Art and Theology: The Marriage

This semester I'm teaching a class on the Role of Women in Ministry. We explore women's history, the hard-to-understand Bible verses about women, first-century culture, and other highly controversial subjects.

Every time I teach this class, I require my students to visit Dallas's Women's Museum. And then we discuss it.

During this year's discussion one student in particular shared about a powerful revelation he'd had via the art.

On the top floor of the museum was an gallery with all items priced. Sales benefited research for a women's disease--I think it was breast or ovarian cancer. At any rate, this student told about how one painting caught his eye. He said it was of an old, wrinkled woman. Her top was exposed, but according to him it was not at all sexual or provocative. She also had her arms up as if in celebration. And he marveled that this old, wrinkled woman stood celebrating the wonder of her body.

The student went on to say it made him realize for the first time how much women must feel pressure to be young and beautiful, and how much confidence it must take to overcome such thinking to see beauty in the majesty of the God-created human body, whether or not it looks like [insert name of movie start you consider gorgeous].

I loved the intersection of art and theology in that encounter.

Has art made you consider spiritual thoughts or illuminated some truth for you? Tell us about it by leaving a comment.

Men and Women as Co-Creators

My friends Sue, Kelley, and Henry have recently coauthored a new book that tackles an important subject. It's called Mixed Ministry: Working as Brothers and Sisters in an Oversexed Society. The title says it all. Whether co-writing or partnering to find creative solutions to social problems or running a drama ministry, women and men in Christ's Body need to think of and treat each other as siblings.

You can read an excerpt (pdf) by going here:

Mixed Ministry: Working as Brothers and Sisters in an Oversexed Society

Black History Month

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Black History Month.

So tell about an African American who has influenced you.

My pick is Sojourner Truth. I love her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech.

At the time people were saying God made women for protecting. That He made them weak. That He meant for them to be honored. Yet what they often really thought was that He made white women for such treatment. Consider Sojourner's words:

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

500 Years of Female Portraits

My Geek sent me this cool art video. It shows 500 years of female portraits in Western art. Watch the video while looking at the eyes or the mouth only and see how they change or stay similar over time. I was surprised by how many works I didn't recognize.

The Beauty and the Knight

I just started reading "Captivating" by John & Stasi Eldredge. It is the feminine companion to "Wild at Heart" which is about the true nature of men. I read "Wild at Heart" and knew that I would buy "Captivating" without skipping a beat. One benefit I have gained from the books is a better understanding of my husband.

I am an "A" type personality. I make lists and think it is a good day when I get things done. One of the "tasks" my husband often asks me to do is to "just be there". This has never made any sense to me. When he took over doing the bills, I asked how I could help out.

"Just sit here with me."

"What do you want me to do?", I'd ask.

"Nothing. Just be there.", a response that did not compute.

One of the things I learned from Eldredge is that men need a beauty to rescue. I am My Geeks beauty. (Everyday that we've been married, he has told me he loves me and that I'm beautiful. Everyday. (You have my persmission to swoon. Guys, you have no idea what this does for a woman.) Men also need a battle to fight. Unfortunately for my husband, there's no chance that he'll get to liberate Scotland or rescue me from a foreign governement so his battles are bills or unclogging dranes.

So I'm learning to be the beauty. The other day our bicycles needed a tune up. He pulled the bikes into the yard, uncoiled the hose and pulled out as many tools and chemicals as he hoped were necessary. I felt guilty that he would be doing this by himself.

I should contribute, "Do you want some help?", my toned down version of "give me something to do".

"No. But you could come sit outside so I can look at you." Swoon.

So as he enjoyed flexing his masculine muscles for the beauty, I enjoyed watching his battle with grease and gears. I was quite sad when he had finished.

Are you just a mother? Then what am I?

I started a new bible study Sunday night. It has an amazing turn out - over 30 women! I'm not really surprised. The topic is "Frazzled Female". To start our first meeting, we went around the circle and introduced ourselves.

"Hi. I'm Anna Bell and I have 2 children and 8 grandchildren." <warm applause and reverance>
"Well, I'm Marie and I have teenagers!" <laughter and smiling groans>
"I have a son and a husband. That's it. That's my life." <giggles and nodding heads>
"I'm Martha and I'm the mother of a newborn." <cheers and welcome to the club>

On and on it went. 30 women. And they all said the same thing. I'm a mother. At each introduction, the group would laugh, encourage, moan, reminisce. There were even two women selected to team teach because they represented different stages of experience in mothering.

I started to cry. I didn't want to introduce myself. I can't stand the blank stares. It's like I'm some unknown beast they aren't sure is safe.

<trying to be funny>"Hi. I'm Rhonda and I'm a geek and a sugar momma." <awkward silence>"I'm putting my husband through school." <acknowledged laughter>

Why was I so sad? It is not because I wish I were a mother. I am not a mother by choice. But it was because I was an outsider. They were all mothers and nothing else. I felt utterly alone.

I go to women's functions in hopes of meeting new people and maybe finding a new friend. But it's a real struggle because there are very few women who maintain any sort of adult identity outside of being a mother. And if "that's it", if that's their life, they don't have a need for a relationship with someone like me.

I think it's completely natural for people to group themselves according to interests or commonalities. Motherhood is a major grouping and it is vitally important that mothers have a support system. But I know these women have interests of their own that they seem to be denying. They are interested in art or books or movies or politics or writing or bicycling or some other adult thing.

I know a couple of mothers who have worked hard at keeping an adult identity. And they are better mothers, wives and friends for it. They are multifaceted - in full bloom. But they are RARE! It's hard to find women who have read something besides "Goodnight Moon" or seen something besides "Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed" or get their current events from someone besides Oprah.

I will never understand what it is like to be a mother. I admit that. But I also know that motherhood is not the definition of "woman".