Tag: sojourners

(Reblog) What God Has Joined

On By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Article by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Reblogged from Sojo.net (Sojourners Magazine):

“God is in the connections” is a point Beverly Harrison, the noted ethicist and theologian, makes so well in her book Making the Connections: Essays in Feminist Social Ethics. With the “power of relation to sustain us … we can learn what we need to know. Christian love—both God’s love for us and ours for God and each other—means this: that we discover and experience, in the power of praxis and solidarity, a new wellspring of caring that fuels our passion.”

This kind of passionate connection should be at the heart of the commitment of love in marriage. The “holiness” of holy matrimony comes from this kind of sacramental practice. It is not given to a couple, any couple, whatever their sexual orientation, by virtue of a pastor like me saying the words over them in a sanctuary, though the promises couples make to each other in marriage ceremonies are very important. But these are not “once for all” kinds of promises. I tell couples (and myself!) that they must choose to be married every day. Every day you have to get up and decide to perform this holiness, giving and receiving, confessing wrong and forgiving wrong, caring enough to stand by in sickness and in health, and talking it through.

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(Reblog) Tales of a Male ‘Preacher’s Wife’

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized1 Comment

As a man who began his career as a “preacher’s wife” in a small, rural congregation in upstate NY, I can so related to this article.  While my wife and I were in seminary and engaged to be married, but before I realized I was called to pastoral ministry, I went to the seminary library to look up books on being a clergy spouse.  I found those books on the shelf, right between “Sexual Abuse” and “Burnout”, and they were all geared toward clergy wives.  There was NOTHING about being the husband of a pastor.  And, as far as I could tell, my job was just to be Donna Reed.

The low point came when one person learned that I was starting a street chaplaincy program in inner-city Utica.  That person’s comment: “Oh!  I thought you were just a house husband!“

Yup… nope.

Reblogged from Sojourners

By Christian Piatt

I get my share of “preacher’s wife” jokes, to which I have a handful of rote responses. No, I don’t knit or make casseroles. No, I don’t play in the bell choir. Generally, the jokes are pretty gentle, but they all point to the reality that few of us will actually talk about: We see the traditional roles of women as less important than those of their male counterparts. And so, to see a man who works from home most of the time and takes the kids to school while his wife has the “high power” job brings everything from the man’s masculinity to his ambition into question.

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Why I Don’t Believe the Ordination of Men is ‘Biblical’

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized2 Comments

This is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek argument.

Nevermind that I hate the word ‘biblical’ in all of its pretentious and coercive glory.  I find that it usually has nothing to do with the Bible and a lot to do with arrogant jerks who don’t like to have their authority challenged.

You want to know what’s really unbiblical?

Bacon.  And I’m not giving that up either.

Anyway, here’s a list of farcical reasons that appeared in Sojourner’s Magazine.  One of my seminary profs had an almost identical list on his office door.  The purpose of this joke is to show how absolutely ridiculous are the hermeneutical arguments of those who fight against women in ordained ministry.

10 reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained For Ministry