Rachel Marie Stone's Blog, page 3
October 20, 2014
What happened when a self-declared dog-despiser accidentally adopted a Pit Bull
Another guest post by my wonderful dad, written when Gracie-the-dog died more than twelve years ago. She was a good dog. The sign is what finally did it. Day in and day out, week after week, its message insidiously worked its way into my brain until one day I could no longer offer any resistance. [Read More...]
October 15, 2014
R.C. Sproul, Jr. : “a beard is a revolution on the face,” a “radical affirmation” of gender norms
So this happened, merely the latest installment in the collection of “dumb patriarchalist sh*t Christian dudes say in order to rally the base and annoy those who already find them annoying.” (What? You don’t know this collection? It has a venerable history.) \ Even better is the Christian Hipster Magazine RELEVANT chiming in to ASK, [Read More...]
October 14, 2014
The Best Pumpkin Spice Brownies You Will Ever Bake
When did pumpkin spice everything become such a THING? I don’t remember it happening, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love the warm and heady spices that go into pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie itself? Not such a fan. Pumpkin spices + real pumpkin + chocolate? Yes please. That’s what we have going on here: [Read More...]
October 13, 2014
The Most Stunning Children’s Bible — That’s No Longer in Print (But Should Be)
There is an appealing, almost haunting spareness to the Taize Picture Bible (1968) in both word and image. Published in the USA by Fortress Press (mine is a fourth edition, 1978), the “note to readers” says “The guiding editorial policy in this adaptation has been to facilitate understanding by readers of many age levels while [Read More...]
October 10, 2014
The Things We Can’t — and Shouldn’t — Make Our Children Do
When I was pregnant with our first child there were so many things I wondered and hoped. I hoped that we would like each other. That he would be interested in the world and that we would have at least some things in common. And I hoped he would like books. Like me. [Read More...]
October 9, 2014
A Veteran’s Plea: Patriotism is Not a Tea Party. Neither is a Funeral.
A powerful guest post by my dad. Some time back, I joined a nonprofit organization that aims to ensure dignity and respect at memorial services for veterans. Among other things, they organize human shields against the Westboro loonies. Those Westboro folks have never been a problem where I live (I like to think they don’t [Read More...]
October 8, 2014
8 good things about my dad
Like any daughter, I’ve had my share of conflicts with my dad. Many of those ended when I was a teenager, but live on in our differing memories about that time. He says I was grumpy. I say he was grumpy. Probably, we’re both right. In any case, it’s my dad’s birthday today. His GOLDEN [Read More...]
August 11, 2014
The terrifying possibility of being raptured before our wedding nights
Like other children raised in dispensationalist circles, if I couldn’t locate my parents — our parsonage home was large and sprawling — my paranoid ideation included the possibility that not only had God cosmically arranged for my orphanhood but had also simultaneously damned me to suffer seven years, or possibly an eternity, of torment. Consequently, […]
August 8, 2014
The beauty of the ordinary and what makes an artist: Spark + Tumble Photography
The connections we make in this life, across continents and across oceans, are nothing less than astounding, I think. A year ago I read a book review by the incomparable Lisa Ann Cockrel; a review that closes by noting that the book in question left Cockrel “craving latkes with spiced applesauce.” As I was in […]
May 7, 2014
For the first time in (almost) forever…
Regular readers may have noticed that I appear to have, well, disappeared. (Apart, of course, from my new blog at Religion News Service.) It’s been a very, very long couple of months. The 100-calorie, snack-size version is that we’re back in the States now. And here is some of the emotional truth of the whole […]
