The Brave Lass

Book Review: No Easy Choice

2012-02-19T18:25:00.002-07:00

Disclosure note: I have commented previously on Ellen Painter Dollar's work. Last summer, I was one of several commenters who took exception to her work at Christianity Today. She blames our criticism for CT choosing to sever their contractual relationship with her. You can read about it here, here, and here. At the time, Dollar said we/I were being unfair to her work, which could not be presented in full in a few short blog posts. Wait for the book, she urged. The book is out, I have read my copy and here is the review.

Ellen's Story

Ellen Painter Dollar has a compelling story to tell. Suffering from a genetic bone disease (Osteogenesis Imperfecta - OI) which has left her body twisted and scarred from numerous broken bones and surgeries for pins and plates, Dollar knew from an early age (8 years old) that motherhood had a deep call on her life. In the most affecting passage in the book, she displays a remarkable understanding of parenthood as a vocation and the responsibility of Christians:

Understanding parenthood as a vocation also means that Christians must consider bearing and rearing children within the context of God's intentions for marriage. In tradition Christian theology, sexual intercourse and procreation are God-given and necessary components of marriage. That sex and procreation were designed to go together may seem to be an obvious fact, not even worth mentioning, except when one considers what happens when sex and procreation are separated, as they are in assisted reproduction. (49)

The potential commodification of children that arises from the separation of sex and procreation is also a major concern, as is the Catholic Church's belief that from the moment of conception, embryos are fully human, with all the rights of a human being and created in God's image. (50)

Having a genetic mutation which leaves you with a body that betrays, one that breaks simply sitting down on the floor or stepping off a curb funny is not the way things are supposed to be. It is the natural wish of parents to spare their children known physical and emotional suffering. I applaud Dollar's courage in embracing her calling as a mother. There can be no doubt that it took tremendous courage to marry without considering surgical sterilization, and to welcome the possibility that she would find herself shepherding children through the same physical and emotional turmoil she faced.

She also showed a great deal of courage in choosing to tell her story publicly, on blogs and now in a book. She was going to be criticized no matter what choices she made about childbearing. Unfortunately, in between the choices she and her husband made to welcome children into their family who were conceived naturally, they made a detour into Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). It is this journey and the choices they made that form the basis of the book and the reason she tells her story.

Choices Unmoored

Dollar presents herself as a narrative ethics writer and the book blurb says in part, "Dollar's story will help parents who want to understand and make good decisions about assisted reproduction as well as those who support and counsel them, including pastors and medical professionals." And yet Dollar's presentation of narrative ethics is idiosyncratic and the book utterly fails to provide any rubric for decision-making. In addition, medical professionals will find it fundamentally dishonest on key points.

In her explanation of narrative ethics, Dollar repeats last summer's theme that narrative ethics in accessible to the masses while more traditional ethical systems are only accessible to the professionals. In an effort to present narrative ethics to the average man, she creates her own version:

Narrative ethics strives less for a clear-cut decision about which choice is morally superior, and more for consensus on which choice seems best in the context of people's stories. (144-5)

There are inherent problems with such an approach: It is difficult to come up with a decisive answer about what is right, and those wrestling with an ethical question can be swayed by their personal feelings about the people involved. (145)

Deciding which story to believe requires an informed community of listeners who help the parents uncover their motives and assumptions. Narrative ethics is more about deliberate, informed , and supportive conversation than the dispensing of authoritative opinion. (146)

Instead of this view, Narrative Ethics at its best does aim at a normative way of life for individuals in the Christian community. Christ's story comes first and is the context through which our own stories are to be read and through which we come to understand their meaning. What Dollar presents here is dangerously close to situation ethics and might more accurately be termed an ethic of consensus. For a serious treatment of narrative ethics from a Christian perspective, see Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament.

Because Dollar's use of narrative ethics is rather idiosyncratic, it leaves her untethered, unmoored from any transcendent ethic, no way to adjudicate between competing stories, there is no sense of any intrinsic limit to our use of ART and we are left with the sense that everything is permissible so long as we don't violate some imagined community consensus or breach an ethereal "ick" barrier. For instance, Dollar present us with no way to understand why her use of ART/PGD may have been acceptable while the use of an Indian woman as a gestational surrogate may not be.

Dollar denies the possibility of a metanarrative in her rejection of more juridically focused ethical systems, such as Catholic moral theology. In fact, much of the book seems to pay more attention to secular media and secular views than it does to Christian sources. At points it reads as if Christianity is simply one more source, one more tool for helping us make decisions that are good so long as we stop and think about it and don't violate that community consensus. While she pretends to have respect for Catholic teaching, she evinces little understanding of it and waves much of it away with a criticism about language and the use of words such as "illicit" (which word she dismisses as being more appropriate to the relationship between a Congressman and a highly paid escort!).

Eugenics Whitewashed

PGD doesn't cure genetic disorders; its successful use merely ensures that children with particular genetic disorders are not born, which is a significantly different endeavor. (148)

Indeed, it is.

Dollar asks if PGD is a new eugenics. In an effort to convince us that it is not, even though she does express some concerns about the devaluing of certain human lives, she engages in a bit of historical revisionism. Associating the practice largely with the Nazi regime, and ignoring that fact that Hitler learned about it from Margaret Sanger, she dismisses it as a pseudo-scientific practice which we can be assured is not the case with PGD because it relies on "scientific fact".

In fact, Eugenics is the practice of improving populations by controlled breeding. It can be practiced in two ways: Positive Eugenics is the increased reproduction of positive traits where Negative Eugenics works to reduce the reproduction of negative traits. While Dollar does try to discredit Eugenics as merely the pseudo scientific practice of the Nazi regime, it has a long and varied history. At times it garnered the support of luminaries such as Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. While early eugenicists such as Margaret Sanger may have been primarily concerned with race and social status, it has also long been concerned with the elimination of certain heritable diseases such as Huntington's and Sickle diseases.

But science progresses and a generation after the birth of the first "test tube" baby, the process of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is entering the public consciousness. PGD is a highly technical form of eugenics that can be used to promote positive eugenics (selecting for a desirable trait) or negative eugenics (selecting against an inherited disease such as OI).

Redefining Life

In her effort to help people tell and think through their stories, in spite of the book blurb which promises help in making good decisions, Dollar steadfastly refuses to give direction, to ascribe to any sort of metanarrative or foundational belief about life. She appears to be utterly ignorant of the necessary place anthropology plays in such conversations and even says the moral status of the embryo is not her primary concern. While I would certainly agree that it is not the only thing to consider, we simply cannot discuss the permissibility of various ART practices until we understand what it is we are discussing.

... I've concluded that making one's view of embryonic life the central concern in reproductive ethics is potentially misleading and overly simplistic ... (111)

Efforts to name embryos as fully human beings seem to ignore some of the fundamental truths of pregnancy and birth. Human technology has not yet found a way for even the healthiest fertilized eggs to become babies without a woman's womb. I wonder if this is not merely biological fact but also a hint that our human identity is rooted in relationship ... We can, literally, not become human without an early and fundamental connection to another person... (118)

When does life begin? We can't really know from a scientific perspective. (119)

On the contrary, we do know that at conception, at union of sperm and egg, a new genetically unique human person comes into existence. There is nothing else it can be but human, fully human. The only difference between the fertilized egg, the blastocyst, the embryo, the fetus, the infant, the child and the aged grandparent reminiscing about life in the old country is age and development. You are one unique human person from the moment of conception until your death.

Scientists and ethicists have long recognized this fact. For further information on this point see the document, When Does Life Begin? by the Association of Pro-Life Physicians and When Does Human Life Begin?, a white paper from the Westchester Institute.

Conclusions

Ellen Painter Dollar's story is deeply moving, but when she attempts to move into the sphere of ethics, her efforts are deeply and fatally flawed. She appears to want to dismiss some ethical principles because people don't consistently apply them. One example is her treatment of the way some ignore pregnancy loss, not treating the baby as fully human. Here she seems completely unaware of how some Christians and their communities are dealing with pregnancy loss. Although it happened after the book was written, the Duggar's funeral for their last baby was a very public example of a family mourning the loss of one of their own. Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum and his wife Karen have a similar story about the death of their son Gabriel and how they took him home so his brothers and sisters could meet him before he was buried. Even so, the inconsistent application of a moral principle does not negate the validity of that principle.

The book fails in its central purpose of offering guidance for the decision-making process. Couples looking for guidance will find none. At the point at which this guidance might be offered, Dollar retreats behind her conception of narrative ethics and wants us to believe a community can come to a better decision than individuals -- even though neither the individual or the community has a rubric through which to work their way toward making a wise decision.

After quoting from Psalm 139, Dollar writes this:

The idea that God has known and loved us always, from the moment we were conceived, can be tremendously comforting. (117)

If only Ellen Painter Dollar had owned that truth, had wrapped herself in its comfort, she might have pursued a different course with respect to PGD and the three embryos determined to carry OI. And she would have had a different story to tell.

For additional reading, I recommend:

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life 2nd edition by George and Tollefson
Humana Vitae, a foundational papal encyclical for understand issues of procreation. It is interesting to note that while Dollar refers to some Roman Catholic documents, she ignores this seminal work on the topic.

Even the title is wrong

2012-02-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

Poor Nick Kristof. He can't even get the title of his column right. That should be your first clue that he still doesn't get it and likely never will. Sadly, I have to say Dr. Mohler appears not to get Kristof. Though I greatly appreciated him using his platform to shine the light on this issue, in his column on the Kristof column, Mohler calls the NYT columnist a public intellectual. Kristof is not an intellectual, he is an ideologue whose interests happen to coincide with those of Christians on one strikingly important point: human rights.

That Kristof is an idealogue and not an intellectual is most clearly revealed in those aspects of human rights concerns that touch on the dignity of women as women. Kristof closes his column this way, a good example of his ideology:

In this case, we should make a good-faith effort to avoid offending Catholic bishops who passionately oppose birth control. I’m glad that Obama sought a compromise. But let’s remember that there are also other interests at stake. If we have to choose between bishops’ sensibilities and women’s health, our national priority must be the female half of our population.

Nothing has been a worse bargain for women's health than contraception. In the original study for the contraceptive pill, 3 women *died* and all they did was adjust the dose. In a study, conducted at roughly the same time, on a possible contraceptive pill for men, ONE man exhibited a slightly shrunken testicle and the study was abandoned. The record of contraception and women's health has not improved since. New reports from the FDA show that there have been 14 known deaths due to RU-486, more than 2000 other adverse events, more than 600 of which have required hospitalization.

There is also continuing controversy over Yaz, one of the newer forms of birth control which has an ever higher risk of dangerous blood clots than older forms of the pill. A significant number of women also have a normally silent genetic mutation which multiplies their risk of potentially fatal blood clots if they take hormonal contraception.

In addition, the adverse health effects of hormonal contraception don't end with blood clots and increased risk of reproductive cancers. As SCOTUS held in the decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the wide availability and frequent use of birth control entails the desire for abortion as a "back up" plan. Recent history shows that the demand for legalized abortion tracked with the availability and use of contraception. One follows the other like a dog and his master.

So no, Mr. Kristof, this is not a choice between the sensibilities of the USCCB and defending women's health. It is a case of the USCCB being on the side of women's health. It's not about "pelvic politics", either. It's about women's lives, their health, their dignity as women qua woman, and "soul politics".

Update I've written about the health effects of birth control in these posts:

Might I suggest a Co-Q10 chaser with that Ortho-Evra?

Even Guttmacher recognizes the problem

The Pill - A Timeline

Update 2 While Kristof's attempt to re-write the 1st Amendment was bad enough, his pretense that the post was about alleviating poverty was even worse. More birth control isn't going to help lift women out of poverty. If that were the case, free clinics and the half-century "War on Poverty" would have eradicated female-headed household poverty by now. The truth is that we have long known there are three things you can do to virtually guarantee you will never fall below the poverty line. When it comes to poverty, behavior matter matters most:

1) finish high school
2) get married before you have a baby
3) get a job, any job, and keep it

Other behaviors associated with the likelihood of avoiding poverty are living frugally and regular church attendance. So Kristof has missed on both counts in his article - the sensational swipe he attempts to take at what he wants you to think are a few, benighted celibate men (the Bishops) is misdirected, but he is also wrong in his main point about what alleviates/the behaviors that help on avoid poverty.

How would you respond?

2012-02-11T19:53:00.005-07:00

When the Patriarchalists saw I asked hard questions, some of them prayed for me.

When the Egalitarians saw I asked hard questions, they blocked me from their blogs and shunned me in life.

To which group do I owe my life (in some very real ways)? Which do I love?

And who breaks my heart? Where do you think I focus the same sorts of prayers?

Sexuality and Authority

2012-01-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

The goodness of the created order is founded on the primordial covenant in which God the Creator names something else, something other than Himself as good. This something other is His creation constructed according to the beauty of covenantal differentiation. The primary symbols of this covenant are the male and female person. Salvation does not annihilate the self, thus it does not annihilate sexual difference, but according to the faith of the Church, the order of redemption rests upon the bodily symbols of man and woman. The manner in which these symbols function redemptively in the order of grace is the basis for male and female authority in the Catholic church.

---Monica Migliorino Miller, Sexuality and Authority in the Catholic Church

Fried Rice Pilaf, sort of

2012-01-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite ways to use rice. You can toss in tons of veggies, whatever you like. Or you can have it plainer as a side dish -- even without the eggs. With the eggs and veggies though, it is a complete one-dish meal.

Brown Rice
1 cup brown rice
2 cups (1 small can) chicken broth
1/2 cup water

--- cook the rice as you normally would, a day or two ahead of time and refrigerate.

Fried Rice Pilaf
medium onion, small dice
2-3 cloves garlic, smashed and diced
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/8 to 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts or whole pine nuts
pinch of cinnamon
3 cups cooked brown rice
3 eggs lightly beaten
1-2 cups julienned spinach
3 T Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Saute onions and garlic in the olive oil until clear.
Add rice, pinch of cinnamon and spinach, stir until spinach wilts
Stir in nuts and eggs, keep stirring until eggs are cooked

You can add any other veggies you like or omit the veggies and eggs for a plain side dish. It will keep in the refrigerator for several days in a well-sealed container.

Social Darwinism at Work

2012-01-22T11:50:00.002-07:00

With little evidence in their favor, and sometimes great evidence to the contrary, courts are increasingly imposing death sentences on the innocent.

Names like Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan ring distant bells, having been forgotten by most. Terri Schiavo, whose battle was more prolonged and received much more attention, is remembered by more people. But how many people yet know that name of a 32-year-old Massachusetts woman who suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who is the subject of the latest court-instigated death order? Not for her, but for the child she has carried in her womb for 5 months now.

The parents of the woman are seeking legal guardianship so they can order the death of their grandchild. Her court-appointed Guardian ad Litem found that the woman who has described herself as being "very Catholic" would want to have the baby. In the face of the woman's beliefs and the findings of her GAL, the lower court went far beyond merely making a contrary order. In fact, the lower court pulled out of thin air a sterilization order in addition to ordering an abortion. Thankfully the appellate judge has thrown out the sterilization order but has remanded the abortion ruling back to the lower court which will hear the case and make a new ruling.

All this in direct opposition to a 1982 Massachusetts Supreme Court decision which found that the right to give birth, "must be extended to all persons, including those who are incompetent." The lower court abortion/sterilization ruling is even more troubling given the woman's previous history - she suffered a psychotic break after a previous abortion. She believed people were telling her she killed her baby.

By the way, about her name? We don't know her name. She is only known as "Mary Moe" in the court records.

Pray for "Mary Moe". God loves her and does know her name.

Life Site News coverage here

"History of Death" story here

On the Feast of the Epiphany

2012-01-06T11:35:00.001-07:00

I've seen a meme that seems to be gaining traction in the twitterverse. Instead of making a boatload of New Year's Resolutions that last all of three hours, choose one word. Instead of buckshot, it's more like a sniper approach. One word makes one theme to guide your year. It provides focus and clarity, a foundation instead of sixteen rooms with nothing holding them up. (how's that for a bouquet of metaphors?)

I have thought about this off and on since I started hearing about it between Christmas and New Year. But every word I came up with seemed as if it was someone else's word. And then this morning, I had my own personal epiphany. In an uncertain place where I seem to be facing a mid-life career change and having spent a year arguing with God about that, about how I thought my life would look and how I was so very wrong about it all, I found peace. I realized that whatever I end up doing to keep a roof over my head and beans in the crock pot, I've known for a very, very long time what my vocation was.

That's the word: vocation

And here's a website to help you: My One Word

China's Culture War

2012-01-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

China's president and Communist Party head, Hu Jintao believes hostile powers are trying to "westernize" China and that country must take serious measures to prevent this Western cultural colonization. At the same time, the country must work to develop Chinese culture because of the "growing spiritual and cultural demands of the people". China's rulers see Christianity as the essence of Western culture. They are acting to nationalize Chinese culture and take tighter control of the Internet, blogs and other news outlets.

Look for persecution of Chinese Christians to increase.

Read the original article here.

Children: The Casualties of Individual Freedom

2012-01-02T17:24:00.002-07:00

With an unprecedented amount of freedom in regard to personal moral choices, barely half of all adults in the U.S. are married. Bastardy is a word now only read in historical novels, it is no longer a social reality. But with the removal of the power to stigmatize comes the lessening of social and even legal pressures which direct young people toward marriage.

The casualties of this freedom are our children. Mothers struggle to be both sole provider and sole nurturer and fathers often lose contact with their children despite their best intentions and legal provisions. Children are then deprived of the security of having both parents in the home and are subjected to unknown risks when a stranger enters their home as their mother's* new beau.

Read Rick Banks on the costs to our children here.

*the majority of single-parent homes are headed by mothers

Reasons for Hope

2012-01-02T14:48:00.002-07:00

I ran across several blog posts and articles over the New Year looking back at 2011 and looking forward to 2012. Both looked up at reasons for hope rather than down and reasons to be discouraged. Let me share a few with you:

The Gregorian Institute at Benedictine College in Kansas offers seven events of 2011 which are cause for hope in the future. The lasting impact of the 1993 World Youth Day event here in Denver is shown in a rise in both priestly and family vocations. 2011 marked the year "Denver babies" started college. The Penn State and Hollywood sex abuse scandals provide an opportunity for the Catholic Church to move from villain to advocate. Catholicism, the book and video series by Fr. Robert Barron featured in several Catholic lists and was said to mark the merger of the New Evangelization with excellence in media production. Read more about these and the rest of the items on Gregorian's list here.

Catholic Vote's Top Ten Reasons for Hope also mentioned the World Youth Day movement as well as the youth involvement in events like the March for Life event in January. Coming in at #10 on their list is an event I would have put at the top - Geron Corporation's abandonment of embryonic stem cell research. While adult stem cell-based therapies continue to march forward with new hope for patients, embryo-destructive stem cell research has hit a road block which may spell a sea change. Watch the video here.

And, for the Anglophiles among us, Peter Oborne takes a look at The Return to Religion. After suffering a decades-long decline, church attendance in England is on the rise. The increase in attendance at Sunday services is particularly noticeable in London. As the neighborhood post office, grocery and doctor's surgery close, the church steeple remains and becomes more inviting. As these community fixtures continue to disappear, the churches and members are finding news ways to connect to their communities.

