Brainquake rather than Boobquake?

Brainquake is a Facebook call for Islamic women to use a demonstration of their intellectual firepower to fight the oppression visited upon them by Iranian clerics.

Brainquake creators Negar Mottahedeh and Golbarg Bashi wrote:

Let’s create a “Brainquake” and show off our resumes, CVs, honors, prizes, accomplishments (photo evidence) because the Hojatoleslam and the Islamic Republic of Iran are afraid of women’s abilities to push for change, to thrive despite gender apartheid (Did you know that over 64% of students studying at universities in Iran are women?) Let’s honor the accomplishments of Iranian women by showing off our abilities, our creativity, our ingenuity, and our smarts on our blogs, on Wikipedia, on Twitter, on Youtube, on Flickr and all over Facebook. Remember to use hashtag #brainquake on Twitter.

They were unimpressed by the satiric efforts of Jen McCreight's Boobquake to counter the supernatural thinking of Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, who said last week:

Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes

Those following McCreight's call today are "testing" cleric's assertion by dressing less modestly than usual. Satiric and scientifically slightly silly, Boobquake has inescapable sexuality implications. As Mottahedeh and Bashi argue:

Everyday women and young girls are forced to “show off cleavage” and more in order simply to be heard, to be seen, or to advance professionally. The web is already filled with images of naked women; the porn industry thrives online and many young girls are already vulnerable to predatory abuse. Violence against women and girls has a direct correlation to the sexualisation of women and girls. The extent of their sexualisation is evident in the hundreds of replies that pour into the “Boobquake” Facebook page where women write, apologetically: "I don’t have boobs, not fair" or "Hey, I only have a C cup… ” and “what about those of us who no longer have a cleavage? they sag too low.”

World-wide, the sexualisation of women and younger girls, as young as pre-schoolers is a genuine problem and as mothers, feminists, and young women ourselves we believe that it is time to move away from this “bare it all” mentality.

You may follow the Brainquake at @negarpontifiles, and you may join it by addressing a tweet to that account.

Prayers for 'spiritually gifted' Southern Baptist women

On behalf of gifted Southern Baptist women:

www.bWebaptist.com asks Southern Baptists to:

1. Pray for women pastors and for women who are being called into ministry.
2. Pray for a softening of the heart of the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention toward women in the United States.
3. Start an email cell group which would commit to pray and to enlist others.

Unusual (in our experience the email cells are) and sound strategy.

Rick Warren: domestic violence != divorce

Right Wing Watch is being a little unfair to Rick Warren.

Their criticism is based on an Associated Baptist Press story which says:

In audio clips on his Saddleback Church website, the Purpose Driven Life author says the Bible condones divorce for only two reasons -- adultery and abandonment.

"I wish there were a third in Scripture, having been involved as a pastor with situations of abuse," Warren said. "There is something in me that wishes there were a Bible verse that says, 'If they abuse you in this-and-such kind of way, then you have a right to leave them.'"

That means in essence that Warren runs a doctrinaire conservative Southern Baptist church (the woods are full of them around here). And he's almost inevitably the kind of pastor Mary Gruben wrote about in the Abilene, Texas, newspaper:

I was married to a violent and abusive man. When I talked to my pastor about the physical abuse, he asked me if I was "willing to give my life for my husband." When I could no longer follow that kind of warped thinking, I got a divorce. I began to realize that the God I know and serve loved my children and me more than that. After the divorce, I was told I should have tried harder and prayed harder.

She's an inerrantist, according to well-known, Oklahoma Southern Baptist pastor Wade Burleson, and nonetheless goes on to say:

Our Southern Baptist system sets women and children up to be abused. The "prominent" Southern Baptist thinkers have no idea the jeopardy their view places women and children in. They have given husbands carte blanche to do what they want to. It also gives the impression that the men are perfect and the women are flawed. It is a closed system when it comes to the woman's place at home and in ministry.

Her view is the exception among Southern Baptists, as she makes clear.

Whereas Saddleback Church pastor Warren's is commonplace in his denomination.

So let's be fair.

Gruben is right -- it's a doctrine which puts women and children in danger. And should in the name of simple humanity be abandoned.

But not a view about which to affect outraged surprise when Warren's church uses Web-delivered audio files to teach it.