notes
1. Quail Jesus!
2. I'm scrambling madly to learn enough Javascript and PHP for a project at work. It turns out that learning to write .bat files as a 10 year old was actually a swell idea, because now I'm not totally starting from scratch. Thanks, Dad!
3. From 'It is What it Is', a sequel to 'Oh, For The Love Of God':
In my early 30s, ... a pastor ... helped me to root out some deeply held distorted thoughts about myself, and set me on the road toward a more rational (less panicked) style of thinking. From this point, I stumbled onto Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz, and was amazed to find someone who expressed just my discomforts with Christianity as I'd experienced it (conservative, highly fundamentalist). For the first time, I felt drawn back toward Christianity — if there was a compassionate version out there, I wanted to find it! From there, I read Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, and found myself again with a version of Christianity that works with my values. Sometime before these, by the way, I'd found God's Politics, and experienced a lightbulb moment with that book as well. I'd found my niche. I would be a 'Sojourners' type of Christian. I even still receive my magazine subscription in the mail.Emphasis added where I nodded my head and said, "Oh, for sure, me too." My Blue Like Jazz was Brennan Mannings' The Ragamuffin Gospel. Still a beautiful book, and still appreciated independently of its Christian leanings.
As I explored my own spirituality more, I started to realize that my own values weren't grounded in my religion — rather I was forcing my religion to be grounded in my values. Even as I attended United Church of Christ (left-wing, open and affirming) services, I found myself drawn in by the messages of peace and kindness, not so much the message of Christianity. Easter service stirred me not because of my thoughts of Jesus' death on a cross, but rather because of the emotional height inspired by a brass duet playing traditional hymns. Each and every time I started to ask myself if I *really* believed in Jesus, I squelched the thought.
posted by Heather Ann @ 7:52 AM
7 Comments:
Ha!
The same person who turned me on to Blue Like Jazz used to sing the praises of Manning's books. I never quite got around to reading it, and now don't find myself particularly, um...inspired to do so.
Thanks for the link.
I think that's why I decided liberal Christianity wasn't an option for me. It's nice, I like it, and I understand the draw for people, but it just seemed wierd to me. You pick and choose the dogma you believe and follow and still get to call yourself a christian. I don't get it.
Read Lamott's _Bird by Bird._ It's great. Heather Ann, you'd love it.
And Chad:
Equivalently, I don't get how someone can decide that premartital sex (among other things) is okay but "God hates fags" and wives should be submissive. Picking and choosing works real well for conservative Christians too.
Just saying.
Yeah I agree with you heather. But just in case you thought so I actually wasn't arguing for conservative christianity. I was saying for me liberal christianity didn't seem like a valid alternative.
I actually didn't make it much clearer. I'm agnostic/athiest
thanks for clearing that up, chad. no offense intended; just offering my over-inflated opinion.
picking and choosing is unfair no matter what the belief/politic/dogma/government. eh?
whichever alternative you choose, it's obviously always going to be your choice. which is fine and good.
hat's off to you for that.
and one other thing. just in case you misinterpret my comments--
i am not christian, agnostic, or athiest.
i'm an i-don't-care.
if my kids are the same way, i will be proud. so far, so good.
xo.
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