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Comments (Photo by Foxtongue) The blogosphere is buzzing once again about the topic of women’s roles in the church, home, and society. I’m not exactly sure how it started this time. Maybe it was a controversial cover story in the Atlantic Monthly entitled “The End of Men.” Maybe it was Matthew Paul Turner’s response to John Piper regarding women who work outside of the home (and the subsequent firestorm in the comment section). Maybe it was Emerging Mumy... read moreHow NOT to respond to the Church’s “masculinity crisis”
Comments Let's talk about this so-called "masculinity crisis" in the Church. In recent years, it has become popular for evangelicals to lament the noticeable absence of men in the pews. Citing a mountain of statistical data that shows women are more inclined than men to remain faithful to their religious affiliation and participate regularly in communities of faith, some folks—like controversial West Coast pastor Mark Driscoll—have declared the situation a "crisis," concluding tha... read moreHave a liberated holiday!
Comments About this time every year, I suffer a mini nervous breakdown in the baking aisle of Wal Mart. It goes something like this: Upon discovering that the only instant pie filling left on the shelves is banana-flavored, I launch into a profanity-laced tirade against JELL-O franchise, followed by a stifled sob into my shopping list, followed by a public declaration of outrage regarding the inequitable burden of being a woman during the holidays. There’s just too much to buy, too much to cook... read moreBook Club Discussion: Why the Ladies Rock, Part 2
Comments Today is our last discussion on Scot McKnight’s excellent book, The Blue Parakeet. (On Monday we will begin The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tyckle.) In the final chapters of the book, McKnight continues his case study on women in church ministries with an intriguing question. He includes an exercise he has used in a classroom setting in which he isolated the commands from 1 Timothy 2:8-15 and then asked his students to discern whether they thought we should or should not practice them toda... read moreBook Club Discussion: Why the Ladies Rock, Part 1
Comments For the next two days we will be discussing Scot McKnight’s case study in the “Blue Parakeet”—women in church leadership. Today we will look at Chapters 11, 12, and 13, which address some general issues related to the topic and tackle the WDWD question—what did women do in the Bible? (The answer might surprise you!) On Thursday, we discuss Chapter 14 and 15 which deal specifically with those biblical passages often used to support restricting women&rsquo... read moreA Good Example of Picking and Choosing
Comments Check out “The True Woman’s Manifesto” for a nice example of picking and choosing when it comes to biblical interpretation and application. According to the manifesto, released by an evangelical organization called Revive Our Hearts, “Scripture is God’s authoritative means of instructing us in His ways and it reveals His holy pattern for our womanhood, our character, our priorities, and our various roles, responsibilities, and relationships.” The manife... read moreMore Mixed Messages for Evangelical Women
Comments When I was a little girl, I was told that I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up, except for a pastor. A fervently religious child, with a pension for impromptu lectures to classmates about substitutionary atonement and eternal security, this news came as a bit of blow, but I supposed I could find my calling elsewhere. And yet, as the years went by, I soon learned that to be a woman in the conservative evangelical subculture is to never quite understand your place in thi... read moreWhen the Bible Bothers Our Conscience
Comments Our last conversation about William Webb’s Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals certainly generated a lot of responses, particularly concerning the role of women in church leadership, which means the post accomplished its purposes of highlighting the challenges of applying the teachings of Scripture in today’s culture. Today I want to focus on Webb’s “redemptive movement hermeneutic,” specifically as it applies to those tricky passages of Scripture that leave us scratchin... read morePicking and Choosing, and Letting the Bible Interpret Us
Comments In his second letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul writes, “I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” (I Timothy 2:12) This little verse has made big waves in the evangelical culture, and all my life I’ve heard it used to enforce restrictions on the positions women can hold in church leadership. And yet, just three verses before this one, Paul says, “I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly... read moreGays, Buddhists, and Scientists: Will Evangelicals Change Their Minds?
Comments In the 16th century, John Calvin argued on theological grounds that anyone who believed that the earth moved in space was “motivated by a spirit of bitterness, contradiction, and faultfinding; possessed by the devil.” * In the 17th century, both Catholics and Protestants systematically executed Anabaptists for holding to the “heresy” that a confession of faith should precede baptism. Here in America, the original Southern Baptist Convention was organized, in part, b... read moreSelective Literalism
Comments I’m reading a really funny and engaging book called The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. In it, Jacobs tries to follow the Bible as literally as possible for a year. His journey yields unexpected epiphanies and struggles, and highlights the challenges associated with biblical literalism. For me, it has served as a reminder of how often I pick and choose which portions of the Bible I decide to take literally and how dependent I am on selective literalism. So, what exactly is ... read moreWhy does the religious right hate Hillary?
Comments Usually it’s all I can do to strike up an interesting conversation about politics with my friends and co-workers. Most don’t follow the news that closely, and many in this traditionally conservative Christian town have already decided to vote for John McCain in the fall. But mention Hillary Clinton and all of that changes…Suddenly everyone has an opinion. Guys roll their eyes and mutter under their breath. Women who rarely swear call her the b-word. I know several people... read moreShowing 1 - 13 of 13 Articles | Page 1 of 1
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