2012-02-10T14:44:00Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39 Movable Type Copyright (c) 2012, Sarah Pulliam Bailey 2012-02-10T14:44:00Z 2012-02-09T16:00:28Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986150 2012-02-09T16:00:28Z

The poetry and proverbs of the Bible offer a unique view of Christ.

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Interview by Courtney Reissig spulliam@christianitytoday.com <p>For some, the prospect of studying the Old Testament appears daunting and quite boring. But in recent years, theologians, pastors, and Bible teachers have for laity begun connecting Christ to the Old Testament, seeing him in everything from the Levitical laws to the laments of the Psalms. Nancy Guthrie has undertaken the task of showing how the entire Bible centers on the hope of the Messiah, currently writing five 10-week Bible studies called <i><a href="http://seeingjesusintheoldtestament.com/" id="ww8a" title="Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament">Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament</a></i>. <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/guthrie.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/guthrie-thumb.jpg" width="232" height="350" alt="guthrie.jpg"/></a></div> <p>An accomplished author, Guthrie attends and teaches at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, and contributes to <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/author/nancyguthrie/">The Gospel Coalition</a>. In addition to her writing, Guthrie and her husband, David, also host Respite Retreat for couples who have <a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/07/nancy_guthrie_hearing_jesus_sp.html">experienced</a> the death of a child. She graciously spoke with Her.meneutics about her most recent study, <i><a href="http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=WW526329&amp;p=1006327" id="zzqw" title="The Wisdom of God: Seeing Jesus in the Psalms and Wisdom Books">The Wisdom of God: Seeing Jesus in the Psalms and Wisdom Books</a></i>, the second in the Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament series. The study will be available from Crossway Books at the end of this month. <br /><br /> <b>You are a prolific author. How did your newest Bible study series come about? <br /> </b>I grew up in church, worked in Christian publishing for over 20 years, and have been in Bible studies for as long as I can remember. But I began to grasp the big picture story of the Bible only a few years ago, when I became gripped by a scene described in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 24:27). It caused me to reconsider how I have understood the Old Testament for most of my life. I spent a year working through the Old Testament, which developed in me a passion to create materials for Bible study groups to understand how Jesus is pictured in its people and patterns, how he is anticipated in its celebrations and songs, and how he is the answer to all of its unanswered questions and unmet needs. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/seeing_jesus_in_the_old_testam_1.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/hyelCrDYix0" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/seeing_jesus_in_the_old_testam_1.html 2012-02-09T15:56:00Z 2012-02-09T15:43:53Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986148 2012-02-09T15:43:53Z

Why many church leaders are tempted to confuse cultural norms with biblical truth.

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Rachel Stone kbeaty@christianitytoday.com church life <p>We’ve been hearing a lot about masculine Christianity lately.<br /><br /> By now we’re used to hearing <a href="http://pastormark.tv/">Mark Driscoll</a> campaign for more masculine church leaders and expressions of Christianity; late last year, Reformed pastor Douglas Wilson invited Driscoll to his church to speak at a <a href="http://www.graceagenda.com/">Grace Agenda</a> conference—a gathering that tactfully segregated women by offering a separate pre-conference just for them. In turn, Wilson spoke at John Piper’s <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/events/pastors-conferences/2012">Desiring God Pastor’s Conference</a>, which this year had an explicitly masculine theme: “God, Manhood &amp; Ministry: Building Men for the Glory of God.” No stranger to strong statements in the blogo-twittersphere, Piper again drew attention by declaring that <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/the-frank-and-manly-mr-ryle-the-value-of-a-masculine-ministry">“God has given Christianity a masculine feel.”</a><br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/john%20piper.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/john%20piper-thumb.jpg" width="213" height="320" alt="john%20piper.jpg"/></a></div> <p>The insistence that Christianity ought to be muscular is often traced to American evangelists of the early 20th century, such as <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=854571">Billy Sunday</a> and D. L. Moody, who <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2003/aug15.html">emphasized sports and physical strength</a> to counter the perception that Christians were soft and docile, in other words, <i>feminine</i>: a concept attributed to the 19th-century idealization of women as keepers of home and hearth and nurturer of the family’s spiritual well-being. But even then, the perception of “spirituality” as “feminine” was itself a relatively new idea. For millennia, Western ideology tended to understand women as being grounded in body and matter, while men dealt in the realm of the mind and spirit. <br /><br /> If nothing else, it’s clear that masculinity and femininity are not fixed and eternal sets of attributes, but are by and large culturally defined, and always changing. For example, blue was once more closely associated with “feminine” while pink was associated with “masculine.” In parts of Europe, it’s still not unusual for men to greet one another with kisses; in <a href="http://www.indiayogaretreat.com/women_lgbt.html">India,</a> you might see two male friends walking arm in arm. And we have many examples of renaissance poetry—essentially love poetry—written by and for non-homosexual males who were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_friendship%23Examples_of_historical_romantic_friendship">close friends.</a> By looking to other times and other places, we can see that masculinity is a way of behaving culturally that looks different in different times and places.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/john_piper_and_the_rise_of_bib.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/AKu1Po9AhY4" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/john_piper_and_the_rise_of_bib.html 2012-02-08T16:32:12Z 2012-02-08T16:22:30Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986143 2012-02-08T16:22:30Z

