Avoiding Contention
“Avoiding Contention” is the title of today’s (January 23, 2025) Portals of Prayer devotion, authored by the Rev. Fr. Joshua LeBorious - Senior Pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Friendswood, Texas, Adjunct Professor of Theology at Concordia University Irvine, and cohost of the podcast Cross Checking (formerly Manbuns and Jesus).
The brevity of Portals of Prayer is a double-edged sword. By limiting a devotion to two paragraphs, we are more likely to get people to read them daily. But this format can also be a challenge to speak with clarity under such scant verbal limitation.
“Avoiding Contention” takes up 1 Cor 11:1-16 - which addresses the controversial topic of women covering their heads. As this practice is making a comeback among more conservative and/or traditional Christian ladies across denominational lines - often young women - writing or speaking on this topic draws attention whether one wants it or not.
Fr. Braaten interviewed the Rev. Fr. John Koopman on head coverings on The Gottesdienst Crowd in 2022. I wrote a Gottesblog post on the topic in 2024. I was also interviewed on this same passage of Scripture on Thy Strong Word in 2022.
Pastor LeBorious’s devotion can be read here:
Some people are confused as to what Pastor LeBorious is saying about head covering. Is feminine head covering in worship an example of “practices that distract from the Good News”? Is it a “fashion choice” that “shifts our focus to ourselves”? And when he points out that “Paul challenges us to avoid such things,” are ladies to avoid covering their heads in worship, or are they rather to avoid being “pulled into quarrels” about those who do? Is head covering a “contentious practice” in and of itself, or is it something that should not be made the object of contention by critics? Is head covering a “behavior” that “takes… focus away from Jesus”? Or is it rather being contentious about it that is the problem?
My reading is sympathetic to Fr. LeBorious - especially considering the wordcount constraints of Portals. To put the best construction on his words, I don’t believe that he is condemning head covering. But that said, I can certainly see where ladies who do cover their heads for worship may feel targeted by this devotion - and perhaps to feel that they may well be made into targets by those who read this devotion. I can see where it could be misconstrued as such.
I would like to invite Pastor LeBorious to take as many words as he would like to clarify his articulation of this devotion, and what he believes about ladies covering their heads for worship in our churches.