Mighty Men Research Articles

Jesus' Performative Messianic Call of Peter, James, and John as His Three Mighty Men

Abstract: This paper argues that Jesus intentionally evoked the pattern of King David's kingdom by selecting Peter, James, and John to form his inner circle. Jesus' performative actions in establishing this entourage drew supportive attention to his messianic identity as the Son of David. One of the distinguishing characteristics of King David's was his use of three mighty men: Josheb-Basshebeth (Jashobeam), Eleazar, Shammah. These three mighty men formed a distinct group within David's hierarchy of command and were known as "the Three." They were distinguished by zeal, great victories, and loyalty—features similar to Jesus' own disciples.

Mighty Men: A Pilot Test of the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Faith-Based, Individually Tailored, Cluster-Randomized Weight Loss Trial for Middle-Aged and Older African American Men.

Two in five African American men have obesity, but they are underrepresented in community-based weight loss interventions. This pilot effectiveness trial examines the acceptability and feasibility of the first weight loss study for African American men that includes randomization and individual tailoring. Using a community-based, cluster-randomized, longitudinal parallel group design, four churches were randomized to a control condition or a weight loss condition. Each church received physical activity equipment, a coordinator, and small group physical activity sessions. A total of 71 African American men (mean age: 58.5) enrolled and received a Fitbit, Bluetooth-enabled scale, a t-shirt, gift cards for participation, and 45 min of small group physical activity led by a certified personal trainer. Men in the weight loss condition also received 45 min of health education and individually tailored SMS text messages. Multiple metrics suggest that Mighty Men was feasible, yet the acceptability of the intervention components was mixed. Participants in both the weight loss and control conditions lost weight between zero and 6 months (p < .001), but body fat (p = .005) and visceral fat percentage (p = .001) of men in the weight loss condition decreased while men in the control condition did not (p < .05). An increase in physical activity was seen among men in the weight loss condition (p = .030) but not among men in the control condition (p < .05). It is acceptable and feasible to conduct a 6-month weight loss intervention with African American men that includes randomization and individually tailored text messages.

Construction Of Gender Role In Advertising Kecap ABC Version "Kecap ABC Help True Husband Respect Wife"

Gender construction has resulted in comparisons between men and women. The difficulty in distinguishing gender characteristics is due to the long process of socialization and construction. Just like the gentle women, on the other hand, the mighty men, constructed by citizens or biological natures based on God's decree. This construction then gives rise to divisions of work roles between men and women. This research is a type of descriptive qualitative research using the semiotic analysis method of Charles S. Peirce. Semiotic analysis of Charles S. Peirce To explain the icon, index and symbol in the ABC Soy Sauce Advertisement version of "ABC soy sauce helps real husbands respect their wives". The results of this study indicate that women are not completely free from their stereotypes. The role of women is always depicted as a figure who only works in the domestic sphere so that the space for movement is very limited.

Construction Of Gender Role In Advertising Kecap ABC Version "Kecap ABC Help True Husband Respect Wife"

Gender construction has resulted in comparisons between men and women. The difficulty in distinguishing gender characteristics is due to the long process of socialization and construction. Just like the gentle women, on the other hand, the mighty men, constructed by citizens or biological natures based on God's decree. This construction then gives rise to divisions of work roles between men and women. This research is a type of descriptive qualitative research using the semiotic analysis method of Charles S. Peirce. Semiotic analysis of Charles S. Peirce To explain the icon, index and symbol in the ABC Soy Sauce Advertisement version of "ABC soy sauce helps real husbands respect their wives". The results of this study indicate that women are not completely free from their stereotypes. The role of women is always depicted as a figure who only works in the domestic sphere so that the space for movement is very limited.

