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I'm not feeling this one as much as I loved the season 8 story-lines. I hate zombie stuff.
But, that was a whale of a cliff hanger! So of course I have to keep reading these! But then I discovered they've all disappeared from kindle and comixology! :-(
June 2018:
In short, I loved it!
August 2018:
I loved it so much that I already read it again!
May 2022:
I think this is my first time re-reading this entire book since Rachel died. A small group I'm in at my church internship has been going through this book, most of them for the first time.
It's such a great book. She was such a great writer. It still hurts to have to use the past tense to talk about her.
Straight White Male is a collection of essays from contributing writers who lack various types of privilege, including straight, Black man William J. Barber II, straight, white woman Melissa Florer-Bixler, queer, nonbinary Latinx Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, and gay, white man Matthias Roberts. The essays offer insights into how particular types and combinations of privilege (and the lack thereof) shape the way we move through the world.
The book aims to help Christian men who identify as straight and white to examine their privilege and power in society, and to use them for good. The book is divided into three parts: the first part explores the concepts of privilege, oppression, and intersectionality; the second part examines how privilege affects various aspects of life, such as relationships, work, church, and culture; and the third part offers practical steps and resources for deconstructing privilege and living with integrity. The book is written in a conversational and accessible style, with personal stories, biblical references, and discussion questions. The author acknowledges his own journey of learning and unlearning and invites the readers to join him in the process.
The book is a valuable resource for straight white male Christians who want to grow in their awareness and understanding of social justice issues, and to align their lives with God's vision of justice and love. The book challenges the readers to confront their biases, assumptions, and blind spots, and to take responsibility for their actions and choices. The book also encourages the readers to listen to and learn from the experiences and perspectives of marginalized groups, such as women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. The book does not offer easy answers or quick fixes but rather invites the readers to embark on a lifelong journey of transformation and solidarity.
Ó Tuama offers spiritual wisdom, blending prayers, poetry, and essays inviting readers to pause and reflect on their daily lives. Ó Tuama reflects a deep understanding of the human experience. The book's structure provides a framework for contemplation and growth, encouraging readers to engage with the text and the world around them in meaningful ways. Each page is imbued with Ó Tuama's compassionate voice, guiding readers through a journey of self-discovery and connection.
Whether you are well-versed in spiritual practices or new to the concept of prayer, “Being Here” is accessible, enlightening, and deeply moving. It's a book that doesn't just sit on a shelf; it lives in the hands and hearts of those who read it, becoming a daily companion in the quest for a more thoughtful and just existence. In a world that often feels fragmented and chaotic, Ó Tuama's words are a balm, offering a vision of hope and unity that is both refreshing and necessary. This book is more than a collection of texts; it's an invitation to live more fully, to embrace the complexity of life with curiosity and love. It's a call to be present in the moment, to recognize the sacred in the ordinary, and to find joy in the act of being truly here.
Quotes:
“The only place to begin is where I am, and whether by desire or disaster, I am here. My being here is not dependent on my recognition of the fact. I am here anyway. But it might help if I could learn to look around.”
“When we are in a moment of courage – whether we call that God's voice, or indigenous bravery – it is the body that tells us a deep truth; it is the body that speaks to us, and it is from the body that the courage comes.”
When Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza talks about activist theology they are clearly drawing from the core of liberation theology - where one's theology is lived out among the marginalized because God is always on the side of the oppressed. Henderson-Espinoza says activist theology is about bridging scholarship and activism. They also emphasize that activist theology is rooted in story, as it is story that changes hearts and minds.
Chapter 1: The Darkness of Holy Saturday: Rupturing Complacency and Becoming Transformation
Chapter 2: Turning Tables in the Temple: Disruption
Chapter 3: The Struggle is Real
Chapter 4: The Psalmist Sings: The Poetry of Protest
Chapter 5: Following the Ways of Jesus: Enacting Radical Social Change
Chapter 6: Old Wine in New Wineskins: Reframing Theology as Activism
Chapter 7: Economic Supremacy: When Class Ascendency Doesn't Work in Your Favor
Chapter 8: Activist Theology's Resilience: A Year after Charlottesville
You can hear more about this on their podcast: Activist Theology Podcast.
It's so helpful and healing when we other people's stories that help us see and feel that we are not alone.
