The holiday season is upon us.

So I thought, what if we got intentional about our time around the table this year?

What if this year we showed up?

Today we continue our discussion with Mako Nagasawa, who can help shed light on how the early church viewed abortion, what the science meant and how we ended up politicizing abortion. An issue that has and continues to impact us, women, considerably.

"Who owns my body, my female body"? I've been quietly asking some of my colleagues if they knew of any scholarship about abortion. Mako Nagasawa's book was everything I was looking for and more.

On June 24th, I was in the airport line in Israel, asking myself a question I’ve often asked, “Who owns my body, my female body”? I felt conflicted, I’m not for babies dying, who is, but I also get queasy when people in power limit women’s agency.

Today we’re talking about letting go of her, the ideal biblical woman, and embracing the one of a kind never to be seen again person, that is you It turns out, what’s being promoted as the ideal biblical woman isn’t biblical at all.

We're talking about hope, Biblical hope. I probably need to start by telling you what hope isn't and then what it is. Biblical hope isn't about our circumstance, nor is it about having some Pollyanna optimistic attitude. In the Scriptures, we see that hope is about expectantly waiting and many times waiting a really long time.

Gracie.

She lived down the road, came from an impoverished family, always wore the same clothes, short, high waters. She was one of the stops on our bus. There was something I liked about her, but I didn't want her to sit next to me. I'm ashamed to say it, but I was in the cool kid crowd, and I didn't want to be associated with Gracie.

As one of the cool kids, I had status. Gracie didn't.

Andy Crouch, in his book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, one of my all-time fav books, defines status as "at its root is "where you stand" – is about your place in line."

Four years ago today, Steve and I were on the road, somewhere near Nashville, Tenn, when I received a call from Hampton. I will never forget the sound of my son's voice. He wailed, "Mom, Cameron killed himself." I was in shock, and suddenly it felt like I couldn't breathe. I don't even remember what I said; there are no mothering books for this one, but I know we turned around, went straight to the Nashville airport, and back to Texas.

I never wanted to be a mother, but there I was pregnant living in a van.

How could the message carry so much weight?

The font read,

“The beginning of wisdom is silence.”

It occurred to me that I could benefit from listening to the wisdom my body is whispering. See I believe the body speaks a word about ME, about others, and about God.

One of the things I learned studying masculinity in America is that there are moments when the question, what does it mean to be a man, rises. It usually coincides with seismic shifts like the Industrial Revolution.

Our discussion with Nate Pyles about his Book Man Enough and knew we needed to hear his thinking on manhood right away. Enjoy!

Stephen Boyd, Professor of Religion and Public Engagement at Wake Forest, specializes in the history of Christianity and Christian thought, gender studies, and religion and public life. He’s authored multiple books on masculinity and what it means to be a man, and today we’ll be digging into his best-selling Christian book, The Men We Long To Be. 

In this book, Stephen argues that our patriarchal system socializes and conditions our men to become, what he calls, lonely warriors and desperate lovers. 

I have spent years studying the issue of masculinity in America.

I have concluded that much of what we are taught is cultural, not biblical. Today let's go back to Jesus and ask him what it means to be a man who follows after you. How does your life help us understand what it means to be a real man? Join me as we discuss these issues with Carolyn Custis James.

I’ve been on a spiritual journey of unlearning and relearning my Christian faith.

So much of what Brian Zahnd writes gives words and comfort to me.

I appreciate how he normalizes what many of us are going through. For those raised in the conservative evangelical world, unlearning and relearning can be scary. We’ve been taught not to question or shift our theology, or as it’s said, you’ll end up on the slippery slope to liberalism or, worse, have no faith at all. Listen today as Brian normalizes this spiritual learning journey of unlearning and relearning.

Sex is such a complicated topic because it's so personal and vulnerable. Most of our parents didn't talk about it; culture is hypersexualized, our parents were quiet, and porn's the go-to for learning how to. And sadly, our faith communities aren't doing much better. 

Many of the messages we received in the conservative faith community, were well, just wrong.