Hermenuetics

February 9, 2010

Botox: A Threat to Our National Security

How our cultural fear of aging and dying is giving some terrorists a financial boost.

Carolyn McCulley, guest blogger

One of my favorite Bible passages is from Psalm 34. Verses 4 and 5 read: "I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed" (ESV).

I have seen that kind of radiant beauty on those whose hearts are contented in God, who are eager to proclaim all of his blessings and mercies upon their lives. I firmly believe that is the most attractive beauty there is, because it edifies and builds up others. Yet I also know the strong pull of the cosmetic and cosmeceutical industries and the promises they make to stall or turn back the ravages of time. So I write this post with a bit of ambivalence, knowing the money I spend at various salons.

That said, I have never been Botoxed. My dermatologist did inform me a few years ago that it was time to start, because it would keep my fine lines from becoming deep wrinkles. I frowned (deepening those lines) and shook my head. There was no way I was going to stick a neurotoxin in my face, I announced. I was sure that in 20 years, we'd discover why that was a bad idea. She looked at me placidly and said, "I hope not, because I have a face full of it." Maybe she was looking at me in wide-eyed horror, but I couldn't tell.

Likely it won't take 20 years. We are now discovering a new problem associated with the Botox craze: an increased risk of terrorism. The Washington Post recently ran an article about how officials fear that the toxic ingredient in Botox could become a terrorist tool:

In early 2006, a mysterious cosmetics trader named Rakhman began showing up at salons in St. Petersburg, Russia, hawking a popular anti-aging drug at suspiciously low prices. He flashed a briefcase filled with vials and promised he could deliver more — "as many as you want," he told buyers — from a supplier somewhere in Chechnya.

Rakhman's "Botox" was found to be a potent clone of the real thing, but investigators soon turned to a far bigger worry: the prospect of an illegal factory in Chechnya churning out raw botulinum toxin, the key ingredient in the beauty drug and one of world's deadliest poisons. A speck of toxin smaller than a grain of sand can kill a 150-pound adult.

No Chechen factory has been found, but a search for the maker of the highly lethal toxin in Rakhman's vials continues across a widening swath of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. U.S. officials and security experts say they know the lab exists, and probably dozens of other such labs, judging from the surging black market for the drug.

Continue reading Botox: A Threat to Our National Security...

posted by Katelyn Beaty on  February 9, 2010 8:38AM | Comments | Trackbacks

February 5, 2010

Saving the Life of a Shaken Baby

Byron and Susan Mondoks' adoption of their granddaughter, abused by her birth father, unearths the meaning of love in action.

Christine A. Scheller

Justice is what love looks like in public, so says Princeton professor and pop philosopher Cornel West. When we think of justice though, we generally think of that which is found in courts or through political activism, or, failing these avenues of redress, what will be found at the judgment seat of Christ. But sometimes, justice is found in extraordinary acts of familial love.

Such is the case for Allie Rae Mondok, a little girl whose birth father shook her in January 2007 until her brain was irreversibly damaged. His one abusive act left Allie legally blind, paralyzed, comatose, and on the verge of death. But Paul Cote, then 22, quickly confessed to having abused his daughter several times a week during the few months that Allie and her then 19-year-old mother, Charity Mondok, lived with him and two other roommates in a San Francisco apartment. X-rays revealed old injuries including shoulder and rib fractures. Cote told Allie’s doctor that he would sometimes grab his 10-month-old daughter by the neck and choke her. He also force-fed her until she vomited. All of these things he did knowing that they would only make things worse, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

In his final act of violence against Allie, Cote shook her vigorously for what he said was 20 seconds and then he squeezed her hard, because she wouldn’t go to sleep. Finally, she went limp in her bed, and a roommate called 911.

When Allie finally emerged from her coma, it was not to life as any of the Mondoks had previously known it, but to a future that doctors described as incredibly grim. Charity relinquished her parental rights and later attempted suicide. Her parents, Bryon and Susan, began a year-long process of becoming adoptive parents to their granddaughter. In order to do this, they left their home in Florida (which was subsequently lost to foreclosure), along with Bryon’s job as a missions pastor, and their 18-year-old son, Aaron, who lived with friends until they returned.