My favorite 2011 Posts

2012-01-01T16:21:00.001-07:00

Not as much fun, and not as much cooking as I would have liked on this blog last year. But there are a few posts I'd like to hang out front again as little reminders.

The first is a bittersweet post. It is always heartening to hear about pro-life heroes in Hollywood. It's sad though, when so often we hear about it in their obituaries. Perhaps that is as it should be - no one does that sort of work in order to boost their fame and fortune. They do it because it is the right thing to do and they can't not do it. Jane Russell was one such hero.

I'm always excited to hear about a new health food discovery. Especially one that is so very satisfying. Courtesy of my friend Brian St. Paul (formerly of Inside Catholic), we all learned that booze is the new health food.. To quote one of the wise founders of this country, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy".

Just to prove I don't mind poking fun at myself and to assuage the fears of some that I go running to behind the broad shoulders of certain brothers in the faith when the going gets tough and danger knocks at my door, I give you the Alligator whisperer. (p.s. that is not tape, it's a scrunchy)

Bachmann and the feminist double-standard

2012-01-01T15:28:00.001-07:00

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is not most people's idea of a feminist. Mother of five children and foster-mother to 23 more, she has spoken of being submissive to her husband. Just what that "submission" looks like for the Bachmanns became evident in the controversy that erupted after Byron York's question to her in one of the early Republican candidate forums:

As president, would you be submissive to your husband?

He needn't have bothered asking. According to several attempts at clarification on the Sunday morning round of shows, in the Bachmann marriage wifely submission turns out to be nothing more sinister than mutual respect. However, York was right to ask the question as I have argued previously. Bachmann is different because she is a woman. But the question was deemed out of bounds and unfair. Some said it was wrong of him to ask it of her if her wouldn't have asked it of any of the men on the stage. Isn't that the point? None of the men on that stage, to my knowledge, have ever professed they believe there is a biblical mandate for them to submit to their wives. It was a different question because she is a different candidate. But York got boo'd and we were reminded once again you can't treat women differently from men.

At least not until the woman wants you to.

And now, with her star fading and her poll numbers down in the single digits, Bachmann wants us to treat her differently. According to today's AP article Bachmann, "has made the gender card central to her closing argument". Evoking Margaret Thatcher and repeating the theme, "it's time to put a mom in the White House", she hopes to give herself enough of a bump come caucus day to regain some credibility and keep her campaign going.

It's a risky move. Iowa has never sent a woman to Washington as a member of its congressional delegation nor has it ever put a woman in the governor's office. Sunday morning guest preaching gigs will not endear her to the sort of conservative Evangelical who believes what prominent Complementarians (who embraced Sarah Palin's position on the Republican ticket in 2008) teach - that men are charged with leadership in the home and church but are not so sure about politics. Many Complementarians support women in civic leadership positions even when they do not support Pastor Polly.

So you can vote for Michele Bachmann because she is a woman and in the words of one supporter, "Gutsy has never looked so gorgeous". But don't you dare ask her a question about how women do things differently.

The Rest of the Ten Most-Read Posts of 2011

2011-12-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

Moral Bankruptcy is a post about the boy-girl wrestling controversy and the bankrupt arguments for treating girls just like boys that are to be found at Her.meneutics (Christianity Today's blog for women).
Religious feminists seem Desperate to see a woman in the White House. The post includes a clip from a Bachmann speech containing an astonishing number of errors in one short segment. The Congresswoman's star seems to be fading and she may be out of the race in another week or two.
Stolen Identity and True Grit is both a review of the movie and a counter to Carolyn Custis James's feminist reading of it.
Feminism, Consciousness-Raising, art therapy and looking like nothing so much as a Children's Play Group.
Air-brushed Scriptures are the basis for women in ministry - a video clip from N.T. Wright which I had a hard time giving a charitable read.
The Cultural Tsunami disperses was my post on the end of the Oprah! show and the overwrought reactions among Evangelical girl bloggers, as if we all now have a Oprah-shaped void in our souls.
The Question was another post which looked a the Bachmann phenomenon and Byron York's question to her in one of the first debates. I still say York was right to ask the question and the post explains why.
Molech Today's Priestess left me horrified and then angry. How any publication claiming to be Evangelical and Christian can publish a cold-blooded recitation of a woman's decision to engage in Pre-Implantation Genetic testing and then having the embryos destroyed is still mostly beyond my comprehension. Thankfully, the CT empire has since severed their contractual relationship with the writer.
In The Herodias Syndrome, I point to an excellent article of that name which tells of the problems with women, contraception and pastoral timidity.

No surprise that the fun, uplifting, positive posts got far fewer reads. There is something perverse in us to prefer controversy.

The Big Story of 2011: Denver Seminary and Gnostic Feminism

2011-12-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

This was a wild-ride of a blogging year for me. The night before my birthday, a fellow alum dropped a major scandal in my lap begging, me to do something about it. At least I thought it was a major scandal. The president of Denver Seminary dismissed it as a bit of "iGossip". The school did, however, admit to dereliction of duty in not properly vetting the video promoting the Gnostic women's center run by a fellow alum and classmate of mine. And, they pulled the video from their website. A minor skirmish won though Denver Seminary is still wholly captive to the heresies of religious feminism and that battle is lost.

It was by far and away the most read issue on the blog this year. I'm folding together the five posts to take the top spot in the 10 Most Read Posts of the year:

In a melodramatically titled first post, The Death of Denver Seminary, I crack open the embarrassing de facto endorsement of a gnostic women's community center, Pomegranate Place. I'll readily admit to being in shock when I wrote this post. I kept trying to figure out whether or not it was a hoax.

In the first follow-up post, Denver Seminary's Transformation, I highlight one of the Affiliate Guides of Pomegranate Place.

The Wrap-up post is my report on a meeting I had with the school's VP for Advancement. The comments also include an enlightening exchange between Vaun Swanson (the foundress of Pomegranate Place) and me.

An Open Letter to Mark Young, President of Denver Seminary is a full explanation of the problems with the school's de facto endorsement of Pomegranate Place and utter failure to exercise discernment, abandoning their position of trust in the Evangelical community. In this post I detail some of the major philosophical and theological errors promoted by Pomegranate Place.

Finally, my report of a meeting that left my skin crawling. After a failed bit of game-playing on Vaun's part, she and I finally met to talk about her work with the women's center she had established. During the meeting she made it clear that, whether or not she realizes it, she is selling a Christ who cannot save. In short, Vaun Swanson serves a Gnostic Christ.

It was a tough couple of months. To see my alma mater fail so thoroughly in elementary discernment, to hear a former classmate embrace and teach a sulfurous deception, and to then see no godly men connected with the school stand up and call them out was disheartening . . .

At least it would have been if God hadn't blessed me in the middle of it all with a new friend. She is a warrior for truth, a woman of discernment with a heart for teaching philosophy and worldview to women. I encourage you to get to know Sarah Flashing and the Center for Women of Faith in Culture. Without Sarah's wisdom and her national blogging platform, I doubt Denver Seminary would have paid much attention to one irritating alumna.

*in 2012 what I hope will be my last post on the decline of Denver Seminary will be a report on the first religious feminism conference held there back in ----- 1973.

Hey kid! I wish you were dead

2011-12-28T12:21:00.001-07:00

Something disturbing has been happening in relation to abortion law. It's been around for a few years now but I haven't seen any specific, substantial response to the chilling phenomenon of "wrongful life" lawsuits. In these lawsuits which turn the classic "wrongful death" cases around and seek, among other monetary awards, "punitive damages for having to live with a disabled child".

Can you imagine saying that to your child? Not in the heat of frustration and anger, but in cold clinical language in a courtroom. These suits are ostensibly filed on behalf of the child, claiming an early death by abortion would have been preferable to a life that is less than perfect.

Tragically, these kinds of lawsuits have become commonplace in Israel where they should be a little bit more leery of a Lebensunwertes Leben legal philosophy. Read the article by Dr. Denise Hunnell here.

On a related note, Rape Exception is one of those nonsensical devices used by politicians and others who don't have the courage to follow through on the defense of antenatal life. Sara Johnson asks the question I've been asking for what seems ages, Why Do We Kill Babies Instead of Rapists?

Aren't the sequelae of postmodern thinking grand?

Feminism's sacrament: Abortion

2011-12-25T18:59:00.001-07:00

Think about it for a moment. Just think about feminism's aims and goals for women and what is required for women to reach those goals.

Have you gotten there yet?

Amazingly, many people haven't. It's not a slippery slope, but it is a logical consequence of feminism. Ready access to abortion is required for the feminist agenda. Birth control isn't good enough. More than 50% of the women walking through the doors of your local "women's health" clinic seeking an abortion were already using birth control in the month they got pregnant. And that's according to Planned Parenthood's own reckoning. Even SCOTUS recognized the societal dependence on the availability of abortion in its decision in the case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

It's really quite simple. For a woman to have a career equivalent to a man's, she can't behave much like a normally healthy woman. Controversial, but true. A normally healthy woman gets pregnant when she has sexual intercourse. It even happens with a certain frequency when she or her partner are using contraception/birth control. That's what is supposed to happen for a normally healthy woman who has sex. But a woman pursuing a career like a man can't be taking maternity leave every couple of years. She has to be on the job like a man, without leave and without time out for sick kids, daycare failures, etc.

So she can't be a normally healthy woman. If she is, she is patently not equal to a man in terms of career commitment.

In short, abortion is an absolute requirement as a back-up to failed birth control. We could always pretend career women are celibate. Uhm, no we can't. As Frederica Mathewes-Green points out in her Touchstone article, feminism's twin goals were:

Greater access to public life (careers, politics)
Increased sexual freedom

Those are the major tenets of the religion (relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity) of feminism. It's sacrament is abortion. Now some will quibble about the language, but one definition of sacrament is:

something regarded as possessing a sacred character or mysterious significance

It's hard to see how anyone can argue that abortion has anything but a sacred character or mysterious significance when we see organizations such as NOW use efforts to stop the Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act (which outlaws sex-selection abortions) in their fundraising literature. Abortion is such an integral part of the feminist agenda that they will not countenance any restriction on access to abortion -- even those abortions which target girls specifically.

What is most disheartening about all of this is that feminism has become so deeply ingrained in our society, that even conservative/orthodox Christian believers cower at the merest possibility that women and men are not equivalent actors in all three spheres of life - home, church and society. It's the reason Complementarians hide behind the "Equal but Different" mantra. It's also the reason even the supposedly sexist ESV is under near-constant revision (four times in ten years).

The truth is, that if you want to talk about ontological reality, human dignity and worth - yes, there we are equal. And the Church has always taught this - across all three branches of historic Christianity for two millennia. But what the church has also recognized is the paradox at the heart of Christian anthropology - that while we are equal, we are also different, made for different purposes, teleologically distinct.

And therein lies the problem. As long as the feminists, religious and secular, are allowed to define the terms of discussion, paradox will always be denied. They will reduce it to contradiction. And Complementarians will be caught in a defensive, "Yes, but . . ." posture.

I happen to know it is a great privilege to be a woman. To be numbered among the keepers of society's emotional resources (see Goldberg, Why Men Rule) and to share a tiny bit of something with the Theotokos which no man will ever share. The saddest realization of all is that feminists reveal their contempt for their own sex when they attempt to compete in a "man's world" for a man's position on men's terms.

Thanks to Denny Burk for the "heads up" on Frederica's excellent article.

Nigeria's Not-So-Silent Night

2011-12-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

Boko Haram (the name means: Western education is sinful) has claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks in Nigeria claiming the lives of over 30 people so far. The first, and deadliest of the five, occurred at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in a suburb of the capital city of Abuja and resulted in 27 deaths. Due to fire and extensive damage to the church building, the death toll there is expected to rise. One witness to the St. Theresa's bombing saw a family of five perish in their car which was next to the explosion. One report has angry Christian youth preventing the removal of bodies, demanding President Goodluck John see the devastation personally first.

Boko Haram is a violent Islamist group loosely modeled on the Taliban and calls for a strict Islamic state in Nigeria. They have primarily targeted security forces and state institutions but last year claimed responsibility for a series of Christmas Eve bombings targeting churches. They regard Christians as well as Muslims who don't follow their brand of Islamic ideology as infidels. The group claims members have traveled to both Somalia and Chad for training.

BBC coverage

The bombings are a shocking reminder that Mark Steyn's Christmas Eve column, Silent Night, was more than necessary. As Steyn reminds us, the persecution of Christians is one of the most unreported stories in what used to be known as Christendom. The practice of silence not only occurs among the media, but Christian leaders as well. We can't let this be the last word (from Steyn's article):

When Lord Sacks, chief rabbi in England, rose in the House of Lords to speak about the persecution of Christians, he quoted Martin Luther King. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Nearly 17 years go, I was privileged to make a short-term trip to visit with Christians in Ukraine. Back then we were told that Christians in the areas formerly controlled by the Soviet Union believed we in our material comfort had forgotten them and they were praying for our persecution so that we would be reminded. Still today, Christians around the world hear our silence almost as loudly as the beatings, the imprisonments and the bomb blasts.

Don't let another silent night, another silent year pass. Get informed, write letters and donate to the cause of religious liberty. Here are three organizations you can begin supporting today:

Open Doors

Persecution Project

Christian Solidarity

Pray, Act, Give. Start Today, right now.

Weekend Round-up, Christmas Edition

2011-12-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

The gift that has keeps on taking: The Obama administration's NIH director has approved yet more funding for embryonic stem cell research.

In the Tough Girl's Guide to high holiday expectations, The Crescat reminds us that Christmas isn't high school and there are more important things to think about than whether or not you have a date for the "big event". It is, after all, the celebration of Someone Else's birthday.

Just say "no" to the red kettle, has been my response to the news about the Salvation Army's stance on abortion. My friend, Leroy Huizenga, offers a more nuanced response and a nudge to proactive action rather than reactive protest.

Turning the tables on rich, white do-gooders who seem to think the poor brown folk inhabiting the, ahem, dark continent are stupid -- a group of African musicians have released a response to Band-Aid's, "Do They Kow It's Christmas?" with proceeds going towards teaching discipline, literacy and contraception in British schools.

Christmas around my house would be incomplete without the St. Olaf Choir's Christmas Festival. Enjoy!

How Just is the Denial of a Basic Human Right?

2011-12-22T22:59:00.001-07:00

A recent exchange between Tim King of Sojourners and Jonathan Witt of the Acton Institute illustrates the problem with the concept of "Social Justice". Witt points out in his American Spectator article, that "social" is a modifier that is often used to obscure the essential meaning of a concept - in this case, justice. The Gospel is already a social message. It's not a private or solitary concept that must be modified to be properly understood or implemented. And justice is already a clear concept which, while it does often apply first to individuals, is only muddied and endlessly evolving in the hands of the religious left when modified as in the term, "social justice".

The concept of social justice has a history reaching back nearly two centuries in Catholic use, but it has been co-opted and morphed by the religious left into an ill-defined program of coercive wealth-transfer administered by the government. The problem is that these federal programs are often inefficiently administered. In addition, because money is fungible and not all equitably used, bad actors can enhance their position and power (this goes for international aid as well as individual recipients of welfare payments). Programs administered at a level far from the recipient can also destroy more efficient and effective local solutions - the opposite of distributism*. When this happens countries that had been exporters become net importers and big daddy government replaces real fathers as the source of income and protection (resulting in what has been called the feminization of poverty). This top/down model of charity/aid has trapped many a country and many a family in a "vicious cycle of paternalism and dependency" (Witt).

So, while social justice has legitimate roots, the way the term is used by the religious left emphasizes a top-down government-based approached rather than a local community and organization-based approach which includes churches and civic groups. The concept as used by the religious left most notably ignores or dismisses that most basic of human rights - the right to life. See Sojourners own position on abortion which refuses to take a stand against abortion and in support of the right to life.

For what is justice without life?

For more on distributism, see: American Chesterton Society

At Home and Abroad

2011-12-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Nina Shea is a champion of religious liberty. We should listen to her when she cautions us against overblown rhetoric about the real dangers to religious liberty at home - real, but we cannot mistake their gravity in comparison to labor camps and death squads. Shea, in an interview with Kathryn Lopez published in the NCR, urges Christians not to forget the intense persecution endured by believers abroad. Besides prayer she suggest citizens need to take advantage of their rights to insist the president and members of Congress defend persecuted believers.

A good place to start would be writing the President, Secretary Clinton and your members of Congress urging them to focus attention on the case of Asia Bibi in any interactions with the government of Pakistan. Bibi is a 45-year-old mother of five who is on death row for defending Christ in a discussion with Muslim her co-workers. To learn more about Asia Bibi's case, read here.

This week, International Christian Concern brings us the story of Farrin whose mother was drug addict, her father a drug dealer who spent time in prison. Enduring abuse from her father and brother, she escaped three times. Finally at the third attempt she managed to get away and stay away. But with no means of support, she fell victim to men who used her. This resulted in her becoming a prostitute and turning to alcohol in order to numb the physical and emotional pain. Read the rest of her story here.

Whether at home or abroad, and whether we are defending conscience rights of health care workers in our local hospital or writing the State Department about Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani or Asia Bibi, the team at Breakpoint reminds us that we are all missionaries.

My new hero: Christian Bale

2011-12-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

Actor Christian Bale is my new hero. While in China to promote his film, The Flowers of War, Bale decided to make a side trip. A mere 8-hour car ride later, he was assaulted by plain-clothes security officers who refused to identify themselves (photo above). His crime was trying to visit pro-life activist, Chen Guancheng. Unfortunately for the Chinese government, Bale was accompanied by a CNN crew. After the guards slugged, shoved and pushed, they gave chase in a grey minivan for more than half an hour. The publicity will not help Beijing which has set Bale's film as its entry for the Oscars.

Chen, who is blind, was arrested in 2006 for his work exposing the government's use of coercive family planning and violent force in efforts to enforce the "one child" policy. Today, Chen remains under strict house arrest and there are serious concerns about his health. No on is allowed to see him and his case has been raised at the highest levels, including by Secretary Clinton.

In video shot in the vehicle on the way back to Beijing, Bale looks ill at ease. He said on camera, "This doesn't come naturally to me. But this was just a situation (pause) I couldn't look the other way." "What I really wanted was to shake the man's hand and say, Thank you, and tell him what an inspiration he is." Further in the video Bale says, "I'm not being brave, doing this. The local people who are standing up to the authorities and insisting on going to visit Chen and his family, and going and getting beaten up for it ... I want to support what they are doing." As Bale also observes, China seem to be terrified of this blind man, which shows an intrinsic weakness in the fabric of the country.

Shandong province, where Chen lives, appears to be particularly brutal in its pursuit of population control. Villagers have been known to sleep in the fields to avoid family planning officials. Recent reports have them stabbing a man to death and forcing two family members to beat each other. A woman died during a forced abortion at six months of pregnancy. They have also detained, fined and tortured extended family members of suspected policy violators.

Thanks to the tireless work of other heroes like Reggie Littlejohn and Steven Mosher, the spotlight on China's repressive and murderous government will not dim soon. Actions like Bale's help intensify public attention on the human rights abuses of the Beijing regime. So go see the new Batman movie as well as Flowers of War, to support Bale. And please follow the work of Population Research Institute and Women's Rights Without Frontiers to keep yourself informed.