The British World War I drama, depicting a world away, teaches me how to live in my own.

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Alicia Cohn kbeaty@christianitytoday.com books and media <p>On the last episode of the wildly popular <span class="caps">PBS </span>drama <i><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/" id="z1:j" title="Downton Abbey">Downton Abbey</a></i>, one character tells another: "You've broken the rules, my girl, and it's no use pretending they're easily mended."<br /><br /> The popular British import, set in World War I, portrays the aristocratic Crawley family and the cadre of cooks, maids, and butlers who tend to them, in all their relational and class-based drama. The show is all about rules, whether bowing to class structure or honoring commitments from the past. The rules present the extraordinary obstacles in this show . . . except that they’re not so extraordinary, really, and that’s one of the many reasons this show works.<br /></p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/0208onion_L.JPG"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/0208onion_L-thumb.JPG" width="345" height="230" alt="0208onion_L.JPG"/></a></div> <p><em>Downton</em>'s surprise success is often chalked up to an unrealistic sense of <a href="http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-31/opinion/31004839_1_downton-abbey-mobility-servants">nostalgia</a> over an intriguing and lavish lifestyle at the turn of the 20th century, borne out by the inevitable market surge of "inspired by" <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/business/media/mad-for-downton-publishers-have-a-reading-list.html?_r=1">books</a>, <a href="http://thelook.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10175988-dress-like-the-ladies-of-downton-abbey">clothes</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/downton-abbey-food_n_1229019.html#s634943&amp;title=Meringue_Nests_With">food</a>, and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2091664/PBS-forced-pull-unauthorised-Downton-Abbey-jewellery-line-producers-object.html">jewelry</a>. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's easy to understand why this show is considered a <a href="http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/30/downton-abbey-is-a-soap/">soap opera </a>that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/business/media/pbs-shifts-tactics-to-reach-wider-audience.html?_r=3">appeals mainly to women</a>.)<br /><br /> But my favorite aspect of <i>Downton</i> is its emphasis on humans’ agency and accountability despite social and economic barriers. The characters are never excused for their choices by circumstance, class, gender, time period, or even the unfairness of the rules to which they so tightly cling.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/the_power_of_choice_in_downton.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/KYAyE57k5FM" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/the_power_of_choice_in_downton.html 2012-02-07T17:08:42Z 2012-02-07T14:58:26Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986128 2012-02-07T14:58:26Z

When my family moved my grandma cross-country to a nearby nursing home, I had no idea she would bring with her a reminder of irrevocable loss.

