Julie Clawson - onehandclapping

Sexism Again…

Posted on November 21, 2006July 7, 2025

So it has been near impossible to exist the past couple of weeks in the Christian blogworld without encountering ongoing conversations of sexism, gender roles, and the like. Thanks to “He-who-must-not-be-named” recent posts (thanks Makeesha for the reference), it has become a very hot topic.

But the results have been sad. Very sad and depressing. I expected the healthy debate between the complementarians and the egalitarians (if you don’t know those terms, lucky you), but not the affirmation of sexism I have seen among many men. Over the past couple of weeks I have read posts (by men) who say-
– that since God is sexist we need to redeem sexism from the negative light it has been painted in. It is a good thing we need to affirm.
– that if you believe in the equality of women you must be worshiping a false god
– that Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” only refers to salvation. We are all saved through Jesus, but that it has no bearing on culture. So slavery, racism, and sexism are not things the Bible speaks against.
– that because women were offended by “he-who-must-not-be-named”, they are now huge fans of his stuff
– that although they might affirm the equality of women, it is not an important enough of an issue to actually do anything about because Jesus didn’t focus much on it.

It seems like this whole issue has just made it possible for the closet sexists in the Christian community to come out and say what they really think. I had hoped that as the church we were beyond that, but I obviously was very very naive. What I found even sadder than the rampant sexism in the church were the numerous responses of non-Christians who upon encountering this display of Christian sexism stated that they were reaffirmed in their decision to reject the church and wanted nothing to do with people who were so backward and hateful towards women.

there is something very very wrong here.

Regime Change

Posted on November 20, 2006July 7, 2025

In response to the recent elections and subsequent regime change, the ever controversial Michael Moore has made the following response to Republicans. I obviously don’t agree with all he writes, but I found it an interesting read. Your thoughts? (and thanks Wendy for the link)

November 17, 2006
Michael Moore’s pledge
The liberal filmmaker extends an olive branch to
disheartened conservatives.

I WOULD LIKE TO extend an olive branch. Those of you
who consider yourselves conservative and usually vote
Republican have not had a very good couple of weeks.
Trust me, I know how this feels.

In fact, those of us on the other side of the fence
don’t really know what it’s like to win, so if we seem
a bit awkward right now (were we supposed to vote for
the majority leader the speaker said to vote for, or
stick to our promise to the other guy?), forgive us.

I know you are dismayed at the results of last week’s
election. You’ve got to be freaking out about what
this bunch of tree-hugging, latte-sipping,
men-kissing-men advocates will do now that the country
is in our hands. I don’t blame you. We’d never admit
it, but we secretly admire you because you know how to
chop down a tree, take your coffee black and enjoy
watching women kissing women. Good on you!

What I don’t want is for you to drop into the deep
funk we liberals have been in for two-plus decades.
Yes, your Republican revolution is over, but hang in
there. And do not despair. I, and the millions who
voted for Democrats, have no interest in revenge for
the last 12 years. In fact, let me make 12 promises as
to how we will treat you, the minority, in the coming
years.

Thus, here is “A Liberal’s Pledge to Disheartened
Conservatives”:

1) We will always respect you. We will never, ever,
call you “unpatriotic” simply because you disagree
with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and
disagree with us.

2) We will let you marry whomever you want (even
though some among us consider your Republican behavior
to be “different” or “immoral”). Who you marry is none
of our business. Love, and be in love — it’s a
wonderful gift.

3) We will not spend your grandchildren’s money on our
personal whims or to enrich our friends. It’s your
checkbook too, and we will balance it for you.

4) When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from
Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home too.
We promise never to send your kids off to war based on
some amateur Power Point presentation cooked up by men
who have never been to war.

5) When we make America the last Western democracy to
have universal health coverage, and all Americans are
able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that
you too will be able to see a doctor, regardless of
your ability to pay. And when stem cell research
delivers treatments and cures for diseases that
afflict you and your loved ones, we’ll make sure those
advances are available to you and your family too.

6) When we clean up our air and water, you too will be
able to breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer
water. When we put an end to global warming, you will
no longer have to think about buying oceanfront
property in Yuma.

7) Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on
our soil, we will devote every single resource to
tracking him down and bringing him to justice.
Immediately. We will protect you.

8) We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or
your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is
your business. We will continue to count your age from
the moment you were born, not the moment you were
conceived.

9) We will not take away your hunting guns. If you
need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird
or a deer, then you really aren’t much of a hunter and
you should, perhaps, take up another sport. In the
meantime, we will arm the deer to make it a fairer
fight.