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posted by Katelyn Beaty on  February 5, 2010 8:47AM | Comments (6) | Trackbacks

February 4, 2010

Is Self-Promotion Sinful?

A lesson in soul care from J. D. Salinger, who lived in seclusion for a half-century.

Marlena Graves, guest blogger

J. D. Salinger, best known for his teen-angst novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), died last week at the age of 91 after living as a recluse for 50 years on his 90-acre compound in Cornish, New Hampshire. His death leaves the literati frothing at the mouth as they wait to see whether he left behind a treasure trove of manuscripts. Although Salinger never published another novel, he earned recognition for the collection Nine Stories and two compilations, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. Shortly after publishing these, Salinger retired into a half-century of seclusion.

Though there were elements of Salinger's personal life that were reportedly unsavory, I believe we can learn from his efforts to spurn fame and self-promotion because they can lead to phoniness, something Salinger abhorred.

This time last year, through a series of events, I was encouraged to submit a manuscript for publication. The senior editor at the first publishing house said my writing was “like the best of the best” in my genre. That was a true confirmation of my calling. Here’s the rub: I didn’t make it past the marketing department. Although they esteemed my writing, I was a no name. They couldn’t take a risk on me, especially in hard economic times. I was dejected for a while, but, per the request of an editor at another publishing house, I sent it off. This time the senior editor told me that I was a good writer but that I “had to have an audience built up” before I wrote a book. In the publishing world, it’s called “having a platform.” Apparently my platform was not big enough.

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posted by Katelyn Beaty on  February 4, 2010 10:39AM | Comments (13) | Trackbacks

February 3, 2010

When to Leave if You Can't Cleave

Homebound adult children in Italy are called ‘big babies.’ But can staying at home be a mature choice?

Alicia Cohn

When is the right time to leave home? Italian government minister Renato Brunetta thinks it’s age 18, and recently suggested a new law to require it.

Brunetta’s proposal is a reaction to an Italian judge's decision that Giancarlo Casagrande resume paying a monthly allowance to his 32-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother and has been working on her graduate thesis for eight years. Her father stopped paying the allowance (a requirement of the parents’ divorce) three years ago without the courts’ permission.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports that in Italy, “48 percent of offspring between the ages of 18 and 39 [are] still living with their parents.” In Italian, this phenomenon is called the bamboccione, or “big baby” syndrome. Canadian columnist Mark Steyn points out in Macleans:

[M]ost developed nations have managed to defer adulthood and thus to disincentive parenthood — quite dramatically so, if the judgment against Signor Casagrande holds. It’s no coincidence that the countries most prone to bamboccioni and parasite singles are the world’s oldest and fastest aging, with the lowest fertility rate: Japan, Germany and Italy are already in net population decline.

I wrote recently about modern China, where very different social pressures have also created a problem of demographics and economic peril. But I don’t think it’s fair to conclude that living at home is symptomatic of delayed adulthood. No, the real problem is not grown-up children living at home, but their using it to shirk responsibility and hard work.

Many of my childhood friends were raised with inherent assumptions about “leaving the nest.” However, most of them were also female, and whether unspoken or understood, most expected that by the time they reached 18 — or about 21, if they went to college — they would find someone to marry. Leaving home would then be the natural next step. Leaving home in order to cleave to a mate would provide its own compensation, in other words.

Continue reading When to Leave if You Can't Cleave...

posted by Laura Leonard on  February 3, 2010 9:41AM | Comments (18) | Trackbacks

February 2, 2010

Reading to Enrich a Child's Soul

In Read for the Heart, Sarah Clarkson wants to introduce families to good, true, and beautiful books.

interview by Ruth Moon

While American children and young adults might be reading more than in years past (says a 2009 study from the National Endowment for the Arts), they also are on the whole spending more time lost in a media blitz. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported last week that kids ages 8–18 spend an average of 7.5 hours a day consuming TV, movies, and music.

