Article September 12, 1988 Issue

Second Thought

Looking again at news and commentary

Mary Pellauer

From Christianity and Crisis, November 9, 1987, by Mary Pellauer

"... we average laypersons in church Sunday after Sunday may never know what the person next to us in the pew believes or wrestles over. Ordinarily we do not tell each other our spiritual journeys. The only places I've heard others' spiritual odysseys as a routine matter have been in feminist theology groups based on consciousness-raising models. What I've received there has made me hungry to hear these experiences everywhere.

"One of Muriel Ruykeyser's poems asks, 'What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.' Would that be true of our churches, too? Would we come away refreshed by the hospitality, nurtured? Would we be roughly challenged or gently eased toward movement? When I have the chance to hear the true stories of the spiritual lives of ordinary people, I am overwhelmed by the depths of integrity, sheer beauty, and unobtrusive power in their lives. I often feel romantic about my love for such stories, and 19th-century language—'the sublime and the beautiful'—seems appropriate. But even stories of incredible pain leave me feeling blessed. There's no other word for it."

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