Seeking Authentic Voice

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed A Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free: written by Linda Kay Klein, reviewed by Terri C. Pilarski When the invitation showed up in my Facebook feed looking for people to review this book, I immediately responded, "yes." However, I did not anticipate that this book would change me and how I see the world, as it has. I am after all, of the generation BEFORE the women in this book. Born in 1957,  I could be the mother enforcing and reinforcing the views and values that shamed the generation this book interviews and references, girls born and raised in the 1980's-2000's. My own daughter was born in 1988, my son in 1992.  As a parent I worked hard to encourage my kids to know their own minds and to minimize body shaming and encourage a healthy self-worth. I did not always do this well, but that was my intention. By the time I was a parent I was leaning just a tiny bit more toward healthy than not. That was t

Tuesday night I was in a meeting with the Stewardship Commission. We were talking about the challenges of stewardship - how that word causes anxiety in people, anxiety over conversations about money, especially money in church, anxiety over budgets and bills, and the need that the church has for people to give the church money. Money which will be argued over and cause even more anxiety. We believe that that is a complete misunderstanding of stewardship as God intends, as the Bible conveys it, and as Jesus call us into.  Stewardship is really about seeing life as a gift. One is called to receive the gifts of life and ponder them - is this my gift to keep? Or, is this gift being given to me to pass on, to share with others, to give back to God? How am I being called to regift God’s blessings in my life? In the middle of that conversation a parishioner walked in looking for, pulling me out of the meeting because a homeless person had wandered into the church. I went to see h