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Welcome to the New Frank Answers

Welcome to the new Frank Answers. This is a personal blog that is primarily devoted to theology, spirituality, worship, and the body. These are areas of my expertise. The primary purpose of the blog is to answer questions about these and related topics sent to me by readers, if I am able and willing to do so. Many articles will be focused on the body, such as the body in nature, sexuality, and yoga, because those are my current interests. Questions may push me to the limits. So the answers may be experimental. You can read about me and this blog on the “About Frank and Frank Answers” page. But here I will say that I have been a parish pastor, a seminary and university professor, a family man, a nature lover, and a yogi, and I try to integrate these vocations and avocations in the articles I write on this blog.

Frank at age 75 on the Giant Ledge in the Catskills

There are no ads on this blog, no subscriptions, no products to sell (unless you want to purchase one of my books, but not directly from me!). I welcome comments, but not guest columnists. (Sorry, but this is my blog!) I earn no money from writing this blog; it’s an act of love (and something to keep me busy in my retirement). As a teacher, I simply love to acquire information and share knowledge. But I will tell you that the very name of this blog plays on both my name and my “frank” opinions.

Why is there a NEW blog of Frank Answers? Mostly because the older Frank-Answers.com, begun in April 2015, grew unwieldy. It had acquired about 150 articles that were displayed, but other articles were collections of brief answers that functioned like sub-blogs within the main blog. If each of those brief questions & answers had been displayed, the number of articles would have reached about 200. Buried within the “brief answers,” these Q & As were essentially inaccessible because they weren’t highlighted. Some of the articles, like the ones about swimming naked, had attracted thousands of viewers and elicited hundreds of comments that extended over multiple pages, making comments hard to find. Over time, some articles were losing or not drawing traffic while others remained popular. Some articles were dated and didn’t need to be continued. And, truth be told, it was difficult to police hacked insertions of unwanted links and images. All things considered, it seemed that “Frank Answers” needed a fresh start on a new, improved WordPress platform with added security.

Some of the popular articles from the old Frank-Answers.com will be retrieved but edited for greater clarity or to add new information. New Frank Answers will be added as I have new questions to deal with. I’ve found that I can easily retrieve and post selected articles from the old blog from copies of articles and images I saved. I expect that articles will posted almost daily during June to get this new blog up and running and attract previous and new readers . My selections of what to post are based in part on celebrations and observances occurring in the month they are posted. June has a lot of special days and events. So this new blog will grow quickly.

Images are useful in blog articles to call attention to and illustrate the topic and break up the wordiness of the articles. Having images relevant to the topic of the article is important in drawing viewers because 20.45% of all google searches are in images. If I can draw a visitor to one post who clicked on a google image that captioned Frank-Answers, that visitor may look at other posts on this blog. I will forewarn viewers that I am not shy about discussing body and sexuality issues and using images that represent these issues. I do not regard the images I select as pornographic (well, definitely not hard core), but the naked body is nothing to be ashamed of. Nor, for that matter, are male erections. They are a biological occurrences.

Wow! This blogger is bold!

Let me emphasized that blog articles are “living documents” as opposed to type-set printed documents. This means that they can be easily amended or updated with new or additional thoughts or new or additional images. When I think of a new idea or find a reference or an image that goes well in an already-posted article, I will make the changes. So, if you’ve found an article that you like, bookmark it and come back at a later time to see if any changes have been made. (They are not likely to be major ones.)

The original Frank Answers posted on my church’s web page answered questions sent by church people. They asked questions about doctrine and liturgy and church practices and basic morality (what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity”). When I began the Frank-Answers blog on the world wide net, I received questions from people who were looking for answers that they weren’t receiving in their churches, especially about Christian views of sex and sexuality. In fact, many churches communicated negative attitudes about the body and offered restrictive understandings of sexual activity based on an uncritical reading of the Bible. My blog was available to give frank answers to such questions, and I will retrieve some of those questions and answers in this new iteration of Frank-Answers.com because I’m sure they address questions that others would also ask. Undoubtedly, there will also be new questions and answers along these lines. I’m happy that some young adults were among my interlocutors. Maybe my answers will encourage questions from other young adults.

The WordPress platform suggests other related Frank Answers at the bottom of each article. Enjoy prowling around on my blog. Or look at the list of categories or tags along the right sided of the article to find topics that are of interest to you.

I invite your questions. They may be submitted in the “Question” feature. They come to me from “WordPress,” and therefore are anonymous. I invite your comments on the answers. I moderate the comments to keep them civil and on topic. Your name will appear with what you write.

I invite your comments on answers and topics. You can submit them on the blog feature for comments. They don’t automatically post. I have to approve them. That way I can keep the discussion of a topic on track. This blog does not work like Facebook, so no uncivil or off-topic comments will be approved.

I have no subscriber list to notify readers about new answers, so I invite you to check back from time to time to see what has been added. I expect to post a lot of articles in the few first months to gain traction on the internet, and then slow down. Thanks for visiting my blog.

For an ongoing listing of the posted articles see https://frank-answers.com/frank-answers-table-of-contents/

Good reading and prowling!

Pastor Frank

“Wow! Can you believe what this pastor is writing?”

Frank Senn

I’m a retired Lutheran pastor. I was in parish ministry for forty years and taught at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for three years. I've been an adjunct professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. Since my retirement in 2013 I've also taught courses at Trinity Theological College in Singapore, Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia, and Carey Theological College in Vancouver. I have a Ph.D. in theology (liturgical studies) from the University of Notre Dame.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Gerald L. Austin

    Welcome back Frank. I was very concerned about your blog being removed from the Internet.

    1. Frank Senn

      Thank you, Gerald. The old blog needed prunning. It was so overloaded that the best way to renew Frank Answers is to rebuild it. This will be my summer project. So keep returning to watch the progress.

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