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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Markoff who wrote (14973)	5/7/1998 9:39:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

Nancy, life--and religion--are never really matters of black or white. I enjoy reading about history, and unfortunately Christianity in general has had rather a brutal historical effect at times. The witch burnings during the Inquistion, and the Holocaust, are certainly two examples where there were many wonderful Christian individuals who were compassionate, but still a lot of men who were either ordered by their churches, or thought mistakenly that they were acting out correct Christian religious beliefs, still ended up doing horrible things. As far as women are portrayed in the Bible, there are passages supporting love for women, and passages as well where women are not seen as men's equals. Certainly, making Eve from Adam's rib would be one example of symbolism that makes men more important. I really like the Chinese saying "women hold up half the sky". I wish all women everywhere had equal rights, and equal respect with men. A big help would be to model all of that by changing some of the male references in hymns and the Bible and sermons and ceremonies and rituals to female references, or at least making them gender neutral. Another big help would be more churches allowing women into the ministry and the priesthood. I am really curious as to why almost everyone refers to God as "he". How do we really know? As the Christians moved into medieval Europe, Mary was a very, very important figure. The agrarian pagan religions the Christians were trying to conquer and overcome had very powerful goddesses, and Mary appealed to these pagans. In fact, until at least the twelfth century, she was portrayed as a goddess in Europe. It is unfortunate that this idea of Mary died out as the Christians were victorious. It left a very male-dominated religion in place, and it is just now, at the end of the twentieth century, that women are campaigning hard for equality again.