In a media-saturated and -distracted age, Sarah Clarkson hopes to reignite a love of reading books among families and children. Read for the Heart: Whole Books for Wholehearted Families (Apologia, December 2009) is Clarkson’s roadmap to books worthy of family reading and study. Her lists are substantial — the chapter on children’s fiction lists 51 authors, many with more than one book — so for families looking to add more reading into their routines, or for lovers of lists and of reading, Read for the Heart is a valuable resource.

Clarkson, based in Colorado and currently writing a children’s novel, spoke with Ruth Moon about the delight of children’s books and her philosophy of choosing good books.

What’s the value of adults reading children’s books?
Children’s stories distill big concepts down to the level of the simply true and beautiful. Some beautiful children’s books — the Chronicles of Narnia or At the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald — have some of the deepest ideas in the world distilled into the simplicity of what you can tell a child. Children’s books can say true things about the world in a way that all the adult thinking and introspection and description can’t capture.

Why is it important to read to children?
It is astounding what words do for children’s brains. Reading helps them to make sense of information, and vocabulary is key to succeeding in any area of school. If a child isn’t read to or spoken to often, they won’t be able to proceed in math or science. Reading is constantly enriching the mind to be able to think more broadly and deeply. Everybody should be reading on a regular basis, but especially children during the years they are being educated.

What gave you the idea for the book?
I went to England for a C. S. Lewis Foundation conference and heard Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), speak. He was speaking on poetry for the conference, but he mentioned a report on reading. In his work at the NEA, he had been part of one of the largest surveys ever done on literacy in America.
When I got home I ordered the reports, and it was shocking. Reading had declined in every area and across every age group. [Editor’s note: 2009 was the first time in 25 years that the NEA saw an uptick in literary reading.] I had been writing book lists for people for years, and people had been asking me what I loved about books. Reading the reports made me realize, I want to write a book about this.

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posted by Katelyn Beaty on  February 2, 2010 9:12AM | Comments (5) | Trackbacks

January 29, 2010

A Walk to Beautiful: A Must-See Film

The Emmy-winning documentary spotlights the plight of women with fistula and the courageous work of Catherine and Reginald Hamlin.

Elissa Cooper

When a woman endures prolonged labor while giving birth, her bladder or rectal tissue rips or tears, forming a fistula, a hole between her birth passage and internal organs. A simple surgery costing $300 can fix the problem, but without access to care — 90 percent of fistula sufferers live in the developing world — the woman is left incontinent, unable to have children, and stigmatized in her family and community. Christian physician L. Lewis Wall wrote about fistulas — faced by 2-3 million women worldwide — in this month’s issue of Christianity Today, connecting their plight to that of the unclean woman in Mark’s gospel (5:25–34).

Thankfully, two Christian doctors, Reginald and Catherine Hamlin, have been at the fore in the effort to make fistula repair surgeries available to more women, founding Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia in 1974. A Walk to Beautiful, a 2007 Emmy-winning documentary, highlights their work, capturing day-to-day life for Ethiopian women with obstetric fistulas. (The DVD is 85 minutes; about 50 minutes of it is available online.)

The documentary follows five women on their journeys to have their fistulas repaired and their dignity restored. Their stories are somewhat similar — how they got fistulas, their hurt and shame, their thoughts of suicide — but each of the women is unique. Ayehu, a 25-year-old mother, lives in a makeshift hut because her husband kicked her out and her mother will not allow her to stay in the home. Fikre, a friend, suffered from a fistula for ten years before going to Addis Ababa for surgery, and convinces Ayehu to do likewise. Ayehu marvels, “How can they bring you back to life?”

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posted by Katelyn Beaty on  January 29, 2010 10:44AM | Comments | Trackbacks

January 28, 2010

Shaunti Feldhahn: What Hinders Women at Work

The author of For Women Only navigates the tricky gender dynamics at Christian ministries.

Kathryn Whitbourne, guest blogger

According to Catalyst, women hold just 15.2 percent of corporate officer positions at Fortune 500 companies, despite all the professional development and mentoring available to them. Could this in part be because many women are unintentionally undermining themselves in the workplace? Shaunti Feldhahn, a former Wall Street analyst, thinks so, and has written The Male Factor: The Unwritten Rules, Misperceptions and Secret Beliefs of Men in the Workplace to prove it, based on seven years of research and interviews with more than 3,000 men.

