Of course these approaches have received criticism from those who say the writers don’t get the difficulties of working-class women or betray the feminist cause by encouraging young women to give up the fight for equality in the workplace. But many readers are grateful for a genre that seeks to confront the difficulties of having children and careers without simply saying either “work harder” or “stop working.”
Yet this is precisely where such literature fails. It presents the problem as one that admits of solution primarily through political or social reform. But the problem Slaughter, Spar, and Sandberg describe is not at root sociopolitical. It is rather that the personal qualities required by professional work are directly opposed to the qualities that childrearing demands. They are fundamentally different existential orientations, and the conflict between them is permanent.
Why Can’t Pharaoh Stop?
Pharaoh, Heidegger and the Shutdown
Ross Douthat, the conservative columnist at the NY Times, author of Bad Religion, thinks the capitulation of the Republicans will be a teachable moment for them, and that the catastrophe that this has been for the GOP will better it moving forward.
I disagree. I’m more skeptical about our ability to learn.
I’m currently preaching my way through Exodus and I’m in the middle of the plagues.
When I started this journey I had to decide how many weeks to be in the plagues. Many preachers do one sermon for most of them, why go on week after week on blood, frogs, gnats, flies, boils, hail, etc.? I decided to do a few weeks in the plagues. I’m not disappointed I did.
The most interesting character in early Exodus is not really Moses, it’s Pharaoh. Once Moses stops trying to sandbag Yhwh and starts delivering the bad news the attention all goes to Pharaoh. Continue reading →