Comments on: Overcoming the Male-Dominated Culture of UBFriends http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/ for friends of University Bible Fellowship Wed, 21 Oct 2015 04:34:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.1 By: Henoch http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-780 Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:29:51 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-780 Welcome Sua! i’m so pleased to read your comment here. Thanks also for having the courage as a German teenaged girl to speak up here and to join the discussion. Once more, welcome! :)

]]> By: Sua http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-779 Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:21:37 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-779 I also don’t think there’s any ‘problem’ with this site. =)  

There are  4 reasons I could think of why women are not that assiduously writing:

First, as Christy already mentioned most women (or  young students  – like me) don’t have the  time to blog something. They are too busy with either caring for their families or  inviting and doing biblestudy with students (while students  have to study  all day of course :) ).

Second,  I think it’s just kind of traditional in UBF that males play the more ‘dominate’ role. On my opinion there are many Korean influences included. According to experience I suggest women generally are more incommunicative and  prefer just  listening, reading and learning.

Third, similarly there could be a problem of communication. Many female missionaries I know can’t speak English very well although they understand it quite well.  Anyway there are certain inhibitions  on writing long essays  – particularly about difficult theological questions.  (What doesn’t mean women are less intelligent or not able to do so. Personally for me this has been a little problem and the reason why I didn’t write anything in here til now.)

Fourth, there also might be few female members on UBFriends because it isn’t known by  women at all. E.g. I myself got to know about it when I started  having more mail-contact with Henoch to discuss about theological questions, problems or criticpoints in UBF itself or themes like ‘Christianity and Science?’ When my sisters saw this site  the first time they were very surprised but still pleased about this opportunity to discuss Christian questions.  Unlike men women don’t have  many connections to other Christians who like to discuss about things like how to improve UBF practices, habits and rituals.

Nevertheless I’m very glad  I’ve been  directed to this site.  I’m enjoying reading  all these articles, comments, discussions etc. And  I thank God He’s using all of you this preciously  by helping each other understanding  His word as well as  increasing our unity in Christ.

]]> By: John Y http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-778 Sat, 15 Jan 2011 19:06:13 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-778 My wife would probably agree with that. She’s too busy toiling so I’m posting for her. :)

]]> By: Christy Toh http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-777 Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:58:16 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-777 Most women I know don’t have the shall I say ‘luxury’ of the time to  invest to blog, twitter, facebook etc since we tend to live overly fulfilling lives caring for others.   Perhaps the reason John Pipers wife began to blog two years ago instead of 10 years ago is because her daily routine has settled and she simply has more time to reflect, connect etc.   I often wonder what Jonathon Edwards wife or Martin Luthers wife was doing while they were toiling away writing essay after essay.

]]> By: Liz Lincoln http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-776 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:13:30 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-776 We may not be blogging, but I for one am faithfully reading ( and enjoying)!

]]> By: Ben Toh http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-775 Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:48:01 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-775 Of the top 140 church blog sites, all but 3 have a woman’s name affliated with that blog: http://churchrelevance.com/resources/top-church-blogs/

John Piper has been blogging for decades (and he added Facebook and Twitter), while his wife began her blog only 1 or 2 years ago.

My wife is very thoughtful and reflective and she writes down in detail from her daily reading of the Bible and books. I encouraged her to blog whatever she writes down, but to no avail.

I don’t think it’s UBFriends “problem” that we don’t have more women participating, but a universal condition, I think. But of course we still love our sisters dearly, even if they don’t blog as much as our brothers.

]]> By: Ben W http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-774 Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:55:50 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-774 I’m hesitant to even leave a comment right now, but Jennifer chimed in before me, so I’ll go ahead :) This issue is one of the reasons that I intentionally wrote a book review on Scripture as Communication written by theologian Jeannine Brown. In the theological world, she’s probably as anomalous as an atheist theologian.

I’ve found it interesting that our ministry implicitly (sometimes explicitly) affirms traditional gender roles in ministry, yet we have Sarah Barry as the ultimate paradigm buster.

]]> By: Jennifer Stumpf http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/05/overcoming-the-male-dominated-culture-of-ubfriends/#comment-773 Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:54:35 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=1452#comment-773 Hello Everybody,

Our chapter here in Canada studied the book of Hosea a while back and I guess it was since then my thoughts about God’s characteristics and esp Jesus has been kind of expanding. With Hosea it stood out that God relates to his people as a husband. Or how in Song of Songs, what a love poem! But I heard that this is often thought of as poetry between God and his people or Christ and his church. I wonder how many other people (both women and men too) think about Jesus as the alive returning bridegroom and yourself or ourselves as Jesus’ bride? For example I have some views of Jesus when I pray to or worship him and in the past that I would picture in my head, it was of (I guess from some paintings I’ve seen) of him as a shepherd or him praying in the garden, or him at the well in Samaria- something like that. Or maybe because the messages I’ve heard that have really moved my heart in UBF have been of Jesus as a good shepherd etc. But over December I started getting interested in Revelation 19, because of an essay my husband was writing on it. And this view of Jesus in this robe is really awesome, and I keep picturing it- even though I don’t think I fully get it. But that may be a tangent because that example is more of Jesus as a warrior, than as a bridegroom. Here is a wikipedia link that has some biblical references that may get some discussion going:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_of_Christ

In Christ,
Jennifer Stumpf

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