With God's sense of humor, eternity will probably see me having to sit at the Never Ending Great Wedding Feast on a regular basis beside Tammy Faye, so I'm gonna be careful how I say this.
On Thursday, July 19, the day before her death, Larry King asked Tammy Faye what she would most like to be remembered for. She said, "Well, my eyelashes." And this is as good a segue as I'm likely to get to have the chance to discuss why this blog is called "Pink Fluffy Icing For Brains."
In early 1990, the Canadian government struck down the existing abortion law because they had decided it was unconstitutional in that it interfered with women's rights. I, along with a handful of others, objected out loud, leading to a minor brouhaha in our small town. (The worst casualty occurred when some brave and determined soul bashed in our mailbox to demonstrate their pique at our audacity to hold an opinion on the matter.) My argument to this decision was--and is--on the grounds that the value we ascribe to human beings ought to be based on something more substantial than the variables of time, geography and the circumstance of one's temporary landlord. After all, what's a couple months and a zip code between friends? Also, even if I was schizophrenic enough to be okay with offing an unfortunately timed and located little whipper, I was (and still am) convinced that God places a high premium on those whom he has "fearfully and wonderfully" made. Enough, say, to send his Son to pay the price for our willingness to, among other nasty bits of human behavior, cut up little kids whose only crime has been to show up on the planet and get stuck with a panicked/young/embarrassed/"it's my right" landlady. But I digress.
Lurking behind the vote was a group of female fetuses who had already had the good fortune quite some time earlier to upgrade their neighborhoods to the "other side the cervix" who were politically-correct enough back in that day to have an office on (or near... I'm fuzzy on that bit) Parliament Hill. These women felt differently than I did on the subject. They were interviewed by a prominent Canadian journalist, Danielle Crittenden, who reported that above the light switch in their offices, they had a small index card posted that read: "Christian women have pink fluffy icing for brains."
This statement bothered me.
It has continued to bother me for over twenty years because 1) it was nasty and included me in the broad swipe it took, 2) it was funny and nasty and therefore quotable and memorable and made it into print for public consumption, and 3) it's sometimes true. Dear Public Tammy, with her statement about wanting to be remembered for her "signature" eyelashes the day before her death, could be said to prove the case in point. But that doesn't mean that all women who follow Christ are equally vacuous or shallow. Some of us are even more so. Some of us aren't. And I have been waiting 17 years to discuss this.
I suspect, though, as we're juggling for elbow room over the bread plate, Tammy will assure me that it was just a joke about the eyelashes.
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