“Gender is a slippery illusion. Like the flat outline of a cube, you can perceive its shape as either concave or convex, extruding or withdrawn. If you're especially adept, you can see both simultaneously, or perhaps, even for a moment, neither at all. Upon deeper inspection, you might deduce the truth at the heart of it all: there is no one “correct” form. Yet all of them are real.”
“Because our language has been using “singular they” for centuries, this has become the most common pronoun for referring to anyone whose gender is not known, not specified, or not in the male/female binary. As of 2017, the official stylebook for the Associated Press now recommends using the “singular they/them” for nonbinary individuals.”
“Best practices include specifying pronouns in email signatures and business cards, mentioning a person's pronoun alongside their name when introducing them, and always asking for someone's pronoun.”
“I've started taking a kitchen sink approach to my gender: it all goes in, except the things that don't. Motorcycles are, in fact, part of my gender. So are boots. Whiskey is still a part of my gender. Eye shadow and blue lipstick have gotten mixed into it, but red lipstick and nail polish feel like drag, and not the fun kind. Turtlenecks might have been part of Steve Jobs's gender, but not mine. Practicing martial arts has been a long and complicated part of my gender. The kind of shirts that your gay uncle wears on his yearly visit to Key West? Definitely part of my gender. Cats are integral to my gender. The necklace my mother gave me. DIY haircuts. Calluses, scars, and tattoos. Gray dresses cut in the same style as a burlap bag. This one pair of high heels I bought last month. Baking, but not cooking, and definitely not reality TV shows about cooking.
How can these things be part of gender? I can hear some snarky critic getting ready to school me already. Motorcycles are not inherently masculine. I agree! My gender isn't inherently masculine either. It just really fucking likes motorcycles.
My gender surprises me—it dressed down for a long time, in gray corduroy and a peacoat. It kept its eyes averted. Now it has all kinds of demands.”
*****
“I identify as gender nonconforming because I've never been privileged by white cis-gender constructs. I have never seen a space for myself within the confines of cis manhood. What is cis-manhood? Am I a cis-man in a dress, in a shirt, with short hair, with a wig? What if I was assigned male at birth but I don't feel like there is a man or a woman inside of me? What if I was assigned male at birth but I feel like there is a peacock on fire flapping its wings on the beach inside of me? What if tomorrow the peacock is dead but a baby fawn walks out of the ocean of my gut and that is how I feel? Can that not be my gender? If not, why not?
Maybe someday this feeling, this resentment toward such strict notions of gender, will change.”
[...]
“Right now, I would rather not identify with any gender at all.
I walk down the street and I feel the peacock kick inside my stomach, I feel a little girl inside of me dead. I walk down the street and I imagine my breasts growing after estrogen. I want to keep them hairy. I have a dream where I'm pregnant and then give birth in a bathtub. The whole bathtub is filled with my placenta. There is a dream where I'm more brave and I look the way that I feel. There is a dream I have where to be brown and to exist outside the binary does not feel like I'm being hunted anymore.”
[...]
“I tell my friend who still presents outside the binary that I want to be alive. I want to live. And so this is my gender: a desire to live. And if trans and gender nonconforming people were not killed and incarcerated and starved so constantly then maybe I would be more legitimately trans or nonbinary. Maybe if it weren't for capitalism then I wouldn't be so afraid of existing outside the binary. I wouldn't be afraid of dying poor and young.
I'm wearing pants today, my hair is short, you can call me sir. I know what's in my belly. She'll wake up someday.”
Melissa Florer-Bixler is a writer and Mennonite pastor with degrees from Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary. (The Mennonite tradition centers peace-making.)
Throughout this book, Florer-Bixler discusses what it means to love our enemies. She shows how loving our enemies does not mean staying silent in the face of injustice. Jesus certainly didn't. She rejects any kind of call for superficial “unity” or a shallow forgiveness without repentance. We are not called to passive acceptance of injustice. Because the Jesus way is about peacemaking, not peacekeeping - this is the way of liberation. She writes, “enemy-love offers to tear apart broken systems and rebuild a world with imaginative architecture that emerges from lives stayed on liberating love” (98).
I appreciated this book and definitely recommend it to others to read as well. It is well written and accessible.
2021: Re-read for class on Gospels and Acts.
Luke is the only Gospel that contains the infancy accounts in chapters 1 and 2. Luke also adds several appearance stories and an account of the ascension (ch. 24).
2020: Finished rereading the message paraphrase
In How Jesus Saves the World from Us, Morgan Guyton says the (white, American, Evangelical) church has become the oppressor through misinterpretations and misapplications of the Bible, and this is what the world needs to be saved from.
