Wombs: Fruitful and Barren

The call of the water is the stuff of legend and romance. From Jimmy Buffet to the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner to the book of Job, it haunts our poetry, our myths and our imaginations. When we stand at the place where the waters meet the dry land, our gaze is ever out to sea, never back at the land until we reluctantly turn away to our beds, our homes, our families, our lives. It has been compared so often to a womb, it is not surprising to find this line in a recent CT editorial:

"But worse is this: A sea hemorrhaging black oil now suffocates life instead of nurturing it."

Yes, wombs should nurture life. Never suffocate it. The gulf oil spill is indeed a tragedy. And because it affects the sea-womb important to so much of our country's economy, so many people's livelihood, it has captured our imaginations like an earthquake never could. But in a moment of absolutely hideous irony, CT elsewhere published these lines about a genuine myth, overpopulation:

"There is a population and resource issue, and the best way to love our children and to love the future's children and to love, really, all people, or all children, will be to limit our family size … . I love bringing babies into families. But there may be a higher calling, now that we have been fruitful and multiplied as a species, to think about limiting our families. "

On the one hand, CT is fussing about the deaths of a few sea turtles and fish while publishing advocates of life-smothering birth control. Just as the sea should nurture many kinds of life, a woman's womb is made to nurture human life. In the womb's hidden depths, a new human life is nurtured. This new human life, endowed by God with an immortal soul, swims in the amniotic waters, cushioned and kept safe there. And yet CT's "experts" would have Christians practice birth control (limit family size), would have them make woman's womb a barren place.

It is obvious which wombs the folks at CT wish to see barren of life, and which womb more importantly nurtures it.

reading suggestion: The Sea Within, Peter Kreeft

But, but, but, you shouldn't BE!

Babies go to Congress

The Attractive Soul

"The old seminary professors used to speak about a necessary trait for pastoral ministry called gravitas. It refers to a soul that has developed enough spiritual mass to be attractive, like gravity. It makes the soul appear old, but gravitas has nothing to do with age. It has everything to do with wounds that have healed well, failures that have been redeemed, sins that have been forgiven, and thorns that have settled into the flesh. These severe experiences with life expand the soul until it appears larger than the body that contains it" (Barnes, The Pastor As Minor Poet, p. 49).

I found it here.

Today's vocabulary word is . . .

Feckless:

Lacking purpose or vitality, not fit to assume responsibility.

Example: Most men over 40 who *say* they would like to marry.

I try, I REALLY do try . . .

Some time ago, a dear friend not-so-gently suggested that reading the sites of religious feminists might not be good for my spiritual health. He was absolutely right. For the most part, I have followed his advice. But when someone sends me an unsolicited link, I do tend to follow the rabbit trail long enough to figure things out.

This happened recently when the Seneca Falls 2 hive of harridans demanded an apology from CBMW. I still say, the only thing CBMW has to apologize for is treating the religious feminists like misguided colleagues and not the heretics they undeniably are. It took me a couple of days to pull this one out of memory, but the name of one of the gals promoting the demand for an apology -- her name sounded vaguely familiar. And it was. She is one of CBE's listed bloggers where here description reads:

Shawna R. B. Atteberry is a freelance writer in Chicago. She is a member of Grace Episcopal Church in the South Loop. Her husband, Tracy, is a computer software engineer for Oracle. Her writing includes biblical studies, theology, feminist theology, biblical egalitarianism, sermons, poetry, and urban fantasy. Outside of writing she likes to cook, sew, crochet, go for walks, and listen to great music in Grant Park over the summer.

She sounds like a pretty run-of-the-mill Evangelical feminist, doesn't she? Pretty harmless except for the preachers in skirts thing, right? How many times do I have to repeat it? There is nothing harmless about these religious feminists. It is heresy piled upon heresy with these folks and her own website reveals the depth of her rebellion. On her website she describes herself like this:

Shawna is an associate editor with The Christian godde Project: Exploring the Divine Feminine Within the Christian godde. The Christian godde Project is translating the New Testament using Divinine Feminine images for godde. She is also the Chicago Protestant Examiner for Examiner.com.

and,

I empower women to be the leaders godde calls them to be at home, work and church by exploring the Divine Feminine and stories of the women in the Bible. I also use my experience and spiritual direction to help them discover new facets of godde and their own leadership abilities.

note: In copying information from Atteberry's website I have made two alterations. First, I have removed the links -- you will have to follow your own rabbit trails. Second, I have removed the capitalization from the name of the false deity she serves.

