Interview with Pam Hogeweide

Posted by Helen on: 07.20.2006 /

Pam Hogeweide has kindly agreed to be our fifth online interview candidate. If you like her interview, you can read other articles by her and another interview with her here on our doable evangelism blog.

The purpose of this interview is to give you the opportunity to listen to Pam as she shares her thoughts and opinions with you.

If you want to discuss whether Pam’s views are correct, we invite you to do that here on the discussion board. Pam is welcome to participate in discussions there about her views if she wants to. If she doesn’t have the time or inclination that’s fine with us - we don’t consider doing so ‘part of the interview’.

I’d like to post more online interviews. If you’d like to send one in, you can find the instructions and questions here.

please share a little about yourself with us

What screen name do you post under — so we know you when we see you?

Pam Hogeweide, that’s Ho-go-why-duh…yeah, my name ends in Duh.

Would you like to share any of the following so we can know you better: your age range, whether you’re married or single, have children, what kind of work you do, what area of the U.S. (or other country) you live in?

I am a 42-year old white woman with a high school education, married 18 years to Jerry who is a white guy with less education than me, and we have two kids who hopefully will advance further in education than we did. Actually, I think they already might have, since my daughter’s math has stumped me since she was in fourth grade.

Jerry works in a factory and I have a small cleaning business, and I am a writer. My goal is to become a full-time writer within the next five years and retire my mop bucket.

Our family makes our home in the pretty city of Portland, Oregon.

What do you like to do when you have some time to yourself?

Do online interviews…. Actually, I love to write. Everyday I try to write something. When I’m not writing I usually am reading. In the past couple of weeks I finished up three books: one on the craft of writing memoir; also, a book by Christine Wicker titled, Not in Kansas Anymore, which I read about on your blog; and I finished up Anne Rice’s novel, Christ the Lord. Because it’s summertime I also love to jump into rivers with my family and also go boogie boarding at the Oregon coast when it gets at least 65 degrees.

Please share with us something you really enjoy about your life.

I really enjoy hanging out with people, getting to know all kinds of people, like Jeffrey. He’s this rock n roll philosopher homeless guy I met near one of my job sites. I saw him the other day in front of Winco, in this upper class neighborhood. Everybody steered clear of him with his wild long, brown hair and mutterings he randomly utters to himself.

He remembered me and we sat down, by the doors of the Winco, and shot the breeze for nearly an hour. Within that hour we discussed his dead wife, homeless youth issues, music, the cult of beauty, and how many coffee places he’s been 86′ed from for drinking too much coffee. He is a hoot.

When I’m not meeting interesting people like Jeffrey or hanging out with my family I love solitude. I could have been a monk, well, perhaps a part-time monk. But not the kind that would make a vow of silence. I would suck at that.

If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about you or your life, what would it be?

To be a more disciplined person with time management. When I hear about someone who rises before dawn and spends their time wisely all day long I lust for their secret, which I know is no secret at all : they simply manage their time well. I wish I did too, for then I would hang out with my kids more, write more, study more (books and the bible), and save the world from evil. If I had more time, dammit, I could save the world. (I thought about taking a time management class, but, you guessed it, I don’t have time)

You and Conversation at the Edge

How did you find Conversation at the Edge (or, the eBay atheist blog) and what drew you to post in the comments section?

I found it through Off the Map. I like the posts, they make me think, and the comments from those participating are thought provoking and respectful. It is good to see a place where a variety of ideas and opinions have room to breathe without negativism.

You and church/other groups

Were you raised going to church and are you currently a church attender?

I have scant memory of going to church a few times up until age 7. My family would go to church and leave God there. He was not a part of our home conversations or activities.

I became a Christ follower when I was 18 and have consistently attended church since then. Recently my husband and I fell off the church radar screen for several months for reasons of indifference, cynicism, and it was football season. We are now back to church and have decided to attend two churches. We are proving to people that Jesus loves us the most now that we are going to two churches.

What is your main reason for choosing to be a church attender/not to be a church attender at present?

I go for the food.

Ok, ok, I do believe in the wondrous mystery of the life of Jesus being manifest through his followers also known as The Church. It is in this magnificent and dysfunctional community that I do discover greater understanding about who God is and what he is like. Listening to other people’s stories and insights helps me and my family with our own discoveries about God.

Is there anything else (outside work and family) which you devote significant time to? Or used to, or hope to in the future? (We understand that for some of you, work and family takes up almost all your time at present)

I used to devote significant time to church activity but I don’t anymore. As a result I have gotten involved with a local non-profit here in Portland that offers writers workshops to the disenfranchised. I have been trained to lead and will have a group this fall. I would love to be involved on a regular basis with community writing groups like this.

Labels people might use behind your back (and sometimes to your face): “fundy” or “fundamentalist”

How would you/do you feel about being called a “fundy” or “fundamentalist”?

I’d much rather be called a Mentalist.

Are you aware of any assumptions or associations people make about “fundies” which don’t apply to you?