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Karen Swallow Prior spulliam@christianitytoday.com spirituality <p>And Gramma makes three. <br /><br /> Almost. <br /><br /> Over a year ago, my mother and father moved across the country to <a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2010/11/when_mom_and_dad_move_in.html">live</a> with my husband and me. My grandmother, my mother’s mother, was supposed to come with them. But Gramma fell and broke her hip just before the move. She has not recovered enough to continue being cared for at home, as she had been before the fall. This meant being left behind by my parents when they relocated, much to my mother’s despair. But finally, months after my parents arrived, we were able to bring Gramma here—just not in accordance with our original plans. Instead of moving her to the room designed for her in the little home my husband built for my parents, we moved her to a nursing facility. <br /></p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/4182186718_3dfeb991f9.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/4182186718_3dfeb991f9-thumb.jpg" width="357" height="240" alt="4182186718_3dfeb991f9.jpg" title="Courtesy of simaje, flickr.com, http://www.flickr.com/photos/simajr/4182186718/sizes/m/in/photostream/" /></a></div> <p>These events—waiting months for a space to open in the nursing home, followed by the <a href="http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/mother-41324-search-adult.html">nightmare</a> of transporting across the country a frail 97-year-old woman in need of an airline-<a href="http://www.homeoxygen.org/airline-travel-with-oxygen">approved</a> oxygen tank, an accompanying nurse, and proper identification documents (apparently, government agencies are not very sympathetic to the ways of the world a century ago, and those ways do not include the ubiquitous and standardized paperwork of today)—have given me a glimpse into recent <a href="http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2011/jul/10/census-shows-senior-boom-central-virginia-ar-1161154/">headlines</a> in my community predicting a shortage in services for the <a href="http://transgenerational.org/aging/demographics.htm">growing</a> population of the elderly. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/scared_to_death_of_death_facin_1.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/BykvSUtDZ1w" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/scared_to_death_of_death_facin_1.html 2012-02-03T23:06:52Z 2012-02-03T22:52:21Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986125 2012-02-03T22:52:21Z

The world is waking up to a conflict pro-life women have faced for years.

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Gina Dalfonzo spulliam@christianitytoday.com sexuality and health <p>If you’ve been paying attention to recent events involving Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, you probably have whiplash by now.</p> <p>First, Komen—the world’s best-known breast-cancer-fighting organization—decided to stop giving funds to Planned Parenthood. Two reasons were given: Komen’s policy against supporting organizations under investigation, and the fact that PP does mammogram referrals rather than actual mammograms. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/komen-speaks/2012/02/02/gIQArKI9kQ_blog.html">Said</a> Komen founder Nancy Brinker, “We have decided not to fund, wherever possible, pass-through grants. We were giving them money, they were sending women out for mammograms. What we would like to have are clinics where we can directly fund mammograms.”</p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/0203breastcancer.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/0203breastcancer-thumb.jpg" width="350" height="262" alt="0203breastcancer.jpg"/></a></div> <p>That story was greeted with a storm of protest by the pro-choice movement, and loud cheers from pro-lifers. Many of these pro-lifers, who had long been deterred by the PP connection from giving to Komen, started opening their wallets and checkbooks for the organization for the first time. </p> <p>Then, this morning, Komen released an apology. Their official statement <a href="http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=19327354148">read</a>, in part: “Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. . . . We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.” </p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/why_the_new_planned_parenthood.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/kGDfIA0VPhU" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/why_the_new_planned_parenthood.html 2012-02-07T15:05:33Z 2012-02-03T15:06:18Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986121 2012-02-03T15:06:18Z

What we see online is only a part of the larger—and better—picture.

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Brittany Tuttle, guest blogger spulliam@christianitytoday.com relationships and family <p>Over Christmas break, I became obsessed with the idea that I wanted another baby even though my soul knew this to be untrue. <br /><br /> I did not want another baby, but I'd read a blog that made me think I did. On the blog, a woman had described her birth story as an experience so spiritual it bordered on holy. A process that strengthened the bonds between herself, her husband, and God. <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/Kids%20screaming.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/Kids%20screaming-thumb.jpg" width="350" height="234" alt="Kids%20screaming.jpg" title="Courtesy of Aidan-Sally, flickr.com (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sally-aidan/5787460369/in/photostream/)." /></a></div> <p>And here sat I, knowing full well that birth for me had never strengthened my bond to anyone but my anesthesiologist and Preparation H. <br /><br /> Her idealized description of giving birth had confused me so much that it led me to believe I wanted things that I didn't actually want. <br /><br /> In short, it made me jealous. <br /><br /> It wasn't an isolated occurrence. Countless times I've logged onto Facebook, Twitter, or my favorite blogs only to see vintage-filtered vignettes of other people's seemingly perfect lives. There are my friends, on tropical vacation (again). There are my favorite bloggers, wearing artsy duds, sitting in their homes that look like exact replications of the <a href="http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/shopbycatalogentry.jsp">Anthropologie catalog</a>. And there are their children, perpetually glossy-haired and rosy-cheeked and smiling. <br /><br /> Meanwhile, here I sit in my untidy home in the cold of January, wearing an old college t-shirt. My kids are fighting in the background. Reading these blogs, seeing these profiles, often feels like browsing a fashion magazine. It's fun to look at, but afterward I feel inferior and inadequate and ugly and fat. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/parenthood_moving_beyond_faceb.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/TjXaH7wudzE" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/parenthood_moving_beyond_faceb.html 2012-02-07T15:05:44Z 2012-02-01T20:54:17Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986115 2012-02-01T20:54:17Z

Jana Riess's Mormon background does not detract from Flunking Sainthood's message.

