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Posts from the ‘Church’ Category

Dec 26

[Robert Hall] A few thoughts over breakfast

My father is a very recently retired United Methodist minister, and he sent this to my brother and me Christmas morning.  It reads as poetry, and also like the terse outlines from which he gave his hundreds of weekly sermons.  I asked him if I could share them with profligategrace readers, this Second Day of Christmas. – ALH

A few thoughts over breakfast.

1 Kings 17. The Ravens, God told Elijah, would feed him bread and meat. Elijah went on this assurance. As simple as that for him. Believing that a bird could be told what to do.

Righteous Raven.

Landing on his shoulder and waiting for Elijah to take it from his beak.

Coincidence: In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a raven inhabits the Building and Loan. George, a good man, at war with the evil, greedy banker. Raven flapping, flying, perching, cawing.

Why a Raven? Old Elijah’s story travels. No sentimentalized version of this miracle/legend. Just trust, hope, stay the course, obey, take sustenance as it comes.

Give us this day our daily bread. However it comes and by whomever. Whirling, moving creation, like tiny ants we inhabit this little sphere.

Provided for. Some can only wait for the promised ravens. Some of us are piggish and store away the bread and meat, stolen from those who can only hope and pray.

And yet we say, Come, Lord!  Whenever. Meanwhile: Ravens with full beaks, for every thing which takes breath, carbon based vulnerable ones. And bread and meat for soul as well. Can’t survive without both.

Visible and invisible provisions.

Dec 21

And I feel fine . . .

Best wishes for a happy New Year – and a joyous Christmastide – from your friends at profligategrace.com!

While listening to a recent Christian sermon on Daniel 3, I had two thoughts. First, I noted that the preacher moved very quickly from Hebrew apocalyptic to individualistically pastoral. (Do not pass the Holocaust; do not collect a 100 reasons to be confounded.) And, second, I kept hearing that fabulous Beastie Boys song. Each time the preacher said “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” I heard the beat the Boys stole from Sly Stone. (I am not sure which is worse: being critical of another preacher’s lack of depth or finding myself repeatedly distracted by a riff from “Loose Booty” . . . )

For the past week, I have had another college-days song running through my head. Of course, from REM.

I have jotted down notes for all sorts of clever posts (trust me) on news and life in the last few months. But I have been teaching three classes, mothering the fabulous Green Street girls (now including 3 bitches; we got a puppy), and trying to concentrate all of my writing and editing energy on the upcoming issue of the Muslim World that I am co-editing with Danny Arnold. The essays are now all in, and mostly edited, and I am now facing concerted, focused work on completing my own essay for the issue. Hence my need for a blog post on something else. Read more

Oct 28

1 Comment

Good news on security of appointment in the UMC!

The Judicial Council of the UMC released a crucial ruling today. It upheld security of appointment and fair process as absolute rights of the clergy that could not be eradicated by legislation, and it also found that the General Conference violated the third and fourth restrictive rules.  I am grateful for and inspired by all you DDS UMC grads who, for years, have been willing to be pains in the patooky for the sake of the annoying truthy truth.  (That is NOT to encourage our being annoying just for the heck of being strange.)  Final word for this Sunday night? Praise God!

Oct 16

1 Comment

Why I Support “Family Planning”

Editor’s note:  Yesterday, the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good released a statement entitled  ‘A Call to Christian Common Ground on Family Planning, and Maternal, and Children’s Health.’  The NEP document defines family planning as ‘the freely and mutually chosen use of a variety of contraceptive methods to prevent or postpone pregnancy.  It does not include interventions that take place after pregnancy is established.’ (p. 5)  Professor Hall was a signatory to this statement, and we hope that you will click over to read it as well as her comments here.

When Richard Cizik of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good wrote to ask if I would sign this document, I agreed.

I knew that I would need to explain myself to some beloved friends.  Of course, I also have other beloved friends who are sad that I still even have friends who do not support family planning.  Friendship is complicated.  But the NEP press release is out, so here goes my explanation.

Read more

Oct 8

Restless Heart Syndrome: When Bad Movies Happen to Good People

Restless Heart is quite obviously a labor of love. Someone really, really loves Augustine. Writing critically about it, which I must do, feels a bit like complaining that someone’s terribly earnest, harp-accompanied wedding was tacky, and too long. Criticizing a wedding for lack of good taste is just churlish, because to evaluate aesthetically a service about love is a category error. Love is patient; love is kind; love doesn’t snicker when the caged doves inconveniently crap during the marital vows.

But I knew I was in trouble from the first scene of this movie. The vandals are set to sack Hippo, a wizened Augustine looks out onto the smoke-filled horizon, his raven-haired niece by his side, and a flock of migrating storks fly over. Only the birds look like puppets, or badly digitized drawings—something not realistic, anyway. Groan. Also, although film dubbing has obviously progressed since Godzilla, not only do the lips not match the words, but the voices don’t match the actors. The movie is in no small part about WORDS (all-caps), and so this flaw is painfully ironic. I really wish someone had insisted on subtitles.

… and you can go read the rest here at Religion Dispatches!

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