(2512,102,'2011-11-22 19:46:11','2011-11-23 03:46:11','Before I was married, my hairdresser told me about a woman in her sixties who explained to him the meaning of marriage, the breakdown of gender roles, and the secret to staying together. She could see beyond her husband’s analytical nature. She was perspicacious. It thus became her job to let her husband in on the nuances of others—ticks, sidelong glances, subtleties. Once her husband had been informed of her observations and ensuing opinions, she trusted his judgment. Her husband, a prominent entrepreneur, used her insights to make the best decisions for business, for family, for himself. After forty years of marriage, by operating out of their inherent strengths, they had created a peaceful and thriving life together, as one.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI usually can see a thing before it happens. I believe I was born this way, but I also know that in reconciling with my creator as a Christian, I’ve learned how to harness these gifts for the greater good.\r\n\r\nNearly five years ago, just after my husband Greg and I got married, I was overcome by sadness whenever he reacted a certain way to others. I knew that if this behavior did not change, it would inhibit Greg as a Christian, husband, father, and leader. I believed this revelation was from God, so I told Greg what I perceived. He stared at me blankly. He had no idea what I meant. Without pushing the issue further, I went to bed that night reminding the Lord that He was the one who had prompted me to broach this subject.\r\n\r\nThe following morning, Greg nudged me awake. He said, “I had a dream last night. The Lord showed me what you were talking about.”\r\n\r\nGreg has not exhibited that behavior since.\r\n\r\nOne of Greg’s fortes is deciphering and explaining emotions in those with whom he is close. His insights have helped me heal from past abuse. I’ve become a more honest, confident and forthright person because of Greg’s influence.\r\n\r\nSince we trust each other in these abilities, Greg as the “spiritual leader” of our family is not burdened down by religious expectation to be perfect in singlehandedly making decisions for our family. Instead, he has the responsibility of seeking God’s wisdom with me. Our relationship becomes a conduit for God’s voice.\r\n\r\nMarriages cannot function properly without both spouses operating in their innate strengths—spiritual or otherwise.\r\n\r\nIt is an absolute necessity for women to speak up in their marriages, not only to enrich their relationships but also to benefit their church communities. The church cannot unite as God intended—and as Christ prayed for in the garden—without women rising up to reclaim their roles. If American Christian culture has found that its marriages and churches are broken or struggling, it may serve both institutions well to reevaluate and reform their philosophy of gender roles.\r\n\r\nJust as the church cannot operate effectively without Christ’s initiation, the Holy Spirit cannot carry out God’s perfect will without the church’s participation. The symbiotic relationship between God and His people should be mirrored by husbands and wives.\r\n\r\nRegrettably, churches bent toward legalism often teach that God is angry with His people (never mind the sinners), and to merit entrance into Heaven, Christians must restrict pleasures, separate from mainstream society, and be silent before God’s throne. This is not God’s will. God through Christ invites interaction; He establishes love as the cornerstone of behavior; He speaks to His people through the written word, His Holy Spirit, and revelation. He asks, in return, for them to make their requests known to Him.\r\n\r\nGod created marriage as an earthly reflection of a spiritual dynamic.\r\n\r\nHowever, too many Christian marriages—and churches—have defaulted to Paul’s presumed biblical admonitions to silence women. Instead of looking at the context of Paul’s culture, in which women notoriously overused the gift of speech, we should consider the entirety of the Bible to develop a realistic view of women.\r\n\r\nFor example, just before Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified, his wife had warned him from her dream not to punish Jesus. Had Pilate regarded his wife’s counsel, not only would the Apostle’s Creed have read differently, but Pilate’s fate would have been one of grace, not shame.\r\n\r\nWith a contrasting outcome in Exodus, the Lord spared Moses’ life because Zipporah interceded to circumcise their sons. She intuited what Moses had not.\r\n\r\nFulfilling Deborah’s prophecy, Jael overrode her husband’s peace agreement, discerning her greater calling, and won Israel’s victory, satisfying God’s will for the Israelites.\r\n\r\nDuring the week of Jesus’ death, a woman poured oil from an alabaster jar over Jesus’ head. Jesus reminded the men who had derided her actions that she was anointing Him for burial. This woman knew of Jesus what His disciples had not perceived—even though Jesus had already alerted them of His impending death.\r\n\r\nDespite these biblical proofs, for too long in church history, women have been relegated to the back of the sanctuary—for food preparation, decorating, childcare. Although many women are gifted, even called, to serve churches in such ways impressively, many others can hear the voice of God, perceive His heart’s desire, and express these revelations boldly to the church.\r\n\r\nThe prophetesses of the Most High God are fulfilling the scripture from Joel 2:28: “Your sons and <em>daughters</em> shall prophesy.” During Pentecost, when the church was united, Peter justified the speaking in tongues and prophesying with this Scripture.\r\n\r\nThe daughters are here and ready. They just need invitations to speak.\r\n\r\nWhen women take their abilities home, families are restored and strengthened. Husbands no longer seize under the pressure of unreasonable expectations, and wives are not bound under an unjust restraining order. A new generation of children will grow up witnessing their parents in full-effect—at home, in the workplace, at church.\r\n\r\nRedefining gender roles in the Christian community may not be as difficult as it would seem. It will be like entering into a world where people are as they were meant to be.','Gender Roles as God Intended','','inherit','open','open','','2508-revision-3','','','2011-11-22 19:46:11','2011-11-23 03:46:11','',2508,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/22/2508-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2551,1,'2011-11-23 12:44:44','2011-11-23 20:44:44','Before I was married, my hairdresser told me about a woman in her sixties who explained to him the meaning of marriage, the breakdown of gender roles, and the secret to staying together. She could see beyond her husband’s analytical nature. She was perspicacious. It thus became her job to let her husband in on the nuances of others—ticks, sidelong glances, subtleties. Once her husband had been informed of her observations and ensuing opinions, she trusted his judgment. Her husband, a prominent entrepreneur, used her insights to make the best decisions for business, for family, for himself. After forty years of marriage, by operating out of their inherent strengths, they had created a peaceful and thriving life together, as one.\r\n\r\nI usually can see a thing before it happens. I believe I was born this way, but I also know that in reconciling with my creator as a Christian, I’ve learned how to harness these gifts for the greater good.\r\n\r\nNearly five years ago, just after my husband Greg and I got married, I was overcome by sadness whenever he reacted a certain way to others. I knew that if this behavior did not change, it would inhibit Greg as a Christian, husband, father, and leader. I believed this revelation was from God, so I told Greg what I perceived. He stared at me blankly. He had no idea what I meant. Without pushing the issue further, I went to bed that night reminding the Lord that He was the one who had prompted me to broach this subject.\r\n\r\nThe following morning, Greg nudged me awake. He said, “I had a dream last night. The Lord showed me what you were talking about.”\r\n\r\nGreg has not exhibited that behavior since.\r\n\r\nOne of Greg’s fortes is deciphering and explaining emotions in those with whom he is close. His insights have helped me heal from past abuse. I’ve become a more honest, confident and forthright person because of Greg’s influence.\r\n\r\nSince we trust each other in these abilities, Greg as the “spiritual leader” of our family is not burdened down by religious expectation to be perfect in single handedly making decisions for our family. Instead, he has the responsibility of seeking God’s wisdom with me. Our relationship becomes a conduit for God’s voice.\r\n\r\nMarriages cannot function properly without both spouses operating in their innate strengths—spiritual or otherwise.\r\n\r\nIt is an absolute necessity for women to speak up in their marriages, not only to enrich their relationships but also to benefit their church communities. The church cannot unite as God intended—and as Christ prayed for in the garden—without women rising up to reclaim their roles. If American Christian culture has found that its marriages and churches are broken or struggling, it may serve both institutions well to reevaluate and reform their philosophy of gender roles.\r\n\r\nJust as the church cannot operate effectively without Christ’s initiation, the Holy Spirit cannot carry out God’s perfect will without the church’s participation. The symbiotic relationship between God and His people should be mirrored by husbands and wives.\r\n\r\nRegrettably, churches bent toward legalism often teach that God is angry with His people (never mind the sinners), and to merit entrance into Heaven, Christians must restrict pleasures, separate from mainstream society, and be silent before God’s throne. This is not God’s will. God through Christ invites interaction; He establishes love as the cornerstone of behavior; He speaks to His people through the written word, His Holy Spirit, and revelation. He asks, in return, for them to make their requests known to Him.\r\n\r\nGod created marriage as an earthly reflection of a spiritual dynamic.\r\n\r\nHowever, too many Christian marriages—and churches—have defaulted to Paul’s presumed biblical admonitions to silence women. Instead of looking at the context of Paul’s culture, in which women notoriously overused the gift of speech, we should consider the entirety of the Bible to develop a realistic view of women.\r\n\r\nFor example, just before Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified, his wife had warned him from her dream not to punish Jesus. Had Pilate regarded his wife’s counsel, not only would the Apostle’s Creed have read differently, but Pilate’s fate would have been one of grace, not shame.\r\n\r\nWith a contrasting outcome in Exodus, the Lord spared Moses’ life because Zipporah interceded to circumcise their sons. She intuited what Moses had not.\r\n\r\nFulfilling Deborah’s prophecy, Jael overrode her husband’s peace agreement, discerning her greater calling, and won Israel’s victory, satisfying God’s will for the Israelites.\r\n\r\nDuring the week of Jesus’ death, a woman poured oil from an alabaster jar over Jesus’ head. Jesus reminded the men who had derided her actions that she was anointing Him for burial. This woman knew of Jesus what His disciples had not perceived—even though Jesus had already alerted them of His impending death.\r\n\r\nDespite these biblical proofs, for too long in church history, women have been relegated to the back of the sanctuary—for food preparation, decorating, childcare. Although many women are gifted, even called, to serve churches in such ways impressively, many others can hear the voice of God, perceive His heart’s desire, and express these revelations boldly to the church.\r\n\r\nThe prophetesses of the Most High God are fulfilling the scripture from Joel 2:28: “Your sons and <em>daughters</em> shall prophesy.” During Pentecost, when the church was united, Peter justified the speaking in tongues and prophesying with this Scripture.\r\n\r\nThe daughters are here and ready. They just need invitations to speak.\r\n\r\nWhen women take their abilities home, families are restored and strengthened. Husbands no longer seize under the pressure of unreasonable expectations, and wives are not bound under an unjust restraining order. A new generation of children will grow up witnessing their parents in full-effect—at home, in the workplace, at church.\r\n\r\nRedefining gender roles in the Christian community may not be as difficult as it would seem. It will be like entering into a world where people are as they were meant to be.','Gender Roles as God Intended','','inherit','open','open','','2508-revision-5','','','2011-11-23 12:44:44','2011-11-23 20:44:44','',2508,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2508-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2513,102,'2011-11-24 12:56:19','2011-11-24 20:56:19','Before I was married, my hairdresser told me about a woman in her sixties who explained to him the meaning of marriage, the breakdown of gender roles, and the secret to staying together. She could see beyond her husband’s analytical nature. She was perspicacious. It thus became her job to let her husband in on the nuances of others—ticks, sidelong glances, subtleties. Once her husband had been informed of her observations and ensuing opinions, she trusted his judgment. Her husband, a prominent entrepreneur, used her insights to make the best decisions for business, for family, for himself. After forty years of marriage, by operating out of their inherent strengths, they had created a peaceful and thriving life together, as one.\r\n\r\nI usually can see a thing before it happens. I believe I was born this way, but I also know that in reconciling with my creator as a Christian, I’ve learned how to harness these gifts for the greater good.\r\n\r\nNearly five years ago, just after my husband Greg and I got married, I was overcome by sadness whenever he reacted a certain way to others. I knew that if this behavior did not change, it would inhibit Greg as a Christian, husband, father, and leader. I believed this revelation was from God, so I told Greg what I perceived. He stared at me blankly. He had no idea what I meant. Without pushing the issue further, I went to bed that night reminding the Lord that He was the one who had prompted me to broach this subject.\r\n\r\nThe following morning, Greg nudged me awake. He said, “I had a dream last night. The Lord showed me what you were talking about.”\r\n\r\nGreg has not exhibited that behavior since.\r\n\r\nOne of Greg’s fortes is deciphering and explaining emotions in those with whom he is close. His insights have helped me heal from past abuse. I’ve become a more honest, confident and forthright person because of Greg’s influence.\r\n\r\nSince we trust each other in these abilities, Greg as the “spiritual leader” of our family is not burdened down by religious expectation to be perfect in single handedly making decisions for our family. Instead, he has the responsibility of seeking God’s wisdom with me. Our relationship becomes a conduit for God’s voice.\r\n\r\nMarriages cannot function properly without both spouses operating in their innate strengths—spiritual or otherwise.\r\n\r\nIt is an absolute necessity for women to speak up in their marriages, not only to enrich their relationships but also to benefit their church communities. The church cannot unite as God intended—and as Christ prayed for in the garden—without women rising up to reclaim their roles. If American Christian culture has found that its marriages and churches are broken or struggling, it may serve both institutions well to reevaluate and reform their philosophy of gender roles.\r\n\r\nJust as the church cannot operate effectively without Christ’s initiation, the Holy Spirit cannot carry out God’s perfect will without the church’s participation. The symbiotic relationship between God and His people should be mirrored by husbands and wives.\r\n\r\nRegrettably, churches bent toward legalism often teach that God is angry with His people (never mind the sinners), and to merit entrance into Heaven, Christians must restrict pleasures, separate from mainstream society, and be silent before God’s throne. This is not God’s will. God through Christ invites interaction; He establishes love as the cornerstone of behavior; He speaks to His people through the written word, His Holy Spirit, and revelation. He asks, in return, for them to make their requests known to Him.\r\n\r\nGod created marriage as an earthly reflection of a spiritual dynamic.\r\n\r\nHowever, too many Christian marriages—and churches—have defaulted to Paul’s presumed biblical admonitions to silence women. Instead of looking at the context of Paul’s culture, in which women notoriously overused the gift of speech, we should consider the entirety of the Bible to develop a realistic view of women.\r\n\r\nFor example, just before Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified, his wife had warned him from her dream not to punish Jesus. Had Pilate regarded his wife’s counsel, not only would the Apostle’s Creed have read differently, but Pilate’s fate would have been one of grace, not shame.\r\n\r\nWith a contrasting outcome in Exodus, the Lord spared Moses’ life because Zipporah interceded to circumcise their sons. She intuited what Moses had not.\r\n\r\nFulfilling Deborah’s prophecy, Jael overrode her husband’s peace agreement, discerning her greater calling, and won Israel’s victory, satisfying God’s will for the Israelites.\r\n\r\nDuring the week of Jesus’ death, a woman poured oil from an alabaster jar over Jesus’ head. Jesus reminded the men who had derided her actions that she was anointing Him for burial. This woman knew of Jesus what His disciples had not perceived—even though Jesus had already alerted them of His impending death.\r\n\r\nDespite these biblical proofs, for too long in church history, women have been relegated to the back of the sanctuary—for food preparation, decorating, childcare. Although many women are gifted, even called, to serve churches in such ways impressively, many others can hear the voice of God, perceive His heart’s desire, and express these revelations boldly to the church.\r\n\r\nThe prophetesses of the Most High God are fulfilling the scripture from Joel 2:28: “Your sons and <em>daughters</em> shall prophesy.” During Pentecost, when the church was united, Peter justified the speaking in tongues and prophesying with this Scripture.\r\n\r\nThe daughters are here and ready. They just need invitations to speak.\r\n\r\nWhen women take their abilities home, families are restored and strengthened. Husbands no longer seize under the pressure of unreasonable expectations, and wives are not bound under an unjust restraining order. A new generation of children will grow up witnessing their parents in full-effect—at home, in the workplace, at church.\r\n\r\nRedefining gender roles in the Christian community may not be as difficult as it would seem. It will be like entering into a world where people are as they were meant to be.','Gender Roles As God Intended','','inherit','open','open','','2508-autosave','','','2011-11-24 12:56:19','2011-11-24 20:56:19','',2508,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/22/2508-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2549,1,'2011-11-23 12:44:10','2011-11-23 20:44:10','','older_couple','','inherit','open','open','','older_couple','','','2011-11-23 12:44:10','2011-11-23 20:44:10','',2508,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/older_couple.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2514,0,'2011-11-23 08:39:20','2011-11-23 16:39:20','I love writing about contemporary culture and thinking in a Christian way about philosophy. I have an unpublished article titled \'The Inverted Panopticon\' which draws on Michel Foucault to comment on the use of phones and video cameras in the protests around the world which might be good for Provoketive.\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Jon Rogers\nAUTHOR EMAIL: j.c.rogers@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://jonrogers.co.uk\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 88.111.201.133\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Jon Rogers\n    [Email] =&gt; j.c.rogers@gmail.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; http://jonrogers.co.uk\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; I love writing about contemporary culture and thinking in a Christian way about philosophy. I have an unpublished article titled \'The Inverted Panopticon\' which draws on Michel Foucault to comment on the use of phones and video cameras in the protests around the world which might be good for Provoketive.\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; hounddog32\n)\n','Jon Rogers - 2011-11-23 08:39:20','','publish','open','open','','77b5bab9dc274d369d587b770d4a2662','','','2011-11-23 08:39:20','2011-11-23 16:39:20','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=2514',0,'feedback','',0),(2515,12,'2012-04-11 19:38:43','2012-04-12 02:38:43','As a Razorback fan,<a href=\"http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7261953/arkansas-freshman-tight-end-garrett-uekman-dies-19\"> I read with sadness as Garrett Uekman</a>, tight end for the #3 ranked Arkansas team was found dead in his dorm room.\n\nI\'m not sad because I\'m a Razorback fan. I\'m sad because a young life is gone.\n\nI\'m sad because when I was a college junior, my roommate, Scott Cook and four other students from my university were traveling back to school, they each fell asleep and were killed in a car accident. They were on their way back from a mission trip.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/te.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2410\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/te.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"230\" /></a>I\'m sad because I know that hundreds of students will wake up asking for meaning. I know they will be weeping, wondering why their friend won\'t be there tomorrow. His roommate, who I identify with the most, will suffer more than anyone on campus, crying out in his heart, looking for answers.\n\nI know that in the next week, his parents will be at his funeral, facing hundreds who will be offering their condolences. People will stop by their house offering fried chicken, pies, cakes and side dishes. The pastor will give an amazing eulogy, but it will be muffled by the sounds of a life called short.\n\nWhen two weeks go by, the vast majority of the world will have forgotten the life of Garrett Uekman. His parents will still be clutching his high school trophies and his senior picture. Those who loved him most will be left with, \"Why?\"\n\nThe answer to that question may never come.\n\nI do know one thing. After losing a college roommate, a father and a mother to sudden accidents, I can tell you this - it\'s not about us. Things happen and they happen fast. Take time to grieve. Take time to mourn. Weep as many tears as your body will allow. And then, when you think you\'ve cried as much as you can - cry some more.\n\nDon\'t try to make sense of any of it. But know this, people of faith - God is there. When there are answers to be found in our weak hearts, He will provide them. Don\'t expect them soon, but know that He will see us through the worst of times. But know those times may last a while. And know that He is worth the wait.','When Life Gets Called Short','','inherit','open','open','','2409-autosave','','','2012-04-11 19:38:43','2012-04-12 02:38:43','',2409,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2409-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2516,1,'2011-11-23 09:18:01','2011-11-23 17:18:01','','grave_cross','','inherit','open','open','','grave_cross','','','2011-11-23 09:18:01','2011-11-23 17:18:01','',2409,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grave_cross.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2517,1,'2011-11-20 21:49:10','2011-11-21 05:49:10','As a Razorback fan,<a href=\"http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7261953/arkansas-freshman-tight-end-garrett-uekman-dies-19\"> I read with sadness as Garrett Uekman</a>, tight end for the #3 ranked Arkansas team was found dead in his dorm room.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sad because I\'m a Razorback fan. I\'m sad because a young life is gone.\r\n\r\nI\'m sad because when I was a college junior, my roomate, Scott Cook and four other students from my university were traveling back to school, they each fell asleep and were killed in a car accident. They were on their way back from a mission trip.\r\n\r\nI\'m sad because I know that hundreds of students will wake up asking for meaning. I know they will be weeping, wondering why their friend won\'t be there tomorrow. His roommate, who I identify with the most, will suffer more than anyone on campus, crying out in his heart, looking for answers.\r\n\r\nI know that in the next week, his parents will be at his funeral, facing hundreds who will be offering their condolences. People will stop by their house offering fried chicken, pies, cakes and side dishes. The pastor will give an amazing eulogy, but it will be muffled by the sounds of a life called short.\r\n\r\nWhen two weeks go by, the vast majority of the world will have forgotten the life of Garrett Uekman. His parents will still be clutching his high school trophies and his senior picture. Those who loved him most will be left with, \"Why?\"\r\n\r\nThe answer to that question may never come.\r\n\r\nI do know one thing. After losing a college roommate, a father and a mother to sudden accidents, I can tell you this - it\'s not about us. Things happen and they happen fast. Take time to grieve. Take time to mourn. Weep as many tears as your body will allow. And then, when you think you\'ve cried as much as you can - cry some more.\r\n\r\nDon\'t try to make sense of any of it. But know this, people of faith - God is there. When there are answers to be found in our weak hearts, He will provide them. Don\'t expect them soon, but know that He will see us through the worst of times. But know those times may last a while. And know that He is worth the wait.','When Life Gets Called Short','','inherit','open','open','','2409-revision-3','','','2011-11-20 21:49:10','2011-11-21 05:49:10','',2409,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/20/2409-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2518,1,'2011-11-23 09:18:23','2011-11-23 17:18:23','As a Razorback fan,<a href=\"http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7261953/arkansas-freshman-tight-end-garrett-uekman-dies-19\"> I read with sadness as Garrett Uekman</a>, tight end for the #3 ranked Arkansas team was found dead in his dorm room.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sad because I\'m a Razorback fan. I\'m sad because a young life is gone.\r\n\r\nI\'m sad because when I was a college junior, my roommate, Scott Cook and four other students from my university were traveling back to school, they each fell asleep and were killed in a car accident. They were on their way back from a mission trip.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/te.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2410\" title=\"te\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/te.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"230\" /></a>I\'m sad because I know that hundreds of students will wake up asking for meaning. I know they will be weeping, wondering why their friend won\'t be there tomorrow. His roommate, who I identify with the most, will suffer more than anyone on campus, crying out in his heart, looking for answers.\r\n\r\nI know that in the next week, his parents will be at his funeral, facing hundreds who will be offering their condolences. People will stop by their house offering fried chicken, pies, cakes and side dishes. The pastor will give an amazing eulogy, but it will be muffled by the sounds of a life called short.\r\n\r\nWhen two weeks go by, the vast majority of the world will have forgotten the life of Garrett Uekman. His parents will still be clutching his high school trophies and his senior picture. Those who loved him most will be left with, \"Why?\"\r\n\r\nThe answer to that question may never come.\r\n\r\nI do know one thing. After losing a college roommate, a father and a mother to sudden accidents, I can tell you this - it\'s not about us. Things happen and they happen fast. Take time to grieve. Take time to mourn. Weep as many tears as your body will allow. And then, when you think you\'ve cried as much as you can - cry some more.\r\n\r\nDon\'t try to make sense of any of it. But know this, people of faith - God is there. When there are answers to be found in our weak hearts, He will provide them. Don\'t expect them soon, but know that He will see us through the worst of times. But know those times may last a while. And know that He is worth the wait.','When Life Gets Called Short','','inherit','open','open','','2409-revision-4','','','2011-11-23 09:18:23','2011-11-23 17:18:23','',2409,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2409-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2519,1,'2011-11-22 05:27:30','2011-11-22 13:27:30','The news articles that come daily into my inbox are quite naturally those that reflect my interests. From years of living in Pakistan and the Middle East the news in that region is top of my list. I also have a deeper  reason. There is a particular piece of my heart in Cairo, Egypt. My 26 year old daughter, Annie, is living and studying in Egypt, and has been there for the past three years. She lives directly off Tahrir Square and as a news source she is current, articulate, and involved.\r\n\r\nOnce again Egypt is on the <a href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/world/middleeast/egypts-cabinet-offers-to-quit-as-activists-urge-wider-protests.html?ref=world\" target=\"_blank\">front page of the New York Time</a>s. The hopes of the Arab Spring and tremendous unity displayed by Christians and Muslims, men, women and children has slowly been discouraged, replaced with a disillusionment and anger at the questionable practices of the military. All of this has fueled another massive protest in Tahrir \"Freedom\" Square.  The number of demonstrators has grown to thousands, and hundreds have been wounded with many killed.\r\n\r\nIn the midst of the turmoil, a church stands, solid and strong.  <a href=\"http://arabkingdom.wordpress.com/welcome-to-kasr-el-dobara/\" target=\"_blank\">Kasr Al Dobara</a>, the largest evangelical church in the Middle East and a place of faith and hope is just off Tahrir Square. It is unable to hide in a suburb of safety and sits,  fully connected but set apart, in the middle of all the chaos that is Tahrir.  And so they are using the location in a way that reflects what they believe about God and the church. They have set up a clinic for the wounded. It is a picture of what the Church is called to be, a place that doesn\'t \"shoot the wounded\" but seeks to heal the wounded. This is the church, the body of Christ.\r\n\r\nThere are times when I struggle with the church, when I no longer want to attend. For years I sustained a soul wound that was the church. My theology became distorted and my vision clouded. I would listen to people talk about the church and how much they loved the church and it was like hearing a language that I used to know, but because of an injury I no longer had a memory that included that vocabulary.  Slowly and graciously God has been healing the soul wound and replacing it with a realistic hope and Kasr Al Dobara is part of that realistic hope. Refusing to hide in safety and seclusion, it\'s doors are open to those who are wounded with no expectation of anything in return. The hands of those both gifted and educated in healing are washing and bandaging wounds, using triage to assess the fallen, and comforting those that have lost someone. This is the Church. This is the body of Christ.\r\n\r\nThe short YouTube clip below shows this church in action. It is in Arabic but there is no need for translation of the actions that you will see. It is the Church, the body of Christ.\r\n\r\n[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ChHemNvnqI&amp;w=560&amp;h=315]','Tahrir Square and a Clinic for the Wounded','','inherit','open','open','','2491-revision-5','','','2011-11-22 05:27:30','2011-11-22 13:27:30','',2491,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/22/2491-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2520,1,'2011-11-23 09:26:51','2011-11-23 17:26:51','','tahir_square','','inherit','open','open','','tahir_square','','','2011-11-23 09:26:51','2011-11-23 17:26:51','',2491,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/tahir_square.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2521,1,'2011-11-23 09:22:15','2011-11-23 17:22:15','The news articles that come daily into my inbox are quite naturally those that reflect my interests. From years of living in Pakistan and the Middle East the news in that region is top of my list. I also have a deeper  reason. There is a particular piece of my heart in Cairo, Egypt. My 26 year old daughter, Annie, is living and studying in Egypt, and has been there for the past three years. She lives directly off Tahrir Square and as a news source she is current, articulate, and involved.\r\n\r\nOnce again Egypt is on the <a href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/world/middleeast/egypts-cabinet-offers-to-quit-as-activists-urge-wider-protests.html?ref=world\" target=\"_blank\">front page of the New York Time</a>s. The hopes of the Arab Spring and tremendous unity displayed by Christians and Muslims, men, women and children has slowly been discouraged, replaced with a disillusionment and anger at the questionable practices of the military. All of this has fueled another massive protest in Tahrir \"Freedom\" Square.  The number of demonstrators has grown to thousands, and hundreds have been wounded with many killed.\r\n\r\nIn the midst of the turmoil, a church stands, solid and strong.  <a href=\"http://arabkingdom.wordpress.com/welcome-to-kasr-el-dobara/\" target=\"_blank\">Kasr Al Dobara</a>, the largest evangelical church in the Middle East and a place of faith and hope is just off Tahrir Square. It is unable to hide in a suburb of safety and sits,  fully connected but set apart, in the middle of all the chaos that is Tahrir.  And so they are using the location in a way that reflects what they believe about God and the church. They have set up a clinic for the wounded. It is a picture of what the Church is called to be, a place that doesn\'t \"shoot the wounded\" but seeks to heal the wounded. This is the church, the body of Christ.\r\n\r\nThere are times when I struggle with the church, when I no longer want to attend. For years I sustained a soul wound that was the church. My theology became distorted and my vision clouded. I would listen to people talk about the church and how much they loved the church and it was like hearing a language that I used to know, but because of an injury I no longer had a memory that included that vocabulary.  Slowly and graciously God has been healing the soul wound and replacing it with a realistic hope and Kasr Al Dobara is part of that realistic hope. Refusing to hide in safety and seclusion, it\'s doors are open to those who are wounded with no expectation of anything in return. The hands of those both gifted and educated in healing are washing and bandaging wounds, using triage to assess the fallen, and comforting those that have lost someone. This is the Church. This is the body of Christ.\r\n\r\nThe short YouTube clip below shows this church in action. It is in Arabic but there is no need for translation of the actions that you will see. It is the Church, the body of Christ.\r\n\r\n[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ChHemNvnqI[/youtube]','Tahrir Square and a Clinic for the Wounded','','inherit','open','open','','2491-revision-6','','','2011-11-23 09:22:15','2011-11-23 17:22:15','',2491,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2491-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(2522,1,'2011-11-23 09:35:26','2011-11-23 17:35:26','','marble_statue','','inherit','open','open','','marble_statue','','','2011-11-23 09:35:26','2011-11-23 17:35:26','',2484,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/marble_statue.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2523,1,'2011-11-22 09:34:10','2011-11-22 17:34:10','It seems pretty clear that the most determining fact of our existence is <em>when</em> and <em>where </em>we are born, and into what family or social class.  This makes all the difference. Obviously there are exceptions and stories of social mobility that are part and parcel of the American identity, but the vast majority of the possibilities for our lives on average are nonetheless limited or expanded by these conditions.  And almost every story you hear that defies this has a back-story that illustrates how all these divergent pieces had to come together at just the right time for that person’s “rags to riches” dream to come true.  The most significant thing about our birth though is that we have absolutely nothing to do with it.  Contemplating this truth alone can bring even the most pretentious of us to our knees before God.  Yet we take so much pride in our accomplishments and are very quick to think that what we have is earned and achieved… is somehow ours to claim – despite that the very basis of those accomplishments is grounded in something utterly contingent and beyond our control.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, it’s also common to hear people in the church admit that everything is God’s and that we are just stewards of our money, but there can be a strong dose of superficiality even in this seemingly humble statement.  In fact, this idea can very easily serve to justify doing exactly what we want with 90% of our possessions, rather than to encourage us to take our God-given <em>collective</em> responsibility seriously and to make legitimate sacrifices.  Why?  Because this statement is almost always followed by a disclaimer like, “it’s not a crime to be ‘successful’ . . . as long what I’m doing doesn’t harm anyone, or as long as I give a tithe to my church, etc.\" etc.  But is this view not oblivious to why some “have” and others “have not”?  What are the social conditions that permit us to live in relative peace and to have the chance to accumulate wealth?  What is the history that gave us access to prosperity?\r\n\r\nWith all things held constant, with “perfect competition” as economists like to say, if all of us begin with relatively equal access to opportunity, and all basic resources are available in relative plenitude, than it might just be true that to accumulate excessively is not a crime.  The complication is, no such constants exist.  The point – which is definitely not a new one – is that in today’s world, it is <em>never</em> enough to just give money away and avoid “doing harm.”  We must work to transform the societal structures that perpetuate poverty and disability in the first place.  If our standard of living is at a level such that everyone in the world could feasibly live at that same level, then our wealth might justified – as long as we are doing our part to create that kind of world.  If most or all of our charitable donations go to a church, for instance, then additionally we’d better ask what our churches are doing to build such a world.\r\n\r\nSo yes, I submit that if there are those who are oppressed and dying by no fault of their own <em>at the same time</em> that there are Christians living in the world abundantly, then this situation itself is a crime.  But here is the key: our culpability for the death and destruction going on around the world is not primarily individual in nature.  Individuals ought not be exonerated, but I am not pointing to any one prosperous person and accusing them of ill intent.  Rather, there are structural and systemic forces at work that have long histories that have led us to this particular moment.  These forces amount to more than the mere sum of their parts and take on a self-preserving life of their own at the expense of the interest of society as a whole.  Great transfers of wealth occurred during the slave trade and various European (and more recently American!) colonial conquests whose consequences are still being felt today.  Generational sins are passed down, and we come into this world already conditioned by a past with which we are not very familiar and constantly take for granted.  This shortsightedness is kind of like what the philosopher Martin Heidegger liked to call “the forgetfulness of being.”  Christians everywhere, in the U.S. especially, are suffering from a fatal case of this forgetfulness.  The lesson to be learned is this: the essence of human life is one of thorough interdependency.  The second we fail to remember this, a foolish sense of entitlement creeps in, which, I suggest, produces the single greatest blind spot in American political and economic ideology.  Consequently, the most counter-cultural imagination available to Christians in the 21st Century is one that runs directly against the current of individualism - individualism being understood here as the values of liberty and independence gone awry.\r\n\r\nNow, it should go without saying that individual responsibility and the potential weight of the choices we make can still be affirmed.  Choices matter – just not nearly as much as a lot of people think they do.  Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the choices and the options with which we are presented are all-too-often already narrowed down before they get to us.  Our horizons are anything about limitless.\r\n\r\nWe <em>are</em> our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers, and we don’t get to ask, “oh but what did you do to end up in this situation?  Did you work hard like me?”  The arrogance of this sort of question is equal to the ignorance of the sinner who says to Jesus, “but when did we see you hungry?”  Admittedly, Jesus did not seem terribly concerned about necessarily changing the power structures of his day, but he was very intent on subverting and exposing them for what they were – especially when it came to social hierarchies.  He did this every time he healed or forgave people who were unclean and who, in the eyes of society, had brought certain misfortunes upon themselves.  What we’ve learned since Jesus, however, is that human beings are capable of being transformative agents in history working toward either a more just social order or a more disparate gap between classes.  The Bible doesn’t answer all of our contemporary questions when it comes to matters of faith and practice.  It does, however, give us the foundational principles, not the least of which is to plead the case of the afflicted and needy (Jeremiah 22:16).\r\n\r\nIn sum, individualism is not just one worldview to choose from among others with neutral value.  Individualism is an inherently illusory, naïve and pernicious perspective.  We must diagnose ourselves by taking off the rose-colored glasses handed to us by unmerited privilege - with their lenses that would otherwise give the status quo the benefit of the doubt.','The Myth of Individualism','','inherit','open','open','','2484-revision-5','','','2011-11-22 09:34:10','2011-11-22 17:34:10','',2484,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/22/2484-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2526,24,'2011-11-23 10:21:20','2011-11-23 18:21:20','<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot gun\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s chin\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\nThe artists brush, the rush of a new found crush\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\nThe ability to know what it is to be freeThe i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\nAn i for an I is the end of sin.\n\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\n\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-2','','','2011-11-23 10:21:20','2011-11-23 18:21:20','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2528,24,'2011-11-23 10:33:38','2011-11-23 18:33:38','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\n<div>This poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot gun\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\nThe artists brush, the rush of a new found crush\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\n<div>\n\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\n\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-3','','','2011-11-23 10:33:38','2011-11-23 18:33:38','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2527,24,'2011-11-23 10:32:48','2011-11-23 18:32:48','','Helix-Nebula-NGC-7293-1024x1024','','inherit','open','open','','helix-nebula-ngc-7293-1024x1024','','','2011-11-23 10:32:48','2011-11-23 18:32:48','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Helix-Nebula-NGC-7293-1024x1024.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2529,24,'2011-11-23 10:33:54','2011-11-23 18:33:54','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\r\n<div>This poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot gun\r\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artists brush, the rush of a new found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-4','','','2011-11-23 10:33:54','2011-11-23 18:33:54','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2530,24,'2011-11-23 10:34:11','2011-11-23 18:34:11','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\r\n<div>This poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot gun\r\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artists brush, the rush of a new found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-5','','','2011-11-23 10:34:11','2011-11-23 18:34:11','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2532,24,'2011-11-23 10:35:42','2011-11-23 18:35:42','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\r\n<div>This poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-7','','','2011-11-23 10:35:42','2011-11-23 18:35:42','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(2531,24,'2011-11-23 10:34:41','2011-11-23 18:34:41','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\r\n\r\n<div>This poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot gun\r\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artists brush, the rush of a new found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-6','','','2011-11-23 10:34:41','2011-11-23 18:34:41','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(2534,24,'2011-11-23 10:37:50','2011-11-23 18:37:50','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\n<div>\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\n<div>\n\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\n\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-9','','','2011-11-23 10:37:50','2011-11-23 18:37:50','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-9/',0,'revision','',0),(2533,24,'2011-11-23 10:36:37','2011-11-23 18:36:37','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\r\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-8','','','2011-11-23 10:36:37','2011-11-23 18:36:37','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(2535,24,'2011-11-23 10:38:58','2011-11-23 18:38:58','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\n<div>\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\n<div>\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\n<div>\n\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-10','','','2011-11-23 10:38:58','2011-11-23 18:38:58','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-10/',0,'revision','',0),(2536,24,'2011-11-23 10:41:19','2011-11-23 18:41:19','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-11','','','2011-11-23 10:41:19','2011-11-23 18:41:19','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-11/',0,'revision','',0),(2537,24,'2011-11-23 10:41:19','2011-11-23 18:41:19','<div>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed the orchid a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-12','','','2011-11-23 10:41:19','2011-11-23 18:41:19','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-12/',0,'revision','',0),(2539,24,'2011-11-23 10:44:26','2011-11-23 18:44:26','<div><strong>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</strong></div>\n<div>\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\n<div>\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\nI am the weed, the orchid, a pile of trash\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\n<div>\n\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-13','','','2011-11-23 10:44:26','2011-11-23 18:44:26','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-13/',0,'revision','',0),(2540,24,'2011-11-23 10:45:02','2011-11-23 18:45:02','<div><strong>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</strong></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea.\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee.