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When Sex Ruins a Perfectly Good Read

Maybe it’s the domestic violence trainings I’ve been going through, making me realize how many romantic “heroes” fit the classic profile of abusers. Maybe it’s the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon, and the conversations it’s been sparking about sex, literature and pornography. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve been reading a lot of […]

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The Princess (Syndrome) Must Die: On Poisoning Schoolgirls’ Bodies and Minds

This article makes me so mad I could spit. For the third time in two weeks, the Taliban has been accused of poisoning little girls, spraying down their schoolrooms with toxic chemicals to discourage the education of women. This time, 160 girls were admitted to the hospital after experiencing headaches, dizziness and vomiting. As horrible […]

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Changing the World is Overwhelming. Start Where You Are, and Smile More!

We’re on the second week of the study I’m facilitating on “Half the Church,” and I’m loving the discussions we’re been having. I’ve been so blessed by the insights the women in my community have, and the stories they share. However, this has been a crazy week for me with deadlines, workshops, and the crud taking over […]

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Natasha and Sophie’s Radical Challenge

If you’ve read this blog for long, you know how much I loved “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream” by David Platt. Well, my friend Natasha loved it too, and blogged through the entire book. Now, she and her friend Sophie have decided to take on the Radical Challenge, and they’ve invited […]

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Evangelicals and Eating Disorders

Yep, you read that right. “Evangelicals and Eating Disorders.” That’s what I’m writing about today. Rachel Stone just rocked my world with her post “How Patriarchy Gave Me an Eating Disorder.” I didn’t quite have the courage to share it on my Facebook wall without a little bit of context, but can I just say […]

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Junia Is Not Alone

Anabaptist or not, Scot McKnight comes out swinging in his bite-sized eBook defending women in ministry, “Junia is Not Alone.” I. Loved. It. Of course it contained the solid, thoughtful scholarship we’ve come to expect from McKnight. But what blessed me about this book was his passion. Women have not only been silenced, our heroines […]

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Do Christian Novels Romanticize Abuse?

I’ve been tired lately. Mind-and-heart tired. So tired that yesterday, I decided the most productive thing I could do was give my brain needed a much-needed vacation. I wasn’t in the mood for a movie, so I grabbed my Nook Color and plunged face-first into what my mom would affectionately call a “ninny novel”–one of […]

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Has Jesus Wrecked Your Life? Katie Davis and the Tale of Two Kingdoms

Have you heard of Katie Davis? The 19-year-old class president and homecoming queen from Nashville, Tennessee who “quit her life” to begin a ministry in Uganda and become a foster mother to 14 girls? Katie’s new book was released on October 4th, and if I didn’t have a stack of books a mile high to plow through […]

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Steve Jobs and the Missional Mom: Why the Church Needs To Get “Crazy” Back

Helen Lee, author of “The Missional Mom: Living With Purpose at Home and In the World,” wrote a fabulous post today about how Steve Jobs relates to missional living. The world needs more of the “crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers,” as Steve Jobs referred to himself. Missional living, in my mind, is all about […]

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God, Girls, and Redemption: The Girl Effect Is Good Theology! Plus, a FREE GIVEAWAY!

“My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath remembered the lowly estate of his handmaiden…He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree…He hath filled the hungry with good things.” -Mary of Nazareth, Luke 1:46-53 Have you heard of […]

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Are Disabilities a Result of Sin? Special Needs, Fallen Nature, and Mommy-Grief

I recently discovered Amy Julia Becker, whose new book, “A Good and Perfect Gift”, is described as “a spiritual memoir that chronicles Amy Julia Becker’s journey through her daughter Penny’s first years of life. Top of her class at Princeton, Amy Julia Becker always imagined that her children would turn out just like her. So when her […]

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Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

I hate it when inspiration fizzles. Yesterday, I had a brilliant (if I do say so myself) blog post about the cost of discipleship burning burning a hole in my psyche, but couldn’t find the time to type it out. Today, I tried to write it up, but it just. Wasn’t. Happening. I HATE it […]

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Famine, God’s Glory, and a Bigger Prayer

“Why can we trust God, no matter what happens?” I’m reading The God of Promise and the Life of Faith by Scott J. Hafemann for my biblical theology class, and that question is the title of one of his chapters. (The next couple chapters are “Why does God wait so long to make things right?” […]

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What is Idolatry?

From one of my textbooks, “The God of Promise and the Life of Faith” by Scott J. Hafemann: “…In other words, idolatry is the futile way of thinking that results from mankind’s failure to honor the One who has revealed himself through creation ‘as God.’ To honor something ‘as God’ is to recognize it as […]

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"A History of the Jews" by Paul Johnson

“A History of the Jews” by Paul Johnson is required reading for my degree program, and wow, is it fascinating. He offers great evidences for the historical reality of biblical characters, and amazing insights into the cultural context in which the events of Genesis took place. But what would be REALLY fascinating, I think, would be to see […]

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