10) When we raise the minimum wage, we will raise it
for your employees too. They will use that money to
buy more things, which means you will get the money
back! And when women are finally paid what men make,
we will pay conservative women that wage too.

11) We will respect your religious beliefs, even when
you don’t practice those beliefs. In fact, we will
actively seek to promote your most radical religious
beliefs (“Blessed are the peacemakers,” “Love your
enemies,” “It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God” and “Whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”). We
will let people in other countries know that God
doesn’t just bless America, he blesses everyone. We
will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism —
starting here at home.

12) We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt
and break the law. And we promise you we will go after
the corrupt politicians on our side first. If we fail
to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply
because we are in power does not give us the right to
turn our heads the other way when our party goes
astray. Please perform this important duty as the
loyal opposition.

I promise all of the above to you because this is your
country too. You are every bit as American as we are.
We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one.
Thank you for your years of service to this country
and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can
make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow
Americans — and for the rest of the world.

Now pull yourself together and let’s go have a
Frappuccino

Chefs vs Cooks

Posted on November 13, 2006July 7, 2025

So Food Network junkie that I am, I had to watch the Iron Chef America special last night. In Battle Cranberry we were treated to Rachel Ray and Giada DeLaurentis competing in Kitchen Stadium. (if you have no clue as to what I’m talking about… just know its a timed cooking contest show). While they seemed to think that they would be competing head to head, they ended up each being paired with one of the real Iron Chefs (implying that they were not capable of doing it themselves). What really bugged me was the self-deprecating ways the superstar women kept referring to themselves. They kept stressing that they were cooks, not chefs. At one point one of the judges actually corrected Rachel Ray and told her she was truly a chef.

While I know that this was all staged TV and that there is education and experience that is needed to be a chef, the whole thing just bugged me. Having gender issues on my mind recently, the show made me think about our culture’s assumptions about gender roles. It is still often assumed that it is a woman’s role to cook, but those who have mastered the field of cooking are called chefs and are generally men. Same for teaching. It is generally women who are teachers, but predominately men who are professors. (It is still somewhat true when applied to nurses vs. doctors, but gender equality seems to be leveling out at least in the doctor part of that division.) Of course there are always exceptions (we now do have a female Iron Chef), but the stereotype is still real enough to exist. I saw this in the Food Networks recent Next Food Network Star. There were a few token women in the finals, but they were cut fairly quickly so the real (male) chefs could advance. I also attended an art show once where this was an issue. In the entrance criteria no amateur domestic crafts were allowed. But at the show there was a guy displaying altered books (a very common scrapbooking technique). So if a guy does it, it’s art, but if a woman does it it’s just a mere domestic craft?

I don’t get it. Is this just a money and time thing? More men have the luxury to make it to the top of a field? Or are there still conceptions of gender roles and hierarchy of the sexes that restrict women and elevate men? Why do we still want male chefs and restrict women to being mere cooks? Why do we as a culture still value things produced by males more than we value things produced by women? It makes no sense and as much as I would like for it all to go away, it keeps popping up to bug me.

Standing Up Against Misogyny

Posted on November 12, 2006July 7, 2025

So apparently Mark Driscoll has finally gone too far with his latest comments. The group People Against Fundamentalism is organizing a protest at Mars Hill Seattle. Read about it here.

Of course the Driscollite cult spies wasted no time in showing up to defend their master in the comments. I really really don’t get how so many guys can be so blind to the evil hurtful things Driscoll says about women. Granted – some of the other commenters have valid points about the intolerance of being intolerant of fundies and question the necessity of a protest. I honestly don’t know what I think yet. I know his words are evil and damaging to Christianity and I wish he wouldn’t have such a public voice speaking for “all Christians,” but I’m not for sure about a public protest. Justice should be sought and oppression of women needs to end, but there may be better ways to work for change.

But I’m interested in watching this and in knowing that some people are taking a stand against this man.

Creation Care and Giving the Church Our Best…

Posted on November 8, 2006July 7, 2025

So this is a topic that keeps coming back to me. As an American, I’ve been indoctrinated to not care about our environment and to care about money a whole lot. This is echoed in the typical church in America. Creation care is just not discussed in most church settings. And while the love of money is looked down upon (as is usually a teenagers desire to wear name brands), money is still central to church life. I’ve never been a part of health and wealth churches, but I’ve been in churches where buying whatever is cheap is next to godliness. But all too often the ignored value of creation care get further ignored when the pursuit of saving money is uplifted. So in our typical churches we use cheap plastic/paper cups, cheap coffee that come from farms that hurt the environment and don’t pay the farmer a living wage, and buy cheap prepackaged food from factory farms that’s full of additives, hormones, and antibiotics. And we don’t see a problem with it at all.

