Tag: Parenting Issues
Ten Egalitarian Children’s Books
"You may know you want your children to have a different experience, one that makes room for questions, social activism, and gender equality, but finding resources to educate your children when you may still be asking questions yourself is difficult. "
The Moon Within
Aida Salazar has created a work of art that touches the soul in writing the story of Celi, as Judy Blume did so many years ago with Margaret. The two stories connect in the shared growth and personal development of both girls during a time of life known for its challenges, as each character becomes more wholly herself.
An Interview with Cindy Wang Brandt
I don't feel like people give parents enough credit and an important enough of a role. Parents are critical to every social justice movement, because they have kids and children are radical, radical hope.
One True Way
But the best part of One True Way is the gentle tickle of first love, the moment when two people realize the other feels something too. When Sam and Allie acknowledge their feelings for each other and touch hands, the moment fairly lifts off the page, taking my young, romantic heart with it.
Mother Goose, Mother Jones, Mommie Dearest: Biblical Mothers and Their Children
... the contributors of this volume delve into topics such as the problematic aspects of the relationship between Jesus and his mother, the Bible being read as a Mother Goose tale, whether working mothers are “wrecking” their children, and the response of people of faith to the reality of incest and the sexual abuse of children within their congregations.
Angels on Earth: Mothering, Religion, and Spirituality
A woman’s actual personhood is a paradoxical irony: young women are valued for their potential to be useful sexually and reproductively, but once they have succeeded in fulfilling those potentials, they are regarded as vaguely defiled.
True Colors: Celebrating the Truth and Beauty of the Real You
Susan's theology is overwhelmingly inclusive and accepting. She trusts deeply in the love of God for all people, and it shows in every word. This loving, large, expansive God is contrasted with the "in a box" God as seen in many churches and leaders and theology.
Birth, Breath, & Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula
Glenn also articulates well the universality of birth. She sees it as participating in life’s creative energy, whether the endeavor is physical, intellectual, spiritual, or emotional. All bring us to the depths. She then suggests that the techniques that help birthing women are applicable in other labors, too; specifically, the practices of rhythm, ritual, and rest.
Becoming Feminist: Conceiving and Creating
My joy for the little butterfly was also the joy of breaking out of my own chrysalis. In the ashes of my loss, I found a crown of beauty, my own voice, which had enormous value all by itself. My body hadn’t birthed a baby this time, but it had conceived something else: the belief that I am valuable and that my voice should be heard, loud and clear.
Mom, I’m Gay: Loving Your LGBTQ Child without Sacrificing Your Faith
With books like Cottrell's, hopefully... hundreds of parents will be reassured that their children's sex or gender orientation is not about them, is certainly not their fault, and provides opportunity to show what unconditional love is all about.
Rapists’ Parental Rights
The vast majority of Christians will experience a lifetime of preaching and religious education without once hearing that rape is a grave sin to be avoided or repented--or that God weeps with survivors, fights for their protection and healing rather than shaming them into justice-free forgiveness, and calls all Christians to as well.
Child-Free Again. Sort of.
Hello Church. I’m looking at you. Let’s stop assuming that all women want to help with children’s programs. Invite men AND women to participate. I have helped out here and there over the years, but I chose support roles that did not require my spending time with small children when I was home with my own all week.
God Places the Solitary in Families: Childfree Doesn’t Mean Childless
For me family is a much broader and expansive concept than the nuclear family. Jesus said that anyone who obeyed God was his mother, brothers, and sisters. I see no reason to limit my family to those I am biologically related to, and I think part of our responsibilities as Christians is to cast a much larger definition of what a family is.
God’s Gift of Motherhood Comes in Different Ways
After long, prayer-filled waits, I have been given the gift of motherhood, and this, in turn, has allowed me to comprehend God’s nature in profound ways. I experience biblical metaphors describing God’s love for her children more powerfully now.
Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue
Early Christian Families in Context is a mine of valuable background for our understanding of the New Testament and early church. Most or all of it should be accessible to interested lay people who truly want to understand the cultural gap between our world and that of our sacred texts -- and to use this knowledge to wisely interpret and apply those texts.
When Gender Roles Become Straitjackets
Dear Kimberly,
I've been concerned that some of our recent conversations might strike our readers as irrelevant during this current economic crisis. It's one thing...
More on Mothers…But Where are the Dads?
Dear Letha,
Two things strike me after listening to the NPR segment you mentioned between Alice and Nina Rossi, as well as the humorous song...
Developing Wholeness in Both Men and Women
Dear Letha,
When I go back and read our letters these past few weeks about parenting and gender roles, I realize again how difficult these...
More about Gender-Based Division of Labor in the Home
Dear Kimberly,
It was great reading your personal "observational study" of fathers and children delighting in their time together! And thank you for sharing your...
Who Can Nurture? More Thoughts on Parenting
Dear Letha,
It is a very curious thing for me to sit back and try to look with a “beginner's mind” at all these notions...
Work-Family Balance: 1950s and Now
Dear Kimberly,
In my post last week, I promised to tell more of my own story and continue where I left off on July 30...
Election Woes
Letha,
I know this is a new direction from our letters this past week, but I need to talk to you about the election! Specifically,...
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New Noah
May 2023 Poetry Selection
We travel the waters;
the waters travel us, trace us,
turn us dark and dank. The
trip from pupil to lip: traversed
We travel the waters;
the waters travel us, trace us,
turn us dark and dank. The
trip from pupil to lip: traversed
