A Mending Shift

a bird sings, not because if has an answer to give, but because it has a song to sing … this is my song

Wounded Image of God, The Conversation Continues…

talking-women

I have been blessed by all the comments of men and women who shared over the past few weeks regarding the Wounded Image of God.(if you haven’t, swing on by to the post to read the comments…you’ll be moved). To be honest, the response has surprised me. It was a post I had to write for myself as I reflected on a moment that moved me deeply. But the response points to how deep this wounding is and how desperate we are for healing to take place. Your words have embedded deeply in my heart. Thank you.

In that vein of thankfulness and sharing with you the continuing conversation, please allow me to direct you to the places where, indeed, the conversation has continued.

So in no particular order, complete with links and soundbite, here is part of the continuing conversation around the Wounded Image of God:

  • The Wounded Image of God: Evangelical Lamentations on Gender, by Bridget Jack Meyers. “Usually this issue makes me feel angry and resentful. Today it doesn’t. Today I just feel sorry, sorry for all of the churches out there who struggle to reach out to the people of this world having willfully dulled half the tools God gave them for doing so. And for once in my life, I don’t want to fight about it. I just want to forgive, and be forgiven.“

  • Over at The Matt Scott, Matt pens: “I am instead advocating a higher level of conversation with the other, an deeper desire of understanding of the other, and an attempt to find a common ground for growth with the other.”
  • Amy, over at Walking in the Spirit, touched a little on Jeff’s reflection saying, “it had me misty-eyed and deeply touched.”
  • “I can’t speak for all men, but I can speak as a man. And to the women who might read this post…as a man, I ask you to forgive me for all the times I was insensitive to you or thought of you as less than I….I ask you to forgive me.” This is just a TASTE of Jeff’s reflection and plea for forgiveness. A must Read!!
  • “I believe that God can reorient the whole world from one of inequality to one of equality and I believe God wants you and me to help.”  You can thank Kim for this gem, read her thoughts here.
  • Reina shares from here experience: “Growing up, being a girl was shoved in my face at every turn. Having five brothers only made the delineation between what was ‘allowed’ more obvious. Some of the limitations were cultural. Most were religious. When I went away to a strict boarding academy in high school, the lines were even more obvious.” [read more]
  • From across the pond, Dave writes: “Some wonderful news from America as we see some light at the end of the tunnel.”
  • Among other well written things, Jonathan calls for men to step up: “For all of us, it is time to end this oppression against women so restore not for their sake but for ours as well.  And when we do we can rediscover the whole image of humanity and of God in our midst.” Read this one!!
  • Kathy (who never uses capital letters…wink, wink) writes, “beautiful thoughts from some friends about women in ministry – thanks, guys, for your heart, your actions, your support.”
  • For days Heidi pondered of few of these posts, and then said: “This is an area I’ve been very damaged in myself, and I know others who have been as well.   It is a very deep wound, and needs to be healed.  There are times I realize how very deep the damage goes, and I wonder if I will every be able to ‘be myself.’”

Tags:


This entry was posted by on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 7:37 pm and is filed under blessing, Christianity, church, ethics, fellowship, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, grace, Jesus, justice, Kingdom of God, love, missional, Thankfulness, theology, transformation, truth, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Jeromy Johnson
I live in Folsom, CA, with my wife, Jennifer, and three kids. I am surrounded by and cared for deeply by some great friends. Their love for me is truly a moonlit reflection of Papa's love, and for that, I am deeply blessed and grateful.

Comments

  • http://www.clobberblog.com Bridget Jack Meyers

    Jeromy, thank you for sharing what I wrote here, and thank you for writing your initial post. It really did make me re-think my bellicose attitude on the subject, and I enjoyed sharing it with my LDS friends. Whatever evangelicals may think of Mormonism, many of their women go through a similar struggle with their own male-only priesthood system and I think it helps our two camps to listen to each other on how we each work through this issue.

    BTW, I had intended the title of my post at fMh to be in quotation marks, but I must have forgotten when I originally submitted it. I didn’t mean to pinch your title without attribution, honest.

  • http://alifeprofound.wordpress.com cynthia

    Jeromy,

    Thank you, thank you for starting this conversation.

    Though it is an issue long waiting to be addressed, it is timely in my own life right now. After being brought up with a poor southern spiritual mindset and after rebelling in my youth and making some poor choices that led to incredible grace and mercy from God but then poisoned me with the idea that now I must earn the very grace and mercy that I had been given, I became even more influenced by a legalistic, patriarchal view of God and faith in God.

    Thankfully, I my family was preserved during those years and we have turned 180 degrees to run hard into the heart of God. My marriage is definitely not what I was taught it should be but could never live up to … my husband and I now live in mutual submission ot each other, respecting each other and are equal, co-leaders. I have been rethinking and understanding anew God’s heart toward women.

    We are in a brand new community of believers planted for a specific reason to minister in a poor area of our inner city. So far, there has been no formal structure of the church and we have all been just working together. But, I know the background of some of these men; I know that men will be looked at as the leaders. This week, some people from our community are going away to pray and to to seek God’s eyes for the future of our church … yes, all those that are going are men.

    I am meeting with one of these men next week to address this issue. I cannot be silent in order to maintain false peace. I must live my truth there no matter what. I am going to forward this post to him and the others that are meeting this week.

    Thank you for being a voice and there are many thanks to other men who are calling out as well.

    Grace and Peace!