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Michelle Van Loon spulliam@christianitytoday.com books and media <p>Jana Riess discovered she’d been changed by her attempts to practice the classic spiritual disciplines such as fasting, service, and prayer when she received a phone call informing her that her father was dying. He’d abandoned the family while she was growing up. She hadn’t seen him in 26 years.<br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/Jana%20Riess.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/Jana%20Riess-thumb.jpg" width="350" height="175" alt="Jana%20Riess.jpg"/></a></div> <p>“Here’s what I learned from my father’s sudden reappearance and death: all of those unsuccessful practices, those attempts at sainthood that felt like dismal failures at the time, actually took hold somehow,” Riess writes in her new memoir, <a href="http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=WW256607&amp;p=1006327" id="c.in" title="Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor"><i>Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor</i></a>&nbsp;(Paraclete). “They helped form me into the kind of person who could go to the bedside of someone who had harmed me and be able to say, ‘I forgive you, Dad. Go in peace.’”<br /><br /> The call came shortly after Riess--known best for her long-running <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/flunkingsainthood/">Beliefnet blog</a> (which just <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/blogs/jana-riess">moved</a> to Religion News Service) and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/janariess">Bible-tweeting project</a>--had spent an entire year sampling spiritual disciplines, one per month, accompanied by her reading of appropriate companion spiritual classics. The result, <i>Flunking Sainthood</i>, made the <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2011/religion#book/book-9.">2011 <i>Publisher’s Weekly</i> Top Ten list in the religion category</a>.<br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/learning_the_spiritual_discipl.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/QCqC694OMN8" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/learning_the_spiritual_discipl.html 2012-02-07T15:05:51Z 2012-02-01T14:34:10Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986112 2012-02-01T14:34:10Z

So much Christian parenting advice neglects the importance of self-care for women.

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Kelli B. Trujillo, guest blogger spulliam@christianitytoday.com relationships and family <p>After reading Elrena Evans’s thoughtful Her.meneutics post, “<a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/the_cryitout_controversy_and.html" id="jqe7" title="Should You Let Your Baby ‘Cry It Out’? A Christian Response">Should You Let Your Baby ‘Cry It Out’? A Christian Response</a>,” it was clear that Evans and I absolutely agree on one thing: unfortunately the so-called “Mommy Wars” are alive and well. I firmly support Evans’s decision to parent the way that works best for her family. But in a spirit of peace rather than war, I want to offer a different perspective on the cry-it-out controversy. <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/Baby%20cry.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/02/Baby%20cry-thumb.jpg" width="289" height="350" alt="Baby%20cry.jpg" title="Courtesy of Edwart Visser, flickr.com (http://www.flickr.com/photos/flashpro/2835799168/)" /></a></div> <p>There are two camps that use the term “crying it out,” and it’s essential to distinguish between the two. One approach imposes a strict parent-driven feeding and sleeping schedule upon very young infants. The medical community by and large opposes this approach, due to the risk of stress and malnourishment for infants (see American Academy of Pediatrics <a href="http://aapnews.aappublications.org/content/14/4/21.abstract?cited-by=yes&amp;legid=aapnews;14/4/21&amp;related-urls=yes&amp;legid=aapnews;14/4/21">abstract</a> and <a href="http://www.ezzo.info/resources/timeline/81-timeline/107-babywise-advice-linked-to-dehydration-failure-to-thrive">article</a>) and because of the profound discouragement it creates for many new moms. So let me be clear: When I’m talking about “crying it out,” I’m <i>not </i>referring to this approach. <br /><br /> But there’s a second approach to letting kids “cry it out” that’s worked well for my family. The <span class="caps">AAP </span>advises that a parent <a href="http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/crying-colic/pages/Responding-to-Your-Babys-Cries.aspx">“respond promptly to your infant whenever she cries during the first few months.”</a> When an infant younger than 4 months is crying, it’s usually because she <i>needs </i>something. Parents ought to always do their best to respond to these cries. However, around the 4-month mark, parents can discern between a cry expressing real need (“I’m hurt! I’m hungry! I need to be changed!”) and a cry of <i>protest </i>(“I don’t want to be in this bed! I want your constant attention!”). I believe there’s some latitude in how we respond to protest cries. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/why_i_let_my_kids_cry_it_out_a_1.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/Q10xki0FP4Q" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/02/why_i_let_my_kids_cry_it_out_a_1.html 2012-01-31T15:44:34Z 2012-01-31T14:43:52Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986105 2012-01-31T14:43:52Z