Standing in the shoes of the Seneca Falls women she stomps her foot and demands an apology . . .

Meeting this weekend in Florida, a group of women (and men) calling themselves, "The Freedom for Christian Women Coalition" issued a demand for an apology from The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This demand was issued during their, "Seneca Falls 2: Evangelical Women's Rights Convention".

The web page for the conference is a hodge-podge of visually and factually conflicting dreck. They claim that "the top ten" protestant denominations have 179,183,430 adherents and that half of these are women, which means 90 million women are being "subjugated within their homes and churches". I'd like to know which ten denominations they are including in that top ten list of theirs because it looks to me like the gals are running the show at the mainline denoms - one only has to look at the clown-priestess in chief at TEC to know no man who values his, ahem, manhood would dare come up against her.

At least they are honest and let you know that one of the organizers isn't a Christian. Trouble is, if they were really being honest, they'd say none of them are. You can't declare war on the Church and on those who hold to our Lord's practice and teach what has always been taught in the Church and still claim to be one of them. It doesn't work that way.

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing CBMW has to apologize for is treating these harridans as misguided colleagues rather than the heretics they are.

Oxymoron City Center

"I think I am pro-life for the majority of pregnancies."

Shamelessly stolen, and oh so true . . .

Looking for flourishing chastity in such settings is a sexual snipe hunt. Just ask the question directly. Those denominations that worked through the controversy of women's ordination a generation ago have certainly moved on. Their controversies now concern whether sodomites should be wearing sodomitres in solemn procession up the central aisle.

-- Why Ministers Must Be Men , p. 23

Stolen from here

Oh, d'ironing!

I'm trying to come up with a clever category for all the instances of, "good grief, could the irony be any more obvious?!" coming out of the "Egalitarian" camp these days. It's running thick and deep in some spots around the internet. This morning, I caught this from one such blog:

"Epistemology without history is vanity."

You'd think that one would stimulate a Gibbs-like slap to the back of his own head, wouldn't you?

But no. Having had their "sense of humour" surgically removed along with the "could this be any more obvious?" assessment module, I think they are truly ushering us into what has elsewhere been called, "The Post-Ironic Age".

Just in case someone is missing the point here -- Just about ANYTHING without history is vanity. Especially, especially, most clearly especially THEOLOGY.

Loving the Feminine "jesus"

You've heard it, the yucky, "getting in touch with my feminine side" from the guy to whom no good woman would ever give the time of day. Last night I ran across a quote that is even more yuck-making:

Not only do I love the feminine in Jesus, but the more I know Jesus, the more I realize that Jesus loves the feminine in me . . . Society has brought me up to suppress the so-called feminine dimension of my humanness. But when Jesus makes me whole, both sides of who I am meant to be will be finally realized. Then and only then will I be fully able to love Jesus.

-- Tony Campolo, Carpe Diem, p. 87-88.


Oh. This sounds remarkably like some of the drivel that has come out of supposedly Evangelical feminists like Virginia Ramey Mollenkott and Rosemary Radford Reuther. Funny, but no woman ever talks about getting in touch with her, "masculine side", does she? I've never heard it. They don't need to -- they've already done it.

It's no wonder, then, that "Christians" for Biblical Equality is accused of promoting Sophia worship, is it? With friends like Campolo, who needs enemies when you're trying to pretend to hold onto mere tatters of Christianity? Not that CBE is worried, with the Christianity Today empire carrying their water. If CT endorses your position, you're an Evangelical Christian without any worries about serious questions regarding your orthodoxy. Not only does CBE's president give workshops promoting the need to call God, "mother", but a past annual conference of CBE's hosted a workshop pretending to tell us what we can learn about "gender" from the intersexed. And here is Dr. Campolo teaching us all about our softer, gentler saviour, aka "Jesusette".

This is nothing new. The feminist project (whether it cloaks itself in Christianity or Marxism) has been all about re-making sex from the beginning. You can see it was there in the beginning if you check Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Bible" version. "Votes for Women, " may have been their slogan, but it was never going to end there. By the 1960's the mother of second wave feminism, Betty Friedan, was creating out of whole cloth a "problem with no name". In the 1970's, Erin Pizzey found out that no one was interested in wife on husband violence, they only admitted the existence of husband on wife violence and seeded our communities with consciousness-raising groups that set about creating false memories by the truck load. Third and fourth wave feminists took control of their sexual identities and not only put themselves on display like so many $20-an-hour hookers, but they trumpeted their competition with men for notches on bedposts (or lipstick cases, as may be).

