That line is from a recent Tracey Ullman sketch on the BBC. It features a stinging role reversal: A man is robbed at knifepoint and female cops suggest he was at fault for the event because he dressed in a way that signaled he liked people taking his possessions. It made me laugh...and think.
Women, of course, face this kind of absurd reasoning whenever they contemplate filing complaints for sexual assault or sexual harassment. The male-dominated world is often slow to accept that women are innocent victims of assault or harassment, that they didn't do something to "deserve" what happened to them. Some women even buy this nonsense.
I hope that events of recent months will encourage women to speak up when they're victimized by harassment or assault. And I'm praying that we males will believe them!
Showing posts with label sexism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexism. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
Friday, September 29, 2017
The Death of Hugh Hefner
I shared this last night on Facebook:
Hugh Hefner was a materialistic misogynist.
Money and stuff were markers of success in his mind.
And women were the objects of male-domination fantasies in the playboy world he created.
Hopefully, Hefner came to follow Jesus Christ for forgiveness and new life before he left this earth. Those are gifts that Christ, God-enfleshed, offers to all who repent and believe in Him.
But Hefner's "philosophy," for those who follow it, is a spiritual train wreck to hell. It leads away from God, away from authentic relationships with others, away from the new and everlasting life that only the God definitively revealed in Christ can give.[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. Living Water is a congregation of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC).
Monday, June 30, 2014
Value her for who she is...
...not what she looks like.
That's the message of this ad produced by Verizon.
It makes me cringe to see how our culture has taken backward steps in the past few decades when it comes to its expectations of women and girls.
Yes, there are more women in the professions and in the workplace, generally. But the culture seems to tell women, "You have to be more capable than men doing the same work, June Cleaver, and a siren."
This fact strikes me whenever I turn on a cable news or sports channel. Male anchors are well-covered in suits and ties while female anchors are often scantily clad with elevated hemlines.
It's absurd.
That's the message of this ad produced by Verizon.
It makes me cringe to see how our culture has taken backward steps in the past few decades when it comes to its expectations of women and girls.
Yes, there are more women in the professions and in the workplace, generally. But the culture seems to tell women, "You have to be more capable than men doing the same work, June Cleaver, and a siren."
This fact strikes me whenever I turn on a cable news or sports channel. Male anchors are well-covered in suits and ties while female anchors are often scantily clad with elevated hemlines.
It's absurd.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Misogyny, Murder, and Accountability
Our small town has been shocked and saddened by the kidnapping and murder of a young woman, the mother of three small children. Charges of kidnapping have been lodged against her estranged husband, William Inman, Jr., and his parents, William, Sr. and Sandra. Since Sandra was the one who told authorities where the young woman's body could be found, it's widely expected that murder charges will be brought against at least the two men. Sandra, it's expected, will face a lesser charge as part of a plea bargain.
The body of Summer Inman, who was kidnapped on March 22 outside of a local bank where she worked as a janitor, was found little more than a week later in the septic tank of the church building where her husband's parents were married in 2004. She had been strangled.
Evil is real.
The evil that led to Summer Inman's murder was of a particular kind and it grew for a particular reason.
A story from WBNS TV in Columbus presented these facts about the family with which Summer had lived before moving out and filing for divorce:
Two particular forms of evil seem to have caused the years of hellish living and horrible end to which Summer Inman was subjected.
First, there is the evil represented by the presumption of anyone announcing on they have a call from God. This is what William (Bill) Inman did.
Nobody is authorized to hang up a holy shingle on their own initiative. An individual can swear up and down that she or he has a call from God to pastoral ministry, or any other ministry, but swearing won't make it so.
Recently, the members of our congregation, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, have begun a venture of reading the Bible in the course of a year. We have daily readings and once a week, folks get together to discuss the readings. During the week after the discovery of Summer Inman's body, we read portions of the Old Testament book of Exodus in which God calls Moses to act as intermediary between God and the people and then, the people call Moses to act to this same role. The will of God about Moses' role was confirmed by believing people. The will of God as to whether a person is to be a leader among His people will always be reflected among His people.
Lutherans have always believed in this "dual nature" of the call. A potential pastor's sense of call must be affirmed by the Church. Otherwise, it's just a feeling on the part of a would-be pastor and feelings are never a sufficient basis for Christian decision-making.
