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Thin Places

I’m a happily married woman, but I’ve been thinking about divorce this week. First, I wrote a piece for her.meneutics about Christian blogger Anne Jackson’s divorce: “When Christians Get Divorced.” (I’ll post an excerpt below.) Then, I happened across an interview on Patheos with Rob Bell in which he used marriage as an example of…

I wrote this morning about Kathleen Norris’ The Quotidian Mysteries. Part of Norris’ point is that creative thoughts often arise in the mundane details of life. While folding laundry, an idea pops into her head for a poem, or she remembers that she wanted to write a friend a note, or she recall the words of…

I recently reread a book by Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women’s Work. Thankfully, she includes a definition of quotidian as an epigraph. It means pertaining to the every day, and my life is consumed by every day activities, especially with a newborn. I wrote a post for her.meneutics as reflection: “The…

(First, a quick blog update: I’m sorry to have been MIA this week. Beliefnet was changing our blogging platform and they forgot to include me. It took a few days to figure out, but now I’m back…) And here’s what I had hoped to post on Monday: March 21, or 3/21. It is snowing outside.…

“I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers…” –Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries

I went for a walk with Marilee yesterday. It was beautiful down by the water, with a crisp breeze that hints of spring, with daffodils peeking out of the ground and snowdrops lining the road in patches. It was a day to be grateful.  As it turned out, we were grateful for more than just…

Last week, I wrote about the controversy surrounding Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. In contrast to many evangelical leaders, Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary, defended Bell in USA Today. He then defended himself in a blogpost, “The Orthodoxy of Rob Bell.” I appreciate his desire for “generous orthodoxy” and “salvific generosity.” In other…

“Everyone should try to spend intentional time with God every day. Except women with small children.”  I was in college, listening to a sermon about friendship. But when the pastor gave women with small children an exception from “quiet times,” I noticed. And I remembered. I’m not sure he was serious, and even if he…

Nearly 40 years ago, Geraldo Rivera exposed the state-run institutions for individuals with disabilities as places where people suffered abuse and neglect. Over the course of the decades that followed, a new model of care developed where children with disabilities stayed home with their parents and adults moved into smaller “group homes.” And yet, as…

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan bring up the same question as every other natural disaster: Where is God? It’s one thing to explain human suffering when humans cause the suffering (i.e. murder, rape, drug abuse). It’s quite another when humans face natural forces that are out of control. Theologians and philosophers offer answers, but…
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