\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed, the orchid, a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-14','','','2011-11-23 10:45:02','2011-11-23 18:45:02','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-14/',0,'revision','',0),(2541,24,'2011-11-23 10:46:02','2011-11-23 18:46:02','<div><strong>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</strong></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>I am the wind, the waves, the sea\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed, the orchid, a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-15','','','2011-11-23 10:46:02','2011-11-23 18:46:02','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-15/',0,'revision','',0),(2542,24,'2011-11-23 10:46:28','2011-11-23 18:46:28','<div style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</strong></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">I am the wind, the waves, the sea\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed, the orchid, a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-16','','','2011-11-23 10:46:28','2011-11-23 18:46:28','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-16/',0,'revision','',0),(2543,24,'2011-11-21 11:11:25','2011-11-21 19:11:25','God decided He was tired of humanity, tired of the incessant selfish requests. He called His angels in for advice. \"I would like to go somewhere were these humans will not find me.\"\nOne angel spoke up, \"Hide on the highest mountain, they will not find you there.\"\nAnother angel said, \"The bottom of the deepest ocean.\"\nOne angel shouted, \"The dark side of the moon, they cannot see you there.\"\nGod not satisfied that these suggestions would hide Him, He summoned His wisest angel and asked him, \"Where can I hide so that these humans will not find me?\"\nThe angel smiled and replied, \"hide in their hearts, for they fear to look within.\"\n\nWith the worlds current events getting so much attention and the endless banter between politicians, governments and corporations it may appear that our world has lost its mind. One can find oneself lost it trying to fix all sorts of systems and entities to make the world a safe place to live. I would like to point out a view of things that allows one to loose interest in getting something from this world. Instead I will point to a Reality the demands nothings, asks for nothing, it simply is what it is. For some this is to simple, or boring. They are far more interested in fixing others and entertaining themselves in the drama of their lives.\n\nOne can liken the addiction we have to the drama of this world as to walking into a room of people watching their favorite soap opera. At the climax you walk up and turn the TV off. Now just imagine the response. Anger, yelling, pushing and shoving are likely effects of disconnecting people from their entertainment. Another example would be to walking into a crowded bar on a playoff night, turn the power off just prior to the end of a close game. Do you see the same reactions? One does not have to condemn this addiction we see to prevalent in society, one just at some point to decide whether or not to continue to participate in it.\n\nThose of you who were raised in any sort of religion, culture/ethnicity, sports team loyalists, soap opera fanatics upbringing were usually told what to believe and why. Even if you were not told directly it was obvious by the behavior of your family.  \"We are Bronco fans because we live in Colorado.\" We hate the Raiders and Chargers with a passion!\"  We are Catholics?Protestants/ Buddhists ect because we have been this faith for generations.\n\nHow do we know if anything is true? Can our thoughts, perceptions, families beliefs and customs be trusted as Truth?\n\n<strong>\"Man is intrinsically innocent because he can only choose what he perceives to be good.\" - Socrates</strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/YoungOldWoman.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1976\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/YoungOldWoman-210x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\nLooking at this picture, what do you see?\n\nIs this your wife or mother-in-law?\nWhich perception is real?\nDoes one negate the other?\nDo both exist simultaneously?\n\nI John 2: 9-11 Anyone who claims to live in God\'s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It\'s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God\'s light and doesn\'t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn\'t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.\n\nLook around the room you are in. Is it possible to see the light? Or can you only see that with which the light illuminates?\n\nA persons way of speaking, behavior and thought process simply reveals what they are aligned with. Light doe not judge or condemn, its simply reveals what is. God is light and in Him there is no shadow or darkness. So evil is not the opposite or antithesis of God, but simply his absence. Perception is then extremely subjective.\n\nOur perceptions are derived from a mind that searches for the meaning of what it perceives or in other words identifies with. If the mind believes something has value it then desires it. Thoughts and feelings arise from desire, and the mind desires what it values.\n\nOur minds as children are innocent, like a brand new Mac Book Pro without any software. We then observe our families our culture our entertainment and we pick up the software that runs our minds value system which is called perception.\n\n<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2425\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Prism-300x186.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" />\n\nLike this prism, perception derived from programming interprets the light and breaks it into categories. We then judge, evaluate and determine if what we see if valuable or something we would like to avoid.\n\nPerhaps the statement Jesus made in Matthew is an invitaion to return to that inncocence. To shed our ideas of ourselves and this world. To give up trying to fix everything out there and simply turning within to explore what we fear the most, our heart.\n\n<strong>“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.\" Matthew 18:3</strong>\n\n&nbsp;','Perception is Deception, Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','1975-revision-19','','','2011-11-21 11:11:25','2011-11-21 19:11:25','',1975,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/21/1975-revision-19/',0,'revision','',0),(2544,1,'2011-11-23 12:37:07','2011-11-23 20:37:07','Where did we get the clever idea that women are all kooky ditzes?  Perhaps it\'s from this \"re-post if you agree\" going around Facebook:\n<blockquote>I push doors that clearly say PULL. I laugh harder when I\'m trying to explain why I\'m laughing. I walk in to a room and forget why I was there. I count on my fingers. I hide the pain from my loved ones. I say \"its a long story\",...When it really isn\'t, just to get out of having to tell it. I cry a lot more then you think. I care about people who don\'t care about me. I am strong because I have to be, not because I want to be. I listen to you, even when you don\'t listen to me. And a hug will always help. Yes, I\'m a girl!!!! Re-post if you\'re a lady and proud of it! :D</blockquote>\nI don\'t know about you, but nothing on that list seems particularly feminine to me.  It\'s not even terribly clever; it lacks all the cheeky irony of, say, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ilu-ARtiY&amp;feature=related\">Ann-Margaret in \"Bye Bye Birdie.\"</a>  (In case you\'re wondering, Ann-Margaret is singing about how wonderful it is to be a woman, while dressing herself as a boy.)\n\nHow is it uniquely girlish to do any of the things listed in that post?  After all, I\'ve seen plenty of men try to use a door the wrong way and lots of people, male and female alike, forget why they\'re in a room.  In my own experience, guys cry more than people think, too, mainly because they\'re coached not to do it publicly.  On the flip side, I don\'t know a whole lot of women who count on their fingers, but I do know plenty who aren\'t very good listeners.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vintage-barbie-line.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2503\" title=\"vintage barbie line\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vintage-barbie-line-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"100\" /></a>More than the fact that this is somehow supposed to represent common feminine traits is that it\'s aimed at adolescent girls.  At an age when girls (and boys, too, for that matter) need to hear that they are capable and that it\'s okay to be themselves, they are instead hearing:\n\n-Girls are silly\n\n-Girls are forgetful and distractable\n\n-Girls aren\'t any good at math\n\n-Girls are expected to hide their true feelings, because no one wants an emotional drama queen\n\n-Girls cry <em>all the time</em>\n\n-Girls are expected to drain themselves emotionally for other people, who will walk all over them\n\n-Girls are strong, but secretly wish they could be \"themselves,\" meaning be weak\n\nAre these the lessons we want our daughters to learn?  I won\'t deny that there are biological differences between men and women.  However, not one of the things on the list has anything to do with those differences.  Those are all cultural assumptions, all of which imply that girls and women are somehow <em>less</em>:  Less intelligent, less capable, less emotionally stable.  We\'re systematically indoctrinating our young women with the idea that they are unworthy, but instead of being outraged, girls are passing this around to each other and celebrating.  They honestly seem to believe that they are sharing some kind of creed which gives them permission to be true to themselves.\n\nIt\'s no wonder fewer women enter math and science fields; women are still paid less for the same jobs; and we have yet to elect a woman as President of the United States.\n\nThe saddest part of this is that it\'s women who are providing their daughters with instruction in inferiority.  It\'s possible some man made up the above statement, but I have yet to see it on any of their pages.  Adult women are spreading this foolishness right alongside their daughters.  I understand <em>men</em> who treat women as a subspecies.  Plenty of men still claim that there is no such thing as sex discrimination.  (Do a web search for \"men are better than women\"; there are whole web sites devoted to this concept.)  But <em>women</em>?  This would be similar to my Italian-American relatives telling their kids that they\'re not as good as the kids of other ethnicity on the next block.  It makes about as much sense.\n\nUntil we stop perpetuating stereotypes about our own gender, we can hardly expect men to take us seriously.  Perhaps we need to start a new Facebook meme in which we make it clear that both boys and girls have value, based not on their traits or intelligence, but simply by virtue of their humanity.\n\n<em>Photo Credit: Adwriter</em>','Being a Girl','','inherit','open','open','','2502-autosave','','','2011-11-23 12:37:07','2011-11-23 20:37:07','',2502,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2502-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2546,1,'2011-11-23 12:35:00','2011-11-23 20:35:00','','little_girls','','inherit','open','open','','little_girls','','','2011-11-23 12:35:00','2011-11-23 20:35:00','',2502,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/little_girls.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2547,1,'2011-11-22 14:26:37','2011-11-22 22:26:37','Where did we get the clever idea that women are all kooky ditzes?  Perhaps it\'s from this \"re-post if you agree\" going around Facebook:\r\n<blockquote>I push doors that clearly say PULL. I laugh harder when I\'m trying to explain why I\'m laughing. I walk in to a room and forget why I was there. I count on my fingers. I hide the pain from my loved ones. I say \"its a long story\",...When it really isn\'t, just to get out of having to tell it. I cry a lot more then you think. I care about people who don\'t care about me. I am strong because I have to be, not because I want to be. I listen to you, even when you don\'t listen to me. And a hug will always help. Yes, I\'m a girl!!!! Re-post if you\'re a lady and proud of it! :D</blockquote>\r\nI don\'t know about you, but nothing on that list seems particularly feminine to me.  It\'s not even terribly clever; it lacks all the cheeky irony of, say, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ilu-ARtiY&amp;feature=related\">Ann-Margaret in \"Bye Bye Birdie.\"</a>  (In case you\'re wondering, Ann-Margaret is singing about how wonderful it is to be a woman, while dressing herself as a boy.)\r\n\r\nHow is it uniquely girlish to do any of the things listed in that post?  After all, I\'ve seen plenty of men try to use a door the wrong way and lots of people, male and female alike, forget why they\'re in a room.  In my own experience, guys cry more than people think, too, mainly because they\'re coached not to do it publicly.  On the flip side, I don\'t know a whole lot of women who count on their fingers, but I do know plenty who aren\'t very good listeners.\r\n\r\nMore than the fact that this is somehow supposed to represent common feminine traits is that it\'s aimed at adolescent girls.  At an age when girls (and boys, too, for that matter) need to hear that they are capable and that it\'s okay to be themselves, they are instead hearing:\r\n\r\n-Girls are silly\r\n\r\n-Girls are forgetful and distractable\r\n\r\n-Girls aren\'t any good at math\r\n\r\n-Girls are expected to hide their true feelings, because no one wants an emotional drama queen\r\n\r\n-Girls cry <em>all the time</em>\r\n\r\n-Girls are expected to drain themselves emotionally for other people, who will walk all over them\r\n\r\n-Girls are strong, but secretly wish they could be \"themselves,\" meaning be weak\r\n\r\nAre these the lessons we want our daughters to learn?  I won\'t deny that there are biological differences between men and women.  However, not one of the things on the list has anything to do with those differences.  Those are all cultural assumptions, all of which imply that girls and women are somehow <em>less</em>:  Less intelligent, less capable, less emotionally stable.  We\'re systematically indoctrinating our young women with the idea that they are unworthy, but instead of being outraged, girls are passing this around to each other and celebrating.  They honestly seem to believe that they are sharing some kind of creed which gives them permission to be true to themselves.\r\n\r\nIt\'s no wonder fewer women enter math and science fields; women are still paid less for the same jobs; and we have yet to elect a woman as President of the United States.\r\n\r\nThe saddest part of this is that it\'s women who are providing their daughters with instruction in inferiority.  It\'s possible some man made up the above statement, but I have yet to see it on any of their pages.  Adult women are spreading this foolishness right alongside their daughters.  I understand <em>men</em> who treat women as a subspecies.  Plenty of men still claim that there is no such thing as sex discrimination.  (Do a web search for \"men are better than women\"; there are whole web sites devoted to this concept.)  But <em>women</em>?  This would be similar to my Italian-American relatives telling their kids that they\'re not as good as the kids of other ethnicities on the next block.  It makes about as much sense.\r\n\r\nUntil we stop perpetuating stereotypes about our own gender, we can hardly expect men to take us seriously.  Perhaps we need to start a new Facebook meme in which we make it clear that both boys and girls have value, based not on their traits or intelligence, but simply by virtue of their humanity.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Being a Girl','','inherit','open','open','','2502-revision-3','','','2011-11-22 14:26:37','2011-11-22 22:26:37','',2502,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/22/2502-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2548,1,'2011-11-23 12:35:41','2011-11-23 20:35:41','Where did we get the clever idea that women are all kooky ditzes?  Perhaps it\'s from this \"re-post if you agree\" going around Facebook:\r\n<blockquote>I push doors that clearly say PULL. I laugh harder when I\'m trying to explain why I\'m laughing. I walk in to a room and forget why I was there. I count on my fingers. I hide the pain from my loved ones. I say \"its a long story\",...When it really isn\'t, just to get out of having to tell it. I cry a lot more then you think. I care about people who don\'t care about me. I am strong because I have to be, not because I want to be. I listen to you, even when you don\'t listen to me. And a hug will always help. Yes, I\'m a girl!!!! Re-post if you\'re a lady and proud of it! :D</blockquote>\r\nI don\'t know about you, but nothing on that list seems particularly feminine to me.  It\'s not even terribly clever; it lacks all the cheeky irony of, say, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ilu-ARtiY&amp;feature=related\">Ann-Margaret in \"Bye Bye Birdie.\"</a>  (In case you\'re wondering, Ann-Margaret is singing about how wonderful it is to be a woman, while dressing herself as a boy.)\r\n\r\nHow is it uniquely girlish to do any of the things listed in that post?  After all, I\'ve seen plenty of men try to use a door the wrong way and lots of people, male and female alike, forget why they\'re in a room.  In my own experience, guys cry more than people think, too, mainly because they\'re coached not to do it publicly.  On the flip side, I don\'t know a whole lot of women who count on their fingers, but I do know plenty who aren\'t very good listeners.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vintage-barbie-line.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2503\" title=\"vintage barbie line\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vintage-barbie-line-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"100\" /></a>More than the fact that this is somehow supposed to represent common feminine traits is that it\'s aimed at adolescent girls.  At an age when girls (and boys, too, for that matter) need to hear that they are capable and that it\'s okay to be themselves, they are instead hearing:\r\n\r\n-Girls are silly\r\n\r\n-Girls are forgetful and distractable\r\n\r\n-Girls aren\'t any good at math\r\n\r\n-Girls are expected to hide their true feelings, because no one wants an emotional drama queen\r\n\r\n-Girls cry <em>all the time</em>\r\n\r\n-Girls are expected to drain themselves emotionally for other people, who will walk all over them\r\n\r\n-Girls are strong, but secretly wish they could be \"themselves,\" meaning be weak\r\n\r\nAre these the lessons we want our daughters to learn?  I won\'t deny that there are biological differences between men and women.  However, not one of the things on the list has anything to do with those differences.  Those are all cultural assumptions, all of which imply that girls and women are somehow <em>less</em>:  Less intelligent, less capable, less emotionally stable.  We\'re systematically indoctrinating our young women with the idea that they are unworthy, but instead of being outraged, girls are passing this around to each other and celebrating.  They honestly seem to believe that they are sharing some kind of creed which gives them permission to be true to themselves.\r\n\r\nIt\'s no wonder fewer women enter math and science fields; women are still paid less for the same jobs; and we have yet to elect a woman as President of the United States.\r\n\r\nThe saddest part of this is that it\'s women who are providing their daughters with instruction in inferiority.  It\'s possible some man made up the above statement, but I have yet to see it on any of their pages.  Adult women are spreading this foolishness right alongside their daughters.  I understand <em>men</em> who treat women as a subspecies.  Plenty of men still claim that there is no such thing as sex discrimination.  (Do a web search for \"men are better than women\"; there are whole web sites devoted to this concept.)  But <em>women</em>?  This would be similar to my Italian-American relatives telling their kids that they\'re not as good as the kids of other ethnicity on the next block.  It makes about as much sense.\r\n\r\nUntil we stop perpetuating stereotypes about our own gender, we can hardly expect men to take us seriously.  Perhaps we need to start a new Facebook meme in which we make it clear that both boys and girls have value, based not on their traits or intelligence, but simply by virtue of their humanity.\r\n\r\n<em>Photo Credit: Adwriter</em>','Being a Girl','','inherit','open','open','','2502-revision-4','','','2011-11-23 12:35:41','2011-11-23 20:35:41','',2502,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2502-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2550,1,'2011-11-22 19:47:38','2011-11-23 03:47:38','Before I was married, my hairdresser told me about a woman in her sixties who explained to him the meaning of marriage, the breakdown of gender roles, and the secret to staying together. She could see beyond her husband’s analytical nature. She was perspicacious. It thus became her job to let her husband in on the nuances of others—ticks, sidelong glances, subtleties. Once her husband had been informed of her observations and ensuing opinions, she trusted his judgment. Her husband, a prominent entrepreneur, used her insights to make the best decisions for business, for family, for himself. After forty years of marriage, by operating out of their inherent strengths, they had created a peaceful and thriving life together, as one.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI usually can see a thing before it happens. I believe I was born this way, but I also know that in reconciling with my creator as a Christian, I’ve learned how to harness these gifts for the greater good.\r\n\r\nNearly five years ago, just after my husband Greg and I got married, I was overcome by sadness whenever he reacted a certain way to others. I knew that if this behavior did not change, it would inhibit Greg as a Christian, husband, father, and leader. I believed this revelation was from God, so I told Greg what I perceived. He stared at me blankly. He had no idea what I meant. Without pushing the issue further, I went to bed that night reminding the Lord that He was the one who had prompted me to broach this subject.\r\n\r\nThe following morning, Greg nudged me awake. He said, “I had a dream last night. The Lord showed me what you were talking about.”\r\n\r\nGreg has not exhibited that behavior since.\r\n\r\nOne of Greg’s fortes is deciphering and explaining emotions in those with whom he is close. His insights have helped me heal from past abuse. I’ve become a more honest, confident and forthright person because of Greg’s influence.\r\n\r\nSince we trust each other in these abilities, Greg as the “spiritual leader” of our family is not burdened down by religious expectation to be perfect in singlehandedly making decisions for our family. Instead, he has the responsibility of seeking God’s wisdom with me. Our relationship becomes a conduit for God’s voice.\r\n\r\nMarriages cannot function properly without both spouses operating in their innate strengths—spiritual or otherwise.\r\n\r\nIt is an absolute necessity for women to speak up in their marriages, not only to enrich their relationships but also to benefit their church communities. The church cannot unite as God intended—and as Christ prayed for in the garden—without women rising up to reclaim their roles. If American Christian culture has found that its marriages and churches are broken or struggling, it may serve both institutions well to reevaluate and reform their philosophy of gender roles.\r\n\r\nJust as the church cannot operate effectively without Christ’s initiation, the Holy Spirit cannot carry out God’s perfect will without the church’s participation. The symbiotic relationship between God and His people should be mirrored by husbands and wives.\r\n\r\nRegrettably, churches bent toward legalism often teach that God is angry with His people (never mind the sinners), and to merit entrance into Heaven, Christians must restrict pleasures, separate from mainstream society, and be silent before God’s throne. This is not God’s will. God through Christ invites interaction; He establishes love as the cornerstone of behavior; He speaks to His people through the written word, His Holy Spirit, and revelation. He asks, in return, for them to make their requests known to Him.\r\n\r\nGod created marriage as an earthly reflection of a spiritual dynamic.\r\n\r\nHowever, too many Christian marriages—and churches—have defaulted to Paul’s presumed biblical admonitions to silence women. Instead of looking at the context of Paul’s culture, in which women notoriously overused the gift of speech, we should consider the entirety of the Bible to develop a realistic view of women.\r\n\r\nFor example, just before Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified, his wife had warned him from her dream not to punish Jesus. Had Pilate regarded his wife’s counsel, not only would the Apostle’s Creed have read differently, but Pilate’s fate would have been one of grace, not shame.\r\n\r\nWith a contrasting outcome in Exodus, the Lord spared Moses’ life because Zipporah interceded to circumcise their sons. She intuited what Moses had not.\r\n\r\nFulfilling Deborah’s prophecy, Jael overrode her husband’s peace agreement, discerning her greater calling, and won Israel’s victory, satisfying God’s will for the Israelites.\r\n\r\nDuring the week of Jesus’ death, a woman poured oil from an alabaster jar over Jesus’ head. Jesus reminded the men who had derided her actions that she was anointing Him for burial. This woman knew of Jesus what His disciples had not perceived—even though Jesus had already alerted them of His impending death.\r\n\r\nDespite these biblical proofs, for too long in church history, women have been relegated to the back of the sanctuary—for food preparation, decorating, childcare. Although many women are gifted, even called, to serve churches in such ways impressively, many others can hear the voice of God, perceive His heart’s desire, and express these revelations boldly to the church.\r\n\r\nThe prophetesses of the Most High God are fulfilling the scripture from Joel 2:28: “Your sons and <em>daughters</em> shall prophesy.” During Pentecost, when the church was united, Peter justified the speaking in tongues and prophesying with this Scripture.\r\n\r\nThe daughters are here and ready. They just need invitations to speak.\r\n\r\nWhen women take their abilities home, families are restored and strengthened. Husbands no longer seize under the pressure of unreasonable expectations, and wives are not bound under an unjust restraining order. A new generation of children will grow up witnessing their parents in full-effect—at home, in the workplace, at church.\r\n\r\nRedefining gender roles in the Christian community may not be as difficult as it would seem. It will be like entering into a world where people are as they were meant to be.','Gender Roles as God Intended','','inherit','open','open','','2508-revision-4','','','2011-11-22 19:47:38','2011-11-23 03:47:38','',2508,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/22/2508-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2552,24,'2011-11-23 13:30:06','2011-11-23 21:30:06','<div><strong>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</strong></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing, if you will, of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div><em>I am the wind, the waves, the sea</em>\r\n<em> The dust blowing all around thee</em>\r\n<em> I am the bird singing, your ear ringing</em>\r\n<em> The leaves that wither, the snakes that slither</em>\r\n<em> I am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide</em>\r\n<em> The bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain</em>\r\n<em> I am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye</em>\r\n<em> Everything, nothing all wrapped in one</em>\r\n<em> Thunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun</em>\r\n<em> I am the weed, the orchid, a pile of trash</em>\r\n<em> The diaper absorbing the cream on the rash</em>\r\n<em> I am mountains, valleys, plains the hills</em>\r\n<em> The black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills</em>\r\n<em> I am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin</em>\r\n<em> I am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin</em>\r\n<em> I am furry, the anger all hidden in pain</em>\r\n<em> The kindness of a stranger who looks insane</em>\r\n<em> I am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss</em>\r\n<em> I am the dentist recommending dental floss</em>\r\n<em> I am what you hold, what you cannot touch</em>\r\n<em> The artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush</em>\r\n<em> What you’ve hidden is never hidden you see</em>\r\n<em> I am the darkest thought you hide from me</em>\r\n<em> I am apples, butter, things full of spice</em>\r\n<em> The mating of animals sounding in the night</em>\r\n<em> I am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie</em>\r\n<em> I am the apple of your daddy’s eye</em>\r\n<em> I am not that, but this, not here, but now</em>\r\n<em> the warm cream flowing fresh from the cow</em>\r\n<em> I am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost</em>\r\n<em> The cold stare of pain hidden in loss</em>\r\n<em> Nothing to touch and no thing to see</em>\r\n<em> The ability to know what it is to be free</em></div>\r\n<div><em>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.</em>\r\n<em> An I for an i is the end of sin.</em></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I For An I','','inherit','open','open','','2524-autosave','','','2011-11-23 13:30:06','2011-11-23 21:30:06','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2553,1,'2011-11-23 10:47:22','2011-11-23 18:47:22','<div style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</strong></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">I am the wind, the waves, the sea\r\nThe dust blowing all around thee\r\nI am the bird singing, your ear ringing\r\nThe leaves that wither, the snakes that slither\r\nI am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide\r\nThe bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain\r\nI am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye\r\nEverything, nothing all wrapped in one\r\nThunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun\r\nI am the weed, the orchid, a pile of trash\r\nThe diaper absorbing the cream on the rash\r\nI am mountains, valleys, plains the hills\r\nThe black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills\r\nI am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin\r\nI am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin\r\nI am furry, the anger all hidden in pain\r\nThe kindness of a stranger who looks insane\r\nI am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss\r\nI am the dentist recommending dental floss\r\nI am what you hold, what you cannot touch\r\nThe artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush\r\nWhat you’ve hidden is never hidden you see\r\nI am the darkest thought you hide from me\r\nI am apples, butter, things full of spice\r\nThe mating of animals sounding in the night\r\nI am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie\r\nI am the apple of your daddy’s eye\r\nI am not that, but this, not here, but now\r\nthe warm cream flowing fresh from the cow\r\nI am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost\r\nThe cold stare of pain hidden in loss\r\nNothing to touch and no thing to see\r\nThe ability to know what it is to be free</div>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.\r\nAn I for an i is the end of sin.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I for an i.','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-17','','','2011-11-23 10:47:22','2011-11-23 18:47:22','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-17/',0,'revision','',0),(2554,1,'2011-11-23 12:51:59','2011-11-23 20:51:59','<div><strong>What is this \"I?\" How is it that \"I\" am aware and know that \"I\" exist?</strong></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>This contemplative poem is a musing if you will of such a question.</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div><em>I am the wind, the waves, the sea</em>\r\n<em> The dust blowing all around thee</em>\r\n<em> I am the bird singing, your ear ringing</em>\r\n<em> The leaves that wither, the snakes that slither</em>\r\n<em> I am the bike your ride, the spokes that glide</em>\r\n<em> The bitterness, pain, the darkness, rain</em>\r\n<em> I am the flute’s gentle cry the tear in your eye</em>\r\n<em> Everything, nothing all wrapped in one</em>\r\n<em> Thunder lighting the boom of a shot-gun</em>\r\n<em> I am the weed, the orchid, a pile of trash</em>\r\n<em> The diaper absorbing the cream on the rash</em>\r\n<em> I am mountains, valleys, plains the hills</em>\r\n<em> The black circles under your eyes your lovely pain pills</em>\r\n<em> I am the beating heart the blanket covering your skin</em>\r\n<em> I am noble, the gentle glowing in the old man’s grin</em>\r\n<em> I am furry, the anger all hidden in pain</em>\r\n<em> The kindness of a stranger who looks insane</em>\r\n<em> I am a warm summer kiss, the grief of loss</em>\r\n<em> I am the dentist recommending dental floss</em>\r\n<em> I am what you hold, what you cannot touch</em>\r\n<em> The artist\'s brush, the rush of a new-found crush</em>\r\n<em> What you’ve hidden is never hidden you see</em>\r\n<em> I am the darkest thought you hide from me</em>\r\n<em> I am apples, butter, things full of spice</em>\r\n<em> The mating of animals sounding in the night</em>\r\n<em> I am slippery, sticky, starch, the pie</em>\r\n<em> I am the apple of your daddy’s eye</em>\r\n<em> I am not that, but this, not here, but now</em>\r\n<em> the warm cream flowing fresh from the cow</em>\r\n<em> I am the heat, the cold, the winter, the frost</em>\r\n<em> The cold stare of pain hidden in loss</em>\r\n<em> Nothing to touch and no thing to see</em>\r\n<em> The ability to know what it is to be free</em></div>\r\n<div><em>The i you see from, sees from the I, I Am.</em>\r\n<em> An I for an i is the end of sin.</em></div>\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God\'s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”\r\n― <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73092.Meister_Eckhart\">Meister Eckhart</a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','An I For An I','','inherit','open','open','','2524-revision-18','','','2011-11-23 12:51:59','2011-11-23 20:51:59','',2524,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2524-revision-18/',0,'revision','',0),(2560,47,'2011-11-28 08:00:49','2011-11-28 16:00:49','<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This coming Sunday marks the beginning of the Advent season.  The church is four weeks away from celebrating the birth of Christ and the welcoming of the Prince of Peace into the world.  It is a time of anticipation, of expectation, and of longing.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is fitting that the first week of Advent symbolizes hope.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Advent season brings hope in a more just world.  Hope that peace will overcome war.  Hope in reconciling with our fellow man.  Hope that suffering will soon be no more.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Looking at the world today, Advent has never seemed more real.  Tens of thousands of people are in the streets crying out for truth, for righteousness, for justice.  While it cannot be said that the Occupy movement is a religious movement, there is <em>something</em> universal, something spiritual about it.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Critics say that the movement is too varied, leaderless, and directionless to be effective.  While there is some truth that there isn’t a short list of 30-second sound bytes to define what Occupy is about, that is sort of the point.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The people are the message.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If the Occupy movement was about a singular policy position, as another recent political movement has been, it would have collapsed at the first sign of opposition from the status quo.  Two and a half months later, the voices have only grown stronger.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">People from all across the demographic spectra are coming together for something more powerful than the critics realize.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hope.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hope is the unifying force that binds this diverse group of people, professional and student, young and old, black and white, together in the face of stiff and sometimes violent opposition.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The kind of hope that is birthed from the understanding that we, as a society, are not only responsible to each other but for each other as well.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hope in the promise of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hope that people see that the Kingdom truly is “at hand”.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hope that justice will be restored.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hope in a better world yet to come.</p>','An Unruly Advent Season','','publish','open','open','','an-unruly-advent-season-2','','','2011-11-28 06:36:09','2011-11-28 14:36:09','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2560',0,'post','',0),(2862,1,'2011-12-01 14:47:05','2011-12-01 22:47:05','[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLZO-sObzQ[/youtube]\r\n\r\nThe is not a new video but it is a profound one. Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student, was raised by two gay, married women and spoke out about the issue to the Iowa House of Representatives. The House was proposing Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.\r\n\r\nWhat strikes me about this video is not just his character, but the strength of which he makes his argument: the dignity of each human being and the commitment to family and marriage.  Regardless of your belief on the issue, one way or the other, it speaks to the profound commitment necessary for human beings to stay committed.\r\n\r\nWell done Zach.','Zach Wahls Speaks On Gay Marriage','','inherit','open','open','','2855-revision-5','','','2011-12-01 14:47:05','2011-12-01 22:47:05','',2855,'http://provoketive.com/2011/12/01/2855-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2863,12,'2011-12-08 08:00:00','2011-12-08 16:00:00','Last time, I examined how the humanness of Christ was something I had never really thought about. During my years growing up in a Southern Baptist Church, the deity of Christ was strongly impressed upon me. Even to the point that His humanity was a sidenote.\r\n\r\nYou may know what I\'m talking about.\r\n\r\nIf you\'ve ever sat in a class where Christology (the study of Christ) is discussed, the topic of His full humanity will arise. It did in my seminary education as well as in my Southern Baptist undergraduate studies. When it was brought up, it was pretty quick and droll. It went something like, \"We know Jesus was fully human. He got tired, he got hungry, he wept, etc.\" Then, we moved on to His deity.\r\n\r\nI think we miss something when we skip over the humanity of Christ. I\'m going to sum up the importance of Christ\'s humanity and deity in the last post, but I want to share with you one of the biggest shockers I ever heard at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.\r\n\r\nI struggled there. I was having doubts about my faith after reading the critics and liberals. It was, overall, a great experience. It forced me to tear down everything that wasn\'t essential to my faith and rebuild it from the ground up. For a while, I really wasn\'t sure where the ground was. I finally found it. It was in the person of Jesus Christ. Historical figure. A man who lived, breathed and ministered. A man who was witnessed to have risen from the dead.\r\n\r\nI still wasn\'t sure how the whole humanity/deity thing worked out. Sure, some said it was a paradox. Christ was 100% God and 100% man and it was impossible for us to reconcile it. But my mind had to make sense of it.\r\n\r\nBefore that time came, I had an excellent hermeneutics teacher. He was very conservative and taught me how to appreciate the different genres of literature within the bible. He had even written several books, one of them dealt with challenging passages in the New Testament.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/noman.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2865\" style=\"margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/noman-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>One day, we came to Matthew 24:36. Jesus, speaking of His return said, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.\"\r\n\r\nThat\'s been a troublesome verse for a lot of people. Our professor discussed the different ideas people have thrown out. He mainly discussed the one that most conservatives use - \"Jesus, in his humanity, pushed aside this knowledge while He was on earth.\" That\'s been a standard response. It gives the Christian the ability to move strongly to the deity of Christ while still acknowledging His humanity in some form.\r\n\r\nOur professor, one of my favorites, began walking back to the podium then spun around with his finger in the air. \"How about this? What if He just didn\'t know?\"\r\n\r\nFriends, you could have heard an audible gasp in the room. Immediately, some of the more bellicose pastors in training objected. \"Well, He had to know, He was fully divine! He had all knowledge.\"\r\n\r\nThe professor smiled, looked down at the floor and then back up. He said, \"I always enjoy it when we say we take the bible for face value, then attempt to twist it around. What does the passage say? <em>It says He doesn\'t know.</em>\"\r\n\r\nMore silence. We were waiting on him to bail us out. To give us some surprise trap door out that verified our orthodoxy. But he didn\'t. Because he wasn\'t denying orthodoxy.\r\n\r\nHe said, \"Christ was fully human for us. And the Son just didn\'t know. There shouldn\'t really be a problem with that. It doesn\'t make Him at that moment less divine. It makes us appreciate His humanity that much more.\"\r\n\r\nThe wheels were turning again for me, but would not find resolve until my Theology II class . . .','The Humanity Of Christ Is Not To Be Feared - Part 2','','publish','open','open','','the-humanity-of-christ-is-not-to-be-feared-part-2','','','2011-12-05 09:15:52','2011-12-05 17:15:52','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2863',0,'post','',0),(2557,47,'2011-11-23 13:59:28','2011-11-23 21:59:28','','KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA','','inherit','open','open','','konica-minolta-digital-camera','','','2011-11-23 13:59:28','2011-11-23 21:59:28','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/advent2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2859,1,'2011-12-01 14:37:50','2011-12-01 22:37:50','[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLZO-sObzQ[/youtube]\r\n\r\nFrom YouTube: Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student spoke about the strength of his family during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wahls has two mothers, and came to oppose House Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.\r\n\r\nI think the young man makes a profound argument about the dignity of each human being and the commitment to family and marriage.','Zach Wahls Speaks On Gay Marriage','','inherit','open','open','','2855-revision-2','','','2011-12-01 14:37:50','2011-12-01 22:37:50','',2855,'http://provoketive.com/2011/12/01/2855-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2860,1,'2011-12-01 14:42:23','2011-12-01 22:42:23','[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLZO-sObzQ[/youtube]\r\n\r\nThe is not a new video, but it is a profound one. Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student, was raised by two gay, married women and spoke out about the issue to the Iowa House of Representatives. The House was proposing Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.\r\n\r\nWhat strikes me about this video and not just his character, but the strength of which he makes his argument, the dignity of each human being and the commitment to family and marriage.  It speaks to the profound commitment necessary for human beings to stay committed.\r\n\r\nWell done Zach.','Zach Wahls Speaks On Gay Marriage','','inherit','open','open','','2855-revision-3','','','2011-12-01 14:42:23','2011-12-01 22:42:23','',2855,'http://provoketive.com/2011/12/01/2855-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2861,1,'2011-12-01 14:45:22','2011-12-01 22:45:22','[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLZO-sObzQ[/youtube]\r\n\r\nThe is not a new video but it is a profound one. Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student, was raised by two gay, married women and spoke out about the issue to the Iowa House of Representatives. The House was proposing Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.\r\n\r\nWhat strikes me about this video is not just his character, but the strength of which he makes his argument: the dignity of each human being and the commitment to family and marriage.  It speaks to the profound commitment necessary for human beings to stay committed.\r\n\r\nWell done Zach.','Zach Wahls Speaks On Gay Marriage','','inherit','open','open','','2855-revision-4','','','2011-12-01 14:45:22','2011-12-01 22:45:22','',2855,'http://provoketive.com/2011/12/01/2855-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2561,47,'2011-11-23 14:04:23','2011-11-23 22:04:23','','KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA','','inherit','open','open','','konica-minolta-digital-camera-2','','','2011-11-23 14:04:23','2011-11-23 22:04:23','',2560,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/advent21.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2562,47,'2011-11-23 14:04:56','2011-11-23 22:04:56','<p style=\"text-align: justify\">This coming Sunday marks the beginning of the Advent season.  The church is four weeks away from celebrating the birth of Christ and the welcoming of the Prince of Peace into the world.  It is a time of anticipation, of expectation, and of longing.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">It is fitting that the first week of Advent symbolizes hope.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The Advent season brings hope in a more just world.  Hope that peace will overcome war.  Hope in reconciling with our fellow man.  Hope that suffering will soon be no more.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Looking at the world today, Advent has never seemed more real.  Tens of thousands of people are in the streets crying out for truth, for righteousness, for justice.  While it cannot be said that the Occupy movement is a religious movement, there is <em>something</em> universal, something spiritual about it.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Critics say that the movement is too varied, leaderless, and directionless to be effective.  While there is some truth that there isn’t a short list of 30-second soundbytes to define what Occupy is about, that is sort of the point.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The people are the message.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">If the Occupy movement was about a singular policy position, as another recent political movement has been, it would have collapsed at the first sign of opposition from the status quo.  Two and a half months later, the voices have only grown stronger.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">People from all across the demographic spectra are coming together for something more powerful than the critics realize.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Hope.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Hope is the unifying force that binds this diverse group of people, professional and student, young and old, black and white, together in the face of stiff and sometimes violent opposition.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The kind of hope that is birthed from the understanding that we, as a society, are not only responsible to each other but for each other as well.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Hope in the promise of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Hope that people see that the Kingdom truly is “at hand”.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Hope that justice will be restored.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Hope in a better world yet to come.</p>','An Unruly Advent Season','','inherit','open','open','','2560-revision','','','2011-11-23 14:04:56','2011-11-23 22:04:56','',2560,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2560-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(5031,1,'2012-02-07 10:45:31','2012-02-07 18:45:31','<strong>Uncensored Prayer: The Spiritual Practice of Wrestling With God Workshop</strong> will be offered online February 27 – March 30, 2012.  This course is about the spiritual practice of discussing everything with God, risking honesty to gain intimacy through loving, trusting conversations.  It’s wrestling through anger, faith, pain, hope about every aspect of our lives.  No topic, language, or feeling is unholy.  It will cover how to know you’re hearing from God and explores a variety of ways to pray. This course is an opportunity to discover for yourself the redemptive freedom that comes from being totally honest with yourself and the One who loves you best.  As you practice stepping out of your comfort zone, you will begin to experience confidence in speaking freely with God in ways that are uniquely yours.\r\n\r\nThe <strong>instructor, Joy Wilson</strong>, is the author of Uncensored Prayer: The Spiritual Practice of Wrestling With God (Civitas Press, 2011).  Prior to starting the workshop, participants need to order the book from Amazon.com.  