Why Homeless People Don’t Use Shelters. After I was hospitalized after a brutal assault I required the use of a walker. Sleeping on the ground was agony while still healing from multiple fractures so I decided to try to use a homeless shelter again, even though I’d sworn I never would again. I was allowed entrance, but I was told I had to give my walker to staff for “safety.” Apparently, they were afraid that either someone would trip over it or that I would use it as a weapon. Since it could easily slide under a bed when not in use, the former was not a real concern and because I weighed less than a hundred pounds and was still suffering from multiple injuries the latter was highly unlikely.
But I surrendered my walker in exchange for a semi-safe place to sleep. I felt so helpless because I literally could not get around without my walker unless I crawled. I couldn’t bring myself to stay another night there, it was too scary being unable to get around. Silencing Techniques. Have you ever had an entire conversation that was not about the thing you wanted to talk about, but about why you needed to stop talking about it? It's called silencing. Silencing is when rather than addressing the substance of whatever it is being talked about, someone tries to dismiss, trivialize or derail the conversation, so that the topic, whatever it is, stops getting discussed.
The person who started the conversation ends up focusing not on the issue at hand, but on defending the validity either of the topic or of his or her own voice. Here are some categories of silencing, with specific examples from things that have been said to me or that I've heard said to others. Suggesting you're being frivolous or the issue is not important. "How can you waste your time talking about this when there are so many more important problems in the world? "Shouldn't you be: a) spreading the gospel; b: helping the poor; c) taking care of your children instead of focusing on these issues?
" What women who want equality in the church must face. Thank you for your interest in Patheos newsletters! Please enter your email address below and click the "Subscribe" button. Our records indicate that you are already a subscriber. To avoid conflicts please select any additional subscriptions from your Preference Center. Thank you for your subscription. We apologize, we were unable to complete your subscription at this time, please try again later. Like what you're reading? The Women of Advent: Rahab | The Junia ProjectThe Junia Project. This post is the second in an Advent series on the women in Christ’s lineage: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Visit the blog every Monday in December to learn more about these important ancestors of Jesus, and tune in on Christmas Day for more about his mother, Mary.
Biblical Nicknames In the Christian tradition, we often assign nicknames to characters in scripture, such as “Doubting Thomas” and the “Virgin Mary”. These nicknames are not always a bad thing, but they do affect our understanding of certain characters and stories. The problem is that teaching out of tradition instead of scripture can give us a simplified version of the story, and not necessarily an accurate one. Rahab “the prostitute” Rahab is commonly referred to as Rahab “the prostitute”.
In Christian tradition, the word “prostitute” is almost synonymous with “great sinner”. Renaming Rahab Who else in scripture knows that kind of pain and burden other than Christ? In Light of Advent Like this: Like Loading... IR: Agency | Wine and Marble. “The hardest part is realizing you’re in charge” – Helen Bishop, Mad Men One of the things that has been a constant struggle for me, as a woman leaving the world of Christian patriarchy, has been reconciling reality to my learned “right” responses.
I have to be gutsy and take charge of my life and heed my personality type and my needs and make sure I’m living in a way that works best for who I am. But it’s hard to learn to do this, because I grew up considering myself strongest when deferring to other’s needs and wants, most godly when negating my desires, and most strong and female when abandoning my preferences to respond and absorb the desires and choices of others. The term I’ve heard used for this is “learned helplessness” and it’s frequently a gendered problem, but I think it’s not just an issue for women. It’s also an issue for everyone in the “new reformed” circles of young Calvinists.
So, first, as a woman dealing with The Most Unpredictable Year Of Her Life Ever! The Logic of Stupid Poor People. We hates us some poor people. First, they insist on being poor when it is so easy to not be poor. They do things like buy expensive designer belts and $2500 luxury handbags. To be fair, this isn’t about Eroll Louis. His is a belief held by many people, including lots of black people, poor people, formerly poor people, etc.
It is, I suspect, an honest expression of incredulity. One thing I’ve learned is that one person’s illogical belief is another person’s survival skill. My family is a classic black American migration family. We had a little of that kind of rural black wealth so we were often in a position to help folks less fortunate. I remember my mother taking a next door neighbor down to the social service agency. I internalized that lesson and I think it has worked out for me, if unevenly. I do not know how much my mother spent on her camel colored cape or knee-high boots but I know that whatever she paid it returned in hard-to-measure dividends. Like this: Like Loading... On Humility and Privilege.
A few months ago I wrote about the relationship between self-esteem and servanthood. The observation I made then was that we often fail to humble ourselves to take on the form of a servant (Philippians 2.6-8) because we are struggling to secure self-esteem. Somewhat paradoxically, it takes a lot of ego-strength to be humble--to let others go first, to take the last place, to "wash feet," and to allow others to get the praise, recognition, and accolades. We struggle with this. Not because we are wicked but because our sense of self-worth is built upon praise, compliments, attention, respect and popularity. Thus we engage in what psychologists have called "excessive reassurance seeking," constantly taking the temperature of our social network to verify that we are being noticed, approved of, and included.
