tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358539353470918372024-02-19T01:14:02.382-08:00Prostitutes, Virgins and MothersQuestioning Teachings About Biblical WomenAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-91444018771874091742018-02-12T13:37:00.000-08:002018-02-12T13:37:07.825-08:00Vagina Monologues<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Vagina Monologues</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">On Saturday February, 3rd DeeJae Cox, of The Los Angeles Women's Theater Project, directed a production of The Vagina Monologues. She asked me to create a display that would tell the stories of sexual assault survivors. The first thing I thought of was a quilt. Quilts were an expression of women's art when there was no openness to or interest in the artistic expression of women. Quilts were a way that women could share the company of other women at a time when they were isolated from each other in farm, field or kitchen. Quilts were a way women kept their families warm. Quilts were a way women were good stewards of every scrap of fabric they possessed. Once constructed, quilts hold memories and tell stories.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">There was not time to construct a proper, cloth quilt so I made one from paper. The pictures of the survivors on the quilt have jagged edges to represent the jagged marks left in their lives. The pictures are mounted on red paper, I think the red is self explanatory. And pink yarn tries it all together because I couldn't tie the quilt together with pussy hats.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I also constructed a resistance banner and encouraged guests of the after party to have their picture taken in front of it and be the "I" in resist. I was inspired by Coachella Valley Artist Clarissa Cervantes. She had a beautiful resist banner at the 2017, Women Rising Event. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Stories</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Two different groups shared their stories. Some of them are #MeToo and some of them are #MeAt. #MeAt, "Is a campaign to give a visual to the innocence lost by pedophiles." Susie Q Spite is the founder of the #MeAt campaign. Some of the #MeAt did not share a story, simply a picture of themselves and the age at which they were assaulted. Following are some of their stories.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 12 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when my teacher began molesting me. I have a recent confession from him that I provide</span><span style="color: #990000;"> to the LAPD. Because of the statute of limitations he is free to molest.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 7</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when my neighbor molested me. He was my babysitter.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 15 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when I was assaulted by our neighbor.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 8 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when my father began molesting me and my sister. I told my mother but she didn't believe me. It has been a hard life for me and my sister. I hope more women speak up so that mothers will protect their children.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 25 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when I was raped by my neighbor. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 2 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">my uncle was caught abusing my sister and jailed. I was 2 when he took to me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 15 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when my brother molested me. It happened to me much younger but for now I remember this as the time it stopped because I ran away from home.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 19 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when I was raped by my boss. I never said anything to anyone until recently.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 16 </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when my stepfather molested me. My mother knew and did nothing to save me. She has since passed. Mothers must try and help their children heal when complicity exists.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#Me At 5</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when a family friend molested me at a family party. There was lots of drinking and my mother was drunk. I still carry resentment towards my mother because I told her. She didn't do anything and it happened again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">I don't have a picture of being molested by my father as a child.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 10</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">when my aggressor, stepfather forced me to perform oral sex. He decided this was something he was going to continually do and he blackmailed me to keep quiet and not tell anyone, or my siblings and I would be separated from our mother. He continued doing this for fifteen years gradually increasing his desires to touching forced oral sex and eventually forced intercourse. At age 24 I met my current boyfriend,who, although he knew nothing of what was going on with me, understood me. He decided to take me in to live with him. Within a couple months I told him everything I had been through. He has been my rock and has helped encourage a positive change in my life. With the help I have received from CVSAS, my way of thinking and being is stronger and better than I would ever imagine.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeAt 60</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">I was caring for my mother in New York when I was awakened by the pain of something being inserted inside my vagina. My nightgown was pulled up to my neck and I was totally exposed. I froze and was disoriented. All I could hear was his voice saying, "doesn't that feel good" and "don't you like that?" That moment changed my world and left me powerless which led me to being homeless. One minute I was in New York and the very next moment I found myself riding a Sun Line bus in Palm Springs and ended up in a homeless shelter - and there is where my healing began.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">The perpetrator was a man with whom I was interviewing for a job. He tried to rape me but I was faster. I left and told no one. It was 1983.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">The perpetrator was a man, the store manager where I worked who said all I needed was a good stiff dick - his, to be exact - to knock me out of my lesbianism. I left and told no one. It was 1979.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">The perpetrator was a fifteen-year-old boy who molested my four-year-old daughter. I told someone. I called the police. He was arrested. It was all I could do to not become the next perpetrator and kill him. It was 1977.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">He was my cousin. He was a teenager and I was so young I don't remember my age at the time. He took me into the barn. I told my mother and she believed me but my aunt, his mother, did not.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">The reason for my book cover.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">He was one of our families' best friends. I had known him since I was three-years-old. He called me into the laundry room during my parents' Christmas party. He tried to kiss me. He put his hands on me. He told me his marriage was not working. When my father confronted him about what he had done he said, "I can't believe she is bringing this up now."</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Left vulnerable at age 6.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">I was sixteen-years-old at church camp. We were all in the pool playing volleyball. I felt someone grab my crotch. I got out of the pool and told the female counselors. Later, when I was sent to the camp director for counseling, he told me he was the one who grabbed me. He said he was surprised by my reaction.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">#MeToo</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Sexual assault survivor, Cosby survivor, Women's advocate, Mother, Grandmother, Warrior Woman speaking truth to power! Now, no better time.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Fear</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Many of the women who shared their stories for the quilt are fearful that they will be recognized and do not want their names or stories shared. Understandably, many of us have lived with fear and shame for a very long time. Some of the #MeAt stories are those of men who were molested as boys.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-28678941610731797632017-10-19T14:49:00.000-07:002017-10-19T14:49:02.880-07:00For if You Keep Silent at Such a Time as This Esther 4:14<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">For Such Times as These</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">When I started writing this I was angry. I asked the sisters and brothers of EEWC Christian Feminism Today to talk me off the ledge. I was afraid I would post a picture of MT, standing on the wing of an airplane, wearing only a thong, holding a gun with the words, "N**** Woman" under it and that is not me. I felt angry, frustrated, helpless and humorless. That was a dark place. The continued attempts to roll back women's control of their own bodies, the threat to children who have grown up in the United States, some of whom I know and love, gun violence and the sick, misguided people who perpetrate that violence, the continued assault to health care that could help mentally ill people and so many other atrocities of the current administration had me near the edge. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Then I read some tweets from women that made me laugh and helped me realize that if I loose my mind it will not help anyone. The funniest tweet was, "Maybe if we tell the Republicans that the pill is like a tiny, little gun that protects the vagina they will quit trying to regulate it."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">So, hopefully on the lighter side...</span></div>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">"We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced any more." </span><span style="color: #990000; font-weight: normal;">DT</span></h2>
<span style="color: #990000;">In 1843 Joseph Smith announced that, "God had revealed to him that no virgin could enter Mormon heaven."1 That's bloody convenient isn't it? Is that the person of faith DT is talking about?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"Women who appear in public, with uncovered ankles, are to be whipped." Taliban</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Are these the people DT is defending?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">The people of faith DT and his administration are protecting are the Christian, Religious Right who want to have control over women's bodies and reproductive powers. Don't get me wrong, patriarchal religions and governments have always tried to control women's bodies. They decide what we can or can't wear, where our voices or our laughter can be heard, where we can sit or stand or pray.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Other Times Like These</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #990000;">In 1877 Annie Wood Besant was arrested for printing and distributing a pamphlet on conception. The British court found the pamphlet to be a, "Dirty, filthy book." Ms Besant "lost custody of her daughter because the court decided she was a bad influence on a growing girl."2</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">In 1916 Margaret Sanger founded the first American birth-control clinic, "for which she was imprisoned</span><span style="color: #990000;">."3 On January, 21 2017 women and men around the world marched. We imagined what lay ahead. Some of our worst expectations have been realized. We will not go back to a world where women are to be kept barefoot and pregnant. Our lives and reproductive powers can no longer be a political football.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">1. Jean F. Blashfield, <i>Hellraisers, Heroines, and Holy Women: Women's Most Remarkable Contributions to History </i>(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981), 7.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">2. Ibid. 12</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">3. Melanie Parry, ed., <i>Larousse Dictionary of Women </i>(New York: Larousse, 1996), 581.