Secret Women's Business

Dear Complementarian Friends, I know you are sincere in your belief that God has ordained different roles for men and women. I know you are trying to obey God's revelation through scripture. I commend you for that. However, I think it would be wise if you kept a low profile on your views about the place of women. Please bear with me as I explain. Alarmingly, some of you are claiming in public spaces that Complementarianism is THE Christian view. Some have even been saying Egalitarians are in error, unbiblical, and sinful. However many Christian denominations... Pentecostals, Baptists, Churches of Christ, Salvation Army, most Anglican Dicoese in Australia, the Uniting Church and others… DO ordain women. Making comments about how Egalitarians are sinful, unfaithful, and unbiblical doesn't exactly help the cause of church unity. Do you really think it’s a salvation issue? Is it a question you ask at confirmation or Baptism? It’s one thing to have a strong view, it’s quit...

“Ancient youth like Jacob and Esau grew up at a time when questions like ‘Who are my people? Why am I here? What gives my life meaning and coherence?’ were answered, literally, by the faith of their fathers, not by theories of ego development. Yet these questions of belonging, purpose, and ideology remain at the core of human identity; while we have learned to think of them as psychological issues, such questions have historically fallen to religion to answer, ritualized in the traditions and practices of communities that seek to embody a particular story of identity.” (Kendra Creasy Dean) I suggest our world is full of spiritual orphans. Orphans are left to fend for themselves; to pick up whatever sustenance and shelter they can find. Orphans, unless adopted, are not nurtured and struggle to thrive. They don’t know who they are or where they belong. Religious communities have traditionally provided a spiritual home for young people; providing the stories, metaphors, rituals an...

One human characteristic is to interpret what we read through the grid of our assumptions and world view. We interpret texts (including the bible) according to the norms of our culture, our family of origin, the style and level of education we have received, our own personality, and all manner of subtle and not-so-subtle socialisation experiences. We interpret what the church should be like through the grid of our personal experiences of church, often with greater passion and clarity than with anything the New Testament has to say about church. Anyone who has had a battle in their church over hymns versus choruses, where the communion table should sit, how long the service should run, a building program or a management problem, can testify that passions can run high over issues that have NOTHING to do with good theology or the bible, and everything to do with the expectations people have based on their prior experiences of church and family. This is perfectly normal and to be expecte...

Just in case you missed "Missing Missy"

Just tried the new coffee - Osama Bin Latte. It has a fluffy white head with two shots in it. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!' Then there was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did. Atheism is a non-prophet organization. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian. Did you know that 6 of the 7 dwarfs aren't Happy? Two antennas fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.' Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again th...

Scientists can tell us about space and energy and atoms and enzymes and DNA… which is all fascinating. And the deeper into the science you go, the more it draws you into wonder. That anything exists at all is fantastical; miraculous! But human beings make sense of their lives not via disconnected facts but via stories and rituals. Small children thrive on routine and rituals: mealtimes, playtimes, bathtimes, storytimes, bedtimes. Their minds and hearts expand via stories. Stories help children to make sense of chaos, clarify a sense of morality, give names and metaphors to human experience, gain insight into relationships, expand their imagination. At Easter time we retell an extraordinary story of a victim of injustice, misguided religious zeal and corrupt power. A story of the brutal murder of an innocent man. A story of sacrifice. Stories about sacrifice are repeated across the ages and in contemporary culture. Carton dying in the place of Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities ; Jac...

Back when studying teaching in the murky depths of the last millennium, when introducing a new concept we were advised to: • Name it • Define it • Identify and discuss its qualities • Show examples • Show non-examples This idea is explained here , and some examples of this in practice are here and here and here . I’ll admit I was rather taken by the idea of non-examples . They clarify boundaries, and eliminate fuzziness. They are a powerful way to learn. I’ve been wondering lately whether this is also true for some leadership competencies? Might it be easier to learn from non-examples… or bad examples… than from good examples? To illustrate: Have you ever had a manager who avoided making decisions? Decisions that NEEDED to be made? It's painful! It’s a non-example of good leadership. This kind of experience strengthens my resolve not to be like that, but to make decisions in a timely fashion. At the other extreme, have you ever known a leader who rushed to ...

On a Facebook conversation recently l pointed out a factually incorrect claim, and posted a reputable link pointing out the error. OK, you don’t expect applause when you correct such things, but I was interested in this response: "You believe what you want to, just as I do." This was my exasperated reply: "Believe what you want to? I trained as a scientist. I believe where facts lead me. And l seem to spend half my life fact checking with so much bogus information circulating. It's exhausting. Welcome to the post truth world." I’ve had another intelligent friend sending me links lately with completely false information. I’ve kept replying in statements like this: “That’s from Brietbart News, famous for promoting blatantly fake stories such as ‘Hillary runs a paedophile ring’. It’s not a reputable source. No, that one is from Joseph Farah, who keeps claiming Obama was born in Kenya when this has been proven false. No that one is from RT, Russia Toda...