(Maybe) God Wants My Voice
Rising Voice Staff
by Cortland Bobczynski
My legs are trembling underneath me. My throat is dry and it’s hard to swallow. I feel a little nauseated and my head is spinning. I am all too familiar with this sensation: I’m about to speak in front of a group of people. The thoughts in my head are being formulated like a well-built machine, all the cogs coming together and creating all sorts of logical and extraordinary points – so why is it so hard to articulate my thoughts? As soon as I open my mouth, the words stick in the back of my throat like the jumbled bag of wooden letters in the game, Scrabble. I watch as arguments glide out of others’ mouths like a well-made Lamborghini emerging out of the garage. “Why couldn’t that me?” I pray silently, “Why couldn’t I speak more like them?” Read More »
Endangered Gender?
Rising Voice Staff
by Cortland Bobczynski
Class was right about to be let out; there were seconds left before my classmates and I could leave this dreary classroom. Our professor wrapped up his lesson and then announced an extra credit opportunity. My ears perked up. Any opportunity to boost my grade in this class got me excited. He told us that if we attended the Endangered Gender Symposium over the weekend we could have 5 extra credit points. I wasn’t quite sure what endangered gender meant, but I went anyway in order to boost my grade. I figured I could get some homework done while the symposium speakers were lecturing; however, when the lectures began, I found myself on the edge of my seat hanging onto every word. Read More »
Infertility Then and Now: Part 2
Rising Voice Staff
by Jenny Abel
Times have changed in many ways with respect to infertility. The biblical women mentioned in Part 1 can seem a far and distant cry from modern-day women. Not only are we “empowered” and “liberated” to be educated and choose a career of just about any type, we have (or at least think we have) more control over decisions about children. Innumerable medical technologies and medicines are at our disposal so we can try to achieve the ends we desire—when we desire them.
But are we better off for it? In some ways, possibly, but overall, I’m not so sure. Read More »
Infertility Then and Now: Part 1
Rising Voice Staff
by Jenny Abel
Another Mother’s Day come and gone. [Exhale.]
For the past several years, I’ve come to anticipate the second Sunday in May with a similar kind of dread to how singles probably cringe upon seeing February 14 approach on their calendars. It’s yet another reminder of what’s missing in my life—as though I needed reminders. To borrow from Charlie Brown: “I know I’m not a mother. Why do we have to have a holiday to emphasize it?”
Infertility, barrenness, childlessness—whatever you call it, it’s one of the worst trials a woman can go through. While the Bible labels singleness as one possible life calling from God, never do the Scriptures characterize barrenness as a blessing. A test of faith that God sometimes allows, and can use to grow us in our faith, most definitely. But in general, bearing and rearing children is characterized as a blessing—and as one of the original, central purposes of creation and marriage, going all the way back to Adam and Eve.
For those unable to have children, for whatever reasons, temporarily or for their entire lives, the command, “Be fruitful and multiply” can seem like an impossible—even mocking—mandate. Read More »
Abortion’s True Colors
Rising Voice Staff
by Jenny Abel
Outrageous and sickening. That was my initial reaction to hearing the charges against abortion “doctor” Kermit Gosnell.
Of course, I might not have heard about these charges at all if it weren’t for an op-ed column by Kirsten Powers in USA Today on April 11. It goes to show what the courageous voice of a single citizen can accomplish even in a society where the mass media’s control of the message often feels unlimited and beyond our influence.
The subtitle of Powers’ article, “We’ve forgotten what belongs on Page One,” speaks to the fact that the mainstream media largely ignored the case. Those that did run stories buried them in the back of their news sections. It certainly didn’t receive the kind of outrage and attention that the Trayvon Martin, Casey Anthony, and other high-profile murder/accidental death cases have received. Now, several of the media outlets have repented (albeit not without first making excuses, like, “Every story we cover could warrant more [coverage]”) and sent reporters to cover the case. Now, at least, they are “monitoring” the trial. Read More »
Persecution Card
Rising Voice Staff
by Matt Mellema
My law school’s Christian fellowship has a weekly Bible study. This semester, we’ve been studying the book of Daniel—particularly the way Daniel deals with persecution.
When Babylon conquered Israel, they took its best and brightest young men to learn in the Babylonian court. Daniel was one of them. Trouble arose, however, when he learned that the royal guard was forcing him to eat food that was ceremonially unclean. Daniel, it seemed, was being persecuted for his faith.
