He Tore His Clothes

Last updated on: February 9, 2020 at 7:46 am By Anne Kennedy

As I have travailed through goop’s Netflix offering (though not every episode) this past week, I have been interested to see, in perfectly filmed Hollywood decadence, a gem of an example of what we Christians have complained about for a long time. And that is what is mostly referred to as a post-Christian culture. As I’ve watched Gwyneth Paltrow and her elegant, perfectly dressed team wander from one wellness situation to another—the psychedelic mushroom way to emotional healing, the ice-water... Read more

7 Things for Friday

Last updated on: February 7, 2020 at 9:34 am By Anne Kennedy

Whatever the day is, I woke from a stupor to the sound of ice smacking against the window and several ridiculous youtube clips and terrible tweetings, even before I could grope my way to the Holy Scriptures. I thought the decent and right thing would be to share them with you. Thing One First up, something so wonderful and catchy I’ve been listening to it for a whole day. This segues into my jean rant of Wednesday. These nice... Read more

Naming Names

Last updated on: February 6, 2020 at 10:43 am By Anne Kennedy

I wrote a thing for the Christian Research Journal online version! ******************************************************************************* Once, not very long ago, the Twitter-sphere flew into one of its daily rages, this time about the legitimacy of calling people out by name when they are wrong. Someone complained about someone else, and everyone drew up sides, ready to do battle. Meta conversations about the acceptability of even having the original disagreement spun into sub-threads. Everyone called everyone else a heretic. Twenty-four hours in, the storm... Read more

Witless Wednesday: JLo and the SOTU

Last updated on: February 5, 2020 at 10:50 am By Anne Kennedy

I wrote this over at Stand Firm today about trying to watch the SOTU as if it were even a thing, and I was going to just plunk it here and be done…hang on, here is a taste: Well, I was committed to not watching the State of the Union because I never watch it. It’s one of the small pleasures of life—not to watch the State of the Union. Whenever it was, 20 some years ago, that I realized the president... Read more

You Don’t Like goop Because of The Patriarchy

Last updated on: February 4, 2020 at 7:33 am By Anne Kennedy

For me, as I approach the internet in these dark early-morning hours with all the caution and sarcasm I can muster, it seems we are on the edge of peak decadence, if not rolling wildly down the other side of that predestined slope. The NYTimes published an opinion piece yesterday which, in former times, the wide world would have laughed off the page, but now elicits not a blink of the eye because clicks are a lot easier than thinking.... Read more

SuperPole Wellness Podcast and Links

Last updated on: February 3, 2020 at 11:42 am By Anne Kennedy

It’s a nice, gray, warm morning here in the northeast. On account of not watching the Super Bowl, I got a good night’s sleep and woke up ready to say all the things. Matt watched the game and was relieved–overjoyed even–that the 49ers lost. So anyway, we talked about the Super Bowl Half-time Show, Feminism, the Anglican Trouble, and goop. It’s all you could wish for, maybe, on this first Monday of February. Let’s see, are there any links out... Read more

Boasting Beggars

Last updated on: February 2, 2020 at 7:44 am By Anne Kennedy

I must have touched off some kind of nerve last week, in one of my many blogging efforts, because someone tried to post this comment under my post from Wednesday: “the very first person you should pray for is yourself, I said, because you are helpless, and if you don’t beg God for help, your life will be really horrid” You are a horrible mother, telling your kids they are helpless and that they need to BEG god for help…... Read more

7 Books, Cats, and Hands Takes

Last updated on: January 31, 2020 at 8:39 am By Anne Kennedy

It is, it’s Friday, and I’ve got to rush off to hand therapy. So, this is going to be short. One Found a nice place to sit during hand therapy where I can work out of the view of all the people who are there for the wonderful work that goes on there. The very first time I toddled in, I pulled out my device and started to tap wildly away—with my hands—and then looked around the room at everyone... Read more

Mixed Messages and the Weaker Brother

Last updated on: January 30, 2020 at 9:37 am By Anne Kennedy

A clever person sent this clip to me a week or so ago when I was too distracted to attend, and then Jonathon Aigner got to it first, and pointed out the obvious problems and how the pastor could have done it better. Forbearing with the weaker brother—which is really what Children Are—is essential for the life of the church. How the weakest one is welcomed and treated displays for the whole universe the health and faith of particular congregations,... Read more

God Helps Those Who Can’t Help Themselves

Last updated on: January 29, 2020 at 10:38 am By Anne Kennedy

My little girls and I finished Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter yesterday. Like all of the Little House books so far—which, of course, I read ages ago but didn’t really remember—the kind of life they endured, by today’s American standards, is completely astonishing. Towards the end, it seemed they might as well have been living in Siberia. A diet of coarse brown bread, exhausted by the dark and cold, grinding hunger, grinding the diminishing bag of wheat in a... Read more