For further information:

Story and video here: The Blaze

From Women's Rights Without Frontiers: The Chen Guancheng Report

Weekend Round-Up

2011-12-16T20:25:00.005-07:00

In a remarkable feat of Newspeak, Diana Thomas and her World Egg Bank pretend to help solve women's infertility with the wonders of frozen eggs. The World Egg Bank has recently expanded into the UK and is working on agreements to include Canada and Australia. The problem is that these women are still themselves infertile. They have taken advantage of women who are often mis-informed about the risks of egg donation, sometimes thinking it is nothing more risky than a simple medical procedure. All for the sake of creating the illusion that they are mothers in a way adoptive mothers are not.

And what do these children do when they find out later in life that their social dad is not their biological father? For that story, see the newly released, Anonymous Father's Day .

This week, many activists and supporters of religious liberty were biting their fingernails until Congress did the right thing and re-authorized the USCIRF. The 11th-hour reprieve, however, shows that neither the Democratic leadership in the Senate or President Obama are entirely serious about supporting the work of the Commission (it had been set to pass by unanimous consent until it was held up by the 2nd highest ranking Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of IL). Add to this the State Department's new directive to elevate LGBT rights as a foreign policy priority, it will increasingly fall to NGOs and citizens to keep the spotlight on religious persecution around the world.

Here the work of Open Doors becomes even more important. On January 4, 2012 they will release their annual Watch List in which countries are ranked according to the intensity of persecution within their borders. North Korea, the often forgotten closed and brutally repressive regime, has topped the list for the last ten years. Iran and Afghanistan are near the top as well. In the past year, there have been 300 confirmed martyrs in Nigeria alone. The figures for North Korea are likely worse but are not known with any accuracy because of the tight restrictions on information flowing in and out of the country.

International Justice Mission has a number of job openings.

Alex Perottet at Crisis Magazine talks Nunsense about the Pill. Well, he doesn't write nonsense. Instead he illustrates the false claims being made in an effort to make birth control truly universal.

The Heritage Foundation has a nifty resource for candidates in its Candidate's Briefing Book. It covers a wide range of topics with suggestions for policy initiatives and resources for additional information. One glaring omission, however, is the issue of abortion. With a presidential contest where Republican candidates are seeking to oust the most actively pro-abortion President in history, a glance through the sections on "Family & Religion"' and "Healthcare" plus a search using two different page formats turned up not one single mention of abortion. With that noted, it looks to be an excellent resource for both candidates and voters.

With so much seriousness around us here, I want to end on a happier note. I mentioned this gift from God in last week's round-up but included a photo of a different child with Down's syndrome. Last week's photo was a reminder about how many babies don't survive long after prenatal testing comes back with a diagnosis of Trisomy 21. Their lives end in abortion. We have lost an untold number of treasures because of something that can only justly be described as the practice of eugenics. But little Taya Kennedy was blessed with a mom who treasured her. And now she is the darling baby supermodel taking the modeling world by storm. In closing this week, I give you model extraordinaire, Taya:

Weekend Round-up

2011-12-10T19:06:00.001-07:00

Sigh . . . . . . . . .

As I begin this post, yet anouuuuuuther Republican presidential debate is on. Whoopie. Do we expect any big surprises at this point? There is only one surprise I am hoping for. If you follow me on Twitter, you likely already know what it is. If you don't, well, it doesn't involved either front runner. In a few weeks we'll know if the grassroots-groundswell that appears to be building is real. If a certain back-in-the-pack candidate doesn't place at least a strong second in the Iowa caucuses come next month, then I won't be watching any more debates, I'll be contemplating whether I can stomach voting for the Republican nominee or casting about for a third party candidate. The one thing I will not do is ever, ever again cast a vote for any candidate running under the flag of Deathocrats.

The National Catholic Register and First Things are both pondering the fight for religious liberty/rights of conscience in this country and why Catholics so often feel alone. Are Evangelicals AWOL? Yes and No. The problem, as ever with the continually fragmenting Evangelicalism, is that there is no unified voice. No Evangelical/Protestant equivalent of the USCCB. So the question is, can we unite behind Chuck Colson or do we need to get behind the already ecumenical Manhattan Declaration group? I don't know. But I know we have to take the question seriously.

Ed Driscoll has an interesting piece on, The Closing of the Barackian Mind

Jody Bottum contemplates the End of Canterbury ? I hate to tell him, but it ended back in 1976 when TEC authorized women's "ordination". What we are watching now are merely the death-throws which are likely to be accelerated by the early exit of the Druid of Canterbury.

George Clooney keeps on doing the job President Obama and Secretary Clinton should be doing. This week, he's highlighting Starvation as a weapon of war. When will the United States, under Clinton and Obama, take effective action against Bashir and his criminal regime in Khartoum? Don't hold your breath.

This week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius unexpectedly did the right thing in blocking the FDAs plan to make "Plan B" available over-the-counter without a prescription to minors. Yeah, like pimps and sex traffickers were cheering that move.

With the recent news about a less invasive and more accurate prenatal screening test for Down's Syndrome (a mere blood test which is 98% accurate), the threat to the most vulnerable among us, those deemed as "life unworthy of life" is more serious than ever. Would we have missed this treasure?

Speaking of percentages and those with Down's Syndrome:

Why I no longer follow you on Twitter

2011-11-18T11:18:00.001-07:00

I spent 25 years in health care. I read a ton of alternatives AIDS theory literature, I am an advocate against sex trafficking, I am against abortion, I am Whole Life, I am an Uber Anti-Feminist. In short there is little that disgusts me or frightens me.

Except snakes.

And one is not fond of the number of I's in that first paragraph but there it is.

There are also very few things I won't tolerate or block out simply because I find them unpleasant. But one thing is unnecessary and serves to coarsen out society. You don't need to re-tweet some liberal idiot's name-calling and profanity to prove what a great and important person you are. So if you do, you'll find one less follower in your twitter ranks.

Dead Aid: Quick Take Review

2011-11-18T10:24:00.001-07:00

Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo

Moyo is an economist who has previously held positions at Goldman Sachs and the World Bank. She knows her stuff. She is also a native of Zambia.

The book is both an indictment of Western paternalism and an optimistic look towards real solutions to the problem of Africa. The first part of the book reviews the history of aid to Africa and why it (largely) has done more harm than good. The second part takes a look at several ways in which not only African countries can help themselves, but how the developed world can help them do it.

The single best action is to stop the aid pipeline. Moyo shows what many of us have long realized - that the way we help Africa more often lines the pockets of corrupt rulers and their families than it does lift the average African out of poverty. Giving African countries a deadline for their loss of aid is the first step.

The second step is African countries getting up on their own feet through tools like innovative uses of microfinance, accessing global capital markets, foreign direct investment, incentives for changed behaviour and reframing trading agreements and tariffs. It won't be easy. Some African rulers have found the aid game a bit too lucrative to want to let it go. And western do-gooders will take some convincing to stop handing out the dosh like candy on Halloween. But, unless we really are racist and think Africans cannot learn a great degree of aid-independence, we must move in the direction Dambiso Moyo points us.

She's not the only voice out there telling this story. She is, however, one with the wisdom of both worlds.

Let the UnCelebration Begin!

2011-11-14T19:23:00.001-07:00

According to my Twitter feed, Ms. Magazine is gearing up to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Now, I'll be honest and admit that I think I have purchased and read all of one issue of the rag in those forty years. I didn't think I needed to know anything more than its name and that of it's foundress, Gloria Steinhem. I still think that's all anyone needs to know about whether or not to subscribe or celebrate its forty years of existence.

So I am engaging in an UnCelebration and inviting you to join with me. The goal is to give $40 (or more) to an organization opposing the the agenda of feminism and Ms. Magazine. Instead of celebrating 40 years of an anti-woman agenda, I want to celebrate and encourage organizations and individuals that celebrate, support and act as advocates on behalf of women's real equality, rights and protection. To that end, the first organization I am making a donation to is:

Concerned Women for America is the largest public policy women's organization in the country. Founded thirty years ago by Dr. Beverly LaHaye, CWforA arms women for the cultural battle raging across our land, with the reminder that we protect godly values through prayer and action. Focusing on six key areas: the family, the sanctity of human life, religious liberty, education, pornography and national sovereignty, CWforA equips women for prayer and action through local chapters and the work of policy experts in the national offices. An important part of their work is the Beverly LaHaye Institute, their think tank where my friend, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, serves as Senior Fellow.

I am UnCelebrating Ms. Magazine by making a donation to CWforA because godly women know prayer precedes action.

Round up

2011-10-26T12:48:00.000-06:00

Once known as the breadbasket of a greater Russia, Ukraine is fast returning to the position, this time as the breadbasket of Europe. Home to a large percentage of the world's richest type of soil, Ukraine's potential for agricultural expansion is promising. But that won't happen if its current political problems, as explained here by George Weigel, aren't dealt with. That is a distant hope because Ukraine has had its troubles since the collapse of the Soviet Union where it was one of the last places to find statues of Lenin untumbled.

Courtesy of the Art of Manliness, instruction on the perfectly prepared egg. According to the fictional gourmand, Nero Wolfe, low and slow is the only way to make scrambled eggs. He is right, of course, but better an imperfect egg than no egg at all, I say.

Ancient Faith Radio hosts podcasts from Frederica Mathewes-Green, everyone's favorite khouria.

Kathryn Jean Lopez gives us a reminder that there is something worth occupying, The Good Life.

Jim Tonkowich on Recovering the Lost Meaning of Marriage.

Ryan Anderson on the insufficiency of social justice theories that ignore Human Flourishing.

As the world anticipates the arrival of the 7 billionth one of us, an article from Reuters reminds us of the very real and dark prospects of depopulation and an Empty Planet.

Picture of the week, the start of my future legendary status:

Weekly Round-up

2011-10-15T00:06:00.001-06:00

In an article that really hit a nerve with its subject, Sarah Flashing tells us What Biblical Womanhood is Not. Then, in the latest interview, Evans is demoted from religion to entertainment. But then, it is sometimes hard to tell what the difference is when it comes to the newly ended project.
- filed under, THAT hit my last good nerve!

In God & the Genesis of Gender, Folke Olofsson gives us the trustworthy biblical design for man and woman. You should read it and be blessed by these words of wisdom from a man who has lost more than most of us can know, and for simply holding fast against Swedish, ahem, progress. You know, the kind of enlightened progress which forcibly removes a child from his parents and then prevents them from seeing him, all for the unforgivable crime of homeschooling him.
- filed under, Intolerance, what intolerance?!

At turns funny and bittersweet, Jennifer Fulwiler reminds us of the things we are losing when we Redefine Marriage. You might be surprised at the shared culture and wisdom we are losing. Fulwiler is my favorite new (to me) blogger.
- filed under, You used to do what?

SAHM Simcha Fischer cleans up after Amanda Marcotte's exploding head.
- filed under, And you think MY brain has turned to mush?

And yes, Jennifer Fulwiler is a treasure you should become acquainted with. The reason the Apron is the ultimate symbol of a culture of life is because the, "work of serving other is messy. Life is messy."
- filed under, I think it's time to expand my collection

Picture of the week (it really does explain quite a lot):

Friday Focus: Church Alliance for a new Sudan

2011-10-14T23:28:00.000-06:00

It seems Sudan is never far from the headlines. Darfur is probably the most well-known of the regions and most heartrending crisis in the American imagination. For as long as I've known Faith McDonnell one region or another of Sudan seems to have been in the news. The majority of these conflicts have been some variation of the Arab/Islamist rulers in Khartoum (or their proxies, such as the Ugandan LRA) waging war on Black Africans (who are primarily Christian or Animist).

The world community pays little attention to these conflicts until a celebrity like Bono of U2 takes up the cause. But those of us who are acquainted with Faith know that she is always on top of it, rarely misses a protest outside of the Sudanese Embassy in WDC and is tireless in her efforts to mobilize churches and their members to press Congress, the President and the State Department to formulate a coherent foreign policy response to Sudan. This policy must include genocide prevention measures as well as strong support for the new government in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains.

The Church Alliance for a New Sudan, a program of the IRD, has partnered with the Sudanese Church since 1994. Working with key leaders in Sudan and the United States, CANS assists these leaders with research, draft resolutions and testimony for asylum hearing of Sudanese refugees as well as working to educate members of Congress and the general public about Khartoum's plans to eradicate or convert the nonMuslim peoples of Sudan.

Weekly Writing Reminder

2011-10-12T10:06:00.000-06:00

P. D. James: 5 Bits of Writing Advice

P.D. James lives in the pantheon of the great writers of crime fiction. She is most famous for the creation of Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, who appears in over a dozen novels. One can read her books for both their diabolically clever plots and their cunning insights into human nature. And she possesses a literary finesse rare among genre writers.

5 Bits of Writing Advice

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.
Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.
Don't just plan to write—write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.
Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell.
Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens to a writer—however happy, however tragic—is ever wasted.

Baroness James's delightful book, Talking About Detective Fiction, is the best thing I've read on the subject.

Thanks to Gotham Writer's Workshop for the great collection of advice from which this series is drawn.

A conversation? Not so much.

2011-10-11T21:05:00.003-06:00

Dear Rachel Held Evans,

I'm a bit confused. This week on one of your blog posts, you asked the following two questions:

Ever experience blogging fatigue?

What keeps you centered and patient and kind in a culture that seems to reward the most reactive?

These questions seemed to be sparked by criticisms of your Biblical Womanhood project, which criticisms appear to be more prevalent of late. You also seem to be getting quite a bit of good exposure which should help your eventual book sales - interviews on NPR and the BBC are nothing to sneeze at, as we all know. So, perhaps your sense of blogging fatigue is simply due to the recent flurry of activity and attention, which has been both positive and negative?

Nevertheless, you frequently express the wish to have a conversation. Even a better conversation. So I responded to those questions with a bit of past and thoroughly unpleasant history of mine. I couldn't help thinking there is probably more negative feedback than things like this which we've seen on the Internet. All the same, I seriously doubt that you have had someone try to get you fired from your one job and only source of income, as has happened to me. I also doubt that you have been threatened with physical violence of a particular sort, as you now know I have.

I hope then, that you will forgive me for being confused given the above, as to why you would not only delete my comment but then prevent me from making any further comments on your blog. You, and everyone who knows me, already know that I stand immovable against the feminism you promote in the church. But why should that prevent us from having an honest and frank conversation? Pushback and tough questions build strength and assurance. This is something to which I have deliberately subjected myself because I know the surety and deep strength that result from not just asking questions myself, but from being challenged by the tough answers and sometimes tougher questions that come in return.

Questions and conversations can be the way to true faith. But with St. Augustine, we must recognize that we cannot seek to understand in order to believe. On the contrary, we believe in order to understand.

the Mad Genuis of Mirth: Princess Bride Reunion

2011-10-09T22:39:00.002-06:00

This was worth watching George Stephanopolous:

Monday Merriment

2011-10-09T22:26:00.000-06:00

Since it's past midnight over on the Atlantic coast and I was hoping to get some reading done before bedtime arrives - and - since Friday Focus was late, I figure it's appropriate that Monday Merriment comes a bit early this week.

This little ditty has a classic in the making "Who's on First" feeling, but needs a few more responses to make it really zing. ht: Silouan

Friday Focus: The Vice President Understands 15,000,00 Pigs in the Slaughterhouse?

2011-10-09T20:45:00.000-06:00

Several weeks ago the Vice-Gaffer said he "fully" understood China's One-child policy. Horrible and stupid and ignorant and just plain evil as that was, I couldn't gin up the excitement to say much about it at the time. When it comes to abortion we already know Mr. Biden is a moral troglodyte. Is this what Biden understands?:

"About one hour later, the van stopped in the hospital. As soon as I was drug out of the van, I saw hundreds of pregnant moms there — all of them just like pigs in the slaughterhouse. Immediately I was drug into a special room, and without any preliminary medical examination, one nurse did an oxytocin injection intravenously. Then I was put into a room with several other moms."

Or this?:

"I could hear the sound of the scissors cutting the body of my baby in my womb. … I preferred to die together with my baby at that moment. …"

Those quotes are from the testimony of "Wuijan", who spoke before the Tom Lantos Human rights Commission of the House of Representatives in late 2009. During her stay in the hospital for the abortion, which took well over 24 hours, Wuijan was told there were over 10,000 forced abortions in her county, not the country, but just her county alone. If her county is typical, that means 15,000,000 forced abortions in China a year (there are 1,464 counties in mainland China).

Wuijan's crime was not becoming pregnant with her 2nd, 3rd or 4th child. No. Her "crime" was failing to possess the required "permit for pregnancy"!

One child? Not without a permit.

Weekly Round-Up

2011-10-09T20:19:00.002-06:00

National Review reports on a study published in The Lancet which found that a form of birth control in common use in Africa DOUBLES the risk of HIV infection. (registration required to read The Lancet article)
- file this under: Ideology trumps science (again)
- crossfiled under: Could it possibly be more obvious that birth control is bad for women?

In The Pink Ribbon's Dark Side, Matthew Hanley notes that, "Indefensibly, however, most awareness efforts fail to feature some factors known to reduce breast cancer risk: having children, avoiding induced abortions, and refraining from oral contraceptives (OC)."
- filed under: Rubicon, what Rubicon?

Discovery of the week: Alfred the Great Society (ht: Fr. Bill) which takes note of the real problem with the Slutwalk , (the negation of female sexuality). And while I disagree with the police officer who told women not to wear short skirts because it made them easy targets - I am equally in disagreement with my blogging sisters who find no connection between the two. Whatever else it accomplishes, the objectification of women and the general coarsening of society are certain not conducive to reducing the possibility of rape.
- filed under: Cheap tarts do not a good society make

In a rather unexpected but spot on use of a whovianism, Rev. Richard Umbers makes the connection between Euthenasia, Utilitarians and, yes, Daleks.
- filed under: Exterminate! Exterminate!

Picture of the week (ht: Greg Kandra, the Deacon's Bench):

The Year of the Farce

2011-10-01T10:18:00.000-06:00

Today is October 1. In my cruise around the internet this morning, I realized it is the day Rachel Held Evans gets her hair cut and that the curtain has come down on the farce that was her "biblical womanhood" project.

In the meantime, in homes all over this country -- thankfully, homes that are far, far too numerous to name -- women who will never get the recognition that Mrs. Evans is getting, women who will never be interviewed on BBC, NPR or mentioned on Oprah's blog, women who will ever get an advanced book contract or be featured as the "New Voice" at a Soularize conference, women that you will never hear about from a blog post or a tweet, are wiping poopy bottoms and washing diapers, cleaning spit-up from their Sunday best, making dinner for nine (and that's just her own household) and doing the fifteenth load of laundry for the week while also ironing their husband's work shirts and creating a home for him to come home to that is more than a house and much more than a place where they all lay their heads down at night.

These anonymous women are doing kingdom-building work. These are the mothers whose children will rise up and call her blessed. These are the wives whose husbands will praise them, saying they surpass all other women.

The childless Evans has no one who will rise up and call her blessed. Even as a "mother in Israel" or a spiritual mother, she has led those who follow her into rebellion and not repentance.

