An alarming news article says a giant sperm whale was found dead off the coast of Italy with more than 48 lbs. of plastic in its stomach. Italy’s environmental minister put it best when he said, “We have been using disposable plastics in a carefree way in these years, and now we are paying the price.”
A recent article by my favorite journalist, Whitney Bauck, who writes about fashion, faith and ethics, is giving me serious pause. It’s an interview with the person behind an instagram account that is calling out preachers on their expensive duds. The article raises some interesting questions about pastors and their choice to sport duds the majority of their congregation couldn’t afford. This idea has lead some introspection on my end about some of the expensive items I share on the blog. (More on that another day though.)
Have you seen the #stickofbutter hashtag on Instagram? It features people in head-to-toe butter hues and I love it. Want to give it a shot? Stylist and blogger Jamie-Lee is offering three key tips for dressing in neutrals.
I like to look back and see what I was wearing this time last year, and even the year before. Happy to see that I would still wear most of these outfits from two years ago today, and many of these items are still among my favorites.
I continue to be impressed with Madewell’s move toward doing better when it comes to the ethics and sustainability around how their garments are made. It definitely makes me more willing, as a consumer, to give them my financial support. I’m also pumped to see a wide leg jean, and a demi boot cut among their new eco collection!
The top five self-care practices that cost you nothing. What a great post, these are all fantastic. I’m finally starting to get better at no. 1, and I’ve been thinking a lot about no. 2, specifically alcohol.
I love the idea of household weekly rituals, especially when they involve food. For us, it’s been homemade pizza every Friday. But since 2/5 of us don’t eat dairy anymore, I’m being wooed by Jess Ann Kirby’s idea of weekly roast chicken. Do you have any weekly meal rituals?
We celebrated my son’s fifth birthday last week. I can’t believe I’m typing that. My youngest child is FIVE. I know it’s very cliché to say, but it really does go fast. Anyway, he requested brownies instead of cake, and I followed this easy recipe and they were amazing. The secret is in the Oreos I think.
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We don’t have any specific rituals, but Vegetable Beef/Bean soup is on high rotation. Not only is it an easy way to cook vegetable (no straining needed!), but my son actually likes them made this way.
Nice! I imagine this is a good ‘kitchen sink’ recipe too, as in you can use up what’s left in your crisper drawers!
The article you linked about celebrity pastors and displays of wealth was super interesting to me! I am of two minds as I think about it. On the one hand, I don’t have a huge problem with the general idea of people in ministry having some nice things. Growing up as a pastor’s kid (church planter’s kid, actually), this is definitely something that my parents thought about regularly, and still do. I am generally sympathetic to pastors, especially as I watch my parents age – growing up, they didn’t have a lot of extra income, and probably lived at/slightly below the level of the average family in our church of similar age, but they were smart with their money, lived within their means, and worked hard. Now, they have more to spend, although I would still say they are at the level of an average couple in the church of similar age. They recently bought a new car after their old one died that happened to be red (not a luxury car) and really worried about the optics of that decision, and if people would think they were flaunting their stuff (granted, that’s a far cry from luxury sneakers, but still). I think money is just money – it’s not inherently good or bad. As a person in ministry, I think it’s important to be aware of the kind of community you are serving, and of who is in your church, and to generally keep your own lifestyle at or below that level. I think the problem comes in when we aren’t honest with ourselves about who we are and who we are called to. If we want to primarily work with economically disadvantaged populations but spend our money on the latest trendy items in our circle, that’s a problem. By the same token, I would see it as a problem if a pastor had $800 sweat pants and $1200 shoes, but the average person in their congregation was solidly middle class. I think a lot of Christians have this idea that our churches will be filled with people from diverse SES and racial backgrounds, and that is a great goal to have. However, in reality, things often look different – people in the church tend to look like the staff in terms of economic class (although there is a ton of awesome diversity between churches, there doesn’t seem to be a ton within individual churches, with some exceptions). There are so many reasons for this, but most “trendy” churches today with a social media presence tend to have a certain aesthetic and have a lot of members who are middle class and upwardly mobile – I don’t think there’s anything wrong with church leadership looking like their congregations, at least economically.
On the other hand, it seems to me that the bigger problem here is the old-school sin of vanity, which has been on my mind a lot lately for some reason. I don’t have any particular pastor in mind here, but there does seem to be an upswing in pastors/Christian authors promoting themselves on social media. I would be pretty troubled by the idea of a pastor receiving free swag and promoting products – that seems pretty counter to the way of Christ (to clarify, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with other people who make their living as influencers doing this – they aren’t publicly representing the church/being paid by their church). I think materialism makes many, myself included, think “if I just had (insert item), I would be so effortless/cool/people would think I’m influential.” As leaders in the church, I don’t think pastors should be feeding this problem, although I’m sure the temptation is there. Good questions to wrestle with!
Such a great response Marie. I think you nailed it when you said it comes down to “is the person being honest with themself.” That would address the notions of vanity, pride, and intention. Ironically it came up in my bible study group today and we noted how Christians are the most judgmental people out there, and we are particularly judgmental with each other. If these pastors need accountability perhaps the best source is people who already a have relationship with them, rather than an anonymous internet source. That said, I can’t seem to tear my eyes away from it all! I think it’s a good conversation to be had, for sure. Thanks for wrestling through it with me.
Hi Andrea!
About meal rituals: we are also a Friday night pizza lovers! We make it from scratch and loooove every part of the process, which even starts on Thursday night, as the pizza dough needs to rest before being cooked. Also, since my husband works all day out, we try not to miss breakfast together, it’s an Important part of the day for us and we cherish it.
On a side note, I would love to read about you dairy free journey, I am interested in why you decided it and if it is hard on your past habits.
Anyway, Andrea, I wish you and your loved ones a happy, peaceful and quiet Easter. We will be doing the Spanish traditional way this year, which means eating too many “ torrijas” and enjoying the local “procesiones”.
Hi Alejandra! I love your meal rituals! And breakfast together sounds like a great way to start the day. We actually made pizza this Friday with minimalist baker’s vegan cheese recipe. It was pretty good, but I have to tell you about my 10 minute foolproof dough recipe, it’s so easy it should be criminal!
On the dairy, my middle child is lactose intolerant, and my husband was recently cutting it out of his diet to see if it would affect an autoimmune issue he has. Long story short we cut way back on dairy a few years ago, and at first I really missed it, but now that I’m used to eating it less, it just feels so heavy on my system when I do eat it. I don’t even like lattes anymore (unless they’re made with that amazing oatmilk Oatly). We do eat some dairy, but not nearly what we used to consume.
Thank you for the kind wishes, re: Easter. That sounds wonderful!!
Thanks for all the useful info, Andrea!