Most congregations seem to have better success getting women's study groups going than they do men's groups. The reasons for this are numerous and will be covered in a future email, but there is little doubt that religious marketers have taken advantage of this fact by offering some trendy and female-friendly curricula. Yet one difficulty faces any publisher: the simple fact that there are fewer stories about women in scripture than there are about men. Publishers have put forth a variety of lessons on women in the Bible, such as the incredibly popular (but theologically-impoverished) Bad Girls of the Bible series. Few DVD-based studies on women in scripture have been created with a progressive audience in mind, but a new series seeks to address that problem: the Uppity Women of the Bible series. ...

Most weeks our Thursday email/blog will feature a review of a book, DVD, curriculum, or other "physical" resource. From time to time, though, we'll tell you about a website you simply must check out, bookmark, and revisit frequently. First up...

 We live in an age and time when we're often more likely to emphasize and get stuck on being right than on understanding the point of view of another person. During the election season, most conservatives read conservative blogs , while liberals read liberal blogs , and neither group gets very good at really listening to the other. The same thing is often true in religious circles; several times in the past week I've had progressive friends lament the upcoming discussions they'd have with their conservative family members. It seems to be a rare individual who really "gets" people on the other side of the proverbial fence. ...

Religious books which recount a biblical story for children are frequently plagued by a number of problems that can render them less-than-acceptable in progressive congregations. Too often, the artwork portrays light-skinned characters instead of ones that look like they really do come from the Middle East....

I invite you to take a look at The View from Under the Pew written by Diane Winters Johnson and illustrated by Margaret Freed if you are looking for a children’s book...