A couple weeks ago, author and blogger Wendy Alsup wrote a breakout post titled “A New Wave of Complementarianism,” noting a stirring among complementarians who feel uneasy with some of the beliefs and practices traditionally aligned with that position. The topic generated a passel of exuberant “amens,” some doubtful side-eye glances, and a handful of [...]
Last week, in a sermon on marriage, Mark Driscoll made a comment that launched him to internet infamy (again). Buckle up, here we go: “And some women – you’re a nag. You’re disrespectful. You’re quarrelsome. Being married to you is like a life sentence, and the guy’s just scratching on his wall every day, ‘One [...]
Happy Tuesday, friends! I’m huddled up in my tiny home office, watching avalanches slide off my roof onto snowbanks that are already well above the windowsill, but my virtual self is considerably less snowbound. I expanded my recent blog post on young men and violence for Relevant magazine, including a few solutions various experts have [...]
The Boston Marathon bombing. The Sandy Hook shooting. The “witch hunts” in Papua New Guinea. Gang rape in India, piracy in Somalia, rampant violence worldwide. These tragedies are not as disparate as they seem. The crimes are different, but the perpetrators are the same–angry young men making a desperate grab for power and identity. I [...]
The other day, through circumstances out of my control, I was forced to shower in the “boys’ bathroom.” 0_0 While I was in there, I noticed that there was a picture of a naked woman on my teenage son’s body wash. See her? Right next to the 33%? I mean, she might not be naked. [...]
A couple weeks ago, I had about a foot of hair cut off my head. When you’re the busy mother of four, and have the sort of Hermione-meets-Rapunzel hair that you can almost watch grow, it’s easier to just twist the whole mass up on your head, secure it with industrial-strength hair accessories, and forget [...]
I’m thrilled to be featuring a guest post from Jessica Fick, who I met last week on Twitter and promptly fell in love with. (The fact that she happened to be in Wisconsin right then for an evangelistic crusade at UW-River Falls didn’t hurt, either–the photos in this post are from that.) Enjoy! I pulled [...]
It’s not often that I brag up anything I read on Yahoo, but this article by Dan Wetzel about what happened in Steubenville was excellent. Here are a couple highlights. “Rape, experts say, is a crime of power and control more than sex. Underlying all of that is arrogance, and in Steubenville it was taken [...]
The church has always relied heavily on the contributions of women, from the female disciples who traveled with Jesus and funded His ministry out of their own means to the nameless grandmother who showed up early to brew the coffee you swigged down before church last week. But women are growing increasingly disenchanted with the [...]
When I was little, my mom used to act out Bible stories with me. My favorite, always, was Mary Magdelene finding Jesus in the garden. I would be Mary, kneeling in front of the tomb (our wood stove) in the little flannel bathrobe my mom had sewn for me, pretending to cry. My mom would [...]
Co-Ed Combat and Cultural Cowardice, an article written by John Piper in 2007, has resurfaced in light of the U.S. military’s decision to let women serve in combat. I’m posting part of it here not because I want to pick a fight with Piper (please see my comments policy), or discuss women in combat (I [...]
Last week, a Twitter friend told me how shamed and berated many blogs made her feel for her complementarian theology. That made me so sad. I mean, I get it. Egalitarians are a minority in the evangelical world, and are often treated like theological scapegoats by their more traditional brothers and sisters. Women still lack [...]
I was first introduced to Day of Discovery’s “When Love Hurts” series at an AVA (Advocates for Victims of Abuse) training last year. I was thrilled with the way they handled the subject, a conservative, biblically-grounded series that landed hard on the side of the oppressed. It’s the sort of video you could show at [...]
There’s something I’ve noticed about many popular Christian marriage books and speakers. They don’t seem to have a very high opinion of men. Oh, they think that men should be “in charge.” But often, it is implied that women should just wink and nod knowingly at one another, that although everyone knows women are the [...]
Last week, I stumbled across the Facebook page of a magazine I sometimes read when I was in my twenties. It was the typical borderline-Quiverfull fare that has a large following among homeschoolers, promoting big families, homegrown organic cooking, and rigid gender roles; dispensing advice about clothing choices, natural health, homemaking, and child discipline. Scanning [...]
Today’s guest post is from Tim Fall. Maria de los Angeles “Marita” Veron disappeared ten years ago. Her mother hasn’t stopped looking for her since. Marita was 23 at the time, the mother of a 3 year old daughter. At first her disappearance was unexplained. Then a tip came in: she had been kidnapped and [...]
Today’s guest post is from the wonderful Judy Douglass. Kamari limped along, putting all his weight on the good leg, dragging the atrophied right leg painfully up the rocky hill. Most often he hardly noticed the weak leg—he had learned to do most of his activities without it. But on days when he needed to [...]
