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My attitude about Philip Yancey after taking a walk on a warm January day

1. Still mad; maybe a tad more merciful and understanding, but still mad at him and the system that does not hold celebrity voices in the church accountable. However, Yancey would probably say he was a journalist and not a theologian or preacher/pastor. No matter; he purported to interpret the Bible and the faith for readers. 

2. I recall that his last book was about his mother, brother, father's death, and hard upbringing in the fundamentalist subculture. It was heartfelt. Many of us can relate to such stories, such truths. I have struggled to shake off those fundamentalist teachings and really, those burdens. They hang like scales on our eyes, affecting our sight; they stay like a parasitic voice that says "judge first; look for sin; blame yourself because you must be wrong; don't stop working; all that matters is ministry, gospel, the Bible, service, church." They tell us to love but only parts of people, not their wholeness. It cuts us off from humanity. 

3. But while he wrote about this "truth," he was not living truth. 

4. I would prefer these people to go away, quietly. Just stop speaking, just stop writing. He is suffering from Parkinson's; perhaps that has led him to confess. Does he need to confess to the whole world, or just his wife? to Christianity Today and his publishers? to his church home? Does Christianity Today have to tell us that he committed adultery for years? 

5. The "world" of which I am a part, now has more to mock the faith. I've seen it before but not from one of the more thoughtful voices and minds. 

6. CT included a letter from his wife. I suppose they as a couple agreed. I also feel sorry for them that they had no children. Was that a decision or a choice taken from them? My anger makes me say it was his decision and she went along with it. I don't have that knowledge or right.

7. Now as to my own writing. Today I am trying to finish a revision of a short Bible study on John 4. What gives me the authority to write this? Years of study of scripture . . . but those who read it don't know me from Adam's housecat, as the country expression goes. I could be an adulterer. I am conflicted because my fiction is sometimes salty (no blasphemy, no denigration of women through sexual terms that are so common today especially by women authors). Does the salty language and the subject of murder mysteries contradict exposition of the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well?

I don't know. I will try to pray for the Yanceys despite my conflicted state.  

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