Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

God Our Mother

by in Christian Spirituality

I am becoming increasingly aware of the limitations of language when we talk about God. It has many forms, but usually sounds something like this: “Dear Heavenly Father.” I’ve often used this phrase to talk to and about God. It’s not wrong, per se, but I recognize the limiting and biased nature of it. This is the language that I have inherited through repetition and tradition. But how would others look at me if I prayed, “Dear Heavenly Mother?”

How I talk about God affects what I think about the divine and the world. There is a correlation between my perspective and my language—each serves and supports the other. By calling God “Father,” I am saying that God is like a man, including the physical and emotional properties that coincide with this image. Am I unknowingly hindering my understanding of all that God is by gendering and humanizing the nature of God?

I recently finished my second and final Hebrew class. As we studied the Hebrew Bible, I realized two things:

There is no gender-neutral noun in the Hebrew language. In other words, language forces the reader/translator to refer to God as masculine or feminine (in a human sense).

The Hebrew Bible was written in a patriarchal society so, naturally, they chose to portray God as male. This is not an attractive part of biblical history, but the ugly truth is that women were second-rate citizens in the culture of that day. An androcentric society wrote an androcentric book? Makes sense.

Thoughts matter. Language… [Read more…] about God Our Mother

I Would Have Defended My Abuser, Too

by April Kelsey in Current Events, Fundamentalism

Last week, I learned that the Duggar family will be participating in a documentary on child sex abuse in conjunction with Darkness to Light and Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

Last month, Jill and Jessa Duggar appeared on Fox News to talk about their abuse experience and how they’ve forgiven their brother Josh for molesting them. In the interview, the young women minimized what was done to them, saying that Josh was merely “sexually curious” and that the abuse wasn’t that bad.

Though it turned my stomach, it did not surprise me at all. Had a TV reporter sat down with me at age 24, I would have said pretty much the same thing.

At age 8, I was similarly molested by someone close to me. At the time the abuse occurred, I knew that it was wrong, or at least very weird. But I didn’t understand it. Growing up in fundamentalism means that you often don’t have words to explain experiences that occur outside of your worldview–words like rape, consent, agency, autonomy, erotic, vagina, and molestation. For the first three years post-abuse, I was confused about what happened. I wasn’t angry, just confused. I didn’t know what had happened to me or how to contextualize it.

But then, when I was about 11 years old, the reality hit me out of the blue. Suddenly, I had a word to explain my experience. And with that word came the rage. I knew then, without a doubt,… [Read more…] about I Would Have Defended My Abuser, Too

Are Atheists Just Rebelling Against God?

by Randal Rauser in Book Reviews

We’re all familiar with the atheist caricature: that rude and crude purveyor of mockery and disdain for everything religious. We’ve encountered him in “God’s Not Dead,” we regularly see him (or more rarely, her) being pilloried on conservative Christian blogs, and there’s a whole cottage industry of Christian apologetics books that are intent on serving the righteous smackdown to atheists. In the words of theologian Randal Rauser, “These days within the Christian community, especially within North America, the atheist has assumed the mantle of the despised and distrusted social pariah on the margins.”

Rauser has had enough of the vitriol and is on a mission to alter the course of dialogue between Christians and atheists. His slender but robust new book, Is the Atheist My Neighbor?: Rethinking Christian Attitudes toward Atheism (Cascade Books, $15), tackles the Christian disdain for atheism head-on, with a call for Christians “to repent of prejudices against atheists.”

Is the Atheist My Neighbor? offers a comprehensive and decisive refutation of the widely-held Christian perspective that atheists actually do believe in God. This viewpoint is what Rauser calls the Rebellion Thesis: “While atheists profess to believe that God does not exist, this disbelief is the result of an active and culpable suppression of an innate disposition to believe in God which is borne of a hatred of God and a desire to sin with impunity.”

Rauser surveys attitudes toward… [Read more…] about Are Atheists Just Rebelling Against God?

The Paranormal Conspiracy: The Truth about Ghosts, Aliens and Mysterious Beings

by in Book Reviews

I’m a skeptic. Perhaps not quite skeptical enough for my atheist friends, but nevertheless I’m extremely dubious about claims of paranormal and supernatural experience. The Ouija board doesn’t work for me, I’ve never seen a UFO, and though I go hiking in the mountains almost every weekend, I’ve never run across Bigfoot. Bears: yes. Bigfoot: no.

