Thursday, April 26, 2012

Another Attack on Women

Some day, some one will have to show me where the words "in vitro ferilization" are in the Bible, or any book that is held sacred by people down through the ages. Forbidding this kind of benefit, and then persecuting people (usually women, again) for using methods such as this to increase and multiply is an arrogant assumption of truth that is common in the inquisitional type church that is controlling people today.

Some "uninformed", non-catholic teacher in Fort Wayne, Indiana is the latest victim to fall at the hands of the Church. She is accused of the " immoral act" of IVF, and was fired from her job for not following the teachings of the church that employs her as a teacher.

(When I first heard this story, I thought that perhaps it was a biology teacher experimenting in a lab, demonstrating the process to her or his students. Now that could be problematic.)

I wonder how many others will be fired for this type behavior. Let's see- no one was hurt by IVF; the population is increased; motherhood and fatherhood, both are fulfilled. Openness to life is preserved. All these are good moral objectives. The Church's problem is with excess embryos that may be destroyed or frozen; and the embryo is a person even if difficult to discern, according to the Church. It is the problem of personhood, when is it achieved. No one knows the real answer to this so the Church comes down on the side of the earliest stage of new life. This may be laudable or not. Given the lack of clarity on the subject, why not err on the side of the living who are trying their best to thoughtfully live lives of peace and love.

I think of the parable of the sower. When he sowed the seed, only some of the seed came to fruition, although much of it sprouted but did not thrive.

If people leave the Church to pursue their own god or gods, they are well within their rights. The contemporary Church is out of touch with the times, with history, and borders on the irrelevant.This is so apparent when its leaders resort to the debunked tactics of the reprehensible medieval inquisition.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Let the Women Be!

I was just finishing a book, “God’s Jury”, about the Inquisition when I saw on the morning news that the Vatican had decided to crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious because they were advocating things that were not strictly according to Catholic doctrine. The gist of the document is that these religious have been under scrutiny by Rome for several years, and because they advocate things such as birth control, woman’s ordination, gay rights, therefore they need direction from the Pope’s delegate to guide them in the right path, change their tune, and come back to the correct teachings.
These are not little children here. They are a group of grown women who have studied, prayed, come to conclusions, and who are trying to effect positive change in the world and church to which they belong. The Church doesn’t like this, so they crackdown on them. The Women (witches?) have been tried, now must be reformed, and short of that burned at the stake as in days of old.
Actually, I don’t think anyone would do that today (burning at the stake) but the rest of it, the demonization of these women religious is a terrible thing to happen in the 21st century. The Inquisition lives. It stamped out heresy in the past, waged war on all kinds of positive thinkers such as Galileo, started the Index of Forbidden books, demanded that publications be approved by Bishops, kicked out great theologians from universities, and  hundreds of other things to coerce people to orthodox beliefs. And apparently all of this is still happening. Why?
(It is odd -maybe normal- that the sights are aimed at women religious while the pedophilia issue rages. A deliberate redirect to avoid the real big problems.)
Probably because we let it happen by supporting the creeps who do this to faithful people. Truth is not monolithic as some would have us believe. There is no one place or book to go to get it. Revelations happen every day often contradicting what was true yesterday or years ago.It’s time we recognize that, and give it a place in our daily lives. We will all be better for it. Let the women be; let all of us be who we choose to be.

Friday, April 06, 2012

Holy Saturday, revisited

Holy Saturday is always an odd day in the calendar. Sort of like, everything happened that could happen last week, and now we wait. Of course in this scenario, we know the happy ending of resurrection. Life is similar to Holy Saturday. We live it to the hilt, everything happens,good and bad, and fortunately, there is resurrection in the form of relief, new challenges, and new life.


An  example of this is  the transition that takes place after the loss of a loved one. This is not easy. Suddenly, a world of love is turned upside down. The person you counted on, trusted, your partner is no longer present in the flesh, and the time is pretty sad. Most people come through this. 


What happens in between! It is waiting for the resurection, not physical, but in spirit. The time comes when strength returns, often the strength coming from the person who  has died, especially if the love that was shared was deep and involved. We  miss the close physical  contact and immediate support, but the spirit lives in us.


Resurrection takes the same grit and attitude that worked in maintaining ourselves in our love. It is not easy. There are boulders to be moved to escape the comfort of the tomb and get on with the readjustment  necessary to stand up and accomplish  great things. It gets done by doing.


Death to life. Attitude, respite, reset make life liveable. 


So, the Holy Saturday phase of life becomes the time of mental adjustment, a brief period to move on from the old ways, take care of ourselves, and get ready for the resurrected life of tomorrow.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Holy Thursday- Where are the Women


This painting (as I viewed it in St. Patrick's Church during throughout my life) by DaVinci is probably the most famous of all the representations of the Last Supper. Because it has been replicated in practically every Catholic Church in the world, it has come to define the priesthood in the minds of most believers. Probably the names of each of the characters is located somewhere, but who really knows who sat where, and why. 

We do notice that there are no women. So what happened! It was a man's world then. Men's night out was established as the tradition early. No women allowed was accepted, sort of like the golf club in Augusta, Georgia. There was no movement afoot to establish women on par with men. It took centuries for that to happen. Hopefully, it will not take centuries more.

The teachings of the church (and even of the Bible) fell victim to the customs of the times. Women were eliminated from any position of importance other than motherhood. Occasionally, one would pop up as a leader. There have been rumors of women priests in the old days, and evangelists. But they were never allowed to bubble up to the top, except in rumors or possibly as people of influence as was Constantine's mother.

If Jesus were here today, wandering around the land, my guess is that there would be women in the troupe. They would have a huge say in what happened. That is the custom of today. And maybe even Jesus would be a woman, and not a man.

So, it's time for believers to sort out what is really important to believe, and what are mere customs. Update to the customs of the day, and keep the essentials that make a difference in the way we conduct ourselves. Start with ordaining women priests and bishops. Appoint them Cardinals and archbishops, and let them run for pope. What a shake up this would be, and it would be one that would promote a new resurrection of which the old Jesus would be proud.

This is quite a challenge.