Governmentality and comic propaganda: Mighty Man, the black superhero of apartheid

Recent years have seen growing academic interest in the proliferation of a distinct genre of African superheroes. There is, however, a much longer – and at times, problematic – history of superheroes in and from Africa, a history often heavily infused with colonial and imperial ideology. Using the 1970s South African Mighty Man comic book series, this article highlights how popular culture and media can be used as covert and mundane tool of governmentality. Mighty Man can be understood as a technique of power deployed in service of the apartheid regime's philosophy of separate development, illustrating the use of popular culture as a technology of (colonial) governmentality. The landscapes, narratives and additional content of Mighty Man were used in efforts to instil and frame a conduct of conduct amongst Black subjects – both in accepting separate development and the apartheid government, and in framing the everyday practices and dispositions that would allow for governing at a distance by the white minority regime. Mighty Man provides a powerful example of state-commissioned, covert comic propaganda which was indelibly framed by government policy and an ambition to create and impose a set of values and ideals around the dispositions, behaviour and actions of Black subjects. Ultimately, Mighty Man embodied a segregationist fantasy in which the absence of non-Black characters both denied the possibility of inter-racial contact and normalised social and spatial segregation – as well as class-based aspirations – while simultaneously promoting the conduct of conduct amongst subjects that would maintain these divisions. Through the construction of moral township landscapes, the Mighty Man series not only sought to regulate the conduct of the colonised subject through the condemning of ‘immoral’ behaviours but also attempted to offer illusory hopes of aspiration and freedom.

Main Character in the Novel Cover of Night by Linda Howard: Psychological Analysis

Background: Novels are book-length fictional prose narratives, usually representing characters and actions with some degree of realism. Because of the main character in Linda Howard’s Novel Cover Night, it is important to study&#x0D; Purpose: to find out and describe the psychology of the main character in the novel Cover of Night by Linda Howard so that it helps obtain information and knowledge about the linguistic psychology of the main character, as well as developing literature. Studies related to character building.&#x0D; Method: This study uses the library method. The researcher will describe the main character of the novel. Namely Linda Howard’s novel “Cover of Night” as the primary data source. The other is about the characters in the novel. Researchers use a psychological approach to analyze the novel.&#x0D; Results and Discussion: The results of this study are that the main characters, Cate Nightingale and Calvin Harris, in this novel are portrayed positively as good characters, while Cate Nightingale is a loyal woman. She had no relationship with other men after her husband’s death. Her love for her husband made her blind and never attracted to other men. Cate is also a hardworking woman. He has to work hard to earn money to raise his children, so Calvin falls in love with Cate. Calvin Harris is a strong and mighty man with such a significant character that he makes an impression on one’s life.&#x0D; Implication: This research provides positive inspiration about Calvin’s personality as a character who has a heroic nature. This novel helps obtain information about the linguistic psychology of the main character, who is always brave in protecting someone he loves, even though he has to risk his life.

Lot Smith: Mormon Pioneer and American Frontiersman

When I saw this book was by a mother-daughter team of relatives, I feared a biased, boring family narrative lacking academic rigor. But I learned, “you cannot judge a book by its cover.” This intricate work is carefully documented with scores of primary sources. To her credit, when Carmen Smith's husband passed away, she continued his research of Lot's life. When her health failed, her daughter Talana Hooper stepped in, noting, “I resolved to not allow all the love, sacrifice, and labor of my mother, father, and grandfather . . . to be wasted” (xi). This is a family affair, but to their credit, a gifted mother and daughter team tell a riveting story of the good, bad, and ugly in the life of Lot Smith.This work is laid out in a sequential manner moving from Smith's 1830 birth in a log cabin in Oswego County, New York, to his calculated death by Native Americans who coveted his Arizona land. But it does not read like a mundane chronological listing (though it does have a useful timeline in the appendices). From a fearless sixteen-year-old who enrolls in the Mormon Battalion to a sixty-two-year-old wounded warrior, Smith did not recoil. He is portrayed as brave and loyal at all times to church leaders who called him to the British Isles and the Arizona desert. Brigham Young viewed Smith as a courageous minuteman. Smith did not flinch when facing the U.S. military during the Utah War and rallied his men who were astonished by his nerve.Though quick to hoist a sword, these attributes proved to also be stumbling blocks. Where he had victories in battle, he sometimes failed in the home. At times his plural wives were dismayed by his behavior and two of his eight left him. Vignettes portray Smith's hot temper on several occasions. Once, two of his seven-year-old daughters had their heads “knocked together” for making noise during a family prayer (115). Smith had high expectations, and though loved and respected by his wives and children, at times it appears he was feared. Wilford Woodruff advised him, “And the woman righteously demands at your hands love, affection, and kind treatment, and it is not a weakness in a good man to manifest these principles to his wives &amp; children” (172).Though the book's intention is to bring honor to Smith, I found it difficult to not be biased to some degree due to his flaws on how he treated his family. The authors left me with the thought that if I was drafted, I would have selected Smith as my companion. The writers provide a portrait of a nineteenth-century “son of thunder” who had the guts of Porter Rockwell and the courage of a modern-day David who did not fear any Goliath. Yet, because he was quick on the trigger and had a hot temper, I do not think I would have wanted to be his son.The book concludes with a contemporary's comment, “A mighty man was Brother Lot, a brave, daring pioneer and soldier” (237). Though he was loyal, dutiful, and showed compassion to the poor and the downtrodden, at times he was erratic and unpredictable. Like the mighty Little Colorado, his impetuous temper could not be stayed and at times flooded those around him. Neither Smith nor the river could be tamed though he left a course and a tale worth telling.

