Have Added a New Blog to the List

Yes, I know. Not much activity here. And for good reason. Personal life is all a jumble. Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime.

But for now this blog is mostly a place I put things for safe keeping and for the benefit of others who may come this way.

Today I am adding a new blog to the blog list. It is "Visionary Womanhood" by Natalie, I was directed to her blog by Velour over at TWW through this comment: Link

I would like to highlight these two posts:

To Heal or Not To Heal a Woman's Heart

And

A Twist on the Good Samaritan

I am highlighting these two posts in particular because they expose the hypocrisy of the church concerning women. They expose how the needs of women do not concern the men in charge. Even though preachers teach on the Bible verses that would tell them to heal the wounded, somehow when it involves a woman married to an abusive man suddenly these verses fall away and the only verses the preachers care about are the submission and God hates divorce verses. These preachers lose sight of the fact that God cares for women and is concerned over their healing.

In combination with these posts I want to throw in an old one of mine.

Manipulating Scripture for Personal Benefit.

And here is a quote from it concerning God's concern for the hearts of women:

It is also about the wounded female heart that many men don't want to see and gloss over as though such a thing doesn't exist. Or if a woman's heart really is wounded, it is somehow the woman's own fault and she just needs to shape up, all the while serving the man with a sweet disposition.

Yes, I've heard messages from preachers about bitter women. I've heard the rebukes and criticisms, and blaming that these senseless preachers freely pour out on already wounded hearts. I've heard about the merciless shaming of pastor's wives who "let themselves go". What do these men know about a woman's heart? Nothing.

They know nothing because they do not care. The heart of a woman is of little value to them. They care about the outward rather than the inward. If the outward is not seemly enough, then let the ridicule fly. If the outward attitude is not sweet, then run her off and call her Jezebel since she is of no use to the man and not worth his trouble.

Thank God, He knows everything about women. Thank God, He cares deeply about every wound. Thank God, He sees past the sometimes prickly self-defenses of a wounded woman and seeks after her heart. He poured Himself out generously to heal and comfort every woman cursed and spoken against by self-righteous preachers, supposed brothers, false shepherds who attack the ewes to garner favor with the rams.

Thank you Natalie for you courage in exposing foolish men who elevate rams over ewes and themselves over everyone.

Hannah's Piece on Stumbling Blocks

Give it a looksee. Her perspective on what is going on in the legalistic Christian world vs apparent true faith of another certain church leader is very insightful.

Stumbling Blocks of the Church

A Couple New Blogs on Blog List

These are new and different from some of my others.
Both these bloggers might refer to themselves as Complementarian. But I look upon them as a brother and a sister who I agree with on most things but have minor disagreement on a couple things. And I believe that I have told them both that their version of Complementarianism is not the evil, destructive form that I have witnessed in others. So for the sake of balancing out all the egal blogs I have, I thought I put these two on for the sake of fairness and balance.

God's Jobcenter Stirling

and

Practical Theology for Women

Souls of Greater and Lesser Value

Men make judgements based on their beliefs and value systems. But they are based on the darkness of their own hearts rather than on anything resembling the heart of God.

Shirley explains it well here:

The Most Valuable Soul

The Word "Bitter"

Debra Baker posted and article on her blog called:

Bitter and Male Privilege

It is a very good analysis of how certain words are used to try to kick the legs out from under legitimate gripes.

Sophia's Blog

My friend, Sophia, is blogging about her recovery from being a member of Mars Hill.
I've added her blog to my list.
Today's post is on parenting and how she wants her child to not be needlessly burdened with sin.
She blogs about it here:
Rethinking Parenting

And here is a video I want to dedicate to Sophia and her children:
God's Ways are not Our Ways

Notes on Christian Baal Worship Today

I was checking the Archives of "The Commandments of Men" blog and stumbled on this written back in July of 2010. Now this is in relation to the patriarchy movement that has swept through the home school movement and which is now making it's way into main stream Christianity.

