partsofspeaking

This blog post is not about praying for justice, although that might come later. It's about how we habitually pray in the evangelical church. We pray, "God, just do this or that." What is that cliche, pattern, trope, habit, about?  Who are we impressing? Are we saying, "I'm not asking for much, God, just this. . . " Is that a lie, then, because we then ask for the next thing? Pray Boldly. Pray Big. Don't "just" pray. It's a trap.

Racial reconciliation is part of the gospel (or really, a result of it), but it is not THE gospel. I think some people are missing that, in terms of both independent clauses. I can't help but think of George Orwell's quote: In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. White people should stop telling black people who they should live and how they are supposed to feel.  In my life time I may see Christians jailed, even myself, for simply existing. We need Habbakuk today. Go study it. I write and only want readers, not money. Check out barbaragrahamtucker.com  One of the most nonvisited sites on the Internet. Amazingly so. I'm learning more about management and conflict resolution from my writers group than from my job as a department chair. COVID has grown greatly in my county, and in the last week we finally have deaths. Who are these people dying? Is everyone really dying of COVID or dying with it? I do not believe we will ever hav...

This statement fascinates me. I first heard it from one of doctoral professors at UGA. She quoted it often; it originally comes from Rainer Maria Rilke, a Bohemian-Austrian poet. In the last year or so I read his Letters to a Young Poet, which I recommend for serious writers and students of literature, and I will read again. However, his poetry did not work for me, perhaps because they are in translations, but my lack of understanding bears little weight. The words "Live the Questions" came to my mind this morning as I read Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a much-overlooked, short, but often quoted (out of context) book. "The just shall live by his faith." "The Lord is in His Holy Temple; let all the earth be silent;" "Revive your work in the midst of years;" "Though the fig tree may not blossom." It is probably, like Job, one of the most existential of books, looking suffering and devastation and faith and God's plan in the face and aski...

From A Tale of Two Cities " A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.   A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg7aXEvCeXY  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWc7vYjgnTs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu77Vtja30c (starting, especially, at 2:55) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW8VvXUv_8Q (sorry, cheesy graphics) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c6pl6CaiD0 good graphics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbIcmQ22EeI The Lyrics of the last: Were creation suddenly articulate With a thousand tongues to lift one cry Then from North to South and East to West We'd hear Christ be magnified Were the whole earth echoing His eminence His name would burst from sea and sky From rivers to the mountain tops We'd hear Christ be magnified Oh! Christ be magnified Let His praise arise Christ be magnified in me Oh! Christ be magnified From the altar of my life Christ be magnified in me When every creature finds its inmost melody And every human heart its native cry Oh then in one enraptured hymn of praise We'll sing Christ be m...

At 64 I have lived longer than most. I grew up outside of Washington, D.C. in the Maryland suburbs. I was 12 when Dr. King was assassinated, the first time when I would have been aware of black people’s anger. I knew black people before, but being around them was not the same as entering their experience.  In my elementary school grade level, there were only two black students, two girls. One was a chubby, extroverted, smiling girl, last name of Banks, (even at that age I remembered last names rather than first) who had taken acting classes and could do recitations for us. I was friends with her; she came to my house after school to play at least once, I remember. The other was a skinny, tall girl, shy, who seemed to have a stoop in her posture and a slowness to her walk. Whether it was a physical affliction or a part of her psychological makeup, I do not know. She was quite a different person from Miss Banks, whom I think today is probably still the life ...

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I'm reading Rodney Stark's book on the rise of Christianity; he combines history and sociology to explain how it could have become so prominent in three centuries. As a sociologist, he writes about class and how the idea that Christianity spread almost entirely through the poorer classes and slaves is a myth. I tend to agree with him on this point (not all of his others). In the ancient world, at least the pagan ancient world, work was denigrated. So happy am I to share a quote from the Reformation:  "All Christians whatsoever really and truly belong to the religious class, and there is no difference among them except in so far as they do different work. … A shoemaker, a smith, a farmer, each has his manual occupation and work; and yet, at the same time, all are eligible to act as priests and bishops. Every one of them in his occupation or handicraft ought to be useful to his fellows, and serve them in such a way that the various trades are all directed to the b...

Recently a writer friend ask us to critique a piece on the silver linings of the COVID crisis. The essay was excellent, and she writes very well. This is not a criticism of this writer, but of an overall approach, and a rant. I see no silver linings in this situation. The world has been brought to its knees by a deadly microscopic cell and the fears and paranoia it has created. People can’t pay their rent and families are going to be evicted. Children went and continue to go   hungry because they didn’t go to school. Students will receive even more inferior educations. Colleges will go out of business. Colleges that don’t go out of business will cut their programs. Businesses are going bankrupt. Drinking is up, a lot. Depressive disorders, too. Allegedly suicides Hundreds of thousands of people didn’t go to the doctor for important care because they were discouraged from doing so or scared. Charities can’t fulfill their commitments.  (Of course, these conditi...