Viewing the Evolution of Zhou Cang’s Image from the Relationship between Pictures and Texts in Printmaking

Zhou Cang is a well-known character in the novel “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. How his image of the mighty man came into being in the scroll paintings and the illustrations in the novels of the Romance of The Three Kingdoms in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and mainly folklore scholars discussed it from the literature and folklore legend. This article starts from the perspective of the illustrations in the novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and compares the content of the novels. It is found that the image of Zhou Cang has gone through the three phases of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties irregular period, the basic stereotype period in the Ming Dynasty, and the popular period in the Qing Dynasty.

Mighty men: A faith-based weight loss intervention to reduce cancer risk in African American men.

According to the American Cancer Society's guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer prevention, weight control, eating practices and physical activity are second only to tobacco use as modifiable determinants of cancer risk. However, no evidence-based interventions have been targeted to African American men or tailored to individual African American men's preferences, needs or identities. The goal of this chapter is to describe the rationale for the components, aims and setting of Mighty Men: A Faith-Based Weight Loss Intervention for African American Men. We begin by discussing the rationale for focusing on weight loss in the context of cancer prevention, and argue that obesity and obesogenic behaviors are important yet modifiable determinants of cancer risk. Next, we briefly review the scarce literature on interventions to promote healthy eating, physical activity and weight loss in our population of interest, and then discuss the rationale for conducting the intervention in faith- based organizations rather than other common settings for recruiting African American men. We conclude with a discussion of the conceptual foundations and components of Mighty Men, and discuss our focus and goals in the context of the larger literature in this area.

Mistaking the Great for the Alienated

Mistaking the Great for the Alienated Janna Klostermann For the 2004 Crestwood Secondary School valedictorian Mistaking the Great for the AlienatedJanna KlostermannFor the 2004 Crestwood Secondary School valedictorianOne who is alienatedno longer owns his world, his words.Yet, we clapped and clapped,championing your alienation.You, our valedictorian,held the key to success.Employment, even.You, our valedictorian,were destined for greatness.From Winston Churchill to Walt Whitman,you nailed it. Quotingfifteen tried-and-true scholars,you took on the dominant,delicate language,maintained unity, andrefused to offer one real, raw,vulnerable word. Not one.Herd speak. Pure, pollutedherd speak. At seventeen,I noticed. Wedged betweentwo sucks with similar surnames, [End Page 279] 280 Janna KlostermannI noticed a sea of robots:cheering and chanting.Scanning the room,I hoped to spot a free-thinker,straining to smile or clap.Straining for something other thanshoddy, sloppy copy. Desperate for an ally,I narrowed in on our drama teacher.I focused on him, stood near him,hoped to overhear himhint that something was amiss.I tailed him from the auditoriumto the cake table. Vanilla cakein hand, I even leaned in whenhe charged up to you,our little valedictorian, andasserted, You will accomplishmuch in this world. Screw off,I flinched. Much? Much?Surely he meantsomething safe, sure, simple.Surely he didn't mistake youfor the visionaries you quoted;the white, wealthy cast ofmighty, mighty men. Much?Surely he didn't picture youoffering an authentic word.Surely he didn't meansuccess—our success—hingeson being part and parcelof the system,on parroting the mighty,on riding with the masses. [End Page 280] Copyright © 2018 Janna Klostermann

