Jeannette Cooperman: “Why Women Can Dress Like Men But Not Vice Versa”

Photo of essayist Jeannette Cooperman“How culpable are heterosexual, cisgender women in keeping men boxed in?,” wonders Jeannette Cooperman. “I take real pleasure in wearing [men’s jeans and shirts],” she writes. “Also in using power tools, swearing, and drinking bourbon. But when my not-exactly-hard-drinking husband tried to order a banana daiquiri in a pub, I did a facepalm.” To state the obvious, “male characteristics are so rich with success and strength and feminine things are associated with weakness and fragility.”  Read her full essay on WUSTL’s Common Reader.

 

Life Struggles

Why do those who have never experiened soul-crushing struggle think themselves equipped to mentor those who are working through their issues?

Love Your Neighbor *as* Yourself

Christ’s ‘great commandment’ instructs Christians to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ […and to] ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 NIV). This summation, of course, recompiles a few Old Testament passages, notably, Leviticus 19:18 (“love your neighbor as yourself.”) A week or so ago I commented on another professor’s blog post that loving our neighbor *as* ourselves means that we must love ourselves equally as others. By way of example, a battered spouse should not remain with an abusive partner because, no matter the love for the partner, the battered spouse must love the self as much as the other. A loving parent does not place a beloved child in harm’s way so neither should a loving self place a beloved self in harm’s way. Today my eyes were opened to another implication of Mark 12:31.Continue Reading

Just because (wo)men do(n’t)….

Just because women normally do (or don’t do) a-b-c and just beause men generally do (or don’t do) d-e-f does not mean non-conformity is inherently improper. After all, most people eat whatever they wish, but then there are vegetarians…..

My Shield, My Strength…My Very Present Help

I found myself reflecting on the 2002 Hillsong lryic: I will bless the Lord forever, and I will trust Him at all times. He has delivered me from all fear… I will not be moved, and I’ll say of the Lord… You are my shield, my strength, my portion, deliverer, my shelter, strong tower, my very present help in time of need…


While largely a paraphrase of the 34th Psalm, it really boils it down to a kernel.Continue Reading

Evolution as Religion

Human evolutionAn exceeding number of evangelical Christians have long crusaded against Evolution Theory solely because it discredits Abrahamic teaching. But is this really the most appropriate doctrinal or theological battleground? It occurs to me today—and I hope to explore the idea in a future post—that Evolution Theory is a greater doctrinal threat to the premise of salvation than it is to scriptural inerrancy. Continue Reading

Gnostic Theology

People like Ben Carson and Mike Pence shade intellectual Christians as much as they flame dogmatic Christians. As for me, yes, I can engage philosophical arguments without fear of sacrificing belief. Argument might alter my concept of God but argument will never change my belief in God.