Honestly its only been in the last couple of years that I’ve been realizing how much of a hypocrite I am in this area. Even after I got over the evangelical lie that caring for the environment is wrong, it still didn’t translate to my everyday life. And even now as I am more aware, I am still doing very very little. I checked out my ecological footprint and realized that if everyone lived as carelessly as I do, we would need 4.5 earths to sustain life.

At times it seems hopeless and I can come up with any number of excuses as to why I’m not doing better (there is no public transportation out here in the exurbs!!!). And there are certain comforts that I know are wrong, but refuse to give up (a big car and disposable diapers come to mind…). But I try to do what I can. Especially at church. Cause it seems more hypocritical to trash the earth at church… So we use real cups and mugs at church. We still have to wash them, but we aren’t filling up landfills needlessly each week. (I loved that at the Emergent Gathering we were all asked to bring our own cups and utensils so as to reduce waste). I only serve Fair Trade coffee. Not only can we then at least try to ensure that the people who grew it for us are getting a fair wage – it is grown in ways that are environmentally kind.

And in my own life. I realize that buying locally not only is good for our local economy, but I can support farmers that use sustainable practices and so don’t hurt the land. Also by buying locally I’m not using a ton of gas to just get my produce to me. I don’t do it across the board. I buy stuff at the grocery store too (I’m Texan and they just don’t grow avocados up here…). But we did spend the extra money and joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) Farm this past season. Each week we would get a box of whatever was in season. It was great and forced me to try new things. But I wasn’t always good about using what I got (or canning or freezing excess food). (Don’t ask the fate of the lovely Brussel sprout stalk I’m holding in the picture.) But it felt right to do it. It was a way to put my money where my mouth is and buy as a christian.

So why am I thinking about this right now and writing a very rambling post about it? Well over at tallskinnykiwi Andrew Jones had a good post about church potlucks and bringing the best (and not just what’s cheap and easy) to church. Why do we reserve the best for ourselves at home and don’t share it with the church? Or why in food drives do we give mac n’ cheese, old candy, and other stuff we don’t want and/or that’s cheap? If we value the earth, sustainable and humane practices, and healthy food (without poisons in it)why do we still just go with what’s cheap when we go to church? And VC people this has nothing to do with the great food you bring to our dinners… this is me seeing what a hypocrite I am. And trying to convince myself to not buy the cheap turkey at Jewel (or worse Walmart) and actually go to the local turkey farm and get a free range, but more expensive turkey for our church Thanksgiving dinner.

So just thinking out loud here, and trying to change…

Weekend Thoughts…

Posted on November 5, 2006July 7, 2025

So its Sunday afternoon and I am exhausted. I did a craft fair yesterday and preached this morning – it was all fun but I’m tired and a bit brain dead. Which is perhaps why I have a series of mini-rants at the moment.

First Mark Driscoll (who get my vote as my least favorite person in the entire universe) is up to his junk again. This time its his blog post on the whole Ted Haggard scandal and his advice for pastors (here). Not only does he assume all pastors work in megachurches and are CEOs and teachers (as opposed to pastors), his suggestions would completely restrict pastors from loving and serving people. So much for following Christ. According to Driscoll if the prostitute who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair showed up at his home group, he would ask her to never return (so as to protect himself from temptation). Whatever. Oh – and Driscoll managed to find a way to twist this to blame women as well. Apparently women are the ones at fault for either being too sexy and therefore appealing or letting oneself go and forcing a man to look elsewhere. He therefore uses this as another argument for why women shouldn’t serve in any role whatsoever in churches (apparently now not even as secretaries). Why am I not surprised that a scandal involving a male leader caught with a male prostitute would be used by Driscoll to continue his rhetoric against women…

Then there is stupid political stuff. Election day is only two days away, so political stupidity can be expected. In the continuing sign-wars, since there are laws about removing or burning political signs, Hastert’s folks have fallen to placing their signs directing in front of and behind Laesch’s signs obstructing one’s view of his sign. How freaking childish is that. It’s like the kid who jumps to the front of every picture so only he can be seen.

And yesterday I actually had a lady tell me (unsolicited I might add) that she hopes the republicans win because she heard in an email from a friend that al-Qaeda wants the democrats to win. Now I’ve heard that line given as a joke on The Daily Show – but I didn’t think anyone actually believed it. And to believe it because you read it in an email forward!!! This my friends is democracy in action.