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-41627130048727263462017-09-12T16:07:00.000-07:002017-09-12T16:07:17.017-07:00Save the Children of DACA<h2>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Children of the American Dream</span></h2>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Their parents brought them to the United States when she was in preschool and he was a toddler. Their brother was born a couple of years later. She plays basket ball and has plans to go to Pepperdine University on a scholarship. He is a baseball fanatic with plans to go to the local community college before pursuing his physical therapy license. Their parents were lawyers in Mexico. They did not want their children raised in the corruption they observed in the Mexican government. It was never their intention to be undocumented. Through a series of errors, theirs and the governments, they found themselves undocumented with no legal option but to return to Mexico and start over.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">They have a successful business. Their children are in school and living in the only home they have ever known. They are members of a community with friends and family. They are members of a church. They made the difficult decision to stay. A decision that meant living in fear of being discovered, of being arrested, of being deported.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Hope</span></h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">When President Obama instituted the Dream Act (DACA) the two older children signed up immediately. When the opportunity to get a drivers license presented itself they went right down and took the test. When Trump was elected they went to the Mexican Conciliate to make sure their papers were in order in case they needed to take the family to Canada.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Their story is not an isolated incident. I taught kindergarten for thirty-plus years and stories like this abound in my memory. Parents who desperately want the best for their children and get caught in a system they cannot navigate. My friends, mentioned above, are smart, educated people and the system overwhelmed them.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Despair</span></h4>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"> Many Sunday mornings you will find a San Diego priest saying mass on the beach by the fence that separates the United States from Mexico. Separated families come to that mass. They cannot touch each other but they can pray together. Some of the people, on the other side of the fence, are deported retired U.S. military. I pray for all the people who are being harmed by a heartless administration. </span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-48221224880496425012017-07-12T15:50:00.000-07:002017-07-12T15:50:36.426-07:00Are We Making Any Progress?<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">I woke up at three A. M. praying that no one would molest her at church camp. </span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I have written about this before. I thought once I admitted it to myself and others I would be fine. Then I woke to this early morning prayer. My great-niece left for a week at church camp the day before. I am exited for her. Church camp was a very special part of growing up. My last year as a camper the director of the camp grabber me between my legs much as the current inhabitant of the White House brags about doing to women. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">I have received many comments and questions about the cover of my book, <i>Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers: Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women.</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh268Xrc-9ZZtX1yXldvMCTBH9BnICrazWUNrBdcGbMGunswjdH5-VS52zeDG89zf8FQGwb0ji0DHWDHz2Zpq0T9G1OvNRhz_snS9dESco0LI5UciKECH7a85HMQrJNDu8FF1IHqIESDiOW/s1600/PVMcover%25281%2529_1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh268Xrc-9ZZtX1yXldvMCTBH9BnICrazWUNrBdcGbMGunswjdH5-VS52zeDG89zf8FQGwb0ji0DHWDHz2Zpq0T9G1OvNRhz_snS9dESco0LI5UciKECH7a85HMQrJNDu8FF1IHqIESDiOW/s320/PVMcover%25281%2529_1024.jpg" width="213" /></a>I</div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I gave answers like, "Women have been hurt by patriarchal interpretations of women's biblical stories. The woman on the cover represents the pain I have seen in my own eyes after a particularly harsh chastisement of women based on patriarchal interpretations." I gave an answer like that to Marg Herder, a woman I greatly respect and the Director of Public Information for the Evangelical Ecumenical Women's Caucus: Christian Feminism Today. She was writing a review of my book for the EEWC web page. The review can be found at this link. </span>https://eewc.com/prostitutes-virgins-mothers-questioning-teachings-biblical-women/</div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Muscles Have Memory</span></h3>
<span style="color: #990000;">After that correspondence with Marg I went to the gym. It is a good thing that the weight was really heavy and the music was really loud because I burst into tears. Not just tears, but the ugly cry. The flood of memory and emotion surrounding the grabbing incident and what followed, overwhelmed me. That was the first time I wrote or even talked about the experience. First to Marg, then on this blog. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">What Has Changed?</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Almost 50 years later and I am praying for the safety of a fourteen-year-old girl at church camp. Almost 50 years later and the occupant of the White House brags about grabbing women's private parts. When I asked Marg if I could use her name in this blog she told me of a therapist friend who has seen an increase of women with PTSD because of experiences like mine. Having a man in the White House, who brags about molesting women has brought all those long buried feelings to the surface.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">I am a Christian Feminist and I pray no one molests her or any other little girl or woman. </span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><i><br /></i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-22553246107563087872017-05-23T16:01:00.000-07:002017-05-23T16:01:11.027-07:00Dangerous Women<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000;">It's Biblical</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"If a man come upon a maiden that is not betrothed, takes her and has relations with her, and their deed is discovered, the man who had relations with her shall pay the girl's father fifty silver shekels and take her as his wife, because he has deflowered her. Moreover, he may not divorce her as long as he lives."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Deuteronomy 23:29</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJoDOTmvkcudSYP5a9OOBkbiGRiS4MaATTDl2gpEO8wW4cjEG6ZR6Kgn0ys1gaX8aqUzKunOXZxRHFVi2hA11ChyB5V5VcqEiAKehFMKraTx98BeThTXnIGWi-BvoDa9jDFYXillirBLZ/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJoDOTmvkcudSYP5a9OOBkbiGRiS4MaATTDl2gpEO8wW4cjEG6ZR6Kgn0ys1gaX8aqUzKunOXZxRHFVi2hA11ChyB5V5VcqEiAKehFMKraTx98BeThTXnIGWi-BvoDa9jDFYXillirBLZ/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">This art exhibit was created by Mirelle Honein to protest a law in Lebanon which, "allows rapist to avoid jail terms if they marry their victims." John, Tara; <i>Time Magazine: </i>May 15, 2017. The exhibit features wedding dresses hanging by nooses. </span><span style="color: #990000;">In April the cabinet of Lebanon revoked the law and Parliament is scheduled to vote on it in May. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">What kind of horror would that be for a women to have to marry a man who has so horribly violated her? After a 16-year-old girl committed suicide when she was forced to marry her rapist the law was overturned in Morocco. According to the <i>Time Magazine </i>article referenced above, at least six countries in the region, "retail the loophole."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">And now in Manchester, England</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"Women should adorn themselves with proper conduct, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hairstyles and gold ornaments, or pearls, or expensive clothes, but rather, as befits women who profess reverence for God, with good deeds." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">1 T</span><span style="color: #990000;">imothy 2:9-11</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-weight: normal;">Under Taliban rule women may not go out of the house without a male family member to escort them. They must be covered from head to toe, their shoes must not make noise, their laughter must not be heard. The moment I heard of the bombing at the Ariana Grande concert I believed those young women and girls were targeted because they were not controlled by a man, they were not covered from head to toe and they were not silent. Ariana's concert tour is called, "Dangerous Woman Tour." These young women and girls are dangerous to the men who want to control their lives, their bodies and their reproductive abilities. </span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Holy Books Used to Control Women</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-weight: normal;">As a Christian I have experienced patriarchal interpretations of the Bible that are used to control and </span><span style="color: #990000;">subordinate women and girls. I will not critique the Koran because it is not my holy book. I will critique the inhuman results of patriarchal interpretations of holy books which harm, seeks to control, subordinates or marginalize women. I will not be controlled!! I am a dangerous woman!</span></div>
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<span id="goog_2038396789"></span><span id="goog_2038396790"></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-23610073983515228742017-05-01T15:19:00.001-07:002017-05-01T15:19:46.970-07:00Why Do We Believe What We Believe?<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Who were the Apostles?</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><i>Why do we believe what we believe? </i>That<i> </i>was the original subtitle for Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers. I was inspired to use that title while listening to a radio preacher. I don't do that very often but sometimes I torture myself. He asked, "Why do we believe that?" And answered, "I don't know why we believe that, we just do. You don't have to know why we believe that, just believe." I don't know what they were believing, I was busy screaming at the radio, "You don't know why you believe what you believe?" YIKES!!!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"> The April 23, 2017 bulletin of St. Joseph Catholic Church brings to mind that radio preacher. It states, "Today we listen to the teachings of three apostles - Luke, Peter, and John - who remind us that even though we have not seen Christ, we nonetheless are filled with joy as we place our belief in his saving death and resurrection." I believe the implication is that these three men were friends and contemporaries of Jesus. If a parishioner took the bulletin at face value, they would be deceived. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Luke is not recorded in any list of Apostles found in the Gospels. Some traditions say he was a doctor who traveled with Paul, others that he was a late second century Christian from Antioch. We know he was not an eyewitness to the life of Jesus because he tells his reader he is attempting to compile a narrative, "Just as those who were eyewitnesses." The approximative date for Luke's Gospel is between 80 - 130 C.E. That would mean the Gospel was written 50 -100 years after the crucifixion of Jesus.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span><span style="color: #990000;">Scholars believe that 1 Peter was written by a follower of Peter based on "language, content, style and theological development." An example of this is the polished Greek in which the letter was composed and allusions to persecutions which date between 81- 96 C.E. Peter was an unlettered and probably illiterate Galilean fisherman martyred in Rome between 64 - 67 C.E. That would mean Peter was dead thirteen years before the persecutions started. The date for 1 Peter is the same as the Gospel of Luke.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">In the introduction to the Gospel of John,<i> The New American Bible: St. Joseph Edition, </i>a Catholic publication, states, "Other difficulties for any theory of eyewitness authorship of the Gospel in its present form are presented by its highly developed theology and by certain elements of its literary style." Scholars believe that this Gospel was written by a disciple of John between 90 - 120 C. E.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Scholars of the Roman Catholic Church know this. The <i>New American Bible for Catholics </i>says of </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">1 Peter, "Some Modern scholars however, on the basis of a number of features that they consider incompatible with Petrine authenticity, regard the letter as the work of a later Christian writer." The introduction to the Gospel of John says, "Critical analysis makes it difficult to accept the idea that the Gospel as it now stands was written by one person." And of Luke, "The prologue to the Gospel makes it clear that Luke is not part of the first generation of Christians disciples but is himself dependent upon the traditions he received from those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word." </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">We did not see Christ and we are filled with joy.</span></h3>