But despite that lack of personal experience, I find accounts of the supernatural fascinating, not necessarily because I think they’re real, but because of what they say about ourselves. We all seem to long for something more: to discover we’re not alone in the universe, to be able to communicate with a deceased relative, to experience something that transcends the mundane physical world of the everyday.

In this regard I agree with Timothy Dailey, the author of the new book The Paranormal Conspiracy: The Truth about Ghosts, Aliens and Mysterious Beings (Chosen Books, $13.99). Dailey says that “we can all recognize the universal aspiration for ultimate meaning that is somehow wrapped up in that ineffable, bewitching quantity called love.” I do think we’re all searching for love, and I do think we often look for it in the wrong places.

However, Dailey thinks that our longing for transcendent love is being fed by a nefarious plot: “a diabolical conspiracy is afoot: a plot to lead human hearts and souls eternally astray.” This conspiracy “promises to fulfill that universal, unquenchable yearning for love. Through… [Read more…] about The Paranormal Conspiracy: The Truth about Ghosts, Aliens and Mysterious Beings

Why I'm a Christian Who (Still) Supports Planned Parenthood

by in Christian Issues, Current Events

Last week an undercover video was released purporting to show that Planned Parenthood is in the business of selling fetal body parts. The video reinvigorated the anti-abortion movement and renewed calls to defund Planned Parenthood.

But despite what many are so loudly proclaiming, the video — when watched in its entirety and with a dose of common sense — doesn’t actually support the claim that Planned Parenthood is using “partial-birth abortions to sell baby parts.”

What it does show is that Planned Parenthood facilitates the donation of fetal tissue for medical research. This is entirely legal and entirely appropriate. Why shouldn’t cells from aborted fetuses be used for medical research with potentially life-saving applications? Would those opposed to abortion prefer that these resources be simply squandered? Since the abortion is going to happen anyway, what possible reason is there for not utilizing the aborted tissue?

Perhaps the biggest fallout from the video, however, comes from the “tone” with which the medical procedures are described, something for which Planned Parenthood has already apologized.

I don’t think there’s a need to apologize. Conversations between medical professionals are often seemingly callous and matter-of-fact. Anyone who’s spent time around those in the medical field — doctors, PAs, nurses, EMTs — has likely heard gruesome stories recounted in a completely offhanded manner. What’s unsettling to us is commonplace for those who deal… [Read more…] about Why I'm a Christian Who (Still) Supports Planned Parenthood

Your "Deeply Held Religious Belief" Isn't Biblical

by April Kelsey in Christian Issues, Current Events

Most of us know the story. An Oregon bakery was found guilty of discrimination and ordered to pay $135,000 in emotional damages for refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, the business owners claiming that such an act would violate their “religious beliefs” against gay marriage.

The phrase “deeply held religious beliefs” has taken center stage in several recent legal battles — most notably in the Hobby Lobby birth control case, and again when a photographer in New Mexico refused to photograph a gay wedding.

The more I hear the words “deeply held religious belief,” the more uneasy I feel. I wasn’t sure why until I had read through the umpteenth article on the subject. And that’s when I realized that the so-called “beliefs” being defended aren’t actually rooted in scripture.

The verse that nearly all of these Christians cite in support of their behavior is Romans 1:32, claiming that it says God not only judges people who sin, but also those who simply approve of sin.

First of all, there is absolutely nothing in the Bible that says selling someone a product in the course of legal business shows approval of the buyer’s lifestyle or behavior. Nothing.

Second, that’s not what the scripture even says. Here it is, in context:

“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness,… [Read more…] about Your "Deeply Held Religious Belief" Isn't Biblical

Flags, Guns and Christians

by in Christian Issues, Current Events

Last Friday the Confederate flag came down in South Carolina, the result of a national debate prompted by photos of Charleston shooter Dylann Roof proudly holding that flag.

I fully support the exclusion of the Confederate flag from public life. It’s a symbol of hatred, violence, and divisiveness that has no meaningful place in modern American society. When a symbol becomes a constant reminder of the worst of human behavior, when it instils fear and incites violence, when it divides and provokes, then it’s time to relegate it to the dustbin of history.

But amid all the hullabaloo over the Confederate flag, we’re ignoring a far more important issue. How is it that nine innocent people can be brutally gunned down by someone who shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place, and we end up talking more about a flag than the murder weapon?

