I have never had so much trouble trying to find a topic for blog and to begin writing it as I have this time. It is 6:58 am in Greece, three hours and two minutes before my blog is due… Read More ›
Feminism
Coming to Terms with Privilege: A Personal Reflection by Elise M. Edwards
In my two previous posts, I shared my recent experience talking about privilege at a church near me. Today, I will wrap up this short series with a more personal reflection about privilege from a Christian perspective. Last month, I… Read More ›
To Find My Soul by Katie M. Deaver
Breathe in… 2…3…4… breathe out… 2…3…4… Pay attention to your footfalls, make sure you are landing correctly, breathe and count… Breathe in deep… fill your lungs… and breathe out the stress and the heaviness. Over the last few weeks I… Read More ›
Patriotism Reconsidered by Carol P. Christ
Originally published on July 8, 2013 on FAR under the title “What Is Patriotism?,” this blog asks questions that seem even more important today, when tanks have been paraded in front of the Lincoln Memorial and children are held in… Read More ›
We Won’t Go Back by John Erickson
Bottom line: abortion is healthcare. Nearly a fourth of women in America will have an abortion by age 45. Every day, people across the United States make deeply personal decisions about their pregnancies. Those decisions deserve respect.
The Doorway Part Two by Sara Wright
When I look into his face I wonder what he is thinking as he loses himself in sweet mountain mist. He’s alone now. His fear of the unknown keeps him vigilant ears erect, mouth tasting air standing on two legs… Read More ›
If Holly Near’s Simply Love Album Were a Musical by Lache S.
For many of us, listening to women-loving-women songs is a spiritual experience. That is because somehow it makes us feel seen, puts a sense of hope into our world as well as daydreams of romance. We can understand the challenges… Read More ›
Moments by Katie M. Deaver
The phone rings loud on the bedside table near my head, and I wake with that tiny heart attack that only truly jarring things, like middle of the night phone calls, seem to trigger. It takes me a moment to… Read More ›
A Beary Peaceful Day Part One by Sara Wright
It is overcast and a few drops of rain are falling. I have been out talking to Tree Bear (TB), a yearling who has brightened my life in these dark soul days. Tree Bear comes up the mossy pine strewn… Read More ›
Behaalotecha: Lessons and Questions for Feminists by Ivy Helman.
This week’s Torah parshah is Behaalotecha: Numbers 8:1 to 12:16. By now, much of what comes to pass should sound familiar. The parshah starts with another discussion of leadership and the priesthood. It then prescribes a second Pesach for those… Read More ›
What If Jesus Is Dead (And It’s A Good Thing)? by Tallessyn Zawn Grenfell-Lee
Bear with me. I know that most Christians accept some version of the idea that Jesus, the person, died, and then ‘rose from the dead’ in a supernatural, miraculous way – probably the most common definition of what Christians celebrate… Read More ›
What Can We Do to Weaken Privilege? by Elise M. Edwards
In my previous post, I talked about discussing the concept of privilege (male privilege, white privilege, and class privilege) with nuance. Earlier that week, I had led a workshop at a local church on “Fine-tuning Privilege,” using Peggy McIntosh’s 1989… Read More ›
Surviving My Recovery by Esther Nelson
For the past fourteen months, I’ve been going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what ails me. Specialists I’ve seen included wonderfully competent people immersed in their individual disciplines of nephrology, cardiology, rheumatology, and neurology. At long last,… Read More ›
Re-Imaging Three Marys by Janet Sunderland
The recent #metoo movement, along with young women entering Congress, has pointed to an important question. Why, in this 21st Century, are these achievements remarkable? Why has it taken so long for women to be recognized as capable for these… Read More ›
How Can Change Happen If We Can’t Imagine It First? by Darla Graves Palmer
More than one hundred years ago, a small group of women joined together and decided to create their own village, one rooted in relationship and guided by spirit. They weren’t the first such women-led town in the country – there… Read More ›
Coming Home to Spring by Sara Wright
The older I become the more I appreciate Nature as she is, Nature the Creatrix of the Earth. Nature creating without human intervention. The cycles of life and death are so intimately intertwined and never more evident than in the… Read More ›
Missing from History: Women Composers by Mary Sharratt
Clara Schumann To a large extent, women have been written out of history. Any surviving record of female accomplishment is often trivialized or dismissed. This seems especially true in the male-dominated world of classical music. When asked to… Read More ›
Patriarchy is a pedophile – Why else does “feminine” always mean “sexualized little girl”? **TW rape** by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
I used to love to wear makeup. My mother (Goddess rest her wonderful soul) wore a ton of makeup; she was known as a beauty – compared by friends and acquaintances to Elizabeth Taylor her entire life. So when I… Read More ›
Lessons Mothers Might Teach Their Daughters by Lache S.
