One evening, while studying her Bible, the Holy Spirit took author Linda Evans in the Spirit to the edge of a vast field of wheat. It was night, yet a bright light shone on the field lighting every blade of golden bearded wheat. The wheat made a soft rustling sound as it swayed in the breeze. It looked like soft, golden, rolling waves of the sea. As Linda watched, her heart pounding, a fine mist resembling a black fog came rolling in and hovered over the field in mid air like a blanket. The fog was thick and hovered about a foot over the top of the field. In the distance, sitting in the middle of the field, was a storage shack, aged and nearly falling down. Suddenly, out of the darkness of the left of heaven came a huge flash of light, accompanied by the terrifying sound of crackling lightening so loud it sounded like an electrical stage production backed up with the roar of thunder. The lightening struck the shack, and the shack began to burn. As the flames roared and crackled, Linda was speechless. She didn't know where she was and didn't know what was happening. Then something in the right of the heavens caught her attention ...
In Pure, Linda Kay Klein uses a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir to take us “inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can” (Gloria Steinem) and reveals the devastating effects evangelical Christianity’s views on female sexuality has had on a generation of young women. In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls—resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—and trapped them in a cycle of shame. This is the sex education Linda Kay Klein grew up with. Fearing being marked a Jezebel, Klein broke up with her high school boyfriend because she thought God told her to and took pregnancy tests despite being a virgin, terrified that any sexual activity would be punished with an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. When the youth pastor of her church was convicted of sexual enticement of a twelve-year-old girl, Klein began to question purity-based sexual ethics. She contacted young women she knew, asking if they were coping with the same shame-induced issues she was. These intimate conversations developed into a twelve-year quest that took her across the country and into the lives of women raised in similar religious communities—a journey that facilitated her own healing and led her to churches that are seeking a new way to reconcile sexuality and spirituality. Pure is “a revelation... Part memoir and part journalism, Pure is a horrendous, granular, relentless, emotionally true account" (The Cut) of society’s larger subjugation of women and the role the purity industry played in maintaining it. Offering a prevailing message of resounding hope and encouragement, “Pure emboldens us to escape toxic misogyny and experience a fresh breath of freedom” (Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising).
From an early age, author Linda Aurelia B. Blackmon learned that all things are possible when God is involved. In A Way That’s Mighty Sweet, she shares a memoir of a life spent searching for God, experiencing his protection, and teaching the next generation. Blackmon describes the journey of motherhood that began with the Christian faith of her parents. Growing up, she clung tightly to the security of her parents’ affection and scruples. When she encountered God Almighty for herself, her focus changed from the profound loss of her parents in North Carolina to the spiritual riches of a life in Connecticut. Blackmon narrates the story of her life’s journey—a heartfelt array of enduring tragedy and experiencing love, especially as she developed into her current role as mother, wife, and beloved daughter of God.
Why God? Everyone that I saw asked the same questions: Why God? Why has this happened to us? I wondered if we had done something really bad to bring David’s death upon us. I had always prayed to God for him to protect Dan and our children. I asked God to put a protective shield around them everywhere they went and to bring them back safely to me. I believed with all my heart that God would answer my prayers. Three months before David’s accident, I was sitting in the den talking with one of my son-in-laws about what I believed. He said “Linda, death is real…we humans don’t have any control over it.” David was sitting in a recliner listening to us and he said, “Mama, he’s right; we don’t ever know.” There was a big game going on in Heaven in honor of Christ’s birthday. They needed a catcher, so I got the Call, “Come on son, come play in our Game today!” My dear family and friends remembered when those tears start to fill your eyes; just go outside and look up towards the stars for I will be playing on the “Diamond in the sky!”
A woman is incomplete without a man, motherhood is a woman’s destiny, and a woman’s place is in the home. These conservative political themes are woven throughout teen romance fiction’s sagas of hearts and flowers. Using the theory and interpretive methods of feminism and cultural studies, Christian-Smith explores the contradictory role that popular culture plays in constructing gender, class, race, age and sexual meanings. Originally published in 1990, Becoming a Woman through Romance combines close textual analyses of thirty-four teen romance novels (written in the United States from 1942-1982) with a school study in three midwestern American schools. Christian-Smith situates teen romance fiction within the rapidly changing publishing industry and the important political and economic changes in the United States surrounding the rise of the New Right. By analysing the structure of the novels in terms of the themes of romance, sexuality and beautification, and the Good/Bad and Strong/Weak dichotomies, she demonstrates how each has shaped the novels’ versions of femininity over forty years. She also shows that although romance fiction is presented as a universal model, it is actually an expression of white middle class gender ideology and tension within this class. This high readable, comprehensive and coherent work was the first to combine in one volume three vital areas of cultural studies research: the political economy of publishing, textual analysis, and a study of readers. The first full-scale study of teen romance fiction, Becoming a Woman through Romance establishes the importance of the study of popular culture forms found in school for understanding the process of school materials in identity formation.
