Women of the ELCA

What is there about gossiping that so many of us are drawn to it like a moth to a flame? Is it a guilty pleasure where we think there are no victims? As kids we’re taught not to tattle on others. As adults it seems like we do it all the time. Some of us even get paid for it.

Idle talk about the personal or private affairs of others is big business today. Look at TV shows like Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood. Or blogs like Perez Hilton. CW has even built an entire show around it in Gossip Girl.

This past Sunday’s New York Times included a great article on gossip in the workplace. A worker tells about joining a business with a no-gossip policy, wondering at the time “how is that possible?” She says that everyone knows what’s expected of them and they hold each other accountable.

You’ve probably read news accounts about the layoffs that happened a month ago within the churchwide staff of Women of the ELCA and those that have just happening within the staff of the ELCA. There was all kinds of gossiping going on at the Lutheran Center around the layoffs and the decisions that led to the layoffs. I can tell, too, from social networking sites and blogs that there’s no shortage of gossip within the whole church about these layoffs. And I’ve seen how destructive some of this gossip has been and continues to be.

You know how some things just stick with you, long after you read them? I remember an article Karen Melang wrote for Lutheran Woman Today back in the 1990s where she talked about giving up gossiping during one Lenten season. I was so struck by that idea. She wrote about how her behavior changed that Lent, within her workplace and with family and friends, how she found herself building up and supporting people, not tearing them down.

Why not get a jump on Lent and consider giving up gossiping today?

Linda Post Bushkofsky is the executive director of Women of the ELCA.

• » Comments (0)

• Mark Myers, Las Vegas, NV, is now ELCA Church Council adviser to W/ELCA executive board. Real estate agent, member of The Lakes L.C. #
• RT @womensfunding: Women make up only 18% of the nation's top leaders according to new White House Project study: http://bit.ly/1iZqeG #
• RT @ELCAnews: ELCA Council acknowledges re-election of Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director, Women of the ELCA, by its board last month #
• How is accessibility a justice issue for you? Join the conversation in today's blog post at http://bit.ly/4CWnj5. #
• RT @womensfunding: Women Unite to Provide Better Working Conditions for Domestic Workers http://bit.ly/27WtI2 #
• We need your opinion now! Complete brief survey about program resources @ http://bit.ly/3Muoya before 9 am this Monday. Spread the word! #
• Special podcast: Lutheran female soldiers on returning from deployment: http://bit.ly/QmyfT (scroll to bottom) #
• WHO report on women's health around the globe: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs334/en/index.html #

• » Comments (0)

I am naive enough to still be shocked when I hear that some still think having an inaccessible business, church, or campus is okay in today’s world.

I believe that it is every entity’s responsibility to be accessible to people living with disabilities. I also believe that these matters are not only the concern of people living with disabilities and their friends relatives–no. It is an entire community’s concern. 

Justice advocates like me are idealists. We want to live in a world where dignity for all is a basic human right.

Wherever and whenever justice advocates see people marginalized or dehumanized, we rush to correct whatever wrong, whatever misstep, whatever omission may have caused such unnecessary human suffering. For justice advocates, God is not the author of suffering: Human suffering is caused by human brokenness. Justice advocates acknowledge that suffering and brokenness are part of being human, but we we do not accept it as part of doing business. We do not see other human beings as acceptable collateral damage in any endeavor.

I have done anti-racism education for decades, but it is not my only song. I simply am unable to “slice justice.” Or to paraphrase the late, great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an injustice for one of us is an injustice for us all.  Audre Lorde said it this way: “There is no hierarchy of oppressions.”

So, I can’t preach anti-racism and then wink at sexism, heterosexism, ageism, classism, or able-ism, or any other oppression.

Simple accessibility should be a prime consideration for any entity that wants to do business or be a place where the public comes. Accessible restrooms, accessible entries, accessible elevators, assisted hearing devices, accessible services and adaptations such as Braille menus or (at the very least) a serving staff that is cheerfully prepared to read the menu to someone with a vision impairment are not amenities–these things are at the heart of true hospitality. They are at the very center of the gospel of Jesus Christ and at the heart of living the gospel.

What keeps us from making sure our places of business, churches, and public spaces are accessible for all? What’s our excuse–laziness? cost? something else?

Am I missing something?

Inez Torres Davis is director for justice, Women of the ELCA.

