Radical Womanhood

Tuesday Trivia

People have been sending me interesting tidbits--including links to new blogs--so today seemed like a good time to coin "Tuesday Trivia" and share the wealth. (Not that these items are trivial, of course...)

• I just found out that my first book, Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye? Trusting God with a Hope Deferred is about to be published in Russian. My publisher, Crossway, has also negotiated agreements to publish in Czech, Korean, and Portuguese--as well as English in the Philippines. Here's to hoping my American girly humor translates well!

• Last summer, I had the pleasure of meeting Erin Davis, the author of the blog for the new Lies Young Women Believe book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Dannah Gresh. She's a brand-new mother and in a recent blog post, she wrote about the reactions to motherhood she has encountered among young women: "As I traveled the country to do research for 'Lies Young Women Believe,' I found countless young women who admitted that they didn’t feel free to pursue becoming wives and mothers as their primary purpose. The said things like, 'For me the whole family idea is kind of overrated,' and 'It is not about families and having kids anymore. Women are expected to have careers, too.' One young lady spelled it out in black and white. 'It has become uncool to want a husband and a family,' she announced." Obviously, Erin has a different view! Check it out...

• Peacemaker Ministries now has a new blog called Route 5:9. I was especially taken with a blog post about the Myth of Chronic Uniqueness and what that has to do with kindness. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." Read more on Route 5:9.

• I'm one of those sports-ignorant people who always opts out of the office pool for March Madness. But if you are into tracking brackets and prognosticating winners, check out Jesse Phillips' idea for Together 4 the Madness.

• In early January, I blogged about Modern Parables' Cinematic Theology. This week, Bill Seaver sent me the following update: "Modern Parables now has a digital download store where all of the Modern Parables lessons can be purchased individually either in DVD or HD quality. Each download includes the film, application video, director's commentary, and a combination of the student book and teacher's guide for those sessions as a PDF. As a way to let people see all the films for free we have versions available for iPods or to watch in iTunes. All the downloads are available at https://modernparable.com/digitals."

Enjoy your Tuesday! I'll be resuming the Practical Issues for Godly Women series in a day or two.

Introducing ... C.J. Mahaney's Blog

Okay, this is really stretching the Practical Issues for Godly Women series. But I'm glad to announce that my boss, C.J. Mahaney, has debuted his blog, C.J.'s view from the cheap seats. I understand from inside sources that in just a few days, we will be prepared for discussing the Super Bowl in great detail. And I'm sure that must fall somehow into practical issues for godly women. Maybe in the category of How Not to Embarrass Your Man -- as in a certain blogger who needed to be told the Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. :)

UPDATE: All weak sports humor aside, this blog is developing into a wonderful resource--just as I expected. Please note the extraordinarily rich list of resources recommended in Thursday's post, Cross-Centered Books. These books are densely-packed gems (I've only read parts of some of them myself) but C.J.'s commentary on them is edifying in itself. Make sure to add this blog to your daily reading!

Chosen 4 More

Greetings from sunny San Diego! I'm here for Campus Crusade for Christ's San Diego Winter Conference 2007. The theme of this year's conference is "Chosen 4 More" and I'll be speaking on Sunday on being chosen to serve and then on being a biblical woman in a modern world. I'll resume blogging next week, Lord willing.

Happy new year!

Hanging Around the Recording Studio

I've always been told that I speak very fast, but radio host Janet Parshall puts me to shame.

I had the privilege of meeting Janet and her husband, Craig, Tuesday night at a dinner with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. They told us the story of how they met in high school, how Craig became a believer in a dramatic conversion, and how their 36-year marriage has thrived as they have raised four children and ended up working together in the intersection of faith and politics. Though many people hear Janet on her daily radio show on the Salem network (Janet Parshall's America), not everyone knows that Craig is a lawyer with the National Religious Broadcasters Association. Janet says that Craig's hard work preserves her legal right to talk about Jesus on the radio, for which she is indebted.

On Wednesday, I was able to sit in as Nancy recorded an interview with Janet in preparation for next October's True Woman '08 conference, where Janet will be speaking. Then Janet interviewed Nancy during her live afternoon program. During these interviews and over dinner, Janet told us some of her history with Concerned Women for America and how she once was part of a debate with five leading feminists. As I'm busy researching this era for my book, I was fascinated to hear her first-hand account of meeting these women and what the issues of the day were. When she was home rearing her four young children in the 1970s, she said there were no women at home on her entire street in a small Midwestern town and even her friends questioned her choice to be at home and not work outside. But Janet said she and her husband carried a conviction from their study of Scripture that this was her primary role and task during this season. Now nothing gives her more pleasure than knowing her four adult children all walk with the Lord.