And finally to wrap up the rants, I have to mention the most recent church sign at our local Yorkville crummy church sign church. It said something like “be happy the SON is shining.” Now yesterday when I drove past it – it was cold, gray, dismal, and spitting rain. The trees are skeletons and the chance of seeing blue sky between now and next May is slim. And right as I drove past it the song “Wonderful” by Everclear came of the radio. Here are the lyrics –

Coz when it gets too sad
I think thoughts that I know are bad
I close my eyes and I count to ten
Hope its over when I open them
I want the things that I had before
Like a Star Wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again
I hope my Mom
And I hope my Dad
Would figure out why they get so mad
I hear them scream
I hear them fight
They say bad words that make me wanna cry
I close my eyes when I go to bed
And I dream of angels that make me smile
I feel better when I hear them say everything will be wonderful some day

Chorus
Promises mean everything
When you’re little and the world so big
I just don’t understand
how you can smile with all those tears in your eyes
and tell me everything is wonderful now

Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now

I go to school and I run and play
I tell the kids that it’s all ok
I laugh a lot so my friends won’t know
When the bell rings that I just don’t wanna go
I go to my room and I close my eyes
I make believe that I have a new life
I don’t believe you when you say
Everything will be wonderful some day

No no no no
I don’t want to hear you tell me everything is wonderful now
No no no no
I don’t want to hear you say that I will understand some day
No no no no
I don’t want to hear you say that you both have grown in a different way
No no no no
I don’t want to meet your friend
And I don’t want to start over again
I just want my life to be the same
Just like it used to be
Some days I hate everything
I hate everything
Everyone and everything

Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now…
Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now ..
Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now ..

I don’t want to hear you tell me everything is wonderful now……

Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful…….

It made me wonder how often as a church (the body of Christ) we ignore reality and tell happy lies to make ourselves feel better. Everything’s wonderful, be happy the SON is shining. When will we get past the lies and the platitudes and be real. Be real enough to cry, to feel, to admit that there is crap in this world, that its all not okay, and get off our butts and do something about it.

Ah. okay – rants over for the moment (at least the stuff its safe to post online…). Feel free to add on if it would help…

Seven Wonders Update

Posted on November 3, 2006July 7, 2025

So last winter I had a post about the project to name the New Seven Wonders of the World (since most of the old ones no longer exist and were limited to just Western structures). After gathering suggestions a research a committee of seven (of course) narrowed the results down to 21 and asked the world to vote. Last time I posted you had to call an international number to vote, but they have since set up online voting. After a lot of hype and tv specials on the top 21, the winners will be announces on 7-7-07. But every so often they release the current standings for a few days on their website. Here are the standings as of Oct.31. –

Top Seven –
Acropolis, Colosseum, Easter Island Statues, Great Wall, Machu Picchu, Pyramids of Giza, Taj Mahal

Middle Seven –
Angkor, Chichen Itza,Christ Redeemer, Eiffel Tower, Kremil/St. Basil’s, Petra, Stonehenge

Bottom Seven –
Alhambra, Hagia Sophia, Kiyomizu Temple, Neuschwanstein Castle, Statue of Liberty, Sydney Opera House, Timbuktu

Let’s see, my votes were for –
1. Great wall
2. Pyramids
3. Angkor
4. Christ Redeemer
5. Taj mahal
6. Neuschwanstein Castle
7. Chichen Itza

3 in the top 7, 3 in the middle 7, and one in the bottom 7. So anyway, I think stuff like this is really cool and have been watching its progress. Things like this that literally get the whole word working together are worthy causes in my book. See some great pictures of the sites and the cultures they are in at the world tour scrapbook. If you want your voice heard in the vote just click here –

More About Books…

Posted on October 31, 2006July 7, 2025

So I’m sitting here in my Jedi knight costume handing out candy while Mike takes Emma trick-or-treating (I’ll post pictures tomorrow). As I look at my blog, I realize that it looks like I’ve been ignoring my “recent reads” or just not reading recently. In all honesty I haven’t had much time to read recently, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped.

As I mentioned before, I recently read through every single book Anne Bishop has written (I just didn’t want a long string of fantasy books by one author over on the sidebar). I really enjoyed her books and liked journeying into a very feminist (but not misandric) take on high fantasy. I most enjoyed the Black Jewels Trilogy and its spin-offs. The Tir Alainn books were also a great read. I enjoyed how she created other world in true high fantasy fashion, but also included unique twists on elements from our world.