Each chapter discusses a misinterpretation along with the correction that is needed.
The chapters on theology and social justice are the stronger ones, or at least the ones that resonated with me the most.
I enjoyed this quite a lot. Not surprising since I love most superhero stories in general. And I love origin stories.
I love everything BBT writes and this collection of sermons was no exception! She is brilliant and funny and I learn so much from everything she writes.
This book is a collection of sermons she preached as a guest in other churches or in chapel services at Christian colleges and seminaries or at special events.
I will be re-reading this several times!
Osheta Moore has written a gift of a book to those who are wanting to learn and grow into better peacemakers in this world as we seek to become and create the Beloved Community that MLK Jr. talked about. Osheta is a pastor and it shows in her tone throughout this entire book. Rather than shame us, Osheta reminds us that we are all God's beloved children and invites us in with “grit and grace”.
Upon finishing this book I feel encouraged, convicted, inspired, and re-energized for this good and holy work - seeking Shalom and healing, restoration, and redemption.
This story needed a huge TW for suicide. Horrible ending. Absolutely DO NOT RECOMMEND and wish I hadn't listened to it.
In The Purpose Gap, Patrick B. Reyes reflects on a family member's death after a long struggle with incarceration and homelessness. Reyes asks himself why his cousin's life had turned out so differently from his own, and he realizes that it was a matter of conditions. The book is a guide that moves from why the purpose gap exists, how to overcome it, and what the world looks like when we work to close the gap.
Reyes writes about the purpose gap, which is the combination of conditions that create a gap between those who can achieve their dreams and find lives of meaning and purpose, and those who must overcome great adversity just to imagine a better life. He wrote this book for those who want to eradicate this gap and build new worlds where our children can thrive.
The book is a love letter to the dispossessed, marginalized, ignored, the Chicano and broader Latinx/e/o/a community, Black, Indigenous, and people of color. It is also for those whose lives of meaning and purpose have been cut short through violence and incarceration, and for those whose imagination about the meaning and purpose of their lives is limited by the personal and systemic pains of hunger, poverty, and abuse.
Reyes provides studies, stories, and visions that provide insights about how to create conditions for people to thrive in your community. He draws on spiritual and intellectual wellsprings to close the purpose gap.
The book is a valuable resource for anyone who is seeking to live a meaningful and fulfilling life, especially in times of crisis and uncertainty. It is also a powerful reminder of the importance of solidarity and compassion in a world that often devalues and dehumanizes people based on their race, class, gender, or religion.
Lord Willing? by Jessica Kelley is a memoir and a theological exploration that challenges the traditional view of God's sovereignty and providence. The author shares her personal story of losing her four-year-old son to brain cancer and how that tragedy led her to question the idea that God wills everything that happens. She argues that God is not the author of evil, but rather a loving and relational being who gives humans and angels free will and works with them to bring about his good purposes. She also explores the biblical and historical evidence for her view, as well as the implications for prayer, suffering, and hope. Lord Willing? is suitable for anyone who has ever wondered about God's role in the world, especially in the face of evil and suffering.
Pastor Kathy Escobar's short devotional is sure to be a balm to many a weary soul. I only wished it was longer. Kathy's pastoral heart shines through even as she is speaking from her own deep grief and pain in losing one of her children to death by suicide.
If your grief and sorrow feel like too much, I think you will find at least a little comfort as you read this book.
The book has 28 daily reflections with prayers and suggested practices to honor our pain and struggles during the holiday season. This might be a good devotional for small group studies also.
I will definitely be coming back to this one again.
I loved this so much. They wrote 40 poems, one for each day of Lent, and included a sermon they preached on Easter Sunday.
2023: This was helpful for me again this year.
2018: I listened to the audiobook and I definitely think I will revisit this one in the future.
Matthew Paul Turner has written another wonderful children's book with lovely illustrations by Gillian Gamble. I love the diversity in the illustrations, which are always gorgeous. This is a great gift for little ones this Christmas.
I'm enjoying listening to this audiobook this time around.
I mean come on, this opening is just plain funny: “The kettle began it! Don't tell me what Mrs. Peerybingle said. I know better. Mrs. Peerybingle may leave it on record to the end of time that she couldn't say which of them began it; but, I say the kettle did. I ought to know, I hope! The kettle began it, full five minutes by the little waxy-faced Dutch clock in the corner, before the Cricket uttered a chirp.”