The five-week online class is self-paced so you can participate at any time during the week.  It includes readings in the textbook, prayer practice exercises, and online interactions with other students.\r\n\r\nThe cost of the course is $69.  For additional information, go to the following link:  <a href=\"http://beadisciple.com/workshops.html#UncensoredPrayer\">http://beadisciple.com/workshops.html#UncensoredPrayer</a> .  Class size is limited, so register early.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Uncensored Prayer Online Worshop','','inherit','open','open','','4988-revision-4','','','2012-02-07 10:45:31','2012-02-07 18:45:31','',4988,'http://provoketive.com/2012/02/07/4988-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(5032,0,'2012-02-09 23:34:17','2012-02-10 07:34:17','Faith\r\nCulture\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Ryan Peter\nAUTHOR EMAIL: ryanpeterwrites@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://www.ryanpeterwrites.com\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 198.54.202.234\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Ryan Peter\n    [Email] =&gt; ryanpeterwrites@gmail.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; www.ryanpeterwrites.com\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Faith\r\nCulture\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; Engagenations\n)\n','Ryan Peter - 2012-02-09 23:34:17','','publish','open','open','','ac0a098d9779587cc287cff297a73b0d','','','2012-02-09 23:34:17','2012-02-10 07:34:17','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=5032',0,'feedback','',0),(5035,30,'2012-02-11 06:41:16','2012-02-11 14:41:16','This week, a dad <a title=\"Facebook Parenting: For the Troubled Teen\" href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=kl1ujzRidmU\" target=\"_blank\">disciplined his daughter</a>. And at the time of me writing this piece, it has received nearly 12 million views. Personally, I understand Hannah\'s father\'s frustration with being disrespected. There is nothing that gets me upset as a parent than when one of my children disrespects me or their father. It hurts any time that I see one of my children behaving in a way that is completely contrary to the way that I\'ve raised them, but there is a much deeper hurt that comes from being disrespected by my kids. If I found a letter like the one that Hannah posted on Facebook about her father, I would be profoundly upset. And if it happened more than once, I would be losing it big time.','','','inherit','open','open','','5034-revision','','','2012-02-11 06:41:16','2012-02-11 14:41:16','',5034,'http://provoketive.com/2012/02/11/5034-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(5036,30,'2012-02-11 10:41:24','2012-02-11 18:41:24','This week, a dad <a title=\"Facebook Parenting: For the Troubled Teen\" href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=kl1ujzRidmU\" target=\"_blank\">disciplined his daughter</a>. And at the time of me writing this piece, it has received over 13 million views.\n\nPersonally, I understand Hannah\'s father\'s frustration with being disrespected. There is nothing that gets me upset as a parent than when one of my children disrespects me or their father. It hurts any time that I see one of my children behaving in a way that is completely contrary to the way that I\'ve raised them, but there is a much deeper hurt that comes from being disrespected by my kids. If I found a letter like the one that Hannah posted on Facebook about her father, I would be profoundly upset. And if it happened more than once, I would be losing it big time.\n\nAs a result, I get why people are supporting the father. We\'re tired of seeing kids disrespect adults without consequence. We\'re tired of seeing kids sporting entitlement attitudes. We\'re ready to see parents take back parenting and\n\n&nbsp;','Online Parenting','','inherit','open','open','','5034-revision-2','','','2012-02-11 10:41:24','2012-02-11 18:41:24','',5034,'http://provoketive.com/2012/02/11/5034-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(5037,30,'2012-02-11 11:47:04','2012-02-11 19:47:04','This week, a dad <a title=\"Facebook Parenting: For the Troubled Teen\" href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=kl1ujzRidmU\" target=\"_blank\">disciplined his daughter</a>. And at the time of me writing this piece, it has received over 14 million views.\n\nPersonally, I understand Hannah\'s father\'s frustration with being disrespected. There is nothing that gets me upset as a parent than when one of my children disrespects me or their father. It hurts any time that I see one of my children behaving in a way that is completely contrary to the way that I\'ve raised them, but there is a much deeper hurt that comes from being disrespected by my kids. If I found a letter like the one that Hannah posted on Facebook about her father, I would be profoundly upset. And if it happened more than once, I would be losing it big time.\n\nAs a result, I get why people are supporting the father. We\'re tired of seeing kids disrespect adults without consequence. We\'re tired of seeing kids sporting entitlement attitudes. We\'re ready to see parents take back parenting and expect more from their children. We\'re ready to see kids learn the value of hard work and respect. These are important values.\n\nThat said, I have concerns with the way this situation was handled. In the digital age, one of the things that most of try to instill in our kids is that the internet is forever. When our children post words or pictures or videos online, there is no way to get that content back. Even if it\'s something safe, we have no idea how it might be used by someone else. That is an important lesson and one that can\'t be emphasized enough when talking with our children. <a href=\"http://www.nacacnet.org/PublicationsResources/steps/Articles/Pages/MySpace.aspx\">Colleges and employers</a> are more and more likely to check your Facebook page or your Twitter feed or your blog for information about you as a person. Digital footprints are indelible.\n\nBut this dad (who is apparently an IT professional) has used the very public medium of YouTube to','Online Parenting','','inherit','open','open','','5034-revision-3','','','2012-02-11 11:47:04','2012-02-11 19:47:04','',5034,'http://provoketive.com/2012/02/11/5034-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2587,110,'2011-11-28 09:00:56','2011-11-28 17:00:56','2011 continues to be a year of protest on an international level and as we see protests in nations with very different GDPs and reputations I think we are learning some interesting things. Clearly there are gigantic differences between the events in Tahrir Square now and in January/February and the Occupy protests across many \'western\' countries, from the tactics of both the demonstrators and authorities to the stated aims of the protestors to the issues that have prompted them. One thing that is similar across the world is the use of cameras and phones by the protestors and spectators to document and publicise what is happening. Earlier this week, Slashdot commented on the \'perception wars\' that now occur concurrently with the conflict between protestors and authorities in an article titled  <a href=\"http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/22/2129238/the-future-of-protest-in-panopticon-nation\">The Future of Protest In Panopticon Nation</a>.\r\n\r\nFirst a little background for those who might find the term \'panopticon\' unfamiliar. A little understanding of the way the Greek language has contributed to our language may help you to detect that it refers to \'all-seeing\' or total observation, but its history is interesting. It is attributed to an 18th Century Englishman, Jeremy Bentham, who imagined prisons (and other institutions) built as a circular building around a central observation tower, so that a minimal staff could observe and control the inmates or workers effectively. Critically, the observation was to be one-way, so the inmates would never know when they were or were not being observed and would have to always behave as if they were being closely observed.\r\n\r\nBentham\'s panopticon prison was never constructed as he designed it, though it has inspired the way prisons have developed since the late eighteenth century. The technology to make it feasible was not available then - and once it was available it negated the architectural design he suggested. The use of CCTV in the UK (England and Wales has by far the highest concentration of CCTV cameras of anywhere in the world) has made the panopticon something not just for inmates, but of all members of society. The obsession with testing and measuring performance means it is a day-to-day part of life for many workers - they do not know when precisely their speed or accuracy will be checked, but it will, so they must always do the best possible, whether on a factory production line or in a call centre or an office. This level of observation perhaps even goes beyond the surveillance of police states behind the Iron Curtain, while inspiring less fear as the penalties do not match the terror inspired by the Stazi or KGB.\r\n\r\nI first came across the term \'panopticon\' in the writing of the French thinker Michel Foucault. He devotes an entire chapter of <em>Discipline and Punish</em> to the idea of \'panopticism\', describing its power as \'visible and unverifiable\'. Visible, because the inmate can always see the central tower \'from which he is spied upon\'; unverifiable, because though he might be seen at any or all moments, he cannot be sure when he is or is not. Foucault links the ideal of the panopticon with the growth of a police system with local stations which could look out for disturbance and respond as necessary - exactly as today we call for more police \'on the beat\' to make us feel safer. Foucault\'s aim is to unmask and name the power at play here, to show how we have become a \'carceral culture\' and discipline is used to control us, his analysis continues to resonate more than 35 years later.\r\n\r\nBut this discipline is fragile and the illusion of control can shatter quickly. The violence and destruction in several cities in England in August this year was an illustration of what happens when the illusion that the police have total control breaks down. Looting spread around London and to several other cities as it seemed the police could not respond to or contain the people smashing windows and taking big-ticket items from shops or attacking individuals and burning property. It took several days for the message that the police would arrest and the courts would punish those involved to become believable and discipline to be restored.\r\n\r\nPart of the success of the UK police was based on their use of social media and other electronic communication tools, as well as still photos and video from CCTV and FITs. The Metropolitan Police \'Forward Intelligence Teams\' photograph and video suspects, especially at protests. But they\'re not the only ones recording everything: people on the other side of the police line are too.\r\n\r\n[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnR7xET7Uo[/youtube]\r\n\r\nA powerful example of this is the (now infamous) video of a police officer using pepper spray on seated protesters on the UC Davis campus. You can\'t help but notice that so many of the students are recording the whole thing on their phones or camcorders. The result of this is that two police officers have been suspended - and it\'s not beyond the realm of possibility that there will prosecutions for assault.\r\n\r\nIt\'s been alleged that the light-handed response of the Metropolitan Police in August was because of the criticism of their rather heavier tactics with the student protests in 2010 and March 2011. That\'s a direct result of the videos available of the \'kettles\' they employed as well as the legal action and press responses. The death of Ian Tomlinson resulted in a police officer being tried using video footage of the beating he dished out. The classic question \'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?\' has an answer - everyone is watching (and recording) all that the watchmen are doing.\r\n\r\nI don\'t believe it will take many incidents like UC Davis and the clearance of OWS to make US cops rethink their response to peaceful protests. The US and other western countries cannot afford to give governments from Iran to Myanmar the excuse that they have seen what has happened in New York or California and have just done the same. The Egyptian military government should not be able to compare Tahrir Square with Zuccotti Park (and their use of US made tear gas is a whole other issue.)\r\n\r\nThis \'sousveillance\', an inversion of state surveillance, by people desperate to keep their government and police accountable is changing the nature of protest. And the change is not complete - the tactics of stormtrooper costumes and chemical weapons is not a viable one in this world of panopticism, so police tactics are shifting - covering up names and numbers on uniforms, more plainclothes FITs, police \'agent provocateurs\', who knows what. All we can be certain of is that the panopticon is inverted, the inmates of this institutionalised society are looking in at the centre and doing their best to keep it accountable.','The Inverted Panopticon','','publish','open','open','','the-inverted-panopticon','','','2011-11-28 06:38:16','2011-11-28 14:38:16','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2587',0,'post','',1),(2588,110,'2011-11-24 01:44:45','2011-11-24 09:44:45','','Auto Draft','','inherit','open','open','','2587-revision','','','2011-11-24 01:44:45','2011-11-24 09:44:45','',2587,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/24/2587-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(2592,110,'2011-11-24 09:19:00','2011-11-24 17:19:00','2011 continues to be a year of protest on an international level and as we see protests in nations with very different GDPs and reputations I think we are learning some interesting things. Clearly there are gigantic differences between the events in Tahrir Square now and in January/February and the Occupy protests across many \'western\' countries, from the tactics of both the demonstrators and authorities to the stated aims of the protestors to the issues that have prompted them. One thing that is similar across the world is the use of cameras and phones by the protestors and spectators to document and publicise what is happening. Earlier this week, Slashdot commented on the \'perception wars\' that now occur concurrently with the conflict between protestors and authorities in an article titled  <a href=\"http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/22/2129238/the-future-of-protest-in-panopticon-nation\">The Future of Protest In Panopticon Nation</a>.\n\nFirst a little background for those who might find the term \'panopticon\' unfamiliar. A little understanding of the way the Greek language has contributed to our language may help you to detect that it refers to \'all-seeing\' or total observation, but its history is interesting. It is attributed to an 18th Century Englishman, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham\">Jeremy Bentham</a>, who imagined prisons (and other institutions) built as a circular building around a central observation tower, so that a minimal staff could observe and control the inmates or workers effectively. Critically, the observation was to be one-way, so the inmates would never know when they were or were not being observed and would have to always behave as if they were being closely observed.\n\nBentham\'s panopticon prison was never constructed as he designed it, though it has inspired the way prisons have developed since the late eighteenth century. The technology to make it feasible was not available then - and once it was available it negated the architectural design he suggested. The use of CCTV in the UK (England and Wales has by far the highest concentration of CCTV cameras of anywhere in the world) has made the panopticon something not just for inmates, but of all members of society. The obsession with testing and measuring performance means it is a day-to-day part of life for many workers - they do not know when precisely their speed or accuracy will be checked, but it will, so they must always do the best possible, whether on a factory production line or in a call centre or an office. This level of observation perhaps even goes beyond the surveillance of police states behind the Iron Curtain, while inspiring less fear as the penalties do not match the terror inspired by the Stazi or KGB.\n\nI first came across the term \'panopticon\' in the writing of the French thinker Michel Foucault. He devotes an entire chapter of <em>Discipline and Punish</em> to the idea of \'panopticism\', describing its power as \'visible and unverifiable\'. Visible, because the inmate can always see the central tower \'from which he is spied upon\'; unverifiable, because though he might be seen at any or all moments, he cannot be sure when he is or is not. Foucault links the ideal of the panopticon with the growth of a police system with local stations which could look out for disturbance and respond as necessary - exactly as today we call for more police \'on the beat\' to make us feel safer. Foucault\'s aim is to unmask and name the power at play here, to show how we have become a \'carceral culture\' and discipline is used to control us, his analysis continues to resonate more than 35 years later.\n\nBut this discipline is fragile and the illusion of control can shatter quickly. The violence and destruction in several cities in England in August this year was an illustration of what happens when the illusion that the police have total control breaks down. Looting spread around London and to several other cities as it seemed the police could not respond to or contain the people smashing windows and taking big-ticket items from shops or attacking individuals and burning property. It took several days for the message that the police would arrest and the courts would punish those involved to become believable and discipline to be restored.\n\nPart of the success of the UK police was based on their use of social media and other electronic communication tools, as well as still photos and video from CCTV and FITs. The Metropolitan Police \'Forward Intelligence Teams\' photograph and video suspects, especially at protests. But they\'re not the only ones recording everything: people on the other side of the police line are too.\n\n[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnR7xET7Uo[/youtube]\n\nA powerful example of this is the (now infamous) video of a police officer using pepper spray on seated protesters on the UC Davis campus. You can\'t help but notice that so many of the students are recording the whole thing on their phones or camcorders. The result of this is that two police officers have been suspended - and it\'s not beyond the realm of possibility that there will prosecutions for assault.\n\nIt\'s been alleged that the light-handed response of the Metropolitan Police in August was because of the criticism of their rather heavier tactics with the student protests in 2010 and March 2011. That\'s a direct result of the videos available of the \'kettles\' they employed as well as the legal action and press responses. The death of Ian Tomlinson resulted in a police officer being tried using video footage of the beating he dished out. The classic question \'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?\' has an answer - everyone is watching (and recording) all that the watchmen are doing.\n\nI don\'t believe it will take many incidents like UC Davis and the clearance of OWS to make US cops rethink their response to peaceful protests. The US and other western countries cannot afford to give governments from Iran to Myanmar the excuse that they have seen what has happened in New York or California and have just done the same. The Egyptian military government should not be able to compare Tahrir Square with Zuccotti Park (and their use of US made tear gas is a whole other issue.)\n\nThis \'sousveillance\', an inversion of state surveillance, by people desperate to keep their government and police accountable is changing the nature of protest. And the change is not complete - the tactics of stormtrooper costumes and chemical weapons is not a viable one in this world of panopticism, so police tactics are shifting - covering up names and numbers on uniforms, more plainclothes FITs, police \'agent provocateurs\', who knows what. All we can be certain of is that the panopticon is inverted, the inmates of this institutionalised society are looking in at the centre and doing their best to keep it accountable.','The Inverted Panopticon','','inherit','open','open','','2587-revision-3','','','2011-11-24 09:19:00','2011-11-24 17:19:00','',2587,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/24/2587-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2590,110,'2011-11-24 07:10:18','2011-11-24 15:10:18','','Videoing behind a barricade','','inherit','open','open','','pict54_edit2','','','2011-11-24 07:10:18','2011-11-24 15:10:18','',2587,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/pict54_edit2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2591,110,'2011-11-24 07:18:10','2011-11-24 15:18:10','','kensington_protests_edit','','inherit','open','open','','kensington_protests_edit','','','2011-11-24 07:18:10','2011-11-24 15:18:10','',2587,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kensington_protests_edit.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2589,110,'2011-11-24 01:53:19','2011-11-24 09:53:19','[caption id=\"attachment_880\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"225\" caption=\"Filming from behind a barricade while stones are thrown at unseen police - photo from cryptome.org\"]<a href=\"http://cryptome.org/info/egypt-protest/egypt-protest.htm\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-880\" src=\"http://www.jonrogers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/pict54_edit-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n2011 continues to be a year of protest on an international level and as we see protests in nations with very different GDPs and reputations I think we are learning some interesting things. Clearly there are gigantic differences between the events in Tahrir Square now and in January/February and the Occupy protests across many \'western\' countries, from the tactics of both the demonstrators and authorities to the stated aims of the protestors to the issues that have prompted them. One thing that is similar across the world is the use of cameras and phones by the protestors and spectators to document and publicise what is happening. Earlier this week, Slashdot commented on the \'perception wars\' that now occur concurrently with the conflict between protestors and authorities in an article titled  <a href=\"http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/22/2129238/the-future-of-protest-in-panopticon-nation\">The Future of Protest In Panopticon Nation</a>.\r\n\r\nFirst a little background for those who might find the term \'panopticon\' unfamiliar. A little understanding of the way the Greek language has contributed to our language may help you to detect that it refers to \'all-seeing\' or total obervation, but its history is interesting. It is attributed to an 18th Century Englishman, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham\">Jeremy Bentham</a>, who imagined prisons (and other institutions) built as a circular building around a central observation tower, so that a minimal staff could observe and control the inmates or workers effectively. Critically, the observation was to be one-way, so the inmates would never know when they were or were not being observed and would have to always behave as if they were being closely observed.\r\n\r\nBentham\'s panopticon prison was never constructed as he designed it, though it has insipred the way prisons have developed since the late eighteenth century. The technology to make it feasable was not available then - and once it was available it negated the architectural design he suggested. The use of CCTV in the UK (England and Wales has by far the highest concentration of CCTV cameras of anywhere in the world) has made the panopticon something not just for inmates, but of all members of society. The obsession with testing and measuring performance means it is a day-to-day part of life for many workers - they do not know when precisely their speed or accuracy will be checked, but it will, so they must always do the best possible, whether on a factory production line or in a call centre or an office. This level of observation perhaps even goes beyond the surveilance of police states behind the Iron Curtain, while inspiring less fear as the penalties do not match the terror inspired by the Stazi or KGB.\r\n\r\nMichel Foucault devotes an entire chapter of <em><a title=\"Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault on Amazon.co.uk\" href=\"https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/014013722X/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=jonrog-21&amp;camp=2902&amp;creative=19466&amp;linkCode=as4&amp;creativeASIN=014013722X&amp;adid=1VQ2HKCVXCYGA4TVJDZS&amp;\">Discipline and Punish</a></em> to the idea of \'panopticism\', describing its power as \'visible and unverifiable\'. Visible, because the inmate can always see the central tower \'from which he is spied upon\'; unverifiable, because though he might be seen at any or all moments, he cannot be sure when he is or is not. Foucault links the ideal of the panopticon with the growth of a police system with local stations which could look out for disturbance and respond as necessary - exactly as today we call for more police \'on the beat\' to make us feel safer. Foucault\'s aim is to unmask and name the power at play here, to show how we have become a \'carcerial culture\' and discipline is used to control us, his analysis continues to resonate more than 35 years later.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.jonrogers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kensington_protests428x269_to_468x312.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-881\" src=\"http://www.jonrogers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kensington_protests428x269_to_468x312-300x188.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" /></a>But this discipline is fragile and the illusion of control can shatter quickly. The violence and distruction in several cities in England in August this year was an illustration of what happens when the illusion that the police have total control breaks down. Looting spread around London and to several other cities as it seemed the police could not respond to or contain the people smashing windows and taking big-ticket items from shops or attacking individuals and burning property. It took several days for the message that the police would arrest and the courts would punish those involved to become believable and discipline to be restored.\r\n\r\nPart of the success of the police was based on their use of social media and other electronic communication tools, as well as still photos and video from CCTV and FITs. The Metropolitain Police \'Forward Intelligence Teams\' photograph and video suspects, especially at protests. But they\'re not the only ones recording everything: people on the other side of the police line are too.\r\n\r\nA powerful example of this is the (now infamous) video of a police oficer using pepper spray on seated protesters on the UC Davis campus. You can\'t help but notice that so many of the students are recording the whole thing on their phones or camcorders. The result of this is that two police officers have been suspended - and it\'s not beyond the realm of possibility that there will prosecutions for assault.\r\n\r\nIt\'s been alleged that the light-handed response of the Metropolitan Police in August was because of the criticism of their rather heavier tactics with the student protests in 2010 and March 2011. That\'s a direct result of the videos available of the \'kettles\' they employed as well as the legal action and press responses. The death of Ian Tomlinson resulted in a police officer being tried using video footage of the beating he dished out. The classic question \'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?\' has an answer - everyone is watching (and recording) all that the watchmen are doing.\r\n\r\nI don\'t believe it will take many incidents like UC Davis and the clearance of OWS to make US cops rethink their response to peaceful protests. The US and other western countries cannot afford to give governments from Iran to Myanmar the excuse that they have seen what has happened in New York or California and have just done the same. The Egyptian military government should not be able to compare Tahrir Square with Zuccotti Park (and their use of US made tear gas is a whole other issue.)\r\n\r\nThe sousveilance of people desperate to keep their government and police accountable is changing the nature of protest and the change is not complete. The tactics of stormtrooper costumes and chemical weapons is not a viable one in this world of panopticism, so police tactics are shifting - covering up names and numbers on uniforms, more plainclothes FITs, police \'agent provocateurs\', who knows what. All we can be certain of is that the panopticon is inverted, the inmates of this institutionalised society are looking in at the centre and keeping it accountable.','The Inverted Panopticon','','inherit','open','open','','2587-revision-2','','','2011-11-24 01:53:19','2011-11-24 09:53:19','',2587,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/24/2587-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2593,110,'2011-11-24 09:20:04','2011-11-24 17:20:04','2011 continues to be a year of protest on an international level and as we see protests in nations with very different GDPs and reputations I think we are learning some interesting things. Clearly there are gigantic differences between the events in Tahrir Square now and in January/February and the Occupy protests across many \'western\' countries, from the tactics of both the demonstrators and authorities to the stated aims of the protestors to the issues that have prompted them. One thing that is similar across the world is the use of cameras and phones by the protestors and spectators to document and publicise what is happening. Earlier this week, Slashdot commented on the \'perception wars\' that now occur concurrently with the conflict between protestors and authorities in an article titled  <a href=\"http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/22/2129238/the-future-of-protest-in-panopticon-nation\">The Future of Protest In Panopticon Nation</a>.\r\n\r\nFirst a little background for those who might find the term \'panopticon\' unfamiliar. A little understanding of the way the Greek language has contributed to our language may help you to detect that it refers to \'all-seeing\' or total observation, but its history is interesting. It is attributed to an 18th Century Englishman, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham\">Jeremy Bentham</a>, who imagined prisons (and other institutions) built as a circular building around a central observation tower, so that a minimal staff could observe and control the inmates or workers effectively. Critically, the observation was to be one-way, so the inmates would never know when they were or were not being observed and would have to always behave as if they were being closely observed.\r\n\r\nBentham\'s panopticon prison was never constructed as he designed it, though it has inspired the way prisons have developed since the late eighteenth century. The technology to make it feasible was not available then - and once it was available it negated the architectural design he suggested. The use of CCTV in the UK (England and Wales has by far the highest concentration of CCTV cameras of anywhere in the world) has made the panopticon something not just for inmates, but of all members of society. The obsession with testing and measuring performance means it is a day-to-day part of life for many workers - they do not know when precisely their speed or accuracy will be checked, but it will, so they must always do the best possible, whether on a factory production line or in a call centre or an office. This level of observation perhaps even goes beyond the surveillance of police states behind the Iron Curtain, while inspiring less fear as the penalties do not match the terror inspired by the Stazi or KGB.\r\n\r\nI first came across the term \'panopticon\' in the writing of the French thinker Michel Foucault. He devotes an entire chapter of <em>Discipline and Punish</em> to the idea of \'panopticism\', describing its power as \'visible and unverifiable\'. Visible, because the inmate can always see the central tower \'from which he is spied upon\'; unverifiable, because though he might be seen at any or all moments, he cannot be sure when he is or is not. Foucault links the ideal of the panopticon with the growth of a police system with local stations which could look out for disturbance and respond as necessary - exactly as today we call for more police \'on the beat\' to make us feel safer. Foucault\'s aim is to unmask and name the power at play here, to show how we have become a \'carceral culture\' and discipline is used to control us, his analysis continues to resonate more than 35 years later.\r\n\r\nBut this discipline is fragile and the illusion of control can shatter quickly. The violence and destruction in several cities in England in August this year was an illustration of what happens when the illusion that the police have total control breaks down. Looting spread around London and to several other cities as it seemed the police could not respond to or contain the people smashing windows and taking big-ticket items from shops or attacking individuals and burning property. It took several days for the message that the police would arrest and the courts would punish those involved to become believable and discipline to be restored.\r\n\r\nPart of the success of the UK police was based on their use of social media and other electronic communication tools, as well as still photos and video from CCTV and FITs. The Metropolitan Police \'Forward Intelligence Teams\' photograph and video suspects, especially at protests. But they\'re not the only ones recording everything: people on the other side of the police line are too.\r\n\r\n[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnR7xET7Uo[/youtube]\r\n\r\nA powerful example of this is the (now infamous) video of a police officer using pepper spray on seated protesters on the UC Davis campus. You can\'t help but notice that so many of the students are recording the whole thing on their phones or camcorders. The result of this is that two police officers have been suspended - and it\'s not beyond the realm of possibility that there will prosecutions for assault.\r\n\r\nIt\'s been alleged that the light-handed response of the Metropolitan Police in August was because of the criticism of their rather heavier tactics with the student protests in 2010 and March 2011. That\'s a direct result of the videos available of the \'kettles\' they employed as well as the legal action and press responses. The death of Ian Tomlinson resulted in a police officer being tried using video footage of the beating he dished out. The classic question \'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?\' has an answer - everyone is watching (and recording) all that the watchmen are doing.\r\n\r\nI don\'t believe it will take many incidents like UC Davis and the clearance of OWS to make US cops rethink their response to peaceful protests. The US and other western countries cannot afford to give governments from Iran to Myanmar the excuse that they have seen what has happened in New York or California and have just done the same. The Egyptian military government should not be able to compare Tahrir Square with Zuccotti Park (and their use of US made tear gas is a whole other issue.)\r\n\r\nThis \'sousveillance\', an inversion of state surveillance, by people desperate to keep their government and police accountable is changing the nature of protest. And the change is not complete - the tactics of stormtrooper costumes and chemical weapons is not a viable one in this world of panopticism, so police tactics are shifting - covering up names and numbers on uniforms, more plainclothes FITs, police \'agent provocateurs\', who knows what. All we can be certain of is that the panopticon is inverted, the inmates of this institutionalised society are looking in at the centre and doing their best to keep it accountable.','The Inverted Panopticon','','inherit','open','open','','2587-revision-4','','','2011-11-24 09:20:04','2011-11-24 17:20:04','',2587,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/24/2587-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2598,30,'2011-11-28 06:49:51','2011-11-28 14:49:51','Thanksgiving is now behind us, a day that for many is filled with one delicious food after another. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Corn casserole. Jello molds. Pies, pies, and more pies. We fill our plates, we eat, we dive back in for more. We wear our stretchy pants and leave the belts in the closet for another day.\r\n\r\nEating turkey and mashed potatoes isn\'t something that is unique to Thanksgiving. Particularly here in America, we can have a large meal nearly any day of the year. So despite the fact that we tend to focus on the food, there must be more to this holiday than simply an opportunity to eat a large meal.\r\n\r\nI believe what makes Thanksgiving special is the opportunity that we have not only to feed our physical appetites, but to feed our spiritual and emotional appetites as well. To feed not only our bodies, but our souls.\r\n\r\nWe fix meals that are more complicated than we might normally make. We play games that usually gather dust on the shelves. We enjoy one another\'s company without feeling the need to rush to the next thing. After the hustle and bustle of preparing the meal, it\'s a day for slowing down and for spending time together with those whom you love.\r\n\r\nBut what might happen if we took the time to seek out this soul food more often? What might that look like?\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to sit and really listen to a piece of music for a few minutes. Allow each note to penetrate the deep, hidden places of our minds and hearts.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to take a moment and read some poetry, not just in our minds, but aloud. Let the words dance across our tongues and spill out over our lips.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to bake a loaf of bread. Put our hands in the dough and experience the sensual delights of turning it over and creating something that will nourish someone else.\r\n\r\nKnit a pair of socks. Take a walk in the woods. Attend a concert. Drink coffee with a friend.\r\n\r\nWhether you have time to for a gourmet meal, or just feed it a snack, make time to feed your soul. It will thank you.\r\n\r\n<em>What have you done to feed your soul recently? </em>','Soul Food','','publish','open','open','','soul-food','','','2011-11-28 06:49:51','2011-11-28 14:49:51','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2598',0,'post','',1),(2599,101,'2011-11-25 11:02:21','2011-11-25 19:02:21','I hid for a long time - having run from a blissful childhood faith into a closet of religious fear.\n\nMy closet, over the years, became decorated with Bible verses and well-worn answers to complex issues.  It got wrapped tightly in caution tape that said \'un-orthodox viewpoints beware - I am a warrior of The Truth.\' Rays of confidence flowed from underneath the door and through the keyhole, anywhere that difficult questions might slip in. And there I was inside, truly confident in many aspects but fearful of my own doubts in many others.  I was a bit like a certain man from Kansas, working knobs and buttons behind a curtain to give the illusion of  unwavering confidence. I was anxious daily that a little dog might pull away my covering and expose me as a regular girl who loved Jesus but also enjoyed life, secular films, music and boys. The belief that I had to keep those things separate created a toxic dichotomy in my mind and spirit.\n\nIt was through therapy (there is a name for what I was dealing with - Google \'\'scrupulosity\'), followed by emotional healing prayer in the hands of healthy Christians that I slowly began to accept who I was.\n\nA startling encounter with God sealed the fate of my religious strong-hold.\n\nAt work one day, early on in my recovery, I was fretting especially hard about something. In my spirit I was on my knees pleading whatever my case was (perhaps why I liked the music I did or why I was working so hard on my screenplay instead of praying or reading my Bible).  In mid plea I felt like God grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a shake.\n\n\'Stand up, child,\" He said.\n\nI blinked.\n\n\'Huh?\' I stammered.\n\n\"I\'m not mad at you for anything at all, Helen\"\n\n\'You\'re not?\'\n\n\'Of course not. You are making war where there is peace...I can\'t do anything with you in this state\'.\n\n\'But we\'re supposed to be on our knees worshiping you.\'\n\n\'I don\'t want worship like this - like Wormtail, groveling and begging for fear of retribution. Don\'t you know who I am?\'\n\nI was  simultaneously shocked that apparently God read \'Harry Potter\' (one of my sinful favorites) and offended that he had compared me to the sniveling, cowardly servant of the Dark Lord in the story. But He had hit the nail on the head. That is exactly how I behaved in His presence most of the time. In effect, I realized, this betrayed how I must really see Him - as a power-hungry, hateful Lord.\n\nMy heart broke.\n\nAt one point, early on in childhood, I did know who He was. I knew Him as love, tenderness and grace. Maybe it was legalistic friends, maybe it was one too many Jack Chick Tracts.  Whatever the culprit, I had allowed others to tell me who God was and who I was supposed to be in order to have Him. I\'d hidden away where I thought I was safe, working, working for a grace that was free.\n\nThe beautiful thing was that God\'s confrontation did not produce guilt. Instead it gave me the confidence to step out of my fear.  It confirmed what deep down I had always known was true. God was in my questions and doubts. He\n\nJesus is True. That\'s the one thing I know for sure. Because I\'ve met Him. Beyond that, it\'s all just commentary (props to Rob Bell).\n\nSome random thoughts on life, love and faith from a girl who\'s just calling it like she sees it and who is done apologizing and hyper-spiritualizing her way through the journey.\n\nThere are beautiful Christians who aren\'t Conservative Republicans.\n\nMy daily struggles and questions and processing do not preclude me from being a good prayer minister.\n\nI can be a Charismatic without subscribing carte blanche to Pentecostal traditions.\n\nIt\'s OK to enjoy the love I have been given.\n\nEveryone is a hypocrite about something.\n\nChances are I am more annoyed at myself than God is.\n\nThe Bible is not an object to be worshiped.\n\nThe One whose life and breath flow through the Biblical canon is the source of all life and worthy of worship.\n\nI love being a woman.\n\nI love my ta-tas. They are small but cute.\n\nIt\'s OK to feel sexy even if I\'m not married.\n\nIt is impossible to shackle someone to rules and still call them free.\n\nI believe in having a personal relationship with each member of the God-head -Papa, Jesus and Holy Spirit. This is where wisdom grows.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is feminine.\n\nGod is masculine\n\nJesus was a male human being who carried both masculine and feminine traits in perfect balance.\n\nNeither male nor female is more important than the other. They were created equally in the image of God.\n\nI have learned that everyone at any given time is probably doing or thinking something that is forbidden in the Bible. It is like trying to plug up a broken dam with your finger. Best plan: Give up and let Jesus\' work on the cross be enough.\n\nI wonder if we sometimes can\'t see Jesus past the \'word\'.\n\nI love football.\n\nFundamentalism can be in error.\n\nStripping Scripture of all mystical notion and completely \'humanizing\' it can also be in error.\n\nFinding The \"Radical Middle\" is my quest.\n\nI think homosexuals are treated like lepers and Samaritans by many evangelicals. I think this is dishonoring and ignorant. I repent for my former stances on this issue.\n\nI think I can learn from anyone.\n\n\"Spirit-filled\" people sometimes scare me and make me wonder just what spirit they are filled with. I have scared myself.\n\nThe cake is a lie.\n\nDiscernment is best used to discern the presence of God, not the presence of demons.\n\nTangling with demons has become an arrogant sport in some deliverance ministries.\n\nI choose not to focus on demons. They\'ve already lost. Jesus gave me the keys.\n\nGod will always be more tender, merciful and graceful than humans.\n\nI have been a joker and a smoker but never a midnight toker.\n\nThe F word is my favorite.\n\nI greatly respect but don\'t always agree with the Apostle Paul. And I don\'t think that is blasphemous. I think he had issues just like the rest of us.\n\nSpeaking in tongues is cool.\n\nAnimals have souls and they go to heaven.\n\nThe post-flood covenant was made with the people and the animals (Genesis 9:10 - check it).\n\nEnd-Times stuff annoys me. I think it is by and large a distraction.\n\nLamborghinis are sexy cars.\n\nThe idea of \'crucifying my flesh\' is abhorrent to me. To try and do what was already done for me dishonors Christ and steals His joy.\n\nYou could destroy all the Bibles on the planet and still not destroy the Word of God.\n\nTo live in freedom with my focus on receiving and sharing the humanly impossible love of God is what Jesus asks of me. All other ground is sinking sand.\n\nIf everyone loved the way Jesus did the \'second coming\' (or is it the third?) would be upon us.\n\nTo live that way is hard. I don\'t know how to do it. And that is what makes religion so tempting. It makes me feel in control.\n\nEven still, Jesus take the wheel.','Religion, Professor Marvel and Wormtail.','','inherit','open','open','','2390-revision-3','','','2011-11-25 11:02:21','2011-11-25 19:02:21','',2390,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/25/2390-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2600,101,'2011-11-25 12:04:31','2011-11-25 20:04:31','I hid for a long time - having run from a blissful childhood faith into a closet of religious fear.\n\nUp until my late teens I had known God as love, tenderness and grace - personified by Jesus whose spirit lived in me as a friend. Life was good because God was always with me. I could talk to Him. I trusted Him. I asked him questions all the time. I didn\'t always get an answer, but I knew I could ask.\n\nMaybe it was legalistic friends, or one too many Jack Chick Tracts had taken root deep inside. Perhaps I\'d become lured by the seeming safety of  black/white, good/bad thinking. Whatever the culprit, I began allowing others to tell me who God was and who I was supposed to be in order to really have Him.\n\nMy closet, over the years, became decorated with proof-text Bible verses and well-worn answers to complex questions.  I wrapped my dwelling in caution tape that said \'un-orthodox viewpoints beware - I am a warrior of The Truth.\'  I lived inside there for many years. I was truly confident in many aspects but fearful of my own doubts in many others.  I was like Professor Marvel, working knobs and buttons behind a curtain to give the illusion of  unwavering confidence. I was anxious daily that a little dog might pull away my covering, exposing me as being that young girl who loved Jesus and enjoyed life, secular music and rated-R movies.\n\nThe belief that I had to keep those things separate created a toxic dichotomy in my mind and spirit. Already prone to anxiety and depression, it wasn\'t surprising that eventually I found myself feeling trapped. I began to manifest outwardly the lack of control I felt inside. I flirted with anorexia for a while. In an attempt to shut out one half of the split, I dug further into piety to show how saved I was. To outsiders I probably came off as a strong, healthy Christian. Inside, tough, I was in constant turmoil.\n\nIt was through therapy (there is a name for what I was dealing with - Google \'\'scrupulosity\'), followed by emotional healing prayer in the hands of healthy Christians that I slowly began to emerge from the closet.\n\nA startling encounter with God sealed the fate of my religious strong-hold.\n\nAt work one day, early on in my recovery, I was fretting especially hard about something. In my spirit I was on my knees pleading whatever my case was (perhaps why I liked the music I did or why I was working so hard on my screenplay instead of praying or reading my Bible).  In mid plea I felt like God grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a shake.\n\n\'Stand up, child,\" He said.\n\nI blinked.\n\n\'Huh?\' I stammered.\n\n\"I\'m not mad at you for anything at all, Helen\"\n\n\'You\'re not?\'\n\n\'Of course not. You are making war where there is peace...I can\'t do anything with you in this state\'.\n\n\'But we\'re supposed to be on our knees worshiping you.\'\n\n\'I don\'t want worship like this - like Wormtail, groveling and begging for fear of retribution. Don\'t you know who I am?