Pastor Emily

At church this week we had a woman preacher.

We attend a large church, membership in the multiple thousands. The church is part of a smallish bible college (2000 enrollment), hence the outsized enrollment.

My church is hardly on the leading edge of the women’s equality movement. The world church is dominated (numbers, at least) by Latino’s and Africans who are not about to let their women be equal, it is just not part of their system.

But this woman is on the staff of the church. She is young and she is attractive and she is a very good speaker.

She talked about hugs and how much we need to be hugged each day. We need mental hugs, but we also need physical hugs. She did not use the phrase, but we are all in this together, we need each other much more than we might think.

The push to strong individualism flies in the face of this reality. We can think we are independent and above the need for other humans, but we are not. Their happiness contributes to our happiness. Their freedom to ours.

So I return in my thoughts to Pastor Emily. As the father of daughters and the grandfather of granddaughters (and the grandfather of an Emily), I am really interested in my women getting a fair shake in this world.

They need to be strong, they need to be capable, but they also need each other. We all do.