Fletcher Baker Quotes

Nobody likes a clever dick, but it didn’t take Columbo, Jessica Fletcher and the entire occupancy of 221b Baker Street to work out the patient was probably “feeling unwell” because of the litres of blood cascading unnoticed out of her vagina. 

Historically the delusional conclusion that the diversity of forms in which humankind is created means that some bear God's likeness more than others has led to hatred and violence. Through such alienation from one another, the rest of creation, and God, we humans have failed to realize our full humanity.

My own understanding is similar to that of scholar of religion and pastor Howard Thurman. I find a profound teaching in Thurman's saying that "what is true in any religion is in the religion because it is true; it is not true because it is in the religion." Thurman's saying is true for Christian theology. If there is truth in a theology, then it is present simply because it is true, not because it is in the theology. Whether or not we can find truth in a school of thought or particular theological construction is most important, not the school of thought or particular theological construction. Therefore, I find events of truth to draw on from a diversity of theological writings, rather than locate my work in a particular school of thought. The truth we Christians seek, beyond all our words and all of our labels, is found through unity in diversity. It is the common ground we all long for. No one theology alone is capable of revealing this common ground. We require a diversity taken together, each with its distinctive gifts. Together, these various insights into Christian truth correct and inform one another. This is the gift of ecumenism.

...we steal with our eyes closed to the conditions in which the poor, who make our affluence possible, live. We covet what our neighbours have and want more of the same.

Neoclassical theology corrects misconceptions about God that are neither experientially true nor biblically grounded. If God were "omnipotent" in the sense of absolute determinism, then creation, and especially humans, would have no freedom. Freedom and absolute determinism negate one another. From the perspective of process metaphysics, if God were fully deterministic, then one could not speak of freedom of the will, the ability to choose to participate in God's creativity or not. God is in control, but God is not a control freak! God is not a "tyrant," puppeter, or robotic engineer!

The weekend passed slowly. Todd and Danny went to a movie on Saturday. It was a comedy about space aliens trying to run a car wash. The aliens kept getting confused and washing themselves instead of the cars. In the end, they blew up the whole planet. Danny thought it was very funny. Todd thought it was dumb, but funny. On Sunday, Regina came home from Beth’s. The whole family drove upstate to visit some cousins.

What does it mean to dance with God? To dance with the divine is to dance with courage. Human beings need courage to dance with God and others to participate in God’s aim for the well-being of creation in spite of the problem of evil.14 God wants people to find a new kind of courage, “to stop playing with evil and to start working with God, to start being a healed and whole creation.” We can choose to live into goodness or evil. God does not make every decision for us, but rather all creation responsively participates in moments of decision in which each individual has agency and power. God partially determines creation, but not absolutely.15 She writes, “The emphasis of my own womanist work is that even when God does not liberate us in the time or way that we want, God encourages us to continue struggling for healing and wholeness from hatred and violence.”16 Baker-Fletcher emphasizes that human suffering does not have the last word. We are not alone when we suffer, because the Trinity is with us, leading us toward redemptive overcoming of evil. Women have fought to change rape and domestic violence laws, seeking