Christian Spirituality Blogs--Your Help Needed

I'm in the planning stage of an article I'm working on for a Christian Spirituality publication. The focus of the article is going to be on Christian Spirituality blogs. I need your help in locating some excellent ones. I'm looking for blogs that deal primarily with Christian spiritual practices as well as blogs that deal with Christian spiritual expression regularly. And I'm looking for blogs that vary greatly. I need some that deal with theoretics of spirituality and practices, blogs that are expressionistic (in storytelling, poetry, creative spiritual writing, etc...), and others you might think helpful.

Please leave comments with links.

Thanks

Ignorant quote of the year

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way."

This year's most ignorant quote comes from Keith Bardwell, a justice of peace in Louisiana who refused to marry a couple because they are different races. How sad!

Read all about Mr. Bardwell here.

Disciples need a Book of Common Prayer

This past May I relished the time I spent with my Presbyterian friends in my Doctor of Ministry Cohort. I can't tell you how formative of an experience this was for me. One of the experiences that gave such a distinctive faith-shaping edge to the cohort is that we worshipped together frequently. We had worship at the start and close of our days, as well as during the lunch hour. And for our morning and evening worship times we used liturgy out of the Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer.

Being with a group of people daily can really cause some bonding to happen. But when that group worships together, sings together, and prays together and for each other those bonds are strengthened even moreso. And the bonds of Christian fellowship are essential to a healthy Christian life.

So I am disappointed that we Disciples have no book of common prayer. We have the Chalice Worship book, but that's a liturgy resource for pastors to use in special occasions. We have the Chalice Hymnal which includes a daily worship plan. And though I have been using this resource to improve my daily prayer life and recommend it to others just beginning a daily prayer routine, it is quite lacking in spectrum and substance.

There are many benefits I can see to having a Book of Common Prayer. It can strengthen the individual worship and prayer life of Christians if used faithfully. It can help strengthen the bonds of Christian community when groups of people, or married couples, or families choose to begin and end each day together in commonly shared worship. And it can more closely orient our lives to the cycle of holy time we know in the liturgical calendar.

But we Disciples have no such thing.
I think it's time to send Chalice Press a proposal.

10 things I learned this summer (First day of Fall edition)

Today is the first day of Fall, and "10 Things" is back. Since it's been so long I've decided to make this more than just a weekender. This time we're covering the whole summer.

1. There is nothing more stressful than purchasing property (except of course, selling it).
2. Indianapolis is sort of a neat city to visit, unless you're there during the summer and it's not race week. Football and basketball are out of season and there's no MLB team in sight. Unless you like shopping a whole lot or you really like museums, wait until Fall or Winter.
3. The NCAA Hall of Champions in Indy is LAME! Twelve bucks a pop to visit and it's not actually a museum of NCAA athletics or anything. It's just a giant gift shop with a few non-historically-significant replica jerseys hanging up.
4. If you're just scanning quickly and not reading closely, it's easy to mistake the H1N1 virus (formerly known as the Swine Flu virus) for being the Hiney Flu.
5. Ikea is a great place to buy furniture, but only if you live near it. If you want to buy something from them online they'll charge you $300 to ship a $100 item. (I just couldn't justify it.)
6. Labor Day is not a fun day to be on the lake. I need my own personal holiday where tourists aren't allowed to bring their boats on the water.
7. I want one of these.
8. I also want one of these.
9. The 2013 Disciples General Assembly is going to be in Orlando. I'm there!
10. The recession is over. But I think someone forgot to tell the economy.

Religious Liberty part II

As a sort of short follow up on yesterday's post, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the religious liberty policy our school district is considering and its ramifications for teachers.

I guess the way I interpret the policy is that it allows for teaching about religion from an academic standpoint but not a devotional standpoint. To cross the line into devotional exhibition would be considered a proselytism, a violation of the policy, and possibly grounds for punishment.

But let's say a teacher is talking about the divide of Christianity between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. This can be approached academically by discussing the Great Schism as a political struggle between Istanbu/Constantinople and Rome by two theocratic political factions. But there is more to the story than that. The debate is also about Apostolic Succession, and whom is the patriarch of Christianity, Peter or Paul.

