2009-11-06T21:17:34Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39 Movable Type Copyright (c) 2009, Katelyn Beaty 2009-11-06T21:17:34Z 2009-11-06T20:47:59Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982084 2009-11-06T20:47:59Z

Connecting the dots between what we see on screen and who we become.

]]>

Carolyn McCulley, guest blogger kbeaty@christianitytoday.com books and media <p>Many people who know me as an author and women's ministry speaker are often curious about why I started a film company. They seem to assume there is a split focus there. Perhaps there is, but because I see media in a more holistic way, one of the reasons I started <a href="http://citygatefilms.com/">Citygate Films</a> was to influence the diet, so to speak, of what is being consumed in mainstream media. I also have a heavy concern that the "screen generation" is being fed more harmful images and narratives than uplifting ones.</p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/11/3098298663_264963254c.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/11/3098298663_264963254c-thumb.jpg" width="341" height="215" alt="3098298663_264963254c.jpg" title="Courtesy of khrawlings, flickr.com" /></a></div> <p>For example, this is how my day has gone so far. I checked the news, and saw stories about a 15-year-old girl who was <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks31-2009oct31,0,41271.column?track=rss">brutally gang-raped</a> by anywhere between 7 to 10 men outside of a high school while at least a dozen others stood by and watched it without interfering, and a <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gomr1KG0RTt_F4GkAa0kkpqJE7OgD9BQ87NG0">sadist</a> who allegedly raped, murdered, and stowed the bodies of at least 10 women in his home. Those are just the stories in <span class="caps">CNN'</span>s headlines — the tip of the iceberg nationally. There are numerous local stories about child sex abuse and murder that don't even make the national news.</p> <p>Next, I checked my Twitter feed, which carried news of many nonprofit organizations (Christian and mainstream) that are working to improve the conditions of women and girls around the world. High on their list of concerns is sex trafficking and enslaved prostitutes.</p> <p>I then started work by listening to a media panel about "transmedia" efforts — telling a single story across a variety of media platforms. One of the panelists spoke without shame of working with a clothing company that sponsored an interactive game about a stripper. The gamer controls the stripper's actions, which this media expert cheerfully said allowed the player to either make the stripper engage "in the most depraved actions" or "save her." It's an odd sponsorship, given the fact that the sponsor's clothes aren't seen very often. (The clothing company wasn't mentioned in this panel, but I wish it had been so that I would not patronize their stores or product.)</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/a_quest_to_question_mainstream.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/1vigIXhIvLI" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/a_quest_to_question_mainstream.html 2009-11-04T17:00:10Z 2009-11-04T15:31:43Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982047 2009-11-04T15:31:43Z

The director had resigned after watching an ultrasound for an abortion.

]]>

Sarah Pulliam Bailey spulliam@christianitytoday.com justice and politics <p>Planned Parenthood has found itself in a legal battle with a former director who said she had a change of heart after watching an ultrasound for an abortion and <a href="http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/68441827.html">quit</a> the organization . </p> <p><span class="caps">KBTX </span>of Bryan/College Station, Texas, reports that Abby Johnson worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years, and two years as director, but joined forces with the Coalition For Life earlier this month, praying with volunteers outside the clinic. </p> <blockquote> Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian churchgoer recently became convicted about. "I feel so pure in heart [since leaving]. I don't have this guilt, I don't have this burden on me anymore that's how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion."<br /> </blockquote> <p>Planned Parenthood <a href="http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/68761337.html">filed</a> a temporary restraining order October 30 to prevent Johnson from disclosing information about the organization.</p> <p><object id="swfclipV3829976" width="421" height="376" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.thenewsroom.com/mash/swf/cube.swf?a=V3829976&amp;m=932591"><param name="movie" value="http://www.thenewsroom.com/mash/swf/cube.swf?a=V3829976&amp;m=932591"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="base" value="." /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/></object></p> <p>Johnson <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571215,00.html">told Fox News</a> that she became disillusioned after she felt pressure to increase profits by performing more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.</p> <p>"Every meeting that we had was, 'We don't have enough money, we don't have enough money — we've got to keep these abortions coming,' " Johnson said. "It's a very lucrative business and that's why they want to increase numbers."</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/planned_parenthood_puts_restra.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/9Rcjc1QzzZA" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/planned_parenthood_puts_restra.html 2009-11-03T16:18:47Z 2009-11-02T22:28:39Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982045 2009-11-02T22:28:39Z

It ended up being the most important day of my life.

