I have three items for today:
1. A conservative Christian friend posted a link to a beliefnet article
about the Episcopalian church's troubles. The article quoted a
Christian author who presented Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts
Schori as a liberal who mocked Christian doctrines (i.e., the
Incarnation, the Trinity, etc.), proclaimed that human beings can take
their place as God, and treated God, humans, and animals as "one
undifferentiated blob" (the Christian author's words).
I
searched "Katherine Jefferts Schori" on the Internet, expecting to find a
flaky liberal, like some of the guest speakers I heard when I was at
Harvard Divinity School, or a mainline Protestant pastor I read about
who said that the earth is our womb. Instead, I found that Katherine
Jefferts Schori sounded down-to-earth, measured, reasonable, and almost
Mr. Spock-like. I'm not saying she's a conservative, mind you, but she
did not strike me as the kind of flaky liberal that the Christian author
was depicting her as. Actually, she had some profound thoughts. Of
course, I've not thoroughly researched Katherine Jefferts Schori, but
I'm commenting based on what I read and heard.
Here are some of my favorite videos of Katherine Jefferts Schori:
----Katherine Jefferts Schori addresses the question of whether Jesus is the only way to God. See here.
----Katherine Jefferts Schori speculates about the origin of prayer. See here.
----Katherine
Jefferts Schori talks with Bill Moyers about science and religion (she
was once a marine biologist) as well as homosexuality. See here.
Maybe
you'll agree with Katherine Jefferts Schori. Maybe you'll think that
she's a heretic. But, speaking for myself, I definitely found her worth
listening to.
2. Shawn Smucker had an encouraging post, Have You Considered Believing that Right Now You Are Enough?
Shawn talks about how even the small things that we do----a small
church, a small blog----that we don't consider to be significant because
they are small may be meaningful in somebody else's life.
3. David Nilsen of The Screaming Kettle wrote an article on another web site about the 18 things he'd like his daughter to know. Actually, some of that wisdom is applicable to adults, too!