I honestly don’t feel like Rachel’s post was clear at all, and perhaps that’s because Rachel herself hasn’t reached a point of complete clarity on the subject. Why would a “path of holiness” require not having sex? I don’t think it’s possible to answer that question can be answered without invoking at least some of the shame-based purity teachings Rachel so adamantly rejects. And so Rachel’s trying to get around that by invoking self control and even monasticism.
The feeling I get here is that protecting scruples is more important than protecting women’s health (remember that in all of these cases the pregnancy is doomed anyway, so this isn’t about saving lives). Vision Forum, by the way, is associated with Samaritan Ministries, which serves as a third-party health insurance sharing program for thousands of evangelicals and has officially endorsed Doug Phillips’ position on ectopic pregnancies. Hmm.
American history today isn’t what it once was. There was a time when American history privileged the white, the wealthy, and the Christian, and ignored the stories of marginalized, the complexities of events like the American Revolution, and the genocide of the Native American population. This has changed, and universities today tell the stories of the marginalized and challenge traditional black and white patriotic narratives. Not everyone is happy with this, however.
I recently looked through some old photo albums from my teenage years. Oh, the memories that brought back. Clothing in the conservative Christian homeschooling subculture, especially the quiverfull variety, is quite the topic. I want to use some pictures to illustrate some points here, but I blog under a pseudonym so I really can’t use my own. So instead I’m going to use some pictures of the Duggars as illustrations, given that they’re already quite public.
In articles like this, an emphasis on the sacrificial love of Christ is used to cover up the fact that women are commanded to submit to their husbands in everything. That’s not okay. Ever. No one should have to submit to anyone in everything. So husbands are supposed to love their wives? That sounds a bit like being a beloved slave. The love thing is nice, the whole slavery thing is not. I don’t want to be anyone’s beloved possession. I’d much rather be their beloved equal.
Several weeks ago, Mark Driscoll said this: “I know who made the environment and he’s coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.” When people got upset about it, he claimed it was just a joke, adding: “I am sorry that you do not have a sense of humor.” The thing is, I grew up in a home where this sort of thing was said regularly, and it wasn’t about joking. My parents were soundly against recycling, because they saw the earth as disposable.
I recently came upon a video from Christian youth outreach group Reach America. In it, Christian students explain that they face persecution in their public high schools for their religious beliefs, and list examples of this persecution. They finish by calling for change, calling for other Christians to rise up and throw off the persecution and restore the (mostly imaginary) Christian American of the past.
When I read blogs written by Christian feminists, one feeling I get is that the church needs to shut up, to stop talking to women, and to start listening to women. Because to be perfectly honest, the advice the church gives women is terrible, and it’s usually (though not always) given by men, is terrible. In this post we look at advice that women should stop whining and get married already.
The problem is that you can’t go telling people that abortion is ten times worse than the Holocaust without the chance that at least a few people will really take that to heart and act on it. It’s almost certainly the case that Sproul Jr. didn’t call for violence against those who provide abortion services, but it’s also almost certainly the case that his inflammatory rhetoric stirred up one of his audience, Benjamin Curell, to violence.
When I saw this image I thought of a recent article in Prodigal magazine. It was called “The Lost Art of Servanthood (A Letter to My Feminist Sisters).” It hit on all of these same points, arguing that if Christ calls his followers to be servants, fighting for equality should be out of the picture. And thinking about this, I realized that there are two Christian doctrines that can easily stand in the way of any attempt to reach equality or justice—servanthood, and suffering.
I just read an Answers in Genesis article whose argument is so simple and elegant I can’t believe I hadn’t heard it before. Namely, the article explains why it suddenly seems like there are gay people all over, when this wasn’t the case in the past—and it does so by bringing together the perfect conservative bogeyman of gay marriage, abortion, and the removal of school prayer. I have to admit it—I was impressed by the ingenuity.
One response to the stories of pain and abuse being aired at Homeschoolers Anonymous is that the problem isn’t homeschooling, it’s fundamentalism. Or, the problem isn’t homeschooling, it’s abusive parents. But I’m not buying it. The idea that homeschooling is this totally unrelated thing and not a key factor that is complicit in creating abusive and oppressive situations is ludicrous. Allowing fundamentalist or abusive parents to homeschool their children is like giving an alcoholic a key to the liquor store.
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