As I noted in that earlier post, this struggle for significance is made even more difficult if you lack what this culture defines as "valuable," "worthy," and "significant. " The War Prayer. Below is the full text of "The War Prayer" by Mark Twain. It was published posthumously in Harper's Monthly in 1916, six years after Twain's death.
Twain delayed publication during his lifetime because, as he said to his publisher, "I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead. " The War Prayerby Mark Twain It was a time of great and exalting excitement. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! God the all-terrible! Then came the "long" prayer. The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. Greg Boyd Explain’s His Open Theism | A Branch in the Vine. Many of us who deeply care about sound teaching and biblical theology have been concerned about the teachings of “Open Theism” where certain Evangelical scholars like Clark Pinnock and others seem to be suggesting that God is not truly omniscient.
I have heard that Greg Boyd is also an Open Theist, and this troubled me because I really like Greg and feel that a lot of his teaching is is a good counter balance to the idolatry and the unbridled nationalism of the Christian Right. So I was not too happy when I learned that he espoused Open Theism. So I decided to email him and ask him just where he was coming from.
To my surprise, Greg took time out of his busy schedule to email me his thoughts. I have to say, after reading Greg’s unfiltered views on Open Theism, I now can see how thoroughly biblical his views are. But don’t listen to me or his critics, read him for yourself. Greg’s Letter.doc Like this: Like Loading... LOST IN TRANSLATION Part 2 - A Look at 1 Timothy 2:12-15 | The Junia ProjectThe Junia Project. [In Part 1, Bob showed that some words in the Bible are translated differently when they refer to women as opposed to when they refer to men. Case in point: Phoebe’s depiction as servant and helper rather than minister and leader. Today he addresses the impact of translation on our understanding of 1 Timothy 2:12-15.] So, what went wrong? In the 4th century A.D. the church became the state religion of the Roman Empire. It may be said of this merger that Christianity altered Rome. I think it may be equally said,however, that this merger altered Christianity, and not for the better.
Gender bias in translation did not begin with the English language; it started in the 4th century, when St. In the Vulgate version we find the first change in the translation of “prostatis”.1 Jerome was a man of his times; in other words, a very patriarchal Roman. 1 Timothy 2:12 It was also Jerome who significantly—and for all time since—altered the meaning of 1 Timothy 2:12. Saved through Childbearing? Like this: Your God is too Big. As a college professor interested in the psychology of religion I'm sort of an anthropologist of young adulthood spirituality. That is, I listen a great deal to how my students talk about faith, God, Christianity, and church. I'm particularly interested in listening to what moves them spiritually. One of the things I've noticed in this regard--something, to be sure, not unique to this age group or generation--is the prominence of a focus on God's bigness. Worship that seems to move my college students, and many other Christians, tends to focus on God's transcendence and awesomeness.
"Awesome" just might be the most common word my students, and many other Christians, use to describe God. This focus on God's bigness is often used in worship to create an acute sense of our smallness in relation. And yet, I wonder about all this. Put bluntly, I'm wondering this: How does an experience of God's awesomeness help you learn that God is love? Let me be clear. Here's what I think. God is small. DO YOU HATE YOUR NON-CHRISTIAN FAMILY & FRIENDS? A couple of weeks ago at church, we had a guest speaker. And he convicted me…he convicted me hard. Our sermon was on our calling to be ambassadors for Christ. As a lifelong Christian, who has sat through countless Sunday morning sermons (and maybe, just maybe was wearing my cynical pants that day), I was prepared to hear a typical sermon.
We began going through scripture about our calling and our responsibilities to share the gospel. About halfway into the sermon, he played this clip: And then, I sat up a little straighter in my chair. The cynic in me was set loose (or maybe slapped out of me), and I began to really consider MY role as an ambassador for Christ. And I knew, I knew that I’ve been FAILING at this whole Christianity thing…because though I profess to love my friends and family deeply, and I profess to love the Lord with all my heart, I’ve been terrible about sharing the Everlasting Life that I believe in with those (non-Christians) closest to me. Carolyn's Reflections: The Underlying Belief System of Spiritual Abuse. After a temporary hiatus from the spiritual abuse blog series while I traveled south to Pennsylvania and west to Oregon, I’m back in Boxford again, stationed at my computer, and ready to pick up where we left off. Statements I made earlier about abuse (see “The Perfect Storm”) point to the possibility that something is amiss our Christian belief system that is opening the way, if not directly giving rise, to spiritual abuse.