Here endeth the year of the farce.

Yes, I do think there is an Elephant in this room

2011-09-30T21:34:00.001-06:00

This explanation of his explanation from James McDonald is nothing short of shameful. The Elephant Room guys want so very badly to have a conversation with TD Jakes that they want you to pay $99 to watch remotely, that they simply can't bring themselves to admit there is another elephant in the room with them.

As their revised purpose statement has it, the idea of the Elephant Room is that, "the best way forward for the followers of Jesus lies not in crouching behind walls of disagreement but in conversation".

Teensy problem here. If TD Jakes is a"follower of Jesus" at all, he is a secret follower who disagrees with his own public teaching. The problem is not just that Jakes uses what some want to dismiss as merely a poor word choice in his church's theology statement. He uses classic modalist language. The members of the Trinity are not merely manifestations (the word Jakes uses), they are separate persons. There is no getting around Jakes's heresy and for McDonald to attempt to do so by saying he does, "not believe [modalism] represents Bishop T.D. Jakes’ current thinking" is to admit he either lacks basic theological discernment skills or he has had his head in the sand for the last decade and a half.

In brief, Jakes holds his ordination from Higher Grace Always Abounding, a Oneness Pentecostal/Modalist group. Over the years he has been given repeated opportunities and public platforms to repudiate the heresies of his ordaining body - or - to embrace orthodox trinitarian language. He has steadfastly refused to do either. When he responds at all, it is with further obfuscation.

In addition, Jakes has acted as a shill for the execrable TBN, heavily promoted Paula White and is also a dyed-in-the-wool "Word of Faith" proponent. Given such a stew, there is little hope that he regularly encounters orthodox language, teaching or practice and no reason whatsoever to presume "his current thinking" has changed since his ordination.

Over ten years ago, when Jakes was featured as a headline speaker with Promise Keepers one year, a simple phone call was made to one of their board members apprising him of Jakes' heresy. I don't know if they heard from more than one person on the concerns about Jakes. I do know that, squidgy as they could be on doctrinal matters, they had the sense not to invite him back in the following years.

For more on the history of Jake's and the modalist heresy see here and here as well as here and here.

Joshua 24:15b, Egalitarian Eisegesis Expanded version

2011-09-23T11:26:00.000-06:00

But as for me and my house . . wait, family meeting in progress:

Joshua: Matilda, as my co-equal and mutually submitting spouse, I must ask you who we should serve?

Mrs. Joshua: Joshua, don't be silly. It's the white sale tomorrow morning and I must get in line for the best sheets.

Joshua: Children, I will consult you as well. Who do you say we should serve?

Akin: Dad, I want to go to that place where they serve your hamburger to you at the chariot window.

Brakin: Do I have to serve? I'm playing Donkey-pong!

Hartt: Whatever!

Joshua here again, you Israelites. I'm afraid our family meeting is in recess. We simply can't come to a consensus after I have consulted each member of my household. Since I have consulted them and there is no consensus, I cannot speak for who we will serve. Sorry, folks.

EEEv commentary on this verse:

Do you really think that Joshua could speak for others in his house on this matter of faith without discussing it with them beforehand? Each person’s faith is a matter between themselves and God, at least according to the Bible.

The Herodias Syndrome: Women, Contraception and Priestly Timidity

2011-09-07T18:18:00.000-06:00

Herodias knew the kind of carnal shame that is intuitive for women, one to which men may well be oblivious. Like Lady Macbeth, she resorted to violence to force her husband to see her shame. In the 80 years since the first Christian church body allowed the use of contraception for married couples (Lambeth, 1930), we have seen study after study about the ill effects of birth control on everything from a woman's long term health, to her choice of marital (or not) partners -- extending even to widespread effects on the natural environment because of the flood of hormones being flushed down our toilets on a continual basis.

In the face of this unnatural practice, women are resorting to violence (abortion, unilateral divorce) to place their shame before the face of their husbands and paramours. And yet our pastors rarely preach on this, our elders rarely teach us about the evils of contraception. Is it ever mentioned in marital counseling? Ever counseled against in marriage preparation classes?

Our pastors and elders must not shy away from excising the shame -- for only then can repentance and true reconciliation be effected.

read the original article here.

Evangelicalism: Roy Rogers style (or, Reason #697 for Why I Am Not an Evangelical)

2011-09-07T15:49:00.000-06:00

I am sure you will realize which song, popularized by Roy Rogers, I have in mind when you read the following snippets from Rachel Held Evans's blog. They come from the two-part reflection on her week of silence. The week was part of her "year of biblical womanhood" project.

RHE, on visiting a Benedictine monastery:

My inner voice was right. Sure I tell the news media I’m an evangelical, but the truth is, I don’t know what I am. I’m a religious misfit. I don’t have a home.

----------------

At lunch I confessed to one of the monks, Brother Brenden, “I know it doesn’t work this way, but I wish I could take the pieces I love from each tradition—Catholic, Orthodox, Mennonite, Methodist, Evangelical, Anglican—and cobble them together into a home church.” He smiled sympathetically, but in a way that said, “Yeah,it doesn’t work that way.”

Kacie wrote, in response:

I'm cobbling together bits and pieces from here and there. And you know where I end up? As an evangelical. Because an evangelical is undefined. Whereas in all the other corners you clearly know when you're in and out and I'm out because I don't totally agree.... I feel like Evangelical is sort of a Christian who doesn't fit any other boxes. We're the misfits. We don't always like each other because we've all cobbled together our faith differently and we don't fit. Evangelicalism is undefined. I think we sometimes fall into it because no one else takes us.

RHE, part 2 on a Quaker meeting:

As we sat in silence together, I remembered something William James said: “Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest, which co-mingle their roots in the darkness underground. Just so, there is a continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality builds but accidental fences, and into which our several minds plunge as into a other sea or reservoir.”

It occurred to me that the distinctions between Catholics at Quakers that seem so pronounced on the outside are but accidental fences in the endless continuum of God’s grace. Perhaps my frantic search for a denominational “home” was an attempt to build fences where there needn’t be any.

--------------------

I think that ever since our church plant failed, I’ve been trying to recapture the sense of belonging…no, control… I had when I was such an integral part of creating our community’s identity. Now, when I visit other churches, all I can see are the fences—the doctrines, traditions, and idiosyncrasies that rub me the wrong way and make me feel isolated from my fellow Christians.

But the truth of the matter is, I can’t make my own tradition in my own image. I tried that, and it didn’t work. However, I can connect to the Holy Spirit and to the people with whom the Holy Spirit resides at every wayside shrine I encounter along the way. And I can cobble together an eclectic assemblage of favorite hymns, rituals, images, service efforts, and theology to adorn the little sanctuary in my soul.

The point of the Church has never been uniformity, but unity.

Respondent Dustin comes closest to the problem with RHEs imaginary fences:

Yes. In fact, I think that's true for most of us. What do you think is the key to moving past these imaginary fences? And, on another note, how do you tell the difference between an imaginary fence and a REAL fence?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The problem Evans is unable to recognize is that the fences are real. Does she imagine the fences around her marriage are imaginary? Unnecessary? When was the last time she encouraged Dan to sleep with another woman to explore the unity between people prevented by the imaginary fence of marital monogamy?

I'll eat my socks if that has ever happened. Why does she imagine God is any less jealous of His church than she is of her marriage? In fact, marriage is the overriding biblical image of God's relationship with us. His pursuit of us is woven throughout the Bible: from his calling Abram to Hosea's marriage to the unfaithful Gomer. And then there is our establishment as Christ's body, His Bride, and refinement during the Church Age -- at the end of which we will celebrate a wedding feast.

As Chesterton has reminded us, we ought not go about tearing fences down until we know why they were put up in the first place - nor should we pretend they are imaginary. Quakers deny the sacraments, Roman Catholics hold a high view of them and the fences between the two groups are very real and proper. Evangelical churches have a lower view of the sacraments, but even there the communion table is fenced against Buddhists and Zoroastrians. The fences exist to define what is before us, and instruct us about its significance.

The fences of Christianity are the fences of a playground. Without them, we run the risk of running into road traffic in our enthusiasm for play.

**emphasis as in original in quotes from RHEs blog.

Perhaps it was the Hound of Heaven instead?

2011-09-02T00:27:00.000-06:00

Ellen Painter Dollar has been fired from CT

I just have one question: Who does she think is rejoicing?

I am certainly thankful that she has one less platform from which to lead innocent souls astray. But really, if she thinks her firing is a matter for rejoicing, she truly doesn't understand what is at stake here. Nor does she understand her opponents.

Please Pray for her.

Weekly Writing Reminder

2011-09-01T11:33:00.000-06:00

Elmore Leonard: 10 Rules

Never open a book with weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10:

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Now taking donations!

2011-08-30T18:22:00.000-06:00

Gorgeous home in Stillwater, MN is for sale - owned by the founder of Loome Booksellers.

I wouldn't mind having one of those bathtubs, either!

If it was on the river, I'd be suffering serious envy for the new buyer -- whoever that turns out to be.

And ZING! right past the point.

2011-08-28T14:08:00.001-06:00

Periodically I let the insanity of discussion among "egals" get the better of me and point out that no one, but no one, ever complains that their church prohibits them from scrubbing the toilets, or polishing the pews on church cleaning day or a dozen other menial tasks that don't come with fancy titles, cushy discretionary funds and comfy offices.

I did that this week, only to receive this response:

"I've never heard of a church denying someone the "right" to scrub the toilets. In fact they usually beg for someone to do it and I'm sure they would accept volunteers of any gender."

Precisely.

Re-Focus: What happened to the prisoners?

2011-08-27T17:26:00.000-06:00

"The Soviet regime was persecuting dissidents, but did not destroy them to the end because its leaders were afraid of Western public opinion. But now, Putin is not afraid of Western opinion at all. On the contrary, the West itself is fawning upon Putin’s Russia.

Could a new Elena Bonner appear in Russia now? No. Now she would be shot down like Anna Politkovskaya and many other real dissidents, not supported by the FSB. And there is one more difference: today’s Elena Bonner would never enjoy support from the West."

From the symposium, Russia After Elena Bonner, read it all at Front Page Magazine.

ht: Faith McDonnell

Gargantua the Cabbagge was soooo big!

2011-08-27T14:10:00.000-06:00

How big was he?

He was so big even the large bowl on my professional Cuisinart required two batches.

Simple Coleslaw Recipe

Weigh your cabbage at the store (easiest)
Chop or slice the cabbage the way you prefer it for Coleslaw
For every 8 ounces of cabbage, add:

1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar (pref. Bragg's with the "mother")
2 oz raw sliced -or- toasted and chopped almonds
1 T finely diced green onion

Toss, add salt to taste. It will be better if refrigerated for 2-4 hours but is fine freshly made as well.

On taking the wrong philosophy as your guiding principle

2011-08-27T12:40:00.000-06:00

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives. (Robert A Heinlein)

Now I doubt many of our religious feminist friends actually read Heinlein and have consciously taken him as their prophet, but it's hard to deny they have a great affinity for this same philosophy. Even the gentlest answer, which a wise man once told us would turn away wrath, elicits cries of "Tyranny!" from the feminist faction, as CBMWs new President learned this week. Goodness, even a simply statement regarding normal human physiology is seen as the marginalization and illegitimate labeling of others.

The wise man also told us not to answer a fool according to his folly. Chapter 26 of Proverbs is a series of short instructions on choosing the correct weapon. You do not answer a fool according to his folly any more than you use a horse bridle on a pig. And while religious feminists may store up a good deal of wrath, the wrath isn't the problem. Their wrath is only the catalyst that speeds up the rebellion/reaction. It starts out calmly and rationally, and for those who are not affirmed in their rebellion against he Word, anger, wrath, even rage enter the picture to act as catalysts -- ensuring the rebellion continues.

But for those for whom the catalyst is removed, with God's help, the reaction slows and even ends. When that happens, the distortions caused by the accelerating reaction disappear and things can be seen more clearly. What had been seen as oppression and tyranny becomes known as protection, the blessing and discipline of pastoral care that frees one to play on the plateau of Christian orthodoxy without cowering in the middle because you fear the cliff edge.

Fences turn out to be not so "oppressive" after all.

Friday Focus: Remember the Prisoners

2011-08-27T02:23:00.000-06:00

Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves are also in the body. (Hebrews 13:3, NASB)

I still remember a day in January of 1995 when I was standing on the little balcony of the apartment where I was staying in Donetsk, Ukraine. It was one of the rare moments that week when sunshine broke through the grey clouds. In the distance to the left, was a veritable forest of those large, ugly apartment blocks built in the soviet era which would depress even the sunniest of personalities. Ahead and to the right was a forest of deciduous trees, most likely ash, which added an atmospheric coldness to the physical coldness of the day. Across the road from the campus was a large brewery which was defended by an 8-foot high stone wall topped by rolled razor-wire and "guarded" at intervals by large and fierce-looking black crows. The windows of the main brewery building were darkened and announcements in Russian were periodically barked out of external loudspeakers.

In all, the physical surroundings of the campus provided an atmospheric reminder that only a few years before, there was no Christian oasis in the area and the campus itself was the home of a Komsomol (Soviet Youth Organization) Camp. Such atmosphere wasn't the only thing working to remind us how privileged are even the poorer folks in the West. We had also been reminded of the stark reality some Christians had faced in the former Soviet Union when we visited a church in Donetsk that met in the building that was formerly the local KGB headquarters. What had been an interrogation room had become a room filled with clothing donated by German Christians. An office had been converted to a small radio broadcasting operation and the main hall was now a sanctuary for Christian worship which, even on that cold and grey January Sunday morning, was so full that some worshippers stood out in the hallway for a 2 1/2 hour service.

But the most saddening reminder of how materially privileged we are in the West came in the form of a warning:

We are praying for your persecution.

The reason some Christians who have suffered persecution under the thumb of repressive governments, and the brothers and sisters who are even now so suffering is that they fear we have forgotten them. We don't write to them, don't give nearly enough and, I suspect, they can sense that we are not praying for them. We have forgotten that we are a Body, adopted into Christ. We have forgotten the Christians like them who are hidden from our view much like we forget about the existence of our gallbladder, tucked up under our equally forgotten liver, until it causes us discomfort.

That was fifteen years ago, and depending upon your vantage point, it doesn't look like much has changed. September 11, 2001 has proven to be little more than a blip on the radar. It may have been a wake up call that some still look back to but we appear to have hit the snooze button. More than once.

So this is a teeny little reminder that the hidden parts of the body need attention even when we don't receive constant reminders of their existence. Isn't it funny that even when we receive national reminders to pray in splashy events such as the National Prayer Breakfast and the National Day of Prayer, we make more fuss over the high school student who was told not to pray when he gave his graduation speech than we do over the abortuary across town where our next generation is routinely executed? And when have you ever heard someone at a National Day of Prayer Rally remind us to pray for our brothers and sisters in chains as if we were in chains as well?

I sometimes think material comfort is the greatest enemy of body life. Our wealth has created chains that are harder to break than the strongest prison chains made by a jailer.

The Scripture at the top of this post is linked to the website for IDOP, International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. You'll learn about the organization and how to pray for the persecuted, you'll read testimonies and learn about the resources available to you. If you would like to get your church involved, be sure to visit their resources page.

But most of all, don't allow yourself to think it is a special day celebrated on the second Sunday in November. The privilege of praying for our brothers and sisters in chains, praying as if we were chained up alongside them is something we celebrate every day.

Trailing Chum and why some men still won't hit a girl

2011-08-25T21:17:00.001-06:00

"The interview with Dr. Moore was worthwhile. At least he presented a better, kinder, gentler complementarianism. The problem is that there is still no bend to the position; it is as legalistic and hidebound as Phariseeism, if more kindly put."

When Dr. Russell Moore's interview with the palterers* of Molech Today's womyn's blog was published on the very same day he was elected president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, I was a bit worried. When I read the interview, I was even more worried. I posted a link to the interview to my email group, using the following question as a subject line:

Why does CBMW bother?

I was taken to task by several, including a friend of Russ Moore's, for being unfair and too harsh. Referring to my experience on both sides of this battle - and as far as I have been able to determine my experience is utterly unique - I said I didn't think I was being harsh at all. In fact, men previously associate with CBMW had resigned their association with the group over what is seen as kidd glove treatment of their feminist opponents. In a response to one of those gentlemen in the email group, I wrote the following (edited for typos):

I don't know how Moore can even think that they are not about destroying Scripture when CBE publishes bloggers that deny the Trinity, slander CBMW-ers on a regular basis (claiming they support, enable and encourage wife-beating), and profess to worship "godde". I've watched seminaries, parachurch ministries, denominations and the publishing industry fall like dominoes over this. Then there is also CBMW's inexcusably glowing obituary for Cathie Kroeger - a woman who had dedicated the last decades of her life to destroying Scripture and who giggled about her scholarly shenanigans as well!

The Egalitarians will smell blood and go in for the kill. I know I would have. And God knows what will or will not be gained, though I may never know. . . .

But Dr. Moore is a gentleman, even a Southern gentleman, and knows better than to hit a lady. I do rather hope he never forgets that, but I wish he would also grant that there may be a time to take that same lady (read: religious feminist) by the shoulders, sit her down and impart a few home truths about what she is doing to Holy Scripture. Because it only took a few days to show I was right in my assessment that the feminists would see this interview as a moment of weakness. You can't win by gentlemanly discourse, and you can't show weakness in the face of an opponent who seeks your death - just ask the State of Israel what those "land for peace" deals have gained them.

The quote at the top is from the discussion thread following Moore's interview, written by a feminist pastor. As Irenic as Dr. Moore was in that interview, he is still seen as a legalist and a pharisee.

So, I'll ask it one more time:

Why does CBMW bother?

*look that up in your Funk and Wagnall's

Her.story, a fuller response

2011-08-25T15:29:00.001-06:00

My friend, Sarah Flashing, has published her article on narrative ethics and its use over at Molech Today's women's blog:

The Moral of the Story , , ,Is there One?

She explains narrative ethics and shows how particular proponents of that philosophy have influenced Ellen Painter Dollar. It's a good primer on an increasingly influential philosophy. So go read it.

I'll tease you with the conclusion:

While God sent his son to pay the debt for our own sin, each of us entered into his story of redemption. But even within the story, God has provided moral guard rails, principles, that help us to become more like him and even protect us from the every day consequences of sin. The narrative ethics of Ellen Painter Dollar appear to be more interested in the experience of the story rather than the moral of the story.

Aww, look at the cute little goats playing!

2011-08-22T01:44:00.000-06:00

The Monday Merriment feature is on hold this week. I don't want to laugh. I want to cry, to weep for the judgment that has befallen us. Honestly, what I'd rather do is find a place with a nice quiet covered patio, a view, a rocking chair and a bottle of 25-year-old single malt (small bottle since I want to be alone for this) so I can forget about the evil in the world, just for a few minutes.

As a friend reminded me tonight, when we reject God's law, judgment falls and people offer their children on Molech's altar. Under the guise of listening to people's stories and a new system of ethics called, "narrative ethics", we have tossed out God's moral law and substituted our own judgment. The goats are in among the sheep, pretending to be so nice and kind and such very good listeners. And we are offering our children on the altar of Molech - only today Molech wears a white robe and performs the sacrifice in a sterile environment, hiding the blood from all.

