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How Easter helps us Deal with Doubt
True confession: Sometimes I doubt. I doubt lots of things. From nominal things like a beauty product’s guarantee to transform my skin (it probably won’t) to more consequential things, like whether or not a politician is telling the truth (ummm….you be the judge). A degree of doubt is certainly normal and healthy, as the alternative would be gullibility. But what about when our doubts move beyond distrusting imperfect products, humans and institutions to doubting our faith? Doubting Scripture? Doubting the very thing Christians all over the world have set their hope on? True confession: Sometimes I doubt. These under-the-surface doubts regarding my faith rose to the forefront just after my…
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Women’s History Month: Meet Some Female Martyrs from the Early Church
When I spoke to a class of seminary students recently about women in public ministry in the early church, someone asked me to share some names and narratives about our foremothers. It seemed fitting to provide a sampling here during Women’s History Month. (Some day I hope we will simply learn “history”; but until women are included in the telling of history, we’ll continue to need a special annual focus.) You can find all the women listed below in the mosaics of Ravenna’s “new” (6th c) Basilica of Sant’Apollinare. I’ve included a summary of the stories that usually accompany them, as well. You will notice a theme of women exercising…
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Plan Now for the Holidays: 7 Suggestions
Carved pumpkins still line my walk. We still have some leftover candy. And I have yet to decide between apple or pumpkin pie for the family Thanksgiving gathering. So maybe it feels early. But the first Sunday in Advent falls on November 28 this year. And I want to create a sane, wise holiday season—and to replace debt with dignity. That requires planning ahead. If you want to do the same, here are my seven suggestions: Select your devotional reading. If you use You Version, check out these two reading plans: “Advent Chai with Malachi,” which my seminary students and I wrote; and “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” a collection of pieces…
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The Beckoning
It stirs unease. On bloodied knees again I plead the pieties that once appeased my gnawing need for guarantees. In clinging to these grainy things like safe routines, I flee true peace.
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Purity Culture: A Corrective (Part 2)
Part 2: A Better Way Last time we looked at the some of the developments in purity-culture trends among evangelicals in the US over the past thirty years. Teaching on the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit was noticeably absent from much of the instruction focused on making vows to tame the flesh till marriage. In Song of Songs we read that the beloved tells her lover: “I would lead you and bring you to the house of my mother who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates” (Song of Songs 8:2). Having been taught the facts of life by her mother,…
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Purity Culture: A Corrective (in Two Parts)
Part 1: The Context Purity is good. Purity culture, not so much. Purity culture isn’t new. And it’s global. While a young son may live the wild life, family honor depends on the daughter’s virginity. People tend to connect worth and worthiness with a woman’s sexual purity. Muslim, Hindu, Christian, atheism. Name your major belief system, and you’ll find purity-culture elements manifested in its subcultures. In the US, purity culture reveals itself differently in different geographical areas and ethnic groups. But in the past few decades it has had a deep hold on the evangelical church. Especially the white evangelical church. Women of color already had their own unique challenges. …
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The Magdalene: Mary from Magdala or Mary Tower?
Who was Mary Magdalene? Because early New Testament manuscripts were more difficult to search than today’s books, Mary M. has at times been confused or combined with other Marys. “Mary” is a form of Miriam, the name of Moses’s sister, whom the Bible describes as a prophet and leader. Some have conflated Mary Magdalene with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus (Luke 7). Thus, Mary M. has been described in prose and depicted in art as a reformed prostitute. Others have suggested she had a romantic relationship with Jesus—or even married him! But the Scriptures suggest none of these things about her past. The actual details (given in Luke’s Gospel) are…
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Bible Backgrounds: When Is It Legit to Appeal to Them?
A few months ago, a friend expressed discomfort with appealing to culture, or “backgrounds,” to explain some difficult Bible passages. “Aren’t we just explaining away what we dislike?” he asked. “Can’t an appeal to culture become a way to change obvious meanings? Isn’t that what liberals do?” He asked great questions. Important questions. Sometimes people do use knowledge of Bible backgrounds to explain away what they dislike in the text. But that doesn’t mean all such appeals come from having a low view of Scripture. A few weeks after that conversation, I heard a Bible expert discourage appealing to Bible backgrounds to help with understanding texts because, “the text itself…
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The Brain on Stress
Those who grew up in the 80’s can’t forget this gem of a PSA: YouTube While the war on drugs continues to rage on, another battle happens almost every day in traffic jams, breakrooms, and around dinner tables: the battle within the brain as it deals with stress. According to the American Psychological Association, the stress situation in America is “chronic.” That’s putting it mildly. Many would say modern-day Americans are the most collectively stressed-out population in history. Could we really be worse off than our ancestors, who dealt with things like tribal wars, natural disasters, and animal predators? Several MD’s answer that question with a resounding ‘yes.’ Their reasons merit another…
