Each year in 28 African countries two million girls undergo what is euphemistically called “female circumcision,” but what is really mutilation and excision of the female external genitalia and clitoris (clitorectomy). “One quarter of them die as a result.” [Daughers of Hope by Kay Marshall Strom and Michele Rickett, p. 12]
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Believers in Christian manhood and womanhood would like us all to believe that there is something about masculinity as it is lived out in America that is crucial to Christianity. What it means to be masculine, however, varies from culture to culture, and has no business being inserted into Christian theology. There are […]
Helping boys to open up about what they are feeling takes effort and education on the part of supervising adults. Step one is to recognize the early signs of masking feelings, such as bad grades, rowdy behavior, overly quiet behavior, verbal denials that anything is wrong when other behaviors say otherwise, drugs or alcohol, […]
Educators are becoming increasingly concerned about boys. Much attention has been given to girls recently and they are improving in their access to opportunities and are improving in math and science achievement. Boys, on the other hand, continue to lag in reading, their self-esteem is now more fragile than girls’ self-esteem, are twice […]
Continuing in Julie Ingersoll’s book, Evangelical Christian Women: War Stories in the Gender Battles, the author relates the plight of female students at many evangelical seminaries and colleges (interviews conducted between 1993 and 1995 at seven schools in different parts of the U.S.). Gals outnumber guys at evangelical colleges. Some families prefer to […]
Watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the latest Harry Potter movie just out, made me think about awkward teenage interaction between the sexes. As Potter devotees know, each book (and movie) is another sequential year in the life of Hogwarts, and in particular the lives of friends Harry, Ron, and Hermione. […]
Not as many people know Frank Schaeffer as knew his father, Francis, the early Christian Right apologist, but he’s apparently well enough known in evangelical circles to get hate mail from them. I’ve been quite taken with two of his novels, Portofino, and Zermatt. They, along with Saving Grandma, are the ongoing saga […]
I recommend “Commander in Chief” on ABC TV Tuesday nights. Mackenzie Allen, the USA vice president, played by Geena Davis, becomes the first woman president of the United States by being sworn in upon the death of the president, against the president’s wishes and the leaders of his party. They’d prefer someone “more […]
What’s so wrong with being a terror on wheels? There’s a certain “bad boy” image that is attractive to a lot of people. See How to be a Bad Boy and How Bush’s Bad-Boy Image Helps. What’s extremely odd is that women seem to fall for this type despite their verbal denials. […]
Well, I go off the church board next week, and I leave with mixed emotions. When they asked me to join it three years ago, I told them that church eldership was never anything I ever sought — in fact, was something I rather dreaded. They wanted me anyway. I suppose an organization […]