The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling: A Deep Dive into Recent Western History
The centre of The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling is the controversy of J. K. Rowling’s opposition to various forms of the trans-rights movements. But it goes far beyond that.
The centre of The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling is the controversy of J. K. Rowling’s opposition to various forms of the trans-rights movements. But it goes far beyond that.
The New York Times magazine labelled 2015 as “the year we obsessed about identity”,[1] and it’s an obsession that isn’t finished yet. Answers to questions of personal identity—‘Who am I’ and ‘What do I identify as’—are now shaping public discourse, and increasingly the answers are expressed in labels. I even discovered recently you can now ‘identify’ as vegan! And one of the labels people are obsessing over is whether or not to be a feminist. Many Christian women (and men) are wrestling with the same questions. Are we feminists? Can we be? Do we need to be? Answering this question...
Joy Arundell, student worker, pastor’s wife, and mum, reflects on what Genesis has to tell us about about the equality and order built into our sexual natures. When we want to explore what God’s Word teaches about men and women, we usually dive straight into the New Testament. We often begin with Paul’s teaching on how men and women relate in family life and church life. Or we might look at the early Church and consider how men and women worked in ministry partnerships as the church grew. Or we might even look at the life of Jesus and see...
Please note that this is a (very) secular novel which contains some explicit and potentially upsetting material. It is discussed here, not so much for the purpose of recommendation, but as a useful representative of one important contemporary viewpoint. In Naomi Alderman’s speculative fiction novel The Power women have achieved dominance. It’s a feminist’s dream—and nightmare. With the sudden emergence of a latent ability in women that allows them to generate and deliver shocks like electric eels, women suddenly find that they are able to outclass men in physical contests. As the power spreads, women begin to grow in self-confidence and men...
For the sake of full disclosure, I should be up front in saying that I am writing this piece as an ordained Anglican minister who currently attends an evangelical Uniting Church, and who teaches in a non-denominational theological college. In July, the Uniting Church in Australia held its triennial general assembly; its once-in-three-years parliament. Although there were many matters discussed and decided upon, the most significant and controversial was a change to the denomination’s marriage ordinance. The proposal was to change the wording such that marriage was no longer between ‘a man and a woman’ but between ‘two people’. Obviously,...