partsofspeaking

I have just sent back the proofs to my first novel, with the sincere hope that it will be available for purchase by the end of the "academic summer" (mid-August). Its publication has been held up. I hadn't even read any of it in six months or more! I have been working on the sequels and only referred to it to avoid any inconsistency with dates. Because all three books will be tied into historical events, I have to keep the chronology right. I have just been reading reviews/comments about The Shack . I don't believe in critiquing something I haven't experienced myself, so that's not my purpose here. I am more interested in the what the commentors and bloggers had to say about fiction in the Christian life and theology. Story truth vs. propositional truth. I think this will become an even greater subject as postmodernism goes on. I personally want to write good stories that engage people on an artistic and emotional level, and that then may, and I repea...

Since I am a Sunday Bible School teacher in an SBC church, I am expected to visit prospects. Recently I visited a woman who said she’d come and didn’t. She had had a bad experience at one of our services, not a horrendous thing, but understandably off-putting. Nevertheless, I don't like people making promises to me they do not keep nor have any intention of keeping. I would just as soon they say they can't make it, want to go elsewhere, church is not a priority, or something final. I'm an upfront person and treat people that way. Of course, expecting other people to treat you as you like to treat others is not a necessary corrollalry to the Golden Rule. I have a lot of observations about these times I have this experience, but the bottom of it is that people who say they are Christians just don’t think they need the church. That is a lie from the devil. It’s like a diet of junk food without some of the things we know are good for us but we don’t like. My son doesn...

This summer I have devoted myself to a vegetable garden. It is less than 100 square feet, and I probably have my seven different vegetables crowded in there too tightly--tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, two kinds of squash, cucumbers (which are particularly reticent to take off), cataloupe, green beans, and lettuce. Nothing is ready to eat, but we're getting close. I wished I'd planted okra. Watching things grow is a joy. Weeding and hoeing are not, and there is a particularly pernicious weed or ground cover plant that takes over quite quickly. And there is the fertilizing and watering, sometimes necessary although rainwater does so much better. Fortunately it's been damp this spring (but not like it has been in Iowa.) Barbara Kingsolver, a writer I do not read, has written a book about how she and her family lived on what they grew or could get locally for a year. She lives in Abingdon, VA, somewhat north of here, but far enough south to get a good yield for a long summer. ...

I came home from my night class tonight and sat down to work on my novel and watch mindless television. My son, 19, has on a VH1 show about the 1980s. It's all pop culture and mostly tacky, but I can't help but laugh at what was "hot, hot, hot" in 1987 and 1988 (the year he was born). The hair was absolutely bizzare, the '80s must have been the time when we got used to the crassness of what became pop culture, and there were some great movies back then, like "Rain Man," a movie that introduced the clueless to autism (in some ways a good thing, in some ways a bad). But what stands out to me is what I thought was the most telling event of 1987. Of course, that could be a lot of things, but I give that title to the Baby Jessica falling int he well incident. America sat by the TV for three days worrying over the fate of that toddler. Who can forget when she was brought up? Who can forget how the rescuers ran and the heavy equipment that was brought in...

Some more observations on the book of Acts, early chapters. 1. What were they all in one accord about? 2. What caused the early Christians to be willing to spend time together, minister together, share possessions? 3. What turned Peter into this orator all of a sudden? 4. What emboldened Peter and John to realize that the Sanhedrin, the "Jewish Senate," the legislative, political, judicial, and religious body, the group that had power of life and death over them, to realize the Sanhedrin was not speaking for God, and what emboldened them to say they must obey God rather than the supposed representative of God on earth. Of course, the subtext might be that the Sanhedrin, as the elitists, didn't have much real "street cred" with the working class any way, and it is the working class that is most represented in the disciples. But Peter and John are doing more than being sarcastic about class differences. They know where that kind of talk can lead them. The r...

That’s very dramatic. As I write this, my computer works but the cable and Internet are down. We are experiencing real withdrawal symptoms (as in frenetic but futile attempts to watch TV and check email), and yet there is a sense of relief that I am not the prisoner of the screen. It seems that all our lives are funneled through screens anymore, and I don’t mean the type that keeps flies out of the house. Flat screens, high-definition screens, screens in church (ostensibly used for PowerPoint projection but also used to “blow up” the pastor, some of which, especially in a Baptist church, don’t need to look any bigger.) In fact, I warn my students that audiences have been trained to pay more attention to the screen than the speaker, not purposefully, just as an unintended consequence. If that is true, the speaker has to either use the screen minimally, or make sure the screen is not more interesting than he/she or the message, or turn all technology off completely and speak the way...

Yes, maybe Obama resigned his church for purely political reasons. But let's lay off him for that. Let's talk about his economic philosophy and his foreign policy plans. As someone who has chosen to stop attending certain churches, it's a painful and personal decision. Some graciousness seems warranted. But no, that seems to be beyond Fox News. Sean Hannity, shame on you.

Since I teach an adult (women's) Sunday Bible class, it seems reasonable that some of my posts should be about that. Today we began the Book of Acts. A few observations. 1. As with most things in the church, we are out of balance. Our doctrine of and openness to (I don't say usage, appropriation, or any other word that makes it sound like we are in control) the Holy Spirit is one of them, probably the largest. We either talk about the Holy Spirit (not it) all the time in search of some self-absorbed ecstactic experience or ignore the Holy Spirit, only mentioning in creeds or in passing. This has bugged me for years. We equate, I fear, the Holy Spirit control with borderline, unsocial behavior. We therefore (think we) have to keep the Holy Spirit at bay, which makes no sense based on John 14:16-18. I believe we are daily prompted by the Holy Spirit to do and say things that honor God and we generally disobey. 2. The kingdom of God didn't go away in Matthew 13. I struggle wit...