Lower Burrell is quiet, too quiet

Carolyn Gavasto thinks the town is too quiet. So in order to shake things up, her store Next To Nature, is organizing a pajama party benefit for the Tarentum-based Alle-Kiski HOPE Center. Yesterday's Valley News Dispatch carries a story about the benefit event.

The Alle-Kiski HOPE Center is the local domestic violence center, offering a crisis hotline, a shelter, counseling, education, and advocacy.

Women who want to register for the pajama party can call the store at 724-339-3822. Next To Nature is located at 3293 Leechburgh Road, Lower Burrell and is a gift shop featuring a variety of pieces of jewelry, art, and collectibles. The store is divided into several rooms in which the goods are arranged thematically.

For example, the Sugar and Spice room featured items for the kitchen, and the day I visited, coffee was made for any visitors.

The Almost Heaven room featured angels.

The Pocketful of Posies room room features dolls and baby items.

Next To Nature also has an online store.

While I was visiting at the store they were wrapping gifts that had been donated for the pajama party, and came across a cross with the inscription MMLJ. They asked me if I knew what it stood for. It certainly was not a traditional inscription on a Christian item. I hazarded a guess: "My Mother Loves Jesus."

They were impressed.

I was wrong.

A short internet search led me to the explanation. But what I am trying to figure out is why God would give a Christian ministry four words that "create an immediate response from God", and then allow those four words to be trademarked and copyrighted, limiting who can use them and where they can put them in making the grace of God available to others. Shades of the indulgences controversy of centuries ago ....

File under : Hope Center, Lower Burrell, Tarentum, domestic violence, religion