Weep with me, will you?

³¹ “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; ³³ and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:31-33, NASB)

Too horrified to weep: Molech Today's Priestess

2011-08-21T20:19:00.001-06:00

The gals over at Her.whatever have been discussing "narrative ethics" which turns out to be an odd sort of amalgamation of situation ethics and post-modern "what's true for you may not be true for me"ism. The trouble with such folks as the blogger is that the more they clarify and engage the discussion, the deeper the hole they dig for themselves. Ellen Painter Dollar should have been banned from the electronic pages of CTs website a year ago when she wrote this dispassionate re-telling of how she directed the medical murder of three of her children:

PGD is in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with the added step of genetic screening. Only one of four embryos tested negative for OI[a genetic disease she carries] and was implanted, but I did not get pregnant. (We eventually conceived both our second and third children naturally; neither of them inherited OI.) We had the other three embryos destroyed.

The sub-title of the article is, "Christians need much better resources for ethical and theological reflection." The problem is, Mrs. Dollar (in her latest her.whatever blog post), wants to turn to a bastardized sort of situation ethics in which we may choose to give, "some moral value" "greater weight than an individual's story." Which means that the more emotionally wrenching the story, the more manipulative its telling, the more likely it is that eternal moral prescriptions will be tossed out like a week old piece of flounder.

Oh, it is certain that Dollar will object to this characterization, as she already has in the comments on the blog post. But her closing response in the comment thread puts the lie to that objection. You see, she doesn't believe holding to eternal moral principles provides a safe space for our story telling. If that story telling includes her deliberate omission of the moral status of the embryo because, "the moral status of embryos is, for me, not the central issue with reproductive technology", there is little doubt she would think a conversation bounded by eternal moral principles a remarkably unsafe place to tell her story.

On the contrary, such a place bounded by the unchanging word of God provided in Holy Scripture, the moral precepts the church has given us and held to for 2000 years, the weight of that tradition -- is the only safe place. It is the only place that will prevent Ellen Painter Dollar, you, I and everyone else from careening into the abyss while telling our stories.

Friday Focus: The Overpopulation Myth

2011-08-20T01:06:00.001-06:00

There is a TED talk floating around which was given by Sheryl WuDunn (see here and here), the co-author of Half the Sky. She speaks about the work of the Half the Sky Foundation and says that something called, "gender inequity" is the central moral challenge of the 21st century. This is her first major tenet. WuDunn illustrates this inequity by talking about the phenomenon of missing girls, putting the number at, "between 60 million and 100 million missing females in the current population." WuDunn, even though this is her issue, seems to underplay the numbers (more on why this might be in a moment) because Steven Mosher/PRI puts the number at 100 million, which is also the U.N.s number, while author Mara Hvistendahl puts it at 163 million in Asia, the region with the starkest demographic divide.

Whether or not WuDunn is underplaying the numbers, her solution given in the second major tenet is bound to perpetuate the problem:

The second tenet of "Half the Sky" is that, let's put aside the morality of all the right and wrong of it all. And just on a purely practical level, we think that one of the best ways to fight poverty and to fight terrorism is to educate girls and to bring women into the formal labor force. Poverty, for instance. There are three reasons why this is the case. For one, overpopulation is one of the persistent causes of poverty. And you know, when you educate a boy, his family tends to have fewer kids, but only slightly. When you educate a girl, she tends to have significantly fewer kids.

I believe WuDunn may be deliberately underplaying the number of missing girls because it would affect public perception of the above agenda. That agenda, as a practical matter, requires the widespread availability and practice of abortion. The case for the link between regular use of artificial birth control and abortion has been made elsewhere so I will not rehearse it here. In order to bring women into the formal labor force and keep them there, you have to depend upon abortion when contraception fails. Abortion is the birth control back-up plan, so to speak. So, yes, let's put aside the morality of it all, shall we?

[As an interesting aside, I have been criticized elsewhere for linking WuDunn with Mao and calling her a fan of Mao which is odd when you consider that only when the communists were moving women into the formal labor force did Mao coin his now famous phrase, "Women hold up half the sky." And what is a major focus of her agenda? Moving women into the formal workforce!]

I believe there are tell-tale signs all the way through this talk that WuDunn doesn't really love these people, she just thinks they need her. One sign was the way she depersonalizes people in references like this, "the breast shows no son preference." Another was that obvious instance where she urged us to put aside morality in favor of her agenda because she knows how to help these people. But the most egregious instance is her parroting of the overpopulation myth which brings me to the reason for this extended introduction.

Steven Mosher is a widely recognized authority on population issues, particularly in China. The first American social scientist allowed in China, he witnessed the coercive methods of enforcing the "One Child" policy from the first days of its existence. Mosher heads up the non profit, Population Research Institute which, "works to end coercive population control, and fight the myth of overpopulation which fuels it."

Of their special projects, Overpopulation is a Myth is just chock full of catchy videos and the science to back them up. Other projects aim to Stop Sex-Selective Abortion and Project Real Need which aims at stopping the flow of tax dollars to funding abortion and put that money where it is needed, such as in Malaria prevention measures.

So tour around PRI, get to know their work and check out some of the videos. You will come away understanding that overpopulation is far from being a "persistent" cause of poverty, it is a myth. And forget WuDunn's amoral prescription.

*please also read some additional information in the first comment.

The MD-inspred "cone of silence"

2011-08-18T18:34:00.003-06:00

I'm done. It's not my job, it should be done by the men who are defending and promoting the celebrity preacher who is (to paraphrase a friend) the Reformed world's Benny Hinn. And I am tired of feeling like a pornographer every time I pass on the relevant links, only doing so because I have a tough time saying "no" to my friends (and that is my problem, not theirs). So here are the relevant keywords. Beyond this, anyone who is curious about the brouhaha will have to do their own research:

Mark Driscoll
Blog and Mablog
Peasant Princess
Cessationism
Pyromaniacs

Monday Merriment

2011-08-15T14:38:00.000-06:00

This week, courtesy of Dr. Boli:

Sure sign of the Apocalypse #962: The Marriage Ref

2011-08-15T14:33:00.000-06:00

The Marriage Ref is a newish show on broadcast television in which couples come on television to get marriage advice from, among others, Bill Maher.

If I need to explain or defend my assertion that this is a sure sign, then I can't help you. I could put together the argument, but it wouldn't help.

THE QUESTION: In which Byron York learns the old rule still stands

2011-08-14T17:20:00.000-06:00

Boys don't hit girls. They just don't. Byron York learned that the rule still holds, even when the girl is putting herself up for the biggest game in town - Presidential politics. Even before he finished asking THE QUESTION, a chorus of "Boo!"s rose up from the audience. Bachmann seemed gratified by the audience response, but she should not have been. It was one more indication of the American public's love-hate relationship with feminism and feminists. We want our women to be able to rough it up with the big boys, but when someone treats them like they actually are just one of the boys, the old instincts rise up. Welling up from a deep place within us that we try to ignore, the reaction is undeniable. You can try to ignore it, but that won't work for very long. As J Budziszewski has reminded us, there are some things which you "can't not know".

Against many commentators, I will say unapologetically that it was a perfectly legitimate question. A journalist should ask questions relevant to each candidate's own individual beliefs and positions. You wouldn't ask Herman Cain if he submits to his wife because he's never indicated he thinks this might be a biblical mandate (as far as I know). Nor would you care if Mrs. Romney submits to her husband because no one cares, she is not the one wanting our vote, not the one who will be making the decisions. And assertive though Mrs. Gingrich is said to be, it's Mr. Gingrich that is running for the nomination. But Mrs Bachmann is a "Mrs". And she has publicly said she submits to her husband because Scripture teaches her to do so. So, yes, it is a relevant and legitimate question for her and her alone.

But the American public can breath easy. If we are to believe Bachmann's response to York, submission doesn't really mean submission. It means respect. It even means mutual respect. Goodness, Mrs. Bachmann is sounding more and more like she's been reading CBEs materials rather than CBMWs, doesn't she? But I'll let Mrs. Bachmann speak for herself:

Both he and I, what submission means to us, if that's what your question is, it means respect. I respect my husband. . .And he respects me as his wife. That's how we operate our marriage. We respect each other, we love each other, and I've been so grateful that we've been able to build a home together . . .

Bachmann, in her interview today, doesn't seem to have elaborated on that answer, instead she has reiterated and affirmed it. So all you folks who were holding your breath can let it out now. Marcus Bachmann will not be directing foreign or domestic policy for his submissive wife. She doesn't really mean submission in the biblical sense,where wives are called to submit to their husbands in a way that husbands, who do not receive a reciprocal commandment to submit to their wives, are not. She means a sort of mutual admiration society that does sound remarkably like the doctrine of the Egalitarians.

We should all learn the lesson Byron York learned. It's a lesson the feminists have been trying to teach us for more than a generation. They WILL play with the big boys whether you like it or not. But if you dare treat one of them as if she actually WAS a big boy - your name will be reviled throughout the land.

It's a boy's game, but they want to play by the girl's rules. Fail to learn that lesson at your own risk.

The ahistorical nature of religious feminism and the myth of the naked public square

2011-08-13T11:52:00.000-06:00

This should be a short post as I just aim to share something of a light-bulb moment.

First, in what I quote below, you will find a popular formation of the myth of the naked public square. I am not going to analyze it as many minds, finer than mine, have already dealt the myth a death-blow. Start with the work of First Things and founder Fr. Richard John Neuhaus to see what I mean.

It has been said that one who goes deep into history ceases to be Protestant. There are times when I fear that is true (I say fear because I still am a Protestant, you see). As a contemporary corollary to that I would offer the maxim that (using the generic masculine, take note): He who is steeped in reality ceases to be feminist. The feminist, not least the religious feminists, exists in a sort of culturally illiterate vacuum never before seen in public discourse.

Here, then, is part of a blog exchange which took place elsewhere this morning. My words are in plain text, my respondents words are italicized:

My work focuses on women’s equality and I have found that almost every conversation can be brought to that subject.

Michelle Bachmann should not have been asked that question. Plain and simple. You would not ask Romney whether or not he believes that his wife should submit to him. Most Mormons do believe that, just as SBCers believe it, but it wouldn’t be asked.

It is time we took religion out of politics. Whether you are egalitarian, as I am, or whether you are complementarian, we should keep church and state separated. If not, one day we will wake up and find that we have a church-run country.

No man will ever be asked if his wife submits to him because no one cares – it does not affect his political decision-making whereas Bachman (who is a wife and not a husband) will be very much affected in her decision-making by her husband if she truly submits. Now that may be for political good or ill, but it is a legitimate question because it is a legitimate difference.

As for your longed-for naked public square – it is a myth.

“my longed-for naked public square” Whoa, where did that come from? And what does it mean?

Friday Focus: Simple Actions

2011-08-12T10:41:00.000-06:00

All too often when we run across injustices, particularly big ones, we freeze up with the enormity of it all. We become convinced that there is nothing we can do so we end up doing nothing but stewing about it. The first and foremost course of action for any Christian is: prayer. Simple and simply world-changing. Whether God answers your prayer by nudging someone else into action or showing you the way to take one step forward, one little kick at the darkness -- prayer is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal. It calls up armies of angels, gathers the saints militant and triumphant for battle. In the end, it is not simply our preparation for battle, it is the one field of battle into which every single Christian, no exceptions, is called.
But prayer often feels so nebulous to us, so ineffectual because we often do not see that answers come. Particularly so when we are concerned about BIG issues like sex trafficking and abortion. We want to DO SOMETHING, anything. So often we comfort ourselves, in this age, with typing our names in a little box on a computer screen and think that signing a petition is doing something, because doing more seems so overwhelming and might call us to get our hands dirty. In fact, I recently wrote a "note" on this for my FB page.

There aren't many of us who could or should pick up sticks and go to work volunteering for IJM or World Vision or go to work at a Hamlin Fistula Hospital. When we do this without the proper preparation we can end up hurting more than helping. When this happens we can see that perhaps prayer really is our best weapon, prayer for guidance and direction.

So I think you already know today's assignment. But for extra credit you can do something positive, a simple action to support a good piece of legislation. Here is a link to an explanation about the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Here is the Senate website from which you can find the contact information for your two Senators. Read the information on the IJM page and poke around a bit, checking some of the links which include a link to the full text of the bill. Use their letter as a model for your own letter to your two Senators. Then get in touch with your Senators, both of them. Whether by phone call, personal email, postal letter or a face-to-face meeting the next time they are home. Meeting with local staffers and leaving a letter for the Senator works as well.

It's a simple thing to make it personal. In the words of Bruce Cockburn, gotta kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight. Sometimes it takes an awful lot of kicking, but it starts with one kick at the darkness and one knock on the doors of Heaven.

Riding in on a shiny new pony

2011-08-11T17:40:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago there was a big shindig here in Denver, The Western Conservative Summit. And while I am quite sure there was a pair or two of genuine cowboy boots (with honestly gained smelly brown stuff barely scraped off) present in the swanky downtown hotel, I think Jay Ambrose might be a bit too messianic in his assessment of the event:

The People Who May Save America

You'll forgive me for being a bit skeptical.

Steinem's sour grapes

2011-08-11T17:31:00.000-06:00

Ms. Gloria Steinem, who found rather late in life that sometimes, yes fish do need bicycles, is being feted in events surrounding publicity for the HBO documentary, Gloria: In her own words. New York Magazine interviewed her at one of those luncheons and asked her about Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Proving, for the 567th time, that the "women's movement" was only ever an "upper middle class women's movement", Steinem responded, "They’re there to oppose the women's movement. That's their job." It's not about a mythic glass ceiling or women who can make it in a "man's world". Never was. If it was truly a movement of women who believe that "women are people, too!", Steinem would be applauding the fact that a woman had been on the presidential ticket for the second time in a generation and that two women (Hillary Clinton in 2008 and Michele Bachmann in 2012) are given serious consideration for a presidential nomination.

The truth is that Steinem sounds frustrated. It also sounds as if it is Evangelical Christianity which she really despises and not merely politically conservative women. Read the rest of the article here.

Steinem is wrong and rather than moaning, she should be celebrating. Her movement has gone so mainstream/underground that, while certain pundits and media darlings use their sex to attack Palin and Bachmann, no one really thinks their place is, well, out of place. Steinem makes my point for me when she lumps Palin and Bachmann in with Rick Perry (you know, that guy who organized a really dangerous gathering of people to . . . pray, right?). You know a movement has done its work in permeating society when the bulk of Evangelicalism has embraced it. So, chin up, Gloria! Your moment has passed and your work is done. Were all feminists now.

Sarah Palin and those around her embraced the feminist label and created a new species, the Frontier Feminist with a mama grizzly as their mascot. Michele Bachmann is more soft-pedal in her feminism. In fact, I don't think I've seen her mention the word in any of the speeches I've heard or articles about her I've read. While Todd Palin publicly appears to be an absent husband-father, Marcus Bachmann is very much presented as the servant-leader a good complementarian husband should be. Palin also has a young and troubled family with a teen daughter known to be pregnant out-of-wedlock when she accepted the offer from McCain. Bachmann has raised her children and is staging the next act of her life.

So there are stark differences between the families and life stages of Palin and Bachmann, are they really that different? Is Palin the cheerleader more of a feminist than Bachmann the class president? Well, yes. Bachmann's candidacy is much less of a concern than Palin's was, because of all those reasons I just listed. But the question remains whether or not public office, especially national office, is an appropriate goal for a woman. If, as Complementarian Evangelicals believe, a wife is to submit to her husband's headship in the home and that she is not, by virtue of her sex, eligible for ordination or presiding office in the church and because St. Paul ties these conditions to creation (as indeed the big picture of Scripture does from beginning to end), then:

How can a woman submit to her husband at home and the rule of the elders in church but then, when she sits at the desk in the oval office, become her husband's, her pastor's, her elder's Commander-in-Chief? Who are we? Who has God created us to be as male and female? And how can what holds in the Church and the home not hold in the workplace? Are we not the same person, male or female, no matter where we are, how we relate to or how we engage the world?

Yes, we are. And before the advent of religious feminism we would have known that. In consequence, I must conclude that Michele Bachmann still presents us with feminism, even if it is the sort of compromised feminism Steinem decries.

More waah waah from the religious feminists

2011-08-09T14:45:00.001-06:00

Culled from a religious feminist blog discussing the Barna survey:

All the women I know who are not in church are amazing followers of Christ who are tired of church yuckiness destroying their faith walk.

OK, right. Now let's try the same scenario in a related biblical context:

All the women I know who are not living with their husbands are amazing wives who are tired of husbandly yuckiness destroying their marriage.

Wait for it.

Nope. It just doesn't work, does it?

It didn't for St. Cyprian either, who wrote in De Unitate Eccslesiae:

"He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother; . . . he who gathereth elsewhere than in the Church scatters the Church of Christ" (vi.); "nor is there any other home to believers but the one Church" (ix.).

It wasn't just St. Cyprian who thought that. The maxim has been repeated down through the Church Age by Catholic and Reformed.

Time for a reminder: The Definition of Feminism

2011-08-09T04:23:00.000-06:00

Now I know some will disagree with me on this, particularly my Catholic friends who have embraced the "New Feminism" spurred on by JPIIs use of the term in Evangelium Vitae, but I believe that feminism is feminism is feminism and, as I've said before, I'm not a great fan of "isms". In the months since I first developed this definition of feminism (with the wise guidance of some faithful brother-theologians, I will add), I have not felt the need to seriously revise it. The definition includes both the genus, feminism and the particular species of feminism with which I am most concerned, religious feminism:

Feminism is the belief which denies the created order of the sexes. Religious feminism, in particular, is the heresy which denies the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the authorship of Scripture and denies the paradox at the heart of orthodox Christian anthropology - that man and woman are equally created in the image and likeness of God and that, by creation and sovereign decree, God has established the headship of the man over the woman.

Yes, there it is again. I used both the "h" word and the "p" word. If there is one thing religious feminists hate more than the implication that they are not the schismatics, that they are not the ones causing the current rift, that patriarchalists are not trying to put something in Scripture that was never there to start with -- it is the implications of that necessary and beautiful paradox at the heart of Christian anthropology.

Monday Merriment

2011-08-08T14:01:00.000-06:00

I was going to start a second feature called, "Monday Merriment" today, but in searching for fodder, I found this. And while its more like a kick to the solar plexus, it may afford a sort of sad chuckle. Courtesy of the Sacred Sandwich, I present Condimentality:

Feminists should back off the wah-wah peddle

2011-08-08T13:46:00.000-06:00

Barna's got a new survey out and religious feminists are leaning a bit hard on their wah-wah peddles. Or should that be waaah waaah peddles? According to Barna, the only religious behaviour that has increased among women in the past twenty years is women becoming unchurched. One religious feminist muses that perhaps churches don't have the welcome mat out for women, that women are getting their feelings hurt. Apparently the Ezer-warrior women aren't so ezer-like after all?

The truth is that the truth will out, you can't fool "mother nature" and you can only suppress those truths we can't not know for so long. We know those truths, they penetrate deeper than the marrow in our bones, we can suppress and ignore them, but not for long. Sooner or later, something's gotta give. And now that religious feminists have gotten the church they wanted they've also found that they really don't like it very much.