There might be lots of lessons to consider. These lessons might have holes, for I’m not a wise sage, and I’m not really even a mother. As I am a couple of years from 40, I think about what lessons… Read More ›
Islam is my Louvre by Valentina Khan
I was once asked “why do I stay Muslim”? That was the question prompt, and it begged an answer. A deep, well thought out, articulate, and concise answer. Shamefully, at that time in my life, I was stumped. I was… Read More ›
Advocating Respect for Goddess by Susan de Gaia
I served as general editor for the recently published Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions: Faith and Culture Across History (2018/19 ABC-CLIO). It was an honor and a pleasure to work with a hundred and thirty wonderful scholars, many with… Read More ›
Birds, Their Song Stills My Heart by Deanne Quarrie
Bluejay I see you perched on the tree checking the perimeter for cats lurking. The feeder below, inviting you down but you, ever cautious, make sure that none are about. Suddenly the sparrows swarm in, eagerly eating the seed offered…. Read More ›
In the Meantime, I Thrive by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Let me tell you, the dating world is a whole different universe. Especially for a woman my age and who do what I do. I am sure many reading this can relate. Here are some comments I have received from… Read More ›
The Gift by Sara Wright
We drifted through the green hungrily absorbing plant souls, each twig, flower, and tree has her own story to tell… Such a joyful way for me to spend a ‘mother’s day.’ Being with him when family extends sharp claws… Read More ›
Women’s Bodies and the Bible by Janet Rudolph
Trigger Alert: The bible on its face is quite violent to women. Amidst the ugliness that is American politics in general and abortion politics specifically, I began to look for guidance to understand what is happening. I ended up pulling… Read More ›
The Tree as Mother by Mama Donna Henes
Arbor Day, Earth Day, May Day and Mother’s Day are deeply connected conceptually, etymologically, culturally and emotionally. The tree, with its roots buried deep in the earth and its branches reaching upward toward heaven, spread wide to embrace all of… Read More ›
May is the Month of Mary by Mary Jane Miller
Mary Icons There are three classic prototypes of Mary Icons, their collective messages point toward a new contemporary kind of trinity. Perhaps the concept of Mary is still undeveloped, as our society has changed her message is still provocative and… Read More ›
Gift-Economy in a Time of Lack by Lache S.
Carol Christ wrote about gift economy on this blog in 2013, and I am taken by her story of the woman who brought raisins or cracked nuts to the group even though she had very little. In beginning to encounter… Read More ›
The Legend of Arawello, the Somali Goddess by MaryAnn Shank
I did not intend to find her. In fact I wasn’t even looking. But there she was, soaring before me, on my last night in Baidoa. This majestic Somali woman reached high into the heavens, engulfed in a glorious wraparound… Read More ›
The Sound of Silence: a mother’s day reflection 2019 by Sara Wright
Here in the high desert it has been raining off and on for the last few days. A giant puddle sits in the driveway and all the trees range in color from subtle shades of sage to emerald. Fringed Chamisa,… Read More ›
