Girly misogyny?

Just had a thought.

One half* of the population is put off Christianity because it's twee and girly, or a nice thing for old ladies and small children, not real men.

The other half** is put off Christianity because it's misogynist, patriarchal and oppresses women.

Would it be fanciful to suggest that the devil is rubbing his hands in glee?

Might this not also suggest that, if Christianity is being interpreted in such contradictory ways, it's just possible neither interpretation is true?

*This is hyperbole.
** As is this.

A little organic shape in a sea of rectangles.

My mum said she didn't think my dad had ever been described like that before.
But that's what I immediately thought when I saw him sorting out boxes.

Symbols

It's not surprising we have such problems decoding ancient symbols.

I mean -  this symbol is fairly clear to me:

by Adam Whitcroft, from The Noun Project

but if an archaeologist 1000 years in the future, in a completely different society, was looking at it, would 'upload to the internet' immediately spring to mind? Particularly if the internet and the concept of uploading to it were unknown.

What do you think they might decide it symbolised?

I wish I didn't care about historical accuracy

What I'm supposed to be doing is drawing David & Goliath.

What I'm actually doing is worrying over what Goliath's armour should look like. It says bronze scale armour, but the only kind of armour I've ever seen Philistines wearing looks more like plate armour, or perhaps leather armour. But maybe it is scale armour, with the plates drawn in rows? And how do the shoulder pieces fit? Were the Egyptians even drawing it accurately? Maybe I should look at other ancient scale armour instead? But the pictures are so vague! And what kind of tunic and armour did Saul lend David? What are the Hebrew words? And what are the other instances when these Hebrew words are used? And why is my database of Biblical costume words not working? And...

I'm not over-thinking this at all :-)

Samson & Delilah

This was a fun one! (Should such a tragic story be fun?)

I decided dreadlocks made the most sense of the story, and they almost took on a character of their own (they also seem to mysteriously alter their length from picture to picture - oops!)

 

Delilah was tricky, as I have no idea what Philistine women wore. So I based her outfit on Minoan/Mycenaean women, as they were Sea Peoples like the Philistines. 

 

I did think this might be a problem, as the favoured style amongst Minoan/Mycenaean women was a frontless blouse. While I'm sure Samson would have appreciated that, Sunday School teachers might not...

So I was glad to find this statue with a decently fastened-up dress!

Minoan lady

 Btw, if you don't know the story you can read it here.

And you can buy my PowerPoint presentation here.