Parts of Speaking Publishing

 Two former "evangelicals" (whatever that means any more) came to mind lately.  Rob Bell.  Joshua Harris.  Both were the hot new things in the late '90s. Today, it's hard to tell what either of them believes or commits allegiance to, except how to make money off of their "religious journey" from faith to, well, openness, deconstruction, exvangelical, apostasy. Both have to keep famous through influencing, social media, writing books.  Shame on publishers who exploit them.  Shame on them for not getting real job.  Even the Apostle Paul had tent-making to fall back on. Not that he was apostate; the point is, despite being one of the most important personages in history, he supported himself and didn't expect a free ride even though he could have. These kind of guys (and there are others, make no mistake) never bothered to get a real marketable skill like accounting or coding.  They have to keep trying to make a living through misleading people....

https://www.barbaragrahamtucker.net/post/celebration-of-poetry-and-looking-toward-retirement 

 Thanksgiving was quite good for us. I was anxious about it, which was not the right approach. Anxious over the food and over the mix of personalities. I am wondering if I am going to host it and make all that food again next year! What was your holiday like? Has Thanksgiving become “the holiday” for us as Americans? Why? One podcaster I listen to says that the two American holidays are Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, and one is political and the other spiritual. The literature from LifeWay, the Gospel Project, now moves into Exodus after not really enough time in Genesis. Keep in mind that we do not study these people because they were good models on how to live. They did have faith and that was what God wanted and used. Mostly, they were a part of the redemptive story of the gospel that leads to Christ’s birth. Today is the first day of advent, so we can start a journey toward the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, knowing it’s not the real day but a day we commemorate and c...

 I keep seeing all these ads or memes about awkward Thanksgiving meals. These messages either try to give advice on how to navigate red state-blue state-woke-nonwoke differences at the table or use them for comedy.  I submit I had a particularly awkward, or unusual Thanksgiving meal.  I hosted my daughter-in-law's family, she and my son and granddaughter (10 months old), and my husband. That may not sound so bad, but my in-laws do not speak much English, at least the wife. So we had a lot of Spanish and a lot of translating, with one end of the table all English (except for my occasional input), the middle of the the table Spanglish, and the other end all Spanish. We had an age range of 72 years to 10 months (she liked my mash potatoes and I have an adorable photo of her propped on pillows at the table with some food in front of her, trying to figure this all out). The awkwardness continued with the fact that I do not live with my husband, he and our son have a tenuous re...

The song YMCA, which is very fun and catchy, has been part of the sound track of my life. Yet I always assumed, or understood, that it had to do with gay men looking for partners at the storied Young Men's Christian Association supported originally by evangelical Christian leaders in the early 1900s.  So, fun as it was, it sort of bugged me. Not because I want to get into a discussion of gay men, but because the origin of the YMCA as a ministry and refuge has meant so much to so many. Au contraire. I finally looked it up. The song was not written by or for the gay community. It was written by a Black man in Vancouver, British Columbia, to extol the virtues of the YMCA for urban youth.  That makes me happy!  It also makes me feel incredibly stupid that I have been under a misapprehension for decades due to ignorance.  How much is this the case!  I bring this up this Monday morning for two reasons. I am working on a long post about "Unemployed Apostates" and becau...

  Life, Books, and Everything , with Kevin DeYoung. "A Critical Look at Critical Theory with Carl Trueman," October 16 Christianity Today The Bulletin , "The Fate of the University with Yuval Levin." November 19 Very lucid explanations of where we are. Podcasts are changing the world.  Here is mine:  Dialogues with Creators   https://rss.com/podcasts/dialogues-with-creators/

 Have you ever sat in a movie theatre, for the whole film, as the only person in the room? I have. In Summer 2020, during the pandemic, which to some people is still going on, on the first day the multiplex in Fort Oglethorpe, GA, was opened, I went in to see "Tenet."  I was totally by myself. It's not a horror movie, which would have changed my attitude, and it requires intense concentration (a little too much), so I barely thought about the idea of being in a huge dark room by myself. 