The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament by Kenneth E. Bailey

Reviewed by: The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament by Kenneth E. Bailey John Willis kenneth e. bailey, The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament ( Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014). Pp. 288. Paper $24. Bailey shares his experiences of watching and asking questions to shepherds with their sheep for fifty years in south Egypt, the mountains of Lebanon, and near Bethlehem in the west bank, Israel/Palestine; preaching ten years with rural churches of the Egyptian Evangelical Church in the Minya province; teaching twenty years at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon, and ten years at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Bethlehem. He is fluent in Syriac, Armenian, and Arabic and cites obscure sources from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries c.e. and nineteenth and twentieth centuries containing compelling concepts. B.'s sensitive, penetrating, profound, perceptive, unexpected, unique insights and comprehension of the functions and roles of shepherds and sheep motivate thinkers to gain fresh understandings of the good shepherd and his flock. Bailey explores nine biblical passages, four in the OT (Psalm 23; Jer 23:1-8; Ezekiel 34; Zech 10:2-12) and five in the NT (Luke 15:1-10; Mark 6:7-52; Matt 18:10-14; John 10:1-18; 1 Pet 5:1-4). Consider also Genesis 29–31; 1 Sam 17:12-37; 2 Sam 12:1-15; Ps 78:52-53, 70-72; Isa 40:11; 53:6-7; John 21:15-19; Acts 20:28-29; Heb 13:20. [End Page 515] In each chapter, B. emphasizes ten concepts, accompanied with charts. (1) In the OT, Yhwh is the good shepherd. In the NT, Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus accepted and fulfilled the role of Yhwh the good shepherd. NT composers assumed that Jesus is the incarnation of Yhwh, demonstrating his identity by what he does as the good shepherd. (2) The sheep or flock is Israel, whose fold is the land in the OT and the church in the NT. (3) Bad shepherds are death, evil, bullies, self-centered kings and officials of Israel, thieves and strangers including the Qumran sectarians, the high priestly guild in the Jerusalem temple, the scribes and Pharisees, the Hellenists, the Herodians, the Zealots, and the Sadducees, wolves representing death and Rome, hired hands including failed leadership and the high priestly establishment. (4) Bad shepherds have no concern for the sheep; the good shepherd pays the highest cost to care for his sheep. Islam teaches that God always gives victory to his prophets, including Jesus, but Christian Scriptures such as John 10:12, 14, 17-18 affirm that Jesus has the power to lay down his life and take it again, indicating that Jesus was willing to suffer and die on the cross and rise again of his own accord and not from any human force. (5) Yhwh and Jesus gather and bring back the flock. (6) The shepherd's function is not gender specific, that is, not male only. Psalm 23 links shepherd and host. A shepherd may be male or female (Rachel [Gen 29:5-6] and the seven daughters of Jethro [Exod 2:16] were shepherds); and a host may be male or female, but normally the host was a woman (Prov 9:1-5). Genesis 1:27 says God created male and female in his image. Isaiah 42:13 describes Yhwh as a mighty man; Isa 42:14 describes Yhwh as a woman (cf. Isa 49:14-15; 66:13; Ps 131:2). Jesus offers three parables highlighting that God welcomes sinners. The first parable uses the figure of a shepherd who finds and brings home a stray sheep; the second parable uses the figure of a woman who finds and retrieves a lost coin (Luke 15:1-10). The two figures in Psalm 23 and Luke 15:1-10 are striking. (7) Sheep want to be found and rescued. This attitude is repentance: responding to the shepherd's call and acceptance of being found. (8) A single sheep or a flock may be good or bad. (9) When the good shepherd...