\'\n\nI was  simultaneously shocked that apparently God read \'Harry Potter\' (one of my sinful favorites) and offended that he had compared me to the sniveling, cowardly servant of the Dark Lord in the story. But He had hit the nail on the head. That is exactly how I behaved in His presence most of the time. In effect, I realized, this betrayed how I must really see Him - as a power-hungry, hateful Lord.\n\nMy heart broke.\n\nAt one point, early on in childhood, I did know who He was. I knew Him as love, tenderness and grace. Maybe it was legalistic friends, maybe it was one too many Jack Chick Tracts.  Whatever the culprit, I had allowed others to tell me who God was and who I was supposed to be in order to have Him. I\'d hidden away where I thought I was safe, working, working for a grace that was free.\n\nThe beautiful thing was that God\'s confrontation did not produce guilt. Instead it gave me the confidence to step out of my fear.  It confirmed what deep down I had always known was true. God was in my questions and doubts. He\n\nJesus is True. That\'s the one thing I know for sure. Because I\'ve met Him. Beyond that, it\'s all just commentary (props to Rob Bell).\n\nSome random thoughts on life, love and faith from a girl who\'s just calling it like she sees it and who is done apologizing and hyper-spiritualizing her way through the journey.\n\nThere are beautiful Christians who aren\'t Conservative Republicans.\n\nMy daily struggles and questions and processing do not preclude me from being a good prayer minister.\n\nI can be a Charismatic without subscribing carte blanche to Pentecostal traditions.\n\nIt\'s OK to enjoy the love I have been given.\n\nEveryone is a hypocrite about something.\n\nChances are I am more annoyed at myself than God is.\n\nThe Bible is not an object to be worshiped.\n\nThe One whose life and breath flow through the Biblical canon is the source of all life and worthy of worship.\n\nI love being a woman.\n\nI love my ta-tas. They are small but cute.\n\nIt\'s OK to feel sexy even if I\'m not married.\n\nIt is impossible to shackle someone to rules and still call them free.\n\nI believe in having a personal relationship with each member of the God-head -Papa, Jesus and Holy Spirit. This is where wisdom grows.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is feminine.\n\nGod is masculine\n\nJesus was a male human being who carried both masculine and feminine traits in perfect balance.\n\nNeither male nor female is more important than the other. They were created equally in the image of God.\n\nI have learned that everyone at any given time is probably doing or thinking something that is forbidden in the Bible. It is like trying to plug up a broken dam with your finger. Best plan: Give up and let Jesus\' work on the cross be enough.\n\nI wonder if we sometimes can\'t see Jesus past the \'word\'.\n\nI love football.\n\nFundamentalism can be in error.\n\nStripping Scripture of all mystical notion and completely \'humanizing\' it can also be in error.\n\nFinding The \"Radical Middle\" is my quest.\n\nI think homosexuals are treated like lepers and Samaritans by many evangelicals. I think this is dishonoring and ignorant. I repent for my former stances on this issue.\n\nI think I can learn from anyone.\n\n\"Spirit-filled\" people sometimes scare me and make me wonder just what spirit they are filled with. I have scared myself.\n\nThe cake is a lie.\n\nDiscernment is best used to discern the presence of God, not the presence of demons.\n\nTangling with demons has become an arrogant sport in some deliverance ministries.\n\nI choose not to focus on demons. They\'ve already lost. Jesus gave me the keys.\n\nGod will always be more tender, merciful and graceful than humans.\n\nI have been a joker and a smoker but never a midnight toker.\n\nThe F word is my favorite.\n\nI greatly respect but don\'t always agree with the Apostle Paul. And I don\'t think that is blasphemous. I think he had issues just like the rest of us.\n\nSpeaking in tongues is cool.\n\nAnimals have souls and they go to heaven.\n\nThe post-flood covenant was made with the people and the animals (Genesis 9:10 - check it).\n\nEnd-Times stuff annoys me. I think it is by and large a distraction.\n\nLamborghinis are sexy cars.\n\nThe idea of \'crucifying my flesh\' is abhorrent to me. To try and do what was already done for me dishonors Christ and steals His joy.\n\nYou could destroy all the Bibles on the planet and still not destroy the Word of God.\n\nTo live in freedom with my focus on receiving and sharing the humanly impossible love of God is what Jesus asks of me. All other ground is sinking sand.\n\nIf everyone loved the way Jesus did the \'second coming\' (or is it the third?) would be upon us.\n\nTo live that way is hard. I don\'t know how to do it. And that is what makes religion so tempting. It makes me feel in control.\n\nEven still, Jesus take the wheel.','Religion, Professor Marvel and Wormtail.','','inherit','open','open','','2390-revision-4','','','2011-11-25 12:04:31','2011-11-25 20:04:31','',2390,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/25/2390-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2601,101,'2011-11-25 12:29:40','2011-11-25 20:29:40','I hid for a long time - having run from a blissful childhood faith into a closet of religious fear.\n\nUp until my late teens I had known God as love, tenderness and grace - personified by Jesus whose spirit lived in me as a friend. Life was good because God was always with me. I could talk to Him. I trusted Him. I asked him questions all the time. I didn\'t always get an answer, but I knew I could ask.\n\nMaybe it was legalistic friends, or one too many Jack Chick Tracts had taken root deep inside. Perhaps I\'d become lured by the seeming safety of  black/white, good/bad thinking. Whatever the culprit, I began allowing others to tell me who God was and who I was supposed to be in order to really have Him.\n\nMy closet, over the years, became decorated with proof-text Bible verses and well-worn answers to complex questions.  I wrapped my dwelling in caution tape that said \'un-orthodox viewpoints beware - I am a warrior of The Truth.\' I was truly confident in many aspects but fearful of my own doubts in many others.  I was like Professor Marvel, working knobs and buttons behind a curtain to give the illusion of  unwavering confidence. I was anxious daily that a little dog might pull away my covering, exposing me as being that young girl who loved Jesus and enjoyed life, secular music and rated-R movies.\n\nThe belief that I had to keep those things separate created a toxic dichotomy in my mind and spirit. Already prone to anxiety and depression, it wasn\'t surprising that eventually I found myself feeling trapped. I began to manifest outwardly the lack of control I felt inside. I flirted with anorexia for a while. In an attempt to shut out one half of the split, I dug further into piety to show how saved I was. To outsiders I probably came off as a strong, healthy Christian. Inside, tough, I was in constant turmoil.\n\nIt was through therapy (there is a name for what I was dealing with - Google \'\'scrupulosity\'), followed by emotional healing prayer in the hands of healthy Christians that I slowly began to emerge from the closet.\n\nA startling encounter with God sealed the fate of my religious strong-hold.\n\nAt work one day, early on in my recovery, I was fretting especially hard about something. In my spirit I was on my knees pleading whatever my case was (perhaps why I liked the music I did or why I was working so hard on my screenplay instead of praying or reading my Bible).  In mid plea I felt like God grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a shake.\n\n\'Stand up, child,\" He said.\n\nI blinked.\n\n\'Huh?\' I stammered.\n\n\"I\'m not mad at you for anything at all, Helen\"\n\n\'You\'re not?\'\n\n\'Of course not. You are making war where there is peace...I can\'t do anything with you in this state\'.\n\n\'But we\'re supposed to be on our knees worshiping you.\'\n\n\'I don\'t want worship like this - like Wormtail, groveling and begging for fear of retribution. Don\'t you know who I am?\'\n\nI was  simultaneously shocked that apparently God read \'Harry Potter\' (one of my sinful favorites) and offended that he had compared me to the sniveling, cowardly servant of the Dark Lord in the story. But He had hit the nail on the head. That is exactly how I behaved in His presence most of the time. In effect, I realized, this betrayed how I must really see Him - as a power-hungry, hateful Lord.\n\nMy heart broke.\n\nAt one point, early on in childhood, I did know who He was. I knew Him as love, tenderness and grace. Maybe it was legalistic friends, maybe it was one too many Jack Chick Tracts.  Whatever the culprit, I had allowed others to tell me who God was and who I was supposed to be in order to have Him. I\'d hidden away where I thought I was safe, working, working for a grace that was free.\n\nThe beautiful thing was that God\'s confrontation did not produce guilt. Instead it gave me the confidence to step out of my fear.  It confirmed what deep down I had always known was true. God was in my questions and doubts. He\n\nJesus is True. That\'s the one thing I know for sure. Because I\'ve met Him. Beyond that, it\'s all just commentary (props to Rob Bell).\n\nSome random thoughts on life, love and faith from a girl who\'s just calling it like she sees it and who is done apologizing and hyper-spiritualizing her way through the journey.\n\nThere are beautiful Christians who aren\'t Conservative Republicans.\n\nMy daily struggles and questions and processing do not preclude me from being a good prayer minister.\n\nI can be a Charismatic without subscribing carte blanche to Pentecostal traditions.\n\nIt\'s OK to enjoy the love I have been given.\n\nEveryone is a hypocrite about something.\n\nChances are I am more annoyed at myself than God is.\n\nThe Bible is not an object to be worshiped.\n\nThe One whose life and breath flow through the Biblical canon is the source of all life and worthy of worship.\n\nI love being a woman.\n\nI love my ta-tas. They are small but cute.\n\nIt\'s OK to feel sexy even if I\'m not married.\n\nIt is impossible to shackle someone to rules and still call them free.\n\nI believe in having a personal relationship with each member of the God-head -Papa, Jesus and Holy Spirit. This is where wisdom grows.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is feminine.\n\nGod is masculine\n\nJesus was a male human being who carried both masculine and feminine traits in perfect balance.\n\nNeither male nor female is more important than the other. They were created equally in the image of God.\n\nI have learned that everyone at any given time is probably doing or thinking something that is forbidden in the Bible. It is like trying to plug up a broken dam with your finger. Best plan: Give up and let Jesus\' work on the cross be enough.\n\nI wonder if we sometimes can\'t see Jesus past the \'word\'.\n\nI love football.\n\nFundamentalism can be in error.\n\nStripping Scripture of all mystical notion and completely \'humanizing\' it can also be in error.\n\nFinding The \"Radical Middle\" is my quest.\n\nI think homosexuals are treated like lepers and Samaritans by many evangelicals. I think this is dishonoring and ignorant. I repent for my former stances on this issue.\n\nI think I can learn from anyone.\n\n\"Spirit-filled\" people sometimes scare me and make me wonder just what spirit they are filled with. I have scared myself.\n\nThe cake is a lie.\n\nDiscernment is best used to discern the presence of God, not the presence of demons.\n\nTangling with demons has become an arrogant sport in some deliverance ministries.\n\nI choose not to focus on demons. They\'ve already lost. Jesus gave me the keys.\n\nGod will always be more tender, merciful and graceful than humans.\n\nI have been a joker and a smoker but never a midnight toker.\n\nThe F word is my favorite.\n\nI greatly respect but don\'t always agree with the Apostle Paul. And I don\'t think that is blasphemous. I think he had issues just like the rest of us.\n\nSpeaking in tongues is cool.\n\nAnimals have souls and they go to heaven.\n\nThe post-flood covenant was made with the people and the animals (Genesis 9:10 - check it).\n\nEnd-Times stuff annoys me. I think it is by and large a distraction.\n\nLamborghinis are sexy cars.\n\nThe idea of \'crucifying my flesh\' is abhorrent to me. To try and do what was already done for me dishonors Christ and steals His joy.\n\nYou could destroy all the Bibles on the planet and still not destroy the Word of God.\n\nTo live in freedom with my focus on receiving and sharing the humanly impossible love of God is what Jesus asks of me. All other ground is sinking sand.\n\nIf everyone loved the way Jesus did the \'second coming\' (or is it the third?) would be upon us.\n\nTo live that way is hard. I don\'t know how to do it. And that is what makes religion so tempting. It makes me feel in control.\n\nEven still, Jesus take the wheel.','Religion, Professor Marvel and Wormtail.','','inherit','open','open','','2390-revision-5','','','2011-11-25 12:29:40','2011-11-25 20:29:40','',2390,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/25/2390-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2608,30,'2011-11-25 19:11:51','2011-11-26 03:11:51','<div style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a title=\"license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ - click to view more info about \'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' or find free \'turkey meal\' pictures via Wylio\" href=\"http://www.wylio.com/credits/flickr/5176608082\"><img style=\"float: none;margin: 10px auto\" src=\"http://lh3.ggpht.com/-eFTdM9dASjc/TtBLGhccjoI/AAAAAAAAA3E/7YKGnQtXwdI/Flickr-5176608082.jpg\" alt=\"\'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' photo (c) 2010, Steve Johnson - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" /></a></div>\r\nThanksgiving is now behind us, a day that for many is filled with one delicious food after another. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Corn casserole. Jello molds. Pies, pies, and more pies. We fill our plates, we eat, we dive back in for more. We wear our stretchy pants and leave the belts in the closet for another day.\r\n\r\nEating turkey and mashed potatoes isn\'t something that is unique to Thanksgiving. Particularly here in America, we can have a large meal nearly any day of the year. So despite the fact that we tend to focus on the food, there must be more to this holiday than simply an opportunity to eat a large meal.\r\n\r\nI believe what makes Thanksgiving special is the opportunity that we have not only to feed our physical appetites, but to feed our spiritual and emotional appetites as well. To feed not only our bodies, but our souls.\r\n\r\nWe fix meals that are more complicated than we might normally make. We play games that usually gather dust on the shelves. We enjoy one another\'s company without feeling the need to rush to the next thing. After the hustle and bustle of preparing the meal, it\'s a day for slowing down and for spending time together with those whom you love.\r\n\r\nBut what might happen if we took the time to seek out this soul food more often? What might that look like?\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to sit and really listen to a piece of music for a few minutes. Allow each note to penetrate the deep, hidden places of our minds and hearts.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to take a moment and read some poetry, not just in our minds, but aloud. Let the words dance across our tongues and spill out over our lips.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to bake a loaf of bread. Put our hands in the dough and experience the sensual delights of turning it over and creating something that will nourish someone else.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Soul Food','','inherit','open','open','','2598-revision-7','','','2011-11-25 19:11:51','2011-11-26 03:11:51','',2598,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/25/2598-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(2609,30,'2011-11-25 19:11:58','2011-11-26 03:11:58','<div style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a title=\"license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ - click to view more info about \'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' or find free \'turkey meal\' pictures via Wylio\" href=\"http://www.wylio.com/credits/flickr/5176608082\"><img style=\"float: none;margin: 10px auto\" src=\"http://lh3.ggpht.com/-eFTdM9dASjc/TtBLGhccjoI/AAAAAAAAA3E/7YKGnQtXwdI/Flickr-5176608082.jpg\" alt=\"\'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' photo (c) 2010, Steve Johnson - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" /></a></div>\r\nThanksgiving is now behind us, a day that for many is filled with one delicious food after another. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Corn casserole. Jello molds. Pies, pies, and more pies. We fill our plates, we eat, we dive back in for more. We wear our stretchy pants and leave the belts in the closet for another day.\r\n\r\nEating turkey and mashed potatoes isn\'t something that is unique to Thanksgiving. Particularly here in America, we can have a large meal nearly any day of the year. So despite the fact that we tend to focus on the food, there must be more to this holiday than simply an opportunity to eat a large meal.\r\n\r\nI believe what makes Thanksgiving special is the opportunity that we have not only to feed our physical appetites, but to feed our spiritual and emotional appetites as well. To feed not only our bodies, but our souls.\r\n\r\nWe fix meals that are more complicated than we might normally make. We play games that usually gather dust on the shelves. We enjoy one another\'s company without feeling the need to rush to the next thing. After the hustle and bustle of preparing the meal, it\'s a day for slowing down and for spending time together with those whom you love.\r\n\r\nBut what might happen if we took the time to seek out this soul food more often? What might that look like?\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to sit and really listen to a piece of music for a few minutes. Allow each note to penetrate the deep, hidden places of our minds and hearts.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to take a moment and read some poetry, not just in our minds, but aloud. Let the words dance across our tongues and spill out over our lips.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to bake a loaf of bread. Put our hands in the dough and experience the sensual delights of turning it over and creating something that will nourish someone else.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Soul Food','','inherit','open','open','','2598-revision-8','','','2011-11-25 19:11:58','2011-11-26 03:11:58','',2598,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/25/2598-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(2610,30,'2011-11-25 19:44:14','2011-11-26 03:44:14','<div style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a title=\"license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ - click to view more info about \'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' or find free \'turkey meal\' pictures via Wylio\" href=\"http://www.wylio.com/credits/flickr/5176608082\"><img style=\"float: none;margin: 10px auto\" src=\"http://lh3.ggpht.com/-eFTdM9dASjc/TtBLGhccjoI/AAAAAAAAA3E/7YKGnQtXwdI/Flickr-5176608082.jpg\" alt=\"\'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' photo (c) 2010, Steve Johnson - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" /></a></div>\r\nThanksgiving is now behind us, a day that for many is filled with one delicious food after another. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Corn casserole. Jello molds. Pies, pies, and more pies. We fill our plates, we eat, we dive back in for more. We wear our stretchy pants and leave the belts in the closet for another day.\r\n\r\nEating turkey and mashed potatoes isn\'t something that is unique to Thanksgiving. Particularly here in America, we can have a large meal nearly any day of the year. So despite the fact that we tend to focus on the food, there must be more to this holiday than simply an opportunity to eat a large meal.\r\n\r\nI believe what makes Thanksgiving special is the opportunity that we have not only to feed our physical appetites, but to feed our spiritual and emotional appetites as well. To feed not only our bodies, but our souls.\r\n\r\nWe fix meals that are more complicated than we might normally make. We play games that usually gather dust on the shelves. We enjoy one another\'s company without feeling the need to rush to the next thing. After the hustle and bustle of preparing the meal, it\'s a day for slowing down and for spending time together with those whom you love.\r\n\r\nBut what might happen if we took the time to seek out this soul food more often? What might that look like?\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to sit and really listen to a piece of music for a few minutes. Allow each note to penetrate the deep, hidden places of our minds and hearts.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to take a moment and read some poetry, not just in our minds, but aloud. Let the words dance across our tongues and spill out over our lips.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to bake a loaf of bread. Put our hands in the dough and experience the sensual delights of turning it over and creating something that will nourish someone else.\r\n\r\nKnit a pair of socks. Take a walk in the woods. Attend a concert. Drink coffee with a friend.\r\n\r\nWhether you have time to for a gourmet meal, or just feed it a snack, make time to feed your soul. It will thank you.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>What have you done to feed your soul recently? </em>','Soul Food','','inherit','open','open','','2598-revision-9','','','2011-11-25 19:44:14','2011-11-26 03:44:14','',2598,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/25/2598-revision-9/',0,'revision','',0),(2611,30,'2011-11-25 19:44:49','2011-11-26 03:44:49','<div style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a title=\"license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ - click to view more info about \'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' or find free \'turkey meal\' pictures via Wylio\" href=\"http://www.wylio.com/credits/flickr/5176608082\"><img style=\"float: none;margin: 10px auto\" src=\"http://lh3.ggpht.com/-eFTdM9dASjc/TtBLGhccjoI/AAAAAAAAA3E/7YKGnQtXwdI/Flickr-5176608082.jpg\" alt=\"\'easy-turkey-thanksgiving\' photo (c) 2010, Steve Johnson - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" /></a></div>\r\nThanksgiving is now behind us, a day that for many is filled with one delicious food after another. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Corn casserole. Jello molds. Pies, pies, and more pies. We fill our plates, we eat, we dive back in for more. We wear our stretchy pants and leave the belts in the closet for another day.\r\n\r\nEating turkey and mashed potatoes isn\'t something that is unique to Thanksgiving. Particularly here in America, we can have a large meal nearly any day of the year. So despite the fact that we tend to focus on the food, there must be more to this holiday than simply an opportunity to eat a large meal.\r\n\r\nI believe what makes Thanksgiving special is the opportunity that we have not only to feed our physical appetites, but to feed our spiritual and emotional appetites as well. To feed not only our bodies, but our souls.\r\n\r\nWe fix meals that are more complicated than we might normally make. We play games that usually gather dust on the shelves. We enjoy one another\'s company without feeling the need to rush to the next thing. After the hustle and bustle of preparing the meal, it\'s a day for slowing down and for spending time together with those whom you love.\r\n\r\nBut what might happen if we took the time to seek out this soul food more often? What might that look like?\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to sit and really listen to a piece of music for a few minutes. Allow each note to penetrate the deep, hidden places of our minds and hearts.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to take a moment and read some poetry, not just in our minds, but aloud. Let the words dance across our tongues and spill out over our lips.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it would be to bake a loaf of bread. Put our hands in the dough and experience the sensual delights of turning it over and creating something that will nourish someone else.\r\n\r\nKnit a pair of socks. Take a walk in the woods. Attend a concert. Drink coffee with a friend.\r\n\r\nWhether you have time to for a gourmet meal, or just feed it a snack, make time to feed your soul. It will thank you.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>What have you done to feed your soul recently? </em>','Soul Food','','inherit','open','open','','2598-revision-10','','','2011-11-25 19:44:49','2011-11-26 03:44:49','',2598,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/25/2598-revision-10/',0,'revision','',0),(2651,1,'2011-11-26 11:22:14','2011-11-26 19:22:14','As an undergraduate student, I remember looking at a \'harmonization\' of the gospels in the Christian Union - looking where they sync up and tell the same stories, whether in the same order or a different one. It becomes instantly apparent that the \'synoptic gospels\', Matthew, Mark and Luke, are incredibly alike throughout. Luke is has the most unique text, just over a third of the verses of Luke are not in either of the others, while only 3% of Mark is unique to that gospel. We can put the three gospel texts in three columns and line up where they\'re the same and where they differ - it\'s a task that undergraduate theology students often do - maybe something you have done, too.\r\n\r\nThe Christmas story as it plays out in our heads or the many plays and movies, is one of the most \'harmonised\' parts of the Bible. Maybe we don\'t make it very clear in church, but the lines to the nativity play are not one of the bits that are found word-for-word in all four gospels (unlike, for example, the feeding of the five thousand: five loaves and two fishes etc.). If we break it down into the four tellings of the gospel story of Jesus in the New Testament, we can start to see the different priorities that the early church had towards the birth of Jesus and let it shape our Christmas just a little bit.\r\n\r\nFirst of all, Mark. His is the shortest gospel, it\'s punchy with action, miracles and mainly quite short teachings. The first 9 chapters focus on Jesus life in Galilee, then a chapter on the journey to Jerusalem, followed by 6 chapters on what happened in Jerusalem. This means 6 out of 16 chapters make up just one week of Jesus\' entire life - the weighting on the death and empty tomb of Jesus is very heavy in Mark.\r\n\r\nSo Christmas? Not at all. Mark, uniquely, does not mention Jesus\' origin and birth in any way. John the Baptist \'appeared\', and Jesus simply \'came\' to where he was baptizing. The only hint as to who Jesus is and where he comes from is the very first words: \'The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,<sup> 2</sup> as it is written...\' (<a title=\"Mark 1 NIV - biblegateway.com\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 1:1-2, NIV</a>) Mark sees Jesus\' coming as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy that the LORD, God himself, would come to visit his people Israel and bless them despite the trouble they were experiencing.\r\n\r\nIn Mark, Jesus is depicted as a true man, busy doing God\'s work. But Mark encourages us to dig a bit further, to understand the truth behind his words, the secret that Jesus seems to be hiding throughout the gospel, that he is both the Messiah, the man who God has anointed and sent to Israel and also God Himself, come to comfort and bless them and the world.\r\n\r\nBut Mark doesn\'t spell out the details of how, the mechanics or the crucial dates of Jesus birth, the mystery remains. The focus is on Jesus and what he did - no angels and no stars. So look out this Advent, this Christmas, see if Mark makes an appearance. Ask yourself why Mark doesn\'t make a big deal about Christmas. But feel free to enjoy Christmas - we\'ve got three more weeks of advent and three more gospels to go!','De-harmonizing Christmas - Part 1: Mark','','inherit','open','open','','2614-revision-5','','','2011-11-26 11:22:14','2011-11-26 19:22:14','',2614,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/26/2614-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2615,110,'2011-11-26 10:03:40','2011-11-26 18:03:40','','Lorenzo_di_bicci-Mark','','inherit','open','open','','lorenzo_di_bicci-mark','','','2011-11-26 10:03:40','2011-11-26 18:03:40','',2614,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Lorenzo_di_bicci-Mark.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2616,110,'2011-11-26 09:43:11','2011-11-26 17:43:11','As an undergraduate student, I remember looking at a \'harmonisation\' of the gospels in the Christian Union - looking where they sync up and tell the same stories, whether in the same order or a different one. It becomes instantly apparent that the \'synoptic gospels\', Matthew, Mark and Luke, are incredibly alike throughout. Luke is has the most unique text, just over a third of the verses of Luke are not in either of the others, while only 3% of Mark is unique to that gospel. We can put the three gospel texts in three columns and line up where they\'re the same and where they differ - it\'s a task that undergraduate theology students often do - maybe something you have done, too.\n\nThe Christmas story as it plays out in our heads or the many plays and movies, is one of the most \'harmonised\' parts of the Bible. Maybe we don\'t make it very clear in church, but the lines to the nativity play are not one of the bits that are found word-for-word in all four gospels (unlike, for example, the feeding of the five thousand: five loaves and two fishes etc.). If we break it down into the four tellings of the gospel story of Jesus in the New Testament, we can start to see the different priorities that the early church had towards the birth of Jesus and let it shape our Christmas just a little bit.\n\nFirst of all, Mark. His is the shortest gospel, it\'s punchy with action, miracles and mainly quite short teachings. The first 9 chapters focus on Jesus life in Galilee, then a chapter on the journey to Jerusalem, followed by 6 chapters on what happened in Jerusalem. This means 6 out of 16 chapters make up just one week of Jesus\' entire life - the weighting on the death and empty tomb of Jesus is very heavy in Mark.\n\nSo Christmas? Not at all. Mark, uniquely, does not mention Jesus\' origin and birth in any way. John the Baptist \'appeared\', and Jesus simply \'came\' to where he was baptising. The only hint as to who Jesus is and where he comes from is the very first words: \'The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,<sup> 2</sup> as it is written...\' (<a title=\"Mark 1 NIV - biblegateway.com\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 1:1-2, NIV</a>) Mark sees Jesus\' coming as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy that the LORD, God himself, would come to visit his people Israel and bless them despite the trouble they were experiencing.\n\nIn Mark, Jesus is depicted as a true man, busy doing God\'s work. But Mark encourages us to dig a bit further, to understand the truth behind his words, the secret that Jesus seems to be hiding throughout the gospel, that he is both the Messiah, the man who God has anointed and sent to Israel and also God Himself, come to comfort and bless them and the world.\n\nBut Mark doesn\'t spell out the details of how, the mechanics or the crucial dates of Jesus birth, the mystery remains. The focus is on Jesus and what he did - no angels and no stars. So look out this Advent, this Christmas, see if Mark makes an appearance. Ask yourself why Mark doesn\'t make a big deal about Christmas. But feel free to enjoy Christmas - we\'ve got three more weeks, three more gospels to go!','De-harmonising Christmas - Part 1: Mark','','inherit','open','open','','2614-revision','','','2011-11-26 09:43:11','2011-11-26 17:43:11','',2614,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/26/2614-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(2885,90,'2011-12-09 09:00:58','2011-12-09 17:00:58','<em>Anticipate: to realize beforehand; foretaste or foresee: to anticipate pleasure.\r\nAnticipate: to expect; look forward to; be sure of; to anticipate a favorable decision</em>\r\n\r\nThe advent season is one of anticipation. Of waiting… Of preparation… Of looking forward to the special Christmas day… When the concepts of anticipation and Christmas come together, I picture the look on a child’s face when December 1st rolls around. Waiting for Christmas becomes a month-long celebration. Some wake up each morning, ready to open the next door of the advent calendar. People scurry around making gifts and tucking them at the back of the closet or in that hidden spot in the crawl space, waiting for their Christmas morning unveiling. As children, the month of December can seem like an eternity, 24 whole doors on the advent calendar to open before one can wake up to the delight of Christmas morning.\r\n\r\nParents in the month of December are called to work with their children on discipline. “Nope, you can’t open doors for December 17th and 22nd today—today is December 3rd.” “You can shake and poke the presents from Grandma under the tree, but don’t think about peeling the tape back on the corner of the box”. There’s something charged and magical in the waiting along with the frustration and restraint.\r\n\r\nWhat of our discipline in advent? What do we anticipate as we approach the celebration of Christ’s birth, Divinity Incarnate on earth? I’ll admit that I’m not so far from the ways of childhood, when it comes to Christmas. I get excited when the lights start going up on the trees and I’ve been madly knitting gifts for weeks now. I anticipate Christmas concerts and meals with friends and family and await the gentle glow of candlelight traditions.\r\n\r\n<em>Anticipate: to realize beforehand; foretaste or foresee: to anticipate pleasure.\r\nAnticipate: to expect; look forward to; be sure of; to anticipate a favorable decision</em>\r\n\r\nThere is something in the waiting that feels sacred to me. There’s a care in the preparations that speaks to the precious nature of the holiday we’re approaching. I am seeing God in this tension, in the waiting, the anticipation. Maybe anticipation is God’s gift to us, the foretaste of God’s goodness, the spark of light in a darkened world. We anticipate, prepare, and stay in the tension because we look forward to a dream being realized; we feel God’s vision of the future we are working towards.\r\n\r\nWhen we live in the anticipation as a Divine gift, we can find the sacred, the joy of knowing that something beautiful is coming, the energy and excitement to persevere, the trust and patience to wait. We anticipate the end of a season. We anticipate a shift in our attitudes. We anticipate a change in a relationship, a new home, conquering an inner battle, mastering a skill, or the passing of time.\r\n\r\nWe can live into the anticipation as a gift, or we can see it as a burden. We can wake up each day and curse the fact that it is not yet Christmas morning, be bitter and twisted about the greener grass across the way and threaten to rip open all the gifts under the tree. We can live our lives in a way that would cause us to walk into a darkened room, throw on every bank of lights, and flood the room with a harsh fluorescent glare to see what’s there—RIGHT NOW.\r\n\r\nOr… <em>The people who walked in darkness, saw a great light. Those who dwelt in the shadow of death, upon them a light has shone</em>. The light is out there—flickering in the darkness. The Christ light shines, beckoning us to draw near, to follow, to anticipate. In this advent season, we are reminded to walk in spiritual disciplines, to breathe in the tension between what we look towards and what is. To engage in the sacred dance of anticipation. To be present in each moment, each breath. To look for the Christ light shining in our midst.','Divine Tension of Anticipation ','','publish','open','open','','divine-tension-of-anticipation','','','2011-12-05 09:31:33','2011-12-05 17:31:33','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2885',0,'post','',0),(2618,110,'2011-11-26 10:54:31','2011-11-26 18:54:31','As an undergraduate student, I remember looking at a \'harmonisation\' of the gospels in the Christian Union - looking where they sync up and tell the same stories, whether in the same order or a different one. It becomes instantly apparent that the \'synoptic gospels\', Matthew, Mark and Luke, are incredibly alike throughout. Luke is has the most unique text, just over a third of the verses of Luke are not in either of the others, while only 3% of Mark is unique to that gospel. We can put the three gospel texts in three columns and line up where they\'re the same and where they differ - it\'s a task that undergraduate theology students often do - maybe something you have done, too.\n\nThe Christmas story as it plays out in our heads or the many plays and movies, is one of the most \'harmonised\' parts of the Bible. Maybe we don\'t make it very clear in church, but the lines to the nativity play are not one of the bits that are found word-for-word in all four gospels (unlike, for example, the feeding of the five thousand: five loaves and two fishes etc.). If we break it down into the four tellings of the gospel story of Jesus in the New Testament, we can start to see the different priorities that the early church had towards the birth of Jesus and let it shape our Christmas just a little bit.\n\nFirst of all, Mark. His is the shortest gospel, it\'s punchy with action, miracles and mainly quite short teachings. The first 9 chapters focus on Jesus life in Galilee, then a chapter on the journey to Jerusalem, followed by 6 chapters on what happened in Jerusalem. This means 6 out of 16 chapters make up just one week of Jesus\' entire life - the weighting on the death and empty tomb of Jesus is very heavy in Mark.\n\nSo Christmas? Not at all. Mark, uniquely, does not mention Jesus\' origin and birth in any way. John the Baptist \'appeared\', and Jesus simply \'came\' to where he was baptising. The only hint as to who Jesus is and where he comes from is the very first words: \'The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,<sup> 2</sup> as it is written...\' (<a title=\"Mark 1 NIV - biblegateway.com\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 1:1-2, NIV</a>) Mark sees Jesus\' coming as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy that the LORD, God himself, would come to visit his people Israel and bless them despite the trouble they were experiencing.\n\nIn Mark, Jesus is depicted as a true man, busy doing God\'s work. But Mark encourages us to dig a bit further, to understand the truth behind his words, the secret that Jesus seems to be hiding throughout the gospel, that he is both the Messiah, the man who God has anointed and sent to Israel and also God Himself, come to comfort and bless them and the world.\n\nBut Mark doesn\'t spell out the details of how, the mechanics or the crucial dates of Jesus birth, the mystery remains. The focus is on Jesus and what he did - no angels and no stars. So look out this Advent, this Christmas, see if Mark makes an appearance. Ask yourself why Mark doesn\'t make a big deal about Christmas. But feel free to enjoy Christmas - we\'ve got three more weeks of adven, three more gospels to go!','De-harmonising Christmas - Part 1: Mark','','inherit','open','open','','2614-revision-2','','','2011-11-26 10:54:31','2011-11-26 18:54:31','',2614,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/26/2614-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2619,110,'2011-11-26 10:55:03','2011-11-26 18:55:03','As an undergraduate student, I remember looking at a \'harmonisation\' of the gospels in the Christian Union - looking where they sync up and tell the same stories, whether in the same order or a different one. It becomes instantly apparent that the \'synoptic gospels\', Matthew, Mark and Luke, are incredibly alike throughout. Luke is has the most unique text, just over a third of the verses of Luke are not in either of the others, while only 3% of Mark is unique to that gospel. We can put the three gospel texts in three columns and line up where they\'re the same and where they differ - it\'s a task that undergraduate theology students often do - maybe something you have done, too.\r\n\r\nThe Christmas story as it plays out in our heads or the many plays and movies, is one of the most \'harmonised\' parts of the Bible. Maybe we don\'t make it very clear in church, but the lines to the nativity play are not one of the bits that are found word-for-word in all four gospels (unlike, for example, the feeding of the five thousand: five loaves and two fishes etc.). If we break it down into the four tellings of the gospel story of Jesus in the New Testament, we can start to see the different priorities that the early church had towards the birth of Jesus and let it shape our Christmas just a little bit.\r\n\r\nFirst of all, Mark. His is the shortest gospel, it\'s punchy with action, miracles and mainly quite short teachings. The first 9 chapters focus on Jesus life in Galilee, then a chapter on the journey to Jerusalem, followed by 6 chapters on what happened in Jerusalem. This means 6 out of 16 chapters make up just one week of Jesus\' entire life - the weighting on the death and empty tomb of Jesus is very heavy in Mark.\r\n\r\nSo Christmas? Not at all. Mark, uniquely, does not mention Jesus\' origin and birth in any way. John the Baptist \'appeared\', and Jesus simply \'came\' to where he was baptising. The only hint as to who Jesus is and where he comes from is the very first words: \'The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,<sup> 2</sup> as it is written...\' (<a title=\"Mark 1 NIV - biblegateway.com\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 1:1-2, NIV</a>) Mark sees Jesus\' coming as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy that the LORD, God himself, would come to visit his people Israel and bless them despite the trouble they were experiencing.\r\n\r\nIn Mark, Jesus is depicted as a true man, busy doing God\'s work. But Mark encourages us to dig a bit further, to understand the truth behind his words, the secret that Jesus seems to be hiding throughout the gospel, that he is both the Messiah, the man who God has anointed and sent to Israel and also God Himself, come to comfort and bless them and the world.\r\n\r\nBut Mark doesn\'t spell out the details of how, the mechanics or the crucial dates of Jesus birth, the mystery remains. The focus is on Jesus and what he did - no angels and no stars. So look out this Advent, this Christmas, see if Mark makes an appearance. Ask yourself why Mark doesn\'t make a big deal about Christmas. But feel free to enjoy Christmas - we\'ve got three more weeks of advent and three more gospels to go!','De-harmonising Christmas - Part 1: Mark','','inherit','open','open','','2614-revision-3','','','2011-11-26 10:55:03','2011-11-26 18:55:03','',2614,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/26/2614-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2620,110,'2011-11-30 06:39:45','2011-11-30 14:39:45','As an undergraduate student, I remember looking at a \'harmonization\' of the gospels in the Christian Union - looking where they sync up and tell the same stories, whether in the same order or a different one. It becomes instantly apparent that the \'synoptic gospels\', Matthew, Mark and Luke, are incredibly alike throughout. Luke is has the most unique text, just over a third of the verses of Luke are not in either of the others, while only 3% of Mark is unique to that gospel. We can put the three gospel texts in three columns and line up where they\'re the same and where they differ - it\'s a task that undergraduate theology students often do - maybe something you have done, too.\n\nThe Christmas story as it plays out in our heads or the many plays and movies, is one of the most \'harmonised\' parts of the Bible. Maybe we don\'t make it very clear in church, but the lines to the nativity play are not one of the bits that are found word-for-word in all four gospels (unlike, for example, the feeding of the five thousand: five loaves and two fishes etc.). If we break it down into the four tellings of the gospel story of Jesus in the New Testament, we can start to see the different priorities that the early church had towards the birth of Jesus and let it shape our Christmas just a little bit.\n\nFirst of all, Mark. His is the shortest gospel, it\'s punchy with action, miracles and mainly quite short teachings. The first 9 chapters focus on Jesus life in Galilee, then a chapter on the journey to Jerusalem, followed by 6 chapters on what happened in Jerusalem. This means 6 out of 16 chapters make up just one week of Jesus\' entire life - the weighting on the death and empty tomb of Jesus is very heavy in Mark.\n\nSo Christmas? Not at all. Mark, uniquely, does not mention Jesus\' origin and birth in any way. John the Baptist \'appeared\', and Jesus simply \'came\' to where he was baptizing. The only hint as to who Jesus is and where he comes from is the very first words: \'The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,<sup> 2</sup> as it is written...\' (<a title=\"Mark 1 NIV - biblegateway.com\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 1:1-2, NIV</a>) Mark sees Jesus\' coming as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy that the LORD, God himself, would come to visit his people Israel and bless them despite the trouble they were experiencing.\n\nIn Mark, Jesus is depicted as a true man, busy doing God\'s work. But Mark encourages us to dig a bit further, to understand the truth behind his words, the secret that Jesus seems to be hiding throughout the gospel, that he is both the Messiah, the man who God has anointed and sent to Israel and also God Himself, come to comfort and bless them and the world.\n\nBut Mark doesn\'t spell out the details of how, the mechanics or the crucial dates of Jesus birth, the mystery remains. The focus is on Jesus and what he did - no angels and no stars. So look out this Advent, this Christmas, see if Mark makes an appearance. Ask yourself why Mark doesn\'t make a big deal about Christmas. But feel free to enjoy Christmas - we\'ve got three more weeks of advent and three more gospels to go!','De-harmonizing Christmas - Part 1: Mark','','inherit','open','open','','2614-autosave','','','2011-11-30 06:39:45','2011-11-30 14:39:45','',2614,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/26/2614-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2621,110,'2011-11-26 10:55:52','2011-11-26 18:55:52','As an undergraduate student, I remember looking at a \'harmonisation\' of the gospels in the Christian Union - looking where they sync up and tell the same stories, whether in the same order or a different one. It becomes instantly apparent that the \'synoptic gospels\', Matthew, Mark and Luke, are incredibly alike throughout. Luke is has the most unique text, just over a third of the verses of Luke are not in either of the others, while only 3% of Mark is unique to that gospel. We can put the three gospel texts in three columns and line up where they\'re the same and where they differ - it\'s a task that undergraduate theology students often do - maybe something you have done, too.\r\n\r\nThe Christmas story as it plays out in our heads or the many plays and movies, is one of the most \'harmonised\' parts of the Bible. Maybe we don\'t make it very clear in church, but the lines to the nativity play are not one of the bits that are found word-for-word in all four gospels (unlike, for example, the feeding of the five thousand: five loaves and two fishes etc.). If we break it down into the four tellings of the gospel story of Jesus in the New Testament, we can start to see the different priorities that the early church had towards the birth of Jesus and let it shape our Christmas just a little bit.\r\n\r\nFirst of all, Mark. His is the shortest gospel, it\'s punchy with action, miracles and mainly quite short teachings. The first 9 chapters focus on Jesus life in Galilee, then a chapter on the journey to Jerusalem, followed by 6 chapters on what happened in Jerusalem. This means 6 out of 16 chapters make up just one week of Jesus\' entire life - the weighting on the death and empty tomb of Jesus is very heavy in Mark.\r\n\r\nSo Christmas? Not at all. Mark, uniquely, does not mention Jesus\' origin and birth in any way. John the Baptist \'appeared\', and Jesus simply \'came\' to where he was baptising. The only hint as to who Jesus is and where he comes from is the very first words: \'The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,<sup> 2</sup> as it is written...\' (<a title=\"Mark 1 NIV - biblegateway.com\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 1:1-2, NIV</a>) Mark sees Jesus\' coming as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy that the LORD, God himself, would come to visit his people Israel and bless them despite the trouble they were experiencing.\r\n\r\nIn Mark, Jesus is depicted as a true man, busy doing God\'s work. But Mark encourages us to dig a bit further, to understand the truth behind his words, the secret that Jesus seems to be hiding throughout the gospel, that he is both the Messiah, the man who God has anointed and sent to Israel and also God Himself, come to comfort and bless them and the world.