In I Peter 3, we are told that holy women like Sarah submitted themselves to their husbands.
And that, biblical scholars, may be the one of the most heavily-used verses when it comes to the subjugation of women.
Except it’s not quite as cut-and-dried as all that.
Posted in The B-I-B-L-E
The Onion reports that she’s won a Nobel Prize for achievements Down There.
And she didn’t blush once.
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Posted in Girl stuff
The Houston Chronicle recently ran the review of “Dating Jesus” that ran in the Hartford Courant a few weeks back, which was cool, but a friend called my attention to a reader’s comment at the end of the review from someone named shadow1945: “It is so sad to see one fall from the Truth.”
Isn’t it, Shadow? It’s heart-breaking to see someone slide down that greased pole to hell, and if I get there first, Shadow, I’ll save you a seat. It might surprise you to know that you may not have the Truth (capital T) but only a piece of it. Or maybe what you have is your Truth — and good on you, if that’s the case – but it emphatically wasn’t mine.
I’ve found a different Truth, with a different Jesus leading the way. My Jesus lets me walk all the way up to the throne. I don’t have to go there through my husband or an elder or a deacon or any intercessor, because my Jesus loves me, period. Not as a secondary citizen, and not as someone’s wife or “help-meet” (more on that later, Shadow) but as myself, with all my issues and all my sins. And — added bonus — my Jesus doesn’t count my gender as a mark against me. My Jesus embraces me for me.
And so, in closing, Shadow, I will pray for you and your Truth. I hope you’ll pray for me and mine.
Posted in Church folk are different
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints campaigned to push through Proposition 8 in California, which removed marriage equality from same-sex couples).
In response, the Universal Free Church is seeking to ban Mormon marriages.
Yes, the campaign is cheeky. And yes, it’s in-your-face, and no, it doesn’t have a chance, but how different is the UFC’s petition from the Mormon’s efforts on behalf of Prop 8? The Mormon’s campaign was particularly ironic, considering that in times past, Mormons faced bald persecution because of their own unique approach to martimony.
Posted in Church folk are different
You’ve met a friend and you think you’re really going to get along, and one day you’re talking about — about nothing, really — and suddenly, he (or she) says something that runs so counter to your beliefs that you have to back up.
Wait. Did he (or she) just say that?
And what should be my response?
I am slow to make friends and haven’t had this happen much, but I have made friends with some web sites of late and I’ve gone trolling around only to find an article or an essay contained therein that sounds off-key — or is downright counter to what I hold true.
I’m tempted, at times, to remove those web sites from my increasingly long list of favorites. I mean, if they can’t walk the line on [fill in the blank], then why should I trust them on [fill in the blank]?
And then I take a deep breath and realize how childish that sounds — and how utterly in keeping with my upbringing, to close the door on conversations I deem less than holy or right or pure. After all, I have family members with whom I disagree — rabidly so — on politics, on religion, on you-name-it — but if I’m going to close the door on everyone with whom I disagree, then I’m eventually going to be in a big room all by myself.
Yeah, you probably already know this, but I guess this is my way of saying that I link to some web sites that contain some material with which I don’t agree — and sometimes rabidly so. If you wander off the beaten path set for you by my links, I can’t promise I support everything you read, and you may not, either. In fact, some of the stuff curdles my milk, but there you are: An open marketplace of free ideas. And we go bravely into the dark woods, because that’s who we are.
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Posted in Uncategorized
So says this post at Christians for Biblical Equality.
So why does so much of Christendom seek to divide us by gender? Who is served by that?
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Posted in Battle of the sexes
“He is if he doesn’t start going to church, honey.”
Oh, wait. I was channeling my own childhood there. Sorry.
In fact, families are often comprised of believers, agnostics, atheists, you name it. There is hope (and help) for “religiously ambiguous families.”
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Posted in Faith, Family. And stuff.
Posted in Girl stuff
In troubled economic times, people want to hear from God, says Cathy Lynn Grossman at USA Today.
But they also seem more excited about serving somebody.
