The Young Clergy Women's Project

Thanks to a link on a blog I read from time to time, I have discovered a wonderful online community called The Young Clergy Women's Project.
Not all of you readers will be able to join the community, since membership requirements include being female, ordained, and under 40. That said, there's also a great zine written by the community, called Fidelia's Sisters, which is available for everyone. The current issue cracked me up - I totally relate with the author's use of words (appropriate and otherwise) in the article titled "What did she just say?"
When I was studying preaching during seminary, we were warned of "pulpit voice" - that strange phenomenon when someone's voice undergoes obvious changes every time s/he preaches or prays or is leading worship. It's amazing how some people don't sound like themselves at all when they preach.
And to me it's funny how people sometimes EXPECT pastors not to sound like themselves when preaching - maybe not in vocal characteristics, but in the words they use (and more importantly DON'T use).
I will never forget hearing the story of Pastor Bob, a wonderful retired pastor in Northwest Montana, who was filling-in for a local pastor one Sunday morning. He used the least polite word for "poop" during his sermon about world hunger issues. And then Pastor Bob went on to point out, and lament, the fact that most of his hearers would be more outraged by him saying "sh*t" during worship than they would be that millions of children would go to bed hungry that night.

How easy it can be to separate outward righteousness and real holy living. We are good at getting our priorities screwed up, aren't we? Maybe it's a good thing we'll be getting a dose of John the Baptist on Sunday...