Inspiration

There are many reasons I decided to restart this blog--need for some kind of outlet to write, desire not to inflict on my friends my trademark email screeds, hope that by writing I would not go insane while studying for the Bar Exam again after five years as a lawyer, etc.  But the immediate reason I decided to dive in is that I was inspired by a blog run by Rachel Held Evans, which can be found here (and also in the blogroll on the side):

 http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/

She writes thoughtfully and honestly about being a modern day Evangelical Christian, trying to reconcile her faith with her identity as a woman and as an intellectual.  My favorite post of hers is entitled "Holy Week for Doubters" which perfectly captures the idea that sometimes being in church is the loneliest and scariest place that you can possibly be when things are not going well.  I have absolutely been there.

She wrote a book entitled Evolving in Monkey Town about growing up in the same town as the famous Scopes Monkey Trial and coming to grips with evolution and other controversial areas in the Evangelical world.  She also has a more recent book, which I have not read, called A Year of Biblical Womanhood, in which she spends a year attempting to live precisely as the Bible calls for women to live.

Anyway, her stuff is great and I encourage anyone reading to check it out.  I don't envision this blog to be entirely about religion, but that will likely be a strong theme, and so I wanted to give credit to my sources of inspiration.

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