The details are in that blog, but the gist of what I said is that abuse is: a denial of the gospelthe antithesis of what it means to follow Jesusan overt rejection of God’s vision for his image bearers These are serious statements, but the graphic and tragic stories of abuse speak for themselves. Because this topic is particularly important, this blog will be a bit longer than usual, but please read to the end. But even these important measures are insufficient if we don’t address the thinking that lies beneath spiritual abuse. I note three fatal misconceptions: Rev. Dr. Randy S. Woodley: Native American Christianity: Through Bullets and Arrows to Peace.
When I came to faith at age 19, I learned to ignore my ethnic heritage because I was told it was "of the flesh. " My experience is consistent with the colonial history of those living in a land where the dominant culture is associated with one particular faith tradition. Because Euro-Americans contextualized their Christian faith so well (see, for example, the White Jesus on the wall of First Church of Anytown, USA), Euro-Americans became confused over what was faith and what was culture.
The resulting enmeshment of Christianity and Euro-American civilization was the decision that all native religious ceremonies and many cultural practices be outlawed. For almost 100 years, in the name of progress, Native children were forced into government-sponsored, denominationally run boarding schools where many were abused physically, sexually, emotionally and spiritually, and where many of them died. Even today, most mission-sending agencies don't deal with cultural distinctions well.
Real Vs. Fake Christian Persecution: how you can spot the difference | Formerly Fundie: Insights, Hopes and Laments on American Christianity and Culture. A Developing Picture of God: The Warfare Worldview | Jess in Process. Hamed Saber via Compfight I could hear faint crying in the distance. But that typically accompanies a ward filled with new life. I’d had a great first shift as a Maternity Nurse, which was surprising since I’d received no medical training. It was nearly midnight when I checked the chart in front of Room 13.
After a few soft raps, I pushed open her door and found… my younger self. Her shadowy frame was supporting a newborn. Ahhhhh, newborn motherhood – it was enough to draw even the most introverted women into conversation. “Do you have kids?” “Two,” I said, sliding into the vinyl rocker beside her. “Henry’s my first,” she beamed. I closed my eyes against a crippling mixture of sorrow and jealousy. I paused and looked them over. “No, I meant about being a mom. Oh there was so, so much… I wanted to tell her not to mistake inexperience for ineptitude, and to shake it off when the pediatrician points out that she’s turned Henry slightly orange from all her homemade sweet potato baby-food. Everyday Idolatry: My God | JonathanStorment.com. Is God Impassive? The American Dream for Losers | Ryan Thomas Neace. Here’s Something about the Bible of the First Christians I Bet Many of You Didn’t Know (you’re welcome)
Respectfulconversation - The Conversation. Inclusive Orthodoxy ~ The Rev. Justin R. Cannon. G. Roger Denson: Homosexuality as Population Control? Why Gays & Lesbians Are Essential to the Balance of Nature. New Insight into the (Epi)Genetic Roots of Homosexuality. Modesty: I Don't Think it Means What You Think it Means by Rachel Held Evans.
Comparing the Psalms to Songbooks. bWe Baptist Women for Equality's Blog | Dethroning Male Headship by Shirley Taylor. David Lose: Misogyny, Moralism and the Woman at the Well. David Lose: Misogyny, Moralism and the Woman at the Well. Greg Boyd Explain’s His Open Theism | A Branch in the Vine. A Good Friday Meditation. Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven Has Come Near. I Am a Worm. Rethinking Service. An Angry God Vs. A God Who Gets Angry | The American Jesus. Abuse, Violence, Gender and Submission. Getting Honest about the Dark Side of the Bible – ReKnew. Personhood « The Jawbone Of an Ass. Now You Owe Me a Zillion Dollars « The Jawbone Of an Ass. Unnecessary roughness: The moral hazards of football. Sermon by Anne Robertson ~ WATER INTO WINE.
The Historical Mary. What Do I Mean by Post-Evangelical? The whole megillah. BATHSHEBA - A Truthful Account. Untitled. Finding Darwin's God. Think. Laugh. Weep. Worship. The Shape of Piper’s Foundation Laid for Driscoll | The Edge of the Inside. Imagine Justice. Media Player. The Greening of the Blogosphere: Simeon and Anna. The Prophetess Anna. How Torah Undermines the Very Slavery It Permits. She’ol « The Jawbone Of an Ass. The Women in Christ's Life: Anna, The Prophetess - Christian Dating, Singles.
Anna the Prophetess. The feast of the prophetess Anna - Who was she? | The New Theological Movement. Anna the Prophetess and the Holy Infant: Bible Commentary on Daily Readings. ANNA THE PROPHETESS. Women in the New Testament A Cultural View. A Bad Answer is Worse than No Answer: Kephale and Authority 1 « The Jawbone Of an Ass. Women in the Gospels: Jesus and His Female Benefactors « The Jawbone Of an Ass. Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 5 (Concluding Exhortations… Native Americans as Victims of Nationalism) Quivering Daughters: The Cultic Family, Part I. Disability and Autonomy « BLT. Embracing the Humanity of the Bible: Listening for the Divine through Human Words.