Culture

Essay Contest: Biblical Womanhood

Faith and Spirituality, Religion, Women, Writing

I can’t describe how excited I am. We’re only a couple of weeks away from the release of Rachel Held Evans‘ new book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood. I don’t know about you, but I’m anxious to get my hands on a copy so I can read and review it here on my blog.

In honor of the impending book release, I’m announcing a contest right here. I hope you are all ready to sit down at your computers or break out a pen and paper, because it’s going to require some writing on your part.

Here are the official rules:

Write an essay of 500-750 words telling me how you define Biblical womanhood or what Biblical womanhood means to you.
Using the “contact me” page on this blog, copy and paste your essay into the text field. No attachments, please.
Submit the essay by 6pm EDT on Friday, November 2, 2012.

That’s it! I will select a winner from among the entries based on content and skill. The essay will be featured as a guest post on my blog on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. My husband and I will also donate $100 to a charity benefiting girls and/or women, to be chosen by the winner. Other submissions may be chosen for future guest posts as well, with the permission of the writer.

A few of other items of note:

You don’t have to be a woman, or even a Christian, to write an essay. Everyone is welcome!
Please self-edit. I do not have time to comb through every essay for grammar and punctuation, as well as returning it to you all for correction. I will format the winning essay for publication on the blog, but it will appear as-written.
Regarding charities: My husband and I agreed that it should be the winner’s choice, and that we would donate the money even if it’s an organization we would not ordinarily support. However, there are a few rules: It must directly benefit girls and/or women; no political or lobbying organizations; no hate groups; and no organizations actively promoting lies about or oppression of the LGBT community.
We will provide a receipt to the winner regarding the donation.

These rules also appear on the “Biblical Womanhood Contest” page on this blog. Please share this with anyone you think might be interested. Good luck, have fun, and I hope to see all your submissions!

Notable News: Week of October 6-12, 2012

Links, News, Odds 'n' Ends

So, who knew? That post I wrote about the Good Men Project last week is still getting attention. Interesting. Got linked up by Slacktivist and Sarah Moon, two of my very favorite bloggers. Yay! If you’re not reading their posts already, you should go check them out.

Anyway, in other news, lots of things going on:

1. Good Men Project made this week’s list again for their raging stupidity and misogyny.

Come on, guys. That half-hearted attempt at an apology left much to be desired. Go read this post from Dianna Anderson for the story, the link, and her words (better than mine) on why this is just so much cow crap wrapped up in ribbons and bows. Does anyone really still think that GMP is innocent?

2. Death penalty for rebellious children?

I get mad at my kids. I scold them, I punish them, I take away privileges. But the thought has never even once crossed my mind that I should have the government put them to death. I don’t use this phrase all that often, but I think it’s required here: What the holy fuck?! I am a Christian (despite my use of the f-word); this lunatic does not represent me. Let’s hope he doesn’t represent you, either. Recovering Agnostic has a great take on Charlie Fuqua’s bizarre suggestion.

3. Yeah, it’s old, but…

I found this when researching for my blog posts on Fifty Shades. While I would love for you to continue reading mine, Jen’s are much funnier. The best part is, you don’t even need to read the books yourself, because she does a chapter-by-chapter analysis. I’m reading her posts as I read through the series, if only because it makes it that much more tolerable.

Wish me luck, it’s the first concert of the season with my orchestra tomorrow night. I’ll see you all on Monday with the next Fifty Shades installment. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Notable News: Week of September 29-October 5, 2012

Blogs, Cool Stuff, Doctrine, Faith and Spirituality, Gender Roles, LGBTQ+, Links, Music, News, Women

Lots of around-the-web goodness for you all today. This week’s best posts are all over the map for content. Enjoy!

1. Roger E. Olson on “Evangelical Inquisitions”

This timely post is spot-on about the way that some Christians like to play Doctrine Police with other Christians. At our house, we call it doctrinal purity. It’s the idea that there is one absolutely correct way to interpret Scripture and if you don’t do it that way, you are in error and must be disciplined. I have to admit, I’m not fond of the term “evangelical” in this context. This is not necessarily a hallmark of evangelicalism, only of extreme conservativism. There are plenty of wonderful evangelicals who hold Scripture in high regard but don’t adhere to a strictly conservative reading. Rachel Held Evans, Brian McLaren, and Mel White come to mind, for example.

Which brings me to…

2. Denny Burke is an idiot

Or at least he isn’t very kind to Christianity Today’s article on women to watch. Instead of appreciating the diversity of women on the list, he goes off on how CT didn’t do enough to highlight the differences in belief about women’s roles. Well, of course, Burke, you fool. The point of the CT article was to honor Christian women and what they’re doing, not point out their doctrinal error (see above). I don’t normally read the comments, but the first comment says, “Rachel Held Evans — what do you mean, ‘non-evangelical’?” This got my attention, so I read on—only to discover a long, long discussion about whether Rachel Held Evans is or is not evangelical. Because that’s the real point, of course.