When Culture Becomes God - The Modern Day Baal, by Lewis Wells

Please note that while the stark example of patriarchy given by Lewis is pretty extreme, the more subtle, softer patriarchy and chauvinism/misogyny promoted by Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill is just as destructive, perhaps even more so due to the fact that it is only about half as extreme as the expression Lewis describes.

Mara's comments on Freedom4Captives 9/13/09

But still, the worship of Baal (Master) is there. Women are not allowed outside the box that their masters, or Baals (the men, Mark in particular) have built for them. Women not submitting to Baal worship or worship of men are called Satanic.

Some may call this connection a bit extreme. All I have to say is that Christian teaching that promotes the fear of men or puts men's cultural preferences over and above the freedom offered by Christ,... calling that teaching Baal worship once in a while might get someone's attention and help them realize the severity of the issue.

We are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We are not to add our own prejudices and cultural preferences to it and call that part of the Gospel. In doing this, we mix in bitter waters to the Living Water and contaminate it.

Another Blogger Has Had Enough of Driscoll

Virginia Knowles wrote her post yesterday (turn your volume down or other music off because she has a playlist, just fyi. It made me jump because I wasn't expecting it):

Why I'm NOT a fan of Mark Driscoll, Real Marriage, Acts 29

I Get Cranky With Driscoll, [Ever notice ? ;) ]

But even though I get very cranky with him over many issues, I still know he's my brother in Christ and I have to remind myself that he's not evil incarnate. He'd just made many mistakes and is under a good deal of self-delusion.

Anyway, because I have to pull back and regroup and remind myself and my readers that Driscoll is not evil, I like to include critiques of him and/or his teaching by those who are either more objective than I, or have a better understanding of the Mars Hill culture through personal experience, or both.

That's why I had guest posts by WTH here and also why I'm linking this, a review of Driscoll's "Real Marriage" book by people who went to church at Mars Hill during the times Driscoll describes in the book. So here it is:

Our Review of Real Marriage by Mark and Grace Driscoll

Then also, here are WTH thoughts on this review.

WTH thoughts

WTH thoughts part 2

Announcing My Link Page

My blog list has become freakishly long.

I'm still going to leave it up for a while, maybe forever.

But in addition to my regular blog list I'm building a links page that can get freakishly longer.

It is a work in progress and I'm not nearly done putting in all the links I want. But I've gotten a good start and wanted to go ahead and share it with people.

There are links on that page that never made it to the blog list, but not because they were not worthy. It was just a matter of my limited time or attention span or something else or something else, who knows.

Anyway, here it is:

Link Junction

You can also get there, anytime, by clicking "Link Junction" next to "Home" under the title line of this blog.

Modesty Doctrine and Men

I've linked Sierra before and she's another one that I should just have in my blog roll. Or perhaps I should get busy with that link page I've mumbled about before.

Any way, before I get to the link, reading her post reminded me of another conversation I had with my son.

We were at the orientation for his college and some young Muslim girl made some sort of sign toward him that seemed positive and could have been a flirt. Neither of us were sure.

At least we think she was Muslim since she was dark complected and had her head covered with a scarf. On our way home from the orientation we were talking about it and it came up, why do (some) Muslim women cover their heads.

While I knew that I didn't have all the answers nor was I trying to say that this particular girl covered her head for this reason, the conversation did go in the direction of the modesty thing. So I mentioned where, in some places women are covered from head to toe, including face, because they are more or less held responsible for the sexual sins in men.

My son didn't like this. So I mentioned that in some countries women are even held responsible and punished for their own rapes.

The flash of fury in my son's eyes was one of the most rewarding things I saw that day. He could see the injustice of such things and was, in fact, incredulous that such attitudes towards women existed anywhere. It's in moments like these that I know that, as a parent, I'm not a total failure.

Anyway, enough about me and my son. Here's the link to Sierra's blog post:

http://nonprophetmessage.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/how-the-modesty-doctrine-hurts-men-too/#more-689
(It appears this link is broken. Sorry. It was pretty good.)

