Introduction This post is part 1 in a 7 part series of reflections as I turn 25 years old. I’m convinced that to be human is to struggle and to struggle with God. This series serves to honor the difficult questions. I don’t know if everyone has questions their mind continually turns over while theyContinue reading “Diffuculty of Hell & Ease of the Spiel”
Author Archives: javenbear
In the Dirt With the Angel: 7 Reflections on turning 25.
In Genesis 32, Jacob has just left his uncle Laban’s house where tensions were very high. He heads out and goes to meet his brother, Esau, who may very well kill him and take everything he owns. After sending gifts as well as all his family, servants, and possessions to meet Esau across the river,Continue reading “In the Dirt With the Angel: 7 Reflections on turning 25.”
After the Jester: 5 Ideas for Women & Men in Church
In February, I published a comic strip. It was a satire project – this strip is what I imagine a conversation around gender roles might look like if the ideas we hold internally spoke to each other openly. In this piece I would like to look for answers to two questions: 1. Why write aContinue reading “After the Jester: 5 Ideas for Women & Men in Church”
The Summer Trip
May 16th was our two year anniversary! We planned to take a road trip to southern California and sleep in our car for about four days. In the weeks leading up to leaving, we found and ordered what we thought we’d need (car tent, power supply, air mattress, cooler, gas stove, etc.) and then tookContinue reading “The Summer Trip”
Feb 28
In the last strip on the month we see Jimothy touting an old argument which holds that since men were created first, they are more important than women. Beth shows how the logic doesn’t really hold up if you carry it through the rest of the creation narrative. The creation narrative of Genesis 1 hasContinue reading “Feb 28”
Feb 27
When we don’t even consider hiring men for positions we’d prefer to fill with women because a man would find it demeaning, all we have to do is take a small step back to see how low of a view of women we have. Jimothy’s argument here is that a man would be insulted byContinue reading “Feb 27”
Feb 26
So much of the reality we live in is culturally constructed. Simply, things are the way they are because we have decided to make them so. In Communication as Culture, James Carey says it this way. “Reality is not given, not humanly existent, independent of language and toward which language stands as a pale refraction.Continue reading “Feb 26”
Feb 25
“The best marketing scheme in history is men successfully getting away with calling women the “more emotional gender” … because they’ve successfully rebranded anger as not an emotion” – Claire Willett Jimothy here reiterates the old argument some folks like to level – women are too emotional to be trusted with leadership. I, like dearContinue reading “Feb 25”
Feb 24
While single men are empowered and encouraged to build a career or get an education or start a business or get a job and move up the chain, single women are stuck in limbo. The ultimate (even if unspoken) goal is marriage, but while they wait for a man to approach them, they have toContinue reading “Feb 24”
Feb 23
Jimothy’s answer suggests a sharp divide between the culture and way of living inside the church and out there in the world. I think we do well to seriously consider the implications of such an understanding of the kingdom of God. If the kingdom and its ways are only applicable inside the walls of theContinue reading “Feb 23”
javen.bear. 