As someone who has been cast out and seen as dirty because of my queerness, this post means everything to me. I tried to walk away from god, but god just won't walk away from me. I know my faith has to be real because of this but my parents try to tell me it's not because of who I am. A lot of conflicting thoughts, but I feel encouraged by your words this morning. Thank you, Brian.
It's a funny thing, this suspicion of miracles. (Queen Elizabeth Tudor even outlawed them.) This is a very "Protestant Reformation" thing. Probably because it grew up along side of scientific rationalism. (Not that I am against the rational. I am not.) But growing up Catholic (and Irish), I was not given this suspicion of the extraordinary. To me the world-"god's world" as y'all would have- it, is alive and magical and amazing. Google what the Voyager spacecraft saw on the surface of Jupiter. Unbelievable. Not to be trite, but acorns grow into oak trees. It's all a miracle to me.
The bleeding woman didn’t get healed because she followed the rules—she got healed because she broke them.
Twelve years of being told her body made her unclean, and instead of shrinking, she reached for God anyway. No permission. No priest. Just raw faith that said, “I still belong.”
And Jesus? He doesn’t scold her. He doesn’t cite Leviticus. He calls her “daughter.”
That’s the Gospel. Not purity. Not exclusion. Not waiting to be acceptable. Just touching Love and finding out you always were.
If your theology flinches at blood, bodies, or women who take up space, it’s not from Jesus.
“one has to wonder if this regulation would have ever existed if the male priests in charge of the temple experienced period blood rather than the women who were barred from priestly offices.”
I don’t know. You’d have to ask God who gave the commandment.
Hey friend, I see that you comment on almost all of my posts, and while I welcome the engagement, it's very clear that we have different approaches on how to understand the Bible. It seems like a waste of time for you to constantly comment like this, pushing a literalistic and inerrantist view that I do not hold to. If you'd like to better understand my approach, check out the book Inspired by Rachel Held Evans, or How the Bible Actually Works by Pete Enns. But, to respond briefly to your comment, no I don't believe many of the exclusionary or violent commands of the OT law were actually God's will for God's people, but were based in cultural and patriarchal norms of the time.
Perhaps it is a waste of time for you, but maybe some of your audience can see the implications of your arguments.
I think that view, while you’re entitled to it, both puts you in disagreement with what Jesus said about it, it also leaves you with a bit of a shaky foundation from which to make any claims about God and the teachings of Christ. Ultimately what you’re giving us is theology from the mind of Brian with some Bible verses slapped on for support.
I believe it was Tim Keller who said, “If your God never disagrees with you, you might be worshiping an idealized version of yourself”
This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
This was beautiful 😭🙌
As someone who has been cast out and seen as dirty because of my queerness, this post means everything to me. I tried to walk away from god, but god just won't walk away from me. I know my faith has to be real because of this but my parents try to tell me it's not because of who I am. A lot of conflicting thoughts, but I feel encouraged by your words this morning. Thank you, Brian.
It's a funny thing, this suspicion of miracles. (Queen Elizabeth Tudor even outlawed them.) This is a very "Protestant Reformation" thing. Probably because it grew up along side of scientific rationalism. (Not that I am against the rational. I am not.) But growing up Catholic (and Irish), I was not given this suspicion of the extraordinary. To me the world-"god's world" as y'all would have- it, is alive and magical and amazing. Google what the Voyager spacecraft saw on the surface of Jupiter. Unbelievable. Not to be trite, but acorns grow into oak trees. It's all a miracle to me.
This is stunning, Brian— just stunning ♥️
The bleeding woman didn’t get healed because she followed the rules—she got healed because she broke them.
Twelve years of being told her body made her unclean, and instead of shrinking, she reached for God anyway. No permission. No priest. Just raw faith that said, “I still belong.”
And Jesus? He doesn’t scold her. He doesn’t cite Leviticus. He calls her “daughter.”
That’s the Gospel. Not purity. Not exclusion. Not waiting to be acceptable. Just touching Love and finding out you always were.
If your theology flinches at blood, bodies, or women who take up space, it’s not from Jesus.
—Virgin Monk Boy
“one has to wonder if this regulation would have ever existed if the male priests in charge of the temple experienced period blood rather than the women who were barred from priestly offices.”
I don’t know. You’d have to ask God who gave the commandment.
Hey friend, I see that you comment on almost all of my posts, and while I welcome the engagement, it's very clear that we have different approaches on how to understand the Bible. It seems like a waste of time for you to constantly comment like this, pushing a literalistic and inerrantist view that I do not hold to. If you'd like to better understand my approach, check out the book Inspired by Rachel Held Evans, or How the Bible Actually Works by Pete Enns. But, to respond briefly to your comment, no I don't believe many of the exclusionary or violent commands of the OT law were actually God's will for God's people, but were based in cultural and patriarchal norms of the time.
Perhaps it is a waste of time for you, but maybe some of your audience can see the implications of your arguments.
I think that view, while you’re entitled to it, both puts you in disagreement with what Jesus said about it, it also leaves you with a bit of a shaky foundation from which to make any claims about God and the teachings of Christ. Ultimately what you’re giving us is theology from the mind of Brian with some Bible verses slapped on for support.
I believe it was Tim Keller who said, “If your God never disagrees with you, you might be worshiping an idealized version of yourself”