Charlotte is a retired Christian minister who lives and blogs from a small town in East Texas but enjoys being connected to a diverse, ecumenical, and interfaith cyberspace community.
Her Intersections: Faith Culture Politics Facebook page offers opportunities for conversation partners to discuss varieties of ways that their faith connects with everything else. Even people who claim no faith enjoy reading and interacting with Charlotte’s daily posts to this Intersections page. The conversation gets lively when nearly 20,000 very different Facebook followers engage one another about current issues of the day.
Charlotte’s other love is her Living in The Story effort. This is where she reflects on the stories of the Christian Scriptures and explores intersections with our own human stories. Her recently published book, Living in The Story: A Year to Read the Bible and Ponder God’s Story of Love and Grace is available at numerous online book sellers. To learn more about the Living in The Story project, visit livinginthestory.com
Charlotte is a past-president and active volunteer with Coffee Party USA. Her blogs are often shared to the Coffee Party Facebook page.
Egberto Willies, political activist and Coffee Party USA Board member, interviewed Charlotte in June 2014. Find that video on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB74rb3EemU
Coffee Party BlogTalk Radio hosted Charlotte as their guest in October 2014. Her topic was: “Faith, Culture and Politics.” Listen here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/coffeepartyusa/2014/10/07/faith-culture-and-politics–p1fd-10614
Charlotte holds a Bachelor of Nursing degree from Baylor University in Waco TX and a Masters of Divinity from Brite Divinity School (TCU) in Ft. Worth TX. She is ordained within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and did most of the classwork towards a Doctorate of Ministry degree before life interrupted that process. No degree but lots of amazing learning!
I sent this to your FB page but wanted to make sure it got to you. Much love.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 2, 2017
Bend, Oregon based singer/songwriter, Victor Johnson, has written a song dedicated to the victims of the Portland attack, On This Train. Inspired by Taliesin’s last words – Tell everyone on this train, I love them.
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/waytoblue/posts/10211554303107677
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/14KobbDtfLw
Victor Johnson writes music that promotes love, healing, and forgiveness, and celebrates divine beauty. Many of his songs have been written for victims of tragedy including “J’adore la France”, written for the victims of the Paris attacks, “Sweet December Day”, written to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and “Black Sun”, written for the Charleston 9.
Wonderful! Thank you Victor.
just read an article by YOU on FACEBOOK–intrigued by your name, or the VAUGHAN side of your family. My husband’s family settled in Mississippi, in the delta area, a town named after them, Vaughan, MS. They came here from the Carolinas. Have you ever researched your ancestry, if this was your maiden name…we are always searching for relatives!!
Hi Cousin! Thanks for writing! I’m sending an email so we can talk about family stuff. And thanks for reading! Peace…
You’re doing wonderful work here, please continue and keep writing because we ARE reading, and praying that more will heed your timeless message of the essence of faith, kindness and serving others before ourselves.
I am humbled by your affirmation Alija. Thank you. It takes all of us BEING the good news wherever and however we can. Peace…
Charlotte,
It’s great to hear about your ministries! I treasure the times we shared ministry in the North Texas Area when we were at Northway, and I would like to get “caught up” with your continuing pilgrimage. We retired to Nacogdoches in 2004, and I hope we will have the privilege of your participation in the conference here next year. Blessings to you and yours in this Advent season.
George
Good to hear from you George! Yes, let’s stay in touch.
Peace, Charlotte
Dear Charlotte,
This article brought answers to my prayers about legal gay marriage and Christians in an uproar over it. I had finally found a church that I was happy to call home and I believe the pastor has great vision. However, the day that he trotted out Bible verses to condemn homosexuality was the day he lost me. I know he was just teaching what he was taught but your views in this letter are much more in line with my beliefs.
As a result, I now have direction in my search for a new church – there are three in this denomination nearby and I have already picked one to try this Sunday. God does answer our prayers when our beliefs are challenged! When I prayed for help with this moral struggle, I realized that I did not want to be un-enlightened and that there has to be a way to reconcile all of this that we are too dense to understand. That is where faith comes in. I can still believe in Jesus as my Saviour and also believe that Buddha and the Dalai Lama brought believers to God somehow. Can’t I? Isn’t that the point? That we believe what God leads us to believe and we have no business telling others what to believe. We can bring more believers in by doing what Jesus said, love God, love your neighbor. So simple, yet so difficult for even the “best” Christians.
Thank you so much for your intelligent and positive letter!
Sandra Racy
What a great thoughtful response, Sandra! Thank you for writing. I very much appreciate your open mind – Open and compassionate to the pastor still believing what he has always believed; he is on his own journey and how that proceeds is Spirit’s business, not ours. Open and faithful to your own journey, trusting that there are people of faith who share your passions and would make good “travel companions.” (Don’t give up on the search for a church community; let me know if you need to talk about your options.) And Open to discovering Truth wherever that may be. Yes – “the point” – God is in all of this in some mysterious way, crafting Shalom throughout creation. I’ll be thinking of you as you journey on. Peace…
I resonate with your article about the 4th of July and look forward to reading more from you.