So a student could ask you, "What do you think about that?" and any answer is likely to be loaded with heavy theological implications that could be over the vague boundary line. Or a student could ask you about the impact of Martin Luther on the political landscape of Europe. And any honest answer is going to have to do with a centuries-old religious debate. You can't talk about Luther without talking about the reasons why he reformed, all of which have high theological implications that in some way tie into our beliefs. That's likely to offend some and be interpreted as devotional exhibition on the part of the teacher.

As a Christian I find it impossible to discuss religion from a totally academic standpoint. It is impossible for me to separate the devotional from the academic. It's impossible for me to talk about the significance of Christianity without sharing a bit about my belief and faith in Christ.

So how are teachers supposed to know where to draw the boundary line?

How can you open up the school to academic religious liberty for the teachers without opening up devotional liberty and faith sharing as well. For me, you can't. It's either all or nothing. Everything goes or nothing goes. We can either talk about our faith or we can't.

Again, as yesterday, another sticking point in this issue is more likely to arise when someone of a non-locally-dominant faith tradition begins practicing in school. I suppose people of other faiths probably have just as much trouble separating the academic from the devotional as I do. We Christians may not have a problem if a Christian teacher unwittingly grazes across the boundary. But are we going to be equally forgiving if a Muslim or Buddhist teacher does the same?

I'm only asking because we need to think about it before we go into it.

I'd really like to hear from any teachers on this issue if you're comfortable speaking up. Be sure and familiarize yourself with the policy before commenting. It's linked on yesterday's post.

Religious liberty in this public school...Part I

Next week the school board of the local public school, which my children attend, will be holding a public forum to discuss the planned implementation of a religious liberty policy for the district. And I have some mixed feelings.

Let me explain...

I stand in favor of allowing religious liberty to all so that no one can be hindered from practicing or expressing their faith. And I think this policy is intended for just such purposes. It is comprehensive enough to allow freedom for students to express faith, for teachers to teach about religion (although a neutral, value-free approach is impossible), for the classics in music, art, and drama (which are mostly all religious in nature) to be present, and while trying to maintain that proselytizing is strictly prohibited.

But I wonder just how realistic this policy can actually be implemented.

I mean...
Where do you draw the line between talking about a cross as a symbol and proselytizing? I, if I were a teacher, could choose to talk about the historic significance of the cross and it's place in religion and art, and someone else could interpret it at my own religious expression and complain that I violated their own freedom of religion.
I know that's a bit presumptive...but not unlikely.

And while the policy is intended to give religious freedom to all, we have to be aware of the fact that in this area the population is overwhelmingly Christian in the majority. There is a small Jewish presence, and several others, but they are very small.

My uneasiness comes in here: Since we're in a dominantly Christian community most people are going to be okay with another kid praying before they eat their lunch or the choir singing a Christian piece at a concert.

But what happens when a Muslim student brings a Qu'ran to class and it offends some kids? Are we going to be okay, as parents, with my kid having the right to read his Bible and their kid reading the Qu'ran? Or are we going to enjoy religious liberty when it means my kid can read his Bible and then abandon it when competing viewpoints are expressed? Are we going to be comfortable, really, with allowing the same religious liberty to Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Wickens, Pagans, Satanists, B'hais, Secular Humanists, Atheists, and everyone else? Or are we going to enjoy this policy for a while and then seek to revoke it when the kid next to ours starts sharing his wicken symbols?

I'm open to having such a religious liberty policy in place, but I think we should really know what we're getting ourselves into. If we're going to adopt it, and say we're giving religious liberty to all, we have to know the ramifications of the word "all." If we enjoy the freedom ourselves we have to be willing to extend that same freedom to others, even if they practice a faith with which we disagree. If we want our kids to be able to talk about their Christian faith at school then we have to be willing to allow kids of other faiths to talk freely as well.

Failure to do so is just another form of state-sponsored religion.

So, are we up to it?
Are we willing to enjoy the liberty and allow others to enjoy it, as well?

So I'm not really sure if I'm in favor of this policy or not. I guess I am...but I just don't want us to implement something we don't really mean...and I don't want us to implement it and then wind up fighting to revoke it a few years down the road.

What are your thoughts?

Tomorrow: A discussion on this policy and ramifications for teachers.

In case you haven't figured it out...

I'm on a break from blogging until September.