\r\n\r\nBut Mark doesn\'t spell out the details of how, the mechanics or the crucial dates of Jesus birth, the mystery remains. The focus is on Jesus and what he did - no angels and no stars. So look out this Advent, this Christmas, see if Mark makes an appearance. Ask yourself why Mark doesn\'t make a big deal about Christmas. But feel free to enjoy Christmas - we\'ve got three more weeks of advent and three more gospels to go!','De-harmonising Christmas - Part 1: Mark','','inherit','open','open','','2614-revision-4','','','2011-11-26 10:55:52','2011-11-26 18:55:52','',2614,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/26/2614-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2659,1,'2011-11-27 19:42:42','2011-11-28 03:42:42','[caption id=\"attachment_2635\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"225\" caption=\"Lucas Land\"]<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/lucas-land.jpg\"><img src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/lucas-land-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2635\" /></a>[/caption]\r\nNow that we’re all stuffed from a big Thanksgiving meal — we talk food and food ethics with farmer and all around ag-guy, Lucas Land.\r\n\r\nLucas and his family have been involved in farming and agriculture for several years, including a post-graduate internship at World Hunger Relief in Waco, Texas. He’s also just returned from a brief stay in Bolivia where he focused on water issues.\r\n\r\nHe’s actively involved in finding and sharing the intersection between our faith, ethics and the food we eat.\r\n\r\n[audio=\"http://somethingbeautifulpodcast.com/podcast/112511.mp3\"]','Something Beautiful - Lucas Land','','inherit','open','open','','2634-revision-6','','','2011-11-27 19:42:42','2011-11-28 03:42:42','',2634,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/27/2634-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(2661,1,'2011-11-28 07:16:39','2011-11-28 15:16:39','','Misty Chaffins','','publish','open','open','','misty-chaffins','','','2012-12-18 12:55:04','2012-12-18 20:55:04','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2661',14,'nav_menu_item','',0),(2662,1,'2011-11-28 07:17:21','2011-11-28 15:17:21','','Marilyn Gardner','','publish','open','open','','marilyn-gardner','','','2012-12-18 12:55:04','2012-12-18 20:55:04','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2662',23,'nav_menu_item','',0),(2663,1,'2011-11-28 07:18:05','2011-11-28 15:18:05','','Alise Wright','','publish','open','open','','alise-wright-2','','','2012-12-18 12:55:09','2012-12-18 20:55:09','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2663',65,'nav_menu_item','',0),(2664,1,'2011-11-28 07:18:56','2011-11-28 15:18:56','','Renee Ronika Klug','','publish','open','open','','renee-ronika-klug','','','2012-12-18 12:55:06','2012-12-18 20:55:06','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2664',36,'nav_menu_item','',0),(2665,1,'2011-11-28 07:21:25','2011-11-28 15:21:25','','Morgan Guyton','','publish','open','open','','morgan-guyton','','','2012-12-18 12:55:05','2012-12-18 20:55:05','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2665',25,'nav_menu_item','',0),(2666,85,'2011-11-22 05:34:43','2011-11-22 13:34:43','','Auto Draft','','inherit','open','open','','2497-revision','','','2011-11-22 05:34:43','2011-11-22 13:34:43','',2497,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/22/2497-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(2668,80,'2011-11-28 07:06:43','2011-11-28 15:06:43','November 25, 2011 may not have inaugerated Black Friday as the newest holiday in the season, but things certainly rose to a new level that day.  The orgy of greed that follows the one day out the year we\'re supposed to stop and give thanks for all the good things we\'ve experienced is nothing new.  But in recent years, violence has begun to rear it\'s head as shoppers will go to great lengths to get something for (what they believe) is next to nothing.','Our Newest Holiday','','inherit','open','open','','2376-revision-5','','','2011-11-28 07:06:43','2011-11-28 15:06:43','',2376,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2376-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2669,102,'2011-11-23 12:46:10','2011-11-23 20:46:10','Before I was married, my hairdresser told me about a woman in her sixties who explained to him the meaning of marriage, the breakdown of gender roles, and the secret to staying together. She could see beyond her husband’s analytical nature. She was perspicacious. It thus became her job to let her husband in on the nuances of others—ticks, sidelong glances, subtleties. Once her husband had been informed of her observations and ensuing opinions, she trusted his judgment. Her husband, a prominent entrepreneur, used her insights to make the best decisions for business, for family, for himself. After forty years of marriage, by operating out of their inherent strengths, they had created a peaceful and thriving life together, as one.\r\n\r\nI usually can see a thing before it happens. I believe I was born this way, but I also know that in reconciling with my creator as a Christian, I’ve learned how to harness these gifts for the greater good.\r\n\r\nNearly five years ago, just after my husband Greg and I got married, I was overcome by sadness whenever he reacted a certain way to others. I knew that if this behavior did not change, it would inhibit Greg as a Christian, husband, father, and leader. I believed this revelation was from God, so I told Greg what I perceived. He stared at me blankly. He had no idea what I meant. Without pushing the issue further, I went to bed that night reminding the Lord that He was the one who had prompted me to broach this subject.\r\n\r\nThe following morning, Greg nudged me awake. He said, “I had a dream last night. The Lord showed me what you were talking about.”\r\n\r\nGreg has not exhibited that behavior since.\r\n\r\nOne of Greg’s fortes is deciphering and explaining emotions in those with whom he is close. His insights have helped me heal from past abuse. I’ve become a more honest, confident and forthright person because of Greg’s influence.\r\n\r\nSince we trust each other in these abilities, Greg as the “spiritual leader” of our family is not burdened down by religious expectation to be perfect in single handedly making decisions for our family. Instead, he has the responsibility of seeking God’s wisdom with me. Our relationship becomes a conduit for God’s voice.\r\n\r\nMarriages cannot function properly without both spouses operating in their innate strengths—spiritual or otherwise.\r\n\r\nIt is an absolute necessity for women to speak up in their marriages, not only to enrich their relationships but also to benefit their church communities. The church cannot unite as God intended—and as Christ prayed for in the garden—without women rising up to reclaim their roles. If American Christian culture has found that its marriages and churches are broken or struggling, it may serve both institutions well to reevaluate and reform their philosophy of gender roles.\r\n\r\nJust as the church cannot operate effectively without Christ’s initiation, the Holy Spirit cannot carry out God’s perfect will without the church’s participation. The symbiotic relationship between God and His people should be mirrored by husbands and wives.\r\n\r\nRegrettably, churches bent toward legalism often teach that God is angry with His people (never mind the sinners), and to merit entrance into Heaven, Christians must restrict pleasures, separate from mainstream society, and be silent before God’s throne. This is not God’s will. God through Christ invites interaction; He establishes love as the cornerstone of behavior; He speaks to His people through the written word, His Holy Spirit, and revelation. He asks, in return, for them to make their requests known to Him.\r\n\r\nGod created marriage as an earthly reflection of a spiritual dynamic.\r\n\r\nHowever, too many Christian marriages—and churches—have defaulted to Paul’s presumed biblical admonitions to silence women. Instead of looking at the context of Paul’s culture, in which women notoriously overused the gift of speech, we should consider the entirety of the Bible to develop a realistic view of women.\r\n\r\nFor example, just before Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified, his wife had warned him from her dream not to punish Jesus. Had Pilate regarded his wife’s counsel, not only would the Apostle’s Creed have read differently, but Pilate’s fate would have been one of grace, not shame.\r\n\r\nWith a contrasting outcome in Exodus, the Lord spared Moses’ life because Zipporah interceded to circumcise their sons. She intuited what Moses had not.\r\n\r\nFulfilling Deborah’s prophecy, Jael overrode her husband’s peace agreement, discerning her greater calling, and won Israel’s victory, satisfying God’s will for the Israelites.\r\n\r\nDuring the week of Jesus’ death, a woman poured oil from an alabaster jar over Jesus’ head. Jesus reminded the men who had derided her actions that she was anointing Him for burial. This woman knew of Jesus what His disciples had not perceived—even though Jesus had already alerted them of His impending death.\r\n\r\nDespite these biblical proofs, for too long in church history, women have been relegated to the back of the sanctuary—for food preparation, decorating, childcare. Although many women are gifted, even called, to serve churches in such ways impressively, many others can hear the voice of God, perceive His heart’s desire, and express these revelations boldly to the church.\r\n\r\nThe prophetesses of the Most High God are fulfilling the scripture from Joel 2:28: “Your sons and <em>daughters</em> shall prophesy.” During Pentecost, when the church was united, Peter justified the speaking in tongues and prophesying with this Scripture.\r\n\r\nThe daughters are here and ready. They just need invitations to speak.\r\n\r\nWhen women take their abilities home, families are restored and strengthened. Husbands no longer seize under the pressure of unreasonable expectations, and wives are not bound under an unjust restraining order. A new generation of children will grow up witnessing their parents in full-effect—at home, in the workplace, at church.\r\n\r\nRedefining gender roles in the Christian community may not be as difficult as it would seem. It will be like entering into a world where people are as they were meant to be.','Gender Roles As God Intended','','inherit','open','open','','2508-revision-6','','','2011-11-23 12:46:10','2011-11-23 20:46:10','',2508,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/23/2508-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(2780,20,'2011-11-28 12:19:28','2011-11-28 20:19:28','People like to emphasize different aspects of Jesus\'s life and teachings.  He taught that the pure in heart would be blessed, for example, seemingly indicating that the inward life is what truly matters.  Yet the miracles, warnings about judgment, and commands to care of the distressed and outcast are equally stressed.  A few weeks ago we discussed this passage at church from <a href=\"http://www.markscandrette.com/writing/practicing-the-way-of-jesus-coming-soon/\">Mark Scandrette\'s newest book, <em>Practicing the Way of Jesus</em></a>:<a href=\"http://www.markscandrette.com/writing/practicing-the-way-of-jesus-coming-soon/\" target=\"_blank\">\r\n</a>\r\n<blockquote>The baptism of Jesus provides a compelling picture of the kind of intimate union with God we were created for.  As he stepped out from the water, he heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17).  The Spirit then led Jesus into the wilderness where his identity as the beloved was tested.  He emerged after forty days a resolute son prepared to do “his father’s business.”  Subsequently, Jesus often withdrew to gardens and other lonely places.  In the most difficult hours leading up to his arrest, torture and crucifixion, he went into a garden one last time, kneeling to pray, “Abba, not my will but yours be done.”  A hidden life of solitude fueled his courageous public acts of love and service (p. 105).</blockquote>\r\nMaybe it could be said then that the Christian life is meant to be lived out on the razor’s edge between prophetic action and contemplative reflection.  And it is not so much that one of the steps in this dialectical process must come before the other.  Nor do they necessarily coalesce, really, but remain in tension and are mutually reinforcing.  They form the two pillars that buttress discipleship.  Politically speaking, for instance, we can therefore work for justice and even invest ourselves in certain legislative reforms, electoral changes and grassroots movements.  The role of the contemplative in this case, however, will be to keep our expectations and emotional attachment in check and somewhat disinterested.  The contemplative reminds us that at the end of the day, a Christ-follower still must ultimately find rest in the arms of Jesus rather than in the outcome of political proposals.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn1\">[i]</a>  Duke theologian <a href=\"http://divinity.duke.edu/academics/faculty/paul-griffiths\" target=\"_blank\">Paul J. Griffiths</a> calls this approach “political quietism.”<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn2\">[ii]</a>\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, it is the contemplative that gives inspiration, energy and vision to our impending and “courageous public acts of love and service” (see above).  It enables one to meditate on the “agonistic weight of the world.\"<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn1\">[iii]</a>  At the same time, it also serves to critique and safeguard the extent to which our identities can become too closely aligned with nationalism or any other parochial allegiance.  It is the corrective to all our idolatries.  Accordingly, a Christian citizenship then is understood to be a revoked and “crucified” vocation – that is, it is self-emptied.  We act, but we act with a knowledge that the problems we face in this world can at best only be imperfectly resolved.  As she surveys the bloodshed in our world, it’s not easy for the Christian citizen to really expect the proposal she advocates to substantially curtail all the violence and oppression.  Occupy Wall Street might be a good example of this - a movement with so much positive potential but the lasting effect of which is still to be seen.  Thus, Griffiths also talks about three other  “notes” of Christian political agency: skepticism, hope and lament – skepticism with regard to over-realized eschatological promises, hope for the coming Kingdom, and lament over the real and terrible suffering in the meantime.\r\n\r\nActivism remains, and indeed we must act - especially in solidarity with those on the underside of history - but it is only the spiritually and prayerfully formed person whose heart is prepared for the trials of a cross-bearing lifestyle.  Too often we are content with the contemplative or running dry in the prophetic.  May we remind and spur each other along to traverse the path between the two.\r\n\r\nHow does this tangibly play out in the rhythms of congregational and communal life?\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" />\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[i]</a> I’m using the term <em>political</em> here in the broadest possible sense to include practically all corporate civil activity – not just official or formal participation.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[ii]</a> Douglas Harink, <em>Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision: Critical Engagements with Agamben, Badiou, Zizek and Others</em> (Cascade Books, 2010), 190.\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[iii]</a> Mark L Taylor, <em>The Theological and the Political: On the Weight of the World</em> (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011).\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','The Prophetic and the Contemplative','','inherit','open','open','','2622-revision-6','','','2011-11-28 12:19:28','2011-11-28 20:19:28','',2622,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2622-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(2670,20,'2011-11-28 01:05:11','2011-11-28 09:05:11','<a href=\"http://www.markscandrette.com/writing/practicing-the-way-of-jesus-coming-soon/\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Scandrette, <em>Practicing the Way of Jesus</em></a>:\r\n<blockquote>The baptism of Jesus provides a compelling picture of the kind of intimate union with God we were created for.  As he stepped out from the water, he heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17).  The Spirit then led Jesus into the wilderness where his identity as the beloved was tested.  He emerged after forty days a resolute son prepared to do “his father’s business.”  Subsequently, Jesus often withdrew to gardens and other lonely places.  In the most difficult hours leading up to his arrest, torture and crucifixion, he went into a garden one last time, kneeling to pray, “Abba, not my will but yours be done.”  A hidden life of solitude fueled his courageous public acts of love and service (p. 105).</blockquote>\r\nThe Christian life is meant to be lived out on the razor’s edge between prophetic action and contemplative reflection.  And it is not so much that one of the steps in this dialectical process must come before the other.  Nor do they necessarily coalesce, really, but remain in tension and are mutually reinforcing.  They form the two pillars that buttress discipleship.  Politically speaking, for instance, we can therefore work for justice and even invest ourselves in certain legislative reforms, electoral changes and grassroots movements.  The role of the contemplative in this case, however, will be to keep our expectations and emotional attachment in check and somewhat disinterested.  The contemplative reminds us that at the end of the day, a Christ-follower still must ultimately find rest in the arms of Jesus rather than in the outcome of political proposals.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn1\">[i]</a>  Duke theologian <a href=\"http://divinity.duke.edu/academics/faculty/paul-griffiths\" target=\"_blank\">Paul J. Griffiths</a> calls this approach “political quietism.”<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn2\">[ii]</a>\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, it is the contemplative that gives inspiration, energy and vision to our impending and “courageous public acts of love and service” (see above).  It enables one to meditate on the “agonistic weight of the world.\"<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn1\">[iii]</a>  At the same time, it also serves to critique and safeguard the extent to which our identities can become too closely aligned with nationalism or any other parochial allegiance.  It is the corrective to all our idolatries.  Accordingly, a Christian citizenship then is understood to be a revoked and “crucified” vocation – that is, it is self-emptied.  We act, but we act with a knowledge that the problems we face in this world can at best only be imperfectly resolved.  As she surveys the bloodshed in our world, it’s not easy for the Christian citizen to really expect the proposal she advocates to substantially curtail all the violence and oppression.  Occupy Wall Street might be a good example of this - a movement with so much positive potential but the lasting effect of which is still to be seen.  Thus, Griffiths also talks about three other  “notes” of Christian political agency: skepticism, hope and lament – skepticism with regard to over-realized eschatological promises, hope for the coming Kingdom, and lament over the real and terrible suffering in the meantime.\r\n\r\nActivism remains, and indeed we must act - especially in solidarity with those on the underside of history - but it is only the spiritually and prayerfully formed person whose heart is prepared for the trials of a cross-bearing lifestyle.  Too often we are content with the contemplative or running dry in the prophetic.  May we remind and spur each other along to traverse the path between the two.\r\n\r\nHow does this tangibly play out in the rhythms of congregational and communal life?\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" />\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[i]</a> I’m using the term <em>political</em> here in the broadest possible sense to include practically all corporate civil activity – not just official or formal participation.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[ii]</a> Douglas Harink, <em>Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision: Critical Engagements with Agamben, Badiou, Zizek and Others</em> (Cascade Books, 2010), 190.\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[iii]</a> Mark L Taylor, <em>The Theological and the Political: On the Weight of the World</em> (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011).\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','The Prophetic and the Contemplative','','inherit','open','open','','2622-revision-4','','','2011-11-28 01:05:11','2011-11-28 09:05:11','',2622,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2622-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2673,1,'2011-10-21 09:12:22','2011-10-21 16:12:22','Periodically we send out a newsletter with some of the best conversations. Use the form below to subscribe.\r\n\r\n<form action=\"http://www.graphicmail.com/RWCode/subscribe.asp?SiteID=60603&amp;SID=0\" method=\"post\" name=\"inputForm\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"SID\" value=\"0\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ReturnURL\" value=\"\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"Resize\" value=\"1\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"Mode\" value=\"update\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ResultMode\" value=\"\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"HitID\" value=\"0\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"OldEmail\" value=\"\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"EmailChange\" value=\"0\" />\r\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"EmailID\" value=\"0\" />\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>\r\n<div>\r\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\">\r\n</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td colspan=\"2\" align=\"left\">\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td align=\"right\" nowrap=\"nowrap\" width=\"10%\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\"><strong>Email   </strong></span></td>\r\n<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"Email\" value=\"\" size=\"40\" /></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td align=\"right\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\">First name    </span></strong></td>\r\n<td><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"Col1\" value=\"\" size=\"40\" /></span></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td align=\"right\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\">Last name    </span></strong></td>\r\n<td><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"Col2\" value=\"\" size=\"40\" /></span></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\"><strong>Select one or more mailing lists</strong></span></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td></td>\r\n<td><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"288509\" /> <span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\">Provoketive Writers</span></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td></td>\r\n<td><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"290552\" /> <span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\">Provoketive Magazine</span></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" /></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n<div><center>Please come back at any time to modify your profile.</center><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; font-weight: Normal;\">\r\n</span></span>\r\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td align=\"center\"><a style=\"text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px;\" href=\"http://graphicmail.com/\">Email marketing by</a><strong> GraphicMail</strong></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n</div></td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n</form>','Newsletter','','inherit','open','open','','33-revision-7','','','2011-10-21 09:12:22','2011-10-21 16:12:22','',33,'http://provoketive.com/2011/10/21/33-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(2675,1,'2011-11-28 12:14:51','2011-11-28 20:14:51','','beautiful_flower','','inherit','open','open','','beautiful_flower','','','2011-11-28 12:14:51','2011-11-28 20:14:51','',2497,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/beautiful_flower.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2676,1,'2011-11-28 07:48:28','2011-11-28 15:48:28','You know what a grandma smells like, right? I don\'t even have to go into the details, you already know what I\'m talking about. If a grandma walked into the room where you are sitting right now, you would smell her before you saw her. Personally I don\'t think it\'s an altogether pleasant smell, but I tolerate it because the people that smell that way are ancient. It\'s very likely that they don\'t know any better than to soak in a tub of ivory soap for a few hours and then rub rose scented potpourri all over themselves. \r\n\r\nAny way the point here is that some smells are absolutely defining. You know what grandma smells like. For some people that smell stirs up some very stuffy and unpleasant memories.  For some people all you can think about is wanting to hug your own grandma just one more time. When you smell freshly mown grass you may think of hours of back breaking labor, I think of sitting on the porch in summertime with a good book. When you smell coffee you might think of being a kid, waking up in the morning before dad went to work, I think of hours of back breaking labor.  \r\n\r\nSo when scripture says that we are the aroma of God, well that will just make you stop for a moment. 2 Corinthians 2:15. It says that any one who dares spread the gospel, smells like God.  So essentially, when you walk into a room, people smell God. What does God smell like?  He smells like Death, He smells like Life. To people on the path to salvation, you smell like fresh air, like thanksgiving dinner, like a first love. To people on the path to destruction, you smell like rotten food, like that perfume store at the mall, like sulfur.  \r\n\r\nObviously, it\'s not something you can actually smell, imagine being able to sniff out other believers.  Or being able to smell if people were ready to hear the gospel. But just the same way you can\'t see a smell, you can\'t always explain why a person gives you the creeps, or inspires you just by being there. The spirit of God that is alive in us, is something that people are aware of, even if only subconsciously.  \r\n\r\nYour sense of smell is the weakest sense you have. Eventually those sensors get used to what is in the air and you stop smelling it. Suppose you are in a room that has been exposed to a powerful airborne hallucinogen. You may smell it at first and take steps to get out of there.  But after a while, you stop smelling it and you are far too fascinated by the pretty shapes on the walls to want to leave any more. \r\n\r\nSo if someone doesn\'t want you around, if they persecute you, if they spread lies about you, they smell God, they smell their own impending doom. Give it some time. Eventually they will realize that you are no danger, and soon may even begin to smell life on you rather than death.  ','Smells Like God','','inherit','open','open','','2497-revision-2','','','2011-11-28 07:48:28','2011-11-28 15:48:28','',2497,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2497-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2677,1,'2011-11-28 12:18:55','2011-11-28 20:18:55','','man_reflecting','','inherit','open','open','','man_reflecting','','','2011-11-28 12:18:55','2011-11-28 20:18:55','',2622,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/man_reflecting.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2678,1,'2011-11-28 10:13:32','2011-11-28 18:13:32','People like to emphasize different aspects of Jesus\'s life and teachings.  He taught that the pure in heart would be blessed, for example, seemingly indicating that the inward life is what truly matters.  Yet the miracles, warnings about judgment, and commands to care of the distressed and outcast are equally stressed.  A few weeks ago we discussed this passage at church from <a href=\"http://www.markscandrette.com/writing/practicing-the-way-of-jesus-coming-soon/\">Mark Scandrette\'s newest book, <em>Practicing the Way of Jesus</em></a>:<a href=\"http://www.markscandrette.com/writing/practicing-the-way-of-jesus-coming-soon/\" target=\"_blank\">\r\n</a>\r\n<blockquote>The baptism of Jesus provides a compelling picture of the kind of intimate union with God we were created for.  As he stepped out from the water, he heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17).  The Spirit then led Jesus into the wilderness where his identity as the beloved was tested.  He emerged after forty days a resolute son prepared to do “his father’s business.”  Subsequently, Jesus often withdrew to gardens and other lonely places.  In the most difficult hours leading up to his arrest, torture and crucifixion, he went into a garden one last time, kneeling to pray, “Abba, not my will but yours be done.”  A hidden life of solitude fueled his courageous public acts of love and service (p. 105).</blockquote>\r\nMaybe it could be said then that the Christian life is meant to be lived out on the razor’s edge between prophetic action and contemplative reflection.  And it is not so much that one of the steps in this dialectical process must come before the other.  Nor do they necessarily coalesce, really, but remain in tension and are mutually reinforcing.  They form the two pillars that buttress discipleship.  Politically speaking, for instance, we can therefore work for justice and even invest ourselves in certain legislative reforms, electoral changes and grassroots movements.  The role of the contemplative in this case, however, will be to keep our expectations and emotional attachment in check and somewhat disinterested.  The contemplative reminds us that at the end of the day, a Christ-follower still must ultimately find rest in the arms of Jesus rather than in the outcome of political proposals.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn1\">[i]</a>  Duke theologian <a href=\"http://divinity.duke.edu/academics/faculty/paul-griffiths\" target=\"_blank\">Paul J. Griffiths</a> calls this approach “political quietism.”<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn2\">[ii]</a>\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, it is the contemplative that gives inspiration, energy and vision to our impending and “courageous public acts of love and service” (see above).  It enables one to meditate on the “agonistic weight of the world.\"<a title=\"\" href=\"#_edn1\">[iii]</a>  At the same time, it also serves to critique and safeguard the extent to which our identities can become too closely aligned with nationalism or any other parochial allegiance.  It is the corrective to all our idolatries.  Accordingly, a Christian citizenship then is understood to be a revoked and “crucified” vocation – that is, it is self-emptied.  We act, but we act with a knowledge that the problems we face in this world can at best only be imperfectly resolved.  As she surveys the bloodshed in our world, it’s not easy for the Christian citizen to really expect the proposal she advocates to substantially curtail all the violence and oppression.  Occupy Wall Street might be a good example of this - a movement with so much positive potential but the lasting effect of which is still to be seen.  Thus, Griffiths also talks about three other  “notes” of Christian political agency: skepticism, hope and lament – skepticism with regard to over-realized eschatological promises, hope for the coming Kingdom, and lament over the real and terrible suffering in the meantime.\r\n\r\nActivism remains, and indeed we must act - especially in solidarity with those on the underside of history - but it is only the spiritually and prayerfully formed person whose heart is prepared for the trials of a cross-bearing lifestyle.  Too often we are content with the contemplative or running dry in the prophetic.  May we remind and spur each other along to traverse the path between the two.\r\n\r\nHow does this tangibly play out in the rhythms of congregational and communal life?\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" />\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[i]</a> I’m using the term <em>political</em> here in the broadest possible sense to include practically all corporate civil activity – not just official or formal participation.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[ii]</a> Douglas Harink, <em>Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision: Critical Engagements with Agamben, Badiou, Zizek and Others</em> (Cascade Books, 2010), 190.\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ednref\">[iii]</a> Mark L Taylor, <em>The Theological and the Political: On the Weight of the World</em> (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011).\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','The Prophetic and the Contemplative','','inherit','open','open','','2622-revision-5','','','2011-11-28 10:13:32','2011-11-28 18:13:32','',2622,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2622-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2680,1,'2011-11-28 12:25:40','2011-11-28 20:25:40','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail. With his follow up work, <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a>, Jim continued the the journey he started\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>\n</em></strong>\n\n<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>\n\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\n\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\n\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\n\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\n\nBeing an author doesn’t line up well with my neurosis, which include wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\n\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\n\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\n\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\n\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\n\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\n\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\n\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.','','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision','','','2011-11-28 12:25:40','2011-11-28 20:25:40','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(2681,1,'2011-11-28 12:25:57','2011-11-28 20:25:57','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail. With his follow up work, <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a>, Jim continued the the journey he started\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\nBeing an author doesn’t line up well with my neurosis, which include wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.','','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-2','','','2011-11-28 12:25:57','2011-11-28 20:25:57','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2682,1,'2011-11-28 12:26:26','2011-11-28 20:26:26','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail. With his follow up work, <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a>, Jim continued the the journey he started\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\nBeing an author doesn’t line up well with my neurosis, which include wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-3','','','2011-11-28 12:26:26','2011-11-28 20:26:26','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2684,1,'2011-11-28 12:30:40','2011-11-28 20:30:40','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started\n\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publi\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>\n</em></strong>\n\n<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>\n\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\n\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\n\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\n\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\n\nBeing an author doesn’t line up well with my neurosis, which include wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\n\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\n\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\n\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\n\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\n\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\n\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\n\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-4','','','2011-11-28 12:30:40','2011-11-28 20:30:40','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2685,1,'2011-11-28 12:31:08','2011-11-28 20:31:08','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started\r\n\r\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n[question]<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>[/question]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\nBeing an author doesn’t line up well with my neurosis, which include wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-5','','','2011-11-28 12:31:08','2011-11-28 20:31:08','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(2686,1,'2011-11-28 12:31:14','2011-11-28 20:31:14','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started\r\n\r\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n[question]<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>[/question]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\nBeing an author doesn’t line up well with my neurosis, which include wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-6','','','2011-11-28 12:31:14','2011-11-28 20:31:14','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(2687,1,'2011-11-28 12:44:07','2011-11-28 20:44:07','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started\r\n\r\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n[question]<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Was your next book easier?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Did this process affect you?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nBeing an author didn’t line up well with my neurosis, which included wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]What makes you a great writer?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]But your first book did really, really well?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]And you published with Zondervan.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]That must have been devastating.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]How did you respond?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]In other words, you lived some of the same suffering as Jesus.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\nIn part 2, we\'ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-7','','','2011-11-28 12:44:07','2011-11-28 20:44:07','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(2688,1,'2011-11-28 12:45:04','2011-11-28 20:45:04','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started\r\n\r\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n[question]<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Was your next book easier?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Did this process affect you?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nBeing an author didn’t line up well with my neurosis, which included wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]What makes you a great writer?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]But your first book did really, really well?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]And you published with Zondervan.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]That must have been devastating.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]How did you respond?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]In other words, you lived some of the same suffering as Jesus.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\nIn part 2, we\'ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-8','','','2011-11-28 12:45:04','2011-11-28 20:45:04','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(2689,1,'2011-11-28 12:45:15','2011-11-28 20:45:15','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started\r\n\r\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n[question]<strong>You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?</strong>[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Was your next book easier?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Did this process affect you?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nBeing an author didn’t line up well with my neurosis, which included wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]What makes you a great writer?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]But your first book did really, really well?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]And you published with Zondervan.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]That must have been devastating.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]How did you respond?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]In other words, you lived some of the same suffering as Jesus.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\nIn part 2, we\'ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-9','','','2011-11-28 12:45:15','2011-11-28 20:45:15','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-9/',0,'revision','',0),(2690,1,'2011-11-28 12:52:42','2011-11-28 20:52:42','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started by asking what it meant to discover and experience God beyond religion.\n\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, <a href=\"With the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a>, Jim is now launching into new territory as a writer, a human being, and a self-published author.  In this three part interview, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\n\n[question]You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\n\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]Was your next book easier?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\n\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]Did this process affect you?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nBeing an author didn’t line up well with my neurosis, which included wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]What makes you a great writer?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]But your first book did really, really well?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]And you published with Zondervan.[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\n\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\n\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]That must have been devastating.[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]How did you respond?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]In other words, you lived some of the same suffering as Jesus.[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\n\n[/answer]\n\nIn part 2, we\'ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-10','','','2011-11-28 12:52:42','2011-11-28 20:52:42','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-10/',0,'revision','',0),(2691,1,'2011-12-02 08:00:08','2011-12-02 16:00:08','In this second of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his experience with his publisher and what went wrong.\r\n\r\n[question]What happened with Zondervan? They decided to cancel your 2-book contract, why?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]The book was intended to be a 1-year social experiment where I tested the idea that authentic Christianity is not Jesus <strong><em>AND</em></strong> Jim but Jesus <strong><em>AS</em></strong> Jim, believing that there was nothing separating me and Jesus, and that I was free to live as he did in every way. On August 25, 2008 when I signed that 2-book deal with Zondervan Publishers I had no idea that 1 year would stretch into 3, and would include the death of my mother, two near-death experiences, and a deeper deconstruction of my faith and my entire identity as Jim Palmer. Nor did I expect I would become the center of a firestorm of controversy when I turned my manuscript into Zondervan in April. My manuscript was rejected on the grounds that it did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” My 2-book contract was promptly canceled.[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]What was your response?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]Zondervan’s publishing mission reads, “To be the leader in Christian communications meeting the needs of people with resources that glorify Jesus Christ and promote biblical principles.” I wish that somehow this mission could include telling every human being that they are born into this world with inherent and equal eternal worth, and every bit a “Son of God” as Jesus of Nazareth was.[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Did you agree with their reasons?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nWhile earning my Masters of Divinity degree and during my years of being a pastor, I uncovered plenty of biblical support for this idea, much more than I could ever mention here. Jesus himself, in John 17, says we share the “same glory” given him by God and that this is the basis for all humanity to be “one” with God. I was told in my religious training that it was sacrilege to view myself on equal footing with Jesus. But even he said, “We would do greater things than he did.”\r\n\r\nBut this message was lost as the Christian religion gave way to institutionalized clerical power and politics. There are countless stories of divine nobodies who lived their faith outside the walls of “official” Christendom. They were demonized and left out of history books and schools of divinity. These free believers were often condemned and killed...as heretics.\r\n\r\nThe past several years my journey and writing have been about shedding corporate Christianity with its “us versus them” mentality, and reclaiming the real meaning of Christ’s divine inclusivity.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]That\'s a fairly radical message.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nFor Jesus of Nazareth, life was his religion, love was his doctrine, and humankind was his church. Jesus affirmed the inherent and divine dignity of all people, and was devoted to human solidarity, compassion and community. That’s why we need the Darlas, Makihas, Brunos and Jims – every one of us “being Jesus” in today\'s world.\r\n\r\nWhat I learned in my year of being Jesus is that Jesus was special, but not because he was more divine then the rest of us, but because he was courageously more human than most.\r\n\r\nWhat’s ironic is that after submitting my final manuscript to Zondervan, I blogged, tweeted, and Facebook-ed about <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>, causing my pre-order book sales to climb to an astounding Amazon ranking of 15,000. But it wasn’t long after that I received news of the rejection.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]But Zondervan still rejected the manuscript.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]I’m not the first “heretic”/author to be let go of by Zondervan. Fellow pastor-author Rob Bell gets the credit for that. The hallmark of Christianity seems to have become who is excluded, which can include anything from a theological litmus test to what you wear to church on Sunday mornings. Since leaving institutional church and writing about my journey of shedding religion to find God, I have received hundreds of emails from other nobodies who feel judged and marginalized by Christianity, including Wanda the Waffle House waitress who’s only crime is having tattoos and wearing her Waffle House uniform to church, where people stare at her like she’s a whore and avoid talking to her after the service.[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]What would you say to people like Wanda now?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]I wish I could tell Wanda and every person that they are born into this world as complete and whole human beings with equal worth to God as Jesus of Nazareth. In the eyes of the religious establishment we might be nobodies but we are <em>divine</em> nobodies, as much a child of God as that nobody Nazarene carpenter. This is the message I would like to get through to fellow survivors of childhood abuse. It’s the message I would have wanted to express to the 10-year-old girl sex slaves I encountered in brothels in Southeast Asia in my work as a human rights activist. As an ordained minister, it’s the message I wanted to deliver to a Christian friend who said, “I am a piece of shit to God, which is why I need Jesus.” It is very difficult to convince people that they are good and beautiful human beings when religion has sufficiently convinced them that they are “sinners” and despicable to God. It’s also difficult to deliver this message when institutional Christianity has convinced us that acknowledging the divine in every human is a betrayal of God.