The celebrated rapper insists he’ll continue to use the word despite the arrival of his newborn baby girl, Blue Ivy Carter.

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Margot Starbuck spulliam@christianitytoday.com books and media <p>When Jay-Z and wife Beyonce welcomed their first child, daughter Blue Ivy Carter, into the world on January 7, Jay-Z joined the ranks of hip-hop dads that include <a href="http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/01/26/fathers-in-hip-hop-jay-z-ti-fat-joe/"><span class="caps">T.I. </span>and Fat Joe</a>. Just two days after Blue Ivy’s arrival, the proud papa released a new single, “Glory, Featuring Blue Ivy Carter,” making the baby—babbling alongside her dad—the youngest person ever credited on the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Billboard charts. Jay-Z sings, <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/Jay%20Z.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/Jay%20Z-thumb.jpg" width="232" height="350" alt="Jay%20Z.jpg" title="Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shawn-Carter_Jay-Z_2006-11-18_Chicago_Photoby_Adam-Bielawski.jpg)." /></a></div> <p><i>The most amazing feeling I feel<br /> Words can't describe the feeling, for real<br /> Baby I'll paint the sky <a href="http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/01/08/blue-ivy-carter-jay-z-baby-name-also-his-favorite-color">blue<br /> </a> My most greatest creation was you. </i></p> <p> As the final notes of “Glory” fade out, we hear Blue Ivy Carter’s newborn cries and coos. For older listeners, the sounds will recall Stevie Wonder’s 1976 hit “Isn’t She Lovely?” featuring Wonder’s own infant daughter Aisha. <br /><br /> It would all be very heartwarming were it not for the recent brouhaha in response to a <a href="http://www.wenn.com/all-news/new-dad-jay-z-vows-to-drop-the-b-word-from-his-rhymes/">January 13 post</a> from <span class="caps">WENN, </span>announcing that Jay-Z had written a poem for Ivy Blue in which he denounced the sexism—namely using the word “b----” to refer to women—prevalent in so many of his lyrics. What the mighty Oprah Winfrey had failed to do in 2010, when she challenged Jay-Z on his derogatory sexist language when he appeared on her show, a tiny little baby had, reportedly, done. <br /><br /> <a href="http://www.wenn.com/all-news/new-dad-jay-z-vows-to-drop-the-b-word-from-his-rhymes/"><span class="caps">WENN</span></a> claims Jay-Z penned these paternal words for his offspring: "<i>Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich/I didn’t think hard about using the word bitch/I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it/Now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it.</i>" It’s the kind of redemptive story that those of us who do not know even one single Jay-Z lyric desperately <i>want </i>to be true. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/the_99_problems_with_jayzs_use_2.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/2K5oBIiURY4" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/the_99_problems_with_jayzs_use_2.html 2012-02-07T15:06:03Z 2012-01-30T14:40:20Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986102 2012-01-30T14:40:20Z

Insecurities can cause women to undermine each other.