There's a lot of authority associated with being a pastor. It's not like the authority of a political or military leader or a business executive. It's the authority associated with God's Word and God's Sacraments and no one should dare to enter this ministry unless the call from God is confirmed by the Church. That never happened with Bill Inman. He simply took what wasn't his to take.
That in itself is a flashing light signaling possible trouble. If someone is that presumptuous with God, it's hardly a stretch to think that he will be at least that presumptuous in claiming authority over people that is not theirs.
The second evil in this case is the utterly un-Biblical and un-Christian male domination practiced by the two Inman men.
From the beginning, Scripture makes clear the utter equality of women and men. When Genesis recounts the creation of humanity, it says:
Later, in the New Testament, Paul, often wrongly accused himself of being a sexist, says plainly that, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28).
When Paul first came to faith in Christ, a woman was among those who "catechized" him in the faith. Where the culture allowed it, women served as leaders in churches founded by Paul.
Even passages in the New Testament sometimes trotted out by those who try use Christianity to justify sexism backfire in their faces. For example, Ephesians 5:21-33, which some claim commands husbands to be lords over their wives, actually, on a close reading, can be seen to command husbands and wives to live in mutual submission. Husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, which, is a clear call for the husband to give himself utterly and sacrificially to their wives. After all, Christ went to a cross for His Church.
People who fail to maintain their connection to Christ's Church, who are accountable to nobody, can rationalize anything: misogyny and kidnapping and, if the hints and allegations prove true, even murder.
It's evil and you can be sure that, barring some uncharacteristic repentance (and, at the prompting of God's Holy Spirit, such miracles can happen), there will be a horrible reckoning because the God revealed first to ancient Israel and ultimately, in Jesus Christ, is a consuming fire.* To trifle with Him, to claim His authority without His permission, is a fearful thing.
*See here.
The body of Summer Inman, who was kidnapped on March 22 outside of a local bank where she worked as a janitor, was found little more than a week later in the septic tank of the church building where her husband's parents were married in 2004. She had been strangled.
Evil is real.
The evil that led to Summer Inman's murder was of a particular kind and it grew for a particular reason.
A story from WBNS TV in Columbus presented these facts about the family with which Summer had lived before moving out and filing for divorce:
Neighbors said Sandra and Summer Inman were rarely seen outside of the home, and when they were, they were both dressed entirely in black.It appears that the older William Inman had set himself up as a religious dictator overseeing his own misogynist kingdom.
A close friend said it became clear to her "that the men had taken over the women" in the family.
Those who knew them said William A. Inman considered himself a religious leader and conducted church services in an outbuilding at their home.
Neighbors said he would often go door-to-door, soliciting donations for what he called "Mercy Ranch," a plan to turn his home into a place for the wayward and homeless.
Two particular forms of evil seem to have caused the years of hellish living and horrible end to which Summer Inman was subjected.
First, there is the evil represented by the presumption of anyone announcing on they have a call from God. This is what William (Bill) Inman did.
Nobody is authorized to hang up a holy shingle on their own initiative. An individual can swear up and down that she or he has a call from God to pastoral ministry, or any other ministry, but swearing won't make it so.
Recently, the members of our congregation, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, have begun a venture of reading the Bible in the course of a year. We have daily readings and once a week, folks get together to discuss the readings. During the week after the discovery of Summer Inman's body, we read portions of the Old Testament book of Exodus in which God calls Moses to act as intermediary between God and the people and then, the people call Moses to act to this same role. The will of God about Moses' role was confirmed by believing people. The will of God as to whether a person is to be a leader among His people will always be reflected among His people.
Lutherans have always believed in this "dual nature" of the call. A potential pastor's sense of call must be affirmed by the Church. Otherwise, it's just a feeling on the part of a would-be pastor and feelings are never a sufficient basis for Christian decision-making.
There's a lot of authority associated with being a pastor. It's not like the authority of a political or military leader or a business executive. It's the authority associated with God's Word and God's Sacraments and no one should dare to enter this ministry unless the call from God is confirmed by the Church. That never happened with Bill Inman. He simply took what wasn't his to take.
That in itself is a flashing light signaling possible trouble. If someone is that presumptuous with God, it's hardly a stretch to think that he will be at least that presumptuous in claiming authority over people that is not theirs.
The second evil in this case is the utterly un-Biblical and un-Christian male domination practiced by the two Inman men.
From the beginning, Scripture makes clear the utter equality of women and men. When Genesis recounts the creation of humanity, it says:
So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them, male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)Both the man and the woman were created in God's image, each in equal relationship with their Creator.
