Progressive Wednesday

Carey Mack

February 5th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Carey Gardiner Mack was born and raised in Watertown, Wisconsin, and she has lived her entire life within fifteen miles of I-94. These days she’s an Ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The truest thing she can say about her experience as a seminary student comes from James Carroll’s award-winning book, An American Requiem: “It was an incubator of my own personal and unwanted revolution.” As with most personal and unwanted revolutions, Carey’s taught her a lot. We’re talking more than Marcia, Greg, Jan, Peter, Cindy and Bobby on each episode of The Brady Bunch.

Carey draws her spirituality from early 20^th century Protestant work, Buddhism, and the twelve steps, closely aligning with Thomas Aquinas’s belief system: all life has a purpose, meeting this purpose allows one to be happy, happiness is to be found in the love of God (or one’s Higher Power). The difference between right and wrong, she believes, can be appreciated using reason and reflection. She also believes that human nature is good because God made it good.

She currently lives in Dearborn, Michigan, where she religiously (no pun intended) roots for the St. Louis Cardinals.