“Marcus Mumford and the Trouble with Labels”
Cathleen Falsani, an award-winning religion journalist who often writes about faith and popular culture on her God Grrl blog for Religion News Service, talks about the criticism musician Marcus Mumford has been getting from some Christians because of his answer to a question about whether he “still considers himself a Christian.” Marcus is the lead vocalist for the popular British band Mumford and Sons, and his parents are the leaders of the UK and Ireland branch of the international evangelical Vineyard Church movement.  Read his answer about his own faith and how the word Christian to him “conjures up all these religious images that I don’t really like.” He says his parents are not disturbed by his spiritual journey, and Cathleen Falsani helps readers understand why they needn’t be either, as she shares her own thoughts about religious labeling.

“Disney Princess Makeover Sparks Outrage: Merida Petition Goes Viral”
This article by Beth Greenfield from Yahoo is only one of many decrying the changed appearance of the beloved Merida from the film Brave, after Disney remade her into a sexier version for marketing movie-related products. Once again, the message to girls is that being pretty is what matters. Even the co-director of the film (no longer with the company) is infuriated and called what they have done to Merida “atrocious.” Brenda Chapman was quoted on Cinema Blend as saying, “They have betrayed the essence of what we were trying to do with Merida—give young girls and women a better stronger role model. She’s strong inside and out—she’s not just a simpering pretty face waiting around for romance. She was created to turn that whole Idea on its head. Oh yeah. . .that’s why I created her.” More Related Reading: See what Marinda Valenti has to say about in on the Ms. blog and as well as Mary Elizabeth Williams’s commentary on AlterNet.

“Let’s blame women for what men do”
Referring to the most recent outrageous comments by television evangelist Pat Robertson, who said in essence that it’s a wife’s duty to keep her husband from committing adultery and to appreciate his other qualities if and when he does cheat on her, David Hayward uses one of his cartoons to call attention to widespread woman-blaming. In his Naked Pastor blog on Patheos, Hayward says, “I suggest that Robertson is just the most obvious presentation of a prevalent, deep-rooted attitude towards women. We see it every day in the news where women are blamed for rape, sexual harassment, and abuse.”  Related reading. See also this report on Robertson from the Huffington Post, and the commentary by EEWC’s own Kendra Weddle Irons on the Ain’t I a Woman blog she co-writes with Melanie Springer Mock.

“Accidental Rapist” from Marie Fortune’s blog
The Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune, founder of the FaithTrust Institute and author of several books on sexual assault and domestic violence, says the controversial song, “Accidental Racist,” by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J caused her to think about the so-called “accidental” oppression of people. “As a white woman raised in the South, I’ve heard the angst expressed before,” she writes,. “I just don’t buy it.” But she goes on to say the song provided a take-off point for writing another version, which she calls “Accidental Rapist.” Its message relates to FaithTrust Institute‘s efforts to increase awareness of sexual violence, while working to end it through its training, consulting, and educational resources.   

Related: See related references to rape culture in our Link of the Day this past March 26. See also “Ten things to end rape culture,” an article in The Nation. Addressing this issue is relevant at any time and all the time, but perhaps all the more so right now as Congress is demanding that immediate action be taken to curb the escalating statistics on rape in the military. (If you haven’t seen the revealing and shocking documentary,The Invisible War, about rape in the U.S. military, you can now rent or purchase it on DVD. It puts a human face on the damage caused by such assaults and is eye-opening in a way that’s impossible to grasp through statistics alone. See the trailer and clips about it on the PBS Independent Lens website.)

The cost of being poor
Writing for Red Letter Christians, Katelin Hansen says that most of us wouldn’t be able to afford being poor. To prove her argument,  she has provided an insightful article filled with embedded links to back up each point. She writes: “One can work full time and still not earn an income that is above the poverty line. Families are forced to make tough choices to stay afloat, living paycheck to paycheck with no opportunity to save. All this in a world where everything is more expensive when you’re poor.” She shows how people who are poor face higher costs in both time and money. And she includes a link to an interactive video game in which you can try your hand at escaping poverty while running into one roadblock after another. Yet, many people still think poor people have only themselves to blame for their situation and that digging out is easy if they have the will. The Bible has a lot to say about our responsibility toward persons who are poor. Hansen’s article reminds us of that fact and should move us, as Christians and as feminists, toward both compassion and action.

