My friend, David Hayward over the The Naked Pastor recently drew this cartoon. It graphically illustrates the double bind women consistently find themselves in. We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. But we are more damned if we do. David drew this cartoon in response to the exceedingly complex situation that Naghmeh Abedini finds herself in. If you are not familiar with the story (and I was not until a couple of months ago), you can read a... Read more
“Viral” hardly describes what happened to this recent article in The Atlantic. It’s called “The Secret Shame of the Middle Class”. The author, Neal Gabler, is a well-known and well-respected writer. With naked vulnerability, he describes his own family’s descent into the “I can’t even find $400 to meet an emergency” situation. Gabler doesn’t make excuses about some of the financial decisions he and his wife made (like expensive private schools and exclusive universities for their children) that ended up... Read more
The Interconnection On Sunday, two cousins, Gene (we’ll call him Gene One) and Gene (Gene Two), who also share the same distinctive last name and who had not seen each other in over fifty years, met for lunch. I am married to Gene One. Gene Two is the stepfather and business manager of David Little. David Little is the composer for the new opera, JFK, which opened at Bass Hall in Fort Worth on Saturday, April 23, 2016. The opera is... Read more
Apparently, the Good News group, who unofficially represent the evangelical branch of The United Methodist Church, is all about sex, punishment and power. How do I know? They state it clearly in their manifesto and agenda concerning our now-nearly-upon-us General Conference. You can read it here. I saw nothing in there about proclaiming the freedom of the Gospel. Nothing in there about the delight of grace, the power of forgiveness, the glory of reconciliation, the necessity of standing firm against... Read more
How important is biblical inerrancy to matters of the Christian faith and the life of Christian discipleship? If we don’t take the Bible literally, are we destined for relativism—any opinion goes? Dear Thoughtful Pastor, In 1978, around 300 evangelical leaders assembled to write and adopt the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. I believe this gathering in defense of biblical inerrancy represented one of the most significant theological councils in modern times. But unlike the Council of Nicea (325 AD), only... Read more
Has Christianity turned toxic? I wish I could say that it hasn’t, that it is a religion full of adherents who freely pass onto others the grace, reconciliation and forgiveness so generously given to them. That adherents make statements seasoned with the humility of human limitations and unknown and unexamined prejudices. That adherents take seriously the admonitions of Jesus to love their enemies and seek to do good for them. And I think these things happen all the time. But... Read more
It’s Sunday, around noon when I started writing. Have a houseful of guests–relatives of my husband. We’ve been married just six months so this fun time has been one of learning much about his family. Think “Our Big Fat Greek Wedding” except they are Polish. Unquestionably, I’m the repressed quiet WASP. Not one of them even brought up the idea of going to church this morning. In our relaxed conversations, we spoke of their Easter traditions: brunch and egg hunts... Read more
Dear Thoughtful Pastor: I am a 53 year old childless single female with two younger siblings, both with children and spouses. I live about six hours from them. About a month ago, my mother mentioned coming to visit over the weekend. I told her that would be great. Two weeks later, she told me she wanted to “hold off” on making plans to come down there. My sister, with her two kids, decided to visit my mother that week as... Read more
Dear Thoughtful Pastor: I have visited a number of churches in the last few years. Often I wonder during the services, “When are they going to pray?” Every year on Good Friday, my mom made us sit still for three hours from noon to three. She reminded us that Jesus was on the cross. Why are those three hours important in the Christian church? Why don’t Christian churches grasp and view that time for special devotion? As Good Friday is... Read more
“Jesus is on the cross. You will sit quietly for the next three hours and respect that.” Can you imagine telling that to your children and expecting them to sit quietly from noon to three p.m. on Good Friday? And them doing it without complaint? AND then discovering years later that such a discipline left only good memories? Let me back up here. I wrote this on Palm Sunday morning. I actually can’t remember the last time I was not in church on... Read more
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