“Whataboutism” is the relatively new and frequently used trope, offered up in public discourse. It is almost impossible to miss, if you spend any time on social media at all. There are even Whatabout pages on Facebook (though I don’t have the energy or the time to dip into that water). The difficult thing with “Whataboutism” is that it works both as an opening gambit and as a means of forestalling a larger conversation. One can use it first in... Read more
Recently, author Louise Perry summarized some of the thinking that has shaped her new work on the sexual revolution. Her article, published by Bari Weiss is entitled, “I’m 30. The Sexual Revolution Shackled my Generation.” A committed, radical feminist, she backed both the rhetorical and social changes that changed the way we think about sex and – in particular – the way in which women navigated their own sexuality. But, Perry notes, those changes carried with them a hefty price... Read more
Years ago, serving on the senior administrative team of a major seminary, we were pressed by the dean to give him “numbers”. What he meant by this was clear in the context. The seminary was struggling to keep pace enrollment-wise, and he had decided that the solution was to push program directors to promise certain enrollment goals for each of the areas for which we had oversight. It was clear to me from the outset that this was both ill-advised... Read more
A favorite blogger, Aidan Kimel, posted a story describing what he describes as what happens “when ecumenism hits a wall”: In truth, though, the story that Philips tells captures the temperament of contemporary discourse – and not just contemporary theological discourse, but political and social discourse as well. We no longer possess a capacity for difference of opinion and perspective. We no longer acknowledge the inevitability of difference. And we have embraced a willful ignorance of the factors that account... Read more
A recent Facebook post prompted a wide-ranging exchange of views on what churches should and shouldn’t do when it comes to weddings. And it revealed some serious gaps in the knowledge that even lay leaders have concerning the practice of their respective traditions. The illustration offered came from an Episcopal Church where a lay leader (the Senior Warden in this case), assured a couple that they could have their wedding in the church’s sanctuary and that they could supply... Read more
As a rule, I don’t watch stories with child stars or adults pretending to be children. But some younger friends got me hooked on “Stranger Things”. At first what I found powerfully attractive were the friendships, alliances, and the struggle of the adults in the story to be good parents. But over four seasons the story told by the Duffer brothers took on a surprising and deeper significance. They seemed to be telling a story about what happens when... Read more
Woody Allen best captures the modern, American attitude toward death: “I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”[i] But if denial is the dominant approach to death, our other approach to it involves a wide array of rationalizations: “He lived a full life.” “It was a blessing in disguise.” “It could have been worse.” “It’s all a part of life.” The list is endless. Some of the rationalizations are intelligible, of course, at... Read more
No challenge takes us to that thin, fragile place in life like the neurological illnesses that rob us of speech, thought and motion, including dementia and Alzheimer’s. When it strikes our loved ones, it is even difficult to grieve their loss. Some of us grieve that loss when the illness strikes. Some of us grieve when they leave us physically. Some grieve in both moments, not quite sure what to do. Others encounter “disenfranchised grief” and never quite find the... Read more
Seminaries are never reducible to curriculum, though the curriculum of a seminary can tell you a good deal about its goals. They are also a powerful experience in acculturation and, therefore, in spiritual formation – even if a seminary does little to explicitly shape the spiritual lives of their students. And that experience in shaped by both formal and informal dynamics. In turn, that experience shapes not just the life and ministry of their graduates, but the lives of their... Read more
The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is over, and it ended with a decision of greater significance than one might have expected from a meeting truncated by Covid 19. In two sessions, the first of which was marked by both confusion and a lack of clear definitions, the House of Bishops eventually passed resolution A059 which was approved with minor revisions from the House of Deputies. The pivotal conclusion was this: A059 would, for the first time, define the... Read more
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