]]>

Ellen Hsu, guest blogger kbeaty@christianitytoday.com relationships and family <p>When it comes to the chance for those with genetic defects to live, the news has not been good on either side of the Atlantic. Last week’s <em>Telegraph</em> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6440705/Three-babies-aborted-every-day-due-to-Downs-syndrome.html">reported</a> that of all women in the <span class="caps">U.K. </span>who find out through prenatal testing that their baby will have Down syndrome, about 90 percent choose to have an abortion. And yesterday, <span class="caps">ABC</span> News <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_ParentingResource/down-syndrome-births-drop-us-women-abort/story?id=8960803">reported</a> a near-identical rate among women in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span>: 92 percent of those who find out their child will have the chromosomal defect decide to abort. One geneticist at Children’s Hospital Boston found that, without prenatal testing, the number of Down syndrome births would have increased by 34 percent between 1989 and 2005. Instead, the number of Down syndrome births has dropped by 15 percent over that time.</p> <p>Upon hearing such news, I remembered Ellen and Al Hsu (pronounced <em>shee</em>), a Christian couple who works at InterVarsity Press in Downers Grove, Illinois, and who faced the same situation as the women above. This is Ellen’s story of Elijah, their 4-year-old with Down syndrome, as originally told on their family blog, <a href="http://teamhsu.blogspot.com/">Team Hsu</a>.</p> <p>--/</p> <p>I gazed in wonder at the blurry form on the screen. “Hi, Baby,” I whispered. The image of our baby was much clearer on the level-two ultrasound. The technician rolled the ultrasound wand over my growing abdomen, and I marveled as I watched our son squirm and suck his thumb. A new life forming within me.</p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/11/DSCN5024.JPG"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/11/DSCN5024-thumb.JPG" width="286" height="215" alt="DSCN5024.JPG"/></a></div> <p>Our OB/GYN had referred us for a level-two ultrasound after he noticed choroid plexus cysts on our baby’s brain during the standard 20-week ultrasound. I was anxious about what the maternal health specialist might find. We knew a couple whose ultrasound also had showed choroids plexus cysts, but whose baby was perfectly fine when he was born. We had spent the past week praying for our baby and hoping for the best.</p> <p>Al walked into the exam room as the technician was finishing up. She hadn’t said much and explained that the doctor would be in to take a look for himself and to explain what he found. Al and I chatted quietly while we waited. I was relieved that he had made it before the doctor came in. Little did I know how much I would need him.</p> <p>The doctor came in and began his exam. I was delighted at the chance to see more images of our baby. But my world was shaken when the doctor finally began explaining what he saw. “Something is very wrong with this baby.”</p> <p>He continued to roll the wand over my tummy as he pointed to various spots on the screen and began listing all the “abnormalities”: larger than usual nuchal folds; clenched fists; possible club feet; something wrong with the liver; enlarged ventricles in the brain; possibly no stomach. My tears flowed as his list grew longer. My delight at the new life within me turned to icy fear, and I clutched Al’s hand tightly.</p> <p>The doctor suspected a chromosomal problem, possibly Trisomy 13 or 18, birth defects caused by an extra 13th or 18th chromosome. He explained that both of these conditions are generally “incompatible with life.” We were told that if our baby was born alive, he was likely to die within a day. If we were lucky, he might survive for 6 to 12 months. We wondered if we should begin preparing for death instead of life.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/the_day_we_let_our_son_live.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/vZ2B5X09qhA" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/the_day_we_let_our_son_live.html 2009-11-03T15:55:37Z 2009-11-02T17:50:56Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982040 2009-11-02T17:50:56Z

An open letter encourages selection committee to commit to 'ethnic, economic, and gender diversity.'

