The CBE Scroll

The theme for CBE’s Winter 2006 issue of Mutuality magazine is “worship and equality.” Please pitch us your ideas for a feature article on topics related to this theme. Reviews, art, and poetry are also welcome. Here are a few topics we still need authors for:

· The role of spirituals and freedom songs in the long struggle for ethnic equality and justice in the United States

· Examples of worship leaders in the Bible, like Miriam and David

· Examples of worship leaders in Church history, like Hildegaard of Bingen

· Themes of justice and equality in the Psalms, and how the Psalms have influenced the church’s worship

· Themes of justice and equality in Mary’s Magnificat

· Reflections on how worship has influenced your understanding of biblical equality and justice, and vice versa

· Examples of how worship can be a topic of division, but also a source of unity and healing

The deadline for articles is coming up in November, so let us know right away if you’d like to contribute.

For more information about Mutuality, visit the Mutuality website
or contact Chelsea DeArmond: cdearmond@cbeinternational.org

Pop psychology is known for its easy answers, and, sheesh, does it sell. Of course, evangelicaldom has lots of that, too — especially when it comes to relationships and other topics that it is easy to froth about. Andy sends along a wonderful review of Captivating by John and Staci Eldridge, a Christian book bestseller at the moment, and his reaction to it, along with ruminations about the pastor’s wife syndrome, black women in seminary, and Lauren Winner. Young women are reading Captivating in droves according to Andy and sopping up its negativity to Proverbs 31. As the book says, “Somehow she [the Proverbs 31 woman] has sanctified the shame most women live under, biblical proof that yet again we don’t measure up. Is that supposed to be godly — that sense that you are a failure as a woman?”

I guess culture’s female role structures are so strong and so all-encompassing that it takes young women a very long time to figure out that they don’t have to be all things to all people. Pumping up self-esteem isn’t the answer. Instead, discover the gifts God has gifted you with, follow them wherever they take you, and don’t pay any attention to those in the church who want to take you back into the bondage of role expectations (and exclusions).