<span style="color: #990000;">Perhaps that is why the church bulletin reminds us of the joy of believing without seeing. Whoever these ancient authors were, they did not know Jesus and are relying on the words of others for their writing. Does that disqualify them as Apostles? In the Greek Apostle means, "One who is sent." According to that definition these authors could be considered Apostles. Why does this matter? Because, we are being misled into believing that the authors of Luke, I Peter and John were eyewitnesses to the life and teaching of Jesus. Taught to believe something that is not true. Why do we believe what we believe? Because we read it on the front of the bulletin or hear a radio preacher tell us that is what we believe. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">In Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are "sent" by an angel of the Lord to go quickly and tell the disciples. In Mark, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome are "sent" by a young man to go and tell the disciples and Peter. Luke says it is Mary Magdalene, Johanna and Mary the mother of James who are "sent" by two men in dazzling garments to the eleven and all the others. Finally, in John's Gospel it is Jesus who "sent" Mary Magdalene to tell his brothers. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">What makes an Apostle an Apostle?</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Is it gender? Is it being an eyewitness to the life and teaching of Jesus? Does being sent to proclaim the life and teaching of Jesus or the resurrection make one an apostle? Romans 16:7 refers to Junia as, "prominent among the apostles" and in I Cor. 15:8-9 Paul calls himself an apostle. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">So what is the answer? If the authors of Luke, John and I Peter, are apostles, if Paul is an apostle, if Junia is an apostle then Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and Johanna are all apostles. They were eyewitnesses to the life, teaching and resurrection of Jesus and they were sent! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Why is this important? Because gender is so often used to deny women full participation in their faith communities and deny their importance in the development of the Christian Church. Believing the authors of Luke, John, and 1Peter were contemporaries of Jesus is Biblical illiteracy and a contributing factor to limits on the full participation of women. </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-62691539086811569142017-04-10T15:03:00.000-07:002017-04-10T15:03:23.246-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Body Language</span></h2>
<span style="color: #990000;"> <span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The Toast Masters' (I call them Toast Mavens') handbook, uses as the title for each speech the new skill to be learned.</span></span><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #990000;"> This is the speech I will be giving at the next Toast Mavens' meeting.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Bodies Talk</span></h3>
<span style="color: #990000;">The title of this assignment in our </span><i style="color: #990000;">Competent Communication</i><span style="color: #990000;"> handbook is,"Your Body Speaks" and they are not talking about bad gas or hunger rumblings. When I was teaching kindergarten I would ask the children if hands could talk. They would always assure me that hands can not talk. So I would put my finger to my lips and ask, "What is my hand saying?" They would respond, "Shh." I would hold my arm out with the palm of my hand facing them and ask, "What is my hand saying?" and they would respond, "Stop." Then I would close my hand except for my index finger and wag it from side to side and ask, "What is my hand saying now and they would answer, "No." At the end of this lesson we all agreed, hands can tell us many things. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Facial expressions are as important as hand movements in </span><span style="color: #990000;">communication. One of my kindergarten mommies teaches American Sign Language at College of the Desert. Her face is fascinating to watch as she signs. Her expressions are extreme. I suppose those facial expressions, fill in the communication blank that vocal variety would fill.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Hands talk, faces talk, bodies talk. Women are taught to stand small. We stand with our legs together, our arms at our side or clutching our hand bag. I was at a gas station the other day and a man was approaching every women who was either pumping gas, sitting in her car or going into the mini mart. He was asking them for money and he was very insistent because he had a dog that needed food. I did not want him to approach me so, I spread my feet apart, put one hand on my hip and the other hand on my car, making sure I took up as much space as possible. When he looked over at me I looked right back. He did not approach me.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Women are taught to sit small with our legs together, crossed at the ankles, our hands in our laps, so as not to take up too much space. Have you ever sat in a plane, or a train, or a theater where you have to share the arm rest? Men are allowed, even encouraged to sit and stand big. Have you ever had to walk down the aisle in a plane or a bus or a theater, or a church and the men are sitting with their arms across the back of the seats beside them, both legs spread wide and sticking out as far as they will reach? Are men trained to take up as much space as possible?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Women are warned that when we are walking alone we should walk with confidence, our back straight and our head up as if we know where we are going. The irony is, we do know where we are going. This warning is usually given on the evening news in the context of another woman found dead, or disappeared, or raped. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Patriarchy, especially religious patriarchy likes to control women's bodies which effectively controls their movement, their self expression and their reproductive freedom. When I was a lector at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, the lector coordinator asked me if it were appropriate for me to cross my legs when I was sitting behind the altar. I told him to find out and let me know. If the church has a problem with me closing my legs he could take me off the lector roster. I never heard another word about it. That was just his little way of trying to control my movement. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">The Taliban put sever restrictions on women's movement and self expression. Women can not laugh in public, their shoes can not make noise, they have to be accompanied by a male family member and they must be covered from head to toe by a burka. The burka has a tiny slit, covered by mesh, for them to see through. I often wonder what it must be like to breath inside a burka, in the summer, in Afghanistan. Have you ever pulled the sheets up over your head? How long did it take before you had to pop your head out because it was hard to breath?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Bodies Liberated</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">We all know I am a feminist and we feminist have a saying, "The personal is political." Body movement, body language, self expression and reproductive choices do not get much more personal and therefore not much more political than that. So sisters, don't stand small, don't sit small, cross your legs if you feel like it, laugh out loud, wear clacity shoes and take up space. After all, it is your space too. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-66712896422678857372017-02-14T14:29:00.000-08:002017-02-14T14:29:05.936-08:00Independent Americans<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">The Declaration of Independence</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Written in 1776 to announce reasons for leaving the government of King George 111.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Fascinating Reading </span></h3>
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<span style="color: #990000;">This is not the order in which it appears in the Declaration of Independence. It is the what I found most fascinating for today.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of land. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their office, and the amount and payments their salaries." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Fast Forward</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">The short history of the forty-fifth president of the United States is a history of repeated denigrations and deceptions, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts (not alternative facts) be submitted to a candid world. He has promised to arrest populations in these states rather than enact laws of naturalization for immigrants. The Republican held Congress has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing to consider the Supreme Court Justice recommended by President Obama. They have endangered the education of America's children by confirming a woman to head the Department of Education who possesses no apparent qualifications for that job.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Suggestion</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Get a copy of The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution of the United States of America and the Amendments to the Constitution. Know our laws and our rights.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-13526064306952969982016-11-16T16:01:00.001-08:002016-11-16T16:01:42.281-08:00Tragedy in the United States<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white;">Life Changing Events</span></span></h2>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white;">John F. Kennedy was killed when I was in </span>fifth grade. That experience of national grief changed my childhood. Five years later Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered, followed shortly by Robert Kennedy. The Kennedy brothers were practicing Roman Catholics. Dr King was an American Baptist minister.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">On November 9, 2016 many Americans experienced another day of national grief. One of my friends stayed in bed and cried all day. Another moved forward with plans to relocate to Canada. Some lashed out in anger at white feminists who did not do enough to get out the vote and elect the candidate that would have protected women of color and women's rights in general. Others expressed fear that their right to marriage and family would be taken away from them. The list of fears and anger could be much longer. Many of us are experiencing the grief that often accompanies the death of a loved one.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">I am a progressive, liberal, left of center, feminist Christian. The national mourning for John, Martin, Robert and my Christian faith have shaped my concern for human rights and dignity. O am also a patriot who abhors the horrible division that grips our country. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Commandments from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy tell us to love God, love our neighbor and love ourselves. When Jesus was asked whom to consider a neighbor he chose as an example, a man from a despised group of people, a Samaritan. What made the Samaritans abhorrent? They worshipped God in a different place than the Hebrews. Leviticus also commands. "When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land..." That's a commandment no-one is fighting to put in the court house rotunda. It is easy, for me at least, to draw a comparison between undocumented people in the United States and the aliens we are commanded to love. It is easy, for me at least, to draw a comparison between the Samaritan neighbor and the Muslim neighbor. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">As always, in times like this, I look to faith leaders and feminist friends, who are ofter one-in-the same, for their words of wisdom, peace and healing. A pastoral letter from the United Church of Christ states, "We were built to heal bodies broken and divide. This is our calling. Our core values of love, hospitality, and justice for all must be fully embraced in the days to come. It could be that we were called into being for just such a time and this."