Welcome to another round of the Religious Fundamentalism and Sexuality Project! This time, our writers are Calulu, Jenn, Meggie, Parker, Shadowspring and Vyckie. Last time, we heard from Melissa and Haley, Lina and V, Latebloomer and Katy-Anne. If you’re like me, you laughed and wept with them, and I’ve no doubt you will with this group, too. Sexuality is a facet of life that seems to color all kinds of other things, from body image to relationships with our own... Read more
This morning, one of the first things I saw on my facebook feed was an explosion of pictures of Chick-fil-A buildings around the country mobbed by evangelical Christians. The lines wrapped around the buildings, out into the parking lot. Fat, shiny SUVs sat cooling off and reminding everybody that their owners were people of means. And I felt sick. This was no display of Christian love. This was no humble stand for the truth. This was an act of spite.... Read more
Chick-fil-A sent ripples through my church in the early noughties; I still have no real idea why. Perhaps they had just opened more stores in our area. Perhaps it was a purposeful effort to acquire our support as the conservative Christian demographic. At the time, I innocently believed it was just happiness on the part of the health conscious in our congregation that they could access a leaner burger. Now, I think it was more likely that word was spreading... Read more
Note: If the headline didn’t already clue you in, this is controversial subject matter. If you come away from this article thinking that I advocate genocide of a disabled population or the coercion of women pregnant with disabled fetuses into abortion, that I hate disabled people or think that Down syndrome people don’t deserve to live, you have failed to understand my point. Please walk away from the computer, breathe deeply, and start again from the beginning. I believe that it... Read more
I blame Libby Anne for sharing this link and making me write despite my sore wrist! Doug Wilson just can’t shut up about Rachel Held Evans, which is curious for two reasons: she’s already stopped bothering about him, and there are scores of other bloggers who are pissed off about his misogyny, and several of them have penises. Take, for instance, Unreasonable Faith’s Fifty Shades of Lipstick on a Pig, or all these people, or Fred Clark (Slacktivist)’s The men of the ‘Gospel... Read more
Hey everybody. I want to apologize first for the unexplained silence on my blog for the past couple of days. Truth is, I’ve damaged my wrist. Writing hurts. So I’m going to spend a couple of days icing and relaxing it and finding myself a wrist brace. I’ll be back to my daily blogging soon, probably about a week. The move to Patheos should be complete at about the same time. When I get back, the next round of answers... Read more
Courtney at From Austin to A&M has an excellent article about food stamps that helps bust a number of myths about poor people at large cheating the system and spending their own money on frivolous things like televisions. There is also the fact that the surplus of refined food products in the United States means that you can be nutritionally deficient while still consuming an excess of calories. From Austin to A&M – Food stamps: How do they work? Myth... Read more
This concludes the answers of first group of participants in the Religious Fundamentalism and Sexuality Project. You can read the full list of questions here and the posting plan here. Let’s have a hearty round of internet applause for Melissa, Haley, Lina, V, Latebloomer and Katy-Anne for their honest, heartfelt responses! You might want to bookmark their blogs, too! You can find Melissa at Permission to Live, Lina at Finding Snooze, Latebloomer at Past Tense, Present Progressive, and Katy-Anne at Katy-Anne Wilson. And right now,... Read more
This is an 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. Life Outside the Bubble 4. What (and how) do you plan to teach your children (if applicable) about sexuality? (more…) Read more
Gaslighting is a term derived from the 1944 film Gaslight. Here’s an excerpt from the plot: Paula loses a brooch that Gregory had given her, despite its having been stored safely in her handbag. A picture disappears from the walls of the house, and Gregory says that Paula took it, but Paula has no recollection of having done so. Paula also hears footsteps coming from above her, in the sealed attic, and sees the gaslights dim and brighten for no apparent reason. Gregory suggests... Read more
The Phoenix and Olive Branch
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