Words of the Peggster-

Okay, not the greatest title, but it made my roommate and I laugh a lot more than the others we came up with.

For the first time today, I finally heard my pastor speak. I've been going to the church for nearly a year now but I just tend to tune her out. I'm kidding, she actually doesn't give sermons like many pastors do in other churches I've known. Our meeting/church is what we call semi-programmed. We sing, we share our joy and what is weighing on our hearts, then as Peggy says, "We do the radical thing by shutting up and listening to God." If an individual feels God has a message for them to share, they speak up and do so. The messages are about all different types of things, some meetings have more "ministry", or messages, than others, some are more ministries of silence.

Since I've known Peggy, I've strongly suspected she was a good speaker. She's quite radical, she doesn't give out the classic Christian agenda and I like that. She's not afraid of contradicting things like our fear based culture as she discusses our responsibility to ourselves and others. She kicks my growing edges out quite a bit and she has definitely been a challenge. I've read her writing on her blog, http://www.sillypoorgospel.blogspot.com/, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but still, have never heard her speak, one of the things I understand she is quite known for.

But today, just for fun, I googled her name. This came in handy when I first met her to make sure she wasn't some crazed religious nut that would come after me with a 10 volume Bible commentary in one hand and a bloody knife of "truth" in the other, but new stuff comes up all the time on the Internet and I wanted to be sure she was still "safe", as safe as Peggy could ever be anyway. On the first page of results, there was an audio blog podcast of someone who used her talk at the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference in 2006 as most of the post. It was great, I felt challenged, I felt taught, I felt my eyes had been opened to a new perspective on our culture and how I am to live true to the freedom of God, not the fear pressed upon us by the culture.

So please, give it a listen. Her talks are rarely heard in these parts and worth your time. It was definitely worth mine. I feel grateful to have her as a part of my life and to be a part of Freedom Friends Church. And, if you're ever in the Salem area, stop by and experience our meeting for yourself. Though Peggy doesn't speak, God does, and he is pretty good as well.

Beppepodcast #60 - Peggy Senger Parsons and the Idol of Safety


-Thanks goes to my roommate, Katie, for helping me with the DEFINITELY wonderful spelling help, (see I learned!), and the advice on wording and transitions. She no longer thinks Peggy is as much of a heretic as she did before.