Dr. Laura Schlessinger is Not a Christian

I've seen several instances online of people referring to Dr. Laura, in a less-than-approving-way, as an evangelical or fundamentalist Christian.

These people are apparently incapable of doing even the bare minimum of research online, or are deliberate liars, or simply don't care enough to get their facts straight.

Dr. Laura is not a Christian. She doesn't claim to be. She doesn't proclaim Jesus Christ her Lord and Savior. (I'd love to hear her do that, though!)

Her background, as far as I can tell from reading her stuff and listening to her, is this:

She grew up in what she describes as an "interfaithless" home, meaning one parent was Jewish by birth and the other some form of nominal Christian, and she was not raised in any standard religious tradition or consistent religious practice.

Prompted by some questions from her son about being Jewish (as she considered herself and her son), she started a spiritual search that eventually led her to Orthodox Judaism.

She practiced that for a while, and then stopped practicing Orthodox Judaism, but still considers herself Jewish as far as religious affiliation.

Over and over again on her show, she places family cohesion in a single religion over a spouse's newfound desire to pursue a different religious path. An "evangelical Christian" would likely encourage everyone become an evangelical Christian. Dr. Laura doesn't do that.

As long as I'm on the subject of Dr. Laura, I wanted to call attention to some of the stuff I recently came across on her website.

First up is this pretty good listener letter written by an older woman to a younger (college student) woman about sex outside of marriage, and why it should be avoided. What the letter never discusses is that the girl being addressed probably got some enjoyment out of having sex with her boyfriends. This approach assumes that the younger woman's feelings of guilt and regret will outweigh her hormones and hedonistic inclinations, and they may actually do so at the time she is reading the letter, after a recent break-up. But it could be a very different story when she is alone with the next boyfriend. Ignoring this reality, and why one behavior is ultimately better in the long run than an immediately enjoyable behavior, is what prevents these kinds of essays from being more effective... especially coming from an older woman with a lower libido and access to regular marital sex.

Too often, the situation is presented as some guy "taking advantage" of a woman or that she has "nothing to show" for having had sex. Like he was supposed to give her two mules and a herd of goats. What does he have to show for having had sex with her?

In this blog entry, Dr. Laura discusses a group of mistresses and a wife who conspired to break the law to get revenge on a guy they all seemed to find irresistible.

Of the people who commented on a recent news story in which several so-called "mistresses" and a wife blindfolded and bound a man and then Krazy Glued his penis to his stomach, 68% of them LAUGHED. They actually LAUGHED at this story.

They wouldn't have laughed if it were the other way around, i.e., if several men glued a woman's genitals closed.

Bingo. No, then it would have been hate crime and evidence of a "culturally ingrained violence against women".

Finally, there's this blog entry, where she takes to task a female professor who says that men who do more domestic chores are better husbands.

When women call me complaining about such things (usually women who are at home), I ask them if they drive their husband’s route in traffic every day, or if they deal with difficult bosses or co-workers, or if they aren’t able to take breaks whenever they choose or take care of all the car and house repair issues. They say "no," but expect him to do housework in addition to all his other responsibilities.

In those situations where both husband and wife have full-time jobs, and there's a "war" about who’s going to take care of household chores, I say they should budget and pay for part-time housecleaning help, or one of them ought to reassess their life and decide if having no one at home to make a nest is worth the money they both make.

There are biological and psychological imperatives in females for nesting/child care, and in males for conquering/protecting. When these are turned inside out, there is usually (but not always) a reaction in the female to feel less respectful and
sexual toward her mate.

The whole blog entry is worth a read. She goes on to say...

A better study would be to find out what household situations make MEN happiest, because those are the ones which, overall, are going to attract the men who make the best husbands. Happy husbands spend more time with their families, and would swim through shark-infested waters for them.

Thank God for Dr. Laura.