Blogaround

Image source.

1. Jesus really wasn’t born in a stable (posted December 22) "In the first place, it would be unthinkable that Joseph, returning to his place of ancestral origins, would not have been received by family members, even if they were not close relatives."

2. Product Review: The Invisible Backpack of White Privilege from L.L. Bean (posted December 18) "The Invisible Backpack of White Privilege is great for carrying questionable things like weed, Ponzi schemes, and sex crimes. I have lived in dense urban areas my whole life, and the cops never once search my Invisible Backpack. Then again, that’s probably just because, like people always tell me, I have a really trustworthy vibe as a person."

3. A Love Bigger Than Our Shame (posted December 19) "And this is the lasting effect of purity culture – not a generation of holy Christians saving themselves for marriage but a generation of people – women, in particular – who are ashamed of their bodies, ashamed of things that happen to them, ashamed of being perceived as sexual beings."

4. NFL Announces New Zero-Tolerance Policy On Videotaped Domestic Violence (posted September 9) "I also want to stress that this utterly reprehensible behavior is something we will in no way tolerate as long as the footage is completely uninterrupted and the entirety of the assault takes place within frame."

5. Lifting up the lowly and bringing down the powerful from their thrones (posted December 25) "And that, Theophilus, is what Christmas is all about."

6. China tightens church control ahead of Christmas (posted December 24) China is really inconsistent about this- persecution like this happens, but generally churches exist (yes, with large obvious crosses on the roofs) and seem to be operating just fine, and Chinese people are aware that Christianity is a religion that exists in China (but most haven't heard about any persecution).

7. The Longsuffering Godly Abused Wife (posted December 23) "If you are in a relationship gone bad and your partner isn’t willing to work with you to fix things, leaving is probably your best option. But then, for evangelicals, leaving is not presented as an option."

8. This tumblr post from Dianna Anderson. (posted December 17) "Because purity culture teaches us to have superhuman and super unrealistic expectations of our future spouse, and it inevitably sets us up for disappointment because there is no way a human being can hold up to all those expectations. Your spouse is not going to be the person you pictured in your head at 12 years old when you made that purity pledge. And that’s okay, because if they were, there’s something weird going on."