Get your popcorn

It has been mentioned on more than one ocassion that we should watch some episodes of Morgan Spurlock's 30 Day documentaries. After a bit of searching I was able to locate a site with some of his episodes as well as a long list of free documentaries which I think you all might be interested in. The 30 Days: Atheist/ Christian is very interesting.

Enjoy.

February Book Suggestions

Hey all,

Submit your book ideas for February in the comments section (see link below).

Here's some to start (from last night's book meeting and from our ongoing list from past month's voting):

The Monkey Wrench Gang- Edward Abbey [novel]

Are Women Human?-Dorothy L. Sayers [essays]

Amazing Grace-Jonathan Kozol [social science/journalistic research]

Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood and/or Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return-Marjane Satrapi [graphic novel]


Now get suggesting.

Women are Never Front- Runners

Obama or Clinton? Caucasian woman or African-American man? I've heard these questions a lot over the last year.

The New York Times published an interesting Op-Ed by Gloria Steinem as to why she is voting for Clinton (not just because she's a woman). She makes a few points worth discussing.

"So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what...
...But what worries me is that he [Obama] is seen as unifying by his race while she [Clinton] is seen as divisive by her sex."

Ehrenreich on Disney princesses

"In Princessland, the only career ladder leads from baby-faced adolescence to a position as an evil enchantress, stepmother or witch."

Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, discusses how the Disney line of princesses portrays a narrow view of femininity that has no place in nursery.

Read it here.

Driscoll's at it again.

Mars Hill is in the news again, since two pastors were fired and there are subsequent accusations that the church is trying to consolidate power for a select few high-rankiing church leaders

Intrigued, I went to Mark Driscoll's blog, and though I didn't find anything related to the current issue, I stumbled upon a church plant video that Driscoll and a few members put together. It was originally created to be aired to thousands of attendees at a Florida church planting event and to be handed out as dvd copies to all in attendance.

It was aired--and deemed offensive, particularly in its reference to women, and was not handed out to any of the attendees.

Here's just one of the many choice quotations
(The context of this statement is Driscoll speaking about the need to draw more men into the church):

"Those are the guys who need a good kick in the rear. . . . They need to be told that Jesus Christ is not a gay hippie in a dress, and that they're dealing with the king of kings . . .and that there's a mission he's called them to. 60% of all Christians today are female. I'm glad that the ladies love Jesus, but if you want to win a war, you've gotta get the men. And once you get them. . .you must know what to do with them. They want to know how to get married. They want to know how to have sex with their wives at least once a day. They want to know how to make money, buy a home, have children . . . . "

If you're interested in more, the video is here.
http://theresurgence.com/md_blog_2007-04-28_banned_church_planting_video