Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

My church's pastor has often said that if you want know what people value, look at how/where they spend their money, and their time. In the bluntest, most real sense, I find that thought to be absolutely right.

He must really love those mega-church evangelicals with their mansions, fleet of luxury cars, private jets and TV shows, doing the Lord's work, praise Jesus!

 

For most “normal” pastors, those guys are held in the same esteem Mitch Albom got here a generation ago.

 

Me.

 

I've run afoul of some of the more hard-liners in my denomination, but I'm for women's ordination.

Contextually, when Christian found its legs and rooted in as a faith, its doctrines were radically feminist in even daring to acknowledge women's faith and roles in ways that a super-patriarchal society hadn't been challenged. The 1 Peter verses now used to suggest Christianity is anti-woman were actually radical in that moment; it addresses the possibility that a wife could be a Christian while her husband is not and, moreover, basically tells husbands that, if they treat their wives poorly, their prayers won't be heard. In the context of that time, those words are ahead of the curve. Further, in the context of that time, it would have been inapt to have women be elders. The cultural vehicle to make that happen just wasn't there in the moment; to have appointed a series of women as spiritual leaders would have put them in physical jeopardy and destabilized the growth of the faith. (Spreading the gospel at the time, too, was dangerously physical and prone to imprisonment, etc.)

2,000 years on, the context, IMO, has changed for the better, and it swings wide open the door that women can lead, teach, preach, write Bible studies for all, etc. Simply put, women were always capable - Mary isn't an apostle, but she's quicker than the lot of them in the days before and after Christ's resurrection - and they're now in a cultural context that broadens the scope of Paul's writings to Timothy.

 

Mmm...maybe. I'm talking folks who blog 12 times a week, stuff their sermons with 7 cultural flourishes, etc. Perhaps the brilliant guy I know is a pastor, and he's like that. Impressive guy, incredible insights...and a little much. (And he knows it, which is why it took him awhile to find his footing.)

 

No, those adjectives are me to a T. But I'm not the kind of leader you're referring to; to whom you're referring. Or a leader.

 

I can do all things through Christ except control my sexy time parts on a fishing trip, so don’t even ask to come you shameless hussy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/03/31/church-fishing-trip-sexual-misconduct/

 

I'm in an organization and while my actual title is "committee chair" I always refer to our group as a "team" and myself as "team leader" - Everyone wants to be on a team - nobody wants to commit. And lets be honest, when I hear the word "committee" I think of people sitting around a table for a couple of hours discussing much, but doing little.

 

A happy and blessed Easter to all those who observe.

 

Facebook groups around here have United today, Easter Sunday. Seems like a couple of the neighborhood groups I’m on are railing against a woman who promised Easter egg delivery today. In one of my groups they are going on about her and people are choking in how she said offered the same thing on this and that group yet is following the same M.O. everywhere — claiming she is overwhelmed yet still delivering, but turning off comment later and blocking everyone who is complaining. It’s an Easter outrage! No thoughts and prayers coming, just pitchforks and torches.

 

I have a question about prayer.
If, according to Job, God moves in ways beyond our understanding, can/should a prayer asking for anything be answered? If God's plan is for a loved one to get cancer, should we petition to have that plan revised? How can we mere mortals envision how that individual life interlocks with the greater universal scheme?