Ira Glass, a Jewish atheist and well-known radio personality, said once “Christianity is number one for a reason. It is a great story.” So begins Lisa Weaver Swartz’s concluding chapter in Stained Glass Ceilings: How Evangelicals Do Gender and Practice Power
Nov 29, 2022·edited Nov 29, 2022Liked by Scot McKnight
You wrote- "If you tell yourself a story often enough – so and so was wrong, I am right – I was not the abuser but the abused victim – Republicans are pure evil, Democrats are pure goodness and vice versa – if you tell your story often enough that narrative can live in your head and direct your paths."
Today's New York Times: "In the months before the midterm elections, a reporter for Time magazine asked Mark Finchem, the Republican nominee for secretary of state in Arizona, why he was so convinced that Donald Trump had won the state in 2020 despite all evidence to the contrary. “It strains credibility,” Finchem responded. “Isn’t it interesting that I can’t find anyone who will admit that they voted for Joe Biden?”...Republicans, especially those living in deep-red areas, knew so few Democrats that it beggared their imagination that anyone, as Finchem put it, would vote for one. Now, two political scientists have put some rigor behind this idea. The more that voters were surrounded by other Republicans, Nicholas Clark and Rolfe Daus Peterson of Susquehanna University report in a forthcoming research paper, the more likely that they were to say that the 2020 election had been stolen, controlling for other factors."
It seems the story telling (culturally, politically, theologically) goes beyond the individual, but also the bubble we are in (or fish who don't know they are in water). How do we encourage others to break out of that in a healthy way?
For many years prior to the pandemic I was the primary intercessor for our women's Bible study every week at church. I listened to Beth Moore many times and then prayed for the small groups and how they would interact over the material. She is an amazing teacher and I would agree that she knows the Bible better than most of us. Deep respect and high regard for Beth Moore!
Amen! The other day, I read a sermon that Nadia Bolzano-Weber has posted in “Substack.” It’s called “prophets of a different story.” It was, or is to be, told at a women’s prison. It’s based on the Elizabeth and Zechariah story of being told by Gabriel that Elizabeth will bear a son, and Zechariah being struck mute. Nadia asks us to consider that Zechariah’s muteness allowed/led him to change the story he had, basically, been told to live by others, to his own, better story God wanted him to live.
In “light” of this post, and all that’s happening in the world, Faith-life, and life in general, Nadia does speak prophetically, also. This is a time of prophets of a different story. Thank you for your place in this, Scot, those whose books you bring to our attention, and those who step into new paths!
There's a good reason why Genesis 1:1 pulls us into God's Story - and why the final chapters of the Bible finish a great big moving story with both good and bad characters. God's Love Story has us holding our breath at times and swearing at the Bad Guys much o the time. Too bad that theologians turn our attention away from God's Love Story, trying to interest us in "theology." Abstractions never move us with the power inherent in a good story.
“Godly Men cannot out-Bible a restive Woman of the Word.” May it be so for Beth, and for many others.
You wrote- "If you tell yourself a story often enough – so and so was wrong, I am right – I was not the abuser but the abused victim – Republicans are pure evil, Democrats are pure goodness and vice versa – if you tell your story often enough that narrative can live in your head and direct your paths."
Today's New York Times: "In the months before the midterm elections, a reporter for Time magazine asked Mark Finchem, the Republican nominee for secretary of state in Arizona, why he was so convinced that Donald Trump had won the state in 2020 despite all evidence to the contrary. “It strains credibility,” Finchem responded. “Isn’t it interesting that I can’t find anyone who will admit that they voted for Joe Biden?”...Republicans, especially those living in deep-red areas, knew so few Democrats that it beggared their imagination that anyone, as Finchem put it, would vote for one. Now, two political scientists have put some rigor behind this idea. The more that voters were surrounded by other Republicans, Nicholas Clark and Rolfe Daus Peterson of Susquehanna University report in a forthcoming research paper, the more likely that they were to say that the 2020 election had been stolen, controlling for other factors."
It seems the story telling (culturally, politically, theologically) goes beyond the individual, but also the bubble we are in (or fish who don't know they are in water). How do we encourage others to break out of that in a healthy way?
For many years prior to the pandemic I was the primary intercessor for our women's Bible study every week at church. I listened to Beth Moore many times and then prayed for the small groups and how they would interact over the material. She is an amazing teacher and I would agree that she knows the Bible better than most of us. Deep respect and high regard for Beth Moore!
Amen! The other day, I read a sermon that Nadia Bolzano-Weber has posted in “Substack.” It’s called “prophets of a different story.” It was, or is to be, told at a women’s prison. It’s based on the Elizabeth and Zechariah story of being told by Gabriel that Elizabeth will bear a son, and Zechariah being struck mute. Nadia asks us to consider that Zechariah’s muteness allowed/led him to change the story he had, basically, been told to live by others, to his own, better story God wanted him to live.
In “light” of this post, and all that’s happening in the world, Faith-life, and life in general, Nadia does speak prophetically, also. This is a time of prophets of a different story. Thank you for your place in this, Scot, those whose books you bring to our attention, and those who step into new paths!
Just finished reading the book today (28 Dec ). Amazing book and excellent last chapter. I've learned so much!
There's a good reason why Genesis 1:1 pulls us into God's Story - and why the final chapters of the Bible finish a great big moving story with both good and bad characters. God's Love Story has us holding our breath at times and swearing at the Bad Guys much o the time. Too bad that theologians turn our attention away from God's Love Story, trying to interest us in "theology." Abstractions never move us with the power inherent in a good story.