August 2007 Archives
Stay tuned for a re-launch of this blog at another host location. This site should be up until Aug. 28 or so. The new site will be launched before that date.
Yet another sign that the ultra-conservative powers within the Southern Baptist Convention continue extend their influence in truly backwards ways.
The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, from which two of my friends graduated*, has introduced a new women-only program in, wait for it...homemaking. From the article in the Washington Post today:
Coursework will include seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation, seven hours of textile design and "clothing construction," three hours of general homemaking, three hours on "the value of a child," and three hours on the "biblical model for the home and family."
The article does a good job in identifying Paige Patterson as the leading force behind this new program and the general movement within the SBC to limit women's roles in the church and home. He was president of the SBC when the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message was adopted, which explicitly prohibits female pastors (not just senior pastors). The article also quotes baptist critics of the program and movement. Unfortunately, the many thoughtful critics of the ultra-conservative forces in the SBC continue to be ignored by those in control.
As evangelicals strive to be culturally relevant, moves like this are certainly very damaging to that goal. Many non-ultra-conservative Christians still support the Complementarian view of women's roles in the church, and healthy debate continues over this issue. But programs like the homemaking one at Southwestern can only damage the place of women within the Christian community and affirm our cultural reputation for being firmly planted in the 1950's. What does this say to girls who want to become doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers, or even astronauts?
That's nice dear, don't forget about the cookies in the oven. How sad.
*To be fair, Southwestern wasn't nearly as anti-women when my two friends attended (which was before Patterson took over).
One more post for tonight. If you haven't seen Hot Fuzz already, it just came out on DVD this week. I can't commend it to you enough. It's a great parody of action flicks without devolving into Naked Gun slapstick.
I started birding casually several years ago when I wanted something to do while kayaking with my wife and friends. I read Sibley's Birding Basics, bought a decent pair of binoculars, and started going on free birding walks here and there. As with most new hobbies, the flamed burned hot for a while before fading to a spark. I had been meaning to read Mark Obmascik's The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession since it was published in 2004. I finally got around to it on the cruise and I loved it. Incidentally, I picked the paperback at Powell's Books when I was in Portland a few weeks ago--an autographed copy no less. I hate to echo what the book jacket reviews say, but it really is a great story for anyone, whether interested in birds or not. For me, it lit my fire for birding again.
A Big Year in birding is an informal competition where birders attempt to see as many different species as possible within the US limits (set by the American Birding Association) from January 1 to December 31. Few people have the time and resources to attempt a record-breaking attempt, but in 1998 three birders broke the 700-species barrier (note: there are about 675 species native to the US). In fact, 1998 is now considered the biggest Big Year ever because of the large el niño that brought dozens of species within the geographic limits that normally don't come close. It's quite a tale of determination and the human spirit, and entertainingly written.
Even when I wasn't actively birding over the past couple years, I was always mindful to take my binoculars when traveling to places where I might have a chance to see birds. They came in handy on the cruise as I was able to do some birding at Yellow Beach on Pinel Island, St. Martin (French-side). We took an excursion there to snorkel and then I saw several Bananaquits in the trees on the beach. Unless I return to the caribbean, this may have been my first "life bird."
Someone asked me once why I started birding. I simply responded, "because the bow tie just wasn't nerdy enough."
A week has passed since we returned from our cruise and yet no posts were made to this blog since our return. The intention was to summarize our trip with some pictures, but alas that hasn't happened yet and so I decided to get over the hump and post this brief review.
The cruise was great. Aside from United losing one of my wife's bags on the way down to Florida (which we finally received just before heading to the ship), everything went smoothly. Needless to say, it paid to travel to Florida the day before the cruise rather than the day of. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It only rained for about 20 minutes on St. Thomas, and then once in the middle of the night (I don't recall where we were). Having done both a cruise and an all-inclusive resort, we agreed that we'd opt for a second cruise before returning to another resort. There's just so much to do on the ships and it's fun to wake up to a new port of call in a different country.
We ended the cruise with the VIP Tour of Kennedy Space Center, and that was certainly worth the time and money. Endeavour is scheduled to launch Aug. 8 so we got to see it on the launch pad, which was very cool. Obviously, we didn't get close to it, but we did get much closer to pad B, which gave us a nice view of Endeavour on pad A. In addition, the VIP tour takes you to a special Apollo center that houses what would have been Apollo 19--the actual Saturn V rocket suspended lengthwise in a long building. It's enormously cool. We highly recommend the tour if you have the chance.
