Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we our powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness which most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson Excerpt from: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles“
While there’s a lot of truth and good inspiration in Williamson’s observation here, I would disagree that the “the glory of God” is “in everyone”. Yes, all of mankind, each one of us, is meant to reflect the image of God, but due to our fallen nature we have to rely on Him to fill us with His spirit and light in order to shine it forth.
Well, according to the Catholic News Agency, in his Wednesday message at St. Peter’s Square Pope Francis said he wants preachers to keep their preachin’ to 10 minutes or less.
Here’s an excerpt from the recent CNA article which you can find here:
“Preachers must preach an idea, a feeling, and a call to action. Beyond eight minutes the preaching starts to fade, it is not understood,” Pope Francis said to applause from some pilgrims.
I kind of like that idea for the most part, because most of the sermons I’ve sat through in my life bored me to tears because they were too long. I can’t imagine someone telling Jesus to “wrap it up” after 10 minutes into the Sermon on the Mount, though. 😉
Evangelicals
There’s an interesting piece in First Things about Trump’s support among evangelical Christians:
Though evangelicals are theologically unified in certain respects, they can be divided sociologically into three categories: Jacksonians, who generally exhibit low social capital; Tocquevillians, who exhibit high social capital; and elites, who live at the heights of American culture. As in 2016 and 2020, Trump carried the Jacksonians and Tocquevillians while losing the elites.
Hmmm, “elite evangelicals” should sound like an oxymoron but somehow it kind of doesn’t.
Mormons
From the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints news bulletin:
The Old Brewery Mission (OBM), one of Canada’s oldest and largest homeless shelters, recently inaugurated new living spaces at its men’s shelter due to a C$1 million donation (US$769,230) from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The renovation project was part of the OBM’s vision to phase out dormitories at its facilities, transforming them into semi-private rooms, or chambrettes in French.
Say what you want about the Mormons and those magic glasses J. Smith wore, the LDS Church walks the talk for the most part when it comes to giving.
Methodists
There are some ongoing debates and structural changes in the United Methodist Church:
Disaffiliation Updates: After years of division over LGBTQ+ inclusion, approximately 7,500 UMC congregations have disaffiliated, often joining the conservative Global Methodist Church. New proposals aim to extend or revise the guidelines for disaffiliation to accommodate ongoing tensions. Some petitions suggest expanded reasons for disaffiliation and altered voting procedures, extending deadlines to 2027 or later Christian PostThe United Methodist Church.
Structural Reforms: The UMC recently approved measures to restructure its global operations. While five out of eight reforms were passed, the remaining ones focus on the U.S. and are still under review. These changes aim to address the denomination’s governance amid ongoing debates over human sexuality and other theological issues RNS.
One has to wonder how close we are to our Savior’s return.
The first in a series of brief videos that will hopefully challenge, inspire, and motivate us to understand that you and I are not insignificant, we are miracles.
…of culture I came across an article on the Den Of Geek website about the political and cultural content of the new movie Wicked, which is the film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical of the same name.
Here is an excerpt from the piece on denofgeek.com: “When Universal Pictures dated its lavish adaptation of Broadway’s most popular musical for this Thanksgiving, we imagine executives were not thinking too hard about its proximity to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. However, for any viewer even vaguely aware of the news cycle these days, the parallels between Wicked’s Oz and the tone and tenor of emerging American policy for the New Year are eerily linked...
Wicked is not about Donald Trump. But it paints a picture of rising fascism and bigotries that remarkably resemble the vision of America Trump is selling.“
Really? These people are still trotting out the ‘Orange Man Bad’ and ‘fascist’ garbage using a kids movie as prop? Even after the resounding rejection by voters of that kind of rhetoric three weeks ago when Trump and the Republicans followed the Yellow (Red) Brick Road all the way to an electoral landslide, popular vote victory, and takeover of the Senate.
The movie is getting mixed reviews – some say its great, some say it’s just a bunch of woke nonsense. I haven’t seen it and almost certainly never will.
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