]]>

Katelyn Beaty kbeaty@christianitytoday.com women of note <p>Out of the 111 members schools of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), six are led by female presidents. Some current and former Wheaton College students are hoping their alma mater becomes the seventh, once president Duane Litfin <a href="http://www.wheaton.edu/news/releases/08_09_releases/03.20.09_PresidentRetires.html">retires</a> in mid-2010.</p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/11/WheatonCollegecampus.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/11/WheatonCollegecampus-thumb.jpg" width="276" height="200" alt="WheatonCollegecampus.jpg" title="Courtesy of illinoisnative, photobucket.com" /></a></div> <p>An “<a href="http://wheaton.tryingtofollow.com/">Open Letter to the Presidential Selection Committee</a>” — penned by ’05 male graduate Ariah Fine and posted online Friday, October 23 — “strongly encourage[s] the committee to search diligently for a female or minority candidate to be in the final pool of candidates.” Circulated primarily on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=165180237202&amp;ref=mf">Facebook</a>, the letter calls on the committee to uphold its <a href="http://www.wheaton.edu/presidentialselection/profile.html">stated commitment</a> to hire someone who will “champion ethnic, economic, and gender diversity.” </p> <p>As of November 2, the letter has garnered 351 signatures, and was sent to the committee right before the application deadline of November 1. Fine said he received confirmation that the committee had received this letter and a similar one he sent this spring, but hasn't heard from any of the <a href="http://www.wheaton.edu/presidentialselection/committee.html">committee members</a>.</p> <p>The letter claims that the number of white male presidents leading <span class="caps">CCCU </span>schools is much higher than those leading secular <span class="caps">U.S. </span>colleges, citing the statistic that only 2 percent of <span class="caps">CCCU </span>schools are led by females, compared with 21.1 percent of secular schools. Fine said he found these statistics from a 2005 <em>Christian Higher Ed</em> <a href="http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&amp;_&amp;ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ821024&amp;ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&amp;accno=EJ821024">article summary</a> available online, and makes <a href="http://docs.google.com/View?id=ah59wncbtgf6_349dh9gsxhd">this screenshot</a> available. </p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/wheaton_students_advocate_for.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/Qwmg8ZAgEu0" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/11/wheaton_students_advocate_for.html 2009-10-30T15:56:36Z 2009-10-30T15:04:33Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982031 2009-10-30T15:04:33Z

A Kansas facility's shuttering reveals the successes and pitfalls of 19th-century moral reform.

]]>

Elissa Cooper kbeaty@christianitytoday.com justice and politics <p>In August, Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility in northern Kansas closed its doors. Heather Hollingsworth’s <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hL1qlJoErTqJ1xPxBE27MBjEzg-gD9BHSQV00">coverage</a> for the Associated Press highlights the triumphs and downfalls of one of the country’s longest-running girls’ reformatories.</p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/3647596001_eafcb2e80c.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/3647596001_eafcb2e80c-thumb.jpg" width="336" height="220" alt="3647596001_eafcb2e80c.jpg" title="Cell in Ohio State Reformatory, courtesy of thart2009, flickr.com" /></a></div> <p>Beloit was started in 1888 by the <a href="http://www.wctu.org/">Women’s Christian Temperance Union</a> (WCTU), which ran it for a year or two before handing it over to the state. A separate reformatory for juveniles was still a relatively new concept; up until the mid-19th century, children and adult were jailed in the same facility.</p> <p>Beloit's <span class="caps">WCTU </span>had good intentions to shape “incorrigible” youth into morally upright women. Like other reformatories, girls at Beloit worked in the gardens or at nearby farms and took care of the institute’s animals.</p> <p>“But with the high-minded ideals of the reformers, there was a dark side as well,” explained Ned Loughran, executive director of the Council for Juvenile Correctional Administrators in Braintree, Massachusetts. “These kids were an eyesore for the upper classes of society. The solution wasn’t to change the conditions they were growing up in, the poverty and lack of parental supervision. The view was to get them out of sight. Then people forgot they were there, and abuses crept into the system.”</p> <p>One of Beloit’s worst times took place between 1935 and 1936 under superintendent Lula Coyner. With a growing belief in eugenics, Coyner forced 62 girls, nearly half of Beloit’s inhabitants, to be sterilized. The girls had to go to the police to stop Coyner, who was planning for more residents to have their fallopian tubes removed. Under other superintendents, girls had been physically and emotionally abused in other ways.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/reforming_a_girls_reformatory.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/y6BaytrqG44" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/reforming_a_girls_reformatory.html 2009-10-29T17:56:00Z 2009-10-29T16:20:43Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982026 2009-10-29T16:20:43Z

What the women's blog editors are reading today.

