Anne Lamott
March 02, 2007
Read the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly profile Ann Lamott here: Ann Lamott
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Author Anne Lamott may shatter many people's stereotypes about what a successful spiritual writer is like. She's a dreadlock-wearing, politically liberal, born-again Christian who uses biting humor -- and sometimes foul language -- when she describes her deeply held personal faith. Some readers are offended, but her books about her spiritual journey have become national best-sellers. Her newest is called GRACE (EVENTUALLY). It comes out later this month. Kim Lawton visited Lamott in Northern California.
My point is that there is no one profile of what a public Evangelical Christian looks like. If there is a mold, Ann Lamott broke it.
Whether or not you agree with her politics, Lamott is unashamedly Christian in her beliefs.
I was moved to pull up some of her quotes:
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.”
“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.”
“A hundred years from now? All new people.”
“When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.”
... and my favorite:
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”
Wikipedia has an article on her.
Her "Traveling Mercies" has something to say if we reject the urge to throw the baby out with the bath water. I look forward to reading "Grace (Eventually)." It is always refreshing to read the reflections of an honest and struggling Christian. Publsiher's Weekly says:
With gentle wisdom refining her signature humor, Lamott explores helpfulness, decency, love and especially forgiveness. She explains the change: "Sometimes I act just as juvenile as I ever did, but as I get older, I do it for shorter periods of time. I find my way back to the path sooner, where there is always one last resort: get a glass of water and call a friend."