Minor Prophets

Minor Prophets John W. Wright, Christopher T. Begg, and Lesley R. DiFrancisco 526. [Twelve Prophets] Anselm C. Hagedorn, "Die Perser im Zwölfprophetenbuch," ZAW 127 (2015) 587-606. Scholars generally accept that the prophetic books were reworked, reread, or even written during the Persian Period; specific historical reminiscences to the Persians, however, are scarce. Texts like Hab 1:5-11; Zech 1:7-17; and Mal 1:8 do, however, conscientiously [End Page 140] (and uncritically) employ allusions to Persian institutions and thereby help to spread official imperial ideology. [Adapted from published abstract—J.W.W.] 527. [Hos 3:1-5] Kristin Weingart, "Eine zweite Chance für Israel? Gericht und Hoffnung in Hos 3,1-5," Bib 97 (2016) 342-59. In Hosea 3, we find a reflection on the situation of the Northern Israelites after the destruction of Samaria. The text, except for some slight additions, was originally composed shortly after 720 b.c.e. by Northerners and is part of an early composition of Hosea-materials. The fall of the Northern Kingdom was, according to the text, caused by the crimes denounced by Hosea and effected by the divine judgment he had announced. The course of events therefore confirms Hosea's prediction. Israel's punishment is interpreted as an educational process meant to make Israel return to Yhwh. Hence, there is hope for restoration and a better future after judgment. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 528. [Hos 10:13b-14b] Oded Tammuz, "Hosea 10,13b-14b: A Warning about a Rebellion," BN 170 (2016) 35-49. Hos 10:13b-14b reads: "… because thou didst trust in thy way (some versions of the LXX have chariots), in the multitude of thy mighty men; Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel." This text raises certain questions: Who was Shalman? What (and where) was Betharbel? Why was Shalman's plundering of Beth-arbel singled out as an example? More importantly: what is the overall meaning of the text? T. argues that "Shalman" is to be identified with Shalmaneser III, and that Betharbel is the temple of Ishtar of Arbaʾil in the city of Arbaʾil (modern Arbīl). There are several possible interpretations of the text: (1) Shalmaneser III plundered the temple of Ishtar, and (2) Shalmaneser III is the object of the sentence and the temple in his own city was plundered by someone else. Historically, both interpretations are possible: the first because (a) Shalmaneser III's military campaigns produced only little income in his later years and (b) he visited Arbaʾil in those years; the second is also credible given that one of the sons of Shalmaneser III rebelled against his father and took possession of the city of Arbaʾil. Both interpretations lead to the same conclusion: the text predicts that the Israelite army will rebel against the king of Israel and will plunder his fortresses. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 529. [Hosea 12] Felipe Fruto L. L. Ramirez, s.j., "Are the Allusions to Jacob and Moses in Hosea 12 Late Insertions?" Landas 29 (2015) 119-43. The sole evidence we have that certain stories about Jacob and Moses already existed in the 2nd half of the 8th cent. b.c.e. is the allusions to these in Hosea 12. Various attempts to invalidate this evidence on the basis of the chapter's poetic structure, vocabulary, grammar, typology of ideas, etc. have proved unsatisfactory. On the contrary, the use of the binomial Israel/Jacob in 8th cent. prophetic writings as well as the gentilics "Isaac" and "Joseph" in Amos presumes the existence of patriarchal stories that served to explain the connection of these names with the northern kingdom. Moreover, Hosea's allusion to an incident not mentioned in Genesis may reflect an early period before the fixing of patriarchal traditions in late Judean history. Hosea's allusions to both patriarchal and Mosaic traditions may then provide significant evidence that the epic legend of Israel's salvation history as narrated in Genesis–Exodus was already beginning to take shape during...

Race, whiteness and transformation in the Promise Keepers America and the Mighty Men Conference: A comparative analysis

This article takes cue from Sarojini Nadar’s article analysing the Mighty Men Conference (MMC) in South Africa as a case study of masculinism, where the author makes some passing comparison between Promise Keepers in America (PKA) and the MMC in South Africa. This article investigates the specific ways in which PKA and MMC are ideologically similar, while also evaluating how their differences accrue dissimilar results with respect to their missions on race reconciliation. The article argues that despite their shared religious similarities as evangelical Christian men’s organisations and perceptions regarding the ‘crisis in/of masculinity’, race discourse plays different roles in the ministries of PKA and MMC. The key observation arising from addressing this discourse is that in the context of PKA, the organisation’s institutional focus on race translates itself into discussions and debates about race reconciliation amongst the various racialised men of the movement as part of the organisation’s work of self-transformation. However, such talk, although present at the individual level to some extent in the MMC, is absent at the institutional level. The absence of such discourse is especially problematic given the visibility of race in public discourse in South Africa, in general, and also points to a masked refusal to give up white male privilege in the post-apartheid public sphere.