[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]How do you feel about the experience now, now that is it over?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nThis isn’t a Conan O’Brien thing for me – I’m not bitter about what happened with Zondervan. I’m not going to lie, the whole ordeal was personally devastating, tanked me out emotionally and led to my filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy… but I worked through it with the support of some great friends and a supportive social media network.\r\n\r\nI had hoped early on that Zondervan and I could have worked all this out and still published the book. I saw a huge upside in doing so and perhaps avoid a Rob Bell scenario, which only seems to deepen the divide between people who hold different beliefs about God. I made what I thought was a powerful appeal to Zondervan, believing that our mutual love for Jesus could allow us to rise above whatever other theological differences there might be.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Is that really even possible?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nA way perhaps to do this would have been to put a label on the cover stating that Zondervan didn’t necessarily support all the views expressed in the book. That would be unique. The book may have been even more interesting, more marketable – causing more book sales, which most book publishers, Christian or not, would want. Theological differences among professing Christians is nothing new. It has always been a part of the story of Christianity from its earliest days. I actually believed we could work – within the agreement of the contract – to create a book with an appeal outside the box of traditional Christian books.\r\n\r\nBut it wasn’t to be.\r\n\r\nNow on the other side of this I don’t want to contribute to the divide. Zondervan did what they felt was consistent with their mission. Eventually I realized it wasn’t personal. I have friends at Zondervan who I hold in high regard.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\nIn part 3, Jim shares his experience of wanting to fade into the woodwork and what it meant to self-publish Being Jesus in Nashville.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 2','','publish','open','open','','author-jim-palmer-uncensored-part-2','','','2011-12-02 13:44:52','2011-12-02 21:44:52','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2691',0,'post','',5),(2692,1,'2011-11-28 13:11:14','2011-11-28 21:11:14','In this second of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his experience with his publisher and what went wrong.\n\n[question]What happened with Zondervan? They decided to cancel your 2-book contract, why?[/question]\n\n[answer]The book was intended to be a 1-year social experiment where I tested the idea that authentic Christianity is not Jesus <strong><em>AND</em></strong> Jim but Jesus <strong><em>AS</em></strong> Jim, believing that there was nothing separating me and Jesus, and that I was free to live as he did in every way. On August 25, 2008 when I signed that 2-book deal with Zondervan Publishers I had no idea that 1 year would stretch into 3, and would include the death of my mother, two near-death experiences, and a deeper deconstruction of my faith and my entire identity as Jim Palmer. Nor did I expect I would become the center of a firestorm of controversy when I turned my manuscript into Zondervan in April. My manuscript was rejected on the grounds that it did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” My 2-book contract was promptly canceled.[/answer]\n\n[question]What was your response?[/question]\n\n[answer]Zondervan’s publishing mission reads, “To be the leader in Christian communications meeting the needs of people with resources that glorify Jesus Christ and promote biblical principles.” I wish that somehow this mission could include telling every human being that they are born into this world with inherent and equal eternal worth, and every bit a “Son of God” as Jesus of Nazareth was.[/answer]\n\n[question]Did you agree with their reasons?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nWhile earning my Masters of Divinity degree and during my years of being a pastor, I uncovered plenty of biblical support for this idea, much more than I could ever mention here. Jesus himself, in John 17, says we share the “same glory” given him by God and that this is the basis for all humanity to be “one” with God. I was told in my religious training that it was sacrilege to view myself on equal footing with Jesus. But even he said, “We would do greater things than he did.”\n\nBut this message was lost as the Christian religion gave way to institutionalized clerical power and politics. There are countless stories of divine nobodies who lived their faith outside the walls of “official” Christendom. They were demonized and left out of history books and schools of divinity. These free believers were often condemned and killed...as heretics.\n\nThe past several years my journey and writing have been about shedding corporate Christianity with its “us versus them” mentality, and reclaiming the real meaning of Christ’s divine inclusivity.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]That\'s a fairly radical message.[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nFor Jesus of Nazareth, life was his religion, love was his doctrine, and humankind was his church. Jesus affirmed the inherent and divine dignity of all people, and was devoted to human solidarity, compassion and community. That’s why we need the Darlas, Makihas, Brunos and Jims – every one of us “being Jesus” in today\'s world.\n\nWhat I learned in my year of being Jesus is that Jesus was special, but not because he was more divine then the rest of us, but because he was courageously more human than most.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nWhat’s ironic is that after submitting my final manuscript to Zondervan, I blogged, tweeted, and Facebook-ed about <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>, causing my pre-order book sales to climb to an astounding Amazon ranking of 15,000. But it wasn’t long after that I received news of the rejection.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]But Zondervan still rejected the manuscript.[/question]\n\n[answer]I’m not the first “heretic”/author to be let go of by Zondervan. Fellow pastor-author Rob Bell gets the credit for that. The hallmark of Christianity seems to have become who is excluded, which can include anything from a theological litmus test to what you wear to church on Sunday mornings. Since leaving institutional church and writing about my journey of shedding religion to find God, I have received hundreds of emails from other nobodies who feel judged and marginalized by Christianity, including Wanda the Waffle House waitress who’s only crime is having tattoos and wearing her Waffle House uniform to church, where people stare at her like she’s a whore and avoid talking to her after the service.[/answer]\n\n[question]What would you say to people like Wanda now?[/question]\n\n[answer]I wish I could tell Wanda and every person that they are born into this world as complete and whole human beings with equal worth to God as Jesus of Nazareth. In the eyes of the religious establishment we might be nobodies but we are <em>divine</em> nobodies, as much a child of God as that nobody Nazarene carpenter. This is the message I would like to get through to fellow survivors of childhood abuse. It’s the message I would have wanted to express to the 10-year-old girl sex slaves I encountered in brothels in Southeast Asia in my work as a human rights activist. As an ordained minister, it’s the message I wanted to deliver to a Christian friend who said, “I am a piece of shit to God, which is why I need Jesus.” It is very difficult to convince people that they are good and beautiful human beings when religion has sufficiently convinced them that they are “sinners” and despicable to God. It’s also difficult to deliver this message when institutional Christianity has convinced us that acknowledging the divine in every human is a betrayal of God.[/answer]\n\n[question]How do you feel about the experience now, now that is it over?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nThis isn’t a Conan O’Brien thing for me – I’m not bitter about what happened with Zondervan. I’m not going to lie, the whole ordeal was personally devastating, tanked me out emotionally and led to my filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy… but I worked through it with the support of some great friends and a supportive social media network.\n\nI had hoped early on that Zondervan and I could have worked all this out and still published the book. I saw a huge upside in doing so and perhaps avoid a Rob Bell scenario, which only seems to deepen the divide between people who hold different beliefs about God. I made what I thought was a powerful appeal to Zondervan, believing that our mutual love for Jesus could allow us to rise above whatever other theological differences there might be.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]Is that really even possible?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nA way perhaps to do this would have been to put a label on the cover stating that Zondervan didn’t necessarily support all the views expressed in the book. That would be unique. The book may have been even more interesting, more marketable – causing more book sales, which most book publishers, Christian or not, would want. Theological differences among professing Christians is nothing new. It has always been a part of the story of Christianity from its earliest days. I actually believed we could work – within the agreement of the contract – to create a book with an appeal outside the box of traditional Christian books.\n\nBut it wasn’t to be.\n\nNow on the other side of this I don’t want to contribute to the divide. Zondervan did what they felt was consistent with their mission. Eventually I realized it wasn’t personal. I have friends at Zondervan who I hold in high regard.\n\n[/answer]\n\nIn part 3, we’ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 2','','inherit','open','open','','2691-revision','','','2011-11-28 13:11:14','2011-11-28 21:11:14','',2691,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2691-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(2693,1,'2011-12-05 11:14:14','2011-12-05 19:14:14','In this third of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his desire to fade into the woodwork and what it mean to self-publish his book <em><a href=\"With%20the%20upcoming%20release%20of%20Jim%27s%20newest%20book,%20Being%20Jesus%20In%20Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a></em>.\r\n\r\n[question]You’ve stated that you’ve “flirted with fading into the woodwork, never to be heard from again.”  What do you mean by that? [/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Being_Jesus_Kindle.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2824\" title=\"Being_Jesus_Kindle\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Being_Jesus_Kindle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"150\" /></a>I’m not fond of controversy or conflict and I’ve had a whole lot of both around this book. There are some days when it wears on me and I ponder resurrecting my original dream, which was to be a starting guard for the Chicago Bulls. It wouldn’t work now anyway, I had my chance when MJ retired and didn’t take it.\r\n\r\nI get discouraged. Some days it feels like I’m just banging my head against a wall. I’m not selling crack or peddling porn; I’m standing for the inherent, equal and divine worth of every human being, and wanting to enroll people in the idea of building a world that works for everyone. But for this, people want me crucified. What keeps me going are those divine nobodies who contact me to share their story and the ways I’ve contributed to their journey.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]You\'ve recently started the Occupy Religion effort.  What is that?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nI didn’t expect the Occupy Religion effort to evolve from my new book. Government and religion share the similar dynamic of 1% having inordinate influence over how things work for everyone else. In religion’s case, the 1% are religious clerics and the 99% are the rest of us, many of whom practice a particular faith but still have very little say on how that faith is expressed in the world.\r\n\r\nThe Occupy Religion effort is about confronting religion in those places where it divides and separates people from God and each other. <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em> is taking a stand with my tribe who has shared this journey with me the last several years. They are ordinary people who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus promoted by the institutional church—one that leads to condemning people of other faiths, forces Christians to adopt beliefs and practices they often cannot live up to or support in good conscience, and requires people to promote a message that divides human beings in the name of Jesus… in the name of God.\r\n\r\nIn a nutshell, I keep going because I know I’m not alone. I’m not just speaking for myself but representing a lot of people who want their voice to be heard.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]You chose to self-publish <em>Being Jesus</em>. What does this new book mean to you and why did you decide to publish it on your own?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nI’m self-publishing this book because I realized I had to disentangle myself from the Christian publishing machine in order for my voice and message to be heard. Membership in an institutional church is not a prerequisite for being a fully expressed and devoted follower of Christ. A book contract with a major Christian publisher is not necessary to share my story and message with my tribe and beyond.\r\n\r\nSelf-publishing hasn’t been a cake walk. I discovered that I didn’t know <strong>jack about self-publishing. </strong>How hard can this be??? (I said to myself). Well, IT IS! It’s been a steep learning curve and I’m still climbing it. <strong>I’m scared as hell of failing.</strong> What if my decision to self-publish bombs?! I HATE “marketing” myself or my books and the publisher mostly did this stuff before. So, it’s uncomfortable. Plus, I worry about letting people down. I don’t like disappointing people. <strong>I’m making mistakes.</strong> I thought the self-publishing route meant that I could get everything I wanted instantaneously when I wanted it just the way I wanted it. I think they call that delusional! <strong>The freedom isn’t so easy.</strong> With no filter or censorship, I am free to fully express myself. Just what I wanted! Right? It’s not so easy. It’s challenging that part of me that wants people to like me, losses sleep over a negative Amazon review, worries about offending people, and fears rejection.\r\n\r\nPeople can contribute to self-publishing effort of <a href=\"http://www.indiegogo.com/Being-Jesus?a=294635&amp;i=addr\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em></a> through the IndieGoGo Campaign.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]How are you holding up now?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nSome days it feels like I’m spitting in the wind. Sometimes I wonder if I’m making any difference at all. I get discouraged at times, questioning what, if any, impact I am having. I often feel I’m beating my head against a wall, speaking out about the way religion puts a barrier between people and God and each other. It’s an up-hill battle trying to convince people that following Jesus could mean standing for the inherent, equal and divine worth of every human being. So, just being straight here, some days I ponder if I should go back to being a carpet salesman, maybe coach the girls basketball team at Jessica’s school.\r\n\r\nAnyway… sometimes it feels this way and then I received this email a few minutes ago:\r\n\r\n<em>Hi Jim.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>I just wanted to say that I’m grateful for the “What do you need to give yourself permission to do or be?” question you raised on the Divine Nobody Call. It was such a heartfelt, deeply honest question, and I think that is one of the things I appreciate about you, that you don’t give up on asking the questions, even when it’s scary, and messy, and confusing and you keep trying to be open about what you’re feeling and where you’re at in your journey even when it’s uncomfortable. </em>\r\n\r\n<em>A few things occurred to me as I started to write this, one is that we can find God in the questions and when you feel them being formed in you, it’s God stirring you into being who you are. Two, your question about permission makes me a little sad because, I think some people are so lost in the self they’ve created to relate and survive the world, that they don’t even know they aren’t giving themselves permission. These are the kinds of questions that people need space to hear and express and I’m thankful that you help to create that space. </em>\r\n\r\n<em>For me, I’m starting to feel lately like it’s less about shedding religion, and more about shedding a fake me who in turn relates in a fake way and can’t take up space, felt like she had to live by a different set of rules than the rest of my family, and who had to be the calming force trying to smooth the waters and bandage the wounds. I’m starting to feel like religion is just yet another symptom of the problem of not being fully yourself and thinking that by being fake you could create something better than God has already made. Religion, is one of the many ways that we as humans choose to keep ourselves small, and cowering in a dark corner of ourselves and the world, and to keep ourselves what we think is “safe and comfortable”, but there is no true safety or comfort being so tangled up in lies and the pain you won’t express, there is only safety and comfort in knowing and being the person that everytime God looks at you, the REAL you He says” Ah yes, you’re just who I made, I love you like crazy, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Thanks for being a part of this stage in my journey, and also for not giving up even on the days when you can’t seem to give yourself any permission at all.</em>\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\nIf you\'d like to support Jim, consider contributing to his <em></em><em><a href=\"With%20the%20upcoming%20release%20of%20Jim%27s%20newest%20book,%20Being%20Jesus%20In%20Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a></em> self-publishing campaign.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 3','','publish','open','open','','author-jim-palmer-uncensored-part-3','','','2011-12-05 11:29:04','2011-12-05 19:29:04','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2693',0,'post','',1),(2694,1,'2011-11-28 13:11:57','2011-11-28 21:11:57','','Auto Draft','','inherit','open','open','','2693-revision','','','2011-11-28 13:11:57','2011-11-28 21:11:57','',2693,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2693-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(2695,1,'2011-11-28 13:00:57','2011-11-28 21:00:57','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started by asking what it meant to discover and experience God beyond religion.\r\n\r\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, <a href=\"With the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a>, Jim is now launching into new territory as a writer, a human being, and a self-published author.  In this three part interview, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\r\n\r\n[question]You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Was your next book easier?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Did this process affect you?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nBeing an author didn’t line up well with my neurosis, which included wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]What makes you a great writer?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]But your first book did really, really well?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]And you published with Zondervan.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]That must have been devastating.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]How did you respond?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]In other words, you lived some of the same suffering as Jesus.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\nIn part 2, we\'ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-11','','','2011-11-28 13:00:57','2011-11-28 21:00:57','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-11/',0,'revision','',0),(2696,1,'2011-11-28 13:17:09','2011-11-28 21:17:09','In this third of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his desire to fade into the woodwork and what it mean to self-publish his book <em><a href=\"With%20the%20upcoming%20release%20of%20Jim%27s%20newest%20book,%20Being%20Jesus%20In%20Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a></em>.\n\n[question]You’ve stated that you’ve “flirted with fading into the woodwork, never to be heard from again.”  What do you mean by that? [/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nI’m not fond of controversy or conflict and I’ve had a whole lot of both around this book. There are some days when it wears on me and I ponder resurrecting my original dream, which was to be a starting guard for the Chicago Bulls. It wouldn’t work now anyway, I had my chance when MJ retired and didn’t take it.\n\nI get discouraged. Some days it feels like I’m just banging my head against a wall. I’m not selling crack or peddling porn; I’m standing for the inherent, equal and divine worth of every human being, and wanting to enroll people in the idea of building a world that works for everyone. But for this, people want me crucified. What keeps me going are those divine nobodies who contact me to share their story and the ways I’ve contributed to their journey.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]You\'ve recently started the Occupy Religion effort.  What is that?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nI didn’t expect the Occupy Religion effort to evolve from my new book. Government and religion share the similar dynamic of 1% having inordinate influence over how things work for everyone else. In religion’s case, the 1% are religious clerics and the 99% are the rest of us, many of whom practice a particular faith but still have very little say on how that faith is expressed in the world.\n\nThe Occupy Religion effort is about confronting religion in those places where it divides and separates people from God and each other. <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em> is taking a stand with my tribe who has shared this journey with me the last several years. They are ordinary people who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus promoted by the institutional church—one that leads to condemning people of other faiths, forces Christians to adopt beliefs and practices they often cannot live up to or support in good conscience, and requires people to promote a message that divides human beings in the name of Jesus… in the name of God.\n\nIn a nutshell, I keep going because I know I’m not alone. I’m not just speaking for myself but representing a lot of people who want their voice to be heard.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]You chose to self-publish <em>Being Jesus</em>. What does this new book mean to you and why did you decide to publish it on your own?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI’m self-publishing this book because I realized I had to disentangle myself from the Christian publishing machine in order for my voice and message to be heard. Membership in an institutional church is not a prerequisite for being a fully expressed and devoted follower of Christ. A book contract with a major Christian publisher is not necessary to share my story and message with my tribe and beyond.\n\nSelf-publishing hasn’t been a cake walk. I discovered that I didn’t know <strong>jack about self-publishing. </strong>How hard can this be??? (I said to myself). Well, IT IS! It’s been a steep learning curve and I’m still climbing it. <strong>I’m scared as hell of failing.</strong> What if my decision to self-publish bombs?! I HATE “marketing” myself or my books and the publisher mostly did this stuff before. So, it’s uncomfortable. Plus, I worry about letting people down. I don’t like disappointing people. <strong>I’m making mistakes.</strong> I thought the self-publishing route meant that I could get everything I wanted instantaneously when I wanted it just the way I wanted it. I think they call that delusional! <strong>The freedom isn’t so easy.</strong> With no filter or censorship, I am free to fully express myself. Just what I wanted! Right? It’s not so easy. It’s challenging that part of me that wants people to like me, losses sleep over a negative Amazon review, worries about offending people, and fears rejection.\n\nPeople can contribute to self-publishing effort of <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em> through the IndieGoGo Campaign (http://www.indiegogo.com/Being-Jesus?a=294635&amp;i=addr )\n\nSome days it feels like I’m spitting in the wind. Sometimes I wonder if I’m making any difference at all. I get discouraged at times, questioning what, if any, impact I am having. I often feel I’m beating my head against a wall, speaking out about the way religion puts a barrier between people and God and each other. It’s an up-hill battle trying to convince people that following Jesus could mean standing for the inherent, equal and divine worth of every human being. So, just being straight here, some days I ponder if I should go back to being a carpet salesman, maybe coach the girls basketball team at Jessica’s school.\n\nAnyway… sometimes it feels this way and then I received this email a few minutes ago:\n\n<em>Hi Jim.</em>\n\n<em>I just wanted to say that I’m grateful for the “What do you need to give yourself permission to do or be?” question you raised on the Divine Nobody Call. It was such a heartfelt, deeply honest question, and I think that is one of the things I appreciate about you, that you don’t give up on asking the questions, even when it’s scary, and messy, and confusing and you keep trying to be open about what you’re feeling and where you’re at in your journey even when it’s uncomfortable. </em>\n\n<em>A few things occurred to me as I started to write this, one is that we can find God in the questions and when you feel them being formed in you, it’s God stirring you into being who you are. Two, your question about permission makes me a little sad because, I think some people are so lost in the self they’ve created to relate and survive the world, that they don’t even know they aren’t giving themselves permission. These are the kinds of questions that people need space to hear and express and I’m thankful that you help to create that space. </em>\n\n<em>For me, I’m starting to feel lately like it’s less about shedding religion, and more about shedding a fake me who in turn relates in a fake way and can’t take up space, felt like she had to live by a different set of rules than the rest of my family, and who had to be the calming force trying to smooth the waters and bandage the wounds. I’m starting to feel like religion is just yet another symptom of the problem of not being fully yourself and thinking that by being fake you could create something better than God has already made. Religion, is one of the many ways that we as humans choose to keep ourselves small, and cowering in a dark corner of ourselves and the world, and to keep ourselves what we think is “safe and comfortable”, but there is no true safety or comfort being so tangled up in lies and the pain you won’t express, there is only safety and comfort in knowing and being the person that everytime God looks at you, the REAL you He says” Ah yes, you’re just who I made, I love you like crazy, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”</em>\n\n<em>Thanks for being a part of this stage in my journey, and also for not giving up even on the days when you can’t seem to give yourself any permission at all.</em>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 3','','inherit','open','open','','2693-revision-2','','','2011-11-28 13:17:09','2011-11-28 21:17:09','',2693,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2693-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2697,1,'2011-12-10 10:46:33','2011-12-10 18:46:33','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a> of sorts. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started by asking what it meant to discover and experience God beyond religion.  But little did he know that those two books would lead Jim into a wild journey into the highs of fame and the lows of bankruptcy, and eventually to his newest project, <em><a href=\"With the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville.</a></em>\n\nIn this three part interview, Jim shares the overwhelming experience of being a successful writer, and the toll it took on his life.  He\'ll also offer an honest look at what happens when the very thing you are writing about ends up changing what you are writing.  And finally Jim offers a first look into his latest project and what it means to publish outside the system.\n\nThis is author Jim Palmer...Uncensored.\n\n[question]You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\n\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]Was your next book easier?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\n\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]Did this process affect you?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nBeing an author didn’t line up well with my neurosis, which included wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]What makes you a great writer?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]But your first book did really, really well?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]And you published with Zondervan.[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\n\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\n\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]That must have been devastating.[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]How did you respond?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]In other words, you lived some of the same suffering as Jesus.[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\n\n[/answer]\n\nIn part 2, we\'ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-autosave','','','2011-12-10 10:46:33','2011-12-10 18:46:33','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2698,1,'2011-11-28 13:22:17','2011-11-28 21:22:17','In this third of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his desire to fade into the woodwork and what it mean to self-publish his book <em><a href=\"With%20the%20upcoming%20release%20of%20Jim%27s%20newest%20book,%20Being%20Jesus%20In%20Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a></em>.\n\n[question]You’ve stated that you’ve “flirted with fading into the woodwork, never to be heard from again.”  What do you mean by that? [/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nI’m not fond of controversy or conflict and I’ve had a whole lot of both around this book. There are some days when it wears on me and I ponder resurrecting my original dream, which was to be a starting guard for the Chicago Bulls. It wouldn’t work now anyway, I had my chance when MJ retired and didn’t take it.\n\nI get discouraged. Some days it feels like I’m just banging my head against a wall. I’m not selling crack or peddling porn; I’m standing for the inherent, equal and divine worth of every human being, and wanting to enroll people in the idea of building a world that works for everyone. But for this, people want me crucified. What keeps me going are those divine nobodies who contact me to share their story and the ways I’ve contributed to their journey.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]You\'ve recently started the Occupy Religion effort.  What is that?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nI didn’t expect the Occupy Religion effort to evolve from my new book. Government and religion share the similar dynamic of 1% having inordinate influence over how things work for everyone else. In religion’s case, the 1% are religious clerics and the 99% are the rest of us, many of whom practice a particular faith but still have very little say on how that faith is expressed in the world.\n\nThe Occupy Religion effort is about confronting religion in those places where it divides and separates people from God and each other. <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em> is taking a stand with my tribe who has shared this journey with me the last several years. They are ordinary people who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus promoted by the institutional church—one that leads to condemning people of other faiths, forces Christians to adopt beliefs and practices they often cannot live up to or support in good conscience, and requires people to promote a message that divides human beings in the name of Jesus… in the name of God.\n\nIn a nutshell, I keep going because I know I’m not alone. I’m not just speaking for myself but representing a lot of people who want their voice to be heard.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]You chose to self-publish <em>Being Jesus</em>. What does this new book mean to you and why did you decide to publish it on your own?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nI’m self-publishing this book because I realized I had to disentangle myself from the Christian publishing machine in order for my voice and message to be heard. Membership in an institutional church is not a prerequisite for being a fully expressed and devoted follower of Christ. A book contract with a major Christian publisher is not necessary to share my story and message with my tribe and beyond.\n\nSelf-publishing hasn’t been a cake walk. I discovered that I didn’t know <strong>jack about self-publishing. </strong>How hard can this be??? (I said to myself). Well, IT IS! It’s been a steep learning curve and I’m still climbing it. <strong>I’m scared as hell of failing.</strong> What if my decision to self-publish bombs?! I HATE “marketing” myself or my books and the publisher mostly did this stuff before. So, it’s uncomfortable. Plus, I worry about letting people down. I don’t like disappointing people. <strong>I’m making mistakes.</strong> I thought the self-publishing route meant that I could get everything I wanted instantaneously when I wanted it just the way I wanted it. I think they call that delusional! <strong>The freedom isn’t so easy.</strong> With no filter or censorship, I am free to fully express myself. Just what I wanted! Right? It’s not so easy. It’s challenging that part of me that wants people to like me, losses sleep over a negative Amazon review, worries about offending people, and fears rejection.\n\nPeople can contribute to self-publishing effort of <a href=\"http://www.indiegogo.com/Being-Jesus?a=294635&amp;i=addr\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em></a> through the IndieGoGo Campaign.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]How are you holding up now?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nSome days it feels like I’m spitting in the wind. Sometimes I wonder if I’m making any difference at all. I get discouraged at times, questioning what, if any, impact I am having. I often feel I’m beating my head against a wall, speaking out about the way religion puts a barrier between people and God and each other. It’s an up-hill battle trying to convince people that following Jesus could mean standing for the inherent, equal and divine worth of every human being. So, just being straight here, some days I ponder if I should go back to being a carpet salesman, maybe coach the girls basketball team at Jessica’s school.\n\nAnyway… sometimes it feels this way and then I received this email a few minutes ago:\n\n<em>Hi Jim.</em>\n\n<em>I just wanted to say that I’m grateful for the “What do you need to give yourself permission to do or be?” question you raised on the Divine Nobody Call. It was such a heartfelt, deeply honest question, and I think that is one of the things I appreciate about you, that you don’t give up on asking the questions, even when it’s scary, and messy, and confusing and you keep trying to be open about what you’re feeling and where you’re at in your journey even when it’s uncomfortable. </em>\n\n<em>A few things occurred to me as I started to write this, one is that we can find God in the questions and when you feel them being formed in you, it’s God stirring you into being who you are. Two, your question about permission makes me a little sad because, I think some people are so lost in the self they’ve created to relate and survive the world, that they don’t even know they aren’t giving themselves permission. These are the kinds of questions that people need space to hear and express and I’m thankful that you help to create that space. </em>\n\n<em>For me, I’m starting to feel lately like it’s less about shedding religion, and more about shedding a fake me who in turn relates in a fake way and can’t take up space, felt like she had to live by a different set of rules than the rest of my family, and who had to be the calming force trying to smooth the waters and bandage the wounds. I’m starting to feel like religion is just yet another symptom of the problem of not being fully yourself and thinking that by being fake you could create something better than God has already made. Religion, is one of the many ways that we as humans choose to keep ourselves small, and cowering in a dark corner of ourselves and the world, and to keep ourselves what we think is “safe and comfortable”, but there is no true safety or comfort being so tangled up in lies and the pain you won’t express, there is only safety and comfort in knowing and being the person that everytime God looks at you, the REAL you He says” Ah yes, you’re just who I made, I love you like crazy, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”</em>\n\n<em>Thanks for being a part of this stage in my journey, and also for not giving up even on the days when you can’t seem to give yourself any permission at all.</em>\n\n[/answer]\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIf you\'d like to support Jim, consider contributing to his <em></em><em><a href=\"With%20the%20upcoming%20release%20of%20Jim%27s%20newest%20book,%20Being%20Jesus%20In%20Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a></em> self-publishing campaign.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 3','','inherit','open','open','','2693-revision-3','','','2011-11-28 13:22:17','2011-11-28 21:22:17','',2693,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2693-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2699,1,'2011-11-28 13:14:08','2011-11-28 21:14:08','In this second of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his experience with his publisher and what went wrong.\n\n[question]What happened with Zondervan? They decided to cancel your 2-book contract, why?[/question]\n\n[answer]The book was intended to be a 1-year social experiment where I tested the idea that authentic Christianity is not Jesus <strong><em>AND</em></strong> Jim but Jesus <strong><em>AS</em></strong> Jim, believing that there was nothing separating me and Jesus, and that I was free to live as he did in every way. On August 25, 2008 when I signed that 2-book deal with Zondervan Publishers I had no idea that 1 year would stretch into 3, and would include the death of my mother, two near-death experiences, and a deeper deconstruction of my faith and my entire identity as Jim Palmer. Nor did I expect I would become the center of a firestorm of controversy when I turned my manuscript into Zondervan in April. My manuscript was rejected on the grounds that it did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” My 2-book contract was promptly canceled.[/answer]\n\n[question]What was your response?[/question]\n\n[answer]Zondervan’s publishing mission reads, “To be the leader in Christian communications meeting the needs of people with resources that glorify Jesus Christ and promote biblical principles.” I wish that somehow this mission could include telling every human being that they are born into this world with inherent and equal eternal worth, and every bit a “Son of God” as Jesus of Nazareth was.[/answer]\n\n[question]Did you agree with their reasons?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nWhile earning my Masters of Divinity degree and during my years of being a pastor, I uncovered plenty of biblical support for this idea, much more than I could ever mention here. Jesus himself, in John 17, says we share the “same glory” given him by God and that this is the basis for all humanity to be “one” with God. I was told in my religious training that it was sacrilege to view myself on equal footing with Jesus. But even he said, “We would do greater things than he did.”\n\nBut this message was lost as the Christian religion gave way to institutionalized clerical power and politics. There are countless stories of divine nobodies who lived their faith outside the walls of “official” Christendom. They were demonized and left out of history books and schools of divinity. These free believers were often condemned and killed...as heretics.\n\nThe past several years my journey and writing have been about shedding corporate Christianity with its “us versus them” mentality, and reclaiming the real meaning of Christ’s divine inclusivity.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]That\'s a fairly radical message.[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nFor Jesus of Nazareth, life was his religion, love was his doctrine, and humankind was his church. Jesus affirmed the inherent and divine dignity of all people, and was devoted to human solidarity, compassion and community. That’s why we need the Darlas, Makihas, Brunos and Jims – every one of us “being Jesus” in today\'s world.\n\nWhat I learned in my year of being Jesus is that Jesus was special, but not because he was more divine then the rest of us, but because he was courageously more human than most.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nWhat’s ironic is that after submitting my final manuscript to Zondervan, I blogged, tweeted, and Facebook-ed about <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>, causing my pre-order book sales to climb to an astounding Amazon ranking of 15,000. But it wasn’t long after that I received news of the rejection.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]But Zondervan still rejected the manuscript.[/question]\n\n[answer]I’m not the first “heretic”/author to be let go of by Zondervan. Fellow pastor-author Rob Bell gets the credit for that. The hallmark of Christianity seems to have become who is excluded, which can include anything from a theological litmus test to what you wear to church on Sunday mornings. Since leaving institutional church and writing about my journey of shedding religion to find God, I have received hundreds of emails from other nobodies who feel judged and marginalized by Christianity, including Wanda the Waffle House waitress who’s only crime is having tattoos and wearing her Waffle House uniform to church, where people stare at her like she’s a whore and avoid talking to her after the service.[/answer]\n\n[question]What would you say to people like Wanda now?[/question]\n\n[answer]I wish I could tell Wanda and every person that they are born into this world as complete and whole human beings with equal worth to God as Jesus of Nazareth. In the eyes of the religious establishment we might be nobodies but we are <em>divine</em> nobodies, as much a child of God as that nobody Nazarene carpenter. This is the message I would like to get through to fellow survivors of childhood abuse. It’s the message I would have wanted to express to the 10-year-old girl sex slaves I encountered in brothels in Southeast Asia in my work as a human rights activist. As an ordained minister, it’s the message I wanted to deliver to a Christian friend who said, “I am a piece of shit to God, which is why I need Jesus.” It is very difficult to convince people that they are good and beautiful human beings when religion has sufficiently convinced them that they are “sinners” and despicable to God. It’s also difficult to deliver this message when institutional Christianity has convinced us that acknowledging the divine in every human is a betrayal of God.[/answer]\n\n[question]How do you feel about the experience now, now that is it over?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nThis isn’t a Conan O’Brien thing for me – I’m not bitter about what happened with Zondervan. I’m not going to lie, the whole ordeal was personally devastating, tanked me out emotionally and led to my filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy… but I worked through it with the support of some great friends and a supportive social media network.\n\nI had hoped early on that Zondervan and I could have worked all this out and still published the book. I saw a huge upside in doing so and perhaps avoid a Rob Bell scenario, which only seems to deepen the divide between people who hold different beliefs about God. I made what I thought was a powerful appeal to Zondervan, believing that our mutual love for Jesus could allow us to rise above whatever other theological differences there might be.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]Is that really even possible?[/question]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[answer]\n\nA way perhaps to do this would have been to put a label on the cover stating that Zondervan didn’t necessarily support all the views expressed in the book. That would be unique. The book may have been even more interesting, more marketable – causing more book sales, which most book publishers, Christian or not, would want. Theological differences among professing Christians is nothing new. It has always been a part of the story of Christianity from its earliest days. I actually believed we could work – within the agreement of the contract – to create a book with an appeal outside the box of traditional Christian books.\n\nBut it wasn’t to be.\n\nNow on the other side of this I don’t want to contribute to the divide. Zondervan did what they felt was consistent with their mission. Eventually I realized it wasn’t personal. I have friends at Zondervan who I hold in high regard.\n\n[/answer]\n\nIn part 3, Jim shares his experience of wanting to fade into the woodwork and what it meant to self-publish Being Jesus in Nashville.  Stay tuned.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 2','','inherit','open','open','','2691-revision-2','','','2011-11-28 13:14:08','2011-11-28 21:14:08','',2691,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2691-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2700,1,'2011-12-02 13:45:59','2011-12-02 21:45:59','In this second of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his experience with his publisher and what went wrong.\n\n[question]What happened with Zondervan? They decided to cancel your 2-book contract, why?[/question]\n\n[answer]The book was intended to be a 1-year social experiment where I tested the idea that authentic Christianity is not Jesus <strong><em>AND</em></strong> Jim but Jesus <strong><em>AS</em></strong> Jim, believing that there was nothing separating me and Jesus, and that I was free to live as he did in every way. On August 25, 2008 when I signed that 2-book deal with Zondervan Publishers I had no idea that 1 year would stretch into 3, and would include the death of my mother, two near-death experiences, and a deeper deconstruction of my faith and my entire identity as Jim Palmer. Nor did I expect I would become the center of a firestorm of controversy when I turned my manuscript into Zondervan in April. My manuscript was rejected on the grounds that it did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” My 2-book contract was promptly canceled.[/answer]\n\n[question]What was your response?[/question]\n\n[answer]Zondervan’s publishing mission reads, “To be the leader in Christian communications meeting the needs of people with resources that glorify Jesus Christ and promote biblical principles.” I wish that somehow this mission could include telling every human being that they are born into this world with inherent and equal eternal worth, and every bit a “Son of God” as Jesus of Nazareth was.[/answer]\n\n[question]Did you agree with their reasons?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nWhile earning my Masters of Divinity degree and during my years of being a pastor, I uncovered plenty of biblical support for this idea, much more than I could ever mention here. Jesus himself, in John 17, says we share the “same glory” given him by God and that this is the basis for all humanity to be “one” with God. I was told in my religious training that it was sacrilege to view myself on equal footing with Jesus. But even he said, “We would do greater things than he did.”\n\nBut this message was lost as the Christian religion gave way to institutionalized clerical power and politics. There are countless stories of divine nobodies who lived their faith outside the walls of “official” Christendom. They were demonized and left out of history books and schools of divinity. These free believers were often condemned and killed...as heretics.\n\nThe past several years my journey and writing have been about shedding corporate Christianity with its “us versus them” mentality, and reclaiming the real meaning of Christ’s divine inclusivity.