All posts filed under: Religion

Dear Kathy Griffin…

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BeautyBeyondBones Being a millennial New Yorker and actor, I’d like to think I’ve got pretty thick skin. Getting rejected is par for the course in the entertainment industry. The city doesn’t do you any favors — just try battling the check out lines at Whole Foods at 3pm on a Sunday.  Heck, even the squirrels seems to have a certain undeniable hutzpah on these streets. Really, nothing quite comes as a shock to me anymore, for better or for worse. However. Earlier this week, opening up my Buzzfeed app to find Kathy Griffin’s infamous photo of her, carrying the bloodied head of a decapitated President Donald Trump…I literally stopped in my tracks. Just. No. And I have a few words. This is not okay. I don’t care how much you hate the President or his policies, that went. too far. It’s no secret that Donald Trump is one of –… View original post 594 more words

Beyond My Reach

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Originally posted on keithgarrettpoetry:
BEYOND MY REACH With my hand stretched to the sky I cannot touch the stars so high, Nor the clouds, a falling star, or the sun going down. The wind, I cannot grab hold, a bird in flight, A dream in the night, never a yesterday. Beyond my reach is not my dreams, It is not that which I pray for. The hand of god I cannot touch, in my heart I can surely take hold, It is not hope, nor faith, it is not a tomorrow. Beyond my reach are many things, Beyond my reach is not everything. Keith Garrett

Should Religion Have a Place in Government?

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Originally posted on Millennial:
Millennial writer Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig recently spoke at the Yale Political Union, arguing the negative position on the resolution: “religion has no place in government.” Here is a small segment of her speech: I’ll now turn to the idea that religion ought to have a place in government…. There are several reasons why. The first is that law both expresses and enforces certain moral truths which cannot be divorced from broader moral systems, and for the religious — those sharing communities of some overwhelming concern — it’s disingenuous nigh impossible to deliberate on what truths the law should express without citing their religious priors. And this, secondly, allows their co-religionists to hold them responsible for their claims. The tendency of liberal societies to bifurcate religion and politics into two separate spheres — one private, one public — encourages religious participants in political deliberation to equivocate somewhat about their motives and beliefs, as it’s not really possible in that political context to interrogate them. Yet it should be. As long as the religious…

Lost in the Discipleship Details

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Originally posted on The Millennial Pastor:
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 “Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Read the whole passage) Sermon Jesus is talking the dreaded “D” word again this week. Discipleship. Last week Jesus had to come to terms with the quality of disciples he had to work with. Disciples who didn’t get it, who wanted to destroy those whom they were trying to reach as much as help them. Disciples who were not committed, who only had one toe in the water. And so today, Jesus uses those disciples anyways, sending 70 of them out into the world to proclaim the good news, the kingdom of God has come near. Now, this story of discipleship is one that many here will know well. It is one that during the past year, council and other groups read to one another each time we gathered for a meeting. And over that year, we unpacked this story as much as we could, we…

Millennial Problems: I’m Jealous of My Friends

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Originally posted on One Millennial Girl:
I know I’m not the only person in the world who has been jealous of someone else. We all experience jealousy on different levels, but have you ever been jealous of your friends? Yes I love my friends and I want the best for them, but I have also envied them to the point where it became unhealthy. When I say unhealthy I mean that I have been so jealous of my friends that it has caused me to fall into a depression. It’s not that I want to be like them; at times I have envied their success, the relationships they have, and their skills and abilities. When my friend went off to live in Costa Rica a few years ago, I began to feel a little twinge of jealousy. It wasn’t bad enough that I was stuck in college on the five-year plan and she had already graduated, but now she was about to go have the experience of a lifetime while I was stuck in Carrollton,…