• » Comments (0)

This weekend, I reflected on the shooting at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base. Another horrific shooting spree with many killed and wounded, followed the next day by a gunman in Orlando shooting up people in an office building. Remember Columbine? Virginia Tech? Northern Illinois University? And the list goes on. Within just a few minutes, lives lost and lives changed by injuries and trauma. Not just the victims, but their families and friends, changed forever.

Not to mention the shootings that occur when gangs and other angry people inadvertently take the lives of bystanders and other unrelated victims. In Chicago, barely a week goes by without a headline about the shooting of some young man or woman who was by chance in the line of fire or a victim of mistaken identity. Gun violence in a city this large is a constant reality.

I come from a family of people who own firearms. I have a sibling who belongs to a gun club and goes to a shooting range regularly. He served in the military and is a good shot; in competitions at his club, he has won numerous Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas hams. But he has no history of serious emotional problems or mental illness. He’s a great guy–caring, smart, and responsible, always. He enjoys shooting as a skill and a challenge, a game that gets him out of himself, sort of the way I use computer solitaire. I don’t hate gun owners, please understand.

But when guns are in the hands of people of who are emotionally or mentally unwell, the consequences are dire. Tragic. Destructive. To the people directly affected, yes, but also to the nation’s psyche. We start to feel besieged. Many of the people I know never feel truly safe. I live in a big city and take public transit. When I see someone acting in a strange way on the train platform, I worry–will I be an unintended casualty?

As people of faith, what can we do about this escalating gun violence? Can we become involved in our communities and in the lives of the young people who are so often the victims and perpetrators of these crimes?

It may seem hopeless, but what’s the alternative? To barricade ourselves in our homes? What do you think? How should people of faith respond?

Kate Sprutta Elliott is editor of Lutheran Woman Today magazine.

• » Comments (1)

• We want your thoughts about new program resources. Complete brief survey at http://bit.ly/3Muoya before 9 am , Mon/, 11/16. Spread the word! #
• High Statistics on Lutheran Women's Ordination Hide Reality of Marginalization: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2435.EN.html #

• » Comments (0)

I’ve always been intrigued, and frankly amused, by the stories that occasionally pop up in the news about Jesus or the Virgin Mary appearing on a piece of toast, or in a tree, or in some other inert object or food item. (Did you know there’s actually a name for this? It’s called “religious pareidolia.”)

I started thinking about this again because Penn State played Northwestern last weekend. In looking around for a little insight on the Nittany Lions so I could best follow things while cheering for my Wildcats (who hung in tight through three quarters but then lost it in the fourth, sadly), I came across this story about a Penn State football t-shirt. It has caused some controversy because some say it resembles a cross. The designers say it does nothing more than blend the Penn State name with the single blue helmet stripe on a white background–the iconic symbol of Penn State football and one of the most iconic symbols in all of college sports.

Had I not been conditioned to see a cross on the shirt, I would not have seen it. I would have seen the Penn state stripe and name, nothing more.

I also don’t think that if I sat down to one of my Polish mother-in-law’s traditional dinners that I would see Jesus in my pierogi. Now between the in-laws and living near some great Polish delis, I’ve had my share of pierogi. But I’ve not seen Jesus. And if I did, I’d probably think, “huh … look at that,” and then I’d eat it, not turn it into a devotional item.

Then there’s the Virgin Mary. A few years ago an image of Mary appeared on a grilled cheese sandwich and was subsequently sold on eBay to a casino. Someone found the Madonna and child in a pretzel not so long ago and has made some cash off that, too.

A salt stain at the Fullerton Avenue underpass of Chicago’s Kennedy expressway has been a shrine for a few years now after a couple women saw Mary there, too. Someone even made a play from the story.

What do you make of all this? Are Jesus and Mary trying to talk to us by appearing in our food? If they are, I can’t imagine what they’re trying to tell us, other than maybe too much grilled cheese, pierogi and pretzels isn’t good for you.

I’m too cynical, I guess. In all the human activity that takes place on a daily basis among billions of people doing billions of things, something is eventually bound to turn up looking like Jesus or Mary—or a bunny, or a fish, or a cruise ship or Barack Obama.

Still, I try not to look down on people who do find inspiration and divine connection through something like Our Lady of the Underpass. If it strengthens their faith, fine.

Just don’t expect to find me leaving flowers there on my way home from dinner.

Deborah Bogaert is editor of Women’s of the ELCA’s website, newsletters, and program resources.

