Garden-Variety Malaise Archives | Page 20 of 24

No One Was Ever Alone Again

by Anne Kennedy | May 30, 2021 | Anglicans, Church Year, Garden-Variety Malaise, Jesus

Well, it’s Trinity Sunday. Let’s see what kind of heresy we can rustle up this morning, shall we? I’m the kind of Christian that accepts that God is more than able to use human language to communicate with me about what he is like, what we are like, and what anyone...

Called to Flourish?

by Anne Kennedy | May 16, 2021 | Anglicans, Biblical Illiteracy, Garden-Variety Malaise, Go to Church, The Gospel

I have never really loved the word “flourish.” I keep thinking that it will go out of fashion among Christians, but so far it hasn’t. It appears in all kinds of places online. In fact, certain assumptions about what it means to flourish seem to me to be a sort of...

Happy Birthing Person Day

by Anne Kennedy | May 9, 2021 | Anglicans, Church Year, Garden-Variety Malaise, Go to Church, Jesus, The Gospel

Today, apparently, is “Birthing Person” Day, and the prevailing manner of marking the occasion seems to be people posting pictures of “birthing creatures” in the wild–fluffy “mother” birds with baby birds under their wings, a...

He is Awesome in His Deeds

by Anne Kennedy | May 2, 2021 | Anglicans, Biblical Illiteracy, Garden-Variety Malaise, Go to Church

I had three different posts started for this morning—the lections are so wonderful, one could go in so many different directions—but then I woke up to another tempest on Twitter. The Twittersphere moves so frustratingly fast that having started to write about Rachel...

Two Funerals and an Amazing Grace

by Anne Kennedy | Apr 18, 2021 | Anglicans, Apostasy, Coronavirus, Episcopalians, False Teachers and Their Enablers, Garden-Variety Malaise, Go to Church, Jesus, The Gospel, Woke Church

After attending yet another funeral in the morning yesterday, I came home and hunched over my kitchen counter, absorbed in leftover scalloped potatoes, to be transported by the soaring music, the elegant hats, and the heartbreaking social distancing of a very...

Is “Christian Flourishing” the Real Gospel?

by Anne Kennedy | Mar 7, 2021 | Anglicans, Apostasy, Biblical Illiteracy, Episcopalians, False Teachers and Their Enablers, Garden-Variety Malaise, Prosperity Gospel, Social Justice, The Gospel, Theological Liberalism

Over the past tumultuous year, I have become more and more skeptical of the idea that Christians are supposed to “flourish.” It seems a very basic assumption that many of us have, that we’re supposed to do well and be able to use our gifts in the church. When I first...