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	<title>Provoketive Magazine &#187; Amy Mitchell</title>
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	<description>Provoking The Imagination With Conversation</description>
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		<title>Taste and See</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/12/19/taste-and-see/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=taste-and-see</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/12/19/taste-and-see/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Relationships]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=8151</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see— how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. [Psalm 34:8, The Message] A few weeks ago, the pastor of the church we&#8217;ve been attending came to our house for a visit.  She wanted to get to know us and talk a little about the church.  One thing that she said stood out to me above everything else: Worship is such a sensory experience. She elaborated, describing the taste and smell of the Communion elements, the candles, the stained glass, the sound of the songs of praise.  Even listening to her, I could feel my pulse quickening with the longing that good, deep worship brings to me. Later that night, as I lay in bed, her words ran through my mind.  The Scripture I quoted above sprang to mind, and I turned it over and over, meditating on it and thinking about what that meant. Advent is here, and Christmas is nearly upon us, and I find myself feeling sad that we have reduced this beautiful season to a string of arguments about how to greet one another and whether or not writing &#8220;Xmas&#8221; is appropriate. We spend... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Book Review: A Year of Biblical Womanhood</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/10/31/book-review-a-year-of-biblical-womanhood/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=book-review-a-year-of-biblical-womanhood</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/10/31/book-review-a-year-of-biblical-womanhood/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:17:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=7962</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Note: I was given an advance copy of A Year of Biblical Womanhood as part of the launch team.  I volunteered to be on the team because I believe in this project and I wholeheartedly support the ongoing work of Rachel Held Evans.  My review is not without bias.  My other reviews of the book can be found at Amazon, Barnes &#38; Noble, CBD, and my personal blog. I was first introduced to the writing of Rachel Held Evans by following a bunny trail from one blog to another.  At the time, she was about two thirds of the way through the year-long project which resulted in this book.  I was fascinated by the idea of taking literal interpretation of Scripture to its natural conclusion.  With great anticipation, I continued to follow Rachel&#8217;s blog over the 15 months or so between then and now. I was not disappointed with the book; it lived up to my expectations and then some.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Rachel&#8217;s adventures and misadventures bringing the Bible to life.  I recognized myself in the pages of the book; from her struggle to bring out her inner Martha Stewart to her desperate plea for help on... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>No Boundaries</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/10/15/no-boundaries/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=no-boundaries</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/10/15/no-boundaries/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=7799</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As I write this, our family is about to begin a journey into the Unknown.  We&#8217;re stepping off the dock into our boat, setting sail in a sea of options.  It&#8217;s a voyage we&#8217;ve never undertaken together.  In fact, it&#8217;s one I&#8217;ve never taken at all. We&#8217;re in process of finding a new church. Churches have always found me.  A friend brought me as her guest to the first church in which I held membership.  My second church was one of convenience.  As a college student without a car, I simply attended church with a carload of friends.  My third church was a happy accident.  I wanted to volunteer with middle schoolers, I had met the youth director when I worked as a summer camp counselor, and he had a place for me there.  For ten years, it was home.  Our last church was a refuge, a place in a spiritual storm where we sought shelter until we were ready to move on. I&#8217;ve never had to enter a search cold. Being without a church has felt like a foray into a strange country all by itself.  It reminds me of the story of the elementary children on the playground. ... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Faith Like a Child</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/08/05/faith-like-a-child/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=faith-like-a-child</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/08/05/faith-like-a-child/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Aug 2012 15:00:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=7325</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When most people think of &#8220;child evangelism,&#8221; what comes to mind is something along the lines of Jesus Camp.  It recalls a very specific image of adults pounding the Gospel into children, who in turn take the message out on the streets and hand out tracts.  We are, naturally, uncomfortable with the idea that children would be manipulated, frightened, or shamed into belief.  I think perhaps I understand where it comes from. Many people have been deeply hurt by the church. As a result, they are on a mission to stop anyone else from being hurt by the church. Whatever the reason, a current trend is to demand that parents stop &#8220;evangelizing&#8221; their children.  This petition, for example, found on SignOn.org, is a call for cessation of evangelism under the guise of aid.  This post on The Oatmeal likens religious indoctrination within the family to controlling a child&#8217;s color preference.  Pressure from outside the church raises two important questions. First, is it bad for parents to raise their children in the church?  I don&#8217;t believe it is, for several reasons: This anti-evangelism campaign is nearly always directed at the Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam).  I&#8217;m the last person you... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Friends with Agendas</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/06/16/friends-with-agendas/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=friends-with-agendas</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/06/16/friends-with-agendas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friendship]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6967</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s been a rough few weeks for public Christianity.  Too many videos have surfaced showing pastors and other people of faith spewing their hateful words.  It saddens me that there are many churches that believe essentially the same things, but think that they are better because they say it more gently.  Even more disturbing is that this is frequently a platform for an equally faulty position: being a friend with an agenda. I made the mistake recently of asking, &#8220;Why aren&#8217;t we more proactive about offering the Gospel message?&#8221;  I was told that one needs to &#8220;earn&#8221; the right to share Jesus with people.  I found that statement confusing.  If Jesus is such an important part of my life, and if we&#8217;re supposed to &#8220;make disciples of all nations,&#8221; then why must I wait for the right moment to clue someone in about my faith?  I also felt an underlying discomfort that I couldn&#8217;t name or describe.  I shrugged it off, figuring I was just feeling defensive in the moment. After some thought, though, I began to understand what made me feel awkward.  There were two things, both of which are based on the concept of &#8220;friendship with an agenda.&#8221;... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Breaking Bread without Breaking Each Other</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/29/breaking-bread-without-breaking-each-other/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=breaking-bread-without-breaking-each-other</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/29/breaking-bread-without-breaking-each-other/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6756</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is a part of me that has never fully become a grown-up.  I still love the magic of children’s stories.  This is possibly because they are so uncomplicated by the problems of the adult world.  Sometimes, we need to read what’s in the pages of our favorite books and see it in a new way. Last year, I introduced my kids to C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.  The third book (in the original published order), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, quickly became my son’s favorite.  I have to admit, he has a point.  It’s full of fun, humor, and rollicking adventures on the high seas.  It also contains some of the most beautifully captured moral principles, cleverly hidden in the fairy tale setting. My apologies if you haven’t read the book (the movie does not count), because I am about to give spoilers.  There is a scene at the end of the book in which three travelers have fallen asleep at a table laden with good food.  They had been arguing, and one of them picked up a sacred knife and made a move to injure or kill the others.  They were thrown into an enchanted slumber,... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>NYSED Fail: What We Can Learn from a Talking Pineapple</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/04/27/nysed-fail-what-we-can-learn-from-a-talking-pineapple/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=nysed-fail-what-we-can-learn-from-a-talking-pineapple</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/04/27/nysed-fail-what-we-can-learn-from-a-talking-pineapple/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Now]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ELA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYSED]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state test]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6087</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On April 17-19, 2012, students across New York State took the English Language Arts (ELA) test.  In a fail of epic proportions, a poorly constructed set of test questions was thrown out after an unnamed insider leaked that portion of the exam.  You can read the original test question at the New York State Education Department web site. For a little background, this section of the test included a brief story and six follow-up questions.  The text was adapted from part of a novel by author Daniel Pinkwater.  (You can read his comments and the original tale here and here.)  Teachers and other NYSED employees are not allowed to discuss the test questions or publish them, online or elsewhere.  One bold individual shared the question, setting off a chain reaction of events which ultimately resulted in the question set being thrown out. From the glut of news articles on the Pineapple Debacle, one might get the impression that the problem here is one badly-worded question on a state test.  There&#8217;s discussion about whether or not we can trust any of the test questions if one like that slipped through.  While it&#8217;s true that the story is full of grammatical errors... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Water, with a Side of Dignity</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/04/09/water-with-a-side-of-dignity/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=water-with-a-side-of-dignity</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/04/09/water-with-a-side-of-dignity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children's Relief International]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mozambique]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uganda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ugandan Water Project]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=5706</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in an event with the youth at my church called Hunger for Hope.  Similar to World Vision&#8217;s 30 Hour Famine, we went without food for (you guessed it) 30 hours.  The money we raised went to two of my personal favorite charities: Children&#8217;s Relief International and the Ugandan Water Project. We stayed at the church for the fast.  During that time, there were activities designed to help the participants understand the needs of the people in other countries, notably Mozambique and Uganda.  While that&#8217;s a good thing, I often find that programs intended to shed light on the plight of &#8220;those poor Africans&#8221; often strip those same people of their humanity.  They&#8217;re reduced to nothing more than starving, uneducated people who have no hope without our ministries.  We become the White Saviors of the Savage Brown World. Not this time. By far, my favorite moment of Hunger for Hope was meeting Todd Bush from CRI.  The first time I was introduced to him was during one of the activities.  He had set up a small area outlined with parking cones, representative of the size of a typical hut in... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Kosher Jesus: An Open Door for Interfaith Dialogue</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/03/06/kosher-jesus-an-open-door-for-interfaith-dialogue/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kosher-jesus-an-open-door-for-interfaith-dialogue</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/03/06/kosher-jesus-an-open-door-for-interfaith-dialogue/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:00:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kosher Jesus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rabbi Shmuley Boteach]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=5305</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a review of the book Kosher Jesus by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Gefen Publishing, February 1, 2012), Kindle edition. When I first read that Kosher Jesus would be available in February, I couldn&#8217;t wait to get my hands on a copy. The prospect of reading more about Jesus from a purely Jewish perspective was intriguing.  I am pleased to say that Kosher Jesus lived up to my expectations. The Good What stands out immediately is Rabbi Boteach&#8217;s friendly, conversational style. One almost has the feeling that he has come over for a chat in your living room. At the same time, he refuses to talk down to the reader. He addresses complex issues without sounding like a professor. I also have deep appreciation for the humble tone of the book.  Naturally, Rabbi Boteach believes deeply in his conclusions, or he would not speak so passionately.  However, at no point does he claim to be the mouthpiece of God, or that Christians should abandon their faith.  He does not vilify individual Christians, even when taking to task the religious system which tragically spent centuries persecuting the very people who gave us Jesus. One of the most important themes in Kosher... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>An Economic Fairy Tale</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/02/15/an-economic-fairy-tale/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=an-economic-fairy-tale</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/02/15/an-economic-fairy-tale/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Amy Mitchell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=4688</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I think this has already made the rounds; perhaps my friends are behind the curve.  It may just be the result of increased political tension in an election year.  Several of my friends have posted this picture: &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; accompanied by the following text (it&#8217;s long, but worth the read; all typos are original to the text): An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama&#8217;s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.  The professor then said, &#8220;OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama&#8217;s plan&#8221;. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A&#8230;. (substituting grades for dollars—something closer to home and more readily understood by all).  After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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