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So I don’t know if you all know who she is, but throughout the years and throughout my transition from woman of faith to the secular world, I’ve had this love hate relationship with some of what she’s had to say. Evans just got through spending a year “living biblically,” and I’m unsure if I want to read the book that ‘s a result of the project. One of the women from a small church group I used to attend told me about it and said, “K, I think your feminist ninja would come out if you read this.” She knows me well so I think I may skip it.
However, if any of you are fans of Evan’s blog, or not, I’m curious to hear your take on this. What I find to be quiet interesting and ridiculous is that a Christian bookstore won’t carry her book because it contains the word vagina. When exactly does religious censorship go to far?
Woman Lives Biblically: Feminist Calls Husband “Master”
A woman who decided to live “biblically” for one year and wrote a book about her findings is garnering heaps of praise and criticism for her decision.Rachel Held Evans, who describes herself as a feminist Christian, says her end goal had everything to do with being a woman, despite what her critics are saying.
Evans says she wanted “To call into question that there is a single blueprint of how to be a woman. There’s no single model in the Bible – as soon as you think you have found it a woman comes along and breaks it. Everyone picks and chooses. There are verses that say ‘submit to your husband’, but also those that say ‘submit to one another’. The more women know about the bible the more they can respond when people try to silence them.”
During what she calls “The Womanhood Project“, Evans made her own clothes, grew her hair out, lived outside her home in a tent when she was having her period, called her husband “Master”, and sat alone on the roof of her home as penance after deciding she had been gossiping or nagging, which comes from the Bible verse “it is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman”. In doing so, she hoped to gain a greater understanding of the Bible and a woman’s role according to it, which is sometimes presented as contradictory passages.
Unfortunately, because her book, “A Year Of Biblical Womanhood”, contains the word “vagina” it will not be carried by Christian bookstore chain Lifeway. When asked about it, Evans said, “I don’t know if they were more offended by my vagina or my brain. The only thing I know is that my editor said, ‘If you leave this word in, there’s a good chance LifeWay won’t carry it.’”
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This topic was modified 2 years ago by
David Hayward.
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This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by David Hayward.
I’ve not read Rachel’s book, but given her blogs and the excerpts that I’ve read, it might make you laugh. I think the overarching point that she tries to make is the hypocrisy with which some say they take the Bible literally, when in fact, none of us does. If we did, we’d be doing the things that Rachel experiments with during her year.
As to Lifeway, they’re a fairly conservative bookstore known for not carrying other titles that they find offensive. I think most recently they stopped carrying copies of the Blind Side possibly due to language.
Her blog is hilarious and I mostly love what she has to say. However on occasion I find that I don’t agree with her. Now this could have something to do with me no longer believing. I’m honest enough to admit that I’ve wondered in light of her views on some things, how she’s managed to maintain her faith. I’ve wondered that about a lot of less “conventional” Christian bloggers.
She’s definitely one of the good ones, but I don’t think I’d be able to tackle living biblically even tongue-in-cheek. It may have something to do with being raised in a church and family that had women’s roles. I wasn’t even allowed to whistle when I was a kid. It was the belief of my church that a whistling woman was like a crowing hen – an abomination to the Lord! I then also had my youth preacher uncle tell me for years that my sinful nature and inability to be a good Christian girl was the cause of him abusing me. That I was a kid was irrelevant. I actually came to the belief that I’d never be a good wife because it required virtue, something I no longer possessed because I was some kind of sexual sin magnet. Thankfully years of therapy got me past that, but I will admit that I have a few issues left with anything dealing with biblical women.
I hear ya’, ServantGirl. I heard the line from my mother about a whistling women growing up, but it was said more as an old wive’s tale and in the context of etiquette and ladylikeness; not associated with my faith.
I wouldn’t doubt that Rachel has had some wonderings about her faith, but I think that’s what some people find so refreshing about her writings. She questions things that others would either deny or dismiss as something not to be considered. I think some people have struggled with unbelief and it was that struggle that deepened their faith and for others, the struggle led them away from it. (No judgment meant by that statement, just describing how I think some people deal with unbelief). For me, I have a strong distaste for religiosity based on my most recent experience, but I still love God, the Bible and the Church, though I would really like to see some major reform.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by
pmpope68.