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">And finally the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, "Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may never seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is dying that we are born again to eternal life." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">I must confess I feel the need to be consoled and we are better together.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-46317002943767848142016-06-20T14:54:00.000-07:002016-06-20T14:54:16.667-07:00More Thoughts on Mother's Day<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Single Mother on Mother's Day</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Poet, Donna Fitzgerald, shared her memories of a Mother's Day past. She said, "This Mother's Day I was reminded of going to church when Jen was little and how all the women earned praise except for the single mothers."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Mother's Day Poem by Donna Fitzgerald</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">The minister delivered his sermon </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">to the overflowing congregation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">He mentions several biblical mothers:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Mary, the most honored.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Naomi, Rachel, Sarah.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">He touts just how magnificent the</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">great pain and suffering needed </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">to bring life into the world</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">and how</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">women so joyfully, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">bear the punishment for eating</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">that deadly apple.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">He then asks the men </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">their praise on their wives of</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">whom they proudly boast</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">"The mother of my children"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">as if they owned them,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">their wives their private vessel.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">These puffed-up men</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">who stand and honor their wives</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">on this one day of the year,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">dressed in their very best,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">waiting for the service to end </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">and brunch to begin.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">In the very last pew</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">sits a single woman and her child.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">No praise is heaped </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">upon her.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">The service finished she returns home </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">waiting for hypocrisy to end.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Why Do We Believe What We Believe About Biblical Women?</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;">So often the stories of biblical women are reduced to the lowest common denominator. It wasn't a, "deadly apple." It was the fruit from The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve wanted to be more like God knowing good from evil. She couldn't have known it was wrong because she didn't know the difference between good and evil. </span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Mary must have been the most incredible person! The Gospel of Luke calls her the favored one. She raised a young man on whose teaching a world religion is based and we have been taught to focus on her virginity. What did Jesus learn from his mother?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Sarah, a mother well after menopause, was the only women through home the promise could be fulfilled. It was<b> her </b>only son Abraham considered sacrificing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Bitter and cunning Naomi, who was saved by the love of her daughter-in-law.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Rachel, who took the family idols and hid them from her angry father by pretending she was having her period.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">All mothers, yes, and so much more. Donna, like so many women, have been hurt by simplistic interpretations of biblical women. I am thankful for Donna's creativity and how she has used her pain to share her talent with the rest of us. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-82106081212572177552016-05-15T12:41:00.000-07:002016-05-15T12:41:47.296-07:00Faith of Our Mothers Revisited<h2>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white;">Conversations with my cousin.</span></span></h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000;">Last week I </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">posted a memory about Mother's Day in the church I grew up attending. My cousin, June Davis Fish, regularly </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">messages me about my posts. Last week she did not, so I got worried. I messaged her to make sure she is okay and our conversation went something like this. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">June: "Yes, I am OK. Thanks for checking. I did see the blog about your mother. I remember now why I didn't comment. Lately, I have been having an inner struggle with any post or comment about the Father God even though they are talking about 'his' love and grace as opposed to the 'fundamental God' of law and punishment."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Me: "I better go back and read my blog. I rarely refer to God as Father unless it is in the context of somebody else's speech."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">June: </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">"I don't think you did say Father God. Some have said Papa and Daddy as if that makes 'him' less patriarchal and more loving. I just want to scream at them, Papa, Daddy, Father, ... where the hell is Mother God? Anyway, that is the foundation for why I didn't comment on your Mother's Day Blog. I guess I was pissed that only on one day of the year the women/Mothers get any recognition and are allowed to preform certain duties and even then they had to clean up. Understand me, it was not your blog but how 'gracious' for the men of the church to condescend to 'honor' the women on their one day of the year, Mother's Day. Without women how would men become fathers? Without a Sacred Feminine Mother could Father God be a father? I didn't want to comment because it would only have sounded like I was ranting against you and your blog, which certainly wasn't what I felt."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Me: "I think you got the point. One day of the year the women serve communion. An honor the men of the church usually reserved for themselves and the women still prepared and cleaned up. As a child I was indignant. P!@#$% off did't happen until I was older and saw how systemic this marginalization is. Before my book was published a man was asked to write an endorsement. He said he could not because he detected, 'An echo of frustration.' I thought, 'Wow, I am a pretty good writer if all he detected was and echo of frustration because I am, 'F@#$%^& P!@#$% Off.'" </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">June: "I am getting new perspectives on a lot of old fundamental teachings. It has been difficult to throw off old religious programming, but once I get going on it, it has been freeing and peaceful."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Me: "One of the things I am hoping the book will accomplish is to get people to question all of these old fundamental teachings. That is why the subtitle is, <i>Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women. </i> </span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Gratitude to my cousin!</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">When I first started writing last weeks blog I purposefully took my anger out of my writing. I edited myself as so many women do. I wanted the post to be more about my wonderful mother than about my anger. Thanks to June, what I feel about that experience came to the surface. My nephew once asked me, "If women cook every day, why are the best chefs men?" This was when Julia Child was the only woman chef on television. My answer, "What men do is considered more valuable than what women do. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">On those Mother's Days, it was an honor </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">for the deaconesses to do the deacons job of serving communion. The deacons would not condescend to doing the job of the deaconesses. </span></div>
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<h4>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Women's Work</span></h4>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">I think about the value ascribed to "women's work" by patriarchy and I am disheartened. The healing of Peter's mother-in-law is recorded in the canonical Gospels. She is said to get up and serve after being healed. The word, </span><i style="color: #cc0000;">diakonei </i><span style="color: #cc0000;">translated as serve, in reference to Peter's nameless mother-in-law is translated as minister in reference to the angels</span><i style="color: #cc0000;"> serving</i><span style="color: #cc0000;"> Jesus in the wilderness. Same word, different value and the subject of another blog. </span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">I ask the same question as June. "Where is Mother God?" Imagine a faith in which female is valued in the same way as male. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-73263353384632426902016-05-06T15:12:00.000-07:002016-05-06T15:36:15.782-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Mother's Day</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">"Faith of our Fathers! Holy faith! We will be true to thee till death." That was the song we sang in church. Except on Mother's Day. Then fathers was changed to mothers and the church secretary put an insert in the church bulletin in case we forgot to substitute mothers for fathers. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">On all the other Sundays the deaconesses prepared the communion trays and set them out. When the service was over the deaconesses sent the children scurrying around the church collecting the tiny communion cups. The women washed the cups and polished the trays for next week. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">On all the other Sundays the deacons served the communion. They walked up the aisle during the communion hymn, stood with heads bowed at the front of the church, prayed aloud at the end of the hymn, distributed communion and replaced the trays on the table for the deaconesses to clean after the service.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">But on Mother's Day the deaconesses got to do it all. Prepare the communion, say the prayers, serve the communion and clean up after communion. As one of those children who scurried around picking up the communion cups, I was surprised to discover that the deacons were not in the little kitchen cleaning up.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">I was confused. Why weren't the deacons helping? The deaconesses always helped them. So, I asked my mom. "Oh" she said, "We're just better at it." </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Faith of our Mothers</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">My wonderful mother had faith and she passed it on to me and my sisters. We were in church every Sunday. No sleepovers on Saturday because we couldn't miss church. I didn't want to miss church. I am a confirmed religion nerd. I have often heard it said, "You can't teach faith." I think that is probably true but you can look at the life of someone who has faith and learn from that faith. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">I cry at the sappy commercials on television as we get closer to Mother's Day. They remind me of how much I love her and how much she loved me, us. I cry because I treasure the faith I learned from her. I cry because, unlike my feminist self, who wants to be upset by the unfairness of the deaconesses cleaning up on the one day of the year they serve communion, my mom knew she and the other women did it because they were better at it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Faith of my Mother! Holy faith! I will be true to thee till death.