Rune at Feminist Mormon Housewives just posted two amazing comics illustrating some problems with the modesty doctrine. Here’s one: Want to see the other? Check it out here, and keep an eye out for more work by Rune!: Allow Me to Illustrate: #1 & #2 Double Modesty Feature Read more
This is the first installment of the Religious Fundamentalism and Sexuality Project. You can read the full list of questions here and the posting plan here. The first six participants whose stories I’ll be posting are Melissa and Haley, Lina and V, Latebloomer and Katy-Anne. Introductions Please introduce yourself, sharing as much or little as you like. What is your preferred name (to be published)? Are you married/in a relationship? Do you have children? If you are comfortable sharing, what is your... Read more
First of all, let me thank everyone who sent in their answers to my Religious Fundamentalism and Sexuality project in the past several weeks. I’m amazed, humbled and excited to report that I’ve received submissions from almost thirty people! Here’s a quick overview of who’s participating (so far): 2 couples (I’ll post their answers together) 27 (all) women 11 people in their 20s 4 people in their 30s 5 people in their 40s 8 who are parents 18 who are in committed... Read more
Dear Baby Boomers and Generation X, Quit telling us we’re not special. Believe us, we bloody well know. Earlier this month, Wellesley high school teacher David McCullough, Jr., delivered what was perhaps the world’s first commencement dirge to a crowd of teenagers on the first day of distinction many of them have ever experienced. Graduation from high school, he informed them, is a shiny induction to the hordes of mediocrity. McCullough even took it upon himself to remind the youth of their eventual... Read more
The following are screen captures from the Voice of God Recordings website, illustrating some of the merchandise they provide to believers who follow William Branham’s ministry. This is the organization under Joseph Branham, William’s son, and is the major distributor of Message recordings, transcribed sermons, the life story of William Branham (written by a believer), and other materials. Those “other materials” contain some pretty interesting stuff: The story of the mother opossum was one of William Branham’s favorites. At a... Read more
This is part of a series of songs with excerpts of lyrics I’ve found relevant to leaving fundamentalism. Lyrics below the jump. (more…) Read more
Pixar’s Brave is every fairy tale and none of them. It’s every trope and none of them. It’s filled with lovable scamps, bumbling eccentrics, defiant courage, enchanted landscapes, stifling expectations and unintended consequences. And it’s filled with beautiful brogue and wayward redheads. I’m going to talk my way through this movie. It’s currently 10:30pm. I left the movie theater 30 minutes ago, oddly silent as I tried to figure out what the message was that I got from that film. What follows... Read more
The Friendly Atheist has a great new post addressing the teaching of modesty in Beit Yaakov, an Orthodox Jewish school in Lakewood, New York. It illustrates perfectly the disjuncture between the modesty doctrine (fear and shame-based covering of the female body) and the more expansive virtue called modesty, which is basically synonymous with humility. A concerned parent shared a story that a Beit Yaakov teacher used as an illustration for her curriculum on tznius (modesty). The story tells of traveling men encountering an apparition in... Read more
Following up my last post about the John Edwards and Rielle Hunter affair, have a look at some of the comments on the article I cited. (Under the jump.) (more…) Read more
I am pro-choice. I don’t revel in death. I don’t advocate for it. I don’t long for it, idolize it, wait for it, or dwell on it. I have loved people who have died. They are perpetually in my thoughts. But not because of their deaths – because of their lives. So quit telling me that I’m part of a culture of death. (more…) Read more
The Phoenix and Olive Branch
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