Blogaround

A cat peeking out of a box that's wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. Image source.

1. Wil Wheaton Wears ‘Star Trek’ Uniform To ‘Star Wars’ FOR REAL (posted December 15)

2. Women often can't avoid men who sexually harass them — and men are using it against them (posted December 13) [content note: descriptions of sexual harassment] "Women who are subjected to unwanted sexual advances in the workplace say they can't afford to burn bridges and often wind up leaving a trail of friendly messages behind them — continued contact that men later produce as evidence to dispute their accounts and cast doubt on their credibility."

3. Conservative Evangelicals Have Shown Me Who They Really Are (posted December 14) "Like conservatism in general, American evangelism often centered around the individual — an individual conversion experience; an individual, personal relationship with Jesus Christ; individual sin; individual repentance. Racism, then, was always a personal failing, and one that, by and large, didn’t seem to matter in comparison to the horror of abortion or the perceived impending threat of same-sex marriage. Addressing racism was just never a priority in the churches we attended, or on the radio, or in the Christian music we listened to. That there could be a form of Christian faith that recognized these injustices never occurred to me."

4. Red and Yellow, Black and White: Evangelicals Miss a Wakeup Call on Race (posted December 14) "The campaign demonstrated no understanding of why people were upset, only a tone deaf insistence that using racial slurs was okay because Moore was quoting from a popular evangelical song."

5. When You Don’t Know What You Believe at Christmas (posted December 11) "I know that I have spent nearly a month holding virtual space for stories of abuse within churches, my own included, and the very churches implicated in these many threads are as we speak greening the vestibule and practicing their carols and preparing for Christmas pageants that tell a story that is, at its heart, about believing women."

6. Some notes and rules for a Christmas music playlist (posted December 15) "We will know the proper balance has been restored when it’s routine for someone to hear a song by, perhaps, the Clash or Bob Marley, and say, 'Hey, this sounds kind of ‘brought down the powerful from their thrones-ish,’ is this a Christmas song?'"

7. Two Couples Have Exchanged Vows in Australia's First Same-Sex Weddings (posted December 17) Hooray!

8. Perfect Number Watches VeggieTales "Josh and the Big Wall" (posted December 20) The "lesson" in this VeggieTales movie is EXTREMELY BAD.