Tag, I'm It

Milton from don't eat alone has tagged me, and now I'm an official "Thinking Blogger." For the origins of this award, please see this post. My directive is simple: I am to now tag five bloggers who make me think.

This is hard. In the past eight months I have bookmarked nearly 70 blogs, all of which I try to drop in on with some regularity, many of which feel like communities of which I am a part, each of which offers me something unique.

There are blogs I read because I have somehow become involved in the bloggers' lives... they write about their days with such clarity and precision, I feel as if I know them, they are friends. I tune in wondering how this or that encounter or confrontation turned out... their story has become a part of my story.

There are blogs I read because I am looking for a particular kind of information (usually about church politics and religious life), the latest statement by this body or that leader, often accompanied by insightful commentary.

There are blogs I read for their sheer beauty-- turns of phrase, art, unique design.

There are blogs I read because they are written by other pastors or clergy.

There are blogs I read because they are written by other lesbians.

This is a hard task. Best not to overthink it. I hereby tag the following:

I nominate Santa Ignora. This young, brash and bold blogger has a post you should read, "Who is Santa Ignora?" that starts, "Have you ever been excluded from something?" You should also read "Saul was being kind of a dick." She is Gen Next, and I think she may be a mystic. I could imagine her as a mystical barrista, dispensing emerald words from Christ along with a venti mocha latte.

I also nominate MadPriest of "Of Course I Could Be Wrong..." His blog, and his insistence on a church of radical inclusiveness ("Free Your Mind And Your God Will Follow") probably were the impetus for me to begin this blog, so that I could speak and find a community that he convinced me might be there. Warning: he is not polite. But he is truthful, and there is great beauty in that.

On a much different note, I nominate More Cows of "You've Really Got to Love Your People." When I read her blog I am invited into the world of a young, brilliant pastor who sees the shimmer of grace in every moment, even when church life is at its most challenging. Her current post, "Do you see God all over this?" is a shining example of her manifestation of a meticulous and gifted theological mind living with the heart of a pastor.

Share Cropper describes "23 Acres of Black Dirt" as "Occasional Thoughts About Earthly and Unearthly Life." She writes as easily about theology and politics as she does about her family history. I consider her piece "Love and perspective" to be consummate Share Cropper. Here she tells of her connections with a struggling church family with whom, on the surface, she appears to have little in common, but with whom she feels deep kinship, affection, and some measure of being grounded in the messy, homely reality of human existence.

When I have temporarily lost touch with why I do what I do, I venture over to A Church for Starving Artists. Blogger Jan Edmiston is an emergingly oriented pastor who always manages to take the long view, have the grand scale perspective that I find missing when I get bogged down in things like Great Clipboard Controversies (see More Cows for that post).

And there are 65 other blogs I love, and where I feel at home, and that truly make me think.