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Harry and Meghan Step Back from “Privilege,” Should we feel guilty too?
“Royal No More,” blared the headlines this weekend as Queen Elizabeth settled Prince Harry and Meghan’s appeal to become part-time royals with part time duties representing the crown. “No,” she replied. On Saturday she revoked their titles of HRH—his and her royal highness—and declared they will no longer represent her or the crown. This came as a shock to Prince Harry who on Saturday described himself as “extremely sad” that a compromise could not be reached. More than any other members of the royal family, Harry and Meghan appear to be very ambivalent about the whole concept of “privilege,” so much so that they named their child Archie Harrison (Harry’s…
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Choose to Listen
After a lovely dinner with old friends, my husband turned to me, “Cindy, you hardly let me get a word in all night!” His comment took me by surprise. Had I really dominated the conversation so much? Oh dear. These were my former colleagues whom I hadn’t seen in more than thirty years. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. I totally got carried away with all the catching up,” I feebly mumbled. My apology sounded lame even to me.
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Pride and Prejudice…and Gender Fluidity?
Suppose you heard that a vacation town had built a first-class theater and people attended in droves because the productions were that good. Suppose you paid your $66 dollars for tickets to a comedic, farcical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and drove an hour to get there. Suppose you arrived early enough to attend the "Pre-Show Chat”–a presentation that focused on how Austen liked to challenge the rigidity of Victorian social, class and gender divisions. And "true to her spirit," this production would champion diversity in gender roles so that you could “look beyond superficial gender distinctions to better see and appreciate the inner character” of the players.…
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“The Gospel Comes with a House Key”
We all have them. That short stack of books that have profoundly impacted our lives. Changed not only our understanding but the way we live. To my short stack I’m adding Rosaria Butterfield’s The Gospel Comes with a House Key. I’ve read several books on “hospitality.” But none have reached as deeply into the way I think about and practice hospitality as her discussion of it as the overflow of table fellowship and caregiving. Rosaria and her husband’s daily schedule radically incorporates preparing extra food, engaging with neighbors, and filling their guest room as a way to make “strangers into neighbors, and neighbors into the family of God.” In…
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HBO’s Chernobyl: Socialism’s Epic Fail is Summer’s Best Viewing
And holds profound lessons for 2020 During these dog days of summer, HBO is offering one week free access—just enough to watch the blockbuster 5-part series (if you didn't see it in May) on the 1986 nuclear plant disaster that spread radiation all across Europe. Extremely well-written, terrific acting and an uncanny replication of 1986 Soviet Union, according to my husband who has taught theology there many times. And, It. Is. Riveting. The series begins with Valery Legasov, First Deputy Director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, recording tapes he will secretly pass on to his fellow scientists. As the lead scientist on the committee to investigate the disaster,…
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Sephora Transgender Ad: “We belong to something beautiful”
If we could sit down for coffee I'd ask some questions… Walking down the mall last week I saw this large poster in the Sephora makeup retailer window. It was the end of June, gay pride month, and of all the messages I’d seen celebrating LGBT I found it the most riveting. I continued on to my car, but the poster haunted me. I live in Columbia, South Carolina, not exactly a hotbed of LGBT activism. But here was this poster in our neighborhood mall going beyond asking for acceptance for transgendered people. It went beyond celebration of diversity. It made a strong moral statement: Transgender is beautiful. …
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“I am not my body!” Compassion, peace and hope when we feel alienated from our bodies
May God deepen our compassion for those who live in this tension and bring us wholeness and peace Whether because of aging, illness, gender dysphoria, injury, anorexia, or even weight gain, many of us feel that who we are on the outside is not who we really are on the inside. When I first encountered the transgender community rallying cry, “I am not my body,” I was shocked. “I am not my body” had been my heart cry for years. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 29. I could empathize with the trans who felt like the male on the inside didn’t really align with…
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Now. This week. Push back against the great silencing of our time.
If a pro-life movie was refused soundtrack licensing by almost every major record label… …if it was refused paid advertising spots on every mainstream television outlet (save Fox News)… …if the MPAA slapped it with an R-rating for portraying a 2-D gray-scale abortion on the screen of a sonogram machine and the bleeding in the bathroom from the abortion pill… …if it faithfully represented the first-hand experience of a former Planned Parenthood executive who is now Pro-Life… …if it was attacked by Planned Parenthood saying, “The claims in this film are simply false” (“These are not the droids you’re looking for”)… …then I would make every effort to see it…
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Credibility of Planned Parenthood undercover videos restored, but not our broken cultural trust
When trust totally breaks down, intimacy becomes impossible. We see and hear everything through that grid of mistrust. Marriages spiral into divorce. When trust totally breaks down in a nation we see and hear everything through that grid of mistrust. We turn to relationships and voices that share our values. An organization with a different value on life, a boy with a different red hat is immediately suspect. Nations spiral into political divorce. Unity withers and dies. It’s been a nasty week in the trenches of broken cultural trust—the boys of Covington Catholic School getting attacked because white males in red MAGA hats face-to-face with native Americans beating drums are…
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A Psalm for the New Year
2019—a new beginning. My heart is filled with hope and also lament—the makings of a David-styled patchwork psalm over the year ahead from my own heart to God. God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. Psalm 7:11 As I look into this new year, read the news and take the stories and research to heart, I too feel indignant. And deeply sad. Lord how can it be that… …56 million a year are dying from abortion, almost four times as many as from heart disease and stroke (the next leading cause of death). These little ones are human beings, yet, for…
