“Bush Vs. Beard Contest:” Misogyny in Jesus Feminist Men

July 11, 2014 By Sarah Moon

I’m glad that mainstream Evangelical Christianity is starting to talk about feminism and women’s rights. I really am. I smile whenever I go into Barnes and Noble and see Jesus Feminism or A Year Of Biblical Womanhood on the same shelf as works by Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris. It gives me some hope for humanity. But progressive evangelicals/post-evangelicals need to stop pretending that, just because we read Rachel Held Evan’s blog everyday, or held up a sign that said, “….and I am a Jesus... Read more

Beautiful, Beautiful Bitterness

July 10, 2014 By Sarah Moon

The other morning, I came across a tweet from a self-identified “theobrogian,” calling for ex-fundamentalist bloggers to “stop making a career out of bitterness.” The first thing I thought was, who the hell is hiring people to be bitter? Is that a skill I can list on my resume? That would be my dream job! My second thought was that this is hardly original. I’ve been called bitter more times than I can count. Even before I started a blog... Read more

Why Do We Blame the Victim?: We Don’t Want to Face Our Responsibility and Privilege

July 7, 2014 By Sarah Moon

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... Read more

We Are Not “All The Same Inside” Our Wallets: A Response to Burger King’s Proud Whopper, From A Former BK Employee

July 4, 2014 By Sarah Moon

In case you haven’t heard, a Burger King store in San Francisco recently began selling something called “The Proud Whopper,” in support of the LGBTQ movement. The burger is just a regular Whopper, wrapped in rainbow-patterned paper bearing the message “We Are All The Same Inside.” I suppose there could be some positives to this. It’s already pissing off religious conservatives and that’s always fun, right? And if some LGBTQ people find this affirming and encouraging, I definitely won’t hold... Read more

Why Do We Blame the Victim?: We Are Afraid of a World Outside of Our Control

June 30, 2014 By Sarah Moon

[Content Note: Victim Blaming, Abusive Relationships] The topic of victim blaming has been on my mind quite a bit lately. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Wisdom Literature in the Bible–which I’ve been studying for a class I’m taking–takes an ambivalent approach toward victim blaming. While Proverbs almost always promotes a doctrine of retribution where “what goes around comes around,” the book of Job radically and passionately challenges this idea. Also, my church (The University Church in Toledo, Ohio–a... Read more

N.T. Wright: A Follow-Up

June 27, 2014 By Sarah Moon

I’m still getting interesting responses to the post on N.T. Wright and marriage equality that I wrote a couple of weeks ago. N.T. Wright fans can get vicious, y’all. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten death threats from Nazi sympathizers on here before (and I’ve had my blog linked both to Reddit Men’s Rights, and Douglas Wilson’s blog, so that’s saying something). Skipping over the troll comments, I thought I’d tackle some of the more “serious” responses in this follow-up... Read more

On Proverbs, Job, and Why Victim Blaming is Next to Blasphemy

June 26, 2014 By Sarah Moon

I’ve been taking a class on the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and reading both the books of Job and the books of Proverbs, which seem to take a drastically different approach to the topic of blaming victims. Proverbs is filled with statements about the way the world supposedly works: People who despise advice will find themselves in trouble; those who respect it will succeed (13:13) Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, But the hand of the diligent... Read more

More Like N.T. Wrong, Amirite?: How N.T. Wright’s Bigotry Causes Him To Contradict His Own Theology

June 13, 2014 By Sarah Moon

In case you haven’t heard, N.T. Wright–author of theology books such as Surprised By Hope and Simply Christian, and former Bishop of Durham–recently did an interview in which he compared people who support marriage equality to Nazis and Soviet Communists. Nazis. And Soviet Communists. While I’m not surprised that Wright is not on board with marriage equality (he’s brought up his opposition to LGB people in several other places), I was a little shocked to hear a man who is considered, according to Times, to... Read more

A Benediction for My Fellow Queer Christians

June 11, 2014 By Sarah Moon

For personal safety reasons, I’m going to ask anyone who chooses to share this post to please not tag me on any social media sites. Thank you. ______________ It’s not a sin to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. And I don’t mean it like some folk mean it–“It’s not a sin to be gay! Just to act on your gayness.” To quote my grandmother-in-law, “That’s horse piss!” Acting gay, lesbian, or bisexual–finding members of your own sex attractive; crushing on, dating, marrying, flirting with, and/or sleeping... Read more

This Guy Broke Up With His Girlfriend Using Only Memes (And I’m Not Laughing)

June 6, 2014 By Sarah Moon

[Content Note: Death Threats, Shootings, Violence Against Women] Sometimes I click on click-bait. I admit it. Sometimes I eat Taco Bell too. As you could probably guess, I often regret both shortly thereafter. I didn’t eat a waffle taco this morning, but I did click on that story that’s been going around about Kane Zipperman, teenage guy who broke up with his girlfriend using memes. And yes, I regretted it. At first I just closed the tab and rolled my... Read more