{Once again, I’m so pleased to be participating in the Patheos Book Club, Take & Read!} Some months ago I excoriated reviewed Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert’s book What is the Mission of the Church? at RELEVANT magazine. Even now, re-reading my review, I feel irked by that book and its apparent goal: to orient churches away from justice ministries and toward the verbal declaration of the gospel, because, for DeYoung and Gilbert: “It simply was not Jesus’s driving ambition... Read more
Tuberculosis seems to have been the disease of choice among 19th century artists and poets. Yes, the sensitive, intelligent characters in novels and operas of that era always seem to succumb to that particular disease; it was even a bit ‘fashionable.’ As diseases go, it’s a glamorous one, or so suggests the professor in the delightful Open Yale course I recently listened to. It doesn’t cause you to lose control of your bowel functions, as in cholera, or cause your... Read more
Not the kids, just me. I’m suspecting food poisoning. (How convenient to my blog topic!) Blah blah blah something wouldn’t wish on my enemies blah blah something terrible. See you in a few days, I hope… Read more
Last week, a woman with the improbable name of Nirvana Jennette was berated for breastfeeding in church. I wrote a post for Christianity Today’s women’s blog, her.meneutics, in response; you can read it here. Basically, I wanted to point out that God is pictured, in Scripture, as a nursing mother. And that in other cultures–notably, cultures that lack the excessive, well, sexualized-boobage-on-display of ours–no one bats an eye when a mom feeds her hungry baby in full view. Well, given... Read more
For your weekend reading pleasure I insist that you read Tracie McMillan’s wonderful piece, “9 Things You’ve Never Heard About America’s Food.” Here’s a taste: “It drove me mad when I started to hear foodies wax rhapsodic over local produce, going on to imply, not-so-subtly, that to buy it was a measure of character and moral standing. I grew up eating processed food during the week, fresh stuff on weekends–that’s how it works when you’re being raised by a working,... Read more
I have a friend! Her name is Ellen, and we had so much fun hanging out (in person! with her!) last week that I forgot to get a picture of us together, or to ask her to sign my copy of her book. Oops. Yes, Ellen has written a book–No Easy Choice. If you are a person of Christian faith–or simply a person open to the possibility of faith–and you have ever wondered about the ethical questions surrounding any of... Read more
Sometimes reading and writing about issues surrounding food, hunger, and justice is just plain depressing. Like most people, I want to contribute to the flourishing of the earth and all people on it; I see that as God’s call on all of us, though it takes different forms for all of us as we pursue our various vocations. For all of us, it’s easy to feel powerless–like there’s nothing we can really do to make the world better. In fact,... Read more
{Once again, I’m delighted to be participating in the Patheos Book Club, Take & Read!} This fortnight’s pick is Jo Saxton’s More than Enchanting: Breaking Through Barriers to Influence Your World from InterVarsity Press. I’ve never really hoped to be a ‘leader,’ but last week when I listened to myself on Family Life Radio, I thought, “Someone get that lady a PULPIT! She has a lot to say.” (I used to enjoy hopping up into the pulpit to mimic my... Read more
I’m currently reading a great book about one of my very favorite writers of old–Harriet Beecher Stowe. (She was a writer passionate for justice who stood at barely 5 feet tall and was married to a scholar of the Hebrew Bible–how can I *not* love her!?) Stowe did a lot to win Christians to the abolitionist cause. Before her, Christians in the US were likely to view the Bible as supporting slavery–the patriarchs appear to have owned slaves, for example,... Read more
Carolyn Gregoire has an eye-opening report up at Huffington Post on how Tumblr has become the home to a secret obsession of thousands of teenagers who use the microblogging platform for ‘thinspo’–for posting images of super-thin women along with disturbing messages like one I found on Tumblr: “Summer isn’t far away, YOU BETTER STOP EATING OR NOBODY’S GONNA WANNA SEE YOU IN A SWIMSUIT. ” Perhaps not surprisingly, a 2011 study found that teenaged girls’ susceptibility to body image and... Read more
Rachel Marie Stone
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