"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere."
--G.K. Chesterton
"The man's body is sacred and the woman's body is sacred.../Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off, just as much as you."
--Walt Whitman
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According to the Buddha, right speech is a statement that is timely, true, kind, helpful (connected to liberation), and spoken with a mind of good-will. Let us all try to observe this precept.
Yesterday I wrote to a friend who heads my women's Bible study group:
It has become quite clear to me that fear of sin is one of the things keeping me from church. The current cultural landscape is such that I will eventually end up offended by something I hear either in the conservative or the liberal church, and I am afraid of being unlikable and conflict-causing when I offer a different viewpoint.
Since the whole point of being a Christian is the grace not to be driven by fear of sin any longer, this is obviously a problem. She wrote back:
I too feel if I went back to [the evangelical church], I would be screaming You people are crazy don't you see that I am right and you are wrong
and if I went back to [the liberal church] I would be screaming You people are crazy don't you see that I am right and you are wrong
Once I put that down in writing, it gives [the liberal church] a less compelling pull on me. If I'm likely to be a screeching lunatic wherever I go, might as well go somewhere where Jesus is Lord.
Or to put it another way: Girl...It's not about you!!
7/27/2007 3:44 PM
Leah wrote:
Hey Jendi- you're not a screeching lunatic, bearing witness to the brokeness in the church does not make you a lunatic...I'm not sure the dichotomies are always quite so simple as Jesus being Lord one place versus another. he is of, course, Lord everywhere whether we like it or not! The question is where is one called, it seems you have a prophetic vocation wherever that happens to be. Anyway, hope to see you at Grace one of these Wednesdays! Reply to this
7/27/2007 3:46 PM
Leah wrote:
I read the entry incorrectly, nevertheless I imagine it still applies somewhere... Reply to this
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