A Year of Biblical Womanhood

[GeoBQn]

Inspired by AJ Jacobs' A Year of Living Biblically, evangelical blogger Rachel Held Evans is spending a year following all of the Bible's rules for women. She sounds like an interesting person.

Evans is a vocal advocate of increasing the ranks of women within church leadership—another seriously controversial subject within a group that is in constant terror of being feminized. Though she doesn't like the word feminist because the term is so loaded within her community, she's a staunch egalitarian in a world in which there's an ongoing debate over whether husbands are the masters of their wives.

http://www.slate.com/id/2302892/

[debrand]

All Christians pick and choose the parts of the Bible that suit them. The believers who emphasize the verse in which Paul says, "Women should remain silent in the churches," tend to dismiss the verse just a few chapters away in which he writes that "every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head" as culturally specific. As Evans points out, it's "Biblical" for a man to take multiple wives, or for a father to sell his daughter to pay off debts. When the term "Biblical" can mean anything, it means nothing. If Christians can acknowledge this, they may treat each other more lovingly and conduct themselves with more humility.

She's right. Many people pick which bible verses to follow and which to ignore based on their own whims.

I did not know that daughters could be sold to pay off debts.

[Little_Eyes]

I'm going to be reading that book this semester. I can't wait to bring up fundies during class discussion.... :-D

ETA: I meant the Jacob's book, not the one mentioned in the post. Sorry. :)

[hoipolloi]

Good interview with RHE on NPR's All Things Considered today. Written story & audio transcript at this link: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140761994 ... y-the-book

[titus2_4u]

She just posted her list of all the books she read during the project.

I'm so excited for her book to come out: http://rachelheldevans.com/biblical-woman-reading-list

[hoipolloi]

Fascinating book list - I appreciate her effort to get some breadth into each month's reading & research. I, too, am eager to read the book.

And did I hear the faint echo of exploding heads in the background of the NPR story?....

[punkiepie]

I love Rachel Held Evans! Her first book and blog, as well as Matthew Paul Turner's blog- http://www.jesusneedsnewpr.net - and books, pretty much saved and restored my faith after it was nearly destroyed during my fundie/fundie-lite upbringing. They were the first Christians I had ever read about who were raised fundie/fundie-lite, questioned what they were taught, struggled with the answers and finally came to a place where they were able to see that their doubt was an essential part of their faith. The CRAZY happens because of those people who have no doubts, no questions and blindly follow, obey and believe what they're taught.

Rachel's first book is SO good! If you haven't read it, you should- especially if you are or you've been trying to recover your faith in way that doesn't insult your intellectual integrity. Evolving in Monkey Town- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310293995?ie=UTF8&tag=racheleva-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0310293995 I loved The Year of Living Biblically and The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, but I've been waiting for a book like those that's from a woman's perspective, so I'm really excited to read her new book.

[Rosa]

You might like In the Land of Believers. She's an outsider, not an insider, so it's not quite the same thing but it's quite similar to Unlikely Disciple, but written by a woman (Gina Welsh)

[Zoom]

I saw the NPR story today and I've been sneaking readings of her blog in at work ever since. Really interested in her book and have put her previous one on my Amazon wishlist. I loved her list of 25 things Christians shouldn't fear. Some of "our" fundies should read it!