In recent weeks, I have had a number of conversations with colleagues about social networking and professional boundaries. The conversation usually begins with the perennial question: Do I let students be my friend? Recently, I found myself confessing to a friend (in-person) that I had completely given up on having a “personal” facebook account. I […]
“Christians and Muslims unite in new bid to silence Lady Gaga.” This was one of the top 10 religion headlines announced by the Pew Forum during the week of May 18 through 24, 2012. The news was a response to the cancellation of Gaga’s concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, due to “security” reasons after receiving strong […]
What is it with those wives who stand up for their husbands with sexual troubles? Most recently, we read about Dottie Sandusky, the wife of the former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. As we all know, her husband had been battling a law suit from eight men accusing him of sexually abusing and […]
Much has been written about the Vatican’s recent censure of Margaret Farley’s 2006 book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. The high degree of denunciation of this censure has been thoughtful and heartening. Among the many things I find fascinating about the Vatican’s response (with it’s suspect timing) as Baptist observer has been […]
June 4, 2012, the Vatican’s Congregation on the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) released a Notification about Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, by Dr. Margaret Farley, R.S.M. A “notification,” for those who are unfamiliar with Roman Catholic doctrinal disputes, is the way the CDF makes public its judgment on matters related to doctrine. […]
I have just returned from a conference on “40 Years of the Feminist Movement in Germany” at the Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll in Germany. Feminist journalist, writer, and activist Alice Schwarzer, the most prominent contemporary German feminist and publisher of the renowned feminist magazine EMMA , was among the speakers. I am happy to report: not […]
As many reading this blog may have already heard, Dr. Ada María Isasi-Díaz passed away in the early morning on May 13, 2012. While there are many other more qualified scholars, colleagues and friends to write a memorializing blog than I, I take up the task with humility and responsibility. I have known Ada since […]
It no longer stings on Mother’s Day. My mother died in 2003 after a brief illness. My sister and two aunts surrounded her as we watched the monitors flat line while the breathing machine kept pumping false life into her. This was not the way she wished to go, and it was hard for my […]
I am less than a month away from finishing my first year as full-time faculty member. Even though I have been teaching in seminaries for the past five years as an adjunct and lecturer, stepping onto the tenure treadmill has raised new questions about scholarship and teaching for me. On most days, I have resisted […]
I worry a lot about contraception these days. No, I have not taken a sudden relational turn, nor figured out how to reset my biological clock. The ethical conversation has simply emerged around me—was I asleep at the switch—in ways that I never expected and find deeply disturbing. I have to admit that, as a […]