Um, I don’t know. I think many people in my region are discovering that Christ follower doesn’t mean fundamentalist, which has become a negative label indicating a narrow-minded, arrogant exclusive view of religion and politics that is homophobic and misogynistic and uses the bible to oppress others. Recently I heard a woman discuss how surprised she was when she found out her favorite neighbors were Christian, “And they are such nice people, not close-minded at all. I couldn’t believe they were Christian.”

How do you like to describe yourself regarding your beliefs?

I am a bible-thumping-demon-stomping-Spirit-filled-woman-of-God-Jesus-Freak.

Oh, hang on a minute that was my belief statement from the 80’s.

Ok, here’s my updated 21st century statement of faith: My spiritual path is Jesus.

What (else) would you like to tell the people who call you a “fundy” if you thought they were listening?

Stop listening to all those rumors about me.

Labels people might use behind your back (and sometimes to your face): “lost”

Please answer the following questions if your beliefs differ in any significant way from this: “Every human being has a “sin’ problem separating him/her from God and the only way to resolve my own sin problem is to believe that Jesus is God and Jesus took care of it for me”.

Well right off the bat the problem with this assertion is “Every human being… .” What about babies or children who die? Or the person who lives in a culture or nation that does not ever, ever hear about Jesus Christ? Or the mentally challenged person who cannot comprehend? These are the questions that challenge my own soul when it comes to traditional understanding I have about the gospel message. I sometimes wonder if we really get what it is about, or has the message of Jesus Christ become distorted.

Has anyone ever called you “lost”? Have you heard or read anything which tells you that some people talk about you like that behind your back?

I think radical extremist Muslims call people like me The Great Satan, or something like that.

You and the Bible

Do you own a Bible? Do you ever read the Bible or look anything up in it? If so, what is your main reason for doing so?

I own several kinds of bibles and bible study software as well as a host of bible commentaries. I adore the words and teaching of the bible. I am currently studying the gospel of Mark with new eyes, journaling about the book as I specifically observe how Jesus demonstrated love and meekness, meekness being defined as “power restrained.” He was a master at restraining himself, I’m learning, as I read Mark.

I study the bible because it helps me to gain greater insight into the nature of God and also of myself. I believe the bible is a sacred book, inspired by the Spirit of God. I wish I had more time to study it more.

As best you know, has anything in the Bible influenced you in a good way (directly or indirectly)?

Absolutely. I just spent over two years of near exclusive devotion to studying the Old Testament poem, the Song of Solomon. As I dove into understanding the imagery and the metaphors it became a means of enlarging my understanding God’s nature. The very tone of my prayers changed as a new place of intimacy emerged. I feel a deeper connection with God as a result. The bible has also influenced me tremendously over the years to be a better person, to think of others and to move away for self-centeredness. And especially to love. Love seems to be the supreme message of the bible to me: Be loved by God, love him back, and love others as well as yourself.

As best you know, has anything in the Bible influenced you in a negative way (directly or indirectly)?

I cannot say the bible has influenced me in a bad way. My own distorted understanding, or the distorted teachings I have received in the past, yes, those have influenced me in a bad way…to close my heart and mind to those who believed or acted differently than I did.

Many years ago I could not have tolerated contact with a gay person because I felt so strongly that they were living in utter rebellion against God because of their sexuality. This mindset was a result of my understanding of the bible. However, I’ve changed over the years, and this fall I will be attending the commitment ceremony of a new friend who is marrying her partner. This change of mind I would also attribute to the bible’s teaching…discovering that the central theme of the bible is Love.

Has anyone expressed disapproval to you about your own personal opinion, or use, of the Bible? What would you like them to understand better about you and the Bible, were it possible?

Many, many times, especially in the 80’s when I was a bible-thumpin’ Jesus freak. I would just quote scriptures at people and not even listen to where they were coming from. I was so arrogant.

Now the opposite is happening. I was at a prayer meeting a few months ago and one of the women began praying about homosexuals. Her prayers were kind of intense, she used wording about God’s nature being challenged because of homosexuality. My prayers were of a different perspective. At the end of the prayer meeting I was gently chastised for “not sticking to the bible” for the basis of my prayers. I felt kind of insulted, as if I had failed at playing Bible Dictionary or something. Because my prayers of compassion for the homosexual community did not match their understanding of what the bible teaches is where the tension came in. This caught me off guard and caused some frustration, but somehow we worked through it. (by the way, I have lots of respect for the people I was meeting with and we continued to meet and pray after that)

Is there anything I forgot to ask that you’d like to tell us?

Yes, I need to tell you that I have a weird thing for the Tom Cruise movie, War of the Worlds. I’ve watched that film at least six times and I still can’t figure out why it mesmerizes me. Oh, and you should also know that I suffer from a condition known as Random Scripture Quoting Syndrome, or RiSQueS. This means that in conversation I will sometimes just randomly start quoting… . “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures…” Oops. See? That’s what I mean. If it happens when we’re talking start quoting You Might be a Redneck jokes at me. For some reason that’ll knock it off. There is no known cure for RiSQueS at this time, though intense therapy, and redneck jokes, seem to help.

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