Mary Daly told us that, "when god is male, the male is god" and the Evangelical church bought it hook, line and sinker. They didn't admit it. Not at first. Back in 1997, Zondervan executive Stan Gundry stood in front of a packed auditorium of CBE conventioneers promising that "gender-inclusive" language would never be applied to God while CBE's founding mother, Cathie Kroeger, looked on and nodded, echoing Gundry's promises. Never mind the future, we've got to be about the business making sure these, "I am Woman, hear me roar!" gals aren't offended by one too many "brothers" in the Bible.

So "Votes for women" became demands for equality of outcomes. A movement which said it was about promoting women, ends up denigrating everything women do best. It tells us women aren't valued unless they can "man-up" and take the pulpit by force, if need be. Women aren't worth a pot of black bean soup if they aren't allowed to order a man or two about, teach a bible study, pastor a church. Remember, it is not the patriarchalists devaluing women, it's the feminists. Some denominations and parachurch organizations are truly putting their leadership where their mouth is and writing into their constitutions an equality of outcome -- 50-50 parity on Elder boards and governing boards.

It's gone on too long not to recognize that something that looks and acts very much like a slippery slope is in operation here. It's not even about giftedness. Never was. Turns out, even the religious forms of feminism are steeped in Marxist-style liberation-speak. And here we return to Dr. Campolo and conclude with his endorsement of "Christians" for Biblical Equality:

Christians for Biblical Equality is evangelical and progressive. It is a scripturally based movement that understands that in Christ women have full rights for using their God-given gifts for service to the church and to the world. I'm grateful that this organization exists. Its work is needed.

One almost expects Campolo to end that endorsement with, "Workers of the World Unite!"

You laugh for the day. . .

Pork Rind Law Reform NOW!

Someone should have told me this stuff stains!

Genius at work in the kitchen again.

It started out as a simple head of cabbage, which I wanted to saute. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that bag of onions I bought last week. And the garlic I needed to use. And I am sure you can guess the rest of the story.

Curried Cabbage, Tomatoes and Chickpeas.

It's brilliant. Served with a dollop of Greek Yogurt because I used the Vindaloo curry powder, and it's one of the best things I've made in ages.

Saute two onions and several cloves of garlic until the onions begin to clear. Then add in the Curry powder of your choice (I added some powdered Ginger and Turmeric to the Vindaloo powder). Stir that thoroughly in to the onions and garlic. Then add a roughly chopped head of cabbage and about 8 roughly chopped Roma tomatoes. Simmer covered until the Tomatoes begin to breakdown. Then add 1 box Pomi strained tomatoes and one can of Chickpeas (rinsed) and heat through. Add more curry if needed. Serve with a garnish of Greek Yogurt.

A couple of notes: I use only fresh or boxed tomatoes because of the BPA problem with the lining of canned vege. The cabbage should be still a bit crunchy for best flavor, I think. And, if the cabbage is large, you may want to use two cans of Chickpeas.

And the staining? The Turmeric, of course!

On a related note . . .

Related to the post below this one, I found my friend Michael Liccione's FB status line intriguing:

"Missionary to the priests of one's own church is an embarrassing role; though I have a horrid feeling that if such mission work is not soon undertaken the future history of the Church of England is likely to be short."

-- from the prophetic pen of C.S. Lewis more than 50 years ago.

Of Leaven and Bedlam

In, The Groove Of Ashteroth, the inimitable Doug Wilson uses a new analogy to explain an old and tremendously frustrating problem:

Some create the leaven on purpose, others transmit it unknowingly, others yet are insufficiently on guard against it, some see a problem and raise a hue and cry against it in such a manner as to make themselves and all their friends ridiculous, and a mere handful see the problem, and fight it in all wisdom. . . .

It gets more difficult. As the leaven advances, this does create the hard evidence that has thus far been missing. But at the same time it simultaneously renders everyone incapable of seeing that evidence. . . .

Late in the process you are a voice crying in the asylum, where they locked you up for speaking the truth in irritating ways.

