I think a lot of “practical” Christian-adjacent fads are rather pagan. I used to be into the Enneagram, and my friends and I found it so helpful and useful in understanding ourselves and each other. But now, looking back, it feels like a grand distraction at best, pagan at worst. Same with “boundaries.” Both very popular with Christians, both with a tendency to push worldly frameworks. With the Enneagram, you seek to understand yourself more deeply. With boundaries, you are to see that sometimes, it’s ok to put down your cross and not be self-sacrificing. Both aim for “health,” a concept not really focused on in the Bible, if it’s there at all.
I love and admire your writer's voice so much. It's also inspiring that you push ahead and blog, podcast and write in the middle of raising 6 children and serving your church. Bless you for all the ways your writing speaks Jesus into a hostile and lost culture.
Wow. For somebody who has left a cult, she sure has the clear eyes conviction of, well, somebody who is in a cult. I do wonder about these cycles with people. I was listening to this podcast years ago where a sweet, exvangelical couple was going through their sort of deconversion testimony, and suddenly realized that they were just doing what they had done with Cru Campus Ministry but with a different message. They even started exvangelical meet ups in the park in Brooklyn. I just kept thinking, “Goodness, can the two of you really not see what you’re doing here?”
<Complete aside: I just wrote the Frs. bemoaning the fact that as much as I wanted to meet them, for they have been very influential and encouraging to me, I really wished I could meet *you* in Latrobe. Imagine my joy to learn that you will be there. I hope we cross paths so I can tell you first hand what a wonderful, albeit distant, companion on this road you have been to me. I'd suggest a Demotivations Meet-Up, but I know what rigorous introverts we are.>
I think a lot of “practical” Christian-adjacent fads are rather pagan. I used to be into the Enneagram, and my friends and I found it so helpful and useful in understanding ourselves and each other. But now, looking back, it feels like a grand distraction at best, pagan at worst. Same with “boundaries.” Both very popular with Christians, both with a tendency to push worldly frameworks. With the Enneagram, you seek to understand yourself more deeply. With boundaries, you are to see that sometimes, it’s ok to put down your cross and not be self-sacrificing. Both aim for “health,” a concept not really focused on in the Bible, if it’s there at all.
I think you may have succeeded in this part: " or a hard-hitting book reviewer who made the bad writers cry ..."
At least, they would cry if they read what you write about their Very Bad Book.
I love and admire your writer's voice so much. It's also inspiring that you push ahead and blog, podcast and write in the middle of raising 6 children and serving your church. Bless you for all the ways your writing speaks Jesus into a hostile and lost culture.
Wow. For somebody who has left a cult, she sure has the clear eyes conviction of, well, somebody who is in a cult. I do wonder about these cycles with people. I was listening to this podcast years ago where a sweet, exvangelical couple was going through their sort of deconversion testimony, and suddenly realized that they were just doing what they had done with Cru Campus Ministry but with a different message. They even started exvangelical meet ups in the park in Brooklyn. I just kept thinking, “Goodness, can the two of you really not see what you’re doing here?”
I’m looking forward to reports from the provincial assembly!
Also, I love your journal answers. If it was an online journal, those answers would break their website. Which would be a wonderful thing.
<Complete aside: I just wrote the Frs. bemoaning the fact that as much as I wanted to meet them, for they have been very influential and encouraging to me, I really wished I could meet *you* in Latrobe. Imagine my joy to learn that you will be there. I hope we cross paths so I can tell you first hand what a wonderful, albeit distant, companion on this road you have been to me. I'd suggest a Demotivations Meet-Up, but I know what rigorous introverts we are.>
From our go-to, Wikipedia:
"The banana split is claimed to have been invented 1904 in Latrobe by David Evans Strickler"
"Latrobe was the birthplace and childhood home of children's television personality Fred Rogers ."