All entries by this author

“Christians can’t be egalitarians.”

Aug 27th, 2011 11:58 am | By

It’s helpful that they come right out and say it.

Narrated by Amy Gunn [wife of Colin, one of the brothers Gunn], Monstrous Regiment argues that “Christians can’t be egalitarians. We believe in hierarchy and inherent authority.”

Oh. Right. Thanks for spelling it out. That’s why we hate and fear you. We think that belief is evil.… Read the rest



The holy cinema

Aug 27th, 2011 11:30 am | By

Meet the Gunn brothers. They make exciting Christian documentary movies that win awards from organizations that give awards to Christian movies.

They made Shaky Town, which is about the persecution of Christians by the evil gayz in San Francisco.

You’ll hear testimonies from Christian Heroes involved in a front-line battle against immorality in the so-called“tolerant” city. You’ll also see real video footage of Christian churches in San Francisco being attacked by violent groups of homosexuals. So be warned, this movie is not for the faint-hearted!

And they made The Monstrous Regiment of Women, which you can guess what it’s about (hello John Knox!). The page is super super super scary though, so be warned – it includes … Read the rest



Laurent Laveder *

Aug 27th, 2011 | Filed by

The guy who did those amazing moon photos.… Read the rest



Never heard that before

Aug 27th, 2011 10:29 am | By

How exciting: a new fresh original unexpected take on theNewAtheism. (Illustrated, I have to add, by a staggeringly banal sculpture called “the Hand of God” which is…a big hand, with a Man perched on it. Wo!!!!!!! Mind-blowing, huh?)

It’s James Wood who has the excitingly new fresh original unexpected take. He breakes the mold in the very first sentence.

In the last 10 years or so, the rise of American evangelicalism and the menace of Islamist fundamentalism, along with developments in physics and in theories of evolution and cosmogony, have encouraged a certain style of aggressive, often strident atheistic critique.

And everything that follows is equally challenging and paradigm-exploding.

I can’t be the only reader who finds himself in

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“Housewives, shut up” *

Aug 27th, 2011 | Filed by

Study finds boys think talking about problems is unhelpful; media report this as girls talk too much. Brilliant.… Read the rest



James Wood on “the New Atheism” *

Aug 27th, 2011 | Filed by

Aggressive, strident, simplistic, Terry Eagleton, practice, Wittgenstein, literalism, parasitic, militant, warfare, polemic, metaphor.… Read the rest



Hitchens on Libya *

Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by

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

When 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

The 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

A 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

It was a five-month-old link on the CarerWatch forum.… Read the rest



Christian taqqiya

Aug 26th, 2011 12:24 pm | By

Frank 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.

Bachmann 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

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Frank Schaeffer on Michele Bachmann *

Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by

She 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

According 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

She 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

Imprison 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

His 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

Sociologist 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

And 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

Here’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