As you know from my last post, I was devastated by World Vision’s reversal, under pressure, of a previous policy decision to welcome people in legal same-sex marriages as employees. Today’s post is less about the decisions themselves than how they made me feel about many of my fellow Christians—those at World Vision and those whose vocal opposition to same-sex marriage brought about World Vision’s reversal. I was angry. And I was really, really sad. (Still am.) I am tempted to... Read more
A colleague expressed frustration yesterday at the accusatory back-and-forth that has resulted from World Vision’s initial decision earlier this week to allow people in legal same-sex marriages to work for their organization, and reversal of that decision two days later. Certainly there is some of that happening. But as I explained to her, my grief and anger over what happened isn’t about accusing other Christians of being hateful or homophobic. Briefly, these are my biggest concerns with what happened this... Read more
I support the ordination of women and LGBTQ people because if I didn't, I would have to look people in the eye and tell them that I don't believe that their call to ministry is real. Read more
I don't understand how prayer works. But I believe in a God who is good, a God who is love. I keep praying because I believe that prayer, somehow, makes that goodness and love more real and accessible in the midst of whatever nightmares mark our days. Read more
Now that I own a Kindle, my ever-raging thirst for new reading material can be assuaged with a few finger swipes. Because I have wide-ranging taste and am relatively choosy about which books earn the swipe, I rarely regret a purchase. But last week I regretted not only buying a particular book, but also the time I invested in reading it. The book was a memoir, written by a non-writer with some help from a published author, with a highly... Read more
One of the best books I’ve read over the past couple of years, of any kind, was the beautiful, moving, and hard sort-of-spiritual memoir, Love and Salt: A Spiritual Friendship in Letters by Amy Andrews and Jessica Griffith. Amy and Jess started writing to one another during Lent 2005, when Amy was preparing to convert to Catholicism and Jess was serving formally as her sponsor, and less formally as her friend. As I wrote in my review for a Patheos Book Club,... Read more
An New York Times op ed by Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society cautions against FDA approval of a technique that could produce genetically modified babies. The FDA is considering mitochondrial manipulation technologies, which would allow women at risk of bearing children with mitochondrial disease to have healthy, genetically related children. In mitochondrial disease, which affects several thousand U.S. children each year, the cells’ mitochondria, or “power houses,” fail to convert food into energy. Disease symptoms can range... Read more
A post making the Facebook rounds claims that “a mix of honey and cinnamon cures most diseases.” Mix honey and cinnamon together and your arthritis pain will vanish, your lost hearing will be restored, the flu virus ravaging your body will be killed, and your eczema and ringworm will disappear! I know I should ignore this stuff. But I can’t. Every outrageous health claim I come across online (and there are many) cuts me to the quick, because of what... Read more
Last Wednesday was the breaking point for me. The last straw. The bottom of the iceberg. We were midway through a school vacation in which we had no plans, I was trying to work four or five hours a day as usual, most of our first floor was inaccessible because of a kitchen renovation, and the rest of the house was a wreck—a gritty tableau of construction dust, snowy/salty bootprints, dog and cat hair, and dirty dishes. Cheered by the... Read more
Recently, several Christian writers I follow have made the point that we are not Jesus. Probably we Christians should have figured this out several thousand years ago, but apparently we are slow learners. Here’s why this little bit of truth is so important, particularly in this era of rampant Internet trollery and culture wars and lots of folks getting fed up with a religion that claims to be centered on love and forgiveness but instead appears to be obsessed with judgment, division,... Read more
Ellen Painter Dollar
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