August 2007

(David) Thirty years ago Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the psychiatrist and researcher on the process of dying, came close to Christianity. Ultimately she turned away from Christ to mysticism and Buddhism--a form of madness that caused her obituaries to speak of her as one who had met her end decades before she actually died.

Kubler-Ross lived near the flame of eternity too long without embracing Christ.

I think of Kubler-Ross's attraction to Christ as I listen to music from Sinead O'Connor's latest album, Theology. A recent interview with O'Connor in Christian Music Today makes it clear that she is toying with rather than embracing faith, yet the songs on this album are powerful expressions of Biblical truth. And they're beautiful. I had stopped listening to most rock by the time O'Connor appeared on the scene so I'd never previously listened to her. But when I read the lyrics to "Something Beautiful," a song on her latest album, I went online to listen. "Something Beautiful" and the three other songs available here are wonderful. Their author may not be a citizen of the Kingdom, but like the Bob Dylan of the early 80s, O'Connor has written music that peeks within the door.

(Tim) Miss South Carolina was competing for Miss Teen USA. During the competition, she was asked, "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans cannot locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?"

She responded, “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and uh I believe that our education like, such as South Africa, and uh the Iraq everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should uh our education over here in the U.S., should help the U.S., uh er should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.”

So like, was this young woman homeschooled? Private schooled? Public schooled? Taylor (our youngest) and Lizzie both are at public school this year and doing fine. Through the years, we've used a combination of private (Christian), home, and public schooling for our children. Depending on circumstances, personalities, and gifts, Mary Lee and I believe each of these options can be the proper place for children of the covenant to get their book learning.

The heart of her husband trusts in her... Proverbs 31:11

(Tim) A commenter suggests David and I pontificate on this article about flex-time employment for married women identified as "working mothers," and the trials those women face in getting their employers to understand how difficult it is for them to balance the needs of their child with the demands of their profession. Well, I've had about enough of this. Really. Talk about stress and tensions and other people not understanding how hard it all is...

Let me tell you about my dear Mary Lee. When I was in school at UW-Madison, she sewed and sold (on State Street) beautiful copies of old Victorian nightgowns. The year we lived in Boulder, she continued her sewing, doing alterations and selling more nightgowns. During seminary years on the North Shore of Boston, she did the alterations for The Talbots in South Hamilton. She also did some sewing in Pardeeville, Wisconsin. Then, here in Bloomington, she spent years founding and running Lighthouse Christian Academy which, when she finally resigned as principal, had grown to about 150 students.

Was she a working mother...

(by Tim) Joe Sobran is fond of pointing out there are some things so foolish that only higher education could break down the natural inoculation simple folk have against them. Speaking of which...

So far thirty institutions of higher education have implemented a policy of providing "gender-neutral housing, in which the norm for roommates is not presumed to be someone of the same sex." And 141 colleges and universities have built "gender-neutral bathrooms" that "students can use without fear of being judged as being in the wrong bathroom based on the way others view the students’ identity."

Brittney Hoffman, youth coordinator for the Gender Public Advocacy Commission, sympathetically stated the dilema these bathrooms address...

(by Tim) From comments recently posted, it's evident some readers have entered this blog's conversation recently being unaware of David's and my writing on sexuality over the years. May I recommend the entry "Feminism" (under the category index on the left side of the page) as a book newcomers would benefit from reading? (Also, the entry "Carolyn Custis James.") And happy day, this book won't cost you one lousy dime.

For instance, one reader recently commented that David and I must believe "men should be doing everything in the Church and women nothing."

It's hard to express the revulsion washing over me like a wave when the practice of orthodox Christians across two thousand years is described in this way. To say it's a straw man doesn't begin to address what's wrong with this attack. The conceit of the modern; the utter ignorance of church history; the uncharitable assumptions about all the godly men and women who have gone before us... Someone famous once quipped something like, "My dear man, no one can fault you for thinking that thought--many others think the same, today. But for Heaven's sake, don't actually say it!"

The battle for Biblical sexuality is not for the faint of heart. So then, from February 13, 2006, here's one of many posts making clear that Biblical womanhood is not barefoot and pregnant womanhood.

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What's the flap over Carolyn Custis James all about...

One of our good readers finds it impossible to understand what all the fuss is about with Carolyn Custis James's article and words? Why are women and men opposing the quite-reasonable complaints Mrs. James makes concering the evangelical church's abuse of highly educated female theologians? Why are we opposed to women being theologians? Isn't that a good thing that every man should support?

Well of course. Where did anyone here ever say or even intimate that women shouldn't be theologians. But let's not allow this red herring to throw us off the real issue...