I would like to say that Rachel Held Evans’ remarkable Mutuality Week series is what made her the Slacktivixen’s new favorite blogger, but actually it was something more recent.
Specifically, it was this passage from Evans’ recent post on “Exercising in public and other methods of sanctification“:
Now, there are three things that I feel should never be done in public: nudity, teeth brushing, and exercise.
(Ask Dan about the teeth brushing thing. He thinks it’s weird that I can’t stand the sound of someone brushing their teeth, and claims that normal people don’t require their spouse to run the water and close the bathroom door when they brush, or have to cover their ears when a character in a movie has a lengthy conversation with a toothbrush sticking out of one side of his mouth…which happens WAY more often than it should, let me tell you.)
This precisely parallels a common conversation in our house. The ‘vixen was very happy to learn she’s not the only one who feels this way about the sound of a toothbrush. But she also really liked the Mutuality Week series.
So regardless of how you feel about public displays of dental hygiene, be sure to bookmark these as resources for future reference.
Here again is the big link to the index of all the posts for Mutuality 2012, which Evans describes as a series:
… dedicated to discussing an egalitarian view of gender — including relevant biblical texts and practical applications. The goal is to show how scripture, tradition, reason, and experience all support a posture of equality toward women, one that favors mutuality rather than hierarchy, in the home, Church, and society.
And here’s a complementary post (ahem), “Want to learn more about mutuality? A list of resources.”
This link — “The Mutuality Syncroblog 2012” — collects most of the excellent contributions to this series by a host of other smart writers around the Web.
These are all excellent references for anyone interested in learning more about gender equality in the church. They’re also the sort of links that often come in handy for responding to emails from religious friends who want to tell you that God or the Bible “say” that women must be subordinate.
I hesitate to highlight only some of the other contributions to Evans’ “synchroblog,” but let me emphasize that I’m not only recommending these few, just particularly recommending them:
- Jessica at Love Is What You Do takes a look at the many women ministering and leading in the Roman church (the original church in Rome, not the thing that became the anti-woman “Roman church”) — women whom Paul praised by name for their leadership in Romans 16.
- Paul at Disoriented/Reoriented writes about “A Radical Feminist Rabbi Named Jesus.”
- Richard Beck writes about the patriarchal “argument that has been used to hide the power-play by dressing it up in pragmatic clothing.”
- Dianna Anderson notes that “complementarians” have a patriarchal — and, thus, heretical — understanding of the Trinity.
- And do not miss Rachel Held Evans’ own knockout punch: “Is patriarchy really God’s dream for the world?“
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