Feldhahn, best known for her book on Christian dating relationships, For Women Only, also holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University. “The vast majority of men I spoke with said they could never raise these issues [in the office],” she says. “That was one reason they were so willing to help me. They sensed that women, for the sake of our careers’ effectiveness, needed to hear them.” Feldhahn recently spoke with Kathryn Whitbourne about her new book, which came out in an expanded Christian edition earlier this month.

What surprised you most while doing your research?
Seriously, if I didn’t say, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” it did not make it into the book. From my surveys of men, I realized there was a lot that we as women had misunderstood. One example: There is the work world and the personal world, and they are completely separate. You don’t bring personal feelings into the workplace. Women aren’t like that. The problem is that when men see anybody not following these laws of gravity, they see them as un-businesslike, and that’s a damaging perception.

One of the things that surprised me was that men said women were too direct. Hasn’t the conventional wisdom been that women are not direct enough?
[One of the issues I raised] in For Women Only, which was all about our home life, is that men can hear you speaking disrespect without you ever intending it. So sometimes at work, when a woman approaches something in a very direct way, it hits that “you’re saying I’m inadequate” nerve and that’s the most personally painful feeling. A man is much more likely than a woman to be overly sensitive to whether he is perceived as adequate or inadequate. So rather than charging in, it would be better for the woman to take a respectful, direct approach, like saying, “I’m not sure I agree with you.”

You also put out an expanded Christian edition of this book. What is an example of something that is unique to those who work in faith-based settings?
There is a temptation for women to think that the rule about men mentally compartmentalizing the personal and work world does not apply because it is a very family-oriented environment. People will ask for prayers for family members and so on. The reality is, it still does. The difference is that in a ministry environment, men might be more willing to listen and expect that will be part of the discussion, but they really would prefer to stick with the business of the ministry because it feels more efficient and effective to them.

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posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey on  January 28, 2010 9:55AM | Comments (10) | Trackbacks

January 27, 2010

In Iran, a Covert Mission to Bring Women to Jesus

An excerpt from Forgotten Girls: Stories of Hope and Courage.

Kay Marshall Strom and Michele Rickett

When Michele heard Naseem speak at a luncheon about her work in Iran, she knew immediately that this was a woman we needed to meet. Naseem had the stories we longed to hear. Naseem was gracious to us, but from the beginning she had a difficult time with our interview. She confessed as much: “You must not speak against anyone’s religion. It is not that I don’t want to tell you the stories. But how can I be certain you will not put anyone at risk?”

Naseem has good reason to fear. A quick Internet survey on Iran finds extremism and conditions that raise concerns for women and girls — actually, for everyone who lives there. Police sweep through Tehran, looking for anyone who appears “too Western.” Women must wear dark layers of loose-fitting clothes, and their hair must be entirely covered. Those who question or resist are arrested on the spot.

A peaceful gathering of women on International Women’s Day was met with the brutal arrests of 30 women in a park. After 17 years in operation, Zanan, a popular women’s magazine, was closed down because it was “corrupting the culture.” And just a month before this writing, a 22-year-old woman was sentenced to five years in prison for participating in an event called “One Million Signatures,” which supports greater rights for women. A female student who complained of sexual harassment by a senior male lecturer was also charged, despite the fact that YouTube postings show the woman’s fellow students with an audio recording of the lecturer sexually propositioning her. “Publicizing certain crimes is worse than the crimes themselves,” the local prosecutor claimed.

This is hard to understand from a Western viewpoint. But Iran is a theocratic republic, 98 percent Muslim, with a strict legal system based on sharia law. Sharia brings together elements from the Qur’an and the Hadith, a collection of the deeds and words of Muhammad, plus judges’ rulings from Islam’s first centuries. It also establishes such things as the inferior status of women. What Westerners are most familiar with is its penal code: the prescribed punishments for sexual offenses that include stoning; for theft that include amputation; for apostasy against Islam, for which the punishment is death.

