Formats Archives: Aside

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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Going There: Another Take on the Orphan Crisis

It’s been just over two years since a magnitude 7 earthquake hit Haiti, killing more than a quarter of a million people and leaving thousands of children orphaned, overwhelming a nation already in crisis. Kristen Howerton, who has adopted from Haiti and was in the country when the earthquake struck, wrote a great, heartbreaking post on “Rage […]

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Pride and Prejudice: How We Sabotage Ourselves Into Silence, and Why

Can I make a generalization? Women sell themselves WAY short. To themselves, as well as others. I remember the first time I wanted to teach a Bible study (and I use this term loosely) for adults. I was petrified. I reasoned that surely someone else could do it better than me. (But nobody was offering […]

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Toxic Christianity: When Our Public Face Poisons Faith

If there’s one thing that leaves me completely aghast, it’s Christians hurting one another and using religion to justify their behavior, or citing it as the reason that they didn’t step in to defend the hurting, vulnerable party. It’s the child who is abused on the mission field or in the church, but no one […]

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Kim Jong Il, Horton the Elephant, and Human Nature

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! I had a wonderful time, and even realized that is possible–and rather relaxing–to go over a week without opening your computer (as long as you’re on vacation)! The bad side of that is that you’re getting this very timely guest post from the wonderful Tim about a […]

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Lamb Tongues and Watermelon Seeds: How Do Different Cultures Read the Bible?

My crazy schedule delayed me posting this, but here is the promised guest post by my fellow Redbud Vivian Mabuni. It ties in with my previous post on Christ and culture, and raises the question of how our cultural lenses impact the way we read and teach scripture. I love Vivian’s perspective! Lamb Tongues I […]

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Christ and Culture: Can You Tell the Difference?

‘Tis the season for frantic busyness, so I’m recycling a post that I wrote about this time two years ago. Tomorrow, I will be featuring a related guest post from my fellow Redbud Vivian Mabuni. How much of our belief system is dictated by scripture, and how much is dictated by our culture? Can we […]

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But He Never Hit Me: How Should the Church Respond to Emotional Abuse?

Emotional abuse is one of those sticky topics that Christians don’t like to talk about a lot. We prefer to stick to clear-cut, black-and-white issues, and emotional abuse doesn’t fit neatly into the categories most of us are familiar with. (Although I would contend that it does–check out Colossians 3:8, Matthew 20:25-28, Ephesians 4:29…The list […]

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If I Wanted to Destroy A Woman…

Today’s guest post is from my fellow Redbud Connie Jakab, a writer, dancer and Culture Rebel from Calgary. I’ve loved her posts on bullying, and asked her to write something to share with you. THIS is amazing and insightful: If I wanted to destroy a woman…. I wouldn’t use physical pain. Women can get through […]

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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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Video About Domestic Abuse and the Church: What ABUSERS Need From Their Church

Melody Harrison Hanson wrote a beautiful, brave post on her blog today about her experience growing up with a father who “was in ministry and was a generous, gracious, loving, God-fearing man,” but who was also abusive. In fact, he wrote a book about it: “Strongest in the Broken Places: A Story of Spiritual Recovery.” […]

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How Does God REALLY Feel About Interracial Marriages? (Or, what year is it, people?)

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, Tim’s depthy, well-articulated insights are probably as familiar as my posts themselves. So when he forwarded me this article about a church that voted (recently!) to ban people in interracial marriages from membership, suggesting I might want to write something up about it, I had no […]

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Shove a Candy Cane in Your Mouth, and Shut It! Taming the Tongue, XMas Style

‘Tis the season for contentious status updates. Every year around this time, faithful followers of the Prince of Peace start picking fights with people who celebrate the “holidays,” and double-dog-daring the 3% of their Facebook followers who aren’t too chicken to do the same. I confess–the picture in this post was my temptation, a snarky […]

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Crocheted Afghans and Other Coverings: The Women Who Shaped Me

In my last post, I talked about some of the godly men who have had a profound influence in my life. Now it’s the women’s turn. Yesterday, as I was studying, a cold draft came through the window, and I pulled an afghan my Great-Grandma Harmon had crocheted up over my legs. I was overwhelmed […]

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