And speaking of women…

3. Slacktivist shreds Kent Shaffer

Oh, Slacktivist. You are so many, many kinds of awesome. This post quotes Shaffer’s disgusting response to Christian women bloggers and links every single word to a blog written by a woman. And in case you missed my mad tweeting about it, I’m on that list too! (It’s in the last set of links, the final word “always.”) I am honored to be counted among the likes of Alise Write, Andrea Cumbo, Grace, Kimberly Knight, Crystal St. Marie Lewis, and others. Many thanks to my cousin for pointing this out to me, I would have missed it otherwise. (And double points for this being posted on my birthday!)

4. If only

If only this were a sign that Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill were moving into the 21st century. I agree with this woman’s points, but I doubt that her actual presentation at Mars Hill will be anything outside of the narrowly defined roles that church expects from women. Still, nice to see another woman who doesn’t like women’s conferences.

5. On juggling

Shannon M. Howell says it nicely. We all have a lot of plates to keep in the air. If anyone figures it out, please email me. I’ll get to your message sometime next month.

6. Boy Scouts of America are idiots too

And right here, folks, is exactly why my son is not a boy scout. (Not that he is or isn’t gay, but I won’t give my money to an organization that actively discriminates against people who are non-het and non-religious.) Keeping a hard-working kid from being awarded his Eagle Scout is just not cool, I don’t care what your policies are. Seriously, BSA? Get a new hobby. Also, if your kid is a scout, sorry, but I’m not buying your popcorn.

7. Jonathan Zeng: heartache and hope

This piece is beautifully written. It breaks my heart that there is still such discrimination against people for who they are. At the same time, Zeng captures the spirit of creativity and working out our pain. I am reminded again of the importance of standing alongside people in the midst of trials. I hope that we are teaching our children to do the same.

I hope you all have a great weekend, see you Monday for the next installment of 50 Shades!

Notable News: Week of September 22-28, 2012

Cool Stuff, Links, News

Not so awesome this week in terms of progress towards women’s equality. We make up half the population, so why aren’t we making up half the featured blogs and authors lists? More classic examples of “Men are universal, women are specific.” Also, a just-for-fun article from the BBC news magazine (hey, I can’t just depress you all, for heaven’s sake!).

1. The title says it all

Insert major eye roll here. This article, Jeffrey Eugenides: I don’t know why Jodi Picoult is bellyaching, is an exercise in stupidity. It starts off just fine, a discussion of Eugenides’ work and his latest novel. Read it if you like; it’s long and not terribly interesting. About two-thirds of the way through, it turns into a random bashing of Jodi Picoult and a bizarre conversation about the way works by men and women are received. To refer to Picoult as “bellyaching” reminds me a lot of the way women who rise up against our inequality are usually branded as “shrill,” “bitchy,” or “whiny.” Eugenides says that Picoult isn’t “starved for attention,” as though that’s what she was after in her criticism of review coverage of women. Good going, guys. You just proved her point.

2. Gender bias and Facebook

Oh, goody. So it’s not okay to be a racist, but it is okay to be a misogynist? Well, gee. Hey, women? I think we need to fight harder against this kind of thing. Slut-shaming? Not cool. Using pictures of strangers without their permission? Not cool. Facebook pages about punching women? Not cool. And again…we make up half the population. How is it that we haven’t stopped this shit yet? Let’s get busy making sure that it gets taken down.

3. Keep digging, Kent Shaffer

Last week I was critical of Dianna Anderson’s post about privilege. This week, I am once again in her debt for voicing exactly what needed to be said in exactly the right way. She offers two posts in response to Kent Shaffer’s Open Letter to Women Blogs, which you can read here and here. Shaffer seems to think that there aren’t enough popular “church” blogs written by women to make up—again with the 50% thing—half the list of top blogs. Of course, the definition of “church” blog is pretty nebulous, and, as is typical, the idea is still that men are—you got it—universal, while women are special. And of course, we who make up 5o freakin’ percent of the population are eager to read only blogs by white men. Gah.

Finally, before I get too worked up about this, I offer you…

4. Britishisms in American casual speak

Apparently, we Americans are letting common British terms and phrases creep into our own speech. While I think it’s fun to take note of the ways in which our language may be changing or blending, I think this particular article is kind of…crap. For example, I’ve never considered the term “sell-by date” to be particularly British, especially since I’ve used it, oh, since my own childhood. Friends who are from/have been to England assure me that the common term is “expiry date” (though if anyone has another experience, by all means, let me know). Also, whoever wrote this seems blissfully unaware that there is indeed still some lingering prejudice here toward people we would call redheads (but are referred to as “gingers” across the pond). According to the article, there’s been an “uptick” of people using the word “ginger,” possibly attributed to Harry Potter (again, someone can correct me here, but I don’t think the word appears in the American versions of the books). Ah, well. The article is still an interesting read, and it doesn’t change the fact that UK English has better slang than US English, as you can see here and here.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Goodnight and not goodbye

Faith and Spirituality, Life, Religion

faith hope love — Adam Brooks [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Our family is entering a new stage in our journey, and I want to share a little about that. Many of you who know us in real life already know about what’s been happening, but for those who don’t, allow me to explain.

