I was unaware that there was a
top ten list of biblioblogs by vote, but when I saw the list, I had to agree that among them were blogs that I read regularly. There is a somewhat artificial bounaary around what is a biblioblog and what isn't and some of the most popular blogs don't show on this list. For example,
Jesus Creed, is a major force in the blogworld, and probably just taken for granted. I do read it but I prefer
James McGrath's blog, which is very open to a wide variety of Christian experience. And lately I have been reading
Rachel Held Evans. These are all blogs with a wide appeal. I hope you find something to enjoy.
Daniel Kirk has a good post on the women in ministry topic, with a thoughtful thread.
I have taken up a new topic in my reading, on tenderness, more about how I got to that later. But a quote for the day is the following,
Tenderness, far from being a sign of weakness, is a touchstone of transformation and the gateway to it. Toughness, on the other hand, is a symptom of stagnation, of having to pay more and more to stay the same.
Harold C. Lyon.There may be just as much to disagree with as to agree with in this short citation, but at least it is taking me into a conversation I want to have. I would argue that we all need both toughness and tenderness, but one without the other is not worth having.
3 comments:
I'm honored!
With respect to tenderness, here's a couple of things from The Woman's Bible.
Deuteronomy xxviii. 56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward her husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her children which she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates....
This is addressed to men as most of the injunctions are, as to their treatment of woman in general. In enumerating the good things that would come to Israel if the commandments were obeyed, nothing is promised to women, but when the curses are distributed, woman comes in for her share. Similar treatment is accorded the daughters of Eve in modern days. She is given equal privileges with man, in being imprisoned and hung, but unlike him she has no voice in the laws, the judge, the jury, nor the manner of exit to the unknown land. She is denied the right of trial by her own peers; the laws are made by men, the courts are filled with men; the judge, the advocates, the jurors, all men!
--Elizabeth Cady Stanton
What made Jesus the power he was of his time? In the first place, there was an inexplicable charm about his personality which drew all the common people to him, as iron filings are drawn by a magnet. He loved the people, who instinctively felt it, and loved him. Then there was his intellectual power of speech. Most of the sayings of Jesus are not original in the sense that nobody else ever uttered any similar truths before. Confucius, six thousand years before Jesus, gave utterance to the Golden Rule. And then there was the pity, the sympathy, the tenderness of the man. And then he had trust in God--trust in the simple Fatherhood of God, that never could be shaken. Jesus taught us, as no one else has ever done it, the humanness of God and the divineness of man, so that, standing there eighteen hundred years ago, he has naturally and infallibly attracted the eyes, the thought, the love, the reverence of the world.
--Anon
It's interesting how in the 1800s in the USA, the scriptures were used to reinforce the differences between women and men. Here, ECS is quoting a Bible passage showing tenderness as a default characteristic of women, who are not equals to men in the context. And then, here, in a subsequent paragraph, there's Jesus, with the tenderness so characteristic of women, described by one anon writer as "the humanness of God and the divineness of man."
I was visiting my parents earlier today and they always have the tv news stations on. It was in the other room so I have no clue what they were saying, but by the clips I could tell it was about the Westboro Baptist Church because of the signs they held up.
One of the signs they held said, "God HATES your feelings."
Wow. Really? He does? What Bible do you read?
Talk about a deficit of tenderness. I thank God that He has given us plenty of evidence that He cares about our feelings and He is full of lovingkindness and tender mercies towards those who love Him.
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