{"id":6256,"date":"2012-02-15T22:59:18","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T03:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=6256"},"modified":"2012-02-15T22:59:18","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T03:59:18","slug":"sos-your-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"So’s your mother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

OK, third try.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on \u201cwomen in the church.\u201d But twice today I\u2019ve sat down to type those in here as a kind of thematic link-dump, and then gotten angry thinking about how this whole \u201ccontroversial\u201d topic shouldn\u2019t be controversial at all.<\/p>\n

And then I started writing an intro to the link-dump that turned into a post of its own and never got around to the link-dump.<\/p>\n

This is an important topic to me because it\u2019s an important topic to people who are important to me. My wife is a woman. So are both of my daughters. My sisters are women. So was my mother. So\u2019s your<\/em> mother. And \u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m doing it again.<\/p>\n

OK, no more introductions, just link-dumping.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Rachel Held Evans: \u201cYes, Christianity has a masculine feel. But maybe that should change\u2026<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Jamie Wright, a.k.a. The Very Worst Missionary<\/a>, on being surprised to find herself a \u201cwoman in ministry<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristen Bennett Marble: \u201cI am (Pastor) Kristen<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

As I am given opportunity, and am placed into positions to speak, teach, share, guide, mentor, counsel, pray for, and lead with the hope, truth and love of Christ, I will, whether the people gathered are children, women or men. And in so doing, if I am called Pastor, I receive the title with honor and humility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christian Piatt responds to John Piper<\/a> and his call for \u201cMasculine Christianity.\u201d Specifically, he takes issue with this from Piper:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say masculine Christianity or masculine ministry or Christianity with a masculine feel,\u201d says Piper, \u201chere\u2019s what I mean: Theology and church and mission are marked by an overarching godly male leadership in the spirit of Christ with an ethos of tender-hearted strength, contrite courage, risk-taking decisiveness, and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading and protecting and providing for the community. All of which is possible only through the death and resurrection of Jesus.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Piatt notes that if you take the word \u201cmale\u201d out of Piper\u2019s list of admirable, but gender-neutral, qualities, then his description of a church leader isn\u2019t too bad. The objection is his weird notion that strength, courage, decisiveness, etc., are intrinsically \u201cmasculine\u201d characteristics.<\/p>\n

Cognitive Discopants looks at another, equally appalling Piper-rant: \u201cWhen God Goes a-Slaughterin\u2019<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kathy Escobar offers a hopeful, and pragmatic, response to the pervasive sexism embedded into the church: \u201cPlant new trees<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChristianity has had a bit of a sexism problem,\u201d notes Amanda of Friendly Atheist. \u201cI\u2019m a Woman, Not a Sin<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Henson tells us the story of Jarena Lee, \u201cThe Pioneering Female Preacher You Never Heard About<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Toth of Geez<\/em> magazine profiles several Christian activists: \u201cBehind the activist celebrities is a league of great women<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cathleen Falsani finds a case of life imitating art, in this case The Vicar of Dibley<\/em>, recounting two examples of patriarchal Christians getting upset over \u201cChocolate in the Baptismal Font: Things That Happen When Women Are Ordained<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real-life chocolate fountain was part of the Easter celebration at the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver. The defenders of gender apartheid have decided, somehow, that such chocolaty joy is an example of the horrors that arise from female leadership. The leader in question, the Rev. Nadia Bolz Weber, responded to these critics<\/a>, mostly men from the anti-woman Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, with gracious firmness. You should read the whole thing, but here\u2019s the conclusion:<\/p>\n

I offer you this as you are a friend of a friend. But I am called by the gospel and am in no way answerable to those in the LCMS who would deny the gifts of the Holy Spirit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that response is marked by an overarching godly leadership in the spirit of Christ with an ethos of tender-hearted strength, contrite courage, risk-taking decisiveness, and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading and protecting and providing for the community.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, third try. I\u2019ve collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on \u201cwomen in the church.\u201d But twice today I\u2019ve sat down to type those in here as a kind of thematic link-dump, and then gotten angry thinking about how this whole \u201ccontroversial\u201d topic shouldn\u2019t be controversial at all. And then I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSo's your mother<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OK, third try. I've collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on "women in the church." But twice today I've sat down to type those in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So's your mother\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OK, third try. I've collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on "women in the church." But twice today I've sat down to type those in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-16T03:59:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2012\/02\/Ripley.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/\",\"name\":\"So's your mother\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-16T03:59:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-16T03:59:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"OK, third try. I've collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on \\\"women in the church.\\\" But twice today I've sat down to type those in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"So’s your mother\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"So's your mother","description":"OK, third try. I've collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on \"women in the church.\" But twice today I've sat down to type those in","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"So's your mother","og_description":"OK, third try. I've collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on \"women in the church.\" But twice today I've sat down to type those in","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2012-02-16T03:59:18+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2012\/02\/Ripley.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/","name":"So's your mother","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-16T03:59:18+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-16T03:59:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"OK, third try. I've collected a bunch of bookmarks and links to various items on \"women in the church.\" But twice today I've sat down to type those in","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/15\/sos-your-mother\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"So’s your mother"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}