Hi Servantgirl. I am also on the fence about reading it. I used to LOVE her blog, but quite honestly, I no longer read it much. I think it is because I am tired of all of it. The evangelical stuff, arguing as to why I should have certain rights as a woman, etc. I am just experiencing so much apathy. I start to read things and usually don’t finish on a lot of blogs I used to love. I am reduced down to David’s stuff and Jim Palmer. I get what she is doing, I admire her for her voice, but I just don’t give a shit enough about the whole system to try to change it anymore. The church has been f-ed up for thousands of years.
Pam I think that’s what it is with me too. I’m through beating my head against walls trying to change things that have been so royally messed up for years. So now I’m leaving people like Evans behind and moving forward. As long as we have prominent evangelical leaders continuing to dictate the roles of women and society in general, I just feel that voices like Evans’ don’t really do much to help.
Rachel and I have worked together in the past… me promoting her book and her promoting my cartoons. We are aware of each other. Deep down I think she is trying hard to stay in the evangelical world but I can’t see how long that will last. If she leaves it that would mean a huge loss of followers. Huge! I think she is treading a very difficult and tender line. I think about her a lot and hopes she fares well.
And Rachel isn’t the only one tackling these issues. There are many pastors and bloggers, both men and women alike, speaking and writing on these issues. But reform takes time and does not come easily. I wish those well who do venture into this work and pray they can stick with it. For me, I had to leave the church I was in after 12 years from just being emotionally wiped out, but I pray that one day I can find my way back into a body. Not sure where it will be or what it will look like, but I feel strongly on the issue and am just waiting for a sense of direction. In the meantime, I am enjoying this break and working on getting healed.
This entire thread makes me really happy. I follow Rachel. She makes me laugh. She says things that give me pause. Sometimes I don’t agree with her but for the most part I’m over here reading and thinking, “am I the only one over here who thinks like this?” And then I read all of your words.
and I know that I am not alone. Thank you all. Thank you.
AnonymousWell, full disclosure here: I’m on the launch team for her book. So I am completely biased and I admit it freely. I got a free copy of the book in exchange for writing reviews on all the major outlets, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. So with that said…
I loved it. I left conservative evangelical Christianity, but I didn’t leave my Christian faith. (Take that as you will. Sometimes, I worry that still being a Christian might be off-putting to those who no longer are.) Anyway, I loved the book. I didn’t agree with every conclusion, but I appreciated what she had to say. Through her writing, I found myself feeling much more generous to those with a more conservative perspective. I spent too long being angry with people for not doing what I considered coming to their senses. But I have to be honest with myself, there are people far more liberal than I am who think I’m behind the times, too.
Rachel never says in her book that the conclusions she has reached are the ones anyone else has to reach. I’m glad I had the chance to read it and follow her adventures. I can’t say whether this book will be meaningful to anyone who isn’t a Christian or isn’t religious of any sort. But I know it was for me.
I got to connect with Rachel and hear her speak several times about this project at the Wild Goose West Festival last month. Here is what I really appreciate about her. She isn’t afraid to ask questions, even ask them out loud! She isn’t afraid to speak her mind, even when it doesn’t match the Evangelical group-think. She is funnier than hell. She doesn’t come across as a polished speaker, just a real person who has something others might be interested in hearing.
I love the premise of the book, doing everything as biblical for a year, when the outcome is showing that there is no real definition of a ‘biblical woman.’ Her point becomes even bigger – when we use the bible as a manual for anything that it wasn’t intended for it becomes misleading. It isn’t a marriage manual. It isn’t a science book. Heck, I’m not even sure it is a good theology manual!
And having heard her speak about the book, I probably won’t read it now, though I will suggest it to others who could benefit with the message.
Anonymous@Chad, would love to hear about Wild Goose – another forum thread?
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