1. Resources for Christian Living and Learning
  2. Gender in the News, Part 1 (articles)
  3. Gender in the News, Part 2 (online videos)
  4. Expanding our Horizons
  5. For the Children in Your Life

Introduction

Welcome to another edition of Web Explorations for Christian Feminists. I'm glad you stopped by and hope you'll come back often. Since the links in Web Explorations take you to sites outside eewc.com, please keep in mind that EEWC cannot be responsible for their content. Nor does the inclusion of a link mean that it necessarily represents the views of EEWC. The links simply take you to sites that I think you'll find interesting and informative. I hope you'll enjoy exploring them.

Resources for Christian Living and Learning

Liturgical seasons and colors of the church year
Historical, descriptive, and visual information.

On Faith series in Washington Post
The Washington Post in partnership with Newseek has been running a regular feature called “On Faith -- Conversations on Religion” led by Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn, who began the series because, in their words, “Religion is the most pervasive yet least understood topic in global life.” Panelists come from all along the religious spectrum and discuss a specific question. Of special interest to Christian feminists will be a recent discussion in response to the question, “Have women fared well or badly in the world’s religions down through the ages? Why?” See also an essay by guest writer Anne Graham Lotz (daughter of Billy Graham), “Bible Crystal Clear on Male-Female Equality.”

Bible Gateway
If you can’t find a Bible verse and know just a few words from it, or if you want to look up a particular passage in many different translations or even different languages, you’ll find this website extremely helpful.

Jesus is not a Republican
This article, from the Chronicle of Higher Education, is not saying that Jesus is a Democrat or affiliated with any political party! In fact, quite the opposite. The author, Randall Balmer, himself an evangelical, is warning of the danger of Christians’ becoming too closely linked with any political ideology as has been the case with many today who are called “evangelical” or part of the “religious right.”

Gender in the News, Part 1 (articles)

Afghan women and suicide by fire
Forced marriages, social conditions, and abusive husbands are driving many desperate women in Afghanistan to seek death by burning themselves alive.
BBC News, Nov. 15, 2006.  See also this related article.
BBC News, December 7, 2006.

“Expect the Best from a Girl, That’s What You’ll Get”
Tips on raising young daughters to be strong, confident women. Website is from the Women’s College Coalition and Mt. Holyoke College.

Gender Stereotypical toys
Are boys’ and girls’ toys still packaged, featured, and advertised differently after all these years since second wave feminism worked so hard to raise consciousness?  Be sure to click on the comments that accompany the article for various observations and opinions.

Satire on women-blaming
Women have been blamed for just about everything throughout the ages. In this humorous (but oh, so true) article from The Nation, Katha Pollitt provides current examples from the news.

“Wake up employers: Working moms are giving up”
“What can we do to change work/family policy in this country so that mothers and fathers, and those who are caring for aging parents, can live their fullest lives? Courtney E. Martin says this is the question employers and legislators need to be asking.

Gender inclusive public information signs
Some cities are requiring that street signs and other public information signs be gender inclusive. See “Gender change for Vienna signs” and “Skirts on signs in Spain”

Gender gap in magazine bylines
Writing for the online magazine AlterNet, Ann Friedman calls for more articles by female writers in national “thought-leader” magazines that influence political and social opinion and public policy.

Gender in the News, Part 2 (online videos)

Online video with Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda, and others
Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem are featured in one of three segments of this broadcast of the Charlie Rose Show on PBS. Jane and Gloria tell of teaming up to start a radio network for women and also talk about their own lives, including how they feel about faith and their own mortality.  Other segments of the program include Kati Maron discussing her book, The Great Escape:Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World, and Kiran Desai, discussing her award-winning novel,  The Inheritance of Loss, a storyset in India during the mid-1980s.

The Quiverfull Movement
The Quiverfull movement is a movement among some Christians who oppose all forms of birth control and believe in a literal interpretation of Psalm 127: 4-5:  "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them” (NIV).  Various news media have spotlighted the movement, including Newsweek and ABC’s Nightline, which devoted a whole program to it in early January. (See Nightline’s online video.) You can also read about the movement on the online magazine AlterNet.  Those in the Quiverfull movement maintain their own website. The movement is outspokenly anti-feminist in its philosophy. For those who espouse the Quiverfull philosophy, the way a woman shows her dedication to God is through a willingness to bear as many children as possible, thereby helping build an army for God. 

Carol Gilligan
Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice, was shocked to find that James Dobson of Focus on the Family  had wrongly interpreted and misused her research on women and men. She wrote to Dobson and asked him never to quote her work again “because he doesn’t understand it.” Dobson had used Gilligan’s research and that of another scientist (who also refuted Dobson’s selective use of his work) in an attack on gay parenthood and the pregnancy of Mary Cheney (the vice president’s lesbian daughter) because she and her life partner, Heather, had decided to have a child together.  You can read an AlterNet posting of Gilligan’s letter to Dobson,  and see and hear Gilligan discussing the incident by clicking on the YouTube video on the same page.

Expanding our Horizons

Websites to aid in understanding people of various backgrounds and faiths from around the Globe

The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Resources and information on the multi-religious character of today’s world, indicating how religious diversity affects civic and other aspects of life.

Information about world religions from the BBC
Here you can find in-depth information about topics related to religion from A-Z, with links ranging from Atheism to Zoroastrianism.

The Power of Words: Examining the Language of Ethnic, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Bias by Janet Lockhart and Susan M. Shaw
An online curriculum from Tolerance. org, a web project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Excellent resource for individual or group study.

For the Children in Your Life

Planet Tolerance (for ages 3-11)
This site is a must for teaching children about diversity. It’s also lots of fun, and adults will learn a lot, too.  Listen to some folk tales from other cultures as they are read aloud by a narrator, with pictures children can follow.  Use the interactive VoteQuest to teach children about the first time a group of women traveled across the United States alone by car (in 1915). They were working for women’s right to vote. Check out the Explore section to learn about ways history has distorted reality in visually and verbally portraying minorities. Learn how words in our everyday language come from other cultures. Guides that can be used by parents, grandparents, and teachers are included. (From Tolerance. org, a web project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

Talk to your Kids about. . . . .
If you’ve ever wondered how to talk to children about difficult or controversial subjects, here are some helpful resources.  Among the topics listed are war, mental illness, bullying (including cyberbullying), racism, gender equality, prejudice of all kinds, Black History month, the language and images of music and music videos, body image, gender identity and transgender issues, disability bias, being good sports, size acceptance, and much more. (From Tolerance. org, a web project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

Two articles on how to talk to your kids about same-sex marriage
( Both from the Tolerance. org, a web project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

“Talk to your kids about gay marriage.”
In this 2006 article, a mother writes about taking her children to a wedding  -- the marriage commitment of their aunt and the woman she loves.

And in this 2004 article, “Talk to kids about same-sex marriage,” a mother tells how the topic came up as the children watched a television show and how the family discussed the subject together.

A catchy little song to encourage kids to eat well and exercise to music
EEWC member Georgean Johnson-Coffey works in partnership with her singer-songwriter husband, Jim, in a family business dedicated to children’s music. Recently, James Coffey’s  song “Put a Little Sunshine in Your Mouth” was selected for a nutrition/exercise CD, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Los Angeles Unified School District Nutrition Network  and distributed free of charge to thousands of at risk children in the L.A. area. Gather some children around and watch this animated version of the song.

That’s all for this edition of Web Explorations. I hope you’ll enjoy checking out these resources. I think they’ll keep you busy for quite a while!

Your Web Explorations Guide
Letha Dawson Scanzoni