Later, in the New Testament, Paul, often wrongly accused himself of being a sexist, says plainly that, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28).
When Paul first came to faith in Christ, a woman was among those who "catechized" him in the faith. Where the culture allowed it, women served as leaders in churches founded by Paul.
Even passages in the New Testament sometimes trotted out by those who try use Christianity to justify sexism backfire in their faces. For example, Ephesians 5:21-33, which some claim commands husbands to be lords over their wives, actually, on a close reading, can be seen to command husbands and wives to live in mutual submission. Husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, which, is a clear call for the husband to give himself utterly and sacrificially to their wives. After all, Christ went to a cross for His Church.
People who fail to maintain their connection to Christ's Church, who are accountable to nobody, can rationalize anything: misogyny and kidnapping and, if the hints and allegations prove true, even murder.
It's evil and you can be sure that, barring some uncharacteristic repentance (and, at the prompting of God's Holy Spirit, such miracles can happen), there will be a horrible reckoning because the God revealed first to ancient Israel and ultimately, in Jesus Christ, is a consuming fire.* To trifle with Him, to claim His authority without His permission, is a fearful thing.
*See here.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Imus: What Took So Long? Why Just Imus?
Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team was both racist and sexist. And frankly, shocking to me.I live in a conservative enclave of southern Ohio. Several years back, we did a demographic study of the area within a five mile radius of our church building and found it to be 98.2% white. But I can't imagine any of my acquaintances or friends around here making comments like those Imus made from a New York City radio studio a few days ago.
Imus got the axe because his tasteless comments finally registered "objectionable" in the financial marketplace and in the marketplace of ideas. He was voicing a morally despicable notion that, finally, in the twenty-first century, could not be accepted by the public. That's good.
But I have two questions:
- What took so long? AND
- Only Imus?
...the high and mighty Washington elite [still] bow and scrape to him, apparently deeming his classlessness to be hip or something. Isn't it time the guy got the axe?But to me a deeper issue than what happens to Don Imus, deeper even than the racism and sexism reflected in his most recent comments, is the nastiness he and a number of others have been allowed to spew for so many years now.
Imus is gone. But there are many supposed entertainers, artists, and satirists left in music, talk radio, television, movies, and video game production who are making big money through nastiness. They promote a culture of physical, psychological, and emotional violence that disdains the humanity of groups and individuals. They coarsen our culture, degrade our discourse, and balkanize us all. These folks have every right to spew their junk. But the rest of us also have the right to turn them off, tune them out, and ask Big Media to deprive them of their platforms and any income derived from their invective.
Satire is a legitimate thing. Putting down self-absorbed power mongers in politics, business, or the arts is a necessary step in improving our common life. Satire can also puncture the inanities of current fads and social conventions, also useful.
Imus was, questionably, seen as a satirist. But Imus and others have used their media platforms not to satirize or even entertain, but to vent hate and stereotyping against whoever they want to pick on.
Don Imus is off the air because advertisers and an aroused public said, "Enough!"
When will we say the same thing about the Michael Savages, Snoop Doggs, Rosie O'Donnells, the creators of games like Grand Theft Auto, and others who, each in their own ways, use hatred and disdain of others as part of their schtick?
[See here, here, and here.]
[UPDATE: Moanna asks if my reason for including Rosie O'Donnell on her list is attributable to my listening "to those those who misquote her as she speaks out for the right of all Americans to question their government and make choices in their lives."
I respond:
No, Moanna, I include Rosie O'Donnell in that list of media hate mongers because of her racist stereotyping of orientals and her hateful lumping of Christians with radical Islamic-based terrorists.[THANKS TO: About.com's phantom Conservative Politics: US editor for linking to this post.]
To poke fun of [sic] Chinese people on national television with the "ching chong" stereotyping of past generations or to say that all Christians--who account for much, if not most, of the charitable giving and serving in the world today and are so involved because of Christ's call to love their neighbors as they love themselves--represent the same sort of threat to the world as that of Osama bin Laden is not only factually inaccurate, it's hateful.
That's why I include Rosie O'Donnell in that list of haters.
On the Christian front: Perhaps O'Donnell was exposed to a form of Christian faith that was all about rules and nothing about grace. I'm sorry for that and would love to acquaint her with the God revealed in the Bible. But before she spews hatred, she ought to know what she's talking about.
Thanks for your question and for reading the blog.
God bless you!
Mark Daniels
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