  • http://jeromyj.com/mendingshift/ Jeromy Johnson

    No worries Bridget. Listening and working together towards healing can go a long way. Thanks for adding your voice to the conversation. So if I gather correctly, you are an “evengelical” who is married to a Mormon, correct? What challenges and joys have come with that?

  • http://jeromyj.com/mendingshift/ Jeromy Johnson

    Cynthia, truth is indeed something we must long to live in — mo matter what. Can you keep me posted on how your conversation goes? Even if it is an offline email.

  • http://www.internetevangelismday.com Tony Whittaker

    Hi Jeromy

    Maybe the Susan Boyle story resonates here too? I blogged about it (along with many others) here
    InternetEvangelismDay.com/blog

    Blessings

    Tony

  • http://www.clobberblog.com Bridget Jack Meyers

    Jeremy ~ So if I gather correctly, you are an “evengelical” who is married to a Mormon, correct? What challenges and joys have come with that?

    Correct, and wow, that question could take a while to answer.

    Evangelical Christianity really has something of an ugly history as far as Mormonism is concerned. Too often we’ve looked for the fastest way to write them off as a “cult” and haven’t sought to honestly understand their religion. In recent years there has been a group of evangelicals within the movement who have renounced a lot of the work and approach of the counter-cult ministries and are seeking to reach out to Latter-day Saints in a spirit of friendship and mutual understanding. You could say I’m a part of that.

    I never really set out to marry a Mormon though; if you’d told me even 7 years ago that I’d do that, I never would have believed it. Paul took me by surprise. I believe that it’s possible for Mormons to be saved in spite of believing some false things about God, and I generally don’t make judgments on who is saved and who isn’t. When I first married Paul, I believed he was one of these “saved-in-spite-it-all” Mormons. Over the years of our marriage I’ve come to doubt that, and that’s been painful.

    Challenges? It’s a spiritually lonely existence. Sometimes there are exciting things going on in my faith that I want to share and he just doesn’t get it, or worse, will want to argue with me about it. The hardest thing about making our marriage work is raising our daughter in both faiths. I’d certainly prefer her to be evangelical and not Mormon, but at this point I don’t feel like I have the right to insist she be raised in my religion alone.

    The joy has been that my position as a member of a partial LDS family has strengthened my voice in the LDS community. My blog is mostly frequented by Mormons, and that’s so flattering to me—that they come by to hear what I as an evangelical Christian have to say. I think part of this is that they have a certain measure of trust in me and know that I’m not there just to tear down their religion.

    I’ve also been able to help other couples in interfaith marriage situations. There are many people in these marriages who want to make their marriage work, but there is no textbook for this; religions don’t generally teach you what to do once you’re in an interfaith marriage, they only tell you not to do it. Doesn’t help you save your marriage once you’re there.

    None of this is to say that I wouldn’t be tickled if my husband converted someday, and I pray for it, but I know that my happiness with my marriage can’t be contingent on that. I have to love him as he is, and part of that is loving his religion.

  • http://www.radical-evangelical.blogspot.com radical evangelical

    hi jeromy

    thanks for the link – have to admit that the quotations you mention from the title of the blogposts were all lifted from the blogs that i had linked to or pretty much (you, jeff and jonathan); i felt it important for people to hear you all ‘speak’. to be frank, sometimes this voice needs to be heard from men, after all i can jump up and down all i like proclaiming that i am as human as the next man ;-) , but the reality is that my voice cannot be heard by some, simply because i’m a woman, it is written off as a hysterical woman with a chip on her shoulder.

    this is all my way of saying thank you, thank you, thank you, for having the courage to be part of the revolution :-)

  • http://jeromyj.com/mendingshift/ Jeromy Johnson

    Jody, seriously. They just say, “oh, your another one of the radical feminists”. We are glad to be a part of the voice.

  • http://www.radical-evangelical.blogspot.com radical evangelical

    yay for radical feminism :)

  • http://alifeprofound.wordpress.com cynthia

    Jeromy,

    Well, I had that conversation with one of the leaders in our community. It was a very frustrating and less than successful conversation. He doesn’t see an issue at all and says I am just bringing a cultural problem into the church and he told me that wouldn’t be inviting a woman into the conversation just to invite a woman … that they were looking for those that were rising to the top as people who love well as leaders and those had all been men. I challenged him to be more purposeful in looking at what the women are doing and he simply dismissed my concerns.

    I feel sadness for his inability to listen to and consider what I was saying. I love that Jonathan Brink talked about how when men free women from oppression, they are also freeing themselves. My husband and I have certainly seen that evident in our marriage. When we turned away from a hierarchical model of marriage that is typically taught in Evangelical churches and followed our natural giftings and started to practice mutual love, mutual respect, mutual submission, we discovered that we have both been set free to be who we are. Interestingly, that came up during the conversation with that leader. He was astounded that I find Biblical support of an Egalitarian marriage and basically suggested that I have been so wounded and if I would just let Jesus heal me, I could fall in line with that hierarchical teaching.

    So, that is that.

    Thank you for being a voice, being an advocate. I read somewhere else that someone was saying a storm is brewing … too many people are talking about this same issue. It will be fun to see what God is stirring up.

    Grace and Peace Jeromy!

  • http://jeromyj.com/mendingshift/ Jeromy Johnson

    Hey Cynthia, your conversation sounded very frustrating and a bit demeaning. Sorry it didn’t go better. Once you experience freedom, bondage becomes very apparent when it rears is ugly head. It’s sad that the “world” has been leading the way into a reality that the church should have been experiencing as “normal”.

  • Pingback: A Mending Shift » The Wounded Image of God

«     »