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Halee Gray Scott, guest blogger spulliam@christianitytoday.com church life <p>Monica Holmes had the prettiest hair of any girl in the fifth grade. Her chestnut locks flowed effortlessly down her back, while my delicate, thin hair broke off around my shoulders. Even so, I didn’t envy her hair; I begrudged her braggadocio. No matter the context—recess, lunch, or a bathroom break—Monica couldn’t say enough about her hair to anyone who would listen. “I just love my dark-brown, beautiful hair. Don’t you too?” <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/boxing.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/boxing-thumb.jpg" width="350" height="249" alt="boxing.jpg" title="Image courtesy of West Point Public Affairs (http://www.flickr.com/photos/west_point/4419476703/in/photostream/)." /></a></div> <p>By Christmas, I’d had enough. In the seat behind Monica during the annual showing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, in the darkened multi-purpose room, I stealthily stuck a big wad of pink Bubble-Yum gum in a wide swath of Monica Holmes’s dark-brown, beautiful hair. <br /><br /> It wasn’t one of my finer moments. But lest you think my preadolescent behavior was an anomaly, a recent <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21932332">study</a> from the University of Ottawa suggests otherwise. Intrasexual competition is widely demonstrated among males, so researchers Tracy Vaillancourt and A. Sharma wanted to know whether or not intrasexual competition existed among women, often believed to be nurturing, communicative, and more likely to rule by consensus. “I was convinced,” <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/women-aggressive-sexy-peers/story?id=15040553#.TyL7SYGwVM2">stated</a> Vaillancourt, “having lived my life as a woman, that we’re not as pleasant as some people make us out to be.” <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/christian_catfights_why_women.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/zpih7xbCNc0" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/christian_catfights_why_women.html 2012-01-27T21:32:54Z 2012-01-27T17:21:18Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986093 2012-01-27T17:21:18Z

The old traditions of luring in a spouse still linger today.

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Karen Swallow Prior spulliam@christianitytoday.com relationships and family <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY ">To all the single ladies</a>: <br /><br /> Last week <a href="http://www.groupon.com/">Groupon</a> offered a ticket to lasting love (at a 76% discount!) by way of your own personal “boudoir photo shoot.” The <a href="http://www.groupon.com/deals/bruce-lemler-photography-llc?c=title&amp;division=new-york&amp;s=body&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;sid=11080152&amp;p=1&amp;date=20120121&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=all-deals_new-york_personas&amp;utm_campaign=bruce-lemler-photography-llc&amp;addxe=Y2FyeW4uckBjb21jYXN0Lm5ldA%3D%3D&amp;user=1a1d35e1b6d7ef33ba8a2c1b7220c9ab314cdd3145dfd048fb04cc7cc7d22e67">ad</a> proclaims: <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/3665124765_ab7a363491.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/3665124765_ab7a363491-thumb.jpg" width="226" height="340" alt="3665124765_ab7a363491.jpg" title="Courtesy of Wayne National Forest, Flickr.com, http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynenf/3665124765/sizes/m/in/photostream/" /></a></div> <p><i>The great Romantic painters had the same goal—to craft an image so beautiful that it would come to life and marry them. Increase your chances of turning images into love using the modern version of painting, photography</i> . . . <br /><br /> The sample photo suggests that the way to transform “images into love” to is throw on some kitschy lingerie, splay yourself in the most awkward position imaginable on a bed, and fork over $95.00 for the picture. <br /><br /> The image might have gone from G-rated to R-rated, but the sentiment in this marketing campaign is strikingly similar to those of the conduct books popular around the eighteenth century. Such literature offered young ladies not only moral and domestic instruction, but also tips on how to attract the best husband. If you’ve read any Jane Austen, then you’ve encountered her satirical <a href="http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pptopic2.html#accompllis">treatment</a> of these works: priggish Mr. Collins reads passages from one popular conduct book to the captive Bennet girls, and the heroine of <i>Emma </i>tries to make a love-match by painting an “enhanced” portrait of her friend in hopes a gentleman will fall in love with the woman in the painting. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/marriage_creating_a_partnershi_1.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/hOXxrG8rxcA" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/marriage_creating_a_partnershi_1.html 2012-01-26T17:00:56Z 2012-01-26T16:13:32Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986087 2012-01-26T16:13:32Z

How Crystal Paine made a ministry out of coupon clipping.

