Memes, Hymns, and Healing
A few weeks ago we sang “God, We Gather As Your People” (Community of Christ Sings, hymn 274) during church. It was one of those moments when the words just hit me in an unexpected way and I couldn’t finish singing the song. It is also known as “For All the Children” and here is…
Naming Joy: A cynic’s search for hope
In a recent conversation with my sister, we talked about the many personal struggles we are experiencing and witnessing in others. In our very connected world, the personal difficulties and setbacks we experience feel hard, but set against a backdrop of tragedy in our social networks, local issues, and national issues, it is overwhelming. I…
The Devil’s Gateway
I’m not enthusiastic about the early Christian councils or related heresies, so I decided to write my recently-assigned Christian history essay on a text that is firmly within my wheelhouse: a tract where a Christian man tells women about the sinfulness of their bodies and clothing. Tertullian’s On the Apparel of Women, written during the…
Strawberries and Resurrection
In our last house, we had a large garden with eight raised garden beds. We experimented with lots of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, but not everything we planted could survive the brutal desert summers. We probably planted about 150 strawberry plants during the 8.5 years we lived in that house. Strawberries were almost successful indoors,…
Ministry in Media Culture
One of my classes at Luther Seminary this semester has been Proactive Ministry in Media Culture. Our assignments have included a social media map, a social context assignment, a media awareness assignment, a church website reflection, and a media info journal entry. More recently, we had to make some inspirational memes using photos from our…
About Me
Nancy Ross is a faculty member in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Department at Dixie State University, where she has been teaching for 15 years. She recently co-edited a book with Sara K.S. Hanks titled Where We Must Stand: Ten Years of Feminist Mormon Housewives (2018) and has just co-edited Shades of Becoming: Poems of…
The Contemplative Heretic 