I’ve never considered myself a fearful person. But recently, I’ve been discovering just how much my deeply-buried fears and anxieties have influenced and continued to influence my life. These aren’t conscious thoughts, or even things that I initially recognized as fear. But as I reflected on the decisions I’ve made and the things I’ve written [...]
James W. McCarty III has written a great post about the absence of female voices in the theological blogosphere. (His title is pretty awesome, too: Stop, Collaborate and Listen ) His conclusions are applicable to just about every area of life and ministry: Listen to women. And listen in a way in which you can [...]
“A Year of Biblical Womanhood” by Rachel Held Evans has been the talk of the town lately, drawing the attention of everyone from Christian bloggers to shows like USA Today and The View. While I have yet to read and review the book (I’ll do so when I have more time), the reviews have been [...]
Happy Friday everyone! I’ve got a post up at Ed Cyzewski’s fabulous “Women in Ministry” series today. It’s a tongue-in-cheek look at my adventures in achievement-seeking, and the ways we tend to undervalue people who “help.” What do you think? As small churches wane and people consolidate into larger, staff-driven churches, are volunteers overlooked and [...]
Call me old-fashioned. But few things annoy me more than seeing an elderly couple or uncomfortable-looking pregnant woman standing in a crowded lobby while fresh-faced twenty-somethings slouch on the benches, fiddling with their iPhones. *visualize indignant mom-glare* Now, I’m hardly a stickler for manners. I don’t care if my kids put their elbows on the [...]
Yesterday, I wrote a post that talked around the horrible, outrageous, and really inexcusable things politicians have been saying about rape. And I’m not just talking about the conservative men who said the horrible, outrageous, inexcusable things. I’m also talking about the people who horribly, outrageously, and inexcusably used their opponents faux pas as a [...]
Who doesn’t love a good, harmless political faux pas? (Well, maybe not the person who committed it, but you know.) Romney’s “binder full of women” comment was classic, vaulted to internet fame by Twitter. Before you could say “open mouth, insert foot,” this Tumblr site had cropped up, featuring a distraught Ryan Gosling and incredulous [...]
Call me naive. But until last week, I had no idea just how creepy “reputable” sites like Reddit could be. Oh, I knew that pornographers used the internet to anonymously cater to all sorts of perverse fantasies. But I truly had no idea that creepy old men had been stealing pictures of scantily clad under-16 [...]
This is part of a series on biblical interpretation and egalitarian thought. The purpose is not to debate, but to promote understanding. Read previous entries here and here. What was God’s intention for human relationships when he created mankind, male and female, and told them to take dominion over the earth and creatures? (And yes, [...]
Women’s rights and the gross consequences of gender inequality have come back into the spotlight this week. PBS aired “Half the Sky,” a documentary based on the book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. People in the Twin Ports got to see WuDunn speak at St. Scholastica. And yesterday, the media announced that the Taliban [...]
This is part of a series on biblical interpretation and egalitarian thought. The purpose is not to debate, but to promote understanding. Read the introduction here. Like most Good Christian Girls, I learned a *lot* of Bible verses growing up. I was awarded with candy in Sunday school, tiny plastic crowns in Awana, and good [...]
About a week ago, I posted a link to Adrian Warnock’s Complementarian-Egalitarian Spectrum. While I considered it a helpful resource, I wanted to elaborate on the issue of biblical interpretation, and promised a follow-up post. But the follow-up post was beginning to look more like follow-up book. There just wasn’t enough space to do justice [...]
I didn’t know whether to cheer or cry as I perused my Twitter feed last night. #HalfTheSky was everywhere, and for a couple hours, Twitter was a bit like a big tent revival, with the faithful recommitting themselves to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. But out of the 700+ writers, pastors, leaders, world [...]
Hi there! I'm Jenny Rae Armstrong, an award-winning writer, speaker, and mommy of four. I live on black coffee and lots of grace (oh, and my husband's incredible cooking). I'm glad you stopped by--stay and chat awhile!
Tim Fall: “Families that don’t talk about money are more likely to end up in a legal dispute.”
Jada and Jon Swanson: “One of the greatest gifts we have given each other is the gift of dreaming BIG!”
rachel- even one sparrow: (I'm gonna start praying for vacations for you! ...
rachel- even one sparrow: haha! I'll let you know when we come to Northern...
Tim: Victoria, you and Rob are going through some very ...
Victoria / Justice Pirate: Great post Tim. Although I was hoping it would be...
Tim: And Rachel, that is why you HAVE to visit us if yo...
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