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]That\'s a fairly radical message.[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nFor Jesus of Nazareth, life was his religion, love was his doctrine, and humankind was his church. Jesus affirmed the inherent and divine dignity of all people, and was devoted to human solidarity, compassion and community. That’s why we need the Darlas, Makihas, Brunos and Jims – every one of us “being Jesus” in today\'s world.\n\nWhat I learned in my year of being Jesus is that Jesus was special, but not because he was more divine then the rest of us, but because he was courageously more human than most.\n\nWhat’s ironic is that after submitting my final manuscript to Zondervan, I blogged, tweeted, and Facebook-ed about <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>, causing my pre-order book sales to climb to an astounding Amazon ranking of 15,000. But it wasn’t long after that I received news of the rejection.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]But Zondervan still rejected the manuscript.[/question]\n\n[answer]I’m not the first “heretic”/author to be let go of by Zondervan. Fellow pastor-author Rob Bell gets the credit for that. The hallmark of Christianity seems to have become who is excluded, which can include anything from a theological litmus test to what you wear to church on Sunday mornings. Since leaving institutional church and writing about my journey of shedding religion to find God, I have received hundreds of emails from other nobodies who feel judged and marginalized by Christianity, including Wanda the Waffle House waitress who’s only crime is having tattoos and wearing her Waffle House uniform to church, where people stare at her like she’s a whore and avoid talking to her after the service.[/answer]\n\n[question]What would you say to people like Wanda now?[/question]\n\n[answer]I wish I could tell Wanda and every person that they are born into this world as complete and whole human beings with equal worth to God as Jesus of Nazareth. In the eyes of the religious establishment we might be nobodies but we are <em>divine</em> nobodies, as much a child of God as that nobody Nazarene carpenter. This is the message I would like to get through to fellow survivors of childhood abuse. It’s the message I would have wanted to express to the 10-year-old girl sex slaves I encountered in brothels in Southeast Asia in my work as a human rights activist. As an ordained minister, it’s the message I wanted to deliver to a Christian friend who said, “I am a piece of shit to God, which is why I need Jesus.” It is very difficult to convince people that they are good and beautiful human beings when religion has sufficiently convinced them that they are “sinners” and despicable to God. It’s also difficult to deliver this message when institutional Christianity has convinced us that acknowledging the divine in every human is a betrayal of God.[/answer]\n\n[question]How do you feel about the experience now, now that is it over?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nThis isn’t a Conan O’Brien thing for me – I’m not bitter about what happened with Zondervan. I’m not going to lie, the whole ordeal was personally devastating, tanked me out emotionally and led to my filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy… but I worked through it with the support of some great friends and a supportive social media network.\n\nI had hoped early on that Zondervan and I could have worked all this out and still published the book. I saw a huge upside in doing so and perhaps avoid a Rob Bell scenario, which only seems to deepen the divide between people who hold different beliefs about God. I made what I thought was a powerful appeal to Zondervan, believing that our mutual love for Jesus could allow us to rise above whatever other theological differences there might be.\n\n[/answer]\n\n[question]Is that really even possible?[/question]\n\n[answer]\n\nA way perhaps to do this would have been to put a label on the cover stating that Zondervan didn’t necessarily support all the views expressed in the book. That would be unique. The book may have been even more interesting, more marketable – causing more book sales, which most book publishers, Christian or not, would want. Theological differences among professing Christians is nothing new. It has always been a part of the story of Christianity from its earliest days. I actually believed we could work – within the agreement of the contract – to create a book with an appeal outside the box of traditional Christian books.\n\nBut it wasn’t to be.\n\nNow on the other side of this I don’t want to contribute to the divide. Zondervan did what they felt was consistent with their mission. Eventually I realized it wasn’t personal. I have friends at Zondervan who I hold in high regard.\n\n[/answer]\n\nIn part 3, Jim shares his experience of wanting to fade into the woodwork and what it meant to self-publish Being Jesus in Nashville.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 2','','inherit','open','open','','2691-autosave','','','2011-12-02 13:45:59','2011-12-02 21:45:59','',2691,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2691-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2701,1,'2011-11-28 13:17:05','2011-11-28 21:17:05','<a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/Nobody.JimPalmer\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Palmer</a> has always been an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast\" target=\"_blank\">iconoclast</a>. A wildly popular writer of the book <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Nobodies-Shedding-Religion-unlikely/dp/0849913985\" target=\"_blank\">Divine Nobodies</a></em>, which asked what it meant to shed religion and follow Jesus, Jim emblazoned a new but very old trail and captured the imagination of a restless and growing audience. With his follow up work, <em><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Open-Spaces-Paint-Number/dp/0849913993\" target=\"_blank\">Wide Open Spaces</a></em>, Jim continued the the journey he started by asking what it meant to discover and experience God beyond religion.\r\n\r\nWith the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, <em><a href=\"With the upcoming release of Jim\'s newest book, Being Jesus In Nashville\" target=\"_blank\">Being Jesus In Nashville</a></em>, Jim is now launching into new territory as a writer, a human being, and a self-published author.  In this three part interview, I got to ask Jim some questions about his experience as a writer, his latest book fiasco, and what it means to self-publish outside the system.\r\n\r\n[question]You’ve experienced some of the ultimate highs and lows as a writer and as a human being.  Can you share a little about these experiences and what did you learn through that experience?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt makes me nervous to be referred to as a “widely acclaimed author.” After writing <em>Divine Nobodies</em> in 2006 I was declared the “next Don Miller,” and following <em>Wide Open Spaces </em>I was dubbed the “next great spiritual writer.” That’s a lot of pressure for a guy who wrote his first two books in his one-car garage, using the hunt and peck method on his decrepit laptop!\r\n\r\nI didn’t plan to be an author and wasn’t seeking to be published when a guy at a publishing house began reading my blog and asked if I’d ever thought of writing a book.  One thing led to another and a major publisher took the risk of signing an unknown nobody author like me.  I was so stoked about my new career as a writer that my <em>Divine Nobodies</em> manuscript was 10,000 words over the prescribed word count. Word count, shmord count – I had something to say that humankind needed to hear, however long it was!! I was sure my publisher would agree. Well, not exactly. I remember the morning my editor informed me of all the chapters that would be nixed. Humankind survived somehow… barely.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Was your next book easier?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nYou’d think with one book under my belt, the next one would be easier. It wasn’t. I didn’t want to be one of those “one-hit-wonders.” I had to live up to <em>Divine Nobodies</em>, which had unusual success as the first book of a largely unknown author… okay, COMPLETELY unknown author. Whereas my first book told my shedding religion story, the follow-up book, <em>Wide Open Spaces</em>, was the story of living into the alternative. Of all the chapters I expected to be problematic, it was the chapter about church that my publisher asked that I re-write.  There was also a lot of attention placed on how I was wording things because they feared it sounded too “universalistic.”\r\n\r\nIt was during the writing of <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> that I first began feeling hemmed in. I recognized that there might be a battle brewing between my spiritual evolution and what a conservative Christian publishing house would allow. Despite my Masters of Divinity degree, I’m a storyteller, not a theologian, but increasingly I was being asked to clarify my doctrine.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]Did this process affect you?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nBeing an author didn’t line up well with my neurosis, which included wanting everyone to like me, and taking everything personally. I don’t do constructive criticism so well either. I didn’t sleep for two nights after my first negative Amazon review. I wanted to contact him try to explain what he took issue with. I’ve never read another review since then. I don’t want to know.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]What makes you a great writer?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nI don’t think I’m such a great writer. My first drafts are normally a train wreck, and I do a ton of re-write. I think people probably like my books because they can relate to my kooky humanity. I seem to embolden people to press deeper and permission to be who they are, however messy that might seem to some.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]But your first book did really, really well?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nIt was strange after <em>Wide Open Spaces</em> to have multiple publishers bidding for my next book contract. They were particularly interested upon hearing about my 1-year experiment to be Jesus in Nashville – not Jesus <em>and</em> Jim but Jesus <em>as </em>Jim. I wanted to know how much of Jesus’ life could be pulled off as Jim Palmer. Where did Jesus stop and Jim begin? Or was that just an imaginary line that I created? And if it was an imaginary line, did that mean God and I could be one in the same way as Jesus? The idea had traction, especially if it meant I was going to attempt to heal people or try other Jesus-esque miracles or do something radial like live among the homeless in order to serve the “least of these.”\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]And you published with Zondervan.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nUltimately I signed with Zondervan Publishing because they expressed strong interest in connecting with a reading audience beyond the typical mainstream Christian crowd. My tribe, who has shared this journey with me the last several years, are ordinary people, mostly from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus and Christian living promoted by the institutional church. Many in my tribe follow Jesus but do not subscribe to organized Christianity.\r\n\r\nI signed that contract with Zondervan in August of 2008. It was a 2-book deal; the first book, <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>. I could have never predicted what transpired in living and writing this book. The deaths of my mother and close friend were devastating. Shortly after, I had two near-death experiences of my own. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to have survived either one of them.\r\n\r\nDespite the heartache and turmoil of these and other experiences, I turned in my manuscript to Zondervan Publishing on February 21, 2011. Though they undergone considerable turnover, I had worked with 3 different managing editors, I had never received any indication that there was a problem with my manuscript. But on March 29<sup>th</sup> I received an email from Zondervan claiming that my book, similar to the firestorm of heresy charges leveled against Bell, did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” Zondervan rejected my manuscript and then informed me they were canceling my contract, to which I had no recourse because of a no-arbitration clause in the contract.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]That must have been devastating.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHaving only received an initial advance when I signed the contract in 2008, I was eager to be paid my next installment. As a self-employed author, it was customary for me to live on credit and pay off my balance each time I received my next book payment. I had done almost three years of writing without getting paid and I desperately needed that next check to straighten out my financial obligations. In addition to not being paid, Zondervan demanded I pay back the advance I received in 2008. The combination of all of that meant I lost $80,000 one flail swoop. It was too much to absorb. I either faced eviction and becoming homeless, or file bankruptcy.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]How did you respond?[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nHonestly, if it was just me I might have opted to become homeless or sleep on a friend’s couch for an extended period of time. But it wasn’t just me; I have a 12-year-old daughter. There are several things I just figured would never happen in my life. Filing bankruptcy was one of them. Once I dealt with my personal feelings of failure about it, I became more aware and compassionate for those in financial crisis. I discovered a side of humanity that I had not known before in bankruptcy court as I sat and heard the stories of those who went before us.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\n[question]In other words, you lived some of the same suffering as Jesus.[/question]\r\n\r\n[answer]\r\n\r\nThe whole ordeal of losing my book contract and filing bankruptcy forced me to confront a story about myself that I’ve been carrying since childhood that I’m a failure. I’m not out of the woods on that one yet; some stories die hard. Surviving my two near-death experiences was transformational, which I write about in the book. There was a Jim Palmer who died in that car, and someone different who was pulled out alive.\r\n\r\n[/answer]\r\n\r\nIn part 2, we\'ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.','Author Jim Palmer Uncensored - Part 1','','inherit','open','open','','2679-revision-12','','','2011-11-28 13:17:05','2011-11-28 21:17:05','',2679,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2679-revision-12/',0,'revision','',0),(2703,1,'2011-10-08 17:18:46','2011-10-09 00:18:46','Below is a list of editors and writer who contribute to the Provoketive conversation.  Contact information can be found in the profile.\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\nJonathan Brink - Senior Editor at Provoketive | <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/author/jonathanbrink/\">Profile</a> | <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/jonathanbrink\">Facebook</a> | <a href=\"http://twitter.com/#!/jonathanbrink\">Twitter</a> | <a href=\"http://jonathanbrink.com\" target=\"_blank\">Web</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Writers','','inherit','open','open','','107-revision-4','','','2011-10-08 17:18:46','2011-10-09 00:18:46','',107,'http://provoketive.com/2011/10/08/107-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(2704,0,'2011-11-28 13:58:10','2011-11-28 21:58:10','Mary\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Amy Moffitt\nAUTHOR EMAIL: amymoffitt42@yahoo.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://moffou.blogspot.com\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 76.21.143.84\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Amy Moffitt\n    [Email] =&gt; amymoffitt42@yahoo.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; moffou.blogspot.com\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Mary\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; amymoffitt42\n)\n','Amy Moffitt - 2011-11-28 13:58:10','','publish','open','open','','5d434c5e43c96edcd7e7b19949752c94','','','2011-11-28 13:58:10','2011-11-28 21:58:10','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=2704',0,'feedback','',0),(2706,111,'2011-12-04 08:00:39','2011-12-04 16:00:39','So next Sunday at <a href=\"http://commontable.org/\">Church of the Common Table</a>, the Fabulous Dr. Weave and I will be leading a service on Mary. Mary and I have some Issues, so I thought that rather than make my contribution to next week\'s service a giant therapy session for Moffitt, I\'d hash this out on the blog. Because, you know, the internet is a great place to work out one\'s Issues. *cough*\r\n\r\nSo, a couple of things have happened lately that have me re-hashing The Catholic Years. I know I\'ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I was received into the Roman Catholic Church on the Feast of St. Lucia (December 13), 1997 at St. Mary of the Angels in Bayswater, London, not very far from Notting Hill. As part of being received into the church, I took the name Elizabeth after <a href=\"http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=180\">Elizabeth Ann Seton</a>, the first American to be canonized by the church, and an American woman who, like me, had found the Church while living in Europe. I remained Catholic until I was received into the Episcopal Church in November of 2001.\r\n\r\nI was a Very Good Catholic, particularly when I was living in England. I prayed the rosary regularly, prayed morning and evening prayer almost every day, went to Mass at least once a week and spent regular time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I was always in at least one choir in one church. In the summer of 1997, while I was in the process of converting, I fasted and prayed the rosary (often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament) for three separate intentions, all three of which were answered. My friends at the time joked that I should be canonized. I became engaged to my Catholic boyfriend in July of 1998, and moved the following month back from the U.S. (where I\'d returned to finish college) to the U.K. to marry him.\r\n\r\nA year later, all three of my intentions had reversed themselves, meaning that two people who\'d been \"healed\" were dead, and another situation that had righted itself had gone completely off the tracks again. My fiance had dumped me three weeks before our wedding and four weeks before my visa for the U.K. expired. After much discussion, I found that the main reason that my fiance had ended things was because he felt I would not make a good wife and mother. His main reason for asserting this was because I told him that I wanted to travel and see the world at some point.\r\n\r\nI blamed him for wrecking my life with his last-minute revelation, but I also blamed Mary. I\'d prayed countless times for her intercession for this relationship in addition to other intentions. I didn\'t see how I had an option but to believe that praying for her intercession had been a bad idea... not only had I not gotten what I\'d asked for, but I\'d hoped more than I ever would have had I not believed there was something extra-special about her prayers.\r\n\r\nBut more than that, I blamed the constant teaching of the Church about Mary and about her example for women. Almost every statue or image of Mary I\'d ever seen, she was demurely looking down, either at Baby Jesus or just... down... like the Queen of Heaven was afraid to even meet *my* eye as I prayed for her intercession. Over and over again in sermons during Mass, I heard the phrase \"she said yes\" (referring to her response to the Archangel Gabriel) folded into messages that painted the Perfect Woman as passive, quiet, subsuming all her desires (and, evidently, her personality) to the whims and wishes of her husband and children.\r\n\r\nI was pretty sure I knew that, on a level maybe he wasn\'t even aware of, Phil was comparing me to this Perfect Woman. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to travel. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to work outside the home, and Mary sure as hell wouldn\'t be spending time writing poetry or looking for singing gigs outside of the church (both of which I was doing). Oh, and Mary wouldn\'t swear. Or drink as much as I did (and do), or laugh as loud. Or talk at all, actually, unless responding to a direct question. I REALLY tried to be what Phil wanted me to be, tried to live up to all the unsubtle messages about the archetype to whom I was expected to conform. But I couldn\'t.\r\n\r\nOf course, over time I\'ve become convinced that neither did Mary.\r\n\r\nWhen I turn away from the Church\'s later teachings on Mary, and instead just go to the New Testament, I don\'t find a lot about Mary, and what I do find does NOT suggest a person of passivity. This is what I find:\r\n- A young woman who looked THE FREAKING ARCHANGEL GABRIEL in the EYE and said \"Yessir, I will give birth to the SON OF GOD.\" What the what?? This gives me chills even while I\'m typing it. The word \"precocious\" doesn\'t even begin to cover the kind of Stone Cold Badassery it would take to:\r\n\r\na) TALK TO one of the FREAKING HOST OF HEAVEN and\r\nb) calmly agree to give birth to THE SON OF GOD.\r\n\r\nShe had to have known that doing this was going to put her seriously on the outs with everyone in her family, who would have absolutely zero motivation to believe her story about being impregnated by GOD and not by the cute boy that lived down the street. And she said yes *anyway*. This may be because she had a rock-solid faith and understood her relation to God as God\'s servant, but also because she was confident in her ability to make this decision and to deal with the inevitable shit-storm that was going to follow.\r\n\r\n- A woman who, directly before her due date (and after above-mentioned shit-storm, which involved, among other things, being sent packing by her fiance so she didn\'t get stoned to death for adultery), was informed that she had to make a long journey because of some impersonal ruler in a far away place, and upon arriving at the destination, gave birth to her first-born possibly unaided by anyone except her husband and in a BARN. No pain meds, no birthing pool, just push that sucker out in a pile of hay surrounded by animal dung a few steps from the hooves of Bessie the Cow. Again, it took serious physical and mental strength to get through this ordeal.\r\n- A woman who, only a year or so after giving birth was forced to flee to a foreign country and live as a refugee until the Insane King who wanted to murder her son died.\r\n- A pragmatic problem solver who was not afraid to ask Jesus to step in and be Mr. Fix It in a Situation of Social Awkwardness. There is no story about Mary I relate to more than the Wedding Feast at Cana. I could TOTALLY see myself doing what Mary did. The conversation reminds me of the kind of conversation I might have had with my brother when we were teenagers (I kind of acted like his Mom... he\'d be the first to acknowledge this):\r\n\r\nMe: Ben... BEN, listen to me.\r\nBen: (annoyed) What??\r\nMe: They\'re getting ready to run out of wine. (raising eyebrows) We can\'t let that happen now, CAN we??\r\nBen: (even more annoyed) What do you want ME to do about it??\r\nMe: (to the waitstaff) Do whatever he tells ya.\r\n\r\nNot suggesting that my brother is Jesus, of course, but it just feels familiar to me as someone who fixes problems quickly and often really doesn\'t care how it gets done. This is not the action of a passive, shrinking violet, or someone overly concerned with propriety. Mary was not the slightest bit afraid to ask the Son of the Almighty God to fix an immediate, practical problem involving a shortage of alcohol. *This* is a woman after my own heart.\r\n- A woman who, upon hearing that her son had been lead away and sentenced to death, went to the foot of his cross to watch him die in one of the most gruesome ways possible. I know that mothers love their children to the point of death, but watching your child bleed to death slowly is, again, not the action of a person with your normal amount of stamina. I can see a mother not being able to handle this, or not being able to remain in front of it.\r\n\r\nI can also imagine that it took quite a bit of doing to get to Golgotha, since Jesus\' execution was kind of a Thing and there were undoubtedly a ton of people there to witness it. Mary was no spring chicken by this point, but she got herself there through the crowds and the chaos and probably a security checkpoint or two (there was a healthy amount of fear about Jesus\' followers) because there was no other place she could possibly be but beside her dying son (who had, by the way, three years earlier refused to settle down and have grandkids, quit his job, left her and his home and the family business and wandered around for 3 years causing trouble with the religious authorities [which would, of course, equal trouble for his family... we don\'t have this in the scriptures but I can\'t imagine they were left alone through all of this]).\r\n\r\nThe bottom line for me is that I believe I and many other women who have loved (or been raised among) Catholic men have suffered directly from being compared to an image of Mary that doesn\'t fit what little there is about her in the Bible. I find this an abuse of Mary, and an abuse of women who aren\'t particularly demure or soft-spoken... not that I\'m hating on women who are demure and soft-spoken, but as it so happens I don\'t really possess either quality, and neither do most of my female friends. To me, these are character traits, not moral qualities... but in my experience as a Catholic, they were raised to the level of virtue. I consider this to be tragic for women whom God has made with gifts of vision and leadership, women who are eloquent and talented and who shine even when they\'re not trying to. I\'m not talking about myself, by the way... I\'m thinking of specific women I\'ve known who have suffered greatly beneath the Church\'s teaching on women... have suffered as they\'ve attempted to emulate a neutered, silent, weak-spirited version of Mary not supported by the Scriptures. Women who, unlike me, chose to stay and suffer.\r\n\r\nWhen I envision having peace with Mary again, I imagine a Mary who would look me in the eye and tell me to get my shit together... with love, but also with a gleam in her eye that would let me know she was serious and would open up a can on me without a moment\'s hesitation if necessary. I imagine Mary with a firm jaw, saying \"Yes, if I could bear the Son of God, bear the shame of my pregnancy and all of the difficulties with and questions around raising Him... and then watch Him die, then you can handle what God places in your life.\" I imagine a Mary who even now says \"that\'s not too trifling a problem for me to take to God for you. Hold on, I\'ll be right back.\" I imagine her tough and strong and a little weathered. She was a carpenter\'s wife, after all. It\'s not like she had it easy.\r\n\r\nAnd I also imagine her slowly shaking her head at all of the people who have promoted an image of her as weak and passive and demure... and I imagine her having a word or two with God about THAT, too.\r\n\r\nIf I make peace with Mary, it\'ll be with Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven... and I\'ll ask her prayers for a Church that accepts women as they are, quiet or loud; leaders or followers; with many children, few or none; married or single. Maybe I could go to that Church again someday. Maybe.','Hail Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven','','publish','open','open','','hail-mary-bad-ass-queen-of-heaven','','','2011-11-28 14:39:50','2011-11-28 22:39:50','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2706',0,'post','',1),(2707,111,'2011-11-28 14:24:11','2011-11-28 22:24:11','','Queen_of_Angels-Coronation','','inherit','open','open','','queen_of_angels-cornation','','','2011-11-28 14:24:11','2011-11-28 22:24:11','',2706,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Queen_of_Angels-Cornation.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2712,1,'2011-11-28 14:38:02','2011-11-28 22:38:02','So next Sunday at <a href=\"http://commontable.org/\">Church of the Common Table</a>, the Fabulous Dr. Weave and I will be leading a service on Mary. Mary and I have some Issues, so I thought that rather than make my contribution to next week\'s service a giant therapy session for Moffitt, I\'d hash this out on the blog. Because, you know, the internet is a great place to work out one\'s Issues. *cough*\r\n\r\nSo, a couple of things have happened lately that have me re-hashing The Catholic Years. I know I\'ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I was received into the Roman Catholic Church on the Feast of St. Lucia (December 13), 1997 at St. Mary of the Angels in Bayswater, London, not very far from Notting Hill. As part of being received into the church, I took the name Elizabeth after <a href=\"http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=180\">Elizabeth Ann Seton</a>, the first American to be canonized by the church, and an American woman who, like me, had found the Church while living in Europe. I remained Catholic until I was received into the Episcopal Church in November of 2001.\r\n\r\nI was a Very Good Catholic, particularly when I was living in England. I prayed the rosary regularly, prayed morning and evening prayer almost every day, went to Mass at least once a week and spent regular time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I was always in at least one choir in one church. In the summer of 1997, while I was in the process of converting, I fasted and prayed the rosary (often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament) for three separate intentions, all three of which were answered. My friends at the time joked that I should be canonized. I became engaged to my Catholic boyfriend in July of 1998, and moved the following month back from the U.S. (where I\'d returned to finish college) to the U.K. to marry him.\r\n\r\nA year later, all three of my intentions had reversed themselves, meaning that two people who\'d been \"healed\" were dead, and another situation that had righted itself had gone completely off the tracks again. My fiance had dumped me three weeks before our wedding and four weeks before my visa for the U.K. expired. After much discussion, I found that the main reason that my fiance had ended things was because he felt I would not make a good wife and mother. His main reason for asserting this was because I told him that I wanted to travel and see the world at some point.\r\n\r\nI blamed him for wrecking my life with his last-minute revelation, but I also blamed Mary. I\'d prayed countless times for her intercession for this relationship in addition to other intentions. I didn\'t see how I had an option but to believe that praying for her intercession had been a bad idea... not only had I not gotten what I\'d asked for, but I\'d hoped more than I ever would have had I not believed there was something extra-special about her prayers.\r\n\r\nBut more than that, I blamed the constant teaching of the Church about Mary and about her example for women. Almost every statue or image of Mary I\'d ever seen, she was demurely looking down, either at Baby Jesus or just... down... like the Queen of Heaven was afraid to even meet *my* eye as I prayed for her intercession. Over and over again in sermons during Mass, I heard the phrase \"she said yes\" (referring to her response to the Archangel Gabriel) folded into messages that painted the Perfect Woman as passive, quiet, subsuming all her desires (and, evidently, her personality) to the whims and wishes of her husband and children.\r\n\r\nI was pretty sure I knew that, on a level maybe he wasn\'t even aware of, Phil was comparing me to this Perfect Woman. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to travel. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to work outside the home, and Mary sure as hell wouldn\'t be spending time writing poetry or looking for singing gigs outside of the church (both of which I was doing). Oh, and Mary wouldn\'t swear. Or drink as much as I did (and do), or laugh as loud. Or talk at all, actually, unless responding to a direct question. I REALLY tried to be what Phil wanted me to be, tried to live up to all the unsubtle messages about the archetype to whom I was expected to conform. But I couldn\'t.\r\n\r\nOf course, over time I\'ve become convinced that neither did Mary.\r\n\r\nWhen I turn away from the Church\'s later teachings on Mary, and instead just go to the New Testament, I don\'t find a lot about Mary, and what I do find does NOT suggest a person of passivity. This is what I find:\r\n- A young woman who looked THE FREAKING ARCHANGEL GABRIEL in the EYE and said \"Yessir, I will give birth to the SON OF GOD.\" What the what?? This gives me chills even while I\'m typing it. The word \"precocious\" doesn\'t even begin to cover the kind of Stone Cold Badassery it would take to:\r\n\r\na) TALK TO one of the FREAKING HOST OF HEAVEN and\r\nb) calmly agree to give birth to THE SON OF GOD.\r\n\r\nShe had to have known that doing this was going to put her seriously on the outs with everyone in her family, who would have absolutely zero motivation to believe her story about being impregnated by GOD and not by the cute boy that lived down the street. And she said yes *anyway*. This may be because she had a rock-solid faith and understood her relation to God as God\'s servant, but also because she was confident in her ability to make this decision and to deal with the inevitable shit-storm that was going to follow.\r\n\r\n- A woman who, directly before her due date (and after above-mentioned shit-storm, which involved, among other things, being sent packing by her fiance so she didn\'t get stoned to death for adultery), was informed that she had to make a long journey because of some impersonal ruler in a far away place, and upon arriving at the destination, gave birth to her first-born possibly unaided by anyone except her husband and in a BARN. No pain meds, no birthing pool, just push that sucker out in a pile of hay surrounded by animal dung a few steps from the hooves of Bessie the Cow. Again, it took serious physical and mental strength to get through this ordeal.\r\n- A woman who, only a year or so after giving birth was forced to flee to a foreign country and live as a refugee until the Insane King who wanted to murder her son died.\r\n- A pragmatic problem solver who was not afraid to ask Jesus to step in and be Mr. Fix It in a Situation of Social Awkwardness. There is no story about Mary I relate to more than the Wedding Feast at Cana. I could TOTALLY see myself doing what Mary did. The conversation reminds me of the kind of conversation I might have had with my brother when we were teenagers (I kind of acted like his Mom... he\'d be the first to acknowledge this):\r\n\r\nMe: Ben... BEN, listen to me.\r\nBen: (annoyed) What??\r\nMe: They\'re getting ready to run out of wine. (raising eyebrows) We can\'t let that happen now, CAN we??\r\nBen: (even more annoyed) What do you want ME to do about it??\r\nMe: (to the waitstaff) Do whatever he tells ya.\r\nNot suggesting that my brother is Jesus, of course, but it just feels familiar to me as someone who fixes problems quickly and often really doesn\'t care how it gets done. This is not the action of a passive, shrinking violet, or someone overly concerned with propriety. Mary was not the slightest bit afraid to ask the Son of the Almighty God to fix an immediate, practical problem involving a shortage of alcohol. *This* is a woman after my own heart.\r\n- A woman who, upon hearing that her son had been lead away and sentenced to death, went to the foot of his cross to watch him die in one of the most gruesome ways possible. I know that mothers love their children to the point of death, but watching your child bleed to death slowly is, again, not the action of a person with your normal amount of stamina. I can see a mother not being able to handle this, or not being able to remain in front of it.\r\n\r\nI can also imagine that it took quite a bit of doing to get to Golgotha, since Jesus\' execution was kind of a Thing and there were undoubtedly a ton of people there to witness it. Mary was no spring chicken by this point, but she got herself there through the crowds and the chaos and probably a security checkpoint or two (there was a healthy amount of fear about Jesus\' followers) because there was no other place she could possibly be but beside her dying son (who had, by the way, three years earlier refused to settle down and have grandkids, quit his job, left her and his home and the family business and wandered around for 3 years causing trouble with the religious authorities [which would, of course, equal trouble for his family... we don\'t have this in the scriptures but I can\'t imagine they were left alone through all of this]).\r\n\r\nThe bottom line for me is that I believe I and many other women who have loved (or been raised among) Catholic men have suffered directly from being compared to an image of Mary that doesn\'t fit what little there is about her in the Bible. I find this an abuse of Mary, and an abuse of women who aren\'t particularly demure or soft-spoken... not that I\'m hating on women who are demure and soft-spoken, but as it so happens I don\'t really possess either quality, and neither do most of my female friends. To me, these are character traits, not moral qualities... but in my experience as a Catholic, they were raised to the level of virtue. I consider this to be tragic for women whom God has made with gifts of vision and leadership, women who are eloquent and talented and who shine even when they\'re not trying to. I\'m not talking about myself, by the way... I\'m thinking of specific women I\'ve known who have suffered greatly beneath the Church\'s teaching on women... have suffered as they\'ve attempted to emulate a neutered, silent, weak-spirited version of Mary not supported by the Scriptures. Women who, unlike me, chose to stay and suffer.\r\n\r\nWhen I envision having peace with Mary again, I imagine a Mary who would look me in the eye and tell me to get my shit together... with love, but also with a gleam in her eye that would let me know she was serious and would open up a can on me without a moment\'s hesitation if necessary. I imagine Mary with a firm jaw, saying \"Yes, if I could bear the Son of God, bear the shame of my pregnancy and all of the difficulties with and questions around raising Him... and then watch Him die, then you can handle what God places in your life.\" I imagine a Mary who even now says \"that\'s not too trifling a problem for me to take to God for you. Hold on, I\'ll be right back.\" I imagine her tough and strong and a little weathered. She was a carpenter\'s wife, after all. It\'s not like she had it easy.\r\n\r\nAnd I also imagine her slowly shaking her head at all of the people who have promoted an image of her as weak and passive and demure... and I imagine her having a word or two with God about THAT, too.\r\n\r\nIf I make peace with Mary, it\'ll be with Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven... and I\'ll ask her prayers for a Church that accepts women as they are, quiet or loud; leaders or followers; with many children, few or none; married or single. Maybe I could go to that Church again someday. Maybe.','Hail Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven','','inherit','open','open','','2706-revision-3','','','2011-11-28 14:38:02','2011-11-28 22:38:02','',2706,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2706-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(2708,111,'2011-11-28 14:25:47','2011-11-28 22:25:47','<div>So next Sunday at <a href=\"http://commontable.org/\">Church of the Common Table</a>, the Fabulous Dr. Weave and I will be leading a service on Mary. Mary and I have some Issues, so I thought that rather than make my contribution to next week\'s service a giant therapy session for Moffitt, I\'d hash this out on the blog. Because, you know, the internet is a great place to work out one\'s Issues. *cough*</div>\n<div>\n<div>So, a couple of things have happened lately that have me re-hashing The Catholic Years. I know I\'ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I was received into the Roman Catholic Church on the Feast of St. Lucia (December 13), 1997 at St. Mary of the Angels in Bayswater, London, not very far from Notting Hill. As part of being received into the church, I took the name Elizabeth after <a href=\"http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=180\">Elizabeth Ann Seton</a>, the first American to be canonized by the church, and an American woman who, like me, had found the Church while living in Europe. I remained Catholic until I was received into the Episcopal Church in November of 2001.\n\n</div>\n<div>I was a Very Good Catholic, particularly when I was living in England. I prayed the rosary regularly, prayed morning and evening prayer almost every day, went to Mass at least once a week and spent regular time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I was always in at least one choir in one church. In the summer of 1997, while I was in the process of converting, I fasted and prayed the rosary (often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament) for three separate intentions, all three of which were answered. My friends at the time joked that I should be canonized. I became engaged to my Catholic boyfriend in July of 1998, and moved the following month back from the U.S. (where I\'d returned to finish college) to the U.K. to marry him.</div>\n<div>A year later, all three of my intentions had reversed themselves, meaning that two people who\'d been \"healed\" were dead, and another situation that had righted itself had gone completely off the tracks again. My fiance had dumped me three weeks before our wedding and four weeks before my visa for the U.K. expired. After much discussion, I found that the main reason that my fiance had ended things was because he felt I would not make a good wife and mother. His main reason for asserting this was because I told him that I wanted to travel and see the world at some point.</div>\n<div>I blamed him for wrecking my life with his last-minute revelation, but I also blamed Mary. I\'d prayed countless times for her intercession for this relationship in addition to other intentions. I didn\'t see how I had an option but to believe that praying for her intercession had been a bad idea... not only had I not gotten what I\'d asked for, but I\'d hoped more than I ever would have had I not believed there was something extra-special about her prayers.</div>\n<div>But more than that, I blamed the constant teaching of the Church about Mary and about her example for women. Almost every statue or image of Mary I\'d ever seen, she was demurely looking down, either at Baby Jesus or just... down... like the Queen of Heaven was afraid to even meet *my* eye as I prayed for her intercession. Over and over again in sermons during Mass, I heard the phrase \"she said yes\" (referring to her response to the Archangel Gabriel) folded into messages that painted the Perfect Woman as passive, quiet, subsuming all her desires (and, evidently, her personality) to the whims and wishes of her husband and children.</div>\n<div>I was pretty sure I knew that, on a level maybe he wasn\'t even aware of, Phil was comparing me to this Perfect Woman. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to travel. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to work outside the home, and Mary sure as hell wouldn\'t be spending time writing poetry or looking for singing gigs outside of the church (both of which I was doing). Oh, and Mary wouldn\'t swear. Or drink as much as I did (and do), or laugh as loud. Or talk at all, actually, unless responding to a direct question. I REALLY tried to be what Phil wanted me to be, tried to live up to all the unsubtle messages about the archetype to whom I was expected to conform. But I couldn\'t.</div>\n<div>Of course, over time I\'ve become convinced that neither did Mary.</div>\n<div>When I turn away from the Church\'s later teachings on Mary, and instead just go to the New Testament, I don\'t find a lot about Mary, and what I do find does NOT suggest a person of passivity. This is what I find:</div>\n<div>- A young woman who looked THE FREAKING ARCHANGEL GABRIEL in the EYE and said \"Yessir, I will give birth to the SON OF GOD.\" What the what?? This gives me chills even while I\'m typing it. The word \"precocious\" doesn\'t even begin to cover the kind of Stone Cold Badassery it would take to</div>\n<div>a) TALK TO one of the FREAKING HOST OF HEAVEN and</div>\n<div>b) calmly agree to give birth to THE SON OF GOD.</div>\n<div>She had to have known that doing this was going to put her seriously on the outs with everyone in her family, who would have absolutely zero motivation to believe her story about being impregnated by GOD and not by the cute boy that lived down the street. And she said yes *anyway*. This may be because she had a rock-solid faith and understood her relation to God as God\'s servant, but also because she was confident in her ability to make this decision and to deal with the inevitable shit-storm that was going to follow.</div>\n<div>- A woman who, directly before her due date (and after above-mentioned shit-storm, which involved, among other things, being sent packing by her fiance so she didn\'t get stoned to death for adultery), was informed that she had to make a long journey because of some impersonal ruler in a far away place, and upon arriving at the destination, gave birth to her first-born possibly unaided by anyone except her husband and in a BARN. No pain meds, no birthing pool, just push that sucker out in a pile of hay surrounded by animal dung a few steps from the hooves of Bessie the Cow. Again, it took serious physical and mental strength to get through this ordeal.</div>\n<div>- A woman who, only a year or so after giving birth was forced to flee to a foreign country and live as a refugee until the Insane King who wanted to murder her son died.</div>\n<div>- A pragmatic problem solver who was not afraid to ask Jesus to step in and be Mr. Fix It in a Situation of Social Awkwardness. There is no story about Mary I relate to more than the Wedding Feast at Cana. I could TOTALLY see myself doing what Mary did. The conversation reminds me of the kind of conversation I might have had with my brother when we were teenagers (I kind of acted like his Mom... he\'d be the first to acknowledge this):</div>\n<div>Me: Ben... BEN, listen to me.</div>\n<div>Ben: (annoyed) What??</div>\n<div>Me: They\'re getting ready to run out of wine. (raising eyebrows) We can\'t let that happen now, CAN we??</div>\n<div>Ben: (even more annoyed) What do you want ME to do about it??</div>\n<div>Me: (to the waitstaff) Do whatever he tells ya.</div>\n<div>Not suggesting that my brother is Jesus, of course, but it just feels familiar to me as someone who fixes problems quickly and often really doesn\'t care how it gets done. This is not the action of a passive, shrinking violet, or someone overly concerned with propriety. Mary was not the slightest bit afraid to ask the Son of the Almighty God to fix an immediate, practical problem involving a shortage of alcohol. *This* is a woman after my own heart.</div>\n<div>- A woman who, upon hearing that her son had been lead away and sentenced to death, went to the foot of his cross to watch him die in one of the most gruesome ways possible. I know that mothers love their children to the point of death, but watching your child bleed to death slowly is, again, not the action of a person with your normal amount of stamina. I can see a mother not being able to handle this, or not being able to remain in front of it.</div>\n<div>I can also imagine that it took quite a bit of doing to get to Golgotha, since Jesus\' execution was kind of a Thing and there were undoubtedly a ton of people there to witness it. Mary was no spring chicken by this point, but she got herself there through the crowds and the chaos and probably a security checkpoint or two (there was a healthy amount of fear about Jesus\' followers) because there was no other place she could possibly be but beside her dying son (who had, by the way, three years earlier refused to settle down and have grandkids, quit his job, left her and his home and the family business and wandered around for 3 years causing trouble with the religious authorities [which would, of course, equal trouble for his family... we don\'t have this in the scriptures but I can\'t imagine they were left alone through all of this]).