  "We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams.” H.G. Wells

 

I have been thinking—can’t help it—the lives of women. The “lived experience” of us, 51% of the population. It’s not pretty, as much as I enjoy my life as a woman (most of the time). I am not a feminist per se (not sure what that means any more). I am pro-life*. I am pro-women, and I want them heard. Some things that have gotten me thinking. The election, of course. We are told that women, well, married women, broke for President Trump, while single women went overwhelming for VP Harris. Okay, I’ll take that as it is. The media wants to portray Trump as anti-women. He isn’t ideological enough to be so. He respects women if they can get him what he wants; case in point, nominating Susie (Summerall) Wiles for Chief of Staff, and Kelly Anne Conway. (Notice that Susie Wiles is Pat Summerall's daughter and Kelly Anne is married to a high-level lawyer). The assumption, again of the media, which blasts at us 24/7, was that because Kamala Harris is female, we will fall at her feet, ...

I really thought VP Harris would pull it off. Not with any help from me. And I knew Georgia would go for Trump this time (last time was an anomaly, a fluke).  I believed it because of two things I will never believe again: the media and polls.  And she really, really didn't. I feel sorry for her; she's being blamed with accusations that were not entirely her fault. But I'm glad she lost. I do not think she has the qualities or fortitude to lead this country in foreign policy, and her domestic polices are too leftist. To say nothing of how terrible a communicator she is.  And she should have picked Shapiro from Pennsylvania. Her first choice said a lot. She wanted a VP who would not outshine her. This is not to say I'm happy about Trump. He didn't get any help from me either. But no one can say he didn't win legitimately, he won't throw a temper tantrum this time, and there will be a relatively peaceful transfer of power with civility. We haven't seen tha...

Genesis 28: Jacob the Cheater starts to grow up What we have to keep in mind is that the Old Testament stories are about God’s actions, and less so men and women’s. As someone who regularly studies and teaches the Bible, how to interpret it is forefront in my mind. It is called hermeneutics. While there are many fascinating and inspiring stories about people in the Bible who are faithful, and we can follow their examples and get hope from them in a secondary way, the Bible is about God’s actions and interactions first. The people are almost always going to fail, some more than others, some in small ways and others in drastic ones. The people are not the example; Christ is. Even when Paul the Apostle says to “follow my example,” it is only in the ways he is following Christ. Faithful Christians can say that, but we cannot put our preferences, life habits, and patterns on other people. God deals with us as individuals, as families, as churches, as groups, at different times. But ...

 I do not know who stumbles across this blog. I started it because I lost access to my former ones; I hope to figure that out because they represent years and years of my writing, and you can find them at partsofspeaking.blogspot.com and highereducationobserver.blogspot.com.   However, this will be a work in progress today as I make my final word on this political season.  I start by encouraging Christian believers to read I Thessalonians. I am reading the New Testament  with my church, and I am admittedly behind. Today I finished this book. Its whole tenor struck me.  It is instruction to a group of people who are new at this whole Christianity endeavor, who came from a different world view, either pagan or Judaistic. It is basic and yet profound (aren't all basic things profound, really?) 5:13ff Be at peace among yourselves.  14  We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward al...

Genesis 25-27 Jacob the Cheater We are still on a journey away from paganism and its practices, and we see family patterns repeated. Isaac lied about his wife Rebekah being his sister, just like his father did, for example. The men and women use their servant girls as baby mamas. One reason for studying Genesis is that we see patterns developing that help us interpret the Bible. We will see some of them here. Jacob is his own worst enemy. He is a complicated person in the Old Testament story. His name—Supplanter--is his character. I am glad we don’t do that now. He also shows a pattern of “the second” being the preferred. Cain and Abel, Adam and Christ, David over Saul, Jacob over Esau, Judah over his brothers. Despite Jacob’s tricks, he is redeemed and disciplined. I think he liked getting it over on people. In the end, he and Esau reconnect, reconcile and over time he comes to terms with his past dishonesty. Starting 25:1: It is of value to know the basic facts of the Bible, an...