Silke, as a committed Catholic I of course also balked at Shan's
passage, but to my surprise now I find I'd like to take her side.
(Sorry, Shan, if I sound patronizing!).
We all know the terrible harm that Christianity has done to various
groups of people - women, Pagans and supporters of sexual
freedom being notable among them - so I think that we cannot
expect to take part in an interreligious dialogue without being
confronted with these issues, and it is inevitable that the words will
sometimes be a little abrasive. I'd say that the way Shan worded it
was not deliberately offensive, and that is the main thing. Anything
else one can handle - with a smile. Deliberate ad hominem or ad
fidem offences are the only ones that we should take a stand
against.
I think it is interesting, and important, to speak up when one feels
rubbed the wrong way - it is, after all, they way that we will all
become better at dialogue! -but let's not be judgemental about it.
As for Shan's words - and any similar ones that may(will) come up
in the future - I will rather take the tack of answering the point
directly.
Shan, I doubt whether you will find more than ten anti-woman
passages in the New Testament, and they CAN be explained in the
context of the culture of the times. (The Old Testament is more
complex - even there I would not use the words "chock full" - but for
Christians the New Testament supersedes the Old. Do we keep
any of the old dietary and customary laws that are written side-by-
side with the laws on women's submission?) On the other hand,
there are specifically pro-women passages as well, most notably
the story of Mary and Martha, where Jesus praises Mary, who sits
at his feet learning, over Martha, who runs around being a
perfectionist housewife. (And put THIS into the context of a culture
where women were not even allowed to read the Scriptures!)
So I think it is too dismissive to say that we are doing a valiant job
of attempting something impossible. All it needs is an intelligent
understanding of our sacred texts and a healthy disrespect towards
undereducated, power-oriented and/or psychologically
dysfunctional fellow believers: something that is surely needed in
any religion. (The bigger problem is that these people make up
most of our authority structures - which is a different subject, and
one that takes us beyond feminism.)
Oh sorry, in the end I didn't take your side that much, did I? But I
hope it came across as friendly as I meant it.
Cheers,
Barbara
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