Gov. Mike Huckabee flew to New York City Wednesday after announcing his GOP presidential bid in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. He answered questions from a pool of voters on The Kelly File, and mine was: “You recently said you ‘speak Jesus’. As a Christian minister myself, I wonder which female character in the Bible best helps you to understand the struggles of women and why equal pay is so critical to the social and economic stability of families?” Huckabee,... Read more
Yesterday, a FOX News host on the show Outnumbered (Out#) contributed to a discussion about how to stop terror recruitment among vulnerable immigrant communities in the United States by incoherently suggesting our government employ a “more robust, manly, not feminized, version of Christianity.” I wholeheartedly condemn this kind of sexist, dangerous, anti-Christian language about my faith. Rachel Campos-Duffy says we have an assimilation problem, and laments the times of old when her father immigrated to America and public schools and... Read more
As part of Patheos’ Easter coverage, some of us are pondering what that morning would have been like for the witnesses of the Resurrection. This is my contribution. For more ‘accounts’ and other resources for Holy Week, visit the Patheos Engaging Easter page here. It was dark as ink and chillingly quiet as Mary Magdalene felt her way to the tomb that early morning. She was desperately looking for something that would answer her questions. Finding and treating the body of Jesus was important... Read more
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from my upcoming book Femmevangelical: The Modern Girl’s Guide to the Good News. Femmevangelical uses stories, devotionals, meditations, theological study, church history, brain science, cultural exploration and much more to reveal the different evangel that religion left behind: a gospel of Jesus and vision of the coming realm of God that feminists of faith can follow and work together to bring into reality for the good of women and girls around... Read more
No doubt Kelly Gissendaner had prepared her soul for her execution by lethal injection scheduled for 7 PM Monday night in Jackson, Georgia. After all, she graduated from a theological studies program while in prison, and served as a chaplain and spiritual advisor of sorts for other prisoners, to great effect. But she was also sentenced to death in 1998 for her role in planning the vicious murder of her husband. Late Monday night, just before her sentence was carried... Read more
A web cam catches the whole emotional scene. A series of high school girls with bright, rosy faces nervously open the official emails that hold their fate: letters from their dream colleges telling them whether or not they got in. A life-long career of tireless academic excellence, leadership in extra-curriculars, sports and community service — no shortage of blood, sweat and tears — have brought them to this critical moment. With mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters watching anxiously over their shoulders, each young woman pants... Read more
Ah, Valentine’s Day. It evokes annoyance, angst, and sometimes the warm and fuzzies. It’s supposed to be about celebrating love, but the definitions of that vary wildly. For instance, the movie based on the ‘workplace BDSM’ (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission) book Fifty Shades of Grey opens this weekend in marketing tandem with the Hallmark holiday. An awkward, unconfident 21-year-old college senior (Ana) loses her virginity to a swaggering, wealthy entrepreneur (Christian Grey) who only does contractual sexual relationships with no romantic elements and a literal signed... Read more
Kayla Mueller, the American humanitarian captured while working in Syria by ISIS in 2013, was confirmed dead this morning in a statement issued by the White House. Kayla dedicated her life to helping vulnerable people around the world, and protesting the political and social oppression and dire circumstances of refugees and suffering peoples in places like Kenya, India, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, and Turkey. She then went to Syria because she felt compassion for the plight of the Syrian people,... Read more
When I moved to New York City 11 years ago, I had to defend my origins. Upon learning I was from Birmingham, Alabama, coworkers, new acquaintances, bartenders would ask me what it was like growing up in a city infamous for its violent racism, for hoses and dogs and Bull Connor, for the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed four innocent little girls. I was often stunned that these people seemed to know more detail about it... Read more
Earlier this week, I sat down with Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ridley Scott and a handful of religion journalists to talk about Sunday night’s New York premiere of Exodus: Gods and Kings. You might guess that a bunch of religion writers tried to school the artists on the religious veracity (or lack) of the movie, or criticize the atheist director’s reality-based choices. Not so. In fact, I walked away from the earnest conversation feeling I’d just been blessed with something much deeper than... Read more
Femmevangelical
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