Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. The Unacknowledgeable Work of Pastors’ Wives (September) "She is expected to have the church be her primary social outlet, but every church member is a little bit her husband’s boss. Complaining about marital problems more severe than her husband’s former difficulty putting away his socks (but he’s much better now) undermines him and endangers his position in the church. Pastors have been fired because their wives complained to the wrong person(’s wife)."

2. Ukraine did not Stop the Russian Bots (October 16) I guess I missed this whole story, but apparently people on social media were saying that Ukraine's bombing of a Russian data center caused a bunch of MAGA accounts to go offline, proving that the MAGA accounts weren't real people but Russian bots. Well turns out this is not true! Don't believe everything you read on the internet!

3. ‘A hermeneutical Pandora’s box’ (October 13) "That raised the stakes. It was no longer merely 'Yes, but if we read the Bible this particular way — selecting and emphasizing these particular passages in this specific way — then we can justify injustice.' It became 'We must read the Bible this particular way — selecting and emphasizing these particular passages in this specific way, or else we will fall into sin and go to Hell to be tortured for eternity.'"

This is spot-on. Also this post reminds me, I want to read Mark Noll's book, "The Civil War as a Theological Crisis."

4. Decades after apartheid, South Africans seek justice for crimes of the past (October 17) "At least 69 people were shot by police that day [in 1960]. They had been demonstrating against the country's pass laws — which restricted black people's movements and where they could live and work."

5. They told Christian girls to submit. Now the Botkin Sisters say they were wrong. (October 19) "Let’s not forget this didn’t just happen in a vacuum. Their father shaped the message. Vision Forum gave it a platform. Churches promoted the book and film. They all taught girls to cram their hopes and dreams into a man’s plans for them, and they all bear responsibility for harming the people who took their advice seriously."

So, this didn't affect me- when I was evangelical, I never heard of the Botkin sisters, or the stay-at-home-daughter movement, or Vision Forum. I only heard about all this when I started reading ex-evangelical and ex-fundie blogs. But, apparently, the "stay-at-home-daughter movement" said that girls and women all need to be under a man's leadership, and need to dedicate themselves to serving a man. For married women, it's the husband. For unmarried women, it's the father. So, unmarried women need to stay home and serve their father. (Even as adults.) Don't go to college, don't get a job, those things are evil and worldly and will lead girls into all kinds of sin.

So anyway, I read the Botkin sisters' whole post about how they've realized that teaching was harmful and they are apologizing for it. I have a few observations:

One, over and over they reassure us, don't worry, we haven't become feminists. They still believe in strict gender roles. They still believe married women need to focus on being womanly and domestic. They still believe women can't be pastors.

So what changed is, they no longer think that unmarried women *must* stay home and serve their fathers. They believe unmarried women have other options besides that. Uh, okay.

And second, the way they reference bible verses. Throughout their whole post, they cite so many bible verses to support their point of view, and the way it comes across to me is like... It's a bit jarring to me how they pull verses from all different parts of the bible, different cultural settings, across hundreds of years, and treat all of it like it's the teaching for our lives. Like all of it is equally in authority over us.

The most jarring one was:

Yes, God loves submission to lawful, God-appointed authority. But He also loves freedom and personal responsibility. For instance, even though voluntarily becoming a bondslave is lawful (Deut. 15:16-17, Ex. 21:5-6), He says it’s better for slaves to get their freedom if they can (1 Cor. 7:21).

So for the "voluntarily becoming a bondslave is lawful" they cite Deuteronomy and Exodus- passages that were set right after the Israelites came out of Egypt, were in the process of figuring out how to be their own nation, and God gave them laws, and some of those laws were about how to practice slavery. And then for "it's better for slaves to get their freedom if they can" they cite 1 Corinthians, where the apostle Paul is writing to the Christians in Corinth, living under the Roman empire, some of whom were slaves, telling them that their status as slaves doesn't make them any less in the eyes of God, but also if it's possible to get freedom they should totally go ahead and do that.

Slavery in ancient Israel, vs slavery in the Roman empire, it's a completely different thing. But these are cited like they both simply have something to teach us about submitting to authority, and that's all.

But, I mean, yes, if you believe the bible is totally true, then for every single passage, it's just a matter of pulling out the lesson that it's meant to teach us, and all of those messages are equally binding on us. Why would it matter what part of the bible it came from?

And also, like it's just fine that these passages talk about slavery like it's no big deal. There's no... like... there's no sense that they're kind of tiptoeing around it because it's problematic that the bible condones slavery. 

Same thing for this part:

Even concubines (wives who came into a marriage without a dowry, and thus were financial dependents, unlike “true” wives who had their own capital) were permitted to leave a marriage merely if their physical needs weren’t being provided for (Ex 21:10-11). Again, in our experience, many stay-at-home daughters had to provide for their own needs but were still forbidden to leave; they were considered even more bound to their fathers than these wives were to their husbands.

Just, like, the breezy way they talk about concubines, like... For me, when I read bible verses about concubines, I feel horrified by how women were treated in ancient times, like property, like their bodies and sex lives and childbearing abilities were just things for men to use.

But I have to say, I know how it is to have so much faith in the bible, to so wholeheartedly believe that the bible is true and right, to have such complete trust, that these issues don't even register as issues, as things that should disturb me. I had so much faith, back then, I could talk about how God killed people in the bible, I could talk about all kinds of horrifying things, and I truly truly believed that it was all right because God said so, not even realizing that these things are horrifying and I should be horrified by them.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Trauma after a parent’s deportation could affect Iowa children for decades (October 14) "'Not knowing if their parents will be there when they get home, not being sure of what will happen to their families. It’s a very real reality to the students that I work with, and it’s definitely a fear that’s grown within them and within their families,' Meyer said."

2. Man shot by ICE in NYC's Marble Hill said federal officers never identified themselves (October 14) "The men — who Belgal said he only later learned were ICE agents — did not appear to be law enforcement or identify themselves as immigration agents, the petition states. They did not present him with an arrest warrant, say his name or provide any other substantive explanation for the encounter as they confronted him through his partially rolled-down car window, the filing states. One of the agents pointed a weapon inside the car, leaving Belgal “terrified” for his and his son’s lives, according to the filing."

3. Trump cancels public execution, but a line may already have been crossed (October 15) "'Hegseth is, for lack of a better term, obsessed with the Crusades,' Taylor said."

4. Family of man killed by tiger criticise online content after Trump reposts video (October 14) This is not normal. A man was killed by a tiger, and the president posts the video like it's some interesting content to share on social media????

5. Obama calls Trump officials’ investigation of Ilhan Omar ‘appalling’ (October 19) "'Now the Administration is actively trying to deport Congresswoman Omar, seemingly based solely on the unsubstantiated theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized, and therefore is not a citizen,' Obama wrote. 'Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone — all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case.'"