]]>

Laura Leonard lleonard@christianitytoday.com books and media <p><strong><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6440705/Three-babies-aborted-every-day-due-to-Downs-syndrome.html">In Britain, Down syndrome abortions are on the rise</a></strong></p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/Baby_in_ultrasound.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/Baby_in_ultrasound-thumb.jpg" width="235" height="180" alt="Baby_in_ultrasound.jpg"/></a></div> <p>According to a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6440705/Three-babies-aborted-every-day-due-to-Downs-syndrome.html">recent study</a>, around nine in ten British women who are told they are going to have a baby with Down syndrome decide to terminate the pregnancy, resulting in 1,100 abortions each year. Diagnoses of Down’s have also increased significantly, from 1075 in 1989-90 to 1843 in 2007-08, due largely to the rising number of women who wait until their 30s and 40s to have children, the study reports.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/219818">Abstinence-only sex education at risk</a></strong><br /> <em>Newsweek</em> reports on “<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/219818">The Future of Abstinence</a>” as President Obama’s 2010 budget cuts funding for the Title V grant program and all abstinence-only programs. The Senate Finance Committee voted to restore funding to the budget, but the measure is unlikely to pass in the House. "The open question is whether these organizations will continue to thrive when federal funding is no longer available," says Alesha Doan, author of <em>The Politics of Virginity: Abstinence in Sex Education</em> (Greenwood Publishing, 2008). "What is the underlying support in society for this?" Many programs may now have to turn to private donations and funding in order to continue.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE59R2R520091028">German Protestants choose first woman leader</a></strong></p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/340px-Kaessmann.jpeg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/340px-Kaessmann-thumb.jpeg" width="75" height="132" alt="340px-Kaessmann.jpeg"/></a></div> <p>Margot Kaessmann became the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE59R2R520091028">first female leader</a> of the roughly 25 million German Protestants, and only the third female to head a major Christian church. She is a particularly controversial choice for the <span class="caps">EKD, </span>an umbrella group for 22 Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches, because she is divorced, but she received 132 of 142 possible votes, and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) welcomed the choice. </p> <p>"The election sends a signal to the church worldwide that God calls us to leadership without consideration of gender, color or descent," LWF general-secretary Ishmael Noko told the Ecumenical News International news agency at the synod in Ulm. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church in the United States and National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are the only other female heads of large churches.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/in_the_loop_1.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/H-nSnNfX1bA" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/in_the_loop_1.html 2009-10-28T16:39:08Z 2009-10-28T16:16:42Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982018 2009-10-28T16:16:42Z

God doesn't call us to be happy.

]]>

Caryn Rivadeneira lleonard@christianitytoday.com sexuality and health <p>A couple weekends ago, I took my kids to an historic farm run by our local forest preserve. The buildings there have been authentically restored, and the staff and volunteers roam the property in costume and in character to give visitors a pretty-close encounter to what it must’ve been like to live and work on a family farm at the turn of the last century. </p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/5079467-533x800.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/5079467-533x800-thumb.jpg" width="225" height="149" alt="5079467-533x800.jpg"/></a></div> <p>So when one of the in-character volunteers stopped hammering the chicken-coop roof, stepped off his ladder, tugged up his suspenders, and asked if we had any questions, I wasn’t entirely surprised by his answer to my question.</p> <p>I pointed to the fluffy black and white chickens racing behind their wire and asked, “What color eggs do they lay?”</p> <p>“Dunno, ma’am,” he said. Then he smiled, betraying his character entirely. “Chickens are women’s work.”</p> <p>As he continued on about how his “wife” had an egg-selling business so she could buy “pretty things” from Sears Roebuck, a weird stream of envy washed through me. Truth be told, this same weird stream trickles through whenever I read Edith Wharton or read or watch anything about times and places where gender roles were fixed, expectations rigid, and life (and death) somehow more certain. </p> <p>This is weird, of course, because I’m a liberated woman. I call myself a feminist — unapologetically. And I have since I was a girl. I was born in 1972, the year Helen Reddy and her woman-roaring made the charts. My early childhood memories are of parents, teachers, and Brownie leaders telling me I could do and be anything. </p> <p>I grew up aware of the doors being thrown open all around me, the ones I’d be able to skirt through more confidently than any other generation of women in human history. I stood under some ceilings as they shattered, and throughout my professional career, my writing life and my motherhood I have continued to push (with the Spirit behind me) on those doors and ceilings that have yet to budge.</p> <p>All this to say, you’d think hearing such things like historical “women’s work” wouldn’t make me jealous but rather happy or relieved. And yet, not so. </p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/its_a_notsohappy_but_wonderful_1.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/9KiBZRav89s" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/its_a_notsohappy_but_wonderful_1.html 2009-10-27T18:53:13Z 2009-10-27T17:50:39Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538981998 2009-10-27T17:50:39Z

