Patheos has invited bloggers to reflect this month on what we are grateful for in our spiritual lives. As I was considering that focus, I was also contemplating a question I received from a reader via email about what denominations I might recommend for a committed Christian who tends to lean left on political and social issues. I am no denominational expert or church sociologist, so the only way I know how to answer that last question is to share... Read more
As the one-year anniversary of my book publication approaches in January, I’m devoting Fridays from now until the end of the year to revisiting the book’s major themes. Each Friday, I’ll post an excerpt from No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Suffering in an Age of Advanced Reproduction, with a question for reflection at the end. You’re invited to respond to the question in the comments. Given the emotional and important (if a bit contentious) conversation on... Read more
This is the second of two posts on Jewish perspectives on reproductive technology. I posted Part 1 yesterday. Central Role of Procreation in Jewish Theology Judaism emphasizes the procreative purpose of marriage—its role in fulfilling God’s command to be fruitful and multiply—to a greater extent than many Christian denominations do. Having children is one of the 613 mitzvot (commandments or rules) that Jews are to live by. Persecution of Jews, and tragically successful efforts to eradicate entire Jewish populations, has... Read more
Frequently, when discussing reproductive issues (abortion, repro tech, etc.) among Christians, Old Testament scriptures come up. Psalm 139, for example, is frequently cited for its beautiful notion that God knows us intimately from our earliest days in the womb: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when... Read more
Messages about Andrew Solomon’s new book, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity have been coming steadily into my inbox over the past few days. The author interviewed hundreds of families in which a child has some identifiable difference—autism, Down syndrome, violent criminal tendencies, being the child of rape. His resulting narrative focuses on “a crucial question: to what extent parents should accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help... Read more
My husband and I are Lord of the Rings movie junkies. I believe I could re-enact the entire Helm’s Deep battle sequence in The Two Towers, if only I had the muscle strength and dexterity to, say, mimic Legolas’s tossing of his dwarf pal Gimli across a chasm at a signal moment in the story. We have apparently passed our love of Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth on to our oldest daughter, who plans to celebrate her upcoming 13th birthday by taking friends to... Read more
My son’s Halloween costume—a rock star in the Freddy Mercury/Kiss/Steven Tyler over-the-top mode—was absolutely perfect for him. Not because he loves to sing and dreams of being on American Idol, although he does. But because this costume offered him freedom. Freedom to wear the sparkly, colorful clothes he would like to wear every day, but doesn’t because he knows they will elicit comments from others, most commonly, “Why are you wearing girl clothes?” Freedom, for one day, to be who... Read more
One of my family’s cherished, non-negotiable traditions, ranking right up there with summer camping trips and New Year’s Eve fondue, is an October drive to western Connecticut, where we pick apples, sip hot cider, and eat fresh-from-the-oven cider donuts on a hilltop farm that has been in the same family since the 1780s. Apples are central to autumn in Connecticut, not only in our household (where we eat some form of cooked apple—sauce, pie, crisp—nearly daily until all the apples... Read more
Last week, my oldest daughter had some oral surgery, and my sister sent us a new game to help her pass the time while recovering. The game was “Catchphrase”—an electronic, timed version of “Password,” in which an electronic module provides words, and one player tries to get the other players to guess the word with detailed rules on what sorts of clues are and aren’t allowed. It was perfect for a Friday family game night—fun, fast-paced, not too long, simple... Read more
Several years ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Confessions of a Church-Skipping Mom.” At my wits’ end after several years of wrangling reluctant, whining, restless children to church, I admitted that some Sundays, we stayed home just so I wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle. Too often, my own need for worship and reflection went unmet as I spent my Sunday mornings shushing and corralling my kids. Things are better now, in part because my children are all... Read more
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