Tattooed Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber is a popular figure on the Religious Left, especially following the publication of her well-received memoir Pastrix. Bolz-Weber has said a number of thoughtful, challenging things thus far that set her apart from vague, anything-goes religious lefties, so we were both amused and a little disappointed by a new piece on the Sojourners blog offering “40 Ideas for Keeping Lent Holy” from her Denver congregation.
While a few of the ideas are closely tied to Lenten traditions (educate yourself about a saint, read selected scripture verses) others seem like something from the sketch comedy show Portlandia. Remember, these are ideas for keeping Lent holy.
Among our favorites on Bolz-Weber’s list of holiness-producing activities:
Day 2: Walk, carpool, bike or bus it.
Day 3: Don’t turn on the car radio (guess that mass transit thing didn’t last long)
Day 15: Bring your own mug
Day 19: Change one light in your house to a compact florescent
Day 25: Bake a cake
Day 30: Invest in canvas shopping bags
Day 31: Use Freecycle
Day 34: Worship at a friend’s mosque, synagogue or church and look for the beauty
Perhaps Lenten observances should also include marching in the Allergy Pride Parade or visiting the feminist bookstore. Just don’t forget your canvas shopping bag:
h/t Alex Griswold
Comment by Holgrave on March 7, 2014 at 7:55 am
Sojo has perfected the alchemy for spinning gold into straw.
Comment by Christian on March 7, 2014 at 1:12 pm
Exactly what is the point of this article except to post something smug and condescending towards one of your sisters in Christ?
Comment by Paul W. on March 8, 2014 at 12:53 pm
#Facepalm Friday is clearly intended to highlight something truly ironic and/or silly that is happening in Christianity.
All Christians need to follow the true Christ rather than a christ who conveniently reflects only their personal and/or political views.
Comment by Dan Skogen on March 7, 2014 at 2:40 pm
If anything, Juicy Ecumenism needs to write more about what this popular ELCA pastor teaches and believes. It is not orthodox, let me tell you. Nadia Bolz-Weber writes this in her new book “I had never stopped believing in God, not really. But I did have to go hang out with His aunt for awhile. She is called the goddess. My first experience with Wicca …The goddess we spoke of never felt to me like a substitute for God but simply another aspect of the divine, like God’s aunt or something.”
Comment by Donnie on March 7, 2014 at 6:16 pm
“everyone did what was right in his own eyes”
Comment by Didaskalos on March 9, 2014 at 6:17 am
Bolz-Weber, lionized and heavily promoted by ELCA leadership, is right on the cutting edge of the ELCA’s world-pleasing heresy. Witness an excerpt from her sermon on, of all days, Christ the King Sunday: “And just to be clear: The cross is not about God as divine child abuser sadly sending his little boy off to be killed because we were bad and well, somebody had to pay.”
Comment by Fr. David Wooten on March 10, 2014 at 11:52 am
Disclosure: I’m an Eastern Orthodox priest.
I’m no promoter of her in general–mostly what I’ve seen is odd, but I don’t know her work in-depth–but your quote of hers about of satisfaction atonement is actually in line with what the Fathers of the universal Church have to say about why Christ died: He did not die to placate some divine bloodthirst or need to punish transgressors; He died to destroy the power of death and open the gate to Heaven and provide a path to holiness which purifies us. Whether or not we experience this as purification or torment hinges on our openness to and cooperation with that grace.
Not saying this to start an argument–not even sure if Bolz-Weber would even agree with what I said–just saying that if you try to prove that Christ died to take the beating God the Father “needed” to give us, you’ll find yourself opposed by roughly the whole first millennium of Christendom.
Comment by Didaskalos on March 10, 2014 at 5:34 pm
Yes, but “the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” We *were* bad, and Someone did have to pay. We were born in sin (Psalm 51), and we have sinned, all of which disqualify us from sharing heaven with God.
To be sure, God is not vengeful or bloodthirsty; “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” But there had to be an atonement for our sin. Without the sinless Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins (and without our receiving Him — John 1:12), none of us would make it.
Among the ELCA’s misrepresentations of Scripture, universalism is a relatively recent and pervasive anti-biblical addition. See Dan Skogen’s Exposing the ELCA website for additional particulars: http://www.exposingtheelca.com/on-universal-salvation.html
Comment by Donnie on March 7, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Bolz-Weber’s list sounds a lot like the garbage that passed for sermons at the “church” I used to attend.
I can’t say I’m too familiar with her teachings (though I’ve heard her name a time or two), but she sounds like every other apostate, hipster “Christian” popular with the world.
Comment by Didaskalos on March 9, 2014 at 6:31 am
Did this current ELCA fad make Bolz-Weber’s to-do list: “Busy yourself erasing every masculine pronoun for the Father and Jesus from your Bible and hymnbook.”
http://thesheepdogsspot.blogspot.com/2010/11/is-god-still-father_18.html — “Is God Still Father?”
Comment by Richard Brodie on March 16, 2014 at 3:01 pm
People always love to find fault. The truth about Nadia Bolz-Weber is that she encourages homosexuals to have sex-change operations so they won’t be homosexuals anymore, in accordance with biblical teaching (Matt. 5:29-30).
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/2012/01/liturgical-naming-rite-for-a-transgendered-church-member/
Comment by Richard Brodie on March 16, 2014 at 3:08 pm
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/01/liturgical-naming-rite-for-a-transgendered-church-member/
Sorry about the typo.