Christian feminist blogger Caris Adel has been reviewing DeMoss and Kassian's bible study for women, True Woman 101 Divine Design, which is the same genre as Debi Pearl's Created To Be His Help Meet. When I write about Debi, I am often told that Debi is extreme, that her teachings are not widespread among evangelicals, etc. As DeMoss and Kassian reveal, however, this is incorrect. (You've heard of Kassian and DeMoss on this blog before, in a two-part guest series.) I want to quote from one s … [Read more...]
In Which Sally Grasps Contraception
June 10, 2013 by 99 Comments
"Mommy, what's this?"In her hand Sally held a condom, still in its wrapper. Sean had cleaned out his desk earlier in the day, and it had somehow ended up on the floor, a leftover from last summer between when Bobby was born and when I had my IUD put in. I could have just brushed the question off with a non-answer---Sally's only in preschool, by the way---but I decided against that. Instead, I pulled out my copy of Our Bodies Ourselves and showed Sally diagrams of the female reproductive … [Read more...]
Homeschooling and Sibling Relationships
June 5, 2013 by 70 Comments
The homeschool literature that my parents read promised them that homeschooling would create perfect sibling relationships among us children, and make us all especially close and really good friends with each other---unlike those public school kids' distant relationships with their siblings, and rivalries rather than friendships, of course. I want to take a moment, then, to talk about sibling to sibling relationships in my family. This is kind of embarrassing, to be honest---I'm not going to c … [Read more...]
What I Liked about My Homeschool Experience
May 12, 2013 by 13 Comments
My parents were the kind of people that were always learning. My mother was very crafty and was always tackling a new sewing project and my father was always reading and always ready to take the time to teach us children things about nature or science. They modeled this for us and taught us to love learning as well. It was about discovery, and tackling new things, and about always seeing life as an adventure. Dad designed playground equipment and we children helped him build it, and mom taught … [Read more...]
Sally, Clara Oswald, and Doctor Who
April 11, 2013 by 20 Comments
***Doctor Who Spoiler Ahead***"I am going to die and come alive again," Sally informed me recently."Um, okay," I replied. "Do you know of someone who did that?" I asked, curious where her comment was coming from."Yes," she answered confidently."Who?" I persisted. I frequently read her Bible story books, alongside fairy tales, Greek mythology, and Curious George, so I expected that the answer would be "Jesus.""Clara in Doctor Who!" she replied with excitement.In other words, when … [Read more...]
“So What Do You Do?”
April 10, 2013 by 69 Comments
Several weeks ago I introduced myself to the mother of one of the children at Sally’s preschool. “So what do you do?” I asked her after we exchanged names. We went on to talk about our respective careers, but this exchange brought my mind back to an exchange I had years ago when my mother tried to explain why retirement was being so hard for my grandfather.“The first question men ask after they meet each other is ‘what do you do?’” she told me. “And once they’ve retired, that’s gone.” For women … [Read more...]
Lost and Found: A Friendship, a Shunning, and an Apology
April 8, 2013 by 14 Comments
While I talk a lot about my background here on the blog, I generally maintain some level of distance. Today I want to narrow that distance by sharing an email from a young woman who was a good friend of mine growing up. We'll call her Kate. Her email reduced me to tears and reveals a lot about just how this sort of culture functions---and about how and why shunning occurs.Kate was a good bit younger than I but was one of my closest friends during my high school years. She was homeschooled … [Read more...]
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