This is my third, and final post in a series I’ve been doing about victim blaming. Why, as a society, do we tend to blame victims of terrible or unfortunate circumstances for the bad things that happen to them, as if it is their fault?My church has been covering this topic in it’s latest sermon series (which you can listen to online). Also, I’ve been taking a seminary class on the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, which contain some interesting, and often contradictory messages about victim blami … [Read more...]
Why Do We Blame the Victim?: We Don’t Want to Face Our Responsibility and Privilege
July 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
This is post number two in a series I'm working on about why we tend to blame victims in our society. My church has been covering this topic in it's latest sermon series (which you can listen to online). Also, I've been taking a seminary class on the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, which contain some interesting, and often contradictory messages about victim blaming.In my first post in this series, I discussed one possible reason for why we blame victims: We are afraid of a world outside of … [Read more...]
#PlanetCCM: Relient K And Using CCM To Sell Sexism
December 19, 2013 by 11 Comments
Content Note: Victim Blaming, Body ShamingDianna E. Anderson is hosting a synchroblog this week about contemporary Christian music (CCM) and how it affected the lives of those who grew up with it. I've already written one post on the subject explaining that, because of my ultra conservative upbringing, I wasn't the world's largest CCM fan. Relient K was one of only two Christian bands that I ever ended up liking (Five Iron Frenzy being the other). I have a special place in my heart for them s … [Read more...]
Love And R-E-S-P-E-C-T
December 10, 2013 by 7 Comments
As regular readers know, I've recently read the Christian marriage book, Love and Respect (which was supposed to be included in my "You Are Not Your Own" series, but had to be cut due to time constraints), and have been discussing it here in blog posts and on Twitter.The big theme of the book--the one from which the title is derived--is author Dr. Emerson Eggerichs' theory that a man's primary need is respect, and a woman's primary need is love. Eggerichs' believes women need to learn how to … [Read more...]
Privilege in Christian Pacifism: What Counts as Violence?
November 1, 2013 by 5 Comments
This is my third piece in a series about the problems that privilege brings to Christian pacifist movements. I'm linking this series up to h00die_R's synchroblog on the topic--The New Pacifism. Be sure to check out the other posts in my series here, and here. I've already talked about privileged pacifism's tendency to take scenarios where violence might occur and treat them as thought exercises where they can fantasize about how they'd respond to that violence. I mentioned in this post that … [Read more...]
I watched John Piper and Douglas Wilson Talk About “Homosexuality, Abortion, and Race” for TWO HOURS
October 17, 2013 by 8 Comments
(Update: Now with 100% more Ron Swanson gifs, inspired by my Facebook friend Neal)Pray for me, friends. I shall need a few days to recover from this.A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that Douglas Wilson and John Piper did a roundtable on the topics of "homosexuality, abortion, and race." I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I watched the dang thing, and I shared some choice quotes on Twitter yesterday.Much of this video was John Piper trying to excuse Douglas … [Read more...]
Must Reads!
September 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Here are some important and/or interesting recent posts from around the blogosphere. Also, as always, I will include an adorable picture of one of my cats. Enjoy!"A Statement of Trans-Inclusive Feminism and Womanism" by Feminists Fighting Transphobia What we all have in common is the conviction that feminism should welcome trans* people, and that trans* people are essential to feminism’s mission to advocate for women and other people oppressed, exploited, and otherwise marginalized by pa … [Read more...]
“You Are Not Your Own:” When Metaphors For Sex Sound A Lot Like Like Rape
September 17, 2013 by 13 Comments
This post is part of a series called“You Are Not Your Own,” focusing on rape and sexual assault in Christian relationship/dating booksContent Note: rape, sexual assault, violent imagery, discussion of colonialism/imperialismWe're getting toward the end of my series on rape and sexual assault in evangelical Christian dating books (Dateable, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Real Marriage, and When God Writes Your Love Story). If you need to catch up, you can find older posts here. Here are the … [Read more...]
If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not.
August 26, 2013 by 4 Comments
Last night at church, my pastor talked about the phrase "Jesus is Lord," and what that phrase means. After church, a fellow church goer was wanting to start a conversation about what "Jesus is Lord" means to different people and asked if I would write a blog post on the subject.My relationship with the idea that "Jesus is Lord" is complicated in a couple of ways. First of all, as someone who identifies as both a Unitarian Universalist and a Christian, I am wary of the exclusive mindset such … [Read more...]
I Don’t Care If You Call Yourself A Feminist, Part 1
August 21, 2013 by 1 Comment
In my time on the feminist internets, I often hear arguments for why EVERYONE should identify as a feminist. "If you think women are people, congrats, you're a feminist!" "Quit saying 'I'm not a feminist, but....' You are a feminist!" Etc., etc., etc. There was a time, when I first became a feminist, when I would have shared quotes saying something similar.But lately, when I see these arguments trying to shame people into identifying as feminists, I get a little uncomfortable.This meme … [Read more...]
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