One mission of CBMW is to help Christians think through secular and ecclesial trends on gender and sexuality. Through this work, we pore over a lot of different news reports and articles as we attempt to wade through the ceaseless flow of information on the web. In our weekly Gender and Sexuality News Roundups, we aim to distill some of the more pertinent information for you.

The articles below are from a wide variety of sectors and publications, organized generally into three categories. They are presented in aggregate, not necessarily endorsed.

If you see an article that you think should be featured in future CBMW News Roundups, you can send it to [email protected] with the subject “News Roundup.”

 

Ecclesial Trends on Gender and Sexuality

God Is Going to Have to Forgive Me: Young Evangelicals Speak Out, The New York Times (Elizabeth Dias)

“With just days left before the midterm elections – two years after President Trump won the White House with a record share of white, evangelical support – we asked young evangelicals to tell The times about the relationship between their faith and their politics.”

Anglican school students ask principals to give up right to sack gay teachers, The Guardian (Naaman Zhou)

“More than 1,000 current and former students from Anglican schools have written to their principals asking them to give up ‘the right to discriminate’ against LGBT students and teachers.”

A Vatican opening on sexuality worries conservatives – and cheers reformers, Religion News Service (David Givson)

“Did a just-concluded meeting of Catholic bishops here open the door to rethinking Catholic teaching on homosexuality? The question was unexpectedly left hanging in the wake of the final report of the Vatican’s synod on young people, which ended Sunday (Oct. 28). Produced in a unique collaboration between 249 bishops and some three dozen young adults, the approved summary of the proceedings nonetheless had offered a rather diluted and uninspiring welcome to LGBT Catholics.”

 

Secular Trends on Gender and Sexuality

How I Fell for an ‘I’m the Man’ Man, New York Times (Susan Forray)

“After my fantasy of a partnership of equals had failed to materialize, I seemed to want to replace it with a fantasy of paternalistic protection. The men I’d previously dated thought of themselves as staunch feminists — in hindsight, frustratingly so, at least in the sense that they were too inclined to defer to me (under the guise of respecting me) to ever take charge, either financially or sexually.”

Report them to me’: Tanzanian official asks residents to help hunt gays, NBC News (Tim Fitzsimons)

“Paul Makonda, governor of Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, vowed this week to begin mass arrests of ‘homosexuals in our city,’ starting on Monday.”

House Dems Will Prioritize LGBT Rights Legislation After Midterms, National Review (Jack Crowe)

“Should they reclaim a majority in the House come November, Democrats will prioritize legislation that would extend federal anti-discrimination protections to the LGBT community, minority leader Nancy Pelosi said recently.”

Italy’s populist government plans to reward fertile families with state land in bid to boost birth rate, The Telegraph (Andrea Vogt)

“‘They say that Italians have few children and that something is needed to turn the trend around,’ said Gian Marco Centinaio, the agriculture minister. ‘That’s why the ministry wants to contribute, favoring rural areas in particular, where people still have children,’ he told the media.”

Millennial Men Leave Perplexing Hole in Hot U.S. Job Market, Bloomberg (Jeanna Smialek)

“Men from ages 25-34 are less likely to work than before. About 500,000 young men are missing, and it isn’t clear why.”

Poor Couples Don’t Stay Married And It Fuels Poverty, Says Tory MP Michael Tomlinson, Huffington Post (Rachel Wearmouth)

“Michael Tomlinson said ‘where there is poverty, family breakdown is often not far behind’ and called for the Government to spend more money on keeping couples together.”

 

Gender and Sexuality Miscellany

Bringing Sex Back, First Things (Emily Zinos)

“The Department of Health and Human Services is to be commended for taking steps to ensure that the law sees us as we are, no matter how we identify.”

Kissing Purity Culture Goodbye, First Things (Abigail Rine Favale)

“We are in an important moment of transition. While it is tempting to remain in a critical mode and kick at the shards of purity culture’s fallen idols, what young Christians need is a revitalized articulation of Christian sexuality—not a tired litany of rules, but a renewed expression of the compelling why behind them.”

Courage in the Gayborhood, First Things (Sebastian Alvarez)

“Why does St. Paul’s, a parish that otherwise fosters a genuinely Catholic parish life, openly flout Catholic sexual morality?”

Crisis at CUA, First Things (Charlotte Allen)

“The Catholic University of America has summarily suspended William Rainford, dean of its school of social work, simply for tweeting his disbelief in…Julie Swetnick, the least believable of the three women who emerged during the last days of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s protracted confirmation hearing to accuse him of decades-old sexual wrongdoing.”

Disagreement, Discrimination, and Polarization: An Open Letter to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Public Discourse (Steven Smith)

“Justice Ginsburg’s claim in Masterpiece Cakeshop is deeply troublesome and problematic. Mistakenly asserted, it adds to the aggravated polarization within the United States.”

The Pastor and Pornography, 9Marks (Andy Naselli, Aaron Menikoff, John Piper, Jared Wilson, and more)

“This most recent 9Marks Journal publication includes several helpful articles and resources concerning pornography and pastoral ministry.”

9 Things You Should Know About Out-of-Wedlock Births, The Gospel Coalition (Joe Carter)

“A new report by a United Nations agency highlights the rise of out-of-wedlock births around the globe.”

Introducing The Gospel Coalition Women’s Training Network, The Gospel Coalition (Don Carson)

“The Gospel Coalition is delighted to introduce Women’s Training Network (WTN). TGC is dedicated to strengthening the church by training a network of women who are steeped in the Word of God.”

What ‘The New York Times’ Gets Wrong on the ‘Transgender Memo’, The Gospel Coalition (Andrew T. Walker)

“Despite the impression given by the Times, these articles reflect the viewpoints of LGBT activists rather than impartial science or sound philosophy.”

Where to Find Hope and Help amid the Sexual Revolution, The Gospel Coalition (Sam Alberry)

“I want to suggest at least four changes that account for how our culture has come to this moment, and then propose seven ways in which we can respond.”

The Reformation and Marriage, Credo Magazine (Michael Reeves)

“Martin Luther found that his theological reforms were having a profound impact on marriage and family life in his time.”

Rebirth of the Gods: The Sexual Revolution, reformation21 (Peter Jones)

“The presupposition of our world right now is that we create our own identities and our own values…It’s a very delicate place to be as a Christian; if we make any kind of statements, we are dismissed as being hate-filled.”

Jan Peterson: My Life as a Pastor’s Wife, Christianity Today (Jan Peterson)

“Eugene and I spent years serving others. Our giving often multiplied itself in unexpected ways.”

Marks of a Spirit-Filled Mother-in-Law, desiringGod (Michele Morin)

“That sort of genuine love will enable the Spirit-filled mother-in-law to ‘hold fast to’ the good of her son or daughter’s expanded world, the good of them doing things in their own way, and the good that she might even learn a thing or two from them in the process.”

Do Gender Roles Apply Beyond Marriage?, desiringGod (John Piper)

“The best way to become the kind of men and women we ought to be in all the relationships of life is to immerse ourselves gladly in all of Scripture, absorbing all of its implications for manhood and womanhood, and then fix our eyes on men and women who walk in the most biblically mature way.”

Knowledge is Power: My Fight Against Postpartum OCD, Institute for Family Studies (Sammi Trujillo)

“The phrase, ‘Knowledge is power,’ has become more real to me since becoming a mom. After giving birth to my first child, I fought against unwanted obsessive and compulsive thoughts of harming her—symptoms that were part of a disorder I had never heard of called Postpartum OCD.”