Read the report for yourself. Then ask yourself how much evangelical churches, parachurch ministries and educational institutions have been affected by religious feminism. Twenty years ago, would your church have considered calling a woman as pastor? Associate pastor? Senior pastor? Look back, think seriously and honestly. Twenty, thirty, forty years. And then consider whether you can honestly tell me religious feminism has not accomplished much of its agenda. If they have, as I think you will find they have, then why are women leaving?

Why do they not seem invested now that the battle has largely been won?

The religious feminist's useful lie

2011-08-05T22:21:00.000-06:00

Excuse me a moment, will you? . . .

ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There. I feel a bit better now. Harder to kill than Dracula. If you'll forgive the Princess Bride-ism, it's never more than mostly dead. It's the useful lie by what Lenin would have called useful idiots (folks supporting something they really don't understand is a kinder way to put it). You can put a stake through its heart, cut off its head, burn it at the stake (oops, that might have been the wrong picture to evoke), feed it to the fishes in Sicilian fashion, but it simply w-i-l-l n-o-t d-i-e.

What is it? It's the libel against the Church, that it has traditionally held that women do not have full access to God and that women are by nature lower than men. Now it is true enough that some men who are called Fathers of the Church have rather gone off the rails on this point, but to indicate it ever was a widely held belief is nothing short of libel. This same Church called Mary Magdalene the "Apostle to the Apostles" and St. Nina was honored "Equal to the Apostles". Then there is Hildegard of Bingen, a Magistra who corresponded with Bernard of Clairvaux, Frederick Barbarossa and at least two popes. One of those popes was so impressed he sent her on a preaching tour of Germany. Just a few examples, I know,but it's hard to see how someone who knows a bean about church history can get sucked into the perennial lie.

Here are just two correctives, two more stakes in the heart of the lie:

From Augustine and Aquinas

Please feel free to add your own stake.

Friday Focus: Truckers aganst Trafficking

2011-08-05T19:19:00.002-06:00

Human trafficking victimizes men as well as women, children and adults. And it is probably happening within minutes of your own home. If you have ever taken a road trip with your family, you have probably been within feet of a victim of one particular type of trafficking at one of those travel plazas where the hash browns always have crispy backs but if you order cinnamon toast, it may come with plain cinnamon and not cinnamon sugar.

Human trafficking takes many forms. Men are victimized for labour and women and children are often victimized as sex slaves. Some of the newest forms, such as reproductive tourism, don't even look like trafficking or slavery. Evil evolves to fit the conditions available to it and yet there is nothing new under the sun. There have always been users and victims.

There have also always been Good Samaritans who help restore victims to health. Truckers against Trafficking is on such "Good Samaritan" organization, helping to equip and mobilize members of the trucking and travel plaza industries to recognize and combat sex trafficking.

Sometimes all it takes is one phone call from one trucker to rescue one victim. Pay the website a visit. Find out how you can help. Connect with them on Facebook and spread the word.

It's worse than that . . .

2011-08-05T13:49:00.000-06:00

Sign #479 that the Apocalypse is near and the world as we know it is ending:

Just a few moments ago, I entered the Solid Grounds coffee shop and waited for the coffee mistress to finish emptying the trash before I ordered my tea. No, that is not the sign. The sign is that, when she reached for the cup in which she would pour my iced tea, I said, "Unh, Unh, Unh!" The look she gave me appeared to be a combination of, "What's the problem?" and "What's your problem?" So I explained, "You've just handled trash, wash your hands." Which is really more of a demand than an explanation, but not an unreasonable demand.

She argued back, "I only touched the outside!" and shook her head in consternation.

At this point, recognizing the SURE SIGN of the Apocalypse, I put my money back in my purse and walked out.

test

2011-08-03T23:26:00.002-06:00

Just testing to see if third try's a charm and the networked blog thingy is working.

The Magic Roundabout

2011-08-03T15:12:00.000-06:00

I never quite understood the fascination with roundabouts. I guess they are a nice replacement for a four-way stop at a low-traffic intersection. And it's kinda fun to zip around without stopping.

So why in blazes do the unthinking beings called city planers and landscapers plant TALL GRASSES as landscaping on the approach to a roundabout?

Can someone please tell me why?

It turns a roundabout into a four-way stop. Isn't that what the roundabout was designed to avoid?

We're all Feminists now

2011-07-25T13:11:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend I got into a disagreement (on a mutual friend's FB page) discussing the relationship between the death of Amy Winehouse, feminism and Christianity. I am sure this was not the direction my friend wanted to take things, so I quickly exited the discussion. The woman with whom I disagreed is an established author and speaker in the CT/Moody evangelical mould and yet she defended herself as an Orthodox Christian. Now I am quite sure she meant orthodox, since she blogs at Her.whatever and not with Ancient Faith radio's website. Sadly, it was clear from her confident declaration syncretizing feminism and Christianity as well as Denver Seminary's being cowed by the goddess of syncretism in their continued unwillingness to stand against the gnostic women's center they formerly promoted* along with countless other instances I could name - it is clear that feminism has captured Evangelicalism. That battle is over as well as the one in the culture. We're all Feminists now.

Well, not quite. A few of us rebels still exist and I am very thankful for two of them in particular, Suzanne Venker and her aunt Phyllis Schlafly and their new book, The Flipside of Feminism. I knew I was going to love this book by the middle of the second paragraph when I read these words, "Many qualify their position by distinguishing among different kinds of feminism." I've never been a big fan of "isms" to begin with and qualifying the ism seems to me about as quixotic as the attempt to re brand conservatism as "compassionate conservatism". If a thing is worth defending, don't waffle, defend it. Then, in the very next paragraph they write:

Some have even tried to rehabilitate feminism by claiming conservative women belong to something called the "new feminism" or even "pro-life feminism" (Sarah Palin comes to mind) - as if there were such a thing.

Feminism is feminism is feminism. It will always consume the modifier.

The first chapter, "Brainwashed", separates two types of feminists operating in the culture. The fringe feminists are the "out and proud" sort of feminists who are proud of the abortions they've had, for instance. I disagree with the authors when they say these fringe feminists are not the problem. They perform a vital function in furthering the feminist agenda - their vocal presence helps to desensitize and normalize the objectives of feminism. They soften the culture up for the elite power-broker feminists to come in and push forward with their "more reasonable" agenda. These elites rarely call themselves feminists and act more like nannies, always knowing what is best and punishing anyone who disagrees as a nanny would a naughty little girl in her care.

The next chapters provide a history and primer on feminism, including the disconnect between the suffragettes and "second-wave" feminists as well as the Marxist roots of the latter, the advent of absentee parenting and the never-ending search for empowerment and reproductive rights. The feminist air we breathe pushes sex education which leads to the hook-up culture, more sex education and so on, and their cultural icons never get herpes or genital warts, though they may suffer a sort of cartoon heartache. Neither the sex ed or the icons prepare real-life women to handle real life and real heartaches. Another chapter looks at why marriage has proven to be so elusive to the rising generations. None of these difficulties will improve, as Venker and Schlafly point out, until we remember who men and women are and what we mean to each other. There follows an excellent chapter on working mothers and the one way more women can have it all -- by "Sequencing" or taking their life in stages. And then there are the single mothers who replace husband and father in their lives and homes with Big Brother Government, another fruit of feminism.

In the final chapter, "A New Road Map for Women", the authors begin to map out the way forward. A quote from Ann Taylor Fleming pulls us up short. It is a simple question that helps us refocus, begin to recognize the rotten bill of goods we've been sold and move forwards on a new road:

Was you ideology worth the empty womb?

Feminism is a failed experiment in social engineering. The same women who have brought us feminism have, in consequence, given us girl firefighters who would have trouble carrying a medium-sized dog down multiple flights of stairs let alone carry an adult man out of a burning building. They have given us a whole new crime - date rape, as well as a new protected class of victim - the battered woman. This is the air we breath and the most difficult part of the way forward is removing ourselves from the culture to a great enough distance that we can begin to see things clearly.

The Flipside of Feminism is an engaging read that I highly recommend, especially to younger women who may thereby be able to avoid the traps that women of my generation found ourselves caught in without knowing it until it was too late.

*Note: Although Denver Seminary has pulled the video promoting the center, their professors continue to support the work of Pomegranate Place, and the seminary has failed to publish an assessment of the "ministry" of the women's center.

Compelled by circumstances

2011-06-13T13:22:00.000-06:00

Compelled by circumstances, I have created my first FB page. Please join my anti-roughing it revolution by liking this page if you are on Facebook.

In which the third one remembers how she got that way

2011-06-10T16:24:00.000-06:00

Reports are surfacing that the real problem with Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign was not his approach but the reason for that approach. Namely, the third Mrs. Newt Gingrich. It seems the former Callista Bisek remembers that she set her foot on the path to becoming the third Mrs. Newt Gingrich while the second Mrs. Newt Gingrich was still the second Mrs. Newt Gingrich and that during a significant energy-and-attention-claiming "campaign" (the Monica Lewinsky scandal and subsequent impeachment of President Clinton). Perhaps she has no intention of allowing what she did to another woman happen to her.

You know what they say, what comes around goes around. But with a credit line at Tiffany's of a reported half-million dollars, perhaps the Third Mrs. Gingrich won't make it quite so easy for any putative fourth to supplant her?

Apropos the current flurry of internet activity:

2011-06-08T18:23:00.001-06:00

Quiet, Please!

The staff of The Sacred Sandwich is currently searching for extra-biblical insight by emptying our minds in contemplative quietude and repeating the solemn mantra, “Owah Tagu Siam.” Your silence is greatly appreciated while we meditate on this profound message from our inner divinities.

ht: Lydia McGrew

Three Theses (under construction)

2011-06-07T22:55:00.001-06:00

Regarding feminism:
(so, this may have been a very bad idea but I'm going to let it play out for a day or two)

1) All feminisms deny the created order of the sexes.

2) All feminisms are rooted in gnosticism by their anthropology and theology and in marxist-liberationism by their socio-political theory and practice.

3) Egalitarianism is more properly called religious feminism because it presents a difference in degree, but not in kind, from other feminisms.

Vaun Swanson's Gnostic Christ

2011-06-03T00:16:00.000-06:00

I met with Vaun Swanson today and we talked for about a half an hour before it became very clear to me further conversation (at that time) would be fruitless so I excused myself and left. It was a wide-ranging conversation in some respects but there are only two areas of concern that need to be mentioned at this juncture.

The first area of concern is Denver Seminary's involvement in promoting Pomegranate Place. Vaun made it very clear that Pomegranate Place is not a ministry, it is a women's community center. She couldn't tell me why Denver Seminary President Mark Young would refer to it as a ministry (as he did repeatedly in his public response to Sarah Flashing's coverage of the situation). Nor did she indicate she had ever tried to correct that erroneous impression. Related to this, Vaun told me that she was approached by Denver Seminary to do the interview for the video which was up on their website until recently. Let me say that again, it was on Denver Seminary's initiative that the work of Pomegranate Place was promoted on their website.

In addition, two things to note: 1) Six weeks after Denver Seminary was first notified about questions regarding the "ministry" of Pomegranate Place, the video is still available on their YouTube channel, even if it has been taken off their website; 2) According to Vaun, she still has not met with any official regarding Denver Seminary's questions about Pomegranate Place. The appointment that was set up according to Young's public response was cancelled. Swanson indicated that it had not yet been rescheduled. Apparently, when Jim Howard (VP for Advancement) told me during our meeting that they wanted to protect Vaun in this, that meant they weren't going to meet with her in any sort of timely fashion.

The second area of concern is the supposed Judo-Christian philosophy underpinning the work of Pomegranate Place. Sometimes I really, really do not want to be right. When I was first made aware of the situation myself and then the more I researched the Affiliate Guides and Events listed on Pomegranate Place's website, the more a sulfurous smell of esoteric/gnostic teachings rose up. Like others, I tried to convince myself it was some sort of misguided attempt at what is called, "pre-evangelism". Unfortunately, it is not. Vaun may tell others that she is reaching out to women who would never darken the door of a church and is solely motivated by Christ's love, her words belie that claim.

In her recent sermon at Bloom Church, she twice referred to, "this female body" she had. How could God give her all these gifts and desires if she wasn't allowed to "do them because I am in this female body?" Then, today, when we were talking about men and women and I had asked her to describe God to me, and Christ, when I disputed her description of God as (only) spirit, she responded, "Christ had a male body when he walked on the earth." Christ does not now have a male body, according to Swanson. To be in the presence of someone who had so clearly embraced a gnostic anthropology and christology was truly chilling. It was at this point that I excused myself and left. Because that, dear readers, is gnosticism to the core and has no fellowship with orthodox Christianity whatsoever. It chilled me to the bone.

Finally, I am going to respond to this notion, occurring in Mark Young's public response and echoed in several comments, that anyone covering this matter has acted in a hit-and-run fashion or been on an expose' driven rush to judgment. For myself, I can say that I spent a considerable amount of time researching the affiliate guides at the women's center as well as studying the therapies, practices and philosophies on offer by these guides. In fact, my initial reaction was that it was some sort of spoof or hack. Sadly, that is not the case. And, although I don't yet know her well, I have been thoroughly impressed with Sarah Flashing's desire to act honorably in this and I can tell from her article that she put a great deal of thought and research into her response.

An Open Letter to Mark Young, President of Denver Seminary

2011-06-02T11:21:00.000-06:00

Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlesness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the Living God . . . (2 Corinthians 6:14-16a, NASB)

Dr. Young,

Denver Seminary occupies a position of trust in the Evangelical community. This trust requires you to act with due care and diligence, testing the spirits (for we know that not every spirit comes from God) and holding fast to that which is good, guarding the deposit of faith and training your students to give an answer to all who ask. In the matter of Vaun Swanson and Pomegranate Place, you did not do this. You have acknowledged your error in this and removed the video from the seminary's website. For this, I and faithful Christians who care about Denver Seminary thank you. Although, I must note that as of this writing (7am on 2 June), the video is still posted on the seminary's YouTube channel.

What is of continued concern, however, is that more than a month after you were first notified of the nature of the "ministry" at Pomegranate Place, you are still unable to determine whether it is "consistent with the seminary's beliefs and values"! Please allow me to help you make that determination by briefly going over some of the information available on their website and then highlighting just three areas of concern regarding the commitments and belief systems of the "Affiliate Guides" promoted on the website.

The "Ministry" of Pomegranate Place
While Vaun Swanson, founder of Pomegranate Place and a Denver Seminary alumna, says elsewhere (see the interview in the April 2011 issue of FullFill Magazine, Elisa Morgan, yet another Denver Seminary alumna is the publisher), that the women's center is operated with a "Judeo-Christian spirituality", little if any trace of that is to be found on their website. Pomegranate Place's vision is to help women live "more meaningful lives" and their foundational values include: compassion, justice, freedom and transcendence. But with no mention on their website of this supposed "Judeo-Christian spirituality", we are left wondering about the actual content of those foundational values. Their guiding principles include, "embrace and honor diversity of views" and "celebrate differences". Again, no whisper of this guiding spirituality and the concepts seem to be embraced for their own sake. Nor is there any trace to be found on the website of core Christian concepts such as sin, repentance, redemption, salvation -- or-- the person and work of Jesus Christ, the triune God or Christ's bride, the Church. Given this striking lack, how can the business of Pomegranate Place be termed a "ministry"?

The First Problematic Philosophy: The Law of Being
The Law of Being is a Hindu teaching dealing with Dharma (righteousness). According to Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma (the Law of Being) is the religion of humanity. This righteousness opens the way to "god-realization". All ills come from the ancient belief that there is God and there is man when the mind of God is indivisible, being a facet of the god-consciousness in each of us. Anything which helps you attain this god-consciousness is virtue and, although Dharma impels right action, the righteousness of an action, the rightness of an action, is determined by that which will aid a man's spiritual progress. This is the Hindu concept of the Law of Being.

In other words, the Law of Being offers us situation ethics, self-divinization and a pantheistic view of God. Is this consistent with the seminary's beliefs and values?

The Second Problematic Philosophy: Transformational Breath
Transformational Breath is a "self-healing modality" which incorporates metaphysics, Kundalini Yoga, sound healing, body mapping and other spiritual healing principles. It is said to balance the flow of energy (chi) through the body and to strengthen the connection with the "Divine". The source of healing is within the individual, coming from the connection with a higher self which clears the pathway to higher consciousness.

In other words, Transformational Breath is a self-idolatrous exercise based in esoteric/occult practices where self-healing is said to occur by harnessing a life-force via the breath. Is this consistent with the seminary's beliefs and values?

The Third Problematic Philosophy: The Enneagram
George Gurdjieff brought the Enneagram to the west around the turn of the last century after traveling to Afghanistan and Turkestan (among other countries in the region) in pursuit of esoteric "sciences". Gurdjieff, who said he learned the Enneagram and other Gnostic doctrines from the Sufi mystics, was in contact with "Transformed Ones", evolved masters at a higher level of existence. Gurdjieff's most influential follower was Oscar Ichazo, who founded the Arica school in Chile. Ichazo was guided by Metatron, the prince of the archangels and his students were guided by an interior master, Green Qu'Tub, who revealed himself to them when they had sufficiently evolved.

It was Ichazo who gave us the form of the Enneagram we know today, mapping the 9 personality types (and there are only 9) to the 9 points of the figure and tying an animal "totem" to each type. The 9 points are derived from the Law of Three and the Law of Seven. Within the circle, the triangle represents the Law of Three, deconstructing all distinctions between creator and creation, good and evil, male and female. The hexad represents the Law of Seven. Dividing 1 by 7 provides the pattern (.142857) along which Sufi mystics were said to perform their dervish dances (this number does not include any multiples of 3).

The Enneagram was introduced in the United States in the form developed by Ichazo in the 1960s. The theory holds that everyone has an "essence" which is divine but which we turn away from as very young children to choose an ego form. This choosing is sometimes held to be the original sin. You can return to your essence through deliberate, conscious work. The Holy Idea or virtue of each type is one of the nine faces of God. The compulsive aspect of each type turns the face of God upside-down and becomes a demon. The purpose of the work is to free oneself of the demon and return to one's essence.

In other words, the Enneagram teaching re-defines original sin and presents salvation as an effort of the self aided by the secret (esoteric, occult) knowledge divulged by the Enneagram. Is this consistent with the seminary's beliefs and values?

There are other worrying practices offered by the women of Pomegranate Place that are steeped in Esoteric. Syncretistic, Gnostic and Pantheistic thought and yet, despite founder Vaun Swanson's claim to present a Judeo-Christian spirituality as well as the involvement of some Christians as "affiliate guides", not one single guide offers a clearly and unapologetically Evangelical Christian approach to helping women discover who they are created to be.

I hope this information clarifies the deep divergence between the work of Pomegranate Place and the seminary's stated beliefs and values.

