Hi,

I wanted to discuss Barney's message in light of the book The Shack. I especially would love to hear from Anne as I know she is a fan of the book.

To me what was offensive about The Shack was not so much that God was represented by a woman, but that they called her Papa. I REALLY didn't like that mixing of genders. Also, the name of the main character - Mackenzie - is usually a female name - that bothered me too. It made me think that in the author's view - gender didn't matter. To me, gender matters very much.

I couldn't figure out how to put an image into this post, so I attached it as a file and here's a link to my blog to see it:

http://jorbratko.blogspot.com/

I'm curious to hear some responses to this short article by Brian McLaren: Why I'm Voting For Obama, and Why I Hope You Will Too: Reason 1.

I was recently engaged in an interesting discussion regarding the gift of tongues. It started because of a reaction I had to a live worship CD on which the lead singer could be heard singing in tongues during one of the songs. My initial reaction to hearing this was something like, "Gosh, why in the world would they not edit that out?" It seemed to distract me more than anything else. Instead of being brought more into focusing on God, I instantly found myself focused on the singer.

[I notice we evangelicals worry a lot about the sin in our society. I've often wondered, though, whether that is a "fear reaction" (or even a pride-reaction!) rather than a God-reaction.

My cousin had another excellent article on this topic...]