</div>\n<div>The bottom line for me is that I believe I and many other women who have loved (or been raised among) Catholic men have suffered directly from being compared to an image of Mary that doesn\'t fit what little there is about her in the Bible. I find this an abuse of Mary, and an abuse of women who aren\'t particularly demure or soft-spoken... not that I\'m hating on women who are demure and soft-spoken, but as it so happens I don\'t really possess either quality, and neither do most of my female friends. To me, these are character traits, not moral qualities... but in my experience as a Catholic, they were raised to the level of virtue. I consider this to be tragic for women whom God has made with gifts of vision and leadership, women who are eloquent and talented and who shine even when they\'re not trying to. I\'m not talking about myself, by the way... I\'m thinking of specific women I\'ve known who have suffered greatly beneath the Church\'s teaching on women... have suffered as they\'ve attempted to emulate a neutered, silent, weak-spirited version of Mary not supported by the Scriptures. Women who, unlike me, chose to stay and suffer.</div>\n</div>\n<div>When I envision having peace with Mary again, I imagine a Mary who would look me in the eye and tell me to get my shit together... with love, but also with a gleam in her eye that would let me know she was serious and would open up a can on me without a moment\'s hesitation if necessary. I imagine Mary with a firm jaw, saying \"Yes, if I could bear the Son of God, bear the shame of my pregnancy and all of the difficulties with and questions around raising Him... and then watch Him die, then you can handle what God places in your life.\" I imagine a Mary who even now says \"that\'s not too trifling a problem for me to take to God for you. Hold on, I\'ll be right back.\" I imagine her tough and strong and a little weathered. She was a carpenter\'s wife, after all. It\'s not like she had it easy.</div>\n<div>And I also imagine her slowly shaking her head at all of the people who have promoted an image of her as weak and passive and demure... and I imagine her having a word or two with God about THAT, too.</div>\n<div>If I make peace with Mary, it\'ll be with Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven... and I\'ll ask her prayers for a Church that accepts women as they are, quiet or loud; leaders or followers; with many children, few or none; married or single. Maybe I could go to that Church again someday. Maybe.</div>','Hail Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven','','inherit','open','open','','2706-revision','','','2011-11-28 14:25:47','2011-11-28 22:25:47','',2706,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2706-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(2713,109,'2011-12-01 08:30:36','2011-12-01 16:30:36','I am sure you’ve heard about the ongoing series of demonstrations in the Wall Street financial district. What is Occupy Wall Street or<strong> </strong>(OWS) for short anyway? A paradigm shift or “blame-game” perhaps? In a nutshell, it’s a growing worldwide movement loosely based upon social and economic inequality. Some consider this movement highly controversial.\r\n\r\nMaybe, to some who are reading, <em>this article</em> will seem “controversial.”  But, as they say, “the proof is in the pudding.”  The realization I’m pointing to can only be known once we recognize the open, relaxed, non-separate way of being of what is known as non-duality. Occupy Wall Street, along with the frustration and desire for change that lots of people are experiencing these days, is a prime example of how the belief in separation can be seen as the root of human problems.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>What is the belief in separation?</strong></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nFor starters here is a simple metaphor:  the painter and his painting are inseparable.  Translated, this means that the consciousness we are carrying around, which is the belief in being separate people, determines the world we see.  The painter “me” is inseparable from the world I see out there.\r\n\r\nThe Occupy Wall Street movement is certainly shaking things up, while attempting to provide a much-needed balance in our world. It appears that lots of people are “fed up” these days with corporate greed and the appearance that the rich keep getting richer while the poorer keep getting poorer.  It’s <em>quite</em> natural to want change when this is believed.  And it’s also quite <em>natural</em> to look outward into the world, believing that the problem exists (solely) out there.  In some sense, it does!  In the appearance of life, there are people and organizations who are acting from a sense of lack, fear, and greed—taking more than giving.  It’s much like any addiction.  The taking begets more taking, ad nauseum.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2719\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"266\" caption=\"Pic Aaron Bauer\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2719 \" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Occupy-Wallstreet-Sign-Aaron-Bauer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"266\" height=\"400\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Let’s look at it a different way.</strong></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nMany times in my meetings I get questions about the financial state of our world.  And almost always, I can sense in the questioner fear or anxiety below the surface of the words.  Yet the focus of the questioner is in pointing <em>out there</em>, in the world (in the “painting”), as if the solution lies solely there.\r\n\r\nWe can take all sorts of practical steps to change our world, and even improve it in many ways.  But if we are not in touch with the fear, anxiety, frustration, lack, and greed within each of us, then in some ways we are <em>only boxing our own shadows </em>when we point outward to Wall Street.  If the painter—me—is experiencing fear, frustration, anger or anxiety but only pointing outward towards the world, the question is this:  what am I looking to accomplish through that pointing?\r\n\r\nWhat I find time and again when the question of Wall Street pops up is that this outward pointing is the perfect opportunity to go <em>inward</em>.  By bringing someone’s attention—the bare observation of naked awareness—directly to the frustration, anger, fear or anxiety he or she is feeling, this inseparability between the painter and his painting becomes crystal clear.  Although we don’t always see it that way, we are looking for relaxation and well-being.  We are looking to rearrange the world (the painting) so that we can finally relax and not have to feel this frustration, anger, fear or anxiety.\r\n\r\nWhen I suggest to the questioner that true transformation of the world starts with the self (or inner voice), it can appear controversial, counterintuitive, and even repulsive at first.  I’m inviting the questioner to Occupy Awareness first, so to speak.  This means to rest without viewpoints over and over, throughout the day, letting all the afflictive emotions that arise with those viewpoints be as they are, without trying to understand, neutralize or get rid of them.   When we begin to do this, insight begins to arise automatically.  We see that our bodies, when they are troubled by these afflictive emotions, cause a sort of automated response in the mind.  That response shows up as a pointing outward into the world in some attempt to change that world so that the emotions can relax.  However, that outward pointing only goes so far.\r\n\r\nFor any transformation to happen, it is helpful to see through the sense of self that is identifying so strongly with viewpoints, no matter what they are.  As these viewpoints are relaxed, over and over, we start to feel energy in the body very directly.  That energy is allowed to come and go, bringing about a natural healing in our experience.  This is a deep and profound healing precisely because it deals with the very source of suffering, the ego or self.\r\n\r\nAs we relax as awareness (or Occupy Awareness), the sense of being a person cut off from a hostile world “out there” begins to soften and relax.   Insights and clarity begin to pave the way automatically.  We lose the sense of an us v. them attitude and this frees us up to take a more comprehensive perspective of our world, illuminating the way in which the painter is inseparable from his painting.\r\n\r\nAs we begin to relax and heal, the world and the sense of inherent “others” also begin to relax.  We start to move and act in the world with a fearless, compassionate love and peace.  This is not a love and peace that just sits quietly as the so-called others “destroy the world.”  It is not by its nature passive at all.\r\n\r\nWe can continue trying to point outwardly, believing that the problem is solely out there.  Yet this blinds us to the direct experience of what is happening in our own bodies and minds.  If we look inward, the fear, lack, anger, frustration, and anxiety that we are feeling as separate selves actually creates a sort of addiction for goods or for other vices that we believe will satisfy our suffering.  And so, in a very direct way, we created Wall Street by not experiencing and healing our own afflictive emotions.\r\n\r\nThe painter is inseparable from his painting.  So, as we change, from the belief in being a<em> separate</em> person, into a more fluid, non-separate, non-referential way of experiencing, the painting (the world) begins to change automatically.  Everyone we meet is then affected by the change within us.  Deep change is very contagious.  We don’t settle for Occupying Wall Street or any other street for that matter.  We occupy every moment with this new-found openness and direct experience of non-separation.  The world cannot help but change at that point simply because the world is a reflection of our own consciousness.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2720\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Pic Wendy Annibell\"]<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-2720\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Wallstreet-Wendy-Annibell-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nFurthermore, do not take this as an invitation to stop protesting or speaking your mind about what you perceive in the world.  The recognition of the inward freedom that I am attempting to demonstrate here in no way outlaws taking practical action to change things in our relative experience.  I’m merely offering you, the reader, <a title=\"An invitation to Living Realization\" href=\"http://livingrealization.org/\" target=\"_blank\">an invitation</a> to look in a different way, seeing that what we have created as something out there is a reflection of our own, interior experience as humans.  As that interior experience begins to be illuminated more and more, it’s quite natural for an outward expression of that to take place.  We are only ever tending to the world we created through our own thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions.\r\n\r\nWhy not start in our own backyard?','Occupy Awareness','','publish','open','open','','occupy-awareness','','','2011-11-30 00:07:25','2011-11-30 08:07:25','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=2713',0,'post','',0),(2709,1,'2011-11-28 14:40:54','2011-11-28 22:40:54','So next Sunday at <a href=\"http://commontable.org/\">Church of the Common Table</a>, the Fabulous Dr. Weave and I will be leading a service on Mary. Mary and I have some Issues, so I thought that rather than make my contribution to next week\'s service a giant therapy session for Moffitt, I\'d hash this out on the blog. Because, you know, the internet is a great place to work out one\'s Issues. *cough*\n\nSo, a couple of things have happened lately that have me re-hashing The Catholic Years. I know I\'ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I was received into the Roman Catholic Church on the Feast of St. Lucia (December 13), 1997 at St. Mary of the Angels in Bayswater, London, not very far from Notting Hill. As part of being received into the church, I took the name Elizabeth after <a href=\"http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=180\">Elizabeth Ann Seton</a>, the first American to be canonized by the church, and an American woman who, like me, had found the Church while living in Europe. I remained Catholic until I was received into the Episcopal Church in November of 2001.\n\nI was a Very Good Catholic, particularly when I was living in England. I prayed the rosary regularly, prayed morning and evening prayer almost every day, went to Mass at least once a week and spent regular time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I was always in at least one choir in one church. In the summer of 1997, while I was in the process of converting, I fasted and prayed the rosary (often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament) for three separate intentions, all three of which were answered. My friends at the time joked that I should be canonized. I became engaged to my Catholic boyfriend in July of 1998, and moved the following month back from the U.S. (where I\'d returned to finish college) to the U.K. to marry him.\n\nA year later, all three of my intentions had reversed themselves, meaning that two people who\'d been \"healed\" were dead, and another situation that had righted itself had gone completely off the tracks again. My fiance had dumped me three weeks before our wedding and four weeks before my visa for the U.K. expired. After much discussion, I found that the main reason that my fiance had ended things was because he felt I would not make a good wife and mother. His main reason for asserting this was because I told him that I wanted to travel and see the world at some point.\n\nI blamed him for wrecking my life with his last-minute revelation, but I also blamed Mary. I\'d prayed countless times for her intercession for this relationship in addition to other intentions. I didn\'t see how I had an option but to believe that praying for her intercession had been a bad idea... not only had I not gotten what I\'d asked for, but I\'d hoped more than I ever would have had I not believed there was something extra-special about her prayers.\n\nBut more than that, I blamed the constant teaching of the Church about Mary and about her example for women. Almost every statue or image of Mary I\'d ever seen, she was demurely looking down, either at Baby Jesus or just... down... like the Queen of Heaven was afraid to even meet *my* eye as I prayed for her intercession. Over and over again in sermons during Mass, I heard the phrase \"she said yes\" (referring to her response to the Archangel Gabriel) folded into messages that painted the Perfect Woman as passive, quiet, subsuming all her desires (and, evidently, her personality) to the whims and wishes of her husband and children.\n\nI was pretty sure I knew that, on a level maybe he wasn\'t even aware of, Phil was comparing me to this Perfect Woman. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to travel. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to work outside the home, and Mary sure as hell wouldn\'t be spending time writing poetry or looking for singing gigs outside of the church (both of which I was doing). Oh, and Mary wouldn\'t swear. Or drink as much as I did (and do), or laugh as loud. Or talk at all, actually, unless responding to a direct question. I REALLY tried to be what Phil wanted me to be, tried to live up to all the unsubtle messages about the archetype to whom I was expected to conform. But I couldn\'t.\n\nOf course, over time I\'ve become convinced that neither did Mary.\n\nWhen I turn away from the Church\'s later teachings on Mary, and instead just go to the New Testament, I don\'t find a lot about Mary, and what I do find does NOT suggest a person of passivity. This is what I find:\n- A young woman who looked THE FREAKING ARCHANGEL GABRIEL in the EYE and said \"Yessir, I will give birth to the SON OF GOD.\" What the what?? This gives me chills even while I\'m typing it. The word \"precocious\" doesn\'t even begin to cover the kind of Stone Cold Badassery it would take to:\n\na) TALK TO one of the FREAKING HOST OF HEAVEN and\nb) calmly agree to give birth to THE SON OF GOD.\n\nShe had to have known that doing this was going to put her seriously on the outs with everyone in her family, who would have absolutely zero motivation to believe her story about being impregnated by GOD and not by the cute boy that lived down the street. And she said yes *anyway*. This may be because she had a rock-solid faith and understood her relation to God as God\'s servant, but also because she was confident in her ability to make this decision and to deal with the inevitable shit-storm that was going to follow.\n\n- A woman who, directly before her due date (and after above-mentioned shit-storm, which involved, among other things, being sent packing by her fiance so she didn\'t get stoned to death for adultery), was informed that she had to make a long journey because of some impersonal ruler in a far away place, and upon arriving at the destination, gave birth to her first-born possibly unaided by anyone except her husband and in a BARN. No pain meds, no birthing pool, just push that sucker out in a pile of hay surrounded by animal dung a few steps from the hooves of Bessie the Cow. Again, it took serious physical and mental strength to get through this ordeal.\n- A woman who, only a year or so after giving birth was forced to flee to a foreign country and live as a refugee until the Insane King who wanted to murder her son died.\n- A pragmatic problem solver who was not afraid to ask Jesus to step in and be Mr. Fix It in a Situation of Social Awkwardness. There is no story about Mary I relate to more than the Wedding Feast at Cana. I could TOTALLY see myself doing what Mary did. The conversation reminds me of the kind of conversation I might have had with my brother when we were teenagers (I kind of acted like his Mom... he\'d be the first to acknowledge this):\n\nMe: Ben... BEN, listen to me.\nBen: (annoyed) What??\nMe: They\'re getting ready to run out of wine. (raising eyebrows) We can\'t let that happen now, CAN we??\nBen: (even more annoyed) What do you want ME to do about it??\nMe: (to the waitstaff) Do whatever he tells ya.\n\nNot suggesting that my brother is Jesus, of course, but it just feels familiar to me as someone who fixes problems quickly and often really doesn\'t care how it gets done. This is not the action of a passive, shrinking violet, or someone overly concerned with propriety. Mary was not the slightest bit afraid to ask the Son of the Almighty God to fix an immediate, practical problem involving a shortage of alcohol. *This* is a woman after my own heart.\n- A woman who, upon hearing that her son had been lead away and sentenced to death, went to the foot of his cross to watch him die in one of the most gruesome ways possible. I know that mothers love their children to the point of death, but watching your child bleed to death slowly is, again, not the action of a person with your normal amount of stamina. I can see a mother not being able to handle this, or not being able to remain in front of it.\n\nI can also imagine that it took quite a bit of doing to get to Golgotha, since Jesus\' execution was kind of a Thing and there were undoubtedly a ton of people there to witness it. Mary was no spring chicken by this point, but she got herself there through the crowds and the chaos and probably a security checkpoint or two (there was a healthy amount of fear about Jesus\' followers) because there was no other place she could possibly be but beside her dying son (who had, by the way, three years earlier refused to settle down and have grandkids, quit his job, left her and his home and the family business and wandered around for 3 years causing trouble with the religious authorities [which would, of course, equal trouble for his family... we don\'t have this in the scriptures but I can\'t imagine they were left alone through all of this]).\n\nThe bottom line for me is that I believe I and many other women who have loved (or been raised among) Catholic men have suffered directly from being compared to an image of Mary that doesn\'t fit what little there is about her in the Bible. I find this an abuse of Mary, and an abuse of women who aren\'t particularly demure or soft-spoken... not that I\'m hating on women who are demure and soft-spoken, but as it so happens I don\'t really possess either quality, and neither do most of my female friends. To me, these are character traits, not moral qualities... but in my experience as a Catholic, they were raised to the level of virtue. I consider this to be tragic for women whom God has made with gifts of vision and leadership, women who are eloquent and talented and who shine even when they\'re not trying to. I\'m not talking about myself, by the way... I\'m thinking of specific women I\'ve known who have suffered greatly beneath the Church\'s teaching on women... have suffered as they\'ve attempted to emulate a neutered, silent, weak-spirited version of Mary not supported by the Scriptures. Women who, unlike me, chose to stay and suffer.\n\nWhen I envision having peace with Mary again, I imagine a Mary who would look me in the eye and tell me to get my shit together... with love, but also with a gleam in her eye that would let me know she was serious and would open up a can on me without a moment\'s hesitation if necessary. I imagine Mary with a firm jaw, saying \"Yes, if I could bear the Son of God, bear the shame of my pregnancy and all of the difficulties with and questions around raising Him... and then watch Him die, then you can handle what God places in your life.\" I imagine a Mary who even now says \"that\'s not too trifling a problem for me to take to God for you. Hold on, I\'ll be right back.\" I imagine her tough and strong and a little weathered. She was a carpenter\'s wife, after all. It\'s not like she had it easy.\n\nAnd I also imagine her slowly shaking her head at all of the people who have promoted an image of her as weak and passive and demure... and I imagine her having a word or two with God about THAT, too.\n\nIf I make peace with Mary, it\'ll be with Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven... and I\'ll ask her prayers for a Church that accepts women as they are, quiet or loud; leaders or followers; with many children, few or none; married or single. Maybe I could go to that Church again someday. Maybe.','Hail Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven','','inherit','open','open','','2706-autosave','','','2011-11-28 14:40:54','2011-11-28 22:40:54','',2706,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2706-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(2710,1,'2011-11-28 14:36:53','2011-11-28 22:36:53','','mary_mother','','inherit','open','open','','mary_mother','','','2011-11-28 14:36:53','2011-11-28 22:36:53','',2706,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mary_mother.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(2711,1,'2011-11-28 14:26:10','2011-11-28 22:26:10','<div>So next Sunday at <a href=\"http://commontable.org/\">Church of the Common Table</a>, the Fabulous Dr. Weave and I will be leading a service on Mary. Mary and I have some Issues, so I thought that rather than make my contribution to next week\'s service a giant therapy session for Moffitt, I\'d hash this out on the blog. Because, you know, the internet is a great place to work out one\'s Issues. *cough*</div>\r\n<div>\r\n<div>So, a couple of things have happened lately that have me re-hashing The Catholic Years. I know I\'ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I was received into the Roman Catholic Church on the Feast of St. Lucia (December 13), 1997 at St. Mary of the Angels in Bayswater, London, not very far from Notting Hill. As part of being received into the church, I took the name Elizabeth after <a href=\"http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=180\">Elizabeth Ann Seton</a>, the first American to be canonized by the church, and an American woman who, like me, had found the Church while living in Europe. I remained Catholic until I was received into the Episcopal Church in November of 2001.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>I was a Very Good Catholic, particularly when I was living in England. I prayed the rosary regularly, prayed morning and evening prayer almost every day, went to Mass at least once a week and spent regular time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I was always in at least one choir in one church. In the summer of 1997, while I was in the process of converting, I fasted and prayed the rosary (often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament) for three separate intentions, all three of which were answered. My friends at the time joked that I should be canonized. I became engaged to my Catholic boyfriend in July of 1998, and moved the following month back from the U.S. (where I\'d returned to finish college) to the U.K. to marry him.</div>\r\n<div>A year later, all three of my intentions had reversed themselves, meaning that two people who\'d been \"healed\" were dead, and another situation that had righted itself had gone completely off the tracks again. My fiance had dumped me three weeks before our wedding and four weeks before my visa for the U.K. expired. After much discussion, I found that the main reason that my fiance had ended things was because he felt I would not make a good wife and mother. His main reason for asserting this was because I told him that I wanted to travel and see the world at some point.</div>\r\n<div>I blamed him for wrecking my life with his last-minute revelation, but I also blamed Mary. I\'d prayed countless times for her intercession for this relationship in addition to other intentions. I didn\'t see how I had an option but to believe that praying for her intercession had been a bad idea... not only had I not gotten what I\'d asked for, but I\'d hoped more than I ever would have had I not believed there was something extra-special about her prayers.</div>\r\n<div>But more than that, I blamed the constant teaching of the Church about Mary and about her example for women. Almost every statue or image of Mary I\'d ever seen, she was demurely looking down, either at Baby Jesus or just... down... like the Queen of Heaven was afraid to even meet *my* eye as I prayed for her intercession. Over and over again in sermons during Mass, I heard the phrase \"she said yes\" (referring to her response to the Archangel Gabriel) folded into messages that painted the Perfect Woman as passive, quiet, subsuming all her desires (and, evidently, her personality) to the whims and wishes of her husband and children.</div>\r\n<div>I was pretty sure I knew that, on a level maybe he wasn\'t even aware of, Phil was comparing me to this Perfect Woman. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to travel. *Mary* wouldn\'t want to work outside the home, and Mary sure as hell wouldn\'t be spending time writing poetry or looking for singing gigs outside of the church (both of which I was doing). Oh, and Mary wouldn\'t swear. Or drink as much as I did (and do), or laugh as loud. Or talk at all, actually, unless responding to a direct question. I REALLY tried to be what Phil wanted me to be, tried to live up to all the unsubtle messages about the archetype to whom I was expected to conform. But I couldn\'t.</div>\r\n<div>Of course, over time I\'ve become convinced that neither did Mary.</div>\r\n<div>When I turn away from the Church\'s later teachings on Mary, and instead just go to the New Testament, I don\'t find a lot about Mary, and what I do find does NOT suggest a person of passivity. This is what I find:</div>\r\n<div>- A young woman who looked THE FREAKING ARCHANGEL GABRIEL in the EYE and said \"Yessir, I will give birth to the SON OF GOD.\" What the what?? This gives me chills even while I\'m typing it. The word \"precocious\" doesn\'t even begin to cover the kind of Stone Cold Badassery it would take to</div>\r\n<div>a) TALK TO one of the FREAKING HOST OF HEAVEN and</div>\r\n<div>b) calmly agree to give birth to THE SON OF GOD.</div>\r\n<div>She had to have known that doing this was going to put her seriously on the outs with everyone in her family, who would have absolutely zero motivation to believe her story about being impregnated by GOD and not by the cute boy that lived down the street. And she said yes *anyway*. This may be because she had a rock-solid faith and understood her relation to God as God\'s servant, but also because she was confident in her ability to make this decision and to deal with the inevitable shit-storm that was going to follow.</div>\r\n<div>- A woman who, directly before her due date (and after above-mentioned shit-storm, which involved, among other things, being sent packing by her fiance so she didn\'t get stoned to death for adultery), was informed that she had to make a long journey because of some impersonal ruler in a far away place, and upon arriving at the destination, gave birth to her first-born possibly unaided by anyone except her husband and in a BARN. No pain meds, no birthing pool, just push that sucker out in a pile of hay surrounded by animal dung a few steps from the hooves of Bessie the Cow. Again, it took serious physical and mental strength to get through this ordeal.</div>\r\n<div>- A woman who, only a year or so after giving birth was forced to flee to a foreign country and live as a refugee until the Insane King who wanted to murder her son died.</div>\r\n<div>- A pragmatic problem solver who was not afraid to ask Jesus to step in and be Mr. Fix It in a Situation of Social Awkwardness. There is no story about Mary I relate to more than the Wedding Feast at Cana. I could TOTALLY see myself doing what Mary did. The conversation reminds me of the kind of conversation I might have had with my brother when we were teenagers (I kind of acted like his Mom... he\'d be the first to acknowledge this):</div>\r\n<div>Me: Ben... BEN, listen to me.</div>\r\n<div>Ben: (annoyed) What??</div>\r\n<div>Me: They\'re getting ready to run out of wine. (raising eyebrows) We can\'t let that happen now, CAN we??</div>\r\n<div>Ben: (even more annoyed) What do you want ME to do about it??</div>\r\n<div>Me: (to the waitstaff) Do whatever he tells ya.</div>\r\n<div>Not suggesting that my brother is Jesus, of course, but it just feels familiar to me as someone who fixes problems quickly and often really doesn\'t care how it gets done. This is not the action of a passive, shrinking violet, or someone overly concerned with propriety. Mary was not the slightest bit afraid to ask the Son of the Almighty God to fix an immediate, practical problem involving a shortage of alcohol. *This* is a woman after my own heart.</div>\r\n<div>- A woman who, upon hearing that her son had been lead away and sentenced to death, went to the foot of his cross to watch him die in one of the most gruesome ways possible. I know that mothers love their children to the point of death, but watching your child bleed to death slowly is, again, not the action of a person with your normal amount of stamina. I can see a mother not being able to handle this, or not being able to remain in front of it.</div>\r\n<div>I can also imagine that it took quite a bit of doing to get to Golgotha, since Jesus\' execution was kind of a Thing and there were undoubtedly a ton of people there to witness it. Mary was no spring chicken by this point, but she got herself there through the crowds and the chaos and probably a security checkpoint or two (there was a healthy amount of fear about Jesus\' followers) because there was no other place she could possibly be but beside her dying son (who had, by the way, three years earlier refused to settle down and have grandkids, quit his job, left her and his home and the family business and wandered around for 3 years causing trouble with the religious authorities [which would, of course, equal trouble for his family... we don\'t have this in the scriptures but I can\'t imagine they were left alone through all of this]).</div>\r\n<div>The bottom line for me is that I believe I and many other women who have loved (or been raised among) Catholic men have suffered directly from being compared to an image of Mary that doesn\'t fit what little there is about her in the Bible. I find this an abuse of Mary, and an abuse of women who aren\'t particularly demure or soft-spoken... not that I\'m hating on women who are demure and soft-spoken, but as it so happens I don\'t really possess either quality, and neither do most of my female friends. To me, these are character traits, not moral qualities... but in my experience as a Catholic, they were raised to the level of virtue. I consider this to be tragic for women whom God has made with gifts of vision and leadership, women who are eloquent and talented and who shine even when they\'re not trying to. I\'m not talking about myself, by the way... I\'m thinking of specific women I\'ve known who have suffered greatly beneath the Church\'s teaching on women... have suffered as they\'ve attempted to emulate a neutered, silent, weak-spirited version of Mary not supported by the Scriptures. Women who, unlike me, chose to stay and suffer.</div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div>When I envision having peace with Mary again, I imagine a Mary who would look me in the eye and tell me to get my shit together... with love, but also with a gleam in her eye that would let me know she was serious and would open up a can on me without a moment\'s hesitation if necessary. I imagine Mary with a firm jaw, saying \"Yes, if I could bear the Son of God, bear the shame of my pregnancy and all of the difficulties with and questions around raising Him... and then watch Him die, then you can handle what God places in your life.\" I imagine a Mary who even now says \"that\'s not too trifling a problem for me to take to God for you. Hold on, I\'ll be right back.\" I imagine her tough and strong and a little weathered. She was a carpenter\'s wife, after all. It\'s not like she had it easy.</div>\r\n<div>And I also imagine her slowly shaking her head at all of the people who have promoted an image of her as weak and passive and demure... and I imagine her having a word or two with God about THAT, too.</div>\r\n<div>If I make peace with Mary, it\'ll be with Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven... and I\'ll ask her prayers for a Church that accepts women as they are, quiet or loud; leaders or followers; with many children, few or none; married or single. Maybe I could go to that Church again someday. Maybe.</div>','Hail Mary, Bad-Ass Queen of Heaven','','inherit','open','open','','2706-revision-2','','','2011-11-28 14:26:10','2011-11-28 22:26:10','',2706,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2706-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(2714,109,'2011-11-28 15:11:07','2011-11-28 23:11:07','','Occupy Wallstreet (header) Wendy Annibell','','inherit','open','open','','occupy-wallstreet-header-wendy-annibell','','','2011-11-28 15:11:07','2011-11-28 23:11:07','',2713,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Occupy-Wallstreet-header-Wendy-Annibell.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(2715,0,'2011-11-28 15:12:07','2011-11-28 23:12:07','Book reviews....\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Chris Smith\nAUTHOR EMAIL: editor@englewoodreview.org\nAUTHOR URL: http://erb.kingdomnow.org/\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 108.123.105.136\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Chris Smith\n    [Email] =&gt; editor@englewoodreview.org\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; http://erb.kingdomnow.org/\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Book reviews....\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; ccsmith\n)\n','Chris Smith - 2011-11-28 15:12:07','','publish','open','open','','d5dbcdad6dc053ac2e6eb7faec0c4ba7','','','2011-11-28 15:12:07','2011-11-28 23:12:07','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=2715',0,'feedback','',0),(3001,12,'2011-12-11 08:10:54','2011-12-11 16:10:54','In my upcoming book, \"<a href=\"http://store.civitaspress.com/books/284\">Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Broken World</a>,\" I answer a lot of questions about ministry failure. But there\'s one question I stayed away from: \"<em>Should</em> a fallen pastor be put back into the pulpit and be allowed to preach again?\"\r\n\r\nIn the book, I interview eleven ministers who fell from the ministry due to moral failure. Several of them are pastoring again. The fact that they are can be attributed to several things. First, they went through an intense restoration process. Secondly, the church or denomination they serve decided they were at peace with having them pastor again. Third, these men were able to see the call of God in their life as a thing that did not go away once they fell.\r\n\r\nThis is a huge issue within the church. Those of a more conservative stripe say a minister who commits adultery should never be restored to the pastorate. The argument typically falls along biblical lines. The guidelines for an overseer in 1 Timothy 3 are that an overseer in the church should be \"above reproach.\" Once a minister has committed adultery, he has violated the trust of the church and is no longer deemed worthy of the office.\r\n\r\nThis passage also says the overseer must be able to manage his household well, not quarrelsome, well thought of by outsiders, respectable, the husband of one wife, hospitable and self-controlled. It is a serious thing to desire to be an overseer. It is not to be taken lightly and those who desire and are called should understand the weight of it.\r\n\r\nThen, there are those who believe that a fallen pastor can enter back into the ministry. Of course, they understand that those who desire to do so must be repentant and restored to Christ. The main argument is also a biblical one. It comes from Romans 11:29:  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. The argument is that God has granted gifts to people and even if they sin, they still have gifts.\r\n\r\nHonestly, I still don\'t know where I stand, but I\'d like to look at some objections, then tell you how things work out in life.\r\n\r\nThe first argument is that those who serve are held to a high standard. Those who argue that even after a fall a man is worthy of serving argue against it like this: <em>\"The qualifications for overseer are listed as patterns for life. Overseers <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fallen.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3005\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fallen.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" /></a>should have those things be true about them as a rule of life. If those were a hard and fast rule, without grace, then Peter never should have been given the chance to be a leader in the early church because he committed the sin of denying Christ. All sin is worthy of separation. Yes, the bible holds leaders at a high standard, but it is to be measured against grace.\"</em>\r\n\r\nThen there\'s the argument against the second position. <em>\"Yes, the gift is still there, but that doesn\'t mean someone is still worthy of serving in certain capacity. God does forgive fallen leaders, but He has high standards of leadership. Moses is an example of that. After striking the rock, he wasn\'t allowed to enter the promised land. Fallen leaders are still precious to God and can still find other ways to minister other than leadership positions.\"</em>\r\n\r\nIt\'s tough, isn\'t it? I am resolved in this. God\'s grace is much more abounding than many are willing to grant. I\'ve had pastors look me in the eye and basically tell me that I shouldn\'t even pray in public ever again. I know people who believe that fallen pastors should sit in the back pew for the rest of their lives and never make eye contact with God-fearing people ever again. These people are far and few between, but they can feel like the majority.\r\n\r\nChrist\'s voice is clear in the Gospels. He restores sinners. In the face of the religious majority, he picks people up and stands them on their feet. Does this mean we should put fallen pastors back in the pulpit? No, but it does mean that as Christians, we should be the first to seek them out and love them, seeking to show them love.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/person-pew.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3010\" style=\"margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/person-pew-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" /></a>Now, for my pragmatic argument. I hate the word \"pragmatism\" because it has a <em>stigmatism</em>. The churches I have seen that have placed repentant, restored fallen pastors back into the pulpit have been blessed. They took a chance. It was up to each congregation to make a decision based on their own personal convictions, but they were blessed.\r\n\r\nI can tell you this as well. When I\'ve been able to preach at churches about my fall, my adultery, my sin, I\'ve been able to reach and minister to people like I never could before. My preaching was overcome with a new level of understanding about grace, empathy, compassion and forgiveness. When I preach now, I can almost guarantee that after I\'m done, I\'ll be approached by someone who wants to confess their own sin of adultery or moral failure.\r\n\r\nThe people who talk to me tell me, \"I could never have told my pastor. He wouldn\'t understand. I feel like you have a different kind of heart.\" Yes, I do. Not because of anything I\'ve done, but because Christ took my mess and made a message out of it. He took my crooked little heart and made it into a tool for him.\r\n\r\nWhere does the fallen pastor belong? That\'s a decision for each church to make after he goes through a restoration process. I do know this - he does not belong on the trash heap of society. He belongs among the rest of God\'s people, receiving compassion, participating in worship, and sharing in His grace.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Putting The Fallen Pastor In His Place','','publish','open','open','','putting-the-fallen-pastor-in-his-place','','\nhttp://store.civitaspress.com/books/284','2011-12-11 10:59:23','2011-12-11 18:59:23','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=3001',0,'post','',17),(2717,109,'2011-11-28 15:21:04','2011-11-28 23:21:04','I am sure you’ve heard about the ongoing series of demonstrations in the Wall Street financial district. What is Occupy Wall Street or<strong> </strong>(OWS) for short anyway? A paradigm shift or “blame-game” perhaps? In a nutshell, it’s a growing worldwide movement loosely based upon social and economic inequality. Some consider this movement highly controversial.\n\nMaybe, to some who are reading, <em>this article</em> will seem “controversial.”  But, as they say, “the proof is in the pudding.”  The realization I’m pointing to can only be known once we recognize the open, relaxed, non-separate way of being of what is known as non-duality. Occupy Wall Street, along with the frustration and desire for change that lots of people are experiencing these days, is a prime example of how the belief in separation can be seen as the root of human problems.\n<p align=\"center\"></p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>What is the belief in separation?</strong></p>\n&nbsp;\n\nFor starters here is a simple metaphor:  the painter and his painting are inseparable.  Translated, this means that the consciousness we are carrying around, which is the belief in being separate people, determines the world we see.  The painter “me” is inseparable from the world I see out there.\n\nThe Occupy Wall Street movement is certainly shaking things up, while attempting to provide a much-needed balance in our world. It appears that lots of people are “fed up” these days with corporate greed and the appearance that the rich keep getting richer while the poorer keep getting poorer.  It’s <em>quite</em> natural to want change when this is believed.  And it’s also quite <em>natural</em> to look outward into the world, believing that the problem exists (solely) out there.  In some sense, it does!  In the appearance of life, there are people and organizations who are acting from a sense of lack, fear, and greed—taking more than giving.  It’s much like any addiction.  The taking begets more taking, ad nauseum.\n\n&nbsp;\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Let’s look at it a different way.</strong></p>\n&nbsp;\n\nMany times in my meetings I get questions about the financial state of our world.  And almost always, I can sense in the questioner fear or anxiety below the surface of the words.  Yet the focus of the questioner is in pointing <em>out there</em>, in the world (in the “painting”), as if the solution lies solely there.\n\nWe can take all sorts of practical steps to change our world, and even improve it in many ways.  But if we are not in touch with the fear, anxiety, frustration, lack, and greed within each of us, then in some ways we are <em>only boxing our own shadows </em>when we point outward to Wall Street.  If the painter—me—is experiencing fear, frustration, anger or anxiety but only pointing outward towards the world, the question is this:  what am I looking to accomplish through that pointing?\n\nWhat I find time and again when the question of Wall Street pops up is that this outward pointing is the perfect opportunity to go <em>inward</em>.  By bringing someone’s attention—the bare observation of naked awareness—directly to the frustration, anger, fear or anxiety he or she is feeling, this inseparability between the painter and his painting becomes crystal clear.  Although we don’t always see it that way, we are looking for relaxation and well-being.  We are looking to rearrange the world (the painting) so that we can finally relax and not have to feel this frustration, anger, fear or anxiety.\n\nWhen I suggest to the questioner that true transformation of the world starts with the self (or inner voice), it can appear controversial, counterintuitive, and even repulsive at first.  I’m inviting the questioner to Occupy Awareness first, so to speak.  This means to rest without viewpoints over and over, throughout the day, letting all the afflictive emotions that arise with those viewpoints be as they are, without trying to understand, neutralize or get rid of them.   When we begin to do this, insight begins to arise automatically.  We see that our bodies, when they are troubled by these afflictive emotions, cause a sort of automated response in the mind.  That response shows up as a pointing outward into the world in some attempt to change that world so that the emotions can relax.  However, that outward pointing only goes so far.\n\nFor any transformation to happen, it is helpful to see through the sense of self that is identifying so strongly with viewpoints, no matter what they are.  As these viewpoints are relaxed, over and over, we start to feel energy in the body very directly.  That energy is allowed to come and go, bringing about a natural healing in our experience.  This is a deep and profound healing precisely because it deals with the very source of suffering, the ego or self.\n\nAs we relax as awareness (or Occupy Awareness), the sense of being a person cut off from a hostile world “out there” begins to soften and relax.   Insights and clarity begin to pave the way automatically.  We lose the sense of an us v. them attitude and this frees us up to take a more comprehensive perspective of our world, illuminating the way in which the painter is inseparable from his painting.\n\nAs we begin to relax and heal, the world and the sense of inherent “others” also begin to relax.  We start to move and act in the world with a fearless, compassionate love and peace.  This is not a love and peace that just sits quietly as the so-called others “destroy the world.”  It is not by its nature passive at all.\n\nWe can continue trying to point outwardly, believing that the problem is solely out there.  Yet this blinds us to the direct experience of what is happening in our own bodies and minds.  If we look inward, the fear, lack, anger, frustration, and anxiety that we are feeling as separate selves actually creates a sort of addiction for goods or for other vices that we believe will satisfy our suffering.  And so, in a very direct way, we created Wall Street by not experiencing and healing our own afflictive emotions.\n\nThe painter is inseparable from his painting.  So, as we change, from the belief in being a<em> separate</em> person, into a more fluid, non-separate, non-referential way of experiencing, the painting (the world) begins to change automatically.  Everyone we meet is then affected by the change within us.  Deep change is very contagious.  We don’t settle for Occupying Wall Street or any other street for that matter.  We occupy every moment with this new-found openness and direct experience of non-separation.  The world cannot help but change at that point simply because the world is a reflection of our own consciousness.\n\nFurthermore, do not take this as an invitation to stop protesting or speaking your mind about what you perceive in the world.  The recognition of the inward freedom that I am attempting to demonstrate here in no way outlaws taking practical action to change things in our relative experience.  I’m merely offering you, the reader, <a title=\"An invitation to Living Realization\" href=\"http://livingrealization.org/\" target=\"_blank\">an invitation</a> to look in a different way, seeing that what we have created as something out there is a reflection of our own, interior experience as humans.  As that interior experience begins to be illuminated more and more, it’s quite natural for an outward expression of that to take place.  We are only ever tending to the world we created through our own thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions.\n\nWhy not start in our own backyard?','Occupy Awareness','','inherit','open','open','','2713-revision','','','2011-11-28 15:21:04','2011-11-28 23:21:04','',2713,'http://provoketive.com/2011/11/28/2713-revision/',0,'revision','',0),