Introducing Wenatchee The Hatchet

My new Internet and blogging friend goes by Wenatchee The Hatchet, WTH.

I met WTH on the Wartburg Watch where he made some intriguing and thoughtful comments on Mark Driscoll's mishandling of the Song of Solomon, SOS. I asked for further clarification of some of the things he said, and I began to understand that he had a grasp on the situation that went beyond anything that I had encountered before and beyond my own understanding.

Because SOS is near and dear to my heart as a place for the wounded soul to go find healing, I feel the need to counter act Mark Driscoll's high jacking of SOS and turning it solely into a sort of Christian Kama Sutra, or sex manual, for married couples.

WTH's ability to get to the root and heart of the matter with clarity and limited bias made me realize that I wanted his thoughts preserved on this blog for others who care about the issue and for myself and others to refer to when dealing with the mishandling of SOS.

WTH is uniquely qualified to write about this for several reasons.

For one thing, he attended Mars Hill, Driscoll's church, for nine years (1999-2008). And during his time there he served in four different ministries, the longest being with the Theological Response Team, where he handled questions. He got the position with the response team because he was known there as a well-studied Christian.

During his time with the response team he noted that the questions changed over the years and so did the handling of the questions. One of the changes in questions concerned the misuse of scripture. At the same time he began to have some reservations about the way Mark Driscoll handled certain scriptures.

His present attitude towards Mars Hill can be summed in this quote, "I have friends and some family at Mars Hill who I love a great deal and there are things I find admirable at Mars Hill but at length I came to disagree with them on more points than I agreed and had to find a new church home."

And concerning the debate over that which is Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll, he has this to say:

"I have found over the years that both the defenders and detractors of Mars Hill generally and Mark Driscoll in particular have too often lacked a true scholarly approach. Generally people come to the subject of Mars Hill and Driscoll with their minds made up in ways that prevent them from examining his teaching in a substantive way. Nowhere has this been more apparent to me than in how Driscoll has handled Song of Songs and how his self-appointed blogging allies and adversaries have discussed it. At my own blog, Wenatchee The Hatchet, I have attempted to include observations and criticisms of Driscoll that are predicated neither on unquestioning loyalty nor a reflexive dislike but on, when possible, a serious examination of the actual content and application of what Driscoll says and does."

For those that haven't noticed yet, WTH's blog has been added to my roll, the third male to have ever receive this honor.

Also, a confession. I have a "reflexive dislike" of Driscoll. I cannot help it. Not with what he has done to SOS. However, I know the best arguments are the ones based on serious examination like the one WTH has sent me. It is thorough and well-thought out and most needed in this debate.

I will be posting it in four posts:

I WTH's Intro and Part One
II WTH's Parts Two and Three.
III WTH's Part Four A
IV WTH's Part Four B

I'm doing it this way so that I can keep the entire content together yet in digestible sections that are easily referred back to.

New Blog Added

It is with great pleasure that I announce a new blog from and old Internet friend.


I've been aware of KR Wordgazer, or Kristen for some time. Some of my regulars here may know her as one of the No Longer Quivering FAQs ladies.

She's a Christian that has long been aware of spiritual abuse through her own experience and has applied herself to dealing with the Patriarchy and Quiverfull heresies with answers from the Bible.


http://krwordgazer.blogspot.com/


Also, I've gone ahead and added KR's blog to my blogroll and moved the blogroll up because those blogs are more active now than I am and I don't want anyone checking in here to miss the opportunity to see what else is going on in those blogs.

Scarcity Thinking & Dominion

Naomi King Walker has an excellent Blog Post on Scarcity thinking, something I have been aware of for some time but wasn't sure what it was called. It so much applies to Hierarchy and Patriarchy thinking that has infiltrated the church and cause so much heart ache in men, women, and children. Families are being broken by this false doctrine parading around as "Christian" and "God's divine order".