It was a treat to hang out in the studio and be a fly on the wall during these shows!

(Top left: Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Janet and Craig Parshall. Middle: With Nancy and Janet. Bottom: Nancy, Janet, and the production team.)

Random Stuff on Men and Women

My home church, Covenant Life, maintains a blog called The Family Room. Yesterday, one of the pastors posted a tribute to a single man's creative marriage proposal. I thought that was a brilliant idea, until I realized that probably no single men read The Family Room blog. Shortly thereafter, a few of the single men in my office passed by and I asked: "Hey, do you read the Family Room?"

"The what?"

Yeah, my point exactly. So for the single men who are lurking on this blog, here's what one of my friends did to make his engagement memorable: Michael and Aida's special evening.

And here is the happy couple (on the left in black) celebrating the groom's recent birthday. They are some crazy kids. Not only are they planning a February wedding, the month prior they are also going on the Uganda mission trip I mentioned yesterday.

Speaking of single men in my office, we had our staff Christmas party yesterday. That is always the occasion for the annual portrait of our eligible bachelors. Well, here they are.

Then someone herded all the single women together for a similar picture. Of course there were more of us. Some things don't change!

Michael's birthday photo (bottom row from left): Michael, Aida, Tyler, Matt, Brittany, Daniel, Ben. (Top row from left):  Margaret, Ian, Angelita, Jane, me. (Shout-out to Tyler!)

Single men photos (from left): Steve Gill, Matt Wahl, Kyle Martineau, Drew Garfield, Jeff Martin, Scott Schefferstein.

Single women photo (from left): Bethany Gill, Sarah Medler, Rhoda Dixon, Rachael Puckett, Sarah Lewis, Rocio Borda, Chelsea Kauflin, Mindy Hooper, me, Cathy Charnley, and Trish Barnett.

The Night the TVs Go Out

Speaking of media, here's an important public service announcement. Studies show that 51 percent of Americans do not know about a looming change for their TV viewing. So I'm here to let you know that in a little more than a year, if you aren't a cable or satellite TV customer, you may lose your TV signal. That's because on February 17, 2009, broadcasters will stop transmitting analog signals and move to all-digital programming. The 70 million sets nationally that rely on rooftop or "rabbit ear" antennas will no longer have a signal without a digital TV or digital converter.

Nearly all TV stations air analog and digital programming. But at midnight Feb. 17, 2009, stations will drop the analog signals that have been standard since the dawn of broadcast television in the 1930s. The switch of such a mainstream technology is unprecedented, and it's the biggest change for the broadcast industry since the advent of color television.

So writes Kim Hart in an article for The Washington Post titled, "The Night the TVs Go Out." Don't want to cough up for a new digital TV or a digital-to-analog converter for your old TV? There's some relief for your wallet. According to The Post, Congress allocated $1.5 billion to the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration to provide coupons for consumers to purchase digital-to-analog converter boxes. Starting in January, each household can request up to two $40 coupons toward a converter box. It's good to know this information because the U.S. Public Interest Research Group just conducted a survey of top retailers like Best Buy and Target, and found out that the sales associates were providing "incorrect and misleading information," often stating that the only option is to buy a new digital TV.

If you want to know more visit, the FCC's DTV FAQ page.

Something for Everyone

The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood just revamped their website, making it a lot easier to find some published gems on the topic of gender roles. I use this site as a research tool, even though I have to admit that a few of the theological materials are a bit over my head. However, there's so much of value there that I simply must encourage you to poke around the website for yourself! Here is a sample of the outstanding articles and audio messages that are available for free from CBMW:

- "How to Encourage Husbands to Lead and Wives to Follow", a chapter by C.J. Mahaney from Pastoral Leadership for Manhood and Womanhood and the audio message from C.J. on which the above chapter was based

- Manhood and Womanhood in Creation and Marriage: A Biblical Defense by Wayne Grudem, an audio message from the Different by Design 2005 seminar for pastors and church leaders

