Why Patriarchalists Shouldn’t Baptize Females (Dear Dr. John MacArthur on Women)

“The weakness of a woman is that she needs a head.”
“…No daughter of Eve should follow the path of Eve and lead to tragedy by entering into the forbidden territory of rulership that was intended for man.”
“…And the intent of what the Word is saying here is that a woman needs protection, that she has [...]

Why I (Speaking in Servant-Love) Believe Men Should Not be Church Leaders

10. A man’s place is in the army.
9. The pastoral duties of men who have children might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.
8. The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do [...]

Hephzibah House in Indiana: Abuse Still Going On, Over 30 Years Later

It’s hard to try to explain the daily schedule at Hephzibah House.  Daily life was about so much more than just school and chores.  Each day was like a journey; you never knew which way the wind was going to blow.  It might be your lucky day, and the staff ladies would all be in [...]

The “Official” Tithe: Nyeh.

After faithfully tithing our money to whatever church we were attending, we’ve stopped. 
We were big tithers.  Tithing a tenth of our income to our local church was on the same page as commandments like, “Do not commit adultery.”  We have always tithed.  And we never complained about it, either.

We still practice the fine art of giving away more [...]

The Art of Un-Warfare: Learning to Talk to Those With Whom We Theologically Disagree

I am a part of an email group made up of mothers of many young children and have been for many years. It’s a Christian group and, for the most part, fairly conservative–at least, the vocal ones are. Since I have five young children, a resource like this group can be nice, even though five [...]

GNAP (Generic North American Protestantism) Dreams Busted: The “Biblical Family” Yearning for the Good Ol’ Days Requires Massive Doses of Historical Revisionism

Some of Tulip Girl’s observations [in the comments on this TW thread] gleaned from living abroad as missionaries,
 “One of the things the the Lord did in my life during our time in Ukraine was help point out in my own heart and life how many of my OWN ideas were not from the Bible, as I thought they were–but were [...]

Blogger Missing: Last Seen w/ Real Life

Real Life has been kicking up a storm around here, and I find myself uninterested in blogging.  When I was a mom of all babies and toddlers, internet communities served as a bulwark to gaurd against the overwhelming feeling of isolation.  I suppose some personality types wouldn’t mind the isolation.  As an extrovert, I find [...]

Root Issues: Authority Structures We Like Best (Fluid vs. Heirarchal, etc) and Their Influence in the Way We Interpret Scripture (Gender Issues, Church Government, Relationships…)

Resonate writer, Len Hjalmarson, recently mused on a topic of interest to me.  His post, Evolution of Heirarchy, discusses how factors like access to technology and information are forcing us to change the way we think of authority structures. No longer do we live in a world where only “the leader” knows what to do—-now [...]

Coming out of Fundamentalism (A Reader Writes)

I enjoy getting emails from readers sharing their thoughts on coming out of legalism and/or fundamentalism, most of which I tend to keep private (and most of which take me at least a week or more to reply to, depending on how busy I am).  This letter was really good, and the writer, who blogs regularly at Living [...]