cathedral of dirt.

I've been reading the treasure that is Barbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church. This passage reminded me of the way ordinary things become places of sanctuary, and how God often speaks loudest in the miraculous unexpected corners of every day living. I read this and wanted just to be outside with the earth, and all the amazing things living in it. It inspired a long coffee break outside watching children play, a walk to the farmers market and a trip to the zoo.

Here are her amazing words:

"When, I think of my first cathedral, I am back in a field behind my parent's house bathed in a kind of golden light with every stalk of prairie grass lit from within. I can hear an entire community of crows, grasshoppers, and tree frogs who belong in this field with me. The smell of grass is so sweet that it perfumes me from within... There is more in this field than I will ever be able to discover...

Lying there is very good. My skin is happy on the black dirt, which speaks a language my bones understand. If I roll over and think only about places on my back that are touching the ground, then pretty soon I cannot tell whether I am pressing down on the earth or the earth is pressing up on me. The feeling is the same as when my father holds me up in the swimming pool... I am floating in this field, held up toward the sun by the black dirt under under my back. I am this earth's child, and I know it."

These words were an important reminder to me of how overly serious and intellectual we can make the business of spirituality. I hope I never forget how to be a child like this. I hope I never forget to see divinity in the dirt.

this is not okay.

A friend of mine found this website and pointed me to it as "fuel for the feminist fire." The content is disturbing for many reasons to me, not only as a woman called to ordained ministry, but just as a Christian who believes in God's love and grace.

The website not only suggests that the depth of female spirituality is child-rearing and husband-obeying, but portrays the Divine in ways that I feel suggest that God is both abusive and domineering.

Here is a quick excerpt to give you an idea about the general tone of this blog. It comes from an entry about women's concern for their physical appearance: "what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures... God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God."

I find this particularly horrifying when I consider the young girls in my youth group that I work with every day. They struggle with the images of beauty that are constantly upheld by popular culture. What this blog fleetingly calls "their self-esteem problem," is a problem that is perpetuated in magazines, pop-culture and even Christian resources like this blog that tell women that their primary role is to obey and please men. In my opinion, the amazing young women I know DO deserve to feel beautiful. They also deserve to know that their beauty is within them (in their soul, their mind, their passions) as well as in their bodies (whatever shape and size those bodies may be). To simply say, God thinks your insecurities are sinful is damaging to their image of themselves (the created) and their image of God (the Creator).

In short, THIS IS NOT OKAY!

I would love to hear your reactions to this blog.... I could literally rant about it for hours.