What I’ve Been Reading Online

Taking a mental break from NaNoWriMo…

AUSTRALIAN CULTURE

‘These women had every right to be safe.’ – Short obituaries to some of the many Australian women murdered by their partners in 2015. Destroy The Joint keeps a tally on the violent deaths of women in Australia. It’s horrendously sad and, as an Aussie woman, bloody terrifying. If it were a virus killing off Australians at a rate of 1 or 2 every week there’d surely be money spent on research to combat it.

SCIENCE AND FAITH

A seminary student visits the Creation Museum. – I found this interesting for a variety of reasons. I am grateful for people who take the time to question the opinions of young earth creationism (YEC), not because they’re picking a fight (I hate conflict…) but because they’re raising really important questions. After I got married to a former-YEC true believer I was strongly discouraged from following my personal interests in science – particularly my fascination with astronomy and the evolution of dinosaurs – because it conflicted with his and his family’s views on Genesis. Fifteen years later I find myself trying to re-learn science, and deconstruct the worldview that so heavily influenced my understanding of science for a decade. This Petto and Godfrey book was a great overview of the issues involved and I found it really helpful.

RELIGIOUSLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN

Survivor story: Being spanked as a child taught me how to stay in abusive situations. – So much I could say but I’ll let the story speak for itself. Having spent several years getting to know people who attended an ACE school, as well as years in a church that once actively promoted BabyWise and Dr James Dobson as the only God-approved forms of parenting, I am profoundly grateful for my upbringing in an education system that threw out corporal punishment before my time. I’m hopeful that as more spiritual abuse survivors speak out they will receive some kind of support. I’m also grateful that my kids were born before I joined that style of church and so those parenting methods didn’t last in the light of what I had already learned from the up-to-date midwives who applied World Health Organization practices to child rearing methods.

POSITIVE BITS ON RELIGION (Trying to balance it out because I don’t want this to always be a negative, angsty blog.)

The World Community for Christian Meditation – How grateful I am for encountering contemplative Christianity. What a lifesaver for my faith that has become.
I love this quote from Pope Francis: “The disease of a lugubrious face. Those glum and dour persons who think that to be serious
we have to put on a face of melancholy and severity, and treat others – especially those we consider our inferiors – with rigour, brusqueness and arrogance. In fact, a show of severity and sterile pessimism are frequently symptoms of fear and insecurity. An apostle must make an effort to be courteous, serene, enthusiastic and joyful, a person who transmits joy everywhere he goes. A heart filled with God is a happy heart which radiates an infectious joy: it is immediately evident!” – I have brought these words to mind several times since I read them. I must meditate on them more deeply.

ART