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When Love Hurts: Domestic Abuse in Christian Homes

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 […]

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Faking It: Why You Should Stop Treating Your Husband Like a Toddler, and ACTUALLY Respect Him.

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 […]

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I Miss Patriarchy. True Confessions from an Unlikely Source (Me)

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 […]

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Stopping Traffick in Buenos Aires: The Tireless Seeker of Our Souls

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 […]

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Limping Along: Why We Can’t Let Half of Christ’s Body Atrophy

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 […]

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Good Christian Fears: Is Fear Crippling Your Walk With Christ?

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 […]

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Women, Theology, and the Evangelical Gender Ghetto

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 :-D) 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 […]

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Are Old Testament Laws Obsolete? Kathy Keller, Rachel Held Evans, and the Kerfuffle Over “Biblical” Rules For Women.

“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 […]

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Have We Become Ministry Snobs?

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 […]

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Sexist Gender Roles or (Un)Common Courtesy? Why I Teach My Boys To Hold the Doors Open

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 […]

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Why Survivors, Not Politicians, Need to Guide Conversations About Rape

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 […]

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My Binder Full of Women…Writers

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 […]

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Creepy Old Men Are Stealing Pictures From Your Daughter’s Facebook Profile and Posting them on Reddit. Consider Yourself Warned.

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 […]

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Did God Create Gender Hierarchies? Or Are They the Result of Human Sin?

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, […]

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Keeping Women in Their Place: Why Education Isn’t the Answer to Gender Inequality

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 […]

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