Shame--what Happened When My Mother, The Dragon,

I Am Deeply Distressed By What I Only Can Call In Our Christian Culture The Idolatry Of The Scriptures. For Many Christians, The Bible Is Not A Pointer To God But God Himself... God Cannot Be Confined Within The Covers Of A Leather-bound Book. I Develop A Nasty Rash Around People Who Speak As If Mere Scrutiny Of Its Pages Will Reveal Precisely How God Thinks And Precisely What God Wants.

The Confessing Church Of American Ragamuffins Needs To Join Magdalene And Peter In Witnessing That Christianity Is Not Primarily A Moral Code But A Grace-laden Mystery; It Is Not Essentially A Philosophy Of Love But A Love Affair; It Is Not Keeping Rules With Clenched Fists But Receiving A Gift With Open Hands.

Ruthless Trust Ultimately Comes Down To This: Faith In The Person Of Jesus And Hope In His Promise.

The Anything-goes Passiveness Of The Religious And Political Left Is Matched By The Preachy Moralism Of The Religious And Political Right. The Person Who Uncritically Embraces Any Party Line Is Guilty Of An Idolatrous Surrender Of Her Core Identity As Abba's Child. Neither Liberal Fairy Dust Nor Conservative Hardball Addresses Our Ragged Human Dignity.

If We Maintain The Open-mindedness Of Children, We Challenge Fixed Ideas And Established Structures, Including Our Own. We Listen To People In Other Denominations And Religions. We Don't Find Demons In Those With Whom We Disagree. We Don't Cozy Up To People Who Mouth Our Jargon. If We Are Open, We Rarely Resort To Either-or: Either Creation Or Evolution, Liberty Or Law, Sacred Or Secular, Beethoven Or Madonna. We Focus On Both-and, Fully Aware That God's Truth Cannot Be Imprisoned In A Small Definition.