Adult Education – May

WomanSpirit Rising, a book written in 1992, has been called the classic anthology of feminist spirituality. It consists of a collection of essays about God and about women’s experience. Join us for this class in which we will read several essays and discuss different images for God, different ideas about God and different spiritual practices. This class is suitable for women and men. Each participant will be given a copy of the book.

At the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, 2026, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth read Mark 8:34-35 and followed with his own interpretation.

Mark 8:34-35: … [H]e said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

Hegseth: “The warrior is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country and his creator. That warrior finds eternal life.”

This is an example of the perverse torsion of the meaning of scripture that is becoming much too common today in promoting military recruitment and Christian nationalism.

In this class, we will dive into the context of the biblical passages that are commonly used to justify militarism, nationalism, xenophobia, and homophobia. Do we really need to ignore the Bible to be the Christians we want to be?