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Happy Mother's Day</span></h4>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-43891050800823410512016-04-27T14:01:00.001-07:002016-04-27T14:01:06.680-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Eight Lessons Learned From Pain</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">My sister said, "Well, if the doctor had just found out what was wrong in 2012 you could have avoided all this pain. I didn't say it but my first thought was. "But then I would have missed the lessons."I knew there were lessons to be learned from this experience and I didn't want to miss them. I even said little prayers from time to time when the pain was particularly bad or the lack of mobility extremely frustrating. "Please don't let me miss the lesson in this." This is what I learned.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">1. Be Grateful. Pain gives faith a whole new meaning and it is gratitude. In the hospital I practiced gratitude for all the things I take for granted. Simple things like being able to get out of bed by myself, or walk unassisted, even going to the bathroom became an activity for which to be grateful. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">2. I am not alone. Pain and the isolation of rehabilitation can be depressing. But friends showed up at my bedside, or sent cards that made me laugh, and called to check on me. Friends sending prayers and positive thoughts helped. When I saw my name on the church prayer list or on a FB post I knew prayers and positive energy were coming my way. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">3. It is okay to rest. Psalms 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God." In that stillness, that rest there is a space for the divine that would not have existed without the pain. Rest is also essential for healing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">4. Self care is vital. Mark 12:31 says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." We sometimes miss the, "love yourself" part of that verse. I cannot take care of anyone else if I do not take care of myself. Part of taking care of myself is deciding that I am stronger than the pain.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">5. Listen when others want to share their pain. I think this might be the hardest lesson. We all carry our own pain or the pain of someone we love. My experience is that people just want to be heard or want you to know that they understand what you are going through. Listen.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">6. Be kind. Matthew 7:12 records what we often call the Golden Rule, "In everything do to others as you would have others do to you." There are good Samaritans and angels everywhere. They are sometimes disguised as doctors, nurses, physical therapists or food service workers. Even my neighbor, who works at the hospital, showed up every morning, before work with Starbucks. If I am grumpy and impatient or unkind I will miss the good they are trying to do for me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">7. My attitude is the most important factor I bring to my healing. I confess was scared. Scared of the surgery, the pain and the recovery. So I had my sister, Hilary make me a pink tutu. When physical therapy got me on my feet I wore that tutu with my pink boa, pink polkadot socks and a tiara. Not only did I cheer myself up but I cheered up everyone who saw me. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">8. See other perspectives. Being "disabled" even for the short time I was, has given me more</span><span style="color: #990000;"> empathy for the people walking slowly or being pushed in a wheelchair. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I take faith for granted when I feel good, but lying in a hospital bed in pain and dependent on others for my most basic bodily functions required faith. Faith in myself, faith in my care givers and faith in my creator. It is blessing that God gives our magnificent brains the ability to forget the pain, but I hope I never forget the lessons learned from the pain.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-91706831614364319682016-04-22T15:58:00.001-07:002016-04-22T15:58:26.483-07:00Not All Surprises Are Good!<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Surprise, there is something wrong with you!</span></h2>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">5/4/15 Riding down in the elevator from my hip replacement pre-op apportionment, I got a call. The conversation went something like this:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">ME: "Hello."</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">HER: "Paula, this is Dr. D*****."</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ME: "Oh hi." (but in my mind, Oh S#^*) I mean getting a phone call directly from you doctor is never a good thing. </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">HER: "Based on the results of your last pap, I have made an appointment for you with a surgeon on Friday. Can you make it?"</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ME: (Not in my head) "Oh S#^*!!!"</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Surprise, we messed up!</span></h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Back up from the story above to June 1, 2014. My first book <i>Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers: Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women </i>was published. It was and is a dream come true. Five months after publication I went to the American Academy of Religion / Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting, in San Diego. It was another dream come true. My book was to be at the IPG booth in the exhibit hall. When I got to the booth I had another "Oh S#^*" conversation,</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">HER: "I have been dreading this moment."</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ME: "Why, you don't even know me?"</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">HER: "I recognize you from the picture on your book. Your book is not here."</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ME: (Head hanging) "This is the most anti-climatic moment of my life. Why?"</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">HER: "The woman who was charged with sending the books quit and didn't tell anyone she hadn't sent them."</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">ME: "I have books in my car."</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">HER: "Well, if you want to go get them we can sell them and send you replacements."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">So, in my cute, new, black wedgies I walked back to my hotel, got a heavy bag of books out of my car and walked back to the booth. Have you ever been to the San Diego Convention Center? It is miles long. Something went seriously wrong with my hips. I had been having a bit of discomfort but now I was in serious pain. I left the meeting early because I could not walk. The good news is IPG sold out of my book.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Surprise, do you want the good news or the bad news?</span></h4>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Fast forward to January 2015 and my book wins a gold medal from Illuminations Book Awards. I go for a long walk with God and say, "Thanks God for this award! This confirms for me more than anything that I am on the path to which you have called me." I wrote a thank you note to the awards director and related this story. He said, " I agree, you're on a divine path with their book."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">I may be on a divine path but I could not walk the day after my walk with God. What ever happened at the AAR / SBL meeting happened again and I wasn't even wearing my cute, black wedgies. That brings me to the elevator story above and the reason I have not posted a blog in about a year. Pain is a great distractor but if you pay intention there are lessons to be learned. More about the lessons learned from pain, next week.</span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-59490220977225796142015-05-06T15:41:00.000-07:002015-05-06T15:41:12.807-07:00Don't Call Me a Guy<span style="color: #990000;">This is a speech I gave last week at Toast Masters (Mavens) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"> Equality of the Genders</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all women are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">I want to be clear about who is included in the group of women created equal. We are the white, educated women of property and means. Men, the working class and poor women are not created equal to us. They must labor to support themselves, their families and to provide goods and services for us in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Now, I know there are some men who believe that, as we form this more perfect union, women should not rule over men. John Adams, bless his heart, in a letter to Abigail, while we were writing the Deceleration of Independence asked, "In the new code of laws I know it will be necessary for you to write, I ask that you remember the men, and be more generous and favorable to us than you ancestors. Do not put unlimited power into the hands of the wives. Give up the harsh title of mistress for the more tender and endearing one of friend. Do not give power to vicious, lawless women to use us cruelly with impunity. Women of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat men only as vassals of the female sex." Abigail was swift to let John know that the revolutionary war was not fought to prove that all men were created equal. Abigail replied, "As to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Argument From Creation</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Man clearly was not created equal to woman as demonstrated by the second story of creation, found in the book of Genesis. He was created from the dust of the earth, He was put in the garden of God to tend it, but was incapable of the task, so woman was created. She was created superior to man, not from the dust of the earth but from living flesh. She is the final and crowning achievement in God's act of creation!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Woman was endowed with the almost God-like ability to produce life, with the assistances of the tinniest male seed. And where would we be if one women had not been courageous enough to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She wanted to be more like God. She wanted to be wise and so she took and ate while the man sat passively by and ate the fruit she gave him. The fruit he had been told not to eat. Woman had not been created when that command was given. The truth is, life as we know it, could not have existed within the confines of the garden.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Using Our Brains</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Does this argument sound absurd? The Declaration of Independence written only for white, women of property. Men created as lesser human beings than women. Women divinely ordained to rule over men. But the reverse of these arguments are some of the arguments used by patriarchy to marginalize and control women.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Women and people of color read the gender specific language of the Declaration of Independence and think, "Oh, that means me." But it doesn't. John Adams thought it was laughable that his wife Abigail requested that laws be written to protect women from the cruelty of vicious, lawless men and to this day the Equal Rights Amendment has not been passed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">The second story of creation, in the book of Genesis, has been interpreted to prove that men should rule over women. That women are responsible for the sin in the world. That it is God's will that women should suffer in childbirth. This interpretation also implies a literal, historical understand of an ancient story told and reload by an ancient people to explain the world they experienced around them. It also ignore the simultaneous creation of female and male, in the divine image, in the first story of creation. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Language creates reality and "those who control how language is used control the most powerful instrument for shaping human consciousness." (Kevin Giels. <i>Priscilla Papers vol. 29, no. 1) </i>If we call human beings mankind, we make invisible everyone who is not male or does not conform to societal norms of what <b>a kind of man</b> is. If we were to use woman kind to refer to all humanity, men would know they were not included. It is considered acceptable to insult men by calling them girls or ladies. Women want to believe that unmanned, manmade, chairman and mankind somehow includes us. It does not. Addressing a group of women or a mixed gender group as, "You guys" is culturally acceptable. Addressing a mixed gender group as, "You gals" is not and you guys is used to refer to groups of women.