Formats Archives: Aside

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A Few Good Men

Happy almost-Thanksgiving, everyone! I wasn’t planning on blogging tonight, but to be honest, I am overflowing with gratitude, and need to get it out. Here’s why: I write a lot about women’s issues, and tackle some tough topics regarding gender relations. My article about sexual harassment was posted on Red Letter Christians earlier today, and something […]

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The Girl Who Cried Wolf, and Other Myths

You can’t go online lately without hearing about hearing about Herman Cain and the allegations of sexual harassment haunting his campaign. Those posts inevitably make me wince—not the articles themselves, but the comments crowded beneath them like protestors punching hand-scrawled signs in the air, screaming at the “other side.” Now, before you get all riled […]

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Russell the Singing Sample Man: On Using Your Voice, Wherever You Are

Isn’t it amazing when you meet someone whose gift just flows out of them, bubbling up and pouring out like an artesian spring, wherever they are, whatever they’re doing? I had that experience yesterday. The first snowstorm of the year landlocked us on Saturday, meaning that our peaceful Sunday afternoon was transformed into a mad […]

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Attention: No Anacondas Allowed!

It’s been a busy couple weeks, and I haven’t had much time to blog, so I figured I’d repost something I wrote a year and a half ago, just in case you could use a laugh. Yes, this is my life. Feb 21, 2010 The cupboard is getting bare, so we stopped by the Poplar […]

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Missionary Kid-Palooza! New Resources for TCKs on the Way

Michele Phoenix knows a thing or two about missionary kids. Born in France to an American mother and Canadian father, she attended Black Forest Academy, a school for missionary kids in Germany, and eventually wound up teaching there for the better part of two decades. In her bio, she writes “All the struggles I had […]

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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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Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault: Yes, It IS the Church’s Business

We’re having our first AVA (Advocates for Victims of Abuse) training event in the Lake Superior District today, and I’m reposting part of the domestic violence post I wrote a month ago, explaining why I got involved, and why I believe the church needs to join the fight against one of the most widespread and […]

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Is Jesus the Anti-Santa? Kids, Ministry and Super-Sized Sacrifice

I know I wasn’t going to blog this week, but my blogging button got pushed, hard. First, I saw a video of an absolutely adorable little girl who is “donating” her birthday to raise money for the famine in the Horn of Africa. Right after that, I saw a post on Facebook discussing the best […]

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Why I’m Not Here

Hi cyber-friends! (Doesn’t that sound a little bit like “Spider Friends?” I loved that show when I was little–but if you’re under 30, and have no idea what I’m talking about, just forget I said anything, okay?) I thought I should tell you (now that it’s halfway through the week) that my parents are in […]

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The Name That Grace Bestows

  This article is incredible. A district in central India held a renaming ceremony for girls who had been named Nakusa or Nakushi–Hindi for “unwanted.” In that district, there are currently only 883 girls for every 1,000 boys, due to gender-selective abortion, infanticide, and neglect. Obviously, life has not been a bed of roses for […]

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Why I Am (Almost) a Pacifist: Liberia and the View From Under the Bed

Liberia has not been leaving me alone for the last month or so. I haven’t been there since 1988, since I was a confused, hurting 11-year-old with nut brown skin and white-blonde braids. But it has been chasing me down. I have a post up today at Red Letter Christians that explains my thoughts about […]

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Occupy Your Wallet

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” First, a disclaimer: I haven’t really been following the whole Occupy Wall Street thing, any more than I followed the Tea Parties in 2010. SO not into it a bunch of people screaming about how everyone who disagrees with them is a […]

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My Husband Rocks (Literally)

My husband is one of the most gifted people I know, and I’m not just saying that because of my good taste in marrying him. 🙂 Aaron is an absolutely incredible teacher, one of those people who can take complex, abstract concepts, boil them down to their essence, and help people master them in no […]

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Making Space for the Female Voice

Women are natural communicators. No one doubts this, really, and a quick, unscientific glance at the blogosphere confirms the female desire to enter into the conversation about important issues impacting our world. But why are so many of these bubbling female voices still running underground, or being siphoned off into their own little “women’s quarters” […]

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When Women Snap: The Good, the Bad, and the Preventable

It seems like an epidemic nowadays–women being pushed to the point that they can no longer cope with their circumstances. When they cease to function normally, and create a whole world of upheaval for themselves and others. This is not always a bad thing. I think of Leymah Gbowee and the women of Liberia risking […]

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