Three women are making names for themselves as prophetesses for the idols of sodomy and lesbianism. Their names are Rachel Held Evans, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Eve Tushnet.
First, Bolz-Weber and Held Evans. Both claim to be Protestant Christians and both aim their smashmouths at the church. If they were to speak to the world they'd have no market, but sadly, the church is listening. Both women's market niche is other women who get a kick from brash and defiant, but want to experience their thrills vicariously. Beyond that, the two are different.
Held Evans markets herself to women who attend Bible-believing churches but have not yet mustered the courage to tell their elders and pastors of their rebellion. So, from the secrecy of their computers, they take glee in watching Held Evans attack the Bible and the God Who wrote it—which is really all she ever does. Held Evans spent a year publicly mocking God's ceremonial laws and now she's busy shrieking that if God ever commanded her to sacrifice her son as He commanded Abraham, she'd refuse. Of course her real focus isn't Abraham and Isaac, but God the Father and God the Son. It's been trendy for children of Evangelicals to ridicule the substitutionary atonement the past ten or twenty years. They call the Father sending His Son to the cross "divine child abuse." Held Evans attacking Abraham's faith is simply an attack upon God the Father's love that sent His Son to the cross. It's an attack upon the Substitutionary Atonement. It's an attack upon the Gospel.
Bolz-Weber's smashmouth is also brash and defiant, but she sells herself to liberals. She is mainline Lutheran but she could as well be mainline Episcopalian, Anglican, Methodist, or Presbyterian. Like all liberals, Bolz-Weber doesn't bother attacking Scripture or Scripture's God; she just lies about Him, but with no fear of contradiction because the people who listen to her don't read the Bible. Bolz-Weber is a religious freak show. Mark Twain said he once had the misfortune of taking a train ride seated next to a woman who had not one unuttered thought on her brain. Picture Twain's seatmate wearing a wife-beater without a bra, a man's haircut, tattoos large enough to make a biker proud, and braided armpits, You begin to get the idea.
The third prophetess for lesbianism and sodomy is Eve Tushnet. She is a Roman Catholic and a week from now Richard John Neuhaus's First Things will host a lecture and book-signing upon the occasion of the release of her book, Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith. Along with Peter Leithart...