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Many of us worked in the seventies to change male generic language. Fireman became fire fighter. Policeman became law enforcement officer. Mailman became mail carrier and with the change of language came new career opportunities for women.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">The erasure continues. The original Star Trek used inclusive language but second generation Star Trek does not. I was in Victoria's Secret and heard a woman's voice say, "Dude, look at this bra." I looked up expecting to see a girl and boy shopping together. I saw two girls. Their culturally encouraged language had erased their gender. Male generic language, dude, guy brotherhood, mankind simply express male as normative and female as other, non-normative.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">To quote Albus Dumbledore, "Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, are our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflecting injury and remedying it." It is sad that John Lennon was killed at such a young age. He might have learned that we are not a "brotherhood of man." IMAGINE</span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-53996892845935590172015-02-27T15:57:00.000-08:002015-02-27T15:57:53.830-08:00The Puppy on the Leash<h2>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">God Leads By Your Heart's Desire</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">But sometimes the heart is like a puppy on a leash. The puppy is really happy to be out with her person and really wants to go on the walk but she sits down or she tries to go the other way or she whines. Somehow she doesn't trust that the hand holding the leash will take care of her or knows which way to go. My heart was the puppy on the leash. Religion, especially feminist theology, has always been my passion, my heart's desire.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Not Following God's Lead</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">When it was time to go to college I knew I had to go to Chapman and study religion. I got my BA in religion. I was called to go to graduate school or seminary, but like the puppy who tries to go the other way I did not trust that the hand on the leash knew which way to go. Instead I moved back to the desert to substitute teach. The stated goal was to pay off my student loans before going to graduate school. A couple at the church I attended went to seminary. I could hardly stand to be in the same room with them because I wanted to go to seminary so badly. A pastor at a church in Big Bear left her congregation to "follow her call" to a church in the mid-west. I couldn't read the article in the newspaper. I knew I wasn't following my call. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Eventually I got my multiple subject teaching credential and began a career in elementary education. When it came time to get an MA, so I could move over on the pay scale, I said to my husband, "Well, I better find an MA in religion program. It is the only thing I have ever wanted to study." I got that MA from Liberty University.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">I continued to feel called to the study of religion. I thought it was a Ph. D. I was called to until one day I saw an advertisement in a publication titled, <i>Christian Century. </i>The add seemed to have my name on it. It said, "Paula. do you long to study international feminist theology with women from around the world?" Oh, yes please! So I got my Dr. of Ministry in International Feminist Theology and went back to kindergarten.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">I have a favorite quote from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. It says, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Sometimes God Has To Tug On The Leash</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">My last two years of teaching were very difficult. I won't go into details about my next to last year except to say I had a very difficult group of children. My last year I had the most wonderful group of children and the most difficult group of parents I had ever experienced. One afternoon, after a particularly difficult encounter with a parent I walked from my classroom to the office and said, "God, why am I having such a hard time with these parents? With children like these I could do this forever." That still, small voice that I am getting better at listening to said, "Paula, you are not supposed to be here." "Oooooooh!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">So I retired. I think of it as I finally graduated from kindergarten. I wrote the book that had been banging on the inside of my chest to get out. I brought forth what was within me and it saved me. My book recently received a gold medal from Illumination Book Awards. I am realizing my heart's desire. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">The puppy on the leash is no longer sitting down or whining or trying to go the other direction. The puppy on the leash is trotting happily along, trusting that the hand on the leash knows the way to go and will take care of her. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-3447750385453690102015-02-02T15:28:00.000-08:002015-02-02T15:28:35.167-08:00The Sacrifice of the Virgin Daughter of Jephthah<h2>
<span style="color: #990000;">Where to find the story of Jephthah's Nameless Daughter</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Jephthah's daughter is found in Judges 11:1-11 and 29-40. Her father makes a vow to God that if he is successful in battle the first person to greet him, on his return, will be sacrificed </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I could see him coming from a long way off. I put on my dancing skirt and picked up my tambourine. I am his only daughter, his only child and I wanted to be the first to welcome him home in victory. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"Why have you done this to me?" he yelled. He started tearing his clothes and throwing dirt on his head. "You have caused me great trouble! You have brought me very low." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">All I could do was stand there and listen to him rave about what I had done to him. He blamed <b>me</b> for <b>his</b> vow, for the violence he was about to do to me. Who did he think would come out to greet him? My mother and I were the two most obvious choices. He had vowed to sacrifice the first person to greet him and it was me. He must have know it would be me or my mother. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I hated him in that moment! I knew that he would not relent. I was doomed and I had to get away from him. I left for two months. I told him I was going to bewail my virginity. That was something he could understand. My life was of no consequence to him. He had decided how I would die but I decided when. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">The women of Israel will remember me. They will lament the sacrifice of a virgin daughter to a God who does not demand human sacrifice. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Observations on the story of Jephthah's Daughter</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Abraham vows to sacrifice Isaac but God intervenes at the last moment and Isaac is saved. No such luck for the nameless daughter of Jephthah. Ironically, Jephthah has just defeated the Ammonites who worship the god Molech. The Ammonites practiced the sacrifice of their children to Molech.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Leviticus 18: 21 warns the Israelites not to sacrifice their children because the act profanes the name of God. Leviticus 20: 2-5 prescribes the punishment of stoning to death for anyone who <b>does </b>sacrifice a child. Where is the justice for Jephthah's daughter? Not only is her father not stoned he is made the head of the elders and commander of the army.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">One can only wonder at the motivation of a father and husband who vows to sacrifice the first person to greet him on his return home. He seems to have his, "Look what you have done to me" blaming the victim speech, all made up. The story of Jephthah's daughter is tragic and the male biblical writer seems to believe that the fact that she is a virgin is even more tragic. He sends her off to bewail her virginity, not her life. But the women know and Judges 11:39b-40 says, "So there arose an Israelite custom that for four days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite." NRSV </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-51641473880953261762015-01-22T15:00:00.001-08:002015-01-22T15:01:24.950-08:00Virgins Sacrificed to God in the Hebrew Scriptures.<h2>
<span style="color: #990000;">Are there any passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that record virgins sacrificed as burnt offerings? </span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Check next week to hear the story of the virgin daughter of Jephthah.</span></h3>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-57211532123250463142015-01-15T15:43:00.000-08:002015-01-15T15:43:45.577-08:00God is Good<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Wonderful News</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Yesterday I learned that Illumination Book Award, awarded my book a Gold Medal in the Bible study category. I am so happy! I had a long walk with God this morning and thanked her for this award as conformation and assurance that I am following the path I am called to follow. (FYI, I don't think God is gendered but I like to call her she, just to mix things up.) A link to the award is below.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1904</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-82023674498339233942014-12-18T15:56:00.002-08:002014-12-18T15:56:38.505-08:00Judith, The Warrior<h2>
<span style="color: #990000;">Where To Find Judith's Story</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">The book of Judith is found in the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Scriptures but not in the Protestant Bible. The book of Judith is also in the Septuagint, a translation of the Jewish Scriptures into Greek done between 300-200 BCE. Her story is one of only four biblical books named for a woman.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Judith Tells Her Story</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I was disgusted by the people and by Uzziah's capitulation. Surrender, that is all they can think of to save us, surrender So they are thirsty. I have fasted every day for the three years since my husband died, What kind of faith does Uzziah show? "Hold out for five days and if God doesn't show us mercy we will surrender." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I had a plan. I sent my slave woman to bring Uzziah and the elders to me. I said to them, "This is not right. Who are you to put God to the test. You cannot penetrate the depths of the human heart or understand the workings of the human mind how do you expect to know the mind of God? If we fall all Judea will fall and our temple will be desecrated and plundered. We will be slaves and bring dishonor on our God. We are being put to the test just as Abraham, Sarah, Jacob and Leah were tested. We must set an example."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Uzziah spoke condescendingly, "No one can deny your word or your wisdom but the people are thirsty so pray for rain."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"Listen and do not ask me what I am about to do. Be at the town gate tonight to let me and my slave out. With the help of our God, the Assyrians will be delivered into the hands of a woman before the day you have sworn to the people you will surrender."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I prayed, but not for rain. I prayed for a sword vengeance. I called for the Lord's help. "Here are the Assyrians," I said. "They pride themselves in their horses and foot soldiers. They trust in their spears and shields. They do not know you. They plan to defile and pollute the sanctuary Give me, a widow, the strength to crush their arrogance. You are the God of the lowly, oppressed, weak forsaken and hopeless. Use my deceitful words to remind the nation of your power and might." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I am a very beautiful woman but I have hidden my beauty since the death of my husband, under sack cloth and ashes. Not today, today I bathed and dressed in my finest clothes. I put sweet smelling ointment on my body and wore my most precious jewels. I packed food for myself and gave it to my slave to carry. Then we went to the gate of the city. Uzziah and the elders were there. They were astounded by my transformation. They made some speech about the God of our ancestors granting me favor to fulfill my plans so the Jerusalem would be exalted.