Establishment of the European professional army: the battle of Legnano May 29, 1176

For the first time in Ukrainian historiography the Battle of Legnano 29 May1176 inthe context of European origin and formation of the professional army has been analyzed in this study. In this battle the first European professional military formation, equipped and trained by the city and commune of Milan, defeated the mighty army, formed with well-armed and prepared German knights. This army was headed by the Emperor Frederick I Barbaros, who was an experienced commander. Particular attention is paid to the reasons of emergence of the first professional formations and infantry evolution, which allowed to resist armored knightly cavalry. The lack of necessary resources and the inability to advance sufficient number of mighty men forced the Italian cities-communes, among which Milan was one of the largest centers of arms crafts at the end of the twelfth century, to form the army, which could be manned with the free segments of the population of not noble origin and resist knightly cavalry. In practice, this led to formation of the armored infantry, which returned to modernized ancient hoplites tactics. Readiness of such infantry which demonstrated its feasibility in the Battle of Legnano required resources and professionalism. The problems of maintaining and training of professional formations led to the search for reduction of their strength due to the efficiency of technical innovations, one of which was the use of chariots bound round with metal and manned with crew armed with fighting scythes - hizarmams. But this experiment did not justify itself or may have been devised by the later Milan chronicler Galvani Fiamma. The battle of Legnano initiated hired professional contingent of condottieres, which were widely used in Italian cities-states in the XIII-XV centuries.

David Then and Now: Double-Voiced Discourse in 1 Samuel 16.14–23

When Saul's servants suggest David for the job of court musician in 1 Sam. 16.14–23, they seem to ‘overnominate’ him. They describe the young shepherd boy as a ‘mighty man of valor’ and a ‘man of war’, titles clearly unsuitable for this youngest son of Jesse in the present literary context. Scholars have proposed various theories for understanding these enigmatic words: from source-critical reconstruction to chronological disjunction to anticipatory literary strategies. This article proposes that the difficulties posed by the words of Saul's nameless servants can be best understood as examples of the literary device described by Mikhail Bakhtin as double-voiced discourse. In this strategy, Saul's nameless servants speak both in their own voice and from their own perspective about a young shepherd boy but they also speak in another voice from a larger perspective about the shepherd-king, the warrior-poet. Reading the words of Saul's nameless servants as an example of double-voiced discourse not only solves the difficulties of this text but also provides a fruitful literary dialogue between a young shepherd and a man who would become the founder of Israel's monarchy.

PALATABLE PATRIARCHY AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WO/MEN1 IN SOUTH AFRICA – ANGUS BUCHAN’S MIGHTY MEN’S CONFERENCE AS A CASE STUDY OF MASCULINISM

Robert Connell, the immanent scholar on masculinity studies, has urged scholars to undertake more concrete and located studies of the construction of masculinity. Taking up Connell’s challenge, this paper uses The Mighty Men’s Conference (MMC) started by Angus Buchan in 2004 in Greytown, South Africa, as a case study in masculinity and argues that Angus Buchan’s Christian MMC is a step toward masculinism, (destructive male power) not positive masculinity. Using Stephen Whitehead’s and Frank Barrett’s three propositions concerning the ways in which masculine power is created, namely forceful power, positional power and discursive power, the paper argues that the latter two forms of power are most evident in the MMC. Given the researched links between discourses of submission and headship and violence against wo/men, these latter two forms of power which are promoted through such discourses in the MMC is declared as unhelpful. Finally the paper concludes that while men’s movements are certainly important and needed in South Africa, movements that lead men down a garden path to a false sense of what it means to be a man, by appealing to outdated and destructive ways of being a man, will do more to aggravate the problem of violence than overcome it. The paper concludes with three proposals for alternative steps toward positive masculinity, namely a deconstruction and reconstruction of masculinity and a deliberate search for, and promotion of positive role models

