January 30, 2012
Wanna learn how to start a fire in religious circles? Pay attention: Jefferson Bethke is an Eagle Scout.
His most recent video, “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus”, opines
over the lack of authenticity in religious leadership, calls into
account the
dangerous compound of faith and politics, and berates the self-righteous
(Amen!). But in making a few good points, Bethke may have thrown the
baby out with the bath water.
If you’ve ever played the “Blame Game” before (who hasn’t?), then you
know how this works. Something goes wrong Someone gets blamed. This literally
takes on “biblical” proportions when you...
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January 20, 2012
About a year ago, my faith community formally blessed me and the gender transition
I was in the midst of undergoing by including a re-naming rite as a part of our regular Sunday
liturgy. In addition to being a parishioner at House For All Sinners and Saints in Denver, CO, I
also happen to be transgendered. For me this means that at birth I was not declared to be the sex/
gender that I am currently living as. So I grew up as a female named Mary Christine Callahan
and then did a legal name change, began hormone therapy with testosterone, went through
puberty a second (and infinitely more enjoyable) time, and now live as a guy named Asher
Herman O’Callaghan.
Like many of my fellow parishioners, I am a religious refugee. Some of us were or are
walking wounded from...
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FTE Congregational Fellow ('11)
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
January 13, 2012
A few hours ago I made the long drive back to Cleveland from Louisville where I had attended and preached at the 2012 Festival of Young Preachers hosted by the Academy of Preachers. I would have thought that after three days of hearing God’s word through 30 different denominations, flowing from the mouths of over 120 preachers that my heart would be quiet and my mind still. Instead my mind is racing in a post-celebratory buzz. It seems that although my suitcase that carried my clothes is unpacked, the suitcase of my mind is just starting to reveal the extent the Festival touched my soul...
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January 05, 2012
God knows women's bodies always have a way of getting our attention. This is not breaking news. But in the past two weeks two storylines have been breaking out and gaining traction on the female body, and I have been both painfully and gratefully reminded that there are always at least two sides to any story.
The headlining of the two stories started back in January of 2011 when Egyptian men and women joined in the collective unrest and civil protests against political and social injustices in North Africa and the Middle East known as Arab Spring. But the story reached a new chapter last week in Tahrir Square in Cario, where the Egyptian military and governing forces offered the world yet another powerfully devastating example of what seems permissible to do to a woman's mind, body and spirit. It is difficult to shake the images from...
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President
The Fund for Theological Education
January 01, 2012
I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and that you are preparing for an exciting new year.
As people contemplate New Year’s resolutions, many Christians
around the world are preparing to celebrate the feast day of Epiphany,
which commemorates
God’s revelation in Jesus and his appearance to the world as
God’s beloved Son.
What is God’s revelation in you or your organization? As God’s
beloved, how will you appear to the world? On the dawn of a new year,
these are two
questions I am wrestling with on behalf of The Fund for
Theological Education (FTE).
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December 19, 2011
If your church uses Godly Play or Children’s Worship and Wonder, odds
are the youngsters in your congregation have heard the story about the
Christian year. In this particular story, the storyteller has two
objects: a long golden cord and a circular puzzle full of color.
The storyteller begins by picking up the cord and stretching it out in a
horizontal line, a golden metaphor for chronos time, linear time, the
world’s time, with its beginning, middle, and end.
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Scholar-in-Residence
December 13, 2011
This Christmas season I received a gift I love so much I can’t help
but give it away. I took my 13-year-old daughter, donned the dorky 3-D
glasses, and dove into 127 minutes of delight: Martin Scorcese’s new
film "Hugo."
I rarely see first-run films. At $13.50, it seems absurd not to wait a
few weeks until it comes to the dollar theatre. But I raced out to see
Hugo after an email from a friend who said the movie reminded him of our
work at FTE. Indeed, he was right: the movie hit me where I live,
reminding me why I do what I do, love what I love, and care about what I
care about. Hugo creates a space to celebrate all the things we embrace
in the work of VocationCARE: holy listening, story-telling, community
as source of healing -- and perhaps best of all -- unlikely friendships
across generations, mysteriously in service to finding (or re-finding)
one’s place in the world.
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