January 27, 2005
Postcards From Buster
A
New York Times article, and also a
WorldMag Blog post are reporting today that the airing of an episode of the PBS childrens' program "Postcards From Buster" was cancelled due to the presence of a lesbian couple. The show was schedule for February 2, but was not distributed to affiliates on time due to controversy surrounding its content. One PBS station, WGBH-TV Boston, has decided to air the program anyway, and distribute it to other PBS stations. According to the NYT article, "'Postcards From Buster' is a spinoff of 'Arthur' that combines live action and animation and went on the air a year ago. In the series, aimed at young elementary schoolchildren, Buster travels to 24 different states with his father and sends video postcards home ... One episode featured a family with five children, living in a trailer in Virginia, all sharing one room. In another, Buster visits a Mormon family in Utah. He has dropped in on fundamentalist Christians and Muslims as well as American Indians and Hmong. He has shown the lives of children who have only one parent, and those who live with grandparents." Strangely enough, I've decided that I support the airing of this episode. Let me tell you why.
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January 26, 2005
"Feminism is Demeaning to Women:" Some Remarks on Christianity, Feminism, and Gender Roles
I recently
asserted parenthetically, without any real explanation, that "I think feminism is demeaning to women." I also referred to "this 'Christian feminism' crap." Well, I finally succeeded in generating some contentious dialog, which has motivated me to offer some explanation, to make sure I'm not being misread here. So, in case you're wondering, this is what I
really think:
Continue reading ""Feminism is Demeaning to Women:" Some Remarks on Christianity, Feminism, and Gender Roles"
January 25, 2005
Penn For Life in the Christian Science Monitor
This morning
WorldMag Blog is
linking to an
article in the
Christian Science Monitor on the explosive growth of Penn For Life (of which I am not a member, due partially to lack of time and partially to their anti-death penalty demonstration last year). Now, I'd provide this link anyway, just because it made me happy to see Penn's name in the WorldMag headlines on my desktop, but as though that wasn't enough, the article quotes
Penn Crusade's own Natasha Mooney! And as if
that wasn't enough, she has wonderful things to say:
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January 21, 2005
TNIV: The Neutered International Version
World Magazine's Blog and Wesley Blog are reporting on the impending release by Zondervan of the TNIV ("Today's New International Version"), a "gender-neutral" update of the NIV. Discussion about such an edition has been floating around for years, to a wide variety of responses. WorldMag's reader comments are positively virulent. Shane Raynor (author of WesleyBlog) sounds less than enthused, but thinks that the way today's young people have learned to speak English may actually have necessitated this sort of translation. I'm overall inclined to agree with Shane, but I'm none too happy about it, and am concerned that it could...
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January 19, 2005
DP Columnist Jenny Weiss on "Defending Christianity"
Once again, a liberal friend of mine (ok, so it's really more of a casual acquantance this time) has written an incredibly insightful opinion piece in the DP about a very relevant topic. The article, by Jenny Weiss, is entitled "Defending Christianity" and shows an impressive clear-mindedness and impartiality in looking at the recent political conflicts between Evangelicals and secularists in the United States. Some highlights: "I must disagree with Alex Koppelman's piece that appeared last Thursday ("Stealing Christmas"), in which he claimed that Evangelical Christians were violating Americans' rightful freedoms. Although I admittedly don't agree with all of Christian...
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January 6, 2005
Why Gonzales Will be Better Than Ashcroft
The New York Times is running
two editorials on the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney-General, expected to occur after senate hearings today. The wide-spread criticism of Gonzales for the opinions he's given the Bush administration is justified to a certain degree, but I think (I HOPE) that these editorialists go a bit too far. I'm reasonably confident that Gonzales will be better than Ashcroft. Here's why:
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