How to think about the inverse trend of women's rights and women's happiness.

]]>

Kristen Scharold spulliam@christianitytoday.com sexuality and health <p>It’s been said before: Today woman have more than they have ever had but they are more unhappy than they have ever been. In a recent <em>Time</em> <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1930277_1930145,00.html">article</a>, Nancy Gibbs, using the newest statistics, enumerates the significant progress women have made in just one generation. But she goes on to acknowledge that as a result, women are also more stressed and burdened by the weight of their new responsibilities.</p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/womenshappiness.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/womenshappiness-thumb.jpg" width="250" height="166" alt="womenshappiness.jpg"/></a></div> <p>In my experience, when Christian women discuss this trend, they often do so with a cynical “I told you so” attitude. The common assumption is that women can (and should) realize their greatest potential by staying at home as a wife and mother and leaving the workplace to the man. They would be happy if they just did that, instead of chasing after equality.</p> <p>But whether or not this assumption holds up to biblical scrutiny, it misses a vital point: It’s not about happiness. </p> <p>Jesus didn’t address the Samaritan woman at the well — elevating her to a much higher place in society — so that she could be happy. Jesus didn’t allow Mary to sit at his feet and learn — a place often occupied by male students — just to keep her happy. Christians don’t follow God so that they can be happy. And Justin Wolfers, co-author of the study “<a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/06/women_less_happy_than_men_less.html">The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness</a>,” told <em>Time</em> in trying to explain the trend, “As Susan Faludi said, the women’s movement wasn’t about happiness.” It is about doing what is right. Or, as a Christian might put it, about bringing about God’s vision for society.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/are_you_happy_now.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/Fmo2PZsnOtY" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/are_you_happy_now.html 2009-10-27T17:43:50Z 2009-10-27T17:42:00Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538982001 2009-10-27T17:42:00Z

How do we respond to recent reports of women's declining happiness?

]]>

Laura Leonard lleonard@christianitytoday.com sexuality and health <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/time1101091026_400.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/time1101091026_400-thumb.jpg" width="125" height="166" alt="time1101091026_400.jpg"/></a></div> <p>Get excited, because Her.meneutics brings two perspectives on <em>Time </em>magazine’s recent cover report, “<a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1930277_1930145,00.html">The State of the American Woman</a>.” Author Nancy Gibbs explores the questions, “Is the battle of the sexes really over, and if so, did anyone win?” <em>Time</em>, in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, conducted a survey to find out how we have responded to 40 years of change as we now approach a time where women will for the first time make up a majority of the American workforce. Gibbs reports, "Among the most confounding changes of all is the evidence, tracked by numerous surveys, that as women have gained more freedom, more education and more economic power, they have become less happy." Just a few weeks ago Maureen Dowd wrote on the same topic in <em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/opinion/20dowd.html">The New York Times</a></em>, and now everyone’s asking, “Why aren’t women happier?”</p> <p>Is it because we now take on double the responsibilities and stress, as Gibbs suggests, that we now report more unhappiness? Is this necessarily a bad thing? And how do we, as Christian women, frame the issue in light of our own gospel call?</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/what_christian_women_want_now.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/Y8cFRlrCMEQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/what_christian_women_want_now.html 2009-10-28T05:24:33Z 2009-10-26T16:45:28Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538981990 2009-10-26T16:45:28Z

The spiritual dimensions of frugal living.

