Idle and Blessed

Most of you are probably tired of hearing me talk about studying religion. I know, I blog about it a lot. And no, Belmont's School of Religion does not sponsor me for it, although that would be nice...but this post is only slightly related to being a religion major, so hang in there. I used to think liberation/feminist theology was a little useless in my world. (Bad, I know. Sorry, SOR professors.) Not that it isn't good to talk about injustices and inequalities in society, but I just don't see them as severe in my culture. I generally don't feel looked down upon for being female, and I'm not an ethnic minority. I am not excluded from conversations in the academic world, or refused any education or job I want. As far as school goes, I don't feel like my experiences or ideas of God are excluded or anything. But I've recently revisited feminist theology for a couple reasons. One, I've realized that the business world is still surprisingly misogynistic in s...

Well hellooo blog world! Long time no see. It's that time of the semester :) But I do have a couple posts stirring, so read on...** For starters, I went to a Shabbat meal on Friday night, which might not sound too unusual until I tell you that my experience with Shabbat has been strictly within Reformed Judaism (with the exception of being in Israel). And I am here to tell you, Reformed and Orthodox are not the same thing at all. So, we walk into a room in a little townhouse complex on Vanderbilt's campus and immediately I feel very American. And very Christian. And very WASP. The men and women are separated by a curtain in the middle of the room as they finish their prayers. I am then introduced to a roomful of very sweet women whose names I can not at all remember. Except the little girl, who was probably four or five. Her name was Hayil, which I remembered because it means "valor" in Hebrew and I love that word. We just studied it while translating Ruth. But anywa...

Morgan and I went on a sister's Valentines date yesterday. It might have been the best date I've ever been on. :) God's been surprising me a lot the past few weeks. I've stopped trying so hard to communicate with him. I love to write out long prayers, or set aside time to "go to coffee with Jesus." Literally, that's what I put in my iCal. But lately life has been taking so much energy that I can't force myself to expend any more on communicating with God in formal ways. Good or bad, my formal prayer times are becoming less frequent right now. But instead, I've found myself praying more like a little kid. Like someone who can only observe, not evaluate or figure out. At random times throughout the day, in random ways, I pray. Without effort. I climb into bed at night and curl up in a ball and name my feelings to him. "God, stress." "God, anger." "God, loneliness." I just name things. I observe what's in me and what...

An Ethics Autobiography Written for REL 2510, Dr. Watts January 15, 2012 It seems as though I have been thinking about ethics since the moment I entered this world. The importance of right and wrong has never escaped me; my earliest memory is of my dad instructing me how to correctly and gently give flowers to my mom after the birth of my little brother. Instructions were the fuel my little brain needed to function. A constant dose of the right/wrong dichotomy was necessary to keep my small childhood self moving along in the world without confusion. And I was quick to highlight the importance of ethics to others as well. Justice has always flowed through my veins, although bringing with it a danger all its own. For instance, the words, “It’s not fair!” echoed daily through the halls of my house growing up, but they were words my parents did not always appreciate. Sometimes demanding justice did not work, I learned. Sometimes it alienated me from people, like my brothers when I ratted...

Do people really like me as a person? Is it possible for me to make really great friends? Do I have what it takes to graduate well, get the kind of job that will fulfill me vocationally, and maybe someday be open to marriage and a family? Am I actually moving toward being a functional, useful, mostly healthy member of society? Those are my questions tonight. I recognize that they are spawned by fear and inadequacy and isolation. But I also recognize that you have very clearly and in an only minimally cheesy/predictable way answered them long ago, when my existence still lived as a thought in your creative imagination. You answered them simply by choosing to create me and invest yourself in every aspect of my being, even down to the worst of my flaws. By seeing the end result of Jordan and still deciding to create her, you made the statement, "You are worth it." And so, I am. By breaking the Trinity on the cross and restoring me to hope and unity with you, you made the stateme...

I bet sometimes Jesus wasnt very fun to be around. I mean, he was super vague at times, super snarky at times, at he didn't usually put up with people's crap. Sure, he was very gentle with people and gracious and loving and all of that, but he lived more like a Mystic than like Mother Theresa, so those nice qualities probably still had a touch of otherworldliness to them. And he didn't stay in the same town for long. His followers couldn't be real estate owners or business moguls or anything. They couldn't even be good little synagogue members in any one community. And it probably sucked that Jesus knew everyone's flaws and wasn't afraid to call them out. I wonder if I would've followed Jesus. I wonder if I would've been wise enough and selfless enough to realize who he was and how badly I needed him, regardless of the life I had to leave for him. You know, sometimes we give Peter a hard time for being a little slow, or Judas for being the ultimate b...

So, I'm a few posts behind in the queue of my brain, meaning I have to blog about Shane Claiborne before I can move on to more recent things. He returned to his second home, Belmont, a couple months back, and I think he's always so good for us to hear. So I hope he doesn't get tired of coming... Anyway, he talked about a bunch of great stuff, but my favorite was what he said about politics. He said we need to be known for what we're for, not what we're against. The parts of the church that are doing things like burning Qurans, bombing abortion clinics, and holding signs that say "Jesus hates fags," "Repent or be burned," etc, just perpetuate the general associations of Christianity with being against things. And my personal tendency toward those people is opposition, too, ironically. I want to oppose them, publicly denounce them, defend myself and my Christianity, defend Jesus, but I think the better thing is to sing a more beautiful song. Live a...