suits with coordinated slacks and tops or sundresses with floppy movie-star hats and sunglasses. Mom liked to dye her hair red or light reddish brown. She wore red finger nail polish and lipstick. This made me think of her even more like the young and beautiful Lucille Ball. If I close my eyes, I can picture Mom right now, about 35 years old on a summer day, wearing a scarf on her head and sunglasses on her eyes, somehow also looking like Jacqueline Kenne

Acclaimed Historical Novel Speaks Of Naples, Integrity And Spirituality by Steven Skelley The history of beautiful Naples, FL is a major ingredient in the delightfully emotionally-moving recipe of Patrick D. Smith’s acclaimed novel Forever Island. Two dear friends recommended the book to me recently and, as I began to read, I was immediately transported back in time to a land of both a forgotten kind of integrity and yet also a seemingly insatiable greed to remove nature from our beautiful state and replace it with development after development and golf course after golf course. Forever Island is the story of Charlie Jumper, a native American who lives in the Everglades not far from Naples. His wife, Lillie Tiger, makes clothes that are often sold to the white people in Naples. They try to live a simple life in tune with nature, only taking what they need and always trying to give back to their environment as they understand that life and nature work together in the big plan of

The Gift Of A Good Example by Steven Skelley "The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble," said Blaise Pascal. I just buried my big sister this week. It was just a few months ago that what she thought was a nasty cold was discovered to be cancer. We buried her body right next to mom and grandma McWilliams on the hillside in an old, country cemetery in a small town in Ohio. Afterward I sat with my brother and sister and nieces and nephews and we went through old photo albums. I began to see the thread of the tapestry of the family and friends and influences that have affected me over the years. Tennyson once said, "I am a part of all that I have met." Morell said, "The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example." We are all affected by, and we all affect those around us. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes it is not. What kind of affect did I remember this week? I remembe

The Idiocy Behind SODOMY Laws  by Steven Skelley Religious fanatics and the right-wing politicians they have purchased have begun proclaiming the need to reinstate sodomy laws. They claim that if LGBTQ citizens are allowed the same basic civil rights as every other American citizen, God's wrath will surely descend upon us because of the acceptance of "sodomizers." As ridiculous as that claim seems in itself, the story behind the term "sodomy" is even more ridiculous. Let us take a look. The Old Testament section of the Bible that is so often quoted by religious fanatics contains a Jewish writing commonly called The Book of Genesis. One of the heroes of this section is a man named Lot. Lot took his wife and daughters and moved to a city named Sodom. This is where the term sodomy will originate. God is not happy that Lot has relocated to Sodom. Apparently God has a lot of time on his hands and worries about what suburb you move into. God is so unhapp

Disgusting! THE AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION (one of the hate groups the Chik Fil A owner has admitted donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to) has tweeted that we need "an Underground Railroad to deliver innocent children from same-sex households." AFA's Bryan Fischer went on to say he supported KIDNAPPING children of gay parents to save them. You want to know why Chik Fil A's owner disgusts me? Because he financially supports bullshit like this. If he had said, "I gave several hundred thousand dollars to an organization that supports the kidnap and rescue of African American children from their parents," the whole country would be outraged. Because he targets LGBT American citizens instead of African Americans or Latinos, he is supported - by fools. Calling the man a Christian is an insult to Christianity. He belongs in the same category as Westboro Baptist Church. And - just for the record - if anyone had tried "kidnapping and rescui

Why do Christians lie? Isn't telling the truth one of the foundational principles of Christianity? I ran across this publication by the UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE -  http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/1181 The news article praises a Methodist seminary student / minister-in-training named Disney Weaver. (He claims his parents conceived him at Disney World - hence the catchy name). Rev.-to-be Disney claims he created a youth fitness center by utilizing unused church facilities. He claims he sought donations of equipment for youth to use in a safe environment. Unfortunately, for Disney, I know the truth. Disney had NOTHING to do with the creation of the fitness center or youth outreach.  It had been created two years before Disney was even hired at Community Methodist Church in Belle Glade, Florida. How do I know this? It's quite simple - Belle Glade area youth and I  created the youth outreach fitness center in unused church rooms in 2000 w