Being Threatened by Jesus

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Originally posted on The Millennial Pastor:
Luke 13:31-35 King Herod was not a well liked King. He was a puppet King for the Romans… who probably didn’t really care about who was King over the backwater province of the empire, Judea. The people of Israel didn’t care for Herod, knowing that he was all about power. But like most people in power, Herod made the right allegiances. With Rome and with the religious authorities. So when the Pharisees come to Jesus with a Message, he knows they too are puppet authorities, doing the puppet King’s dirty work in order to hold on to their own power and privilege. Today, on the second Sunday of Lent we continue with Jesus who can’t help but be confronted by people who think they have power. Last week it was the Devil tempting Jesus to misuse the power of incarnation, the power that comes along with being God, and being God in flesh. The Devil’s temptations set the stage for the recurring theme that Luke’s gospel holds up for…

This Religion is Too Small

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I feel like my spiritual journey can best be described like Goldilocks. A girl wanders through the metaphorical woods and tries out all these different religions. I’m still trying to find the one that is “just right.” I grew up Christian. I was never inundated with religion at home, but I went to a nice little Methodist church all through my formative years. I was active in the youth group and went on several mission trips. I stopped going to church when the pastor changed. The new pastor was a bit too preachy and conservative for my taste. I tried to find another church I liked, but I couldn’t. So for the next two years or so, I clung to the ideas of Christianity without a community. I could best be described as a progressive liberal Christian back then. I have a scientific mind and was working on an anthropology degree. I have been an evolutionist since my early teens, and I’ve always supported people’s right to live the life they want. As I started …

Four ways to Heal the Social Justice/Pro-life Divide

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Originally posted on Millennial:
Millennial writer  Mike Jordan Laskey has a new article at NCR. He writes: Accept “political homelessness” and live in the tension. John Carr, the former director of the U.S. bishops’ justice and peace department, uses the phrase “politically homeless” to describe where Catholicism’s consistent ethic of life leaves us. We might be “comfortable with neither Republican economic individualism, which measures everything by the market, nor with Democratic cultural individualism, which celebrates personal ‘choice’ above all else,” he wrote in America. “Neither form of libertarianism leaves enough room for the weak and vulnerable or the common good.” Political homelessness is hard! I’d love to feel content with either major party, and contribute to and vote for their candidates without thinking too much about it. I want to buy a t-shirt and go to a rally. I’d like to be a fan of the only presidential candidate to prominently feature a quote on economic injustice from Pope Francis on his website — Bernie Sanders — but the candidate’s perfect 100% rating from NARAL…

Why Advent Sucks this Year – Why We Need Advent

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Originally posted on The Millennial Pastor:
Advent is normally my favourite season of the church year. I don’t think that is uncommon for pastors. Christmas and Easter are of course the big celebrations, but Advent and Lent have a certain depth and richness, that allow Christmas and Easter to be what they are. Advent and Lent add the flavour to the meal. For me, the richness of Advent is found in the images – the way of Lord, valleys filled up, mountains made low, crooked made straight, broods of vipers, winnowing forks and chaff, angels and virgins, and promises and hints of Messiah. Advent’s beauty is in the blending of hints and promises of Messiah together with real life. With the messiness of people looking for something better. The people in the desert going to John the Baptist, looking for something different than what they knew. The hypocrisy of religious and political leaders, which is a true as death and taxes. A  teen girl dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and the reality of impossible life…

There’s Nothing Christian About Blocking Non-Christian Refugees to the US

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Originally posted on Millennial:
Millennial co-founder Christopher Hale has a new article at Time. He writes: In light of the terrorist attacks on Paris Friday, some, including Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush, have called on President Barack Obama to focus on accepting Christian refugees from Syria. But there’s nothing Christian about only prioritizing Christian refugees into the U.S. In fact, such an idea flies in the face of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself was an immigrant child in a strange land. When Mary and Joseph were looking for a place for Mary to give birth to Jesus, Bethlehem’s innkeepers denied the Holy Family a hotel for the night. After Jesus’s birth, Mary and Joseph fled with their refugee child to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s despotic rule. They did this even though their Judaism was a visible minority in the North African land full of indigenous and polytheistic beliefs. If ancient Egypt can make room for refugees of religious minorities, why can’t the U.S. do so today? You can read…