The decision to ditch the Confederate flag is a small concession that, though symbolically important, overshadows the far more significant issue of gun violence in America. We’re living through an alarming rise of gun-related violence, yet as a society we remain frustratingly divided on the issue of guns.

Why haven’t the shootings in Aurora, Oak Creek, Newtown, Charleston, and myriad other locales across the United States spurred us to action?

Why aren’t Americans united in an effort to pass tougher gun laws, to plug legal loopholes, to develop better mental health resources, and to end the epidemic of gun violence?

And why aren’t Christians… [Read more…] about Flags, Guns and Christians

Marriage Equality — What Have Christians Lost?

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

Should Christians who are celebrating marriage equality empathize with those who are grieving over the Supreme Court ruling?

A call for such empathy recently came from a colleague in ministry who wrote,
Whether or not you agree with those who weep, they are still weeping today. They are experiencing loss. The world that they anticipated living into has changed. It’s not going back. It will never be the same. I’m not making any arguments about whether that is good or bad. . . . What I want to say today is that there are those among us who are mourning. What are we going to do about it?
My colleague quotes Paul who says to the church in Rome, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). He claims that “our first responsibility is to try to empathize with each other’s experience,” but the thrust of his admonition is aimed at those of us who are celebrating, not grieving. He challenges us to be “wounded healers” (Henri Nouwen’s phrase) to those who have encountered marriage equality as “a train wreck” and have experienced “genuine loss and trauma.” He points out that we are all members of the body of Christ and he encourages us to empathize with those hurting so we might be “avenues of healing and conduits of grace.”

So what is it exactly that our sisters and brothers who are weeping have lost?

According to my friend, they have had to say good-bye “to something that was supposed to be there… [Read more…] about Marriage Equality — What Have Christians Lost?

Why We Shouldn’t Say "Modest is Hottest"

by April Kelsey in Fundamentalism

Modest is hottest. It’s a phrase that was coined a few years ago to convince Christian women that dressing modestly is sexy and attractive. Because that’s what women care about, right? The male gaze. Knowing that they’re considered pretty and desirable despite ankle-length pants and neck-high collars.

“Modest is hottest” is a phrase that needs to disappear. Immediately. It needs to be completely erased from the Christian lexicon—because it plays right into the secular objectification and hyper-sexualization of women.

Let me explain.

Growing up as a woman in a fundamentalist evangelical community meant that I was often the target of modesty teachings. Men were visual, I was told, and a spaghetti strap, a too-short hemline or a too-thin shirt might cause them to look at me in a sexual way. Never mind that I was in elementary school. Never mind that I lived in Florida with 100+ degree summers and 90 percent humidity. Never mind that my body was about as flat and unexciting as a porch plank. Someone might still try to sexualize my body.

Except that my church had already sexualized my body by teaching these things.

As young as 6, 8, and 10 years old, my friends and I were viewed by our parents and leaders as potential objects of lust and temptation. The fact that a teen or grown adult man could become sexually aroused by our uncovered knees and shoulders was viewed as normal. While we were told… [Read more…] about Why We Shouldn’t Say "Modest is Hottest"

Biblical Marriage and Biblical Justice

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

Are you growing weary of the outcry of angst, fear, and frustration over marriage equality from Christians who claim to believe in biblical marriage? What if more Christians who say they believe in biblical marriage would actually practice biblical justice?

If more Christians who say they believe in biblical marriage would actually practice biblical justice, then more Christians would realize how they have all been impacted by racist biases and pursue a course of repentance and restitution. They would  intentionally advocate for policies that would correct a criminal justice system where blacks and other minorities are much more likely to be stopped by police than whites, much more likely to be incarcerated for the same offenses as whites, and then be underrepresented in their trials.

They would recognize our equality and oneness in Christ (Gal. 3:28) and strive to break down walls of division by opposing voter suppression laws and by removing symbols typically identified by our African-American sisters and brothers as signs of oppression, such as the Confederate flag. White Christians would reach out to all races in concrete, tangible ways to express hospitality, generosity, and kindness.

If more Christians who say they believe in biblical marriage would actually practice biblical justice, then more Christians would actually take seriously the numerous biblical instructions about caring for widows… [Read more…] about Biblical Marriage and Biblical Justice