]]>

Christine A. Scheller spulliam@christianitytoday.com books and media <p>Recently, my child who was home-schooled for six years attended a conference called Gathering Around the Un-hewn Stone. I make note of his educational history because I feel responsible for inspiring alternative ideas that catalyzed more alternatives than I imagined when he was 8.</p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/Pennies.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/Pennies-thumb.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="Pennies.jpg"/></a></div> <p>The event opened with a lecture, "The Ecological Endgame of Industrial Civilization as a Crisis of/for Faith," which was purported to be about the moral bankruptcy of progress as an article of faith in modernity and, by default, of Christianity for the past 300 years. Resistance involves learning how to brain tan a deer, forage for food, and live out “attachment parenting” — a phenomenon about which my son has no need of instruction, given that he clung to me like a monkey when he was a boy.</p> <p>In her book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316030287/ctwomensblog-20">In <span class="caps">CHEAP</span> We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue</a></em>, journalist Lauren Weber espouses similar values, which, like rank materialism, are as old and American as Manifest Destiny. Last week <em>Atlantic</em> economics blogger Megan McArdle <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/books/review/McArdle-t.html">reviewed</a> Weber’s book for <em>The New York Times</em>, and compared it unfavorably with the work of financial adviser <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/may/23.40.html">Dave Ramsey</a>, whom she describes as a “popular evangelical guru.”</p> <p>Weber grew up without much heat in her home and surprised herself by following in her father’s frugal footsteps. McArdle takes issue with Weber’s idealization of fiscal asceticism, but not with Ramsey’s "save now, worry less later" approach. She says Weber’s idea of thrift as a moral virtue is problematic because it unduly worships parsimony. And McArdle rightly notes that if dumpster-diving “<a href="http://freegan.info/?page_id=2">freegans</a>” weren’t living off the largesse of their guilty neighbors, they’d have to get jobs like everybody else. The same could be said of Gathering Around the Un-hewn Stone attendees reveling in a buffet of supermarket overstock, but not of trash eaters around the world who have no other choice. </p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/on_saturday_my_child_who.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/vs2d7a7zzGk" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/on_saturday_my_child_who.html 2009-10-28T14:10:27Z 2009-10-23T17:11:00Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538981977 2009-10-23T17:11:00Z

Is Where the Wild Things Are too wild for children?

]]>

Laura Leonard lleonard@christianitytoday.com books and media <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/spike-wherethewildthingsareposter.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/spike-wherethewildthingsareposter-thumb.jpg" width="188" height="275" alt="spike-wherethewildthingsareposter.jpg"/></a></div> <p>Every night while I was growing up ended just the same. "Mommy loves you, Daddy loves you, and Jesus loves you most of all," my mom would say as she tucked me into bed. The ritual was a reminder, enforced through years of repetition, that no matter how far I ventured out into the world, which can be scary, cold, and unloving, I would always have a safe place with the people who love me and a God who loves me more. This is such an important lesson; children need to know that no matter what happens "out there," they are loved. Love doesn't make problems go away, but it grounds us in something greater than ourselves and our problems. </p> <p>Most children's movies emphasize can-do messages: <em>You can do anything you want if you believe in yourself! Go out and have an adventure!</em> And then along came <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2009/wherethewildthingsare.html"><em>Where the Wild Things Are</em></a>.</p> <p>Perhaps you've heard of it? In production for nearly 10 years, it was last weekend's highest-grossing film. It's also been the source of much controversy, particularly over whether the children's movie is even <em>appropriate</em> for children.</p> <p>When a <em><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/216997/page/1">Newsweek</a></em> reporter asked Maurice Sendak how he would respond to parents who might ask if the adaptation of his book is too scary for children, he replied, “I would tell them to go to hell. That's a question I will not tolerate.”</p> <p>But what we allow our children to watch is important. And many children will want to see this movie; the <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/64652/movie-trailers-where-the-wild-things-are">trailer</a> set the hype machine in motion months ago (the first time I saw it, I cried). The movie has been called too philosophical, too postmodern, too psychological, and too bleak for children. Perhaps we think children need something easy to digest. But that is the true genius of the original book, and of great children’s literature: It does not talk down to children or their ability to understand and process, whether consciously or subconsciously, the complexities of their own lives.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/where_someone_loves_us_most_of.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/pwuhxM_f2Sk" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/where_someone_loves_us_most_of.html 2009-10-23T17:01:49Z 2009-10-23T16:40:16Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538981976 2009-10-23T16:40:16Z

