The Thoughtful Pastor blog

09/07/2021

An archaeologist hard at work in Theban Necropolis in Egypt. This is hard, meticulous, often unrewarding work that can yield great insights into how people used to live.

We need that deep history. It's important that we realize life has always been a struggle, and that human creativity has spurred the most amazing solutions to many everyday problems.

In a world that seems to be coming apart at the seams, I find it comforting to remember that painstaking, meticulous work still needs to be done.

07/31/2021

Are you "woke"? Are you sure? Some thoughts up the word and movement.

Am I woke? Well, I do know this much: Any pronouncement diminishing the need to be woke, i.e., be aware and actively seeking to deal with the "isms"

01/08/2019

As we’ve wrestled our way through yet another getting older challenge, I started to wonder the church could use a set of training wheels. Perhaps they would help us navigate with less fear the twisty paths in front of us as we sort out what it means to be a people of God in this rapidly changing world.

erhaps the church needs training wheels to help it navigate the necessary turns and twists that demand doctrinal and social flexibility. Those who read religious history see with sad repetition how the insistence on unchangingly straight roads led to disastrous outcomes.

07/30/2018

His mother had already born nine children. She was ill, worn-down. Her priest insisted that she have a 10th. She did, and she died shortly after. The child born just before her death was St-Georges himself.

Now some might say St-Georges’ life made up for his mother’s death. But that is not how he sees it.

Depending on your perspective, the demise of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec is either due to the evil force of clergy overreach or the evil force of the feminist movement that began in the 1960's.