I wasn’t as big of a fan of Sebastian. It tried to be high fantasy, but was too surreal and full of the sordid realities of our world to flow together well. I did find its use of the concept of resonating with landscapes to be meaningful. For the shattered world of Ephemera the only way one can travel between the scattered lands is if one’s heart resonates with that particular land. Of course one can always be surprised about which lands one can enter, but one also always knows when one is at home – fully resonating with a landscape. I liked that idea and having recently traveled to Texas and Santa Fe I understood what it meant to resonate with a place. It is the places I have encountered where I find beautiful surroundings, creative/progressive culture, local shops, and great conversation (with family or friends- old or new) that I resonate with and long to be. So Austin, Boulder, Santa Fe… these are places I enjoy and desire to be. Not that I can’t find resonance and make a home elsewhere (say Yorkville, IL), it just feels different.

Anyway, my other recent reading has been in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I’m just now about 300 pages into the 1000+ page books, and its just beginning to show signs of a plot. It’s a very Victorianesque book. So we shall see how it goes. I usually like to finish one book before I start a new one, but this one is so slow and my reading list is so long… Its interesting in its own way and I was very amused by the opening of chapter 1. It reminded oh too much of religion and how we treat it vs. spirituality. If you’re interested, this is how the book begins. –

SOME YEARS AGO there was in the city of York a society of magicians. They met upon the third Wednesday of every month and read each other long, dull papers upon the history of English magic.

They were gentleman-magicians, which is to say they had never harmed anyone by magic – nor ever done anyone the slightest good. In fact, to own the truth, not one of these magicians had ever cast the smallest spell, nor by magic caused one leaf to tremble upon a tree, made one mote of dust to alter its course or changed a single hair upon anyone’s head. But, with this one minor reservation, they enjoyed a reputation as some of the wisest and most magical gentlemen in Yorkshire. …

In the autumn of 1806 they received an addition in a gentleman called John Segundus. At the first meeting that he attended Mr Segundus rose and addressed the society. . . . recently he had begun to wonder why the great feats of magic that he read about remained on the pages of his book and were no longer seen in the street or written about in the newspapers. Mr Segundus wished to know, he said, why modern magicians were unable to work the magic they wrote about. In short, he wished to know why there was no more magic done in England.

It was the most commonplace question in the world. It was the question which, sooner or later, every child in the kingdom asks his governess or his schoolmaster or his parent. Yet the learned members of the York society did not at all like hearing it asked and the reason was this: they were no more able to answer it than anyone else.

The President of the York society (whose name was Dr Foxcastle) turned to John Segundus and explained that the question was a wrong one. “It presupposes that magicians have some sort of duty to do magic which is clearly nonsense. You would not, I imagine, suggest that it is the task of botanists to devise more flowers? Or that astronomers should labour to rearrange the stars? Magicians, Mr Segundus, study magic which was done long ago. Why should anyone expect more?”

An elderly gentleman with faint blue eyes and faintly-coloured clothes (called either Hart or Hunt – Mr Segundus could never quite catch the name) faintly said that it did not matter in the least whether any body expected it or not. A gentleman could not do magic.. Magic was what street sorcerers pretended to do in order to rob children of their pennies. Magic (in the practical sense) was much fallen off. It had low connexions. It was the bosom companion of unshaven faces, gypsies, house-breakers; the frequenter of dingy rooms with dirty yellow curtains. Oh no! A gentleman could not do magic. A gentleman might study the history of magic (nothing could be nobler) but he could not do any. The elderly gentleman looked with faint, fatherly eyes at Mr Segundus and said that he hoped Mr Segundus had not been trying to cast spells.

Mommy Has a Tattoo…

Posted on October 30, 2006July 7, 2025

So I recently saw a book advertised called Mommy has a Tattoo. The book is described as follows –

Mommy Has A Tattoo tells the story of a little boy named James, who is afraid of his tattooed neighbor until he discovers that his own mother has a tattoo as well. The book emphasizes the importance of familiarizing children with tattoos at a young age and eliminates the common notion of “scary” that has sometimes been linked to tattoos. Tattoos are a source of pride for lots of Mommies, and a source of endless curiosity for their kids. The charming characters, bright colors, and delightful illustrations in Mommy Has A Tattoo show kids that tattoos, in fact, aren’t scary at all!

There are so many books out there that help kids become familiar with other races, but I think its great that this book is out there to help kids be okay with how people with tattoos look. In America 49% of people age 18-29 have a tattoo – it is far more common than it ever has been, but we are still in the transition period. That means that soon a lot of mommies and daddies will have tattoos, but there are still some people who have negative stereotypes about people with tattoos, businesses that discriminate against them, and children who are taught to fear them. So I think the concept of this book is great – teaching love and acceptance of the diverse and beautiful ways people look.