We have come to the decision that we need to find a new church.

This was not an easy decision, nor was it one we made quickly. It was not made in anger or over something anyone said or did. In fact, we have no hard feelings toward the church or any individuals. We love the church and the people in it. We have made wonderful friends, people we hope to have in our lives as long as they will have us.

The reason I have not written about it sooner is that we felt we should speak with the church staff and elders first, out of respect for them. That way, they would have heard the story first and anything anyone else had heard could be verified or denied. We met yesterday, therefore we are prepared to discuss what has been going on and how we are feeling.

Our church has a specific mission and purpose. We think that is wonderful, and we hope that the leadership and the people in the church continue to carry it out. We will continue to support all of you who are still part of the church. But we believe that God is calling us in a new direction. We feel God’s leading toward social justice ministry. Although it would be ideal if we could do this and continue to be part of our church, that is not possible. It would be like telling someone who wants to build houses in Africa that they should just donate money to an organization or go on short-term trips.

I’ve posted about this before, about how deeply I was affected by Bill Hybels’ message about what wrecks us. For about the last 2 years, we have both been looking more deeply at what wrecks us and what we can do about it. For a time, we both tried to do this within the context of ministry at our church. We even made some changes in parts of our lives outside of church. But it’s grown beyond that, and we’re ready for more. We’re ready to take the things we’re passionate about and make a difference for others in this world. That’s really what social justice ministry is all about, after all.

If you read this blog regularly, I’m sure that most of you can figure out what I’m most passionate about (and therefore why I can’t do that kind of ministry at our church). As this is my blog, and I believe that my husband is capable of speaking for himself, I won’t go into detail on his behalf. If any of you have any questions, including more information about why we left, what our plans are, or what we intend to do, please feel free to contact us. You can leave a comment here, use the contact form on this blog, message us on Facebook, or email one of us directly. Please respect our privacy by using email or messages to get in touch, rather than calling us.

Some of you may be wondering where we will be attending church now. That’s a fair question, but not one we are prepared to answer at this time. We need to protect our family, especially our children. Being judged for the church we have chosen or for any other part of this process is unfair to them. We know you wouldn’t mean to judge us, but unfortunately, any opinions or advice or discussion about what we have or have not decided comes across as judgmental. You are absolutely entitled to have an opinion. We’re just politely requesting that you keep it to yourself.

We don’t want any of you to believe that you caused any of this. Please believe me when I say that you didn’t. We love you all enough that if one of you had hurt us, we would have told you directly rather than leaving the church. This is entirely on us, based on what we hear God saying to us.

You may pass this along to anyone you feel may want to see it, as not all of our friends read this blog or have Facebook/Twitter accounts. There is nothing secret here, and we won’t consider it gossip for you to discuss this with each other, since you have our full permission to share.

We hope that we can still remain in touch with all of you. Your love and care have meant the world to us over the last 7 years. Thank you for everything and may we continue this journey of faith together, even though we do it in different ways. Blessings, and much love to you all.

Notable News, Week of September 8-15, 2012

Blogs, News, Women

Just a couple of things to note today.

1. Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya

By now, most people are well aware of Tuesday’s events. My condolences to the families of those who died. I also deeply regret the circumstances surrounding their deaths. It is so very sad that we cannot peacefully coexist, despite our differences. It disturbs me, too, that the situation has become yet another way to fuel politics here in the States. We need to stop being childish about this, using it to point fingers and shift blame. It’s time we took seriously the call to “live at peace with one another.” This does not just mean among nations or religions. It means right here in our own country and among people of the same religion.

2. More on Mark Driscoll’s view of Esther

Some great stuff from some of my favorite bloggers:

Rachel Held Evans

Naked Pastor

Sarah Moon

My biggest problem with Mark Driscoll is not what he says. Lots of people say stupid shit all the time; we just ignore them and move on. I mean, surely every person reading this has heard someone say rage-inducing things at some point, right? The problem with Driscoll is that his words reach a wide audience, he preaches it from the pulpit as a supposedly Christian pastor, and people actually listen to what he says. So when he writes tripe like his Esther blog post, people who like what he says on other subjects are more likely to read it and agree. Unfortunately, his low view of woman and the fact that he (whether he believes it or not) repeatedly speaks of us as though we are all man-baiting whores, is very dangerous. It’s exactly his kind of anti-woman hate speech that leads to acceptance of rape culture. A piece of advice: Please, please don’t listen to anything this man has to say about anything.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Essay Contest: Biblical Womanhood

Notable News: Week of October 6-12, 2012

Notable News: Week of September 29-October 5, 2012

Notable News: Week of September 22-28, 2012

Goodnight and not goodbye

Notable News, Week of September 8-15, 2012

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