“It’s my life and I can do with it what I want to” is a common mantra in Western society. Yet, in recent years that mantra has taken on a grave twist. With the legalization of euthanasia—what some have called “mercy killing”—people are increasingly allowed to commit legal suicide with the help of their doctor. And in some countries, the reasons legally allowed to justify this seem increasingly trivial.

Shepherds of old carried a rod and a staff, two important tools of their trade. For the shepherd, a rod was a stick or club that could be used offensively or defensively against a threat to himself or his flock. It was also used for discipline and counting, especially to determine the tithe of the increase of a flock (Leviticus 27:32). The shepherd’s staff was a longer and thinner stick with a hook on one end, used for guiding the flock and for capturing or saving sheep.

According to a high-ranking Church of England official, Jesus’ sample prayer—commonly called the “Lord’s Prayer”—is dangerously biased toward patriarchy. The Guardian quoted the Archbishop of York when it reported that the “opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be ‘problematic’ because of their patriarchal association” (July 7, 2023).