Certain segments of Christians have a knee-jerk tendency to play the persecution card. An election doesn’t go your way? Persecution. Your professor gives your midterm a D? Persecution. The restaurant burns your panini? Persecution. Read More »
How I Stopped Hating “Multiculturalism”
Rising Voice Staff
by Jenny Abel
The word “diversity” makes me cringe. I tired of America’s obsession with it years ago. As a result, although I certainly do not avoid people from other cultures, I’ve never made a conscious effort to invite “multiculturalism” into my life (except, perhaps, when it comes to food—but that’s purely selfish!).
Being located directly adjacent to a major university, however, the church I attend has a major outreach ministry to college students—specifically international students—and to the local Chinese population (which is quite large for our size of city). We even have a Mandarin Chinese Sunday School class.
When I learned about all these offerings upon moving here a couple years ago, I didn’t give it much thought—except to think, half sarcastically, “How nice—my church is ‘diverse!’”
But then I felt the tug of the Holy Spirit last fall and, slowly, over the past few months, my cynicism has begun to melt away. In September, I read of an urgent need for Bible study facilitators for local Chinese students interested in studying the Bible. These individuals indicated their interest at various events hosted by International Students Inc.—and they were signing up faster and in greater numbers than the staff and existing facilitators could handle. So they recruited local churchgoers to get trained to help. Read More »
Every Single Issue
Rising Voice Staff
by Ashley Brannon
I did not intend to still be single. I have read my share of articles on singleness from Christian sites, gave God the pen to write my love story, and even considered kissing dating goodbye. Alas, I am in my late twenties and Prince Charming has not rode in to save the day (probably not the best way to view marriage). However, my singleness is not the main point of concern. It will happen in the Lord’s timing. Perhaps the Lord has allowed this season of my life because it has opened my eyes to many of the issues that are in the news today from a different perspective: a single’s perspective.
Everything from filing taxes to funeral arrangements has a different process depending on someone’s marital status. Issues that are popular in the news carry a different weight for a single person than they would for a married person. Whereas we may not always have the status of “single” attached to us, we are seeing affects of lawmakers’ decisions that will affect single adults Read More »
Laughing and Pointing
Rising Voice Staff
by Matt Mellema
A couple years ago, I went to one of those Obamacare “Town Hall” meetings. I was too late to get a seat in the main room, so I got crammed in an overflow room between rabid groups of Democrats and Republicans. I was stuck on the fringe of politics, both literally and figuratively.
Because we couldn’t hear the actual debate, the Republicans and Democrats competed in a strange game instead. The Democrats started a healthcare chant, the Republicans shouted them down, a few crazy Democrats got enraged and roared incoherent babble, and the Republicans videotaped them. The game ended with the sides switching roles, and finally posting their videos on YouTube to show what the opposition is “really like.” Grassroots democracy in action.
This strategy of bolstering your own side by laughing and pointing at a few crazy people on the other side is rampant. There are two major varieties of laughing and pointing. The first is turning an incendiary statement from a hated talking head into an indignant headline. This gives us gems like “You Won’t Believe What Idiotic Thing Rush Limbaugh Said Now,” and “Bill Maher Reaches New Low with Latest Rant.” Read More »
Same-sex Marriage: Contending in the Public Square (Part 4)
Rising Voice Staff
Part 4
by Jenny Abel
Discussing and contending for traditional marriage within the church is one thing, but contending for it in the public square can be quite a different matter altogether. For the purpose of this post, I’m focusing primarily on the issue of the legal definition of marriage, although there are a host of related issues of which to be aware—such as how marriage (and homosexuality) are handled in school classrooms and curricula, and whether sexual orientation should be a protected “class” under hiring laws (in Virginia, our legislature just defeated a bill to this effect).
In Part 2, I laid out a few questions at the heart of this civil debate. Lengthy articles and whole books have been written on those questions—the full explanations of which are beyond the scope of this blog. For helpful overviews, check out this brief video, this article, and also this resource. To dig deeper, check out the new book by Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert P. George, What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense; even this review of the book is enlightening on its own. And if you are looking for more resources, here are many more. For those short on time, I’ve included at the bottom of this post a few brief responses to some of the most common challenges to one-man/one-woman marriage. Read More »