A Crime Against the Faith

The Telegraph's website is reporting that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), under new rules, considers attempts to ordain women a crime against the sacraments. As such, it is placed at the most serious level alongside pedophilia (though the latter is a crime against morals).

Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales is fretting over the Vatican's position on birth control and may not show up for so much as a handshake and official photo-op with the pontiff during BXVI's upcoming visit to the sceptered isle. Seems HRH thinks the world has too many brown babies as it is.

ht: Jim Kushiner

Chesterton (again)

I suspect that, as I embark on a Chesterton reading program this summer, I will be quoting Chesterton more and more often. This time, it will be a short post.

"When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws."

This truism seems to hold, well, true for the blogs of religious feminists. Folks who break the big laws regarding the order of the sexes seem to require an awful lot of little laws to protect their discussions, dialogues and general ravings in the blogosphere. One particular religious feminist has posted no less than four times since the beginning of the month with various rules and regulations and bannings. Another discussion board has at least six levels of hierarchy among their participants and leaders (and THESE are the "Egalitarians"?!?). Yet others are password protected and only approved people can sign up to post. And even more sites are so deeply hidden, they only seem to be available to the initiate (these don't turn up in public searches but the discussions on the public sites of these groups make it clear such places exist).

In contrast, I know of very few patriarchal sites which are not public and freely available to read and to post. Occasionally a feminist may be banned, but this is for behaviour on that site and not simply because they are a feminist.

Every once in a while such things make me wonder.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians?

One of the less convincing arguments of the religious feminists is that Jesus Christ could only have come as male because no one would listen to a woman in that culture.

Oh, really?

Artemis was one of the most widely worshipped goddesses in the ancient world, appearing under many names including Diana and Phoebe. Her temple at Ephesus, where she was called the Lady of Ephesus, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. There she was worshipped as a mother goddess, though she was widely known as the goddess of the hunt as well. In Sparta, sacrifices were made to her before a military campaign.

Every time I hear this complaint, I can't help hearing the words that chased Paul out of Ephesus echoing in my head:

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

As Tim Challies notes about this episode in biblical history:

". . . Acts 19 where Paul preached the Gospel at Ephesus. Fearing the success of the gospel would destroy the business of men who crafted images of Artemis, a man named Demetrius rallied the crowds and began a riot. For two hours they yelled "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" Stop and imagine that for a moment. For two hours they filled the city with senseless, stupid cries . . ."

It seems to me that if a city could be roused in defense of a goddess, some in the ancient world just might, perhaps, have listened to a goddess, a god appearing in female form.

But let's grant that they are right, that Jesussette wouldn't have been given the time of day. Such a true claim still wouldn't help their case. As Fr. Dwight Longenecker reminded us not so long ago, He came in the fullness of time. For, if Jesus Christ indeed came in the fullness of time and that time required his incarnation as a male . . .

Artemis may have been great, but only one column of her wondrous temple remains.

Enemy occupied territory

We forget sometimes (I forget too frequently to admit) that we are in enemy-occupied territory here.

Some places are more densely occupied than others. Don't go blundering into those places that you already know are protected with the enemy's heavy artillery just because you think you know what's going on. That's when things get dangerous. Really dangerous.

And it gets even worse when the one you encounter denies he is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Stand your ground, raise your shield and deflect his arrows.

Girls are just as good as boys, Phbbllttt!

That's about the level of argument on display by Doug and Rebecca Groothuis on Doug's blog in the post, "Ought Women Preach?".

The post is unbearably tendentious, and so was the comment thread until Mrs. Groothuis posted this in response to a commenter:

The outburst speaks volumes. You must truly believe that only a man should preach because only a man could have the fire and the unction and the power of the Holy Spirit to preach in a way that astonishes, convicts, delivers and saves. Sir, you are sadly mistaken. Women are human too-- fully human.

Of all the childish, foot-stomping, temper-tantrumish non sequiturs I have run across in all my born days, THIS one reminds me most of myself back when I was Doug's student and Rebecca was my mentor. Goodness, do I have a lot to apologize for. As for this current bit of childishness, I can only say it is the fruit I have come to expect from religious feminism.

Now, for a good and pointed response to Mrs. Groothuis' argument, I commend to you the new post by Steven Hutchens at MereComments:

Report from the Front: "Mere Functionalism"

note: I have removed the link to the post because Doug has removed the post from his blog.