A critical analysis of Gretha Wiid�s sex ideology and her biblical hermeneutics

Gretha Wiid and Angus Buchan have established themselves as the moral gurus of the Afrikaner Christian community with their �Worthy Women� and �Mighty Men� mass conferences. Wiid is also often invited by the broadcast media to participate in TV and radio talks to discuss her views on relationships and sex � she is even invited by popular Afrikaans singers to share the stage with them. Recently, Gretha Wiid was again on the front pages of popular magazines to promote her and her husband�s views on sex and sexuality based �on the Bible�. She suggests that women hand over their sexuality, their bodies and their sexual decisions completely into the hands of men. Her view is that the husband is the king, prophet and priest in the family and should be honoured accordingly. The aim of this article was to use Wiid�s public appearances and publications as a case study to analyse her statements, hermeneutic principles and procedures and to demonstrate how her interpretation of sex and sexuality is infused by heteropatriarchal biblical discourse. The purpose of the article was to unveil the hermeneutic principles �ordinary� Christians such as Wiid apply in interpreting biblical texts and how these are culturally inscribed on women�s and children�s bodies.

Under the Spreading Atrophy: Lighten Up!

“My good man, you will soon be cured of your earthly infirmity's [sic].” Humor is a way of obtaining pleasure in spite of the distress it may cause. Q: According to Sigmund Freud, what comes between fear and sex? A: Fünf Next time I see a woman in a white lace dress, I decided, I'm going to say, “You look like a million doilies.” A pun is a short quip followed by a long groan. People who make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism (3). If I should secure a position as a butler for a hairy primate one day and he presses the bell to summon me, I'll say, “Yourangatang?” (2). Puns come in at least four flavors, which we'll call “Shaggies,” “Symbies,” “Alloquotes,” and “Proper.” So, this month we're going to present you with a sampling of each, enough to ensure groans aplenty for the next five years. They've been taken down, more or less verbatim, from members of our editorial board, summer twitters at Woods Hole, and barely remembered memory traces. Telomere not in mournful numbers Life is but an empty dream…. Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime And departing, leave behind us Reprints on the sands of time. Under the spreading atrophy The village smithy stands The smith, a mighty man was he, With large and swollen glands… Perhaps the purest puns precipitate when a play on words becomes a proper name. Here's a sample supplied by the Fine Arts editor of this journal. She has browsed our table of contents for the last five years, astonished at the number of authors that can stand on the head of an abstract. We encourage our readers to collect other such samples, store them for safe-keeping and send them along when we issue our call for more of these next spring!

Shakespeare, Guy of Warwick, and Chines of Beef

SHAKESPEARE'S references to the late mediaeval romance hero Guy of Warwick have been ably chronicled by Velma Bourgeois Richmond in her wide-ranging study of his legend. She observes that two allusions to Guy's legend come at the start and close of Shakespeare's career. That they occur in history plays suggests that the Warwickshire poet associated Guy with history.1 First, in the opening scene of King John Philip ‘the Bastard’ speaks scornfully to and about his weedy half-brother Robert Falconbridge, who is a genuine Falconbridge, rather than being, as is Philip, a son, albeit illegitimate, of King Richard Coeur de Lion. Responding to his mother's question as to the whereabouts of his brother Robert, Philip says My brother Robert, old Sir Robert's son? Colbrand the Giant, that same mighty man? BASTARD James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while? GURNEY Good leave, good Philip. BASTARD Philip—sparrow! James. There's toys abroad; anon I’ll tell thee more.

Hunting Kings

Nimrod, the builder of cities from Babel to Calah, was the first “mighty man” on earth, a “mighty hunter before the Lord.” So were other Near Eastern, North African, Far Eastern, European, and New World kings. They hunted everything from lions to guanacos, on four of six continents, from the beginning to the end of recorded time. But why? Hunting provided meat, and perhaps military exercise; but most kings subsisted on domesticated animals and plants, and delegated their wars to specialists. Besides, chasing animals cost money and time, and more than a few kings were killed or maimed in the act of bringing down game. The costs seem to outweigh the benefits. Much about human history seems to have been adaptive. Royal hunts do not. Hunting was the human adaptation on the savannah for hundreds of thousands of years. But it seems to be a vestige most kings can't shake.