• » Comments (1)

• Come to "Ecumenical Advocacy Days" Friday, March 19, 2010 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm http://bit.ly/12DeVK (via @ELCAadvocacy) #
• Looking for a Holiday service project? We desperately need health kits to send to refugees: http://bit.ly/Nmdzz (via @LuthWorldRelief) #
• Bishop Margot Kaessmann to Lead German Protestants – http://bit.ly/2WPZLL via @addthis. Great news for our German sister! #
• Order FREE copy of LWR coffee DVD to show your bible study http://www.lwr.org/coffee/video.asp (via @LuthWorldRelief) Serve Sisters Blend! #
• Lutheran World Relief seeks #SocialMedia specialist for International headquarters in MD. http://bit.ly/4E9lMR (via @LuthWorldRelief) #
• 90% of full-time adult workers earning less than $15,000 per year are women http://bit.ly/1tiQ9h (via @womensfunding) #

• » Comments (0)

Many will light candles this Sunday in memory of those who have died in the faith

This Sunday we will celebrate All Saints Day. Who are the saints, living and dead, who have helped to shape and form your faith? Three women named Dorothy are among the saints for me.

Dot taught me how to love, respect, and care for all of God’s creation. Dot organized the early efforts in our congregation to ‘adopt a highway.’ Members would regularly gather to clean up the interchange. Dot thought it would look better with some flowers, but the highway department would not permit it. Nonetheless, the crew sometimes carried seeds in our pockets (pockets with holes, of course). So what if a few seeds fell out? With others from the congregation we created a biblical herb garden outside the church, providing a quiet place for meditation, a source of herbs for the congregation, and a beautiful garden for passersby.

From Dottie I learned to have fun in my faith, experiencing the joy of God. With an infectious laugh and a great sense of color in her fashion choices, Dottie can always be spotted in a crowd. Dottie, the mother of six, can even laugh when telling how she washed (and washed and washed) diapers for her little ones. Dottie brought a lot of joy to nursing homes as Tootles, the clown, when our congregation had a clown ministry. Dottie simply knows how to have fun and gives others the permission to do so too.

Dorothy taught me of the unconditional love of God in Jesus Christ. Long before the days of WWJD, Dorothy was asking that question. Her answer, in the way she lived her life, was simple – Jesus would have us love our neighbors. Even now, 12 years after her death, I think of Dorothy’s persistent expression of love to all those who touched her life. Countless children in Sunday school, vacation Bible school and Girl Scouts learned of Jesus’ love at Dorothy’s knee. In our circle Dorothy taught us of the importance of love within families, sharing wisdom her father had long ago revealed to her.

All three Dorothys taught me about hospitality too. Dot always welcomed the cleanup crews to her home, serving a delicious chocolate cake. Dottie greeted newcomers to Sunday fellowship and made them feel welcome. I treasure a coffee cake recipe from Dorothy (often served at our congregational unit’s breakfast potlucks), her grandmother’s recipe from the Great Depression.

I pause today to offer thanks for these three grandmothers named Dorothy. Won’t you offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the saints in your life too? You are welcome to remember them here too.

Linda Post Bushkofsky is  executive director, Women of the ELCA.

• » Comments (0)

In her new book The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life, Joan Chittister writes that the liturgical year, which begins with the first Sunday of Advent, “is an adventure in bringing the Christian life to fullness, the heart to alert, the soul to focus. It does not concern itself with the questions of how to make a living.  It concerns itself with the questions of how to make a life.” 

How to make a life … now there’s something to think about. I’m not talking about sitting down and writing a list of 100 things to do before you die–seriously, people, where is the meaning in that?  No. Instead, I want us to think about making a life in terms of how we, as a community of women, will focus on the life of Jesus, the stories told, and the lessons learned through his life on earth. 

How will we, as a community of women, be vigilant about supporting one another and engaging in ministry and action? When Joan Chittister talks about making a life, she’s not talking about a step-by-step self-help plan to make your life “better” or “more meaningful.”  She’s not talking about a guide to “making yourself a better you.”  In case you weren’t aware, that is not religion, and keeping a bucket list is not a devotional practice. 

As I begin to approach this new liturgical year and how I will navigate through it, I think I’ll turn to the 14^th chapter of John: “’Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’”

How will you make YOUR life?

Emily Hansen is director for stewardship, Women of the ELCA.

• » Comments (0)