It was particularly satisfying to see the use as real space of areas that had been reserved for that special kind of degradation – the rally for The Leader. … Read the rest
The wit and wisdom of Simon Jenkins
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhen protecting civilians from crimes against humanity shades into the issue of removing the regime responsible, it arguably is our business.… Read the rest
Boko Haram says it bombed UN building in Abuja
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe car bomb killed at least 18 people. Boko Haram is fighting for the establishment of Sharia in Nigeria… Read the rest
As a living sacrifice
Aug 26th, 2011 3:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonA wives-submit type explained to Kathryn Joyce.
“Man is ultimately responsible, when he stands up before God in heaven, for how he ran and managed his family. We women are responsible for how we were as helpmeets. We’re not supposed to be wearing the pants to the elbows, like a lot of women do. We’re equally intelligent and capable of doing the things theat men do, but that doesn’t mean we have to or that we should.” This is a common rejoinder of biblical womanhood advocates…they acknowledge women’s equal capacity, but they suggest that women lay their abilities aside with their pride as a living sacrifice fit for their Savior. [Quiverfull p 71]
But why? That’s what I want … Read the rest
Atos explains the threats to CarerWatch
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt was a five-month-old link on the CarerWatch forum.… Read the rest
Christian taqqiya
Aug 26th, 2011 12:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonFrank Schaeffer points out that Michele Bachmann is not telling the truth about whether or not she submits to her husband. He knows what he’s talking about, too: his father was one of the sources of the anti-feminist Dominionist movement.
… Read the restBachmann understands just how extreme her part of the evangelical movement is. She also understands that a certain amount of godly lying will be needed to mask that. She understood that the question she was asked the other day was about a biblical teaching that is misogynistic to the core and advocates total submission of a wife to a husband. It is teaching she’s signed on to long ago.
The people, churches and groups that shaped Bachmann’s thinking are far
Frank Schaeffer on Michele Bachmann
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe knows she signed up to a biblical teaching that is misogynistic to the core, and that she has to hide that fact.… Read the rest
Kathryn Joyce on biblical battered wife syndrome
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAccording to Rick Warren’s Saddleback church, divorce is permitted only in cases of adultery or abandonment, and never for abuse. … Read the rest
Lesbian fired from son’s Boy Scout troop
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe told the scoutmaster her partner was a woman; no problem; but then a Christian zealot found out and pitched a fit.… Read the rest
Norwegian imam: behead those who don’t fast
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonImprison those who don’t pray 5 times a day. This guy wants to open a school.… Read the rest
Shahbaz Taseer kidnapped in Lahore
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHis father, Salman Taseer, was murdered by an Islamist bodyguard last December.… Read the rest
Researching the minds of non-believers
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSociologist Phil Zuckerman says secularists tend to be more ethical than religious people. On average, they are more commonly opposed to the death penalty, war and discrimination.… Read the rest
The bible specifically says we’re weaker
Aug 25th, 2011 5:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd here is Ladies Against Feminism. Yes really.
It too says submission is misunderstood and a wonderful thing if only you know how.
This post makes no attempt to argue the case for servanthood with those of you outside the Christian faith. However, for modern women who consider themselves a part of the Christian faith, this all too common reaction should be alarming. Are we really so prideful that the very suggestion that we take a humble and serving attitude towards our husbands instantly unbridles our tongues and sets our anger blazing?
“Prideful” – is that what it is? But aren’t we always being told that it was Christianity that introduced the idea of human equality to a … Read the rest
Why are women hung up on “submission”?
Aug 25th, 2011 4:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonHere’s another submitter, courtesy of pittigemaki.
I like the whole idea and practice of submission. I have heard far too many Christian women snicker, sneer, grumble, roll their eyes, or downright reject the “s word.” But why? Why are women hung up on “submission” when God asks us to do it?
Because women are human beings like other human beings, and there is no good reason to order* human beings of one type to submit to human beings of another type. It’s degrading; it’s an assumption of inferiority; it’s anti-egalitarian. That’s why. The fact that god is supposed to have commanded it doesn’t make it better; it makes god worse.
*The claim is not that god “asks” women … Read the rest
PZ on more accommodationist woofle
Aug 25th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s a frightful mistake to say Rick Perry is ignorant. Frightful.… Read the rest
Can you call your husband ‘Lord’?
Aug 25th, 2011 11:32 am | By Ophelia BensonDoug Phillips, the founder of Vision Forum and a big noise in the Christian patriarchy movement, told the audience at a convention about watching his wife counsel young women who are thinking about marriage. She always asks them “Are you willing to call your husband ‘Lord’?” The answer tends to be shocked silence followed by No. He goes on:
… Read the restWe’re not talking about Lord as in the Creator, but your earthly head. And one that you have to follow, even when he makes bad judgments. Are you ready to do the most vulnerable thing that a woman ever can do and submit yourself to a man, who you are going to have to follow in his faith, who is incredibly
Katha Pollitt on a submissive wife for president
Aug 25th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“The Lord said, ‘Be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands,’” she told the crowd at a Minnesota megachurch.… Read the rest
The armies of god
Aug 25th, 2011 10:47 am | By Ophelia BensonSo now I know. Like most people, I didn’t realize the people behind Rick Perry’s prayer party are weirder than other prayer police.
With tens, even hundreds of millions of followers worldwide, the NAR’s stress on Godlike prophetic and apostolic powers, its revisions of end-time prophecies, its methodology of “spiritual warfare,” and its agenda of theocratic dominion over all aspects of society are not just threatening to modern secular democracy and the religious pluralism it protects, they have been sharply criticized by other conservative Christians as unbiblical, deviant teachings, even a form of the very demonic practices they obsessively declare war against.
They’re not just messing around.
… Read the restThe new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to
9 things to know about Perry’s prayer event
Aug 25th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNAR’s agenda of theocratic dominion over all aspects of society is threatening to modern secular democracy and the religious pluralism it protects.… Read the rest
Rick Perry’s Army of God
Aug 25th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government.… Read the rest