Posts

Showing posts from December, 2017

So Done with Patriarchy

Maybe it’s because I just finished reading a paper on Ephesians 5 by a friend who is in seminary. Maybe it’s because #MeToo. More likely, it’s because bad theology that dehumanizes and disempowers anyone drives me up a wall. And when Kaitlin Curtice issued a challenge on Twitter to reply to a post called “Husbands, Get Her Ready for Jesus” by Bryan Stoudt at Desiring God (John Piper’s website promoting what he calls “Christian Hedonism”, which in practice sounds to me a lot more like “Christian Judgmentalism and Legalism Wrapped Up in Gilt Paper and Tied with a Velvet Bow”, but that could be another post for another time), I decided I’m all over it. Because I am SO DONE WITH PATRIARCHY. A simplistic but ultimately ineffectual post would be to copy Stoudt’s post and swap every husband and wife reference so it puts women in the position of power. Alas, “the Bible doesn’t say that!” would negate the argument right off, so instead, I need to recap and then respond. According to S

Dark and Light

Dark and Light Devotional for the United Church of Christ Science and Technology Network December 21, 2017 Rev. Dr. Ruth E. Shaver 5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;   besides me there is no god.   I arm you, though you do not know me,   6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun   and from the west, that there is no one besides me;   I am the Lord, and there is no other.   7 I form light and create darkness,   I make weal and create woe;   I the Lord do all these things. —Isaiah 45:5-7, NRSV This section of Isaiah is addressed to the “Savior” of the Israelite people, Cyrus the Great of Persia. We know of Cyrus from the so-called Cyrus Cylinder, an artifact held by the British Museum that proclaims the king to be a liberator and restorer of proper faith and practice to the people of Babylon and all those held captive by the Babylonians. The Cylinder makes no mention of the Israelites, Jews, Jerusalem, Judah, or Judea, 1 but the Biblical