To be helpful

Some Housekeeping

Thanks for hanging with me these past few weeks. Your kind words and encouragement have meant the world as I've gotten this blog thing spinning up again. As one person put it, "We need more inclusive, orthodox Christians in the public square with accessible content." That's my whole vision behind all of this! My main desire is to be helpful.

You can now head to parrott.ink to update your newsletter preferences. You can choose between this weekly summary email or every individual post sent to your inbox.

I've also spun out my tech and productivity thoughts to a separate newsletter and Instagram called Nudgewing. You can add the Nudgewing newsletter through your parrott.ink preferences. Those posts will be pretty darn occasional—think of it as a side project within a passion project.

Posts now support commenting. And you should be able to reply to this email address and I'll actually get the responses—I wasn't able to before. Whoops.

Without further ado…

Good Stuff You Should Read

Respecting Pronouns: A Practical List

Trans and gender-nonconforming folks view their genders much deeper than just pronouns, especially considering that our internal narratives rarely include third-person pronouns. If you work to view someone through a nongendered or an alternative-gendered lens, you are far less likely to screw up on names and pronouns.

Bradley Jersak Q&R - If We're Forgiven, Why the Last Judgment?

What we know is that the Judge on the Day is not retributive. He is all-merciful and not retributive. He knows sin has punished us enough and that grace is the only cure. He is the Great Physician whose diagnoses are true and whose program of recovery is necessary, but careful and kind. And further, he’s prepared to begin our rehabilitation today.

Becky Castle Miller - The difference between feeling, emotion, desire, and reactivity

I often see women, who are rightfully and understandably reactive because of unhealed wounds or difficult circumstances, labeled as overly emotional… when it's not an emotion problem. Maybe it’s an abuse problem or it’s a trauma problem or it’s a no one helps with the housework problem. An important starting point in the conversation about emotional health is understanding that there’s a difference between feeling, emotion, desire, and reactivity.

What Happened On the Blog This Week

Co-Pastoring

What Pastor Tonetta and I have asked our elders to consider (and what they are, in fact, pursuing) is a co-pastorate model. Instead of a single "lead pastor" at the top of the organization, Tonetta and I would each be equal in responsibility and authority, and each of us would be accountable to the whole of the elders.

Ezekiel 4—7: Idolatry Matters Because It Hurts People

In the prophetic imagination, idolatry wasn't evil solely because it was idolatry. Idolatry was evil because of what it led to.And what it led to, without fail, was: economic injustice, violence, and oppression against marginalized people (often women, children, and immigrants; what Scripture calls "widows, orphans, and strangers").

We Know When the Son of Man Will Come in His Kingdom

Jesus did not talk about his second coming. Instead, he talked about how his first coming was the arrival of God's Kingdom. His ministry, death, and resurrection was the Son of Man coming in glory. Judgment day has already happened in Jesus on the cross, and his judgment is final: forgiveness for all.

Misused Scripture 6: Ephesians 5:21-22 "Wives Submit To Your Husbands"

How many sermons have you ever heard about women needing to look for submissive men? Or sermons commanding husbands to submit to their wives? Theoretically, it should be the same amount as the other way around because the command to submit is a mutual command to the entire community. To make this section solely about wives submitting to husbands is the opposite of taking Scripture "literally." It makes a mockery out of it, all in the name of sexism and misogyny, so that men can retain power and feel spiritual while doing it.