Yesterday, I blogged about T.F. Charlton's outstanding essay at Religion Dispatches re: abuse cases in the Sovereign Grace Ministries "family" of churches. Today, I want to draw readers' attention to Fred Clark's valuable commentary on Charlton's essay at his Slacktivist site.
Fred characterizes the essay as "the best one-stop summary I’ve seen of the slowly unfolding scandal involving Sovereign Grace Ministries." He notes,
Before this scandal began unfolding, SGM was considered one of the rock-star success stories of this patriarchal Reformed brand of white Christianity. Charlton does an excellent job summarizing the history of the scandal, and an even better job of showing how it is not an aberration from, but a consequence of, that very same patriarchal form of American evangelicalism.
I also commented yesterday on a new "conscience-protection" bill just filed by three GOP House members in the U.S. Congress, which continues to argue for a "Taco Bell" exemption for private employers discontent with the Affordable Care Act's provision of contraception in health insurance plans. Here's TheraP at her Heresy & Humor site commenting incisively about the inappropriate attempt of some employers to act in loco parentis for their employees, especially in the area of healthcare, and especially when said employees happen to be women:
But some employers, claiming consciences which speak for all, claiming a kind of infallibility, based (it would appear) on a claim to extreme holiness - now assert a right to a parental role with regard to their employees. With regard to their female employees. With regard to their family planning or their medical care. In effect they want to punish women for private decisions they make with their doctor, decisions which have nothing to do with the workplace.
To steal a line from Fred Clark's wonderful blog, Smart people saying smart things.
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