If you have a chance, bop over to Naomi's blog and read. You won't regret it.

http://womanmusicminister.blogspot.com/2011/08/pitfalls-of-hierarchy-scarcity-thinking.html

Another Blog on My Blog Roll

I actually added this one last week but was having trouble with posting on Blogger so had to make the announcement this week.

Incongruous Circumspection is hosted by Joe, a male survivor of the spiritually bankrupt patriarchy movement.

Patriarchy hurts everyone and no one benefits in the long run. It is good to hear the stories of those who escaped. It gives hope and underscores again how destructive patriarchy truly is.

http://incongruouscircumspection.blogspot.com/

Also, honorable mention this time is the Egalitarian Christian Alliance Forum. Here men and women talk about all things Egalitarian for those who are thinking of exploring this option for understanding the Bible.

http://equalitycentral.com/forum/index.php

If Any Man Teach Otherwise

I Timothy 6:3-5 “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”

I could expound on these verses above. But instead I'd like to direct your attention to a friend of mine who already has. In fact her post, written in December of 2010 had such an impact on me, the verse quoted above has joined my list of favorite verses.

Waneta's insight is always good. But every now and again, she hits it out of the park and more people need to be aware of it.

So please give Waneta's post a view, it is in agreement with what I've written here so far.

http://submissiontyranny.blogspot.com/2010/12/proud-bible-thumpers.html

Two New Blogs Added to Blog List

I have been visiting two blogs that I want to add to my Blog Roll.

Retha is a new friend from South Africa. I love the name of her blog, "Biblical Personhood". When one sees the over emphasis by so many on the differences between men and women and how important men and women follow different rules for life, it's nice to see another voice reminding everyone in their name that we are all human first. When the differences are over emphasised and extra rules are made up to divide the human race into two different species with different rules pertaining to each (something the Bible doesn't do) it's good to see someone questioning all the ranting and raving about cultural decline due to not following blue and pink roles for humans.

Kay on "Happy Surprise" is exploring the implications of gender roles, among other things, and asking the hard questions about what she believes and what she should believe. I find her honesty and journey inspiring. She has both egal and comps commenting on her blog, and it has been, for the most part, friendly.

Obsessed With Culture?

A friend from South Africa wants to know? Is the American church obsessed with culture? Are we over concerned with cultural decline and obsessed with finding cultural answers? http://biblicalpersonhood.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/greatest-flaw-of-american-church/

Another Honorable Mention

Retha has been tearing it up, lately, over at her blog. I've enjoyed her wit, humor, and blatant logic.

I have a feeling her blog and kbonikowsky's blog are going to end up on my blog roll in the near future.

http://christianrethinker.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/lacigol-and-the-pastor/

Two New Blogs Added to Blog Roll

That is, two new blog plus an honorable mention.
I hope to get back to Apollonian and Dionysian and its infiltration within the church soon. But for now, let me direct your attention to these new blogs.

I've already linked comments from the two new blogs in previous posts and have decided it's high time for them to join my blog roll.

Elizabeth Esther's blog is about her journey to emotional and spiritual well-being after being raised in a strict, abusive, fundamentalist church. She's honest about the hard road she's on, nothing plastic about her. Sometimes it's one step forward and two steps back.

The Wartburg Watch is hosted by a couple of ladies, Deb and Dee, who are commenting on unhealthy trends working their way into mainstream Christianity.

Now for the honorable mention.
The Happy Surprise blog has a review on a very interesting book called, "The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage." The info in that book more or less blows the legs out from under the teachings of such men and John Piper and Mark Driscoll.

http://kbonikowsky.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/the-jewish-way-in-love-and-marriage-by-maurice-camm/

And while we're at it, Cindy K. and Jocelyn Anderson had a blog radio program last Sunday on John Piper invading the bedroom and the obsession the comps have with sex and roles.

http://undermuchgrace.blogspot.com/2011/03/john-piper-in-bedroom-and-propaganda.html

They didn't get into everything they wanted, but I believe they will next Sunday.