How shame-based teachings on sex can hurt victims of sexual assault
Take some time to view this Fox45 (Baltimore) video of a 13-minute talk presented by Elizabeth Smart at Johns Hopkins University during a forum on human trafficking. Elizabeth was a junior high school student in 2002 when she was kidnapped from her home at knifepoint. Part of what she says in this video has opened a new discussion about shame-based religious teachings on the value of virginity and “purity” that are being presented in abstinence-only sex ed classes. In recounting her own experience, Elizabeth Smart speaks out about the devastating effect such approaches can have on rape victims.  See also “Shame-based education: We can do better” by Kristen Howerton and “Sexual purity is like good candy still in its wrapper.” by Melanie Springer Mock.

 Related: Elizabeth Smart’s story is especially relevant in view of recent news about the ordeal of the three women who were kidnapped, repeatedly raped, and imprisoned in their abductor’s home in Cleveland for the past ten years. In this one-minute video on the USA Today website, Elizabeth Smart has some wise and heartfelt advice for these women.

“Why I disobeyed the United Methodist Church’s unjust teaching on same-sex marriage”
Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree is an ordained United Methodist minister and former dean of the Yale Divinity School, where he taught theological and social ethics. In this article for the Washington Post, he tells how honored he felt when asked to preside at his son’s marriage to the man he loved. “Performing their wedding was one of the most meaningful ritual acts of my life,” he writes. But his denomination regards officiating at a same-sex marriage to be a “chargeable offense,” and he now faces the possibility of a canonical trial. Ogletree writes: “My experiences in the Civil Rights movement have illumined my responses to what I perceive to be unjust disciplinary rules in the United Methodist Church, especially rules that denied my right to officiate at my own son’s wedding. As a heterosexual, married clergyman I have a unique opportunity and obligation to challenge the inequitable treatment of gay and lesbian persons, both in church practices and also in the wider society.”

Mothers Turned Activists
The old saying goes that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Here, from the Bill Moyers website, are brief profiles of six women who faced different kinds of adversity, heartbreak, or awakenings to problems affecting their community and, in their own version of “lemonade,” created movements for social change. Because they cared about their own children and other people’s children, they let their grief, worry, and anger compel them to take action, becoming leaders in ways they never imagined.

For related reading about how the personal can become political, learn about the activism that has emerged from many of the families who lost loved ones in the Newtown mass shooting this past December. See especially “Sandy Hook Moms,” from the Huffington Post. It’s an essay coauthored by four of the Newtown mothers who say they are not going to go away and will keep working for change. They want to celebrate their children’s lives “by turning this tragedy into a moment of transformation,” honoring the 26 lives lost “by advocating common sense solutions—solutions that address the issues that result in gun violence, including mental health policy, school safety solutions, addressing the isolation in our communities, and yes, gun safety and responsibility.”

A student’s video message to women desiring to serve God is simply this: “Speak!”
Kristen Sobalvarro, age 22, is a senior at an evangelical university in Southern California. She grew up in the Bay Area of California where she and her family were involved in a church that taught that women could serve God in only extremely limited ways, crushing her dream of being in ministry. Through this video, she tells how she found her voice and now uses her talents in art and the spoken word to share with other women what she discovered as she sought her own answers.

When I asked Kristen to provide Christian Feminism Today with some background on how this came about, she wrote:

“God has been orchestrating this journey for me for two years now. Before that, I simply went along with what my fundamentalist Baptist church pastors told me was true. However, once I began truly reading and studying Scripture for myself and finding my own voice, the Lord revealed truth to me and started leading me on my journey of faith. I hope the art and spoken word on this video will drive women towards the face of Jesus and allow them to serve God with every ounce of their passions, souls, and God-given voice. Speak, oh daughters of the King!”

We in EEWC-Christian Feminism Today are happy to find young women of faith like Kristen who realize their talents and callings come from God and were not intended for silence but for service. We hope Kristen’s video will inspire other young women to have the courage to follow her example.

“Gate A-4”
Poet Naomi Shihab Nye is the daughter of a Palestinian father and an American mother and lived for a time in Palestine. In this link, she tells of a deeply moving incident that offers hope to our world in these troubled times. It all started with a four-hour flight delay at the Albuquerque airport  and an urgent announcement about a need for someone who spoke Arabic to go to Gate A-4 immediately. That was her gate!  Read what happened next; it will touch you at your deepest level. This poetic narrative was reprinted with permission on the Poets.org website from the Academy of American Poets. It was originally published in Nye’s 2008 book, Honeybee: Poems and Short Prose.