Tried With Fire

(In light of the #MeToo hashtag and October being domestic violence awareness month, this is an update of a post from 2 years ago with a few edits and additions.) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  Genesis 1:27 If you asked me to define the sanctity of life, here it is: Since all human beings are made in the image of God, all human beings should receive dignity, respect, and the right to life. This applies to the born and unborn. This applies to male and female. This applies to all people regardless of their race or ethnicity. The sanctity of life is not based on the ability to function independently or even the value with which a person contributes to society at large. The sanctity of life is an issue of  personhood  because identity is individual and never subsumed by another person regardless of the relationship. I think this definition covers what most evangelical Chr...

As part of my exercise in reading primary sources, I've started  Women Caught in the Conflict: The Culture War between Traditionalism and Feminism . I am well aware that the author, Rebecca Groothuis, is an evangelical feminist which is precisely why I am reading her book. The traditional side is not without its prejudices and stereotypes, so I want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. So far Women Caught in the Conflict has been very thought-provokoing. Groothuis lays some groundwork by giving a history of the women's rights movement in American history and the influence on and from the church.  She also spends time delineating the various streams of secular feminist thought. This section was interesting in the light of Rosaria Butterfield's prior life as a lesbian feminist. However, feminism is not a monolithic ideology, and to lump these streams together is, in my opinion, a misrepresentation. To include egalitarianism with secular feminism is inaccurate a...