Conclusion
In closing, I must offer a few words in response to your expressed concerns about the (lack of) collegiality in the blogosphere. If I may speak for those of us who have worked to expose Denver Seminary's failure here, I don't think I would go far wrong in saying that professional courtesy or collegiality was among the least of our concerns. The false gospel presented by the guides of Pomegranate Place, and the public endorsement of that which was previously given by Denver Seminary (and which is still under review as of your 27 May blog post), demands a public response. Our Savior and his disciples publicly rebuked false teachers, sometimes by name. The fate of tender souls who will be led astray by such teachers demands nothing less than the courage to step out publicly and rebuke you for endorsing the false gospel of Pomegranate Place which can do nothing other than lead those souls to destruction.

Nevertheless, when I was first approached about this, I naturally hesitated. Given the command of Scripture that woman not teach or exercise authority over man, it has troubled me that this remonstrance is from a woman to a man. If the seminary you lead had not tried to make peace with the violation of this command, perhaps you would be disturbed as well (although I believe, had the seminary not already compromised on this point, Pomegranate Place would never have been promoted on its website). However, once I became aware of the situation I had no choice but to act as a Titus 2 woman working to protect other women. Since the damage has been done on your watch, you are the one to address. Throughout, I found God's gracious provision of faithful shepherds who have advised, encouraged and supported this effort at every step along the way - it has not been my sole effort by any means. I thank God for their wisdom and their continued work in the care of souls.

Now my prayer is that you and the other officials of Denver Seminary will have the courage to act for the sake of the souls in your care and that you will quickly come to a clear, unambiguous and publicly acknowledged judgment on the "ministry" of Pomegranate Place.

SDG,

Kamilla Ludwig

The Cultural Tsunami disperses

2011-05-31T21:28:00.000-06:00

It is now a week after the final broadcast of the Oprah show. In the last twenty five years, Miss Winfrey has become a cultural Tsunami, a socially acceptable mammy figure who named a magazine (and puts herself on every single cover!) and a television network after herself, gives away her favorite books, baubles and even once gave away a whole studio audience worth of cars. I was never Oprah's biggest fan and couldn't even tell you if I have watched a single episode from start to finish. But one thing I did notice in my occasional forays into O-land was that, at one point or other, every single episode seemed to turn into a personal therapy session. In front of a studio audience and recorded for later broadcast, but still a personal therapy session. Nothing was out of bounds and nothing was ever, ever criticized unless it was "mean".

Perhaps if I had understood what Oprah was tapping into, I might have been a bigger fan. But in the last several years, she seemed increasingly removed from the life of her average audience member and certainly didn't understand the women who chose freely to live a life different from the lifestyles she found acceptable. One needs only recall her astonishment at the fresh-faced and positively glowing with joy Dominican sisters who had to explain, more than once, that no, they don't ever have sex and yes, that is just fine. In fact, it is good and right. Yes, one needs only recall that program to know Oprah's philosophical commitments had no connection whatsoever to Christianity even though she proclaims herself a Christian. Oprah may be the high priestess of the American woman's shared religion, but she is remarkably sheltered in ways that surprise.

In what was likely the last episode I may have watched all the way through was the October 2007 Lisa Ling investigation into India's womb rental business. To counter questions of exploitation, Ling said the experience is actually "transformative" despite the stigma that is attached to surrogacy in India. And the money these mothers receive often does provide for a material transformation of their lives -- it is usually enough to buy a house for their family. In a spectacular lack of awareness, however, Oprah offered not a word of criticism for a practice in which wealthy white westerners pay poor women of color for the use of their bodies. How she could see this as anything but the exploitation of women of color is beyond comprehension.

This is not terribly surprising, though, since Oprah's gospel is one of mutual consent, makes no negative judgments and is an echo of the Wiccan Rede: Do what thou wilt an it harm none. Despite her babbling about a god-shaped-hole-in-the-soul and her openness to something called "spirituality" -- not despite, actually, because of this, she despises Christian dogma. She would laugh at Dorothy L. Sayers' truism that, "the dogma is the drama". Rather, in the religion of Oprah, the will is the only dogma and the only drama is the therapy worked out in public view.

What is disappointing about the aftermath of the Oprah tsunami, as her influence continues to spread out into the culture via her magazine, website and cable television network, is the reaction of Christian women bloggers. One Evangelical blogger called her post, "Filling the Oprah Void" as if candy floss spirituality can leave a void needing to be filled. "Oprah understood the power of speaking truth as a method of healing". Really? Shades of Anita Hill's lie-filled campaign to "speak truth to power" rise. I can't recall Oprah speaking a single truth on anything other than mundane matters such as how diet can relate to physical health and which pajamas are the most comfortable. But on matters that involved healing? There isn't a snowball's chance in that very warm place that she brought anyone to healing by speaking truth. Oprah doesn't know the truth on eternal matters.

Another Evangelical blogger quoted singer Beyonce`, "Because of you, women everywhere have graduated to a new level of understanding of what we are, of who we are . . ." The blogger then goes on to warn us against sitting on the sidelines and criticizing Oprah for her flawed theology because, you see, Oprah is moving forward where the church still lags behind the world - in telling girls they matter, no one should change their beliefs and that they can run the world!

Apparently the church IS lagging behind in something - in catechism, in discipleship, in mentoring and teaching and passing on the faith to the next generation. How else to explain Evangelical Christian bloggers lamenting the Oprah-shaped hole in their lives? How else to explain the celebration of Oprah's ability to raise difficult topics, despite the fact that she never offered the right cure, the cure leading to repentance and belief. The world's gurus have often been able to tap into the emotional needs of the world. From Leo Buscaglia to John Bradshaw the world's gurus have been very good at tapping into the culture's felt, emotional needs. But, like Oprah, because they operated with faulty anthropology as well as false theology they only succeeded in diagnosing the symptoms, never the underlying disease -- and never offered a true cure.

For those of us who know the source of all healing, there will be no Oprah-shaped void, no lamentations about her absence and no bookshelves filled with the works of her recommended "therapists". Life will go on. And even though her influence has dispersed into the culture (note: that is not a good thing), there will be less frank irritation with, "Did you see Oprah yesterday?". There will also be much more work for us to do. Oprah may have been the wealthiest and most famous high priestess of the American woman's religion, but she was only one. Perhaps I should not have joked about Oprah as the Second Beast, the False Prophet in a previous blog post. The humour might have been closer to the truth than we would like to admit.

Battered Woman Syndrome - on an eternal scale?

2011-05-29T22:26:00.000-06:00

A strange idea has been rattling around in my head and I thought I'd put it out here for your reaction.

Lo, very many centuries ago a church father named Cyprian had this to say, "He cannot have God for his father who will not have the Church for his mother.' And folks have been repeating it ever since, even down to Reformers such as John Calvin. It's been a recurring motif throughout church history.

A newer and a somewhat discredited idea is "Battered Woman Syndrome" (BWS). The way it is popularly described, BWS results from an escalating pattern of abuse where matters of vanishing importance (less and less important as the cycle goes on) trigger responses of escalating abuse (psychological and physical). Appeasement never satisfies the batterer and in some cases serves only to confirm him in his beliefs. The longer the woman stays in this relationship, the less able she feels to leave it.

Now, this is a leap and please stay with me for a bit here, just sit back and think about this. What if something like BWS is occurring in the Church? We are well into the second generation of religious feminism since the advent of that creature and the Church is further than ever from expelling the schismatic, heretical, apostate (pick your label) system from its doors. In fact, the Church seems to have arrived at a point at which it feels utterly incapable of removing the abuser. It pursues a continued course of appeasement which will only bring on further abuse.

Much like the battered woman who has convinced herself the abuse will (eventually) stop, the Church continues to pursue a policy of appeasement: Let's put together a list of what women can do in the church! We are an educational institution, not an ordaining body, why shouldn't we train women? We must put our heads together and see how we can release women to use their gifts? Oh no, it's just a Bible study, no problem with a woman leading that! Yes, we have a woman directing the choir, but no woman exercises pastoral authority in our church. Really? You think it inappropriate for a woman to serve communion? Oh, no, that's not a sermon. She's just sharing her testimony. Certainly I'm a Complementarian. I think women can and should perform every function in the church except that of senior pastor.

It's time the Church stopped imitating Neville Chamberlin kidding herself into believing that she can purchase peace for our time. It's time to start cleaning house. You there, you have a new broom. You can help sweep the place clean. You? Is that a dusting rag I see in your hands? And you behind there? I know you can polish a floor until you can see your face shine in it. Ah yes, I see someone has gone to make a pot of coffee. We are sure to need it. This church cleaning day is going to last a bit longer than a couple of hours.

Babies abducted and held for "ransom" in China

2011-05-26T21:54:00.000-06:00

Beijing's enforcers of the brutal one-child policy are abducting "illegal" babies and holding them for "ransom". China, designated by the United Nations Population Fund as a "Model Birth Control Country" now levels fines up to the equivalent of nine years' annual salary for "illegally reproducing".

Read the whole story here. And then ask yourself why a professing Christian would evoke a Maoism in the title of her newest book? So far, she has refused to answer the question.

They simply can't keep up!

2011-05-25T16:18:00.000-06:00

Por-Life forces are overwhelming the NARAL-ProChoice America Flickr photostream. NARAL can't delete them fast enough.

Flick Photostream

Do your part!

The hero fails the quiz

2011-05-24T21:17:00.000-06:00

Nicholas Kristof has been playing games with the Bible. In his weekend column, Kristof revealed not only his lack of basic reading comprehension but an inexcusable ignorance of concepts like paradox and progressive revelation or the difference between something that is an implicit conclusion to be drawn from a text and an explicit teaching of the text.

But, of course, Kristof really has no deficit in reading comprehension. His real problem is with Christianity and its sacred text, the Holy Scriptures. Kristof is a hero to many who work against anti-trafficking and oppression of women around the world. But here, as well as in the book Half the Sky, he reveals an agenda that isn't really about liberating women from oppression. It's about liberating women to certain kinds of waged work in consequence of their liberation from childbearing and homemaking.

Kristof used to have the reputation of being a good journalist, doing stellar work and one able to keep his own beliefs reigned in. That is no longer the case. Someone on this blog recently warned me, "you become what you hate". That certainly seems to be the case with Kristof. He has become the sort of unthinking, unreflective, uncomprehending reactionary he seems to think orthodox Christians are.

ht: Brian St. Paul

N.T. Wright's painful irony problem

2011-05-23T10:17:00.001-06:00

"I am very grateful to the organisers for inviting me to address this important conference, and only sorry that because of other duties I have been unable to take any other part in your gathering. . . . .I do worry a bit about the word ‘equality’ and the language of ‘egalitarian’ and so on. I recognise what is being said of course, and if I didn’t endorse that point I probably wouldn’t be speaking here now" (paper presented to "Men, Women and the Church", CBE conference in Durham, England, 9/04)

"The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States has voted decisively to allow in principle the appointment, to all orders of ministry, of persons in active same-sex relationships. This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion. . . . They were formalising the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the Primates’ unanimous statement that this would “tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level”. In Windsor’s language, they have chosen to “walk apart”." (TimesOnline 7/09)

ECUSA, PCUSA, ELCA have all followed the path outlined by openly homosexual ECUSA clergyman, [Vickie] Gene Robinson:

"I had said to them, 'It's too dangerous for you to come out as gay to your superiors, but I believe that if you work for the ordination of women in your church, you will go a long way toward opening the door for the acceptance of gay priests,"

Lenin's term comes to mind here, does it not?

N.T. Wright: Scripture is both airbrushed and the basis for women in ordained ministry

2011-05-21T19:16:00.002-06:00

Here is a partial transcript:

"There's a lot of serious, hard-working Christian women in Chapter 16, and I don't think they were just making tea after the church worship service, either. These are people who have worked hard in the Lord and they are in apparently leadership positions."

"It seems to me that, in the Resurrection, there is a radical re-evaluation of the role of women. And it's the more interesting because in the official public tradition in I Corinthians 15, the women have been air-brushed out of the account . . ."

"In the official tradition of the church, already by the mid-50s, people are worried about them. But with the early stories which then get celebrated in the writing of the Gospels, the women are front and center. Apostolic ministry grows out of the testimony that Jesus is alive. That to me, in the New Testament, is the basis of apostolic ministry and I cannot understand why that should be problematic if you are a biblical Christian . . . So I then insist on reading I Timothy 2 in the light of that."

Thanks to Carolyn Custis James for highlighting this video from Wright in her own latest blog post. I continue to note that, although Mrs. James declines to embrace the Feminist/Egalitarian label, she continues to highlight the work of feminists, both secular and religious.

Slippery Slope exhibit #472

2011-05-18T09:00:00.001-06:00

Once a burlesque prop, the nearly light as air feather boa is an appropriate part of the priestess costume. The only surprise is that it isn't hot pimk. Be sure to check the comments at the Bad Vestments link below, but put swallow the coffee and put the bagel down first.

ht: Joe Long, Thinking Housewife and Bad Vestments.

Clear as Mud

2011-05-16T16:07:00.000-06:00

Jackie Gingrich Cushman, (the daughter of former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich) has written an article setting the record straight on that mid-parental-divorce hospital visit which is now the stuff of political legend. It is good to clear the air and set the record straight on these matters, though Mrs. Cushman is right that it was and is a private family matter.

What is not merely a private family matter, however, is her father's character. He put questions of his character on the table when he chose to run for the Republican nomination for president. What Mrs. Cushman did not dispute is that her father had an affair with the woman who became his second wife while still married to her mother. What is also not being disputed is that the former Speaker also began an affair with the woman who became his third wife while still married to his second wife.

Do we see a pattern developing here?

While Mrs. Cushman has brought clarity to some of the circumstances surrounding her parents divorce, she has not and can not bring clarity to her father's character. His public record speaks for itself on that matter. In another age, it would automatically disqualify him from any consideration for high office (repentant or not). And, as Bill Clinton's chief impeacher, he should hang his head in shame and quietly retire from public life. While his public actions in that matter were correct, his private actions (now made public) show him to be the chief hypocrite in that national drama.

In the words of a FB friend, Newt Gingrich: revealed to be only about 75% the swine you thought he was.

An Apology to Carolyn Custis James

2011-05-16T15:18:00.001-06:00

Carolyn, I am sorry for bearing false witness against you.

The Background:

They sometimes call it eating crow. And I suppose I would say that I find crow a rather tasty dish. Not that I look forward to it - -but that I welcome correction. Who wants to go through life being wrong, being shown you are wrong, and never admitting it? Think of the trouble it would cause to refuse to admit driving in Chicago is a different matter than is driving in Torquay! What if you grabbed the salt instead of the sugar for your coffee and refused to admit it now tasted vile? To be more serious, how would your friends view you if you accused one of them of having an affair with your husband when what you overheard was an innocent phone call planning a surprise birthday party for you?

We should be thankful for the chance to correct our wrongs. To repent to God for our sins, and to apologize to our neighbor for bearing false witness against him.

Carolyn Custis James spoke at CBEs 2003 conference in Orland, Florida. CBEs policy, in previous years, had been to require all conference speakers to be members of the organization. I know that as late as 1999 this requirement was definitely in place because a friend of mine was required to join before she could act as a replacement speaker for a mutual friend of ours. I had no information indicating that they had ever changed that requirement. This morning, I placed a telephone call to their offices to ask if the policy was still in place and was told by their conference coordinator that now all they required was for someone to sign a statement of faith. She did not know when that policy had been changed.

I placed that phone call in response to this exchange. As readers of this blog know, I have significant disagreements with what Mrs. James writes in her books and on her blog. So significant that, even if the charge of CBE membership were true, it wouldn't add much to the disagreement.

Addendum: Please also note that CBEs book service carries all four of the books authored by Mrs. James. their selection criteria are here: CBE Full Review Evaluation Form

Gnosticism speaks

2011-05-15T20:19:00.001-06:00

Having grown up in the church and knowing everything that I was supposed to be doing . . . how do you fit it all in? And I can remember crying out to the Lord. I mean I was literally crying to the Lord saying, "God, I just can't do it all." In addition to that, I was feeling like there were things I wanted to do in the church but I couldn't do them because I was in a female body. And I went, "what's up with that? Why did you give me these desires if I can't do them because I am in a female body?"

And I think this Lenten Season in particular is just a beautiful time to just take our inadequacies, all of those things we feel are just not enough, and just lay them at the foot of the cross and say, "God, now I understand what you paid the price for. You paid it for all of these things, and so I am going to lay them here. And I am going to take you up on your offer of grace and love and acceptance and forgiveness and a sense of wholeness. I am going to take you up on that. Right now. Because you had promised to walk alongside me. And in that, we realize, we are enough.

The preceding quotes come from a recent "talk" given to an evening church gathering by a religious feminist.

Letting the cat out of the bag

2011-05-15T19:15:00.001-06:00

The following quotes are pulled from a religious feminist blog post discussing modesty. They are offered without further comment except to note that they rather let the cat of the bag, don't they? Oops!

And I think that is where we have the problem. Historically, men have taken on the roles that involve sweat and toil. It is hard to maintain the metrosexual look while working in the fields.

I think it is noteworthy to point out that, when men fill roles that are more stationary and allow for more time, that many societies have “metrosexuals” – or men who do worry about fashion and such adornment.

And they say it ain't so!

2011-05-15T13:08:00.000-06:00

Two propositions:

1) Religious feminism is not a core Gospel issue

2) Religious feminism is heretical

Those on the religious feminism side of things often claim what they are promoting is not a core Gospel issue, even though it is vital to be on their side if we are going to reach our culture for Christ. Because they do not always see it as a core Gospel issue, they don't believe they should be shunned for holding it or that there should be any talk of division. They, of course, also deny it is heresy.

Complementarians also deny it is heresy. They also do not believe it is an issue to divide over, at least it is not so divisive they cannot treat feminists as colleagues with whom they may disagree. And since it does not rise to that level, it is not appropriate to call it heresy or divide over it. In fact, both sides of the divide are welcomed on seminary campuses.

But then some feminists now disagree with the first proposition. In fact, promoted on CBEs event's calendar is the meeting this fall of the Atlantic Society for "Biblical" Equality, Side by Side: Men and Women for Biblical Equality. At this conference, the president of CBE will give a plenary session titled, "Why Women's Leadership in the Church is a Primary Issue" and "Equal in Being, Equal in Service: How Christian Faith Challenges the Cultural Devaluation of Women".

So, since religious feminism's leadership is tossing out proposition #1, will Complementarians now have the courage to embrace proposition #2?

Denver Seminary, wrap-up (updated)

2011-05-14T14:15:00.001-06:00

I find that there is really not much more to say at this point - I just want to let those of you following things know what has happened.

I had a meeting with the seminary's Vice President for Advancement (at his request) this week to air my concerns. He told me that one of the things they are doing is auditing/reviewing all of their communications, including the website. And while he may have had some concerns about the Vaun Swanson video, they weren't going to pull it (if at all) until the process was completed. Since the video was posted on the seminary's website before he joined the administration, he could not tell me what (or indeed, if any) vetting had been done before posting it.

At his invitation, I attended the alumni reception this morning as well as the luncheon (I had already signed up for the latter). Though I had the chance to speak with Mark Young, the seminary's president, for a few moments, I did not bring up my concerns -- it simply wasn't a good setting for it. However, in God's providence, I was able to convey my concerns to someone at the seminary who was disturbed by what I had to tell him about the content of the video as well as some of the practices sponsored by Pomegranate Place. I believe he will look into matters himself and will then act on what he finds.

