Carceral feminism tells us that the state is capable of reform and pushed women to rely on state services for protection from gender violence, despite the state being the biggest perpetrator of gender violence both here and abroad. Focusing on the safety of white women has led to policies such as Stop-and-Frisk and Stand Your Ground laws that have led to criminalization of people of color. We truly can not expect a system of violence to be the solution for... Read more
I’ve reached a point in my life where I cringe whether I hear someone talk about a “Third Way.” Regardless of the context, this term is often used by privileged white men as a way to avoid responsibility, ignore power structures, and decenter marginalized people in order to protect the feelings of the privileged. The white men who tell black protesters not to be so angry, because, you know, MLK! The ones that believe an abused woman using self-defense against... Read more
[Content Note: Discussion of Police and State Violence] Growing up in (primarily, or nearly exclusively white) churches, I had often heard that the most important words in the world were the words of Jesus. We had Bibles that highlighted his words in red, and we memorized verse after verse after verse. And yet, I’d never heard much about Luke 4:18: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because she has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.... Read more
Content Note: Mark Driscoll, sexism, homophobia, transmisogyny There’s a good chance you’ve heard by now that someone recently dug up some conversations that mega-church pastor Mark Driscoll had on a Mars Hill message board way back in 2000, under the pseudonym of William Wallace II. If you haven’t heard you can catch up at Matthew Paul Turner or Rachel Held Evans‘ place. You’re probably all sick of hearing about this by now and like, “Ugh, I don’t want to read another blog post... Read more
Recently (at the request of many blog readers who read my series on Christian dating books: “You Are Not Your Own”), I borrowed Real Sex, by Lauren Winner* from my local library and read it. As I’ve stated in a previous blog post, I was not a fan. It failed to live up to the promise of being “one of the good Christian dating books,” like those who recommended it said it would. I’d like to talk about one interesting... Read more
I’ve heard many Christian feminists say that they are a feminist because of Jesus—because of their Christianity. I think that’s great. It’s not my story, however. I am not a feminist because of Jesus. I am a Christian because of feminism.. Before I began to view my Christian faith through a feminist lens, I was convinced that there was no redeeming it. I grew up in conservative Christian fundamentalism, going to a church and Christian high school that I consider... Read more
As I mentioned in a recent post, I am excited to see so many conversations about feminism popping up all over the Christian blogophere lately. But with that excitement comes some skepticism and hesitation. I’m not a huge fan of some of the conversations about Christian feminism happening. Criticism from women being dismissed as “looking for things to be angry about,” being “humorless,” failing to “speak life,” or wanting a “bush vs. beard contest.” Unnecessary lines–which often rely on stereotypes–being... Read more
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... Read more
[Content Note: Discussion of suicide. Victim blaming for mental illness. Discussion of death due to illness] There are, unfortunately, still some Christians out there who wouldn’t hesitate to call a death due to illness, accident, or any other tragedy “sinful.” Every now and then you’ll run across the person who believes that someone died of cancer because they lacked faith in God’s healing power, or that someone died in a car wreck because God was punishing them for sin. I... Read more
If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know I have this thing about Christian dating/marriage books. By that I mean, I did my undergraduate research capstone on rape culture in Christian dating/marriage books. I’ve published a whole series about my research that you can read on this blog called “You Are Not Your Own: Rape, Sexual Assault, and Consent in Evangelical Christian Dating Books.” When I started doing this blog series, I also started getting... Read more
Sarah Over the Moon
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