Falwell Shows Patriarchy’s True Colors

It takes much these days to pull the Observational Ginger out of hibernation. A years-long menage-a-trois between powerful evangelical leaders and a 20-year-old kid just might do it, though. I had dropped into Reuters for my daily pandemic briefing when allegations of Jerry Falwell Jr.’s voyeuristic arrangement with a business partner slapped me across my unsuspecting face. I was accosted with...

Is Egalitarianism Prescriptive or Descriptive, Part 2

Yesterday, we established that there’s nothing inherently wrong with an egalitarian couple choosing a more “traditional” arrangement for their roles in the family. Egalitarian men can make more money than their wives. Egalitarian women can cook and clean with the best of them. If a couple functions well that way, who’s to stop them? Why, then, do egalitarians like myself tend to actively...

Is Egalitarianism Prescriptive or Descriptive?

In all our discussions of egalitarianism vs. complementarianism here at Observational Ginger, very important questions occasionally arise from readers. My oldest childhood friend inspired today’s topic with a question she asked long ago. My answer then was dreadfully inadequate, and since it’s a common question anyway, I thought I’d take a blog post to soothe everyone’s curiosity. (With...

Christian Feminism: Friend or Foe? Part 2

As we saw in yesterday's post, a recent article made the argument that feminism is unnecessary for Christians, and I gave my view on why that’s not so. As promised yesterday, I want to spend this post examining the second main objection that Walsh raised against feminism (again, with the understanding that I am picking on his article because it represents a widely-held view among many...

Christian Feminism: Friend or Foe? Part I

A recent article warned Christian women (and men, in parentheses) that Feminism Is Not Your Friend. It asked whether feminism and Christianity are incompatible.This is a question many Christians on both sides of the aisle are asking. (For those who don’t know, “the aisle” means the divide between Christian complementarians and egalitarians. Complementarians believe the Bible teaches a...