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Sarah Pulliam Bailey spulliam@christianitytoday.com women of note <p>Crystal Paine is not your average mommy blogger. She doesn’t tell you about her day or post picture-perfect images of her lifestyle for you to envy. The homeschooling mom of three based in Kansas wants to help you make ends meet, to use many pieces of information to make choices about everyday purchases. With 4 million pageviews a month, she operates one of the most well-known coupon-clipping blogs in the country, and her new book, <em><a href="http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=WW646207&amp;p=1006327">The Money Saving Mom’s Budget</a></em> (Gallery Books), wraps all of her practices up in one place. </p> <p>Paine told Her.meneutics that her blogging began as any other site back in 2004. “I mentioned that I spent $17 on groceries that week, and people started asking, ‘How on earth did you do that?’ ” she said. </p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/0126moneysavingmom.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/0126moneysavingmom-thumb.jpg" width="400" height="324" alt="0126moneysavingmom.jpg"/></a></div> <p>She created an online course that taught some basic strategies, such as how to create a meal plan and how to combine the manufacturers’ and store’s coupons for a double deal. “People were saying, ‘I need more practical information. I need you to break it down: what should I buy at the store this week? The goal was finding practical ways to save on groceries,” she said. So her blog turned into a mix of posts, including daily deals on products, tips for managing money, and ways to live more simply.</p> <p>Paine, who attends an independent Baptist church with Southern Baptist leanings, sees her blog as a different kind of ministry model, one that helps people get down to the nitty-gritty details about their finances.</p> <p>“I try not to use ‘Christianese’ so someone who is unchurched can’t catch on,” she said, noting that she <a href="http://moneysavingmom.com/2009/12/a-broken-tea-cup-a-humble-manger-and-the-best-deal-ive-ever-gotten.html">points</a> to her faith in various posts. “I see it as though I’m digging a well. I’m providing people help with food and clothing, helping them get out of debt, and then they’re open to hearing the gospel.” </p> <p>On the surface, most of Paine’s posts show you how to get free samples, save a few bucks, or organize your life. But she says her readers glean bigger principles. </p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/making_the_most_out_of_mommy_b.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/5uX5ETkfdyo" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/making_the_most_out_of_mommy_b.html 2012-01-25T18:01:33Z 2012-01-25T17:24:17Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986083 2012-01-25T17:24:17Z

Women will help single men grow up by refusing to play by their frat-boy standards.

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Ruthie Dean, guest blogger kbeaty@christianitytoday.com sexuality and health <p>“Wanna grab a burrito 2nite?”<br /><br /> The melody of the Atlanta symphony’s instruments flowed through the auditorium. I didn’t have high expectations for dating at 23, but a text containing the word <i>burrito</i> wasn’t exactly what I had in mind (and with 1 hour notice). I liked him, but couldn’t escape the mental picture of showing up in a swanky outfit to an establishment where my entrance would be announced in a jubilee of “Welcome to Moe’s!” <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/texting1.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/texting1-thumb.jpg" width="345" height="230" alt="texting1.jpg"/></a></div> <p>The resounding question I hear from many single women today is: “Where have all the good men gone?” <br /><br /> Recently, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704409004576146321725889448.html">several articles</a> and statistics have <a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/09/a_good_man_is_hard_to_find.html">shown</a> that women are making history with career achievements, while men in increasing numbers are seemingly living in a prolonged state of adolescence, sitting back with their buddies and playing video games. Cultural observers <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/february/sexeconomics.html">note</a> <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/11/03/dude-wheres-your-bride/">that</a> men are not finding compelling reasons to grow up and marry. The former cultural standards of marriage for sex and children have changed drastically in the past 50 years as one-night stands are celebrated and single parenthood accepted. <br /><br /> And women are only fueling this behavior by excusing it. <br /><br /> The charged response to my husband’s blog post “<a href="http://ruthiedean.com/2011/12/07/real-men-dont-text-the-lost-art-of-chivalry/">Real Men Don’t Text</a>”revealed women’s frustration with text messages, video games, and guys who still act like frat boys. Women posted the link on Facebook and wrote things like “Can I get an a-men?” “Men! Read This!” Others wrote in with stories about men who had asked them out through text, broke up with them through text, and asked them to have sex through text. Men were challenged to “grow a pair, pick up your Bible, turn off the video game, and pursue a woman.” But an interesting perspective arose from the clamor of “Amens!” Several men said that while “real men don’t text,” real women don’t text <i>back</i>. They knew, from experience, that a woman wasn’t worth pursuing if she engaged in a text relationship. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/real_women_dont_text_back_how.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/jRJIk2PZ7qA" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/real_women_dont_text_back_how.html 2012-01-24T17:41:14Z 2012-01-24T17:02:00Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986073 2012-01-24T17:02:00Z

My "attachment parenting" is rooted less in outcome-based goals and more in God's example.