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"Open the gate." I said. "So I can accomplish what you merely talk about." As I hoped we were captured by the Assyrian guard. I told them I had come to see their commander, to tell him of a way to capture the towns of the hill country. They did not question me. "Oh, we will take you to him. Have no fear. When he sees you he will, well..." They were ridiculous, first they had to choose a hundred men to escort me. Then there was excitement in the camp as notice of my arrival passed from tent to tent. Eventually they were all standing outside the commanders tent looking at me. Finally I was taken to the commander.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Do not be afraid, he told me. If you chose to serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of all the earth no one will harm you."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I laid it on thick. "I am your servant. I tell you the truth, God will do great things through you. I have heard you are the wisest and the most skilled in the whole kingdom. I know Anchior told you that we could not be defeated because out God will defend us as long as we keep the commandments. Well, the people are about to sin. They are going to eat the first fruits and the tithes of wine and oil which are consecrated to God. God has sent me to you to tell you when the people have sinned. Then I can lead you through Judea to Jerusalem where you will set up your thrown." My words pleased him so I asked that I be allowed to go outside the camp every night to pray. I told him God would tell me when the people had sinned and it was time to attack.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"You are beautiful and wise," he said. "In fact no other woman in all the world looks so beautiful and speaks so wisely. God has done well to send you to me."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I stayed in camp for three days. Every night at midnight my slave and I went outside the camp to bathe and pray. Finally on the fourth night he sent to me. He was having a banquet and he told the eunuchs he sent to fetch me, "It would be a disgrace of we let such a woman go without having intercourse with her. If we do not seduce her, she will laugh at us." (NRSV) "Let the pretty girl come to me and drink wine with me and become like one of the Assyrian women who serve in the palace." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I went but I did not drink his wine or eat his food. He got so drunk he passed out. All the servants and banquets guests left and closed up the tent. I told my slave to wait outside. We would go to pray a usual. When everyone was gone. I grabbed him by the hair, said a prayer for strength and cut off his head. It took me two blows but I did it. I took the head out to my slave who put it in the food bag and we walked out of camp as if we were going to pray. We kept walking until we got to the city gates. At the gates we roused the sentry to open the gate. All the towns people came out to see me because they had given me up for dead. I pulled the head of the Assyrian commander out of my bag and said, "Praise God who has delivered Israel by the hand of a woman." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Observations on Judith's Story</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Finding a woman at the heart of the Christmas story is easy. It is harder to find a woman in the Hanukkah story. The book of Judith is dated during the Hasmonean dynasty which was established by the Maccabees. First and Second Maccabees record the stories of the cleansing of the temple. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">If biblical women are described in the Bible they are usually said to be beautiful. Judith is no exception. Judith 8:7 says. "She was beautifully formed and lovely to behold." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">In the endorsement Reza Aslan wrote for my book he says, "The women warriors, prophets and disciples of the Bible have been miscast for centuries as demons, harlots and jezebels - and intentionally so. For if the truth about who these women were and what they represented were more widely known, it would challenge most of the assumptions we have about Judaism and Christianity." Judith was one of those women. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-55404841051641236712014-11-05T14:44:00.000-08:002014-11-05T14:44:27.977-08:00The Ordeal of A Suspected Adultress<h2>
<span style="color: #990000;">Where to Find the Law Concerning A Suspected Adulteress</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I usually write about specific women in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Many of the interpretations I have been taught or the way women are treated in scripture I find disrespectful at the least and in some cases abusive. Although I have read most of the Bible, I continue to discover women or verses about women that I do not remember reading before. This little jewel is from Numbers 5:11-31. I suggest reading the biblical text before the story below. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">The Woman Suspected of Adultery Tells Her Story</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I had to suffer the ordeal, the humiliation. There was no evidence against me. There was no proof, no witnesses to any infidelity. There was no infidelity. My husband had a vague feeling of jealousy, a spirit of jealously and because of our laws I am the one who had to suffer humiliation. He forced me to go to the temple with an offering of barley meal. I had to stand there, holding the jealousy offering, with my hair uncovered. "Tell the truth" the priest shouted at me. "Have you had sex with another man? You are under the authority of your husband. What did you do to make him jealous?" They concocted a drink made of water, dirt from the floor and their words of accusation. "If your drink this water your belly will swell and your thighs will rot. You will become a curse among the people. If you are not guilty God will grant you children." <i>I will never let that man near me again. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">I drank their water with the dirt from the floor and their words of the accusation. My belly did not swell! My thighs did not rot. "What is his punishment for false accusations? " I cried. "I did nothing but for me there is suspicion and humiliation." The priest laughed, "For him there is nothing. He is guilty of nothing. He followed the law concerning his vague feeling of jealously. Be grateful you are not cursed." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Observations on the Law Concerning the Suspected Adulteress </span></h4>
<span style="color: #990000;">This is one of those commandments you are not going to see on a monument outside a courthouse. The stupidity and injustice of this law is almost comical. It is an appalling commandment said to be given by God to Moses. Verse 14b -15a even says, "If a spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself; then the man shall bring his wife to the priest." The injustice of this law illustrates how patriarchy has tried to control women and women's sexuality across centuries and cultures. Sadly, there are women who suffer this kind of injustice and humiliation. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-15086045864280386332014-10-01T14:17:00.000-07:002014-10-01T14:17:04.065-07:00The Rape of Susanna<h2>
<span style="color: #990000;">Where to find Susanna's Story</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">In the <i>New Revised Standard Version</i> of the Bible, Susanna's story is found in the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books. It is a stand alone story about a beautiful, pious, Jewish woman. In the Catholic, <i>The New American Bible: St. Joseph's Edition</i> Susanna's story is chapter 13 of the book of Daniel. In many Protestant Bibles, Susanna's story does not appear at all.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Susanna Tells Her Story</span></h3>
<span style="color: #990000;">"I am completely trapped. For if I do this, it will mean death for me; if I do not, I cannot escape your hands." Susanna says to the would be rapists, in Susanna 1:22 </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">They slunk into the garden while I was bathing. How long had those voyeurs been hiding and watching me? Where had they been hiding? How did they know I was alone? How did they know I had sent my maids to get olive oil and ointment? </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">They came rushing at me, "The garden doors are closed" they yelled. "No one can see us. You will have sex with us or we will testify against you. We will ruin you. We will say we caught you having sex with a young man." I was not going to give into those foul, old men so I cried out for help. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">They began shouting that they had found me with a man who was not my husband. An accusation that was punishable by death. All my household came to see what the commotion was. No one defended me. The next day those odious, old men came to my home filled with their foul, wicked plan to have me put to death. My husband, parents, children, relatives and servants were all there. They all knew the kind of woman I am but still no one, not one defended me. They listened to the lies. The old frauds told how they were walking in the garden and saw me dismiss my maids. They said a young man was hiding there and they saw us having sex. Oh, they were eloquent in describing how they had tried to get the man, but he was to strong for them. But they had captured me. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">When they pulled off my veil I knew it was just to get a better look at me. They were going to have me killed but they couldn't hide their perversion from me or their desire to humiliate me. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">There was a man named Daniel in the group that was leading me to my execution. He told the group that he wanted no part in the shedding of my blood. At that moment I was sure God had heard my prayers. He called them fools for not giving me a fair trial. He demanded that we return to court. He questioned my accusers separately and discovered their stories did not match. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">They were put to death for their false witness. All my family rejoiced because I was innocent. But, if it hadn't been for Daniel they would have allowed me to be put to death</span><span style="color: #990000;"> without one word in my defense. My relationship with them was irreparably damaged.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Observations on Susanna's Story</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #990000;">From the time I watched the movie<span style="background-color: white;"> <i>Psycho,</i> I knew to always lock the door and close the window when I took a bath or shower. Bathing is a dangerous thing for women. Then I watched <i>The X Files</i> and I learned that even if Scully locked her doors and windows when she took a bath, the alien was going to get her. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Of course, Susanna is said to be a beautiful woman. With the exception of Leah in Genesis, I can not think of a single woman in the Bible who is not describe as beautiful, if she is described at all. Susanna is trapped. If she gives into the elders and has sex with them she has committed adultery. An act punishable by death. If she does not have sex with them, they will accuse her of having sex with someone else. An act punishable by death. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Susanna courageously makes the choice to stay true to her convictions. In a situation where she is not allowed a voice to defend herself she finds her voice to pray aloud to God, exclaiming her innocence. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">In the end, it is not Susanna who is proclaimed the s/hero of her own story. Her fidelity to the law, her husband and her faith in God are not celebrated. Rather it is the reputation of Daniel that is acclaimed. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-28742985850204502622014-09-16T10:48:00.000-07:002014-09-16T10:48:41.720-07:00Job's Wife<h2>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">Where to Find The Story of Job's Wife</span></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">The nameless wife of Job speaks two sentences in the book of Job. They are recorded in Job 2:9. She is also mentioned in 19:17 when Job declares that his breath is repulsive to her and in 31:10 where he defends his sexual integrity by offering his wife to other men if he has not been truthful. "Let my wife grind for another, and let other men kneel over her." </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Job's Wife Tells Her Story</i></span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">"Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die." said Job's wife to Job. Job 2:9</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">Gone! Everything is gone! My children, oh my children! All our servants, the oxen, donkeys and camels</span></span><span style="color: #990000;"> are gone. I think my husband has lost his mind. He tore is clothes, shaved his head and is sitting in a pile of ashes. If it could get any worse he has broken out in sores all over his body. He will not let me help him. He just sits in the ashes and scrapes the sores with a pot shard. I tried to talk to him but he dismissed me, calling me a foolish woman. After he called me foolish, he didn't speak for seven days. Now his fool friends have shown up to comfort him. Where is my comfort? My children, oh my children!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">She has lost everything. The only difference between what happened to her and her husband is that there is no report of her being afflicted with sores. In the wager between Satan and God, Job's wife, her children, their servants and the families of all the servants who were killed, are the innocent victims. Job demonstrates no concern for anyone but himself. He was a wealthy powerful man who bemoans the lack of respect he now experiences from people he considers beneath him. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Job's wife tells him to curse God and die. He calls her a foolish woman and then goes on to curse the day of his conception and birth. He longs for death, the fate of a stillborn child. Throughout the book he is self-righteous and selfish. He regards his wife and her body as his property. "Job's words are in keeping with the patriarchal perspective that saw a woman's sexuality as the property of her husband rather than the woman herself." (Woman's Bible Commentary, Newsom, p. 135)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">At the end of the book Job's property has been restored and he has ten more children. My question is, who had the pleasure of giving birth to ten more children? </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-24225470442422606372014-07-30T13:58:00.001-07:002014-07-30T13:58:59.198-07:00Queen Esther<h2>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">Where to Find Queen Esther's Story</span></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">Esther is one of only two books named for a woman in the Protestant Bible and one of only three books named for a woman in the Catholic Bible. Her story starts in chapter two after Queen Vashti has been deposed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">"You know that I hate the glory of the pagans, and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised or of any foreigner." Esther C:26</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;"> News of what Vashti had done spread like wild fire. The Queen had said, "No" to the king in the presence of all his officials and they were furious. The women thought this might bring a change in our lives but the officials made laws that controlled our lives even more. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">None of us expected what happened next. The king appointed officers in all the provinces. They were to search for all the beautiful virgins in the empire and take them to the king's harem in Susa. We were torn away from our families and any life that we had hoped to have for ourselves. We were put under the guard of a eunuch whose title was "custodian of the women." We were given oil of myrrh, perfumes, cosmetics and beatifying treatments. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">Every night one of us was taken to the king's bed. We were allowed to take on thing with us. In the morning we were sent to another harem, guarded by another eunuch. Now we were concubines. If the king liked us he might call for us again. Otherwise???</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">In the tenth month of my captivity I was taken to the king. I pleased him and he made me his queen!? No one was more surprised than I. I had not yet told him that I was a Jew. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">My foster father, Mordecai hung around the palace gate. He wanted to get information about me and find out what was going to happen to me. While there he overheard a plot, between two guards who were planning to harm the king. He got word to me and I told the king what Mordecai heard. The guards were killed and Mordecai was rewarded. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">There was a very evil man named Haman in the court of the king. He wanted everyone to bow down to him. Everyone did, except Mordecai. We are Jews. We do not give the </span></span><span style="color: #990000;">honor reserved for G*d to a mortal man. So this evil man decided that every Jew in the nation, man, woman and child should be put to death and all their possessions seized. He convinced the king to issue a decree that on 12/13 every Jew should be slaughtered by the citizens of the empire. It was a horrible thing for my people to face. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Mordecai totally fell to pieces. He tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes and walked through the city, up to the palace gates wailing and crying. No one is allowed to enter the gates in sackcloth, so I sent a eunuch to him with fresh clothes. When the eunuch returned he gave me a message from Mordecai. I was to beg the king for the lives of my people.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I had not been summoned to the king in 30 days. Appearing before the king when one is not summoned is an offense punishable by death. I wept and prayed along with my servants. If I did not go before the king, all the Jews would be killed. If I did go before the king, I would be killed first and then all the Jews. It was clear to me that if my people were to be saved I was the one who had to do it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I bathed and dressed in my finest, royal attire. I was terrified and leaned on my maid for support. When I reached the king he looked up at me with such anger that I fainted. When I awoke he was holding me and talking gently to me. I had a plan to invite the king and Haman to a dinner which I would prepared. I wanted to stay in the king's good graces and I wanted Haman to let down his guard. I hosted two such dinners. While the king was drinking wine at the second dinner I begged the king for my life and the life of my people. I emphasized that the death of all the Jews would be a great financial loss to the empire. As I hoped the king became angry and asked who had planned such a disaster. Haman was petrified. The king stormed out into the garden. Haman began to beg for his life. His final mistake was throwing himself on me. When the king returned he thought Haman was violating me. Haman's fate was sealed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">The Jews were saved. The community celebrated the days that were meant for our destruction with feasting and rejoicing. We called the celebration Purim and I commanded that Purim should be celebrated every year.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Observation on the Story of Queen Esther</span></h4>
<span style="color: #990000;">Not all commentators have been impressed with Esther. As Sidnie Ann White points out in </span><i style="color: #990000;">The Women's Bible Commentary, </i><span style="color: #990000;">"The tendency among scholars was to exalt Mordecai as the true hero of the tale and to downplay or even vilify the role of Esther. As late as 1971 Carey More stated, 'Between Mordecai and Esther the greater hero in the Hebrew is Mordecai, who supplied the brains while Esther simply follows his directions' (Moore, p.lii)" In the text Mordecai asks Esther to plead for her people, he uses shame to convince her of what he believes to be her duty, but he does not offer a plan. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Other commentators, i</span><span style="color: #990000;">gnoring the fact that refusing the king's harem would have meant her death have criticized her for becoming a member of the harem. The implication being that she was there to gain power and wealth. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Esther enters her story as the powerless, sex slave of a powerful king. At the close of her story she is a powerful queen who has manipulated her circumstances and saved not only her own life but the life of all the Jewish people. Like many women before and after her she has made a way for herself where there was no way. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-635853935347091837.post-50118383350959923282014-06-21T16:20:00.001-07:002014-06-21T16:20:29.013-07:00Forgotten Queen<h2>
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<span style="color: #990000;">In the book of Esther, Queen Vashti, was the queen Esther replaced. When her story begins, Queen Vashti is entertaining women of the royal court. She is commanded by the king to appear before the men so he can display her beauty. Because she has no voice in the Bible we are not told why she refused his command, hence, many speculations. "For instance, the Targum (the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible) informs the reader that the king wished Vashti to appear naked before the company and that out of modesty she refused." (The Women's Bible Commentary, P. 127) Her story can be found in Esther 1:1-2:1</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">"NO!" Vashti's declaration to the eunuchs who informed her the king had commanded her presence.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">I knew the consequence could be sever if I refused, but he had been drinking for seven days. His officers, ministers, nobles and governors were all there and just as drunk as he was. When the eunuchs came to tell me I was to appear before the King wearing my crown, I knew it was only my crown he wanted me to wear. I refused to go. He said he wanted to, "Display my beauty." As if my beauty belonged to him. A room full of drunken, powerful men is no place for a woman, naked or not. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">He was furious! They were all furious! So the king asked his lawyers, "What does the law say should be done to Queen Vashti for disobeying my order?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">They were in a panic! There was no law that dictated what was to be done to a woman who dared to speak up for herself. "She didn't just wrong you" they shouted "she has wronged all the men in the empire. If the women hear that the queen disobeyed the order of the king they will think they can disobey their husbands. They will have contempt for us and will rebel against our rule over them. You must issue an irrevocable royal decree. You must forbid Queen Vashti form ever coming into your presence again. The law must declare that the king can give the honor of the queen to someone more worthy. When the women hear these laws, they will have to honor their husbands. The law must demand that men are the lords of their homes. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">He made a law, an irrevocable law that I could never be summoned into his presences again. I refused to appear at his command and now he can never command me to appear. What a happy consequence!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Observations on Queen Vashti's Story</span></h4>
<span style="color: #990000;">How do our attitudes about biblical women influence our understanding of the atrocities experienced by women today? Vashti's story is clearly a story of male dominance. She is commanded to expose herself for the pleasure of her husband's friends. If we believe she got what she deserved, that is being expelled from the court, as some commentators have said, then we probably believe women should be under the control of the men in their lives. If we see her act of defiance as self protection we see a strong woman unwilling to be dominated.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">When I first read this story I was surprised that such a shocking story of male dominance has remained in the Bible. Obviously, the male translators and commentators saw nothing wrong with a husband demanding that a wife appear before his drunken friends. Nothing wrong with all the men of the empire being afraid their wives might say, "no." Nothing wrong with the queen being deposed for standing up for herself. Nothing wrong with laws being passed to insure woman would treat their husbands like lords.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">The men knew their wives were unhappy and would rebel. They knew their wives held them in contempt. Rather than changing the way they treated their wives, they passed laws so the women could not act on their contempt. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800614286582037835noreply@blogger.com0