It would seem that the sexual abuse and exploitation of girls is a huge contradiction in a culture that stones and hangs people for any hint of sexual impurity. “Not really,” Naseem said. “Girls are considered second-class citizens. Exploitation and repression actually fit right together.”

But things are changing in Iran, Naseem told us. Many educated women are pushing for change — carefully, but pushing nevertheless. Then she told us of a far more amazing change: “Many are also turning to Christ.”

///

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posted by Katelyn Beaty on  January 27, 2010 8:32AM | Comments (4) | Trackbacks

January 25, 2010

Women at Halftime: Where to Go Next?

For many women, turning 50 means the best is yet to come.

Julia Duin

Recently I was dining with a friend who, like me, works in the media. She is in her mid-40s and realizes that her days on the air are numbered. Putting aside the issue of why it’s acceptable for men in their 70s to be on the air but women over 50 are considered too old, she was grasping for ideas on how to reinvent herself so as to stay employed for another two decades.

She has reached success, but it’s ephemeral. She no sooner reached the top of her game than the game she was playing shut down. Nearly every week now she and I hear of someone in our field who’s moving on, retiring, or being forced to take a buyout.

My friend is in what author and Texas entrepreneur Bob Buford calls "halftime" — that period in your life when you switch from what you’ve done for the past 20 years to what you will do for the rest of your life. Call it self-renewal or the next big thing or refocusing. You begin asking what you want to be remembered for and what your epitaph would be. You think of all the things about your life that dissatisfy you and that, if you’re going to change them, you must do it now.

When I decided I wanted a child and that I would do whatever I had to do to get one, I spent my 47th birthday talking with a local adoption agency. Jobs don’t last, I figured, but people do. Three years later, I became a mom — one of the better decisions I’ve ever made.

A friend of mine decided to take a chance on a thrice-divorced — and repentant — man, and got married for the first time at age 54. She is as happy as a clam.

Famed rescuer Corrie Ten Boom was age 50 in 1942, the year her family became involved in the Dutch resistance and began hiding Jews in their Haarlem home. She spent most of her 54th year in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, and in the years after that became known for her helpful advice on forgiveness. She was 79 when her most famous book, The Hiding Place, was published in 1971.

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posted by Katelyn Beaty on  January 25, 2010 9:59AM | Comments (9) | Trackbacks

January 22, 2010

Iris Robinson, Jesus Loves You More Than You Will Know

Speaking grace and truth into Ireland's sex scandal involving a born-again Christian woman.

Amy Julia Becker, guest blogger

Sex. Money. Power. Words that call to mind the recent debacles of Tiger Woods and David Letterman and a host of other celebrities before them. And now Iris Robinson — a self-described evangelical Christian and the wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister (featured in the video below) — has made the news.

First, Robinson admitted to an affair with a 19-year-old boy. Then financial improprieties came to light. Robinson had secured political favors to benefit her lover’s business. The financial deals included kickbacks to line her own wallet. In the midst of it all, Robinson attempted suicide. And the fact that she has called homosexuals “an abomination” on public radio has not garnered her any public support or sympathy.

Robinson certainly does not stand alone as a prominent Christian caught in adultery. And the recent public events speak to a series of personal decisions that most likely started many years ago. It’s a story that recalls that of King David, deciding to stay home instead of going to war with his men. Power had allowed him to neglect his responsibilities as king. He became lazy. He surrounded himself with “yes men” who approved of whatever decisions he made, who were willing to summon the beautiful married woman from across the way and turn a blind eye as he invited her into his bedroom. That first decision to stay home from battle led to adultery led to pregnancy led to murder.

But finally, the prophet Nathan spoke up. And David repented. And the Lord forgave him. This story is recorded for us in both 2 Samuel and Psalm 51; it’s as if the Holy Spirit wanted to say, “Pay attention. This could happen to you. And here’s what you need to do if it does.”

Continue reading Iris Robinson, Jesus Loves You More Than You Will Know...

posted by Katelyn Beaty on  January 22, 2010 10:18AM | Comments (2) | Trackbacks

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