Hello Luisa,
Good point. However one of the very basic points that Hinduism loses on is
the fact that a woman's salvation is through her husband. Also Hindu
scriptures are many and varied. While one can argue on the Bible or the
Quran or even the guru Granth Sahib one cannot do that with Hinduism because
there is no 'one' scripture. Moreover, the woman is so to say dispensable.
Sikh religion to a large extent is still very egalitarian , I must say,
because Sikhism started out as  a reform movement of Hinduism.
In the Bible , I find that Christ asked husbands to love their wives and
wives to submit to their husbands. The problem with the church has been that
it has emphasized the latter part of the sentence and glossed over the
former one. However Christ asked the husbands to love their wives and that
means for them to be "patient, kind,not jealous, not boastful, not PROUD,not
rude, NOT SELF SEEKING,not easily angered, does not keep an account of the
wrong, delights in the right, always protects, ALWAYS TRUSTS, always hopes
and always perseveres" (1Cor 13). Frankly speaking , if I find a man who
does this I would have no problems submitting to him. The thing is that the
Church separates the love definition from the role of husbands and so
husbands love your wives becomes a vague concept.
Also I feel in todays Christianity , to a large extent we follow the
religion, not Christ. I find again that if I focus on the respect that the
church is going to get for me , I will lose.But if I look at Christ and get
my sense of value from from Him, then even if the church is all corrupt it
does not change my belief but it does give me the strength to 'take a whip
and cleanse the temple'.I do not follow a religion, I follow a God, and
believe me my position makes many people very uncomfortable.
I look at my mother and my sisters one of whom was married at an age of 16
because I had brought dishonor to the family by changing my religion but do
not find any equality there.The scriptures that I was allowed to read did
not show anywhere that women were equal. They had to forever suffer and keep
proving their purity.The honor of a woman lies in producing sons. So the
mother goddess is worshipped. I have seen my maternal grandmother (who had 6
daughters) and mother (we are 3 sisters) suffer for producing girls in
abundance. I personally know a woman who has 9 daughters in the attempt to
give birth to a son. Modern science has eliminated that problem now with the
ability of the ultrasound and amniocentesis to determine the sex of the
unborn child.The man woman ration is steadily decreasing .
As for me I still believe that as long as women do not believe they are of
value they will continue to be oppressed.

Geeta
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-----Original Message-----
From: Luisa Calderón <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, November 20, 2000 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: machismo


>Hello Geeta, you said:
>
>> As for me, I find my worth comes from my Christian faith which tells me
>that
>> BOTH man and woman were created in God's image and that there are facets
>of
>> the image of God that the woman has, that men don't and vice-versa. BOTH
>man
>> and woman demonstrate different charecteristics/ nature of God .NO ONE is
>> any more or any less . they are differently made and are of EQUAL value
>and
>> DIGNITY. It was the reason why I changed my religion. My parents are
>> orthodox conservative Hindus.I find the source of my strength in Jesus
>> Christ and the fact that I broke from the "faith of my fathers' has now
>> given me the freedom to raise and ask questions that are uncomfortable
and
>> at times painful.. These questions however need to be answered.
>
>    Excuse my ignorance, but how are women not equal in orthodox
>conservative Hinduism?  Is it a theological question or is it a cultural
>question?  I ask because seeing Hinduism recognizes goddesses I thought it
>would be more egalitarian.  I have thought about leaving Catholicism for
>Sikhism for exactly your reasons - looking for equality, what irony!
>
>Luisa
>