A friend sent me a provocative article from Pulpit & Pew that notes a fifty year rise in general unhealthiness among Protestant clergy. Fifty years ago, clergy were among the healthiest professional groups. Now the opposite is true.
Much of the clergy health problem may be rooted in the very nature of ministry today—what Stephanie Paulsell, a visiting lecturer on ministry at Harvard Divinity School and author of Honoring the Body, calls “the overwhelmingness” of ministry.
“When you get up in the morning, you have to make a lot of choices about how to spend your time,” says Paulsell, who also serves as a member of Pulpit and Pew’s Core Seminar, an advisory group of religious leaders and theological educators. “It’s a job that is conducive to eating on the run and not taking time to exercise and not getting enough sleep.”
What can congregations do to help? What can clergy do? At some point, doesn’t the expectation for clergy to work themselves sick become a justice issue? Click to continue reading “Does ministry make clergy sick?”
An atheist is usually defined as either (a) someone who has no belief in God or (b) someone who believes God doesn’t exist. (Passive vs. active atheism.)
Sharon Welch defines her own atheism as someone who does not desire God.
Then there are those of us who desire a God we do not believe in.
Who is the atheist and who isn’t?
UPDATE: More on atheism from Debitage.
Last night and tonight my net access fell off at exactly the same time. Then kicked back in when I relaunched the browser.
It didn’t do things like this until we switched from DSL to cable. It’s quicker but spotty as hell.
So now I’m wishing I had satellite net access so I could bitch about the weather instead.
Writes Jacques Berlinerblau: “The 2008 presidential election is probably the first in American history that has spawned a veritable faith and politics industry.”
We haven’t had one for a while??
I can see the complex part though. Ralph Reed has to have some trippy hang ups.
But industry? It’s a far cry from the Model T assembly line. And it’s hardly industrious in the virtuous sense. I think we’re much closer to idle hands and the devil’s playground.
Still, a new blog worth following. Even if he is French.
(Hat tip to Get Religion.)
The mighty T-Rex! Which would make me Uncle T-Rex. Though he was calling me Mister Uncle Chutney. Well, yet another identity crisis…