In the 1990s the debate over what history, and more importantly whose history, should be taught in American schools resonated through the halls of Congress, the national press, and the nation's schools. Politicians such as Lynne Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and Senator Slade Gorton, and pundits such as Rush Limbaugh, John Leo, and Charles Krauthammer fiercely denounced the findings of the National Standards for History which, subsequently, became a major battleground in the nation's ongoing struggle to define its historical identity. To help us understand what happened, Linda Symcox traces the genealogy of the National History Standards Project from its origins as a neo-conservative reform movement to the drafting of the Standards, through the 18 months of controversy and the debate that ensued, and the aftermath. Broad in scope, this case study includes debates on social history, world history, multiculturalism, established canons, national identity, cultural history, and "liberal education." Symcox brilliantly illuminates the larger issue of how educational policy is made and contested in the United States, revealing how a debate about our children's education actually became a struggle between competing political forces.
Parents and community activists around the country complain that the education system is failing our children. They point to students' failure to master basic skills, even as standardized testing is widely employed in efforts to improve the educational system. Contradictions of Reform is a provocative look into the reality, for students as well as teachers, of standardized testing. A detailed account of how student improvement and teacher effectiveness are evaluated, Contradictions of Reform argues compellingly that the preparation of students for standardized tests engenders teaching methods that vastly compromise the quality of education.
The first African-American and first female Mayor of Pennsylvania's capital city now tells her story. Linda Thompson, who rose through the ranks to defeat a 7-term mayor, called "mayor for life," describes her struggles and challenges together with her successes and accomplishments. She wraps all of her experiences around her faith in Jesus Christ which has been the guiding force in her life. The Chief Editor is Linda Thompson's story "from Hadassah to Esther," her Biblical model. It's a story of triumph and turmoil. It's filled with messages about the power of God's love and the plan he has for each of us. For a "look behind the curtain" of big-city politics and how faith impacts the process. "The Chief Editor" is a must read.
Do you know that God longs to communicate with you? In spending time in prayer, communing with Him, you will discover that He wants to reveal His heart of love to you. He will guide you and give you direction for your life. As you read these inspired words from God, be filled with His love and peace, and know God in a more intimate way.
This book is written to inspire people to see that they can become the person God wants them to be through the working of the precious Holy Spirit. Not only do we believe in God, but He believes in us. Jesus' work on the cross made the change in our lives possible. No matter what circumstances you find yourself in, Jesus can help you. Life is a choice. I pray you'll choose Jesus and you too will find sunshine after rain.
Everyday Knowledge and Uncommon Truths: Women of the Academy is a thirteen chapter volume which draws on the life experience and varied backgrounds of academic women from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The book addresses a variety of issues pertaining to women’s home lives, education, teaching, research, writing, and activism. To provide diverse perspectives on women’s experiences of being and knowing in and outside the academy, contributors draw on a range of critical approaches derived from feminism, poststructuralism, postmodernism, critical education theory, discourse theory and analysis, narrative inquiry and life histories. Lately, there has been considerable interest by women in the academy in a discernment process involving an examination of the historically, politically and culturally situated nature of their knowledge of the world, their work in the academy and other activities in which they engage. These examinations, especially in the form of narrative inquiry, life histories and deconstructive language practices such as discourse analysis, figure prominently in breaking silences and giving voice to the many tensions that women experience in the academic workplace and other settings.
My Sancutary reveals a spiritual walk undertaken by Linda S. Beck as she confronted multiple illnesses and the loss of her husband of twenty-seven years as well as the haven she found in her religious beliefs and sharing of faith with others.
This truly monumental work maps the literature of women's studies, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. This definitive guide to the literature of women's studies is a must-purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs, and it is a useful addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field. A team of subject specialists has taken on the immense task of documenting publications in the area of women's studies in the last decades of the 20th century. The result is this truly monumental work, which maps the field, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Most reviews cite and describe similar and contrasting titles, substantially extending the coverage. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. Taking up where the previous volume by Loeb, Searing, and Stineman left off, this is the definitive guide to the literature of women's studies. It is a must purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs; and a welcome addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field.
This compelling Christian novel exploring God's love could have interesting effects on you. Your most ardent concerns may simply disappear. If you dare to live happily ever after, this book will lead you to the fulfilling life love offers.
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