I’m writing this out of concern, Leaning Right. That’s all. Having knowledge of the whole Bible and its central teachings for quite some time now, I have to say she is not a faithful pastor (which is something the Bible tells us to discern, if teachers are faithful or not). I’ve run across different articles about her for years and that’s well-established. The Lord could someday make her see things differently, perhaps, but right now her “Christianity” is mixed with great error, and since the truth is available to her, and she even claims for herself to be a spiritual leader, that’s a very serious matter. This is also just not something that is a matter of different people having different opinions, let me explain. The Lord gives us guidance, particularly through prayer and meditating on His Word working together. The answers ARE there in the Bible. Many people, even Christians, say “God never said anything about this,” or “never said anything about that,” but they don’t know because they haven’t read the Bible, that He has indeed spoken about the very things they say that He hasn’t spoken about. I don’t know what your knowledge of the Bible is and so how the following will be taken by you, but these are some quotes from Nadia Bolz-Weber:
This is Bolz-Weber on Wicca:
“I had never stopped believing in God, not really. But I did have to go hang out with His aunt for awhile. She is called the goddess. My first experience with Wicca . . .
“The goddess we spoke of never felt to me like a substitute for God but simply another aspect of the divine, like God’s aunt or something. When I tell other Christians of my time with the goddess I think they expect me to characterize it as a period in my life when I was misguided and that now thankfully I have come back to both Jesus and my senses. But it’s not like that. I can’t imagine that the God of the universe is limited to our ideas of God. I can’t image that God doesn’t reveal Godself in countless ways outside of the simple system of Christianity. And in a way I need a god who is bigger and more nimble and more mysterious than what I could understand or contrive.
“In fact, I felt guided by god the whole time I sojourned outside of the church. The divine source of my life and my identity perhaps knew that I needed to bask in the female face of god for a good long while outside the church before I could ever return to it whole and able to see the divine feminine in my own traditional.”
On swearing:
“Some people think pastors shouldn’t swear. I think pastors shouldn’t pretend to be people they’re not.”
The Bible says were not to use such language.
On God being male:
“. . . I think that there is a really insipid message to girls when you use the exclusive male pronoun for God . . . So whenever you sort of attribute a human characteristic to God, that some people have and some people don’t, it becomes problematic.”
On her family and the lack of importance of faith:
“We are not the kind of family that does a lot of like family devotionals. We don’t pray together as a family. We don’t do this faith stuff in our home. You know why? My kids are around it all the time. And so I just feel they need a break at home, you know. So I know it’s a big deal to like build faith in home; we don’t do that.”
http://www.exposingtheelca.com/exposed-blog/category/rev%20nadia%20bolz%20weber
There is little doubt in my mind that Bolz-Weber has found Christ, and is doing Christ's work, both of those as she sees it. I am also aware of her very checkered past. What I'm trying to sort out is how much of that past still exists within her.
Regardless, I found her interview to be very interesting. And I can see how her approach would bring some truly lost souls to Christ. She might be mixed up theologically, but she is also no televangelist hustler like those we see so much of these days. I respect that.
Again, thanks for your thoughtful post.