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The kindness place
A few weeks ago a child at church came into worship near tears. Her feelings had been hurt because she perceived that a couple of other kids had purposely excluded her from something. Normally I would probably not have been aware of any of this, but the sad child was my own. She sat down in the front pew and curled herself up into a little ball. It was one of those moments when I decided to be mom and not pastor. I sat with her and cuddled her and tried very hard not to give the other children the stink-eye. By the time the first hymn started she was okay and life went on.
Kids will be kids and I know that when two kids are gathered, fun ensues, and when three kids are gathered, one of them usually ends up feeling left out.
Sunday, January 25, 2015: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Paul isn’t asking us to avoid the world. But if the form of the world is passing away, the everyday is becoming a step into promise.
Contemporary gospel music pioneer Andrae Crouch dead at 72
(RNS) Andrae Crouch, a Grammy-winning gospel composer and singer whose music remains a staple in many church hymnals, died January 8. He was 72 and had been ill for many years.
Spurred by Paris attacks, anti-Islam protest surges in Dresden
(The Christian Science Monitor) A march that drew 4 million citizens and 50 world leaders to the streets of France on Sunday was a clear call...
Four Jewish victims of Paris market attack buried in Jerusalem
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Asset management: How a building can serve a churchs mission
Buildings and grounds can be leveraged to support a church’s mission—and to extend its presence in the community.
Making a home in exile
Here’s a paradox about human nature: we look for home in a world where we never feel fully and restfully at home....
Animals in the new creation
Amid weeks with more than their share of bad news, one story before the new year seemed like a glimmer of light in the darkness. The world grabbed onto it: Pope Francis comforting a boy as he grieved the death of his dog, telling the boy he’ll see his dog in heaven.
Except the pope never said that.
Nigerian archbishop calls for unity marches following Boko Haram massacres
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Oscar Romero declared a martyr as Vatican inches him toward sainthood
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
France ponders its response to shootings: Will xenophobia or multiculturalism win?
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
A place for Camille: Blessings from a special-needs child
Calling my wife and me “special” suggests that there is an alternative—that it would have been acceptable to refuse to receive our child.
What's so special about a fig tree?
One time at a women’s retreat, I was asked to tell my call story. I told this woman the whole, convoluted story—about serving as a missionary in Japan, about being restless in my work and volunteering for leadership roles in my church, about discovering old journals where I had written about my desire to study theology, about my memory of sitting in church as a teenager and hearing the pastor give the sermon and saying, “If I was a man, that is what I would want to do.” I told her that it had taken me a long time, but I finally realized that God was calling me to be a pastor.
She was not impressed.
Girls are "pretty." Boys are "cool."
The topic of beauty has entered our household as our 3-year-old daughter acclimatizes herself to a culture determined to unite self-esteem with a particular version of beauty....
A complex movie monster
Wes Craven says there are two types of horror stories: either the monster is out there, or the monster is us. Jennifer Kent's film has the moral imagination to tell both simultaneously.
Why the Charlie Hebdo attack is not about images or free speech
(RNS) Ostensibly, the horrific attack against Charlie Hebdo in Paris was because of the publication’s satirical images of the Prophet Muhammad.
But to view the assault as simply about images of Muhammad is to accept a long-standing narrative about Muslim sensitivity to portrayals of Muhammad, which plays into conceptions of Muslims as superstitious savages.
What will it take to downsize the American meat habit?
I was a strict vegetarian for 10 years. Now I'm a sort of sometimes-meat-avoider: my wife and I keep a meatless kitchen but eat whatever when someone serves it to us and sometimes when we're out. As I've written before, the virtuous identity marker "vegetarian" is less important to me than it used to be. But I still think eating way less meat is the single biggest bit of lifestyle "greening" most Americans could do.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's dietary guidelines restrict their official purview to nutrition; they don't address the other considerations that go into food choices. But last week, AP reported that this year's update to the USDA guidlines might include a focus on environmental sustainability—specifically, as a reason to eat less meat.
Other people saying things
"The joy of free speech is that we're not supposed to have to cheer everything that's said."...
What I learned living cross culturally as a Christian
I have lived cross-culturally almost my entire life....
The world slavery made
Edward Baptist so powerfully captures the pain and tragedy of plantation slavery that I had to force myself to turn each page.