A Mother’s Day Prayer to Our Mother God
Mother God, Today we honor the mothers of the world and we honor our Mother God. We honor the deep strength, the sheer grace, the unending love, the watchful eye of the fierce, unwavering protector. We honor the lioness, the stalwart vigil kept, the spirit fire lit, the tears bravely spilt, the strategic sacrifice, the billowing, brilliant mind which thinks, which dreams, which leads us in the harsh struggle for the greater good. For the pain of birth and the joy of life created and … [Read More...]
Your Very Cells Call the Divine into Ending Our Rape Culture
After my last post about the Patheos theme of "Defining Moments" Mike Helbert left the comment, "It's been awhile!" (Thanks for your note Mike!) It's been awhile because I've been speechlessly saddened over the past several weeks as I listened to news story after story about young women committing suicide after being raped, often not fully understanding what happened until the rapists sent pictures of the attacks viral. These 13- through 16-year-old girls were criminally violated, socially … [Read More...]
Call Me Crazy: Daring to Discern God in My Odd Defining Moments
My three most significant defining moments over the past decade have had one thing in common: they involved the decision to listen to some "crazy" people and ignore some "smart" ones. Learning to discern whose wacky wisdom to take to heart and whose sober advice to set aside has been a precarious curve, but the outcome has proven worth the risks. It all began in 2004 in a nail salon in Chelsea, near my first apartment in New York City. I had moved from Alabama less than a year before and the … [Read More...]
Repenting of Not Lenting: Forty Days of Femmevangelical
To Lent or not to Lent? 'With whom' is the question. I was raised Southern Baptist, and growing up we did not observe Lent. In some ways, probably mainly because I had never participated, it sounded exotic: 40 days of personal preparation and mysterious transformation of some sort before getting to celebrate Easter, a sober commitment required before sidling up to salvation. I came from a tradition of front-yard pictures in fluffy Easter dresses, a bunny that left elaborate baskets, and a … [Read More...]
This isn’t about Beyoncé. It’s about sex.
What would it look like for women to truly, publicly, culturally claim our power over our female sexuality? Would it look like a typical male lap-dance fantasy? Would it look like holding it closer and more geared for our own fulfillment? Or do we even know? I'm ready to start trying to find out... [Warning: there are a couple of explicit links in this post.] In the last couple days, you may have read this and this, two profoundly thought-provoking blogs by David R. Henson … [Read More...]
Sugar and spice and whatever Musburger likes… wait, remind me what we’re made of?
The first time I remember it happening to me I was probably six years old, and the bearer of the shocking news was the 1970-80’s television variety hit Hee Haw. Billed a family show brimming with widely popular songs and skits loosely based on rural Southern farm culture, the show at the time was as buzz-worthy and cloud-mind-shaping as Saturday Night Live has been for more recent generations. Hee Haw stands as my first memory of being “told” what it meant to be a woman in the … [Read More...]
The God Who Shows Up When God Disappears: Newtown, CT
The courage to take the anxiety of meaninglessness upon oneself is the boundary line up to which the courage to be can go. Beyond it is mere non-being. Within it all forms of courage are re-established in the power of the God above the God of theism. The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt. -- Paul Tillich, “The Courage to Be” Friday morning I was getting my thoughts together to write a Femmevangelical blog about the God in our … [Read More...]
Bad Faith and a Good Scandal: Kathie Lee Gifford Brings the Gospel to Broadway
Kathie Lee Gifford is a bad follower of Jesus. Her humility and sincerity in describing her personal faith journey, one that began at age 12, is indicative of a woman who leads a rich, bold life of risks and rewards, successes and struggles, questions and ... not answers, but something much more valuable: meaningful experiences. One who has tested traditional boundary lines and emerged more fluid yet more faithful for it. When it comes to right religion she is less about certainty, more about … [Read More...]
The Worst Lie of Election 2012: Women Are “Shiny Objects” of “Distraction”
Content Director's Note: This post is a part of our Election Month at Patheos feature. Patheos was designed to present the world's most compelling conversations on life's most important questions. Please join the Facebook following for our new News and Politics Channel -- and check back throughout the month for more commentary on Election 2012. Please use hashtag #PatheosElection on Twitter. Just as the repetitive, remonstrative, and sometimes shockingly disingenuous … [Read More...]
In the Bosom of God: Holy Female Embodiment in a Male Fantasy World
I have not been able to forget the news story that recently kicked off the new school year for the nation: that American University assistant anthropology professor Adrienne Pine breast-fed her feverish, fitful baby in the classroom in order to avoid cancelling the first day of class. A debate about the appropriateness of this brief, covered act—of which the class of grown adults was forewarned—erupted immediately in the national news media after the school paper reported that some … [Read More...]
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