Should athletes openly express faith in action, or is it distracting?

]]>

Elissa Cooper spulliam@christianitytoday.com books and media <p>The University of Minnesota <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4585346">apologized</a> on behalf of its Goldy Gopher mascot for making fun of a prayerful opposing player last weekend. </p> <p>A YouTube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=admY-bNWo5U">video</a> shows the Penn State defensive end Jerome Hayes kneeling in prayer and the mascot taking a knee in front of him. “We have reiterated to Goldy the importance of exercising appropriate religious sensitivity in the future," he said in a statement. Penn State won 20-0. (h/t <a href="http://twitter.com/egorski">Eric Gorski</a>)</p> <p><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/admY-bNWo5U&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/admY-bNWo5U&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p> <p>Other accounts of faith and sports have appeared in several outlets recently, including <em><span class="caps">USA</span> Today</em>’s <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2009-10-19-messiah-glory_N.htm">recent coverage</a> of Messiah College’s stellar athletic program. With less than 3,000 students, the Christian school in Pennsylvania has an undefeated Division <span class="caps">III </span>women’s soccer team that is ranked No. 1 and a No. 3 ranked men’s soccer team). Last season, both soccer teams and the softball team won <span class="caps">NCAA </span>titles, not to mention past national championships.</p> <blockquote> [The women’s team sings] more Christian songs in raucous harmony, laughing, singing and bonding all at once. The white cinder-block walls seem to reverberate, as if at a tent revival, until the women switch gears and end with the sweet, solemn <em>I Love You, Lord</em>.<br /> And here the secret of their success is plain to see: Each wears a game face with joy on it.<br /> "As Christians, we are asked to believe some pretty strange things that just defy logic, like Jesus was born to a virgin," athletics director Jerry Chaplin says. "If we can believe those things, how hard is it to believe we can win a national championship?"<br /> </blockquote> <p>Brady’s article on Messiah coincides with the release of Tom Krattenmaker’s book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0742562476/ctwomensblog-20">Onward Christian Athletes: Turning Ballparks into Pulpits and Players into Preachers</a></em> and column in <em><a href="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/10/column-and-id-like-to-thank-god-almighty.html#more"><span class="caps">USA</span> Today</a></em>. Krattenmaker writes that some Christians, like college football star Tim Tebow, send a message that can be offensive to people. “If their take on God and truth and life is the only right one — which their creed boldly states — everyone else is wrong.”</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/the_goal_in_mind.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/joXm57DpFOY" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/the_goal_in_mind.html 2009-10-22T16:50:37Z 2009-10-22T16:12:33Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538981967 2009-10-22T16:12:33Z

A new study suggests negative consequences from the rising social media use on Christian college campuses.

]]>

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra spulliam@christianitytoday.com books and media <p>Updating their status. Posting pictures. Checking out the news feeds of their friends. It’s all in a day’s work for today’s college students.</p> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/facebook.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/facebook-thumb.jpg" width="250" height="202" alt="facebook.jpg"/></a></div> <p>One-third of Christian college students spend 1-2 hours a day on Facebook, according to a <a href="http://www.gordon.edu/article.cfm?iArticleID=829&amp;iReferrerPageID=5&amp;iPrevCatID=30&amp;bLive=1">new study</a> from Gordon College professors. Twelve percent use Facebook for 2-4 hours each day, and 2.8 percent report using it from 4-7 hours a day. This is in addition to the time they spend on other forms of electronic media, such as blogs, Twitter, and the internet. And it doesn’t even count the time they spend texting, talking, or using applications on their cell phones.</p> <p>More than half of the students reported they were “neglecting important areas of their life” because they were spending too much time online. And when given the definition of addiction as “any behavior you cannot stop, regardless of the consequences,” more than 10 percent said they believed they were in fact addicted to some form of electronic activity.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/addictedto_facebook.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/NWx53KkB9Rw" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/addictedto_facebook.html 2009-10-21T16:43:59Z 2009-10-21T14:20:44Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538981960 2009-10-21T14:20:44Z

October is breast cancer awareness month, and I’m so aware I might as well be pink.

