Why I Go to Church

Last updated on: February 7, 2012 at 5:53 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

I don’t particularly like going to church. In college, I loved my InterVarsity Christian Fellowship large-group meetings on Friday nights, which included lots of praise songs accompanied by guitar. But church? Not so much. My college church was a nondenominational community fellowship with a cavernous mauve-tinted sanctuary that resembled nothing more than a Holiday Inn conference room. Rather than preaching, the pastor engaged in 40-minute “teachings” in which he unpacked some Scripture passage. It was bland. It was boring. In... Read more

Good Grief, I Think I Actually Agree with Newt Gingrich

Last updated on: February 3, 2012 at 8:43 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

In case you haven’t figured this out, I am a Democrat. I will vote for Barack Obama in November, just as I did in 2008. I think Bill Clinton is one of the finest politicians of recent decades (note that I said one of the finest politicians, not husbands), and being at both of his inaugurations (particularly his first, when the hopeful spirit in our capital city was contagious) provided some of the most exciting and memorable moments of my... Read more

Patheos Peeps: Nancy French on a New Daughter’s Love of Beautiful Things

Last updated on: February 2, 2012 at 8:45 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

Every Friday, I post a link to a blog post written by one of my fellow bloggers at Patheos, a web portal devoted to religion and spirituality. I encourage my blog readers to click through to read these posts, comment, and if you like what you read, follow these bloggers as well. This week I’m featuring a post from Patheos’s “What She Said” blog, where female Patheos bloggers take turns writing about faith and family. Nancy French wrote a gorgeous... Read more

How a Diagnosis Can Both Help and Hurt

Last updated on: February 2, 2012 at 8:20 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

Looking back again at my post last week on prenatal screening for disabilities, I was arguing that many diagnoses (including my own bone disorder) have inherent qualities that cause suffering; that is, I believe that the suffering of disabilities does not stem solely from social exclusion, lack of accommodation, and cultural tendencies to see people with disabilities as “less than” people without disabilities. However, I also wrote: It may very well be that certain diagnoses that we currently perceive as... Read more

Christians: Let’s Get Real About Suffering

Last updated on: January 31, 2012 at 9:53 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

My post last week on why prenatal screening for disabilities is motivated by different impulses than prenatal screening for gender led to a lot of heated but helpful discussion. One commenter was troubled by my empathy for parents who, motivated by a desire to spare their child great suffering, terminate a pregnancy after learning that their child has a disability. He felt that I was using a typical “eugenics” argument to justify the devaluing, perhaps even the eventual extinction, of... Read more

Where Imperfect Bodies Reign

Last updated on: January 31, 2012 at 5:47 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

One day several years ago, I was in the hot tub at our local indoor pool, stretching after swimming laps. A class for parents and infants was about to start, so moms and dads were gathering near the hot tub, their wide-eyed little ones wrapped in towels. A tall, tanned young mother strolled in wearing a bright orange bikini with itty-bitty boy-short style bottoms. Her abs and cleavage and toned cheeks were on full display. Two of the older gentlemen... Read more

An Early Review of “No Easy Choice”

Last updated on: January 27, 2012 at 6:00 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

As reviewers and bloggers start receiving their copies of my new book No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction, I’ll be posting links to their reviews on my web site’s Publications page. But I wanted to point out one reviewer who is going above and beyond the usual one-time, several-paragraph review. Melissa Florer-Bixler is a divinity school student, a Mennonite, and mother to two young children (the second only a few... Read more

Watch “How to Get Published” on WHC-TV

Last updated on: January 28, 2012 at 7:16 pm By Ellen Painter Dollar

Connecticut readers: In February, I will be appearing on a local community TV talk show, “Life and Style with Sara,” discussing the publishing industry with host Sara Conner, editor/agent Lisa Swayne, and novelist Susan Schoenberger. Here is all the info. SCHEDULE: Friday February 3rd at 8pm Monday February 13 at 8:30 pm Tuesday February 21st at 8 pm TO WATCH: Channel 5 on Comcast in West Hartford Channel 99 on AT&T UVerse, select WHC-TV on the drop down menu Streaming live online... Read more

Patheos Peeps: Christian Piatt on Ministry to “the Poor”

Last updated on: January 26, 2012 at 6:20 am By Ellen Painter Dollar

Every Friday, I post a link to a blog post written by one of my fellow bloggers at Patheos, a web portal devoted to religion and spirituality. I encourage my blog readers to click through to read these posts, comment, and if you like what you read, follow these bloggers as well. This week, Christian Piatt wrote a post on How I Continue to Fail the “the Poor.” While he engages in many acts of ministry to “the poor” in... Read more

Listen to My Interview on NPR

Last updated on: January 26, 2012 at 1:36 pm By Ellen Painter Dollar

This morning, I was on my local NPR station (WNPR 90.5 in Hartford) as part of a panel of people discussing prenatal screening. We talked about lots of practical issues (the tests available, the process of making decisions around testing, etc.) as well as the stickier ethical and emotional questions that the increasing availability of prenatal tests raises. Also on the show were Alicia Craffey (a genetic counselor at the UConn Health Center, who happened to be my counselor during... Read more