I am thankful for all your prayers and that my role in this matter seems to be at an end.

Update: As it turns out, there seems to be more to say than I had thought. First, I have turned the comment feature back on for this post (at least for the time being).

In tracking down some unusual blog traffic, I ran across this from Vaun Swanson on the Jesus Creed blog:

As part of a doctoral thesis project, I surveyed women who had graduated from a major evangelical seminary between 1996 and 2006. The percentage of female graduates finding appropriate ministry positions following graduation was shockingly low. In all, only thirteen percent of the women responding to the survey said they were working full-time in a ministry position, either within a church or a Christian organization in which they used their gifts and training and could unqualifiedly support themselves financially. (emphasis in the original)

Note: The seminary in question was Denver Seminary and as a graduate in those years, I received the survey which I completed and returned.

Which is a frankly false characterization of the situation in that it assumes 100% of female graduates intended to seek "appropriate ministry positions" in which they "could unqualifiedly support themselves financially". I know yours truly had no intention of doing so because I was already in a profession which both paid well (at full time, I would have been earning twice as much as an average local full time associate pastor), and afforded me the sort of flexibility I desired. As to working full time in ministry - well, there we see the narrowness of the feminist vision. Whether you would consider it full time or not, I have more ministry on my plate right now than I ever dreamed I would.

I have no fear . . .

2011-05-07T23:50:00.000-06:00

If I can handle this, I can handle the religious feminists:

What did I just write?

2011-04-28T13:01:00.000-06:00

Well, not exactly this, but be warned, the BEAST is everywhere. The plague may have left syndication on your local television station (or will at the end of this season), but she now has her own network, BWAAAHAAHAAAA!

There's discrimination and then there's Discrimination

2011-04-27T20:58:00.000-06:00

Oh, I am so very thankful we can be gracious and humble and nissssssse to each other here! That? Oh, never mind him. He's so gracious that you'd never know his little bite delivers a deadly poison. Honestly, don't worry. As long as we're all gracious to each other and set aside our differences so we can engage in conversation it will all work out in the end. Snakey included.

One of the chief problems with the church today is that so few of us seem to have the discernment, let alone the courage to yell, "Watch out! Deadly Snake!" when the presence of such a creature warrants it. In fact, we are so far removed from such warnings that I doubt even many of the Shepherds and Titus 2 women among us can discern the difference between a black mamba and the earthworm struggling about on the sidewalk after a hard rain.

Diane Montgomery's blog post assessing Rachel Evans' "Year of Biblical Womanhood" is a case in point. Montgomery is a frequent contributor to CBMWs GenderBlog but this piece was cross posted at Unlocking Femininity where she blogs with several others. I am interested in the piece's appearance on the latter, along with the accompanying discussion (I have not listened to the talk Evans gave at Baylor's Truett Seminary), and my purpose here is to take a look at that discussion -- the manner in which Complementarians engage a "thoroughly liberated" beneficiary of the feminist movement. We are used to the Complementarians playing footsies with the self-described "biblical" Egalitarians, but are they a bit more stand-offish and wary of someone who openly embraces the "F" word?

The answer is "no". Even with a self-described liberated beneficiary of feminism, the Complementarians make a gracious and gingerly approach. This is a grave mistake because, although feminists such as Evans pretend to be gracious, and live within porous boundaries, they actually have very strict parameters of engagement. These parameters deal with form and style while the conversations remains friendly but they have porous boundaries where substance is concerned. In other words, you can agree to disagree all the live long day but as soon as you use the "H" word or the "O" word or the "T" word, much less when you dare ask to clarify meaning and nail down definitions of terms, the gracious conversation rapidly grinds to a halt. Distinction and discrimination with regard to tone and style is allowed, but discrimination and discernment are entirely out of bounds when making judgments about substance, the meat of the matter.

So Rachel Evans, for her part, "really respect[s]" Diane Montgomery's depth while Diane, in return, thanks Rachel for her "gracious comment[s]". And all will appear to be well as long as we can be gracious and civil while we ignore the black mamba quietly slithering around our ankles. While they are being gracious and respectful to each other, unsuspecting souls are being led into the belief that these matters are not so consequential after all.

Matzo crackers or Wonder bread for communion? Pish, not need to worry! No fear of dividing over "nonessentials", my dears! You want a woman pastor for your church, well you just go ahead. I'm not comfortable, but we can agree to disagree agreeably, can't we?

In the mean time, an even uglier snake is given a platform to tell her false tales about Scripture, how the Canon came to be and just which bits we should obey and which we justifiably discard. Erika, a respondent on the blog thread, dismisses portions of the canon as "in no way equal to the commands issued directly from God" and St. Paul as "a mere man" who wrote letters "addressed to specific churches - not the Church in general." Erika also tells us that the rejection of "women in ministry" comes down to one single verse in Paul's first letter to Timothy and that St. Paul is a mere human from whose pan come "some of the most degrading ideas about women" in Christianity.

Now, I don't know Diane's reason for allowing Erika's fictions to go unchallenged, but I don't mind saying that the lack of response doesn't cause me to re-think my evaluation of complementarianism as a fatally compromised endeavor. Complementarianism reveals its flaws when it fails to distinguish, where feminists also fail, between essentials, those matters which rapidly ramify into essential distinctions -- and -- those matters which are truly adiaphora, of secondary importance. Several decades ago, Complementarians might have been excused for engaging the "Egalitarians" as well-meaning if misguided colleagues, but that time has long since passed. When Complementarians can publish a glowing obituary of CBE's founding mother without once mentioning her dubious scholarship or her essential role in the founding of that organization, we have a problem. When past CBE conference speaker Carolyn Custis James is listed by CBMW's annual annotated bibliography of "gender-related" books as "undeclared", the compromise is clear.

NEWSFLASH: Feminists Lie About God

2011-04-27T11:25:00.003-06:00

Feminist and self-proclaimed former Christian Paula Kirby created quite a splash with her recent declaration criticizing God's commandments in Holy Scripture as being "Iron Age prejudices" and that the "Abrahamic religions fear women". She then libels Christians of all stripes (from the liberal ones who try to deny St. Paul really wrote what he wrote to the orthodox Christian believer who embraces those 'Iron Age prejudices' as God's merciful gift to us) by lumping them in with the more extreme expressions of Islam which go about lopping bits off little girls without benefit of consent or anesthetic. In short, she presents a hideously deformed and misinformed straw creature in order to take a slap at God. She is angry and wants to make sure everyone knows it.

Along with Kirby, the worst president in history is, once again, exhibiting his talent for biblical revisionism and making news for his pronouncements on religion and how wrong his fellow SBCers are wrong about most things. Carter has been quoted recently as saying, "In Christian communities . . . there is gross discrimination against women . . . But, as you know, [in] the Catholic church they practically worship the Virgin Mary, but won't let a woman be a priest." Which just goes to show you Carter understands about as much about Catholicism as he does his own particular brand of Christianity. Yet you have to shake your head in wonder at the spectacle of a self-professed Christian, who has a long record of teaching Sunday School, criticizing Christianity for not falling in line with current U.S. law (EEOC, Title IX, etc.) and contemporary concepts of "equality" and "justice".

We might find more excuse for Kirby who has had the honesty to reject Christianity. But Mr. Carter has very little excuse. Religious feminists such as he and Mrs. Frank James have embraced the twin lies that the world understands equality better than did (and still does, I imagine!) St. Paul -- and -- that the paradox which lies at the heart of Christian anthropology is no paradox at all but an inescapable contradiction which must absolutely be denied. Carter shows us not so much what it is possible for a "bible-believing" Christian to promote as he does the folly of promoting someone as such simply because he proclaims himself to be such. At least on this point, Carter doesn't believe the Bible so much as he does the United Nations and their sense of justice and equality.

So then we come to Mrs. Frank James who casts herself as her husband's favorite theologian and we have to wonder why she thinks Kirby's acid-laden screed should make Christians squirm? Much less why Kirby's "questions" should be taken seriously. Really? We are supposed to take seriously someone who equates submission with female genital mutilation? Sorry, but angry screeds and tired old canards don't make me squirm or give the least hint of discomfort. Contra James, the questions are indeed dishonest and manufactured and therefore "unfair".

But, then again, James not only misinterprets Holy Scripture, she libels the countess numbers of Christians who have risked their lives as well as given their meagre fortunes to rescue those in danger. Christianity has improved the lives of women since the first years of the Church, when they constituted a tiny and persecuted sect in the great roman empire. Back then, we Christians were rescuing the baby girls pagan families would leave out to die of exposure. We've done it all along, then and today, when some of the most privileged Christians among us risk their lives in service to the persecuted. We've always been there to rescue the persecuted and give comfort to the afflicted.

So lets stop lying about Christianity and cowering before angry feminists. Let's stop lying about the questions. It's not "IF" women are to join with men in the work. It's HOW we are to do go about it. And let's stop denying those who have trod these paths before us a place in the conversation. Let's enjoin the most obscure and neglected of all people to come to the conversation table - if we are to take seriously the angry screeds of feminists, let us also not neglect to listen to the voices of those who have gone before us simply because they are no longer walking this earth with us.

Now THAT'S a conversation I'd like to see us have!

What fellowship has light with darkness?

2011-04-26T16:10:00.001-06:00

The quote below is courtesy of Taylor Marshall and a timely reminder to all those participating in Rachel Held Evans' "[Cyber]Rally to Restore Unity".

Evans' event is supposed to be a lighthearted get-together in spite of our disagreement over non-essentials. But, as a respondent of hers noted, we still haven't decided what is and is not essential. I have made the case on this blog and elsewhere that religious feminism is something we must divide over. To most Protestants it should look as wide as the division between Rome and Geneva and Antioch.While it may initially appear to involve a nonessential, it rapidly ramifies into essential doctrine and practice. Marriage means something and spiritual authority in the church means something - neither one are to be divvied up according to merit. Being a pastor is not something anyone has a right to, regardless of talents and gifts exhibited.

Marriage and spiritual leadership in the church mean something because they are supposed to show us something, they are aids to teaching. They picture for us the relationship between God and Israel in the Old Testament and Christ and His Bride in the New Testament. The Scriptures start with a wedding - where woman is taken from man. She is made from the man, for the man, and brought to the man. And God's written revelation ends with a wedding feast - the marriage supper of the Lamb.

When we disagree about what marriage is, we disagree about the meaning of these foundational images. We do disagree on essentials and thus, cannot participate in a lighthearted pretence that these foundational disagreements do not exist. No amount of banter will combat what will likely be seen as vitriol. And yes, sometimes the kindest thing of all is to name heresy for what it is.

Here then, is the quote:

The Church is intolerant in principle because she believes;

she is tolerant in practice because she loves.

The enemies of the Church are tolerant in principle because they do not believe;

they are intolerant in practice because they do not love.

--Rev. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P

Like nothing so much as a children's play group

2011-04-25T18:10:00.001-06:00

They had invented a class; now they had only to make that class conscious

Nearly three decades ago, Joan Didion wrote an essay titled, The Women's Movement in which she recalls the Marxist roots of that movement less than a decade after Betty Friedan began convincing women their materially comfortable suburban lives should be compared to concentration camps. The label, "Second Wave Feminism" comes from the truly radical feminist writer, Shulamith Firestone whom Didion quotes. This feminism of the 1960s and beyond was not merely the revival of a political movement, "It is the second wave of the most important revolution in history." Didion's exposition of this second wave of the revolution is excellent, still timely and I recommend you read the entire piece at the link above.

What I want to focus on here today is this from Didion's essay, "And then, at that exact moment when there seemed no one at all willing to play the proletariat, along came the women's movement, and the invention of women as a "class". One could not help admiring the radical simplicity of this instant transfiguration." Included with the acceptance of Betty Friedan's recasting suburbia as the land of concentration camps, what may well be the single most effective tool for recruitment, reinforcement of ideology and retention of "oppressed" adherents was the concept of the "consciousness raising" group (I've written about CR here). With such an effective tool, feminism is here to stay and is still dragging along its Marxist roots.

Oh, it may have smoothed off some of the more obviously radical edges and become acceptable to the "nicer" classes of women with its embrace of a certain kind of middle class life "style" adorned with the appropriate baubles and its "Oprahfication" (have you ever noticed how every episode of her show becomes, at some point, her own personal therapy session with you invited to participate as well?), but it is still a revolutionary movement and it is still with us. In fact, it is so very present with us, we no longer notice it as something different. It is so familiar now that the revolution has gone mainstream and we accept it as part of the culture and think the church should probably just go along to get along.

Feminism has scrubbed up so nicely that it has managed already to capture a rather embarrassing number of supposedly Evangelical churches, seminaries and publishing houses. This captivity, however, has not been a help to women. It has not fulfilled its promise of liberation and a life more valued and valuable. In fact, much as Eve fell to the serpent's deception, women have fallen under the spell of a feminism that keeps them in need.

I came across a vivid example of this recently (you can read about the Denver Seminary connection here and here). In the video promoting her women's center, one feminist has this to say, "you know, women in the United States are among the wealthiest, most well-educated, most powerful women who have ever walked the face of the earth. We have tremendous assets to offer the rest of the world that the world needs. And so we want to give women the opportunity to really use those gifts . . . to make a difference in our world."

Sounds great, right? Makes you want to sign up for the next trip to Mali helping women set up a little home business with a micro-loan, doesn't it? Makes you want to hop on the next plane to China protesting their one-child policy, doesn't it? But wait, this is feminism we're talking about, not Christianity. Never mind that Swanson has a DMin and earned an MA in Christian studies from an evangelical seminary, as it must, the feminism trumps the Christianity. And feminism is all about the self, perceived needs and keeping women in this state of need through rehearsal of the shared narrative.

So what does this women's center offer? It offers therapists steeped in occult tools like the enneagram and Jungian depth psychology. They can massage your uterus and help you create a sacred container. You can take an art therapy class, you can learn how to share your story, journal your way to an Authentic Self and how to create a Rite of Passage for your life transitions. You can even learn about dream work and transformative breath.

I had not intended to write anything more specifically on this local example, but it's hard to look around for something else when a textbook example of the problem is right down the street. I have just scanned a three month period on their published calendar (April, May, June of this year) and one thing becomes clear - it's all about ME. All of the classes and events are self-focused. Not one single event title or keyword indicating there might be something for the wider world these wealthy and well-educated women are engaged in. They are not going to Nepal to help build a school or teach a summer bible camp to children - they are sticking right here and learning about Nepalese home cooking in their comfy women's center.

This local women's center presents us with a microcosm of the problem of feminism, especially religious feminism. Lip service is paid to serving a hurting world, but the nature of the beast turns in on itself, keeping women needy and in need in order to perpetuate the revolution. Only by taking women's eyes off a life lived in service to others, a life in which we only truly find ourselves by giving ourselves away - feminism tells us we must turn inward and serve ourselves or we cannot serve others. The problem is, as the class offerings show, that even the wealthiest and most well-educated women on the face of the planet are so very needy and oppressed we need constant counseling, guidance and spiritual direction to find ourselves!

It's the perpetual infantilization of women, making them out to be nothing so much as a needy toddler who stomps her little foot when she doesn't get her way. No, you can not be a priest. STOMP. I WILL be a priest! And you can't stop me or I'll tell on you!!

It makes feminism look like a kindergarten and all those classes as nothing more than play groups. Is this what feminism has brought us to? Is this what we bought when we were told we would be lifted up to social and legal equality with men? Is this the holy life Christ calls us to? Yes, this is the end product of embracing life as a "class", a special interest group. This is what happens when we forget our identity in Christ and look to the world to define our "Authentic Self". This is the natural end when we look to the world to tell us who we are. This is what happens when we succumb to the lie. It's Eve all over again. The promise of the precious fruit and its enlightenment results in death and endarkment.

It all leaves me shaking my head and wondering why anyone with three working brain cells can believe the lie that it is the "mean old" patriarchalists that keep women child-like.

Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!

2011-04-24T09:43:00.000-06:00

Follow Up: Denver Seminary's Transformation (Updated)

2011-04-23T10:41:00.002-06:00

First, I have contacted Denver Seminary President Mark Young via email. Since I wanted to include links in my letter to him, it seemed the most appropriate format. I have not yet received a reply from anyone at Denver Seminary. The day after the email was sent, however, four visits totalling nearly twenty minutes were made to this blog from Denver Seminary's server. At this point, I don't intend to make any further attempts to elicit a response from the school. As of this writing, the video is still available on their website.

Second, I contacted one of the "Affiliate Guides" of Pomegranate Place to clarify a point included in her biography. Michanda Lindsey's bio says she "serves as a priest for a local cathedral". Several search attempts using various key words and forms of her name turned up nothing. A search on her name alone, however, turned up a top hit with a local talent agency. In a telephone conversation with Myrna Ramos at the Donna Baldwin agency, Myrna said she did not know about that aspect of Lindsey's personal life and offered to pass along my contact information. In short order I had an email from Lindsey telling me to feel free to contact her, but there has been no subsequent response to my query about where she serves as priest.

UPDATE: Lindsey has responded, but declines to name the Cathedral, "I appreciate your inquiry. However, my responses are not suited for email and would be better suited by phone or in person. This would allow me to also gain a better understanding of who you are as well."

Last, I ask readers from Denver Seminary arriving via avenues such as google reader notices to feel free to contact me via email (link available on the profile page). You should know that even in the middle of Holy Week this blog had approximately 1000 hits as a result of this story being picked up by other blogs. Some will likely think it par for the course trajectory of evangelicalism in general. Others will wonder how a supposedly conservative evangelical institution has fallen so far off the rails.

My question? If you believe yourself to be a Christian of orthodox belief -- What are you doing to call your school to account for leading unsuspecting souls astray?

Carolyn Custis James: Stolen Identity and True Grit

2011-04-22T21:21:00.000-06:00

Mrs. Frank James (oops, don't call her that, she uses that as an illustration!) uses women's stolen identity as a theme in her book, Half The Church as well as in blog posts. I was getting irritated enough to write a response. And then I realized that I already had:

We're all sons now

James is consistently guilty of "identity theft" herself. Being so fond of her ezer-warrior women who do extraordinary things, she finds them everywhere. Even in places where they do not exist. Her review of the film, True Grit, is a case in point. After reading her take on the movie and having heard quite a bit about it, I went to see it for myself last year. I walked out of the theatre wondering if we had even seen the same film.

When James holds up young Mattie Ross (the film's heroine) as an ezer she denies the character's identity. Mattie Ross is a daughter, first and foremost. And in the end, the goal of avenging her father's death is achieved not by any design or true grit she displays, but by happenstance. Most importantly, just when she achieves her goal of avenging her father's death, her moment of victory is not savored. There is no time. You see, she has forgotten about the pit. Even in the depth of the pit she thinks she can still rescue herself when, instead, she awakens the sleeping snakes. She is bitten and it looks as if her moment of victory may turn into a moment of ultimate defeat.

But she is rescued by Rooster Cogburn who carries her, at the last, in his strong arms. The entire film is underscored in many ways, not by Mattie's grit but by a theme which you may not recognize until the end. It is not the true grit of young Mattie Ross which underscores the story, it is the grace of God:

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,

Leaning on the everlasting arms?

I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.