Fire on the Mountain

We say that we would like to be more like God. So be more thrilled with moonlight. And babies. And what makes them. And holding on to one lover until you've both been aged to wine, ready to pour. Holiness is nothing like a building code. Holiness is 80-year-old hands crafting an apple pie for others, again. It is aspen trees in a backlit breeze. It is fire on the mountain.   -- N.D. Wilson (from "God the Merrymaker" from CT, April 2014)

Parenting Like God

We should strive for holiness, but holiness is a flood, not an absence. Are you the kind of parent who can create joys for your children that they never imagined wanting? Does your sun shine, warming the faces of others? Does your rain green the world around you? Do you end your days with anything resembling a sunset? Do you begin with a dawn?   -- N.D. Wilson (from "God the Merrymaker" from CT, April 2014)

EMU, CCCU, and Listening

From the January/February 2014 issue of Christianity Today, a heading reads "CCCU school mulls shift on same-sex relationships." The short article states:

A Christian college is permitting professors to have same-sex relationships--at least for the next six months. Trustees at Eastern Mennonite University, a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), unanimously voted to let president Loren Swartzendruber lead the school through a "listening period" to review its current ban. During that time, tenure-track faculty will not be penalized for violating current policies which restricts sexual relationships to marriage between one man and one woman.

Personally this is upsetting on two counts: First, I was employed at the largest school in the CCCU from 2002 to 2009, and it is also where I completed my undergraduate degree. This will probably become a watershed event for a watershed issue within CCCU schools. Second, my spiritual heritage (fraternal side of the family) is Mennonite.

I'm not sure where CT gleaned their information regarding tenure-track faculty not being penalized during this six month "listening period" . . . it may be implicit, but nothing is explicitly mentioned in the article from November/2013 at EMU's website. I'm somewhat shocked EMU's original post had open comments. The comments, however, were closed by the "Moderator" after only two days . . . they said they wanted to listen, but not just quite yet.  ;)

1. Moderator says:

   November 20, 2013 at 12:04 pm

   Comments on this blog are now closed. Watch for invitations to speak into the EMU discussion beginning early January 2014.