- Different by Design 2005 (Session 2) with C.J. Mahaney, an audio message

- The audio message, A Song of Joy: Sexual Intimacy in Marriage by C.J. and the chapter that was based on the same message and published in Building Strong Families

- Rediscovering Femininity and Modesty, an audio message from Carolyn Mahaney

- Pastoral Responses to Domestic Violence, an audio message from Ken Sande

- Portrait of a Wise Woman, an audio message from Nancy Leigh DeMoss

- Jesus, Men, and Women, an audio message by John Piper

Debunking the Talkative Women Myth

It's been the fodder of comedians for years, but now credible research is busting the "fact" that women talk more than men do. According to a Reuters report yesterday, men and women use about the same number of words each day.

Men talk every bit as much as women do, U.S. researchers said after painstakingly counting every word that 400 volunteers spoke.

Their study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, challenges the common wisdom that women are somehow biologically programmed to talk more -- but the researchers said people do often fulfill gender roles when it comes to subject matter.

"Women and men both use on average about 16,000 words per day, with very large individual differences around this mean," the researchers, led by psychologist Matthias Mehl of the University of Arizona, wrote.

Mehl and colleagues had been struck by widespread assertions that women talk more each day than men, and have a bigger vocabulary. "The 20,000-versus-7,000 word estimates appear to have achieved the status of a cultural myth," they wrote.

The rest of the report can be read on Reuters.

Table Talk

Even for an extrovert, the past few days have been a talk marathon. Since I am out of words, I will just post the proof.

On Saturday morning, I was able to meet many wonderful women in the single parents ministry at Covenant Life Church, where I was asked to speak briefly following their Mother's Day tea. Then I jumped in my car and tooled down to Capitol Hill for dinner at the home of Claire Low, where I enjoyed meeting some ladies from Capitol Hill Baptist Church. It amazes me how fellowship in Christ makes quick friends out of relative strangers. Thanks, Claire!

On Monday, I flew to Little Rock where I joined Kim Wagner and Holly Elliff with host Nancy Leigh DeMoss for several recordings of Tabletalk commentary for the Revive Our Hearts radio show. That evening, Nancy and I recorded another series of Q&A programs on the topic of singleness with about 40 single women of various ages and backgrounds. (These programs won't air until sometime in 2008.) After about six hours of recording, I'm not sure I was coherent any longer. My thanks in advance to the wonderful production staff of ROH for the editing load I just handed them!

(Pictured above from left: Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Kim Wagner, Holly Elliff and me in the FamilyLife Ministries studio.)

Tuesday Trivia

Lots of little tidbits for the blog today...too busy to write much in depth.

First, when I was in El Paso, I learned about an Alcantar family tradition. When the meal is done, Joe Alcantar, family patriarch, brings out the trash can and all those who wish to eat dessert must play for calories. Your dinner napkin must be tossed 20 feet into the can to earn your sweets. But Joe is merciful, allowing the sports-challenged to throw several times until the basket is made. (For the purposes of disclosure, it took me three tries.) I might have a new dinner party trick now.

Speaking of dessert, I have some good news about chocolate. Not milk chocolate, mind you, but dark chocolate. It's not just a treat, it's good for your health. According to an article in The New York Times, "eating dark chocolate may be almost as effective at lowering blood pressure as taking the most common antihypertensive drugs." Whoohooo....I can feel the results already.

Second, I had the privilege of speaking at the women's spring dinner event at Living Faith Church in Franklin, WV, this weekend. My message, titled "The Walk of Faith," was about the portraits of feminine faith we find in Scripture. It was humbling to speak to women who have shown much greater faith than I have as they have endured a number of significant trials. In these two recent trips to El Paso and Franklin, I was able to meet church members that we have been praying for in our staff meetings--and what a joy it was to see how well they have been doing after severe accidents. We often describe Sovereign Grace Ministries as serving a family of churches, and it certainly does feel like family when you get to meet someone you've been praying for!

Finally, the latest Together for the Gospel video is now available to view online. It was taped last December in the "bat cave of evangelicalism"--an hour of banter, commentary on the '06 event, and hopes for the '08 event. Plus, Mark Dever spontaneously introduces a new word to the English vocabulary. You don't want to miss it! The audience for this video is other pastors, but you don't have to be a pastor to enjoy the wit of the T4G founders.