Julia M. OBrien

Over at the Lingamish blog, David Ker has been talking about marriage and about gender roles within it.

One of the fascinating, if maddening, aspects of biblical interpretation is that the story embraced by one community as the greatest good news is often rejected by another as the worst bad news. Take the Exodus story, for example.

Returning to the classroom after sabbatical is always a shock.  After months of focusing on my own interests and communing with others primarily via a computer screen, I'm now face-to-face with real people, responsible for helping them understand and respond to diverse perspectives on the Bible.

Was Joe Wilson racist when he shouted “you lie!” to President Obama?  Are supporters of Obama too quick to dismiss honest criticism of the President’s policies as knee-jerk racism?

The end of summer is always difficult for me.  My vegetable garden shrinks, in size and in its contribution to my physical and emotional well-being.  At some point, I'll have to break down and buy a store-bought tomato with the texture of cardboard and scramble to find fresh rosemary.  We won't roast vegetables or salmon on the grill.  And the spirituality of gardening will need to enter its dormant stage until May.

Summer's end also initiates Winter Dread, an affliction common to transplanted Southerners.

Review of Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple:  A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University.  Grand Central Publishing, 2009.

My husband and I recently watched Connie and Carla, a 2004 comedy starring Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette.

The 40-year anniversary of the moon walk of Apollo 11 has me nostalgic.  I remember where I was and where I was headed on the evening of July 20, 1969.

It was the first night of a month-long, cross-country family car trip.  My father, who loved to travel, hatched the idea and planned the details with the help of AAA.  He and my mom bought a station wagon, topped it with a Sears luggage carrier, packed up all four kids, and headed out from North Carolina to California.  I was 11 at the time.