]]>

Julie Evans spulliam@christianitytoday.com sexuality and health <p>435 days ago there were meteor showers over Cincinnati. My world was rocked that night, but it had nothing to do with the meteors that my teenage son, Mikey, and I were watching in the wee hours of a sleepy summer night. </p> <p>Right before I joined Mikey for Perseus’s fireworks, I had awakened to get a drink of water, and while being one of those things that go bump in the night, trying to find my way to the kitchen sink, I happened to find a bump. Or a lump, rather, on my breast. </p> <div style="float: right; padding-left: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/evans.JPG"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/evans-thumb.JPG" width="300" height="225" alt="evans.JPG"/></a></div> <p>I cannot explain the shock and awe I felt. It was like a meteor to the chest, literally. I remember the lump felt like a shooter marble right beneath the “milky way.” I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there the day before. My husband, Dave, is pretty sure it wasn’t there the day before. I don’t see how we could’ve missed a meteor like that. </p> <p>When the meteor show was over, I had a hard time keeping my thoughts from spiraling out of control. A sensible part of me, that I had to dig deeply for, took all the other parts of me and put them to bed. </p> <p>I lay there, not wanting to wake Dave, deciding to wait out the night, wait for him to wake, wait to see if it would just go away. Wait. And pray. </p> <p>Since my thoughts like to play connect the dots, this would be where my inner Lady Macbeth started coming out, as "Out, damn'd spot" were the words that came out as I prayed. This seemed like a reasonable prayer, so I went with it. </p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/cancers_mercies.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/qMuu0zNlu3M" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/cancers_mercies.html 2009-10-20T17:10:23Z 2009-10-20T16:52:04Z tag:blog.christianitytoday.com,2009:/women//39.538981954 2009-10-20T16:52:04Z

Australian police found that two out of three victims of “romance fraud” are women.

]]>

Elissa Cooper spulliam@christianitytoday.com relationships and family <p>More Australians are being duped by “romance fraud” or “love scam,” particularly Christian women, according to <em><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/thou-shalt-not-fleece-scammers-target-christians-20091015-gyp2.html">The Sydney Morning Herald</a></em>. Through dating or social networking sites and Christian chat rooms, online scammers posing as love interests have convinced people to send millions of dollars to places like Nigeria.</p> <blockquote> "They go into Christian chat rooms and a lot of the time when they ask for money, there's a Christian element to the [scammer's] story," Queensland police Fraud Squad chief Detective Inspector Brian Hay said. "It's a comfort thing for the victim. "We are seeing more targeted attacks because people put information about themselves on to the web."<br /> </blockquote> <div style="float: left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/internetfraud1.jpg"><img src="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/upload/2009/10/internetfraud1-thumb.jpg" width="300" height="199" alt="internetfraud1.jpg"/></a></div> <p><em><span class="caps">USA</span> Today</em>’s Cathy Lynn Grossman <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2009/10/cheating-scams-nigeria-australia-social-networking/1?csp=34">poses the question</a>: “Do you worry that sharing your faith on dating or social networking online sites could attract people who treat your values as stepping stones to a scam -- financial or spiritual?”<br /> <a href="http://www.christiandatingwatchdog.com/"><br /> Christian Dating Watchdog</a> lists various dating sites that Christians should avoid because of a site’s secular ownership, gay/lesbian profiles, or “questionable methods of advertising.” However, it doesn’t mention any troubling sites due to romance frauds.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/trouble_with_online_love.html">Continue reading ...</a></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/christianitytoday/blog/women/~4/Bz-xF2hYUKQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/10/trouble_with_online_love.html