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Elrena Evans kbeaty@christianitytoday.com relationships and family <p>When <i>Psychology Today</i> ran an article titled “<a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201112/dangers-crying-it-out">Dangers of ‘Crying it Out</a>,’” my response was, perhaps predictably, jaded. I read the article, then clicked over to one of my “Birth Clubs” on <a href="http://www.babycenter.com/">BabyCenter</a> to watch the ensuing fun while I nursed my seven-month-old. It took a while for the drama to start—when I landed on the page, everyone was up in arms about <a href="http://extendedrearfacing.org/">extended-rear-facing</a> versus forward-facing car seats—but before my daughter had finished nursing, someone had linked to the <i>Psychology Today</i> article. And the insults and name-calling began.<br /></p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/3728905329_4b47a1b5cc.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/3728905329_4b47a1b5cc-thumb.jpg" width="243" height="325" alt="3728905329_4b47a1b5cc.jpg"/></a></div> <p>In case anyone is curious, the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Behind-Mommy-Wars-Decides/dp/1580051294">Mommy Wars</a> are alive and well.<br /><br /> “<a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201112/dangers-crying-it-out">Dangers of ‘Crying it Out</a>’ ” didn't cover any earth-shattering territory. Written by Notre Dame psychologist Darcia Narvaez, the article described the psychological harm done by leaving an infant to cry to teach “self-soothing.” Mommy War veterans will recognize many of Narvaez's points as reminiscent of Penelope Leach's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/21/leaving-baby-to-cry-brain-development-damage">headline-making</a> arguments of 2010, and William Sears's <a href="http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/fussy-baby/science-says-excessive-crying-could-be-harmful">headline-making</a> arguments that date back a lot longer. Their conclusion: Leaving a baby to “cry it out” increases their stress hormone cortisol, which can be toxic to the developing neurons in baby's brain. “Crying it out” can also undermine trust, impair self-regulation, and threaten lifelong health.<br /><br /> Narvaez credits behaviorist John Watson with launching the “crusade against affection” in his 1928 book Psychological Care of Infant and Child. So far-reaching were Watson's anti-affection endeavors that a government pamphlet from that time instructed new mothers to “stop [holding the baby] immediately if her arms feel tired,” as “the baby is never to inconvenience the adult.”<br /><br /> (As the mother of four, I find the idea of a baby never inconveniencing an adult hilarious.)</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/the_cryitout_controversy_and.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/D1B5s5tjF-A" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/the_cryitout_controversy_and.html 2012-01-23T18:30:12Z 2012-01-23T17:23:11Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2012:/women//39.538986069 2012-01-23T17:23:11Z

Faith Huckel, founder and director of Restore NYC, took her social-work skills and a heap of prayer to launch the city's first and only long-term aftercare shelter for foreign-born trafficking victims.

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Anna Broadway spulliam@christianitytoday.com women of note <p>When award-winning nonprofit leader Faith Huckel moved to New York City in 2003, she expected her time there to shape her career, but she thought that impact would come more from the social work graduate program she was entering than events at the United Nations headquarters nearby. <br /></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/Huckel.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2012/01/Huckel-thumb.jpg" width="350" height="233" alt="Huckel.jpg"/></a></div> <p>Then, just weeks into her studies, President George W. Bush addressed the <span class="caps">UN, </span>concluding a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/23/international/22TEXT-BUSH.html">speech</a> focused on the Middle East with a discussion of human trafficking, which he called a “modern-day form of slavery.” Four months later, <i>The New York Times Magazine</i> ran an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/the-girls-next-door.html">8,500-word cover story on sex trafficking in America</a> that launched thousands of shocked conversations. <br /><br /> Speaking to me recently, Huckel recalled the typical reaction to the report: “What? This is happening here? No. Come on. That’s crazy.” But, for her, she said, curiosity became an “obsession.” <br /><br /> During previous social work in Philadelphia, Huckel, 33, had already seen the connection between poverty and commercial sex. “No one wakes up as a little girl one day and says, ‘I think I’m going to be a prostitute. That’s a great career for myself,’ ” she said. “Because of poverty, of gender oppression, of life situations and circumstances of being coerced, oftentimes forced, you are then forced into prostitution.” <br /><br /> Yet, like many Americans at the time, Huckel was stunned by what she learned about the scale of sex trafficking. “The more and more that I learned, the more broken I became for wanting to do something about this,” she said. <br /></p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/faith_huckel.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/xoIyBXS5s1E" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/01/faith_huckel.html