Last Sunday before Mass, I was in the sacristy preparing for the First Reading that I would later be sharing with the congregation. The music director and Monsignor were there too, discussing Church-related matters. When they saw that I was there, the music director (who is really informally in charge of all operations) says: “Oh, Dawn, I saw you on TV the other night.” I responded with a smile and a subtle nod of my head. Monsignor asked: “Oh really, what for?” And, she answered for me: “She was at the City Council meeting talking about same sex partners.” Monsignor quickly walked away without further comment. And, I just sheepishly shrugged my shoulders. Continue reading “LGBT Activism and the Holy Spirit By Dawn DiPrince”
Author: Guest Contributor
The Changing Face of Christ in the Catholic Church by Janice Poss
Yesterday, as I have done for the last six years, I attended another ordination, an ordination that as the others has been two thousand years in the making. It was historic, it was Catholic; it was the new face of in persona Christi, the true ideal of Imago Dei. It was also a retrieval of our roots, of the other side of God. These ordinations make and bring God and Christ into integrated authentic wholeness and, therefore true holiness.
Yes, it was the ordination of two more women to the Catholic priesthood. This movement is real and has been going on now since 2003. The changing face of God and Christ is in women, their determination in their discernment as a ‘priestly’ people in living out the Gospel messages with which we are all too familiar and need to be ‘lived’ to make them real and felt in our Church. Continue reading “The Changing Face of Christ in the Catholic Church by Janice Poss”
Social Engagement as Feminist Praxis in the lives of Patricia A. Reif & Rita Nakashima Brock By Teresa A. Yugar
Today our country and global community need religious leaders to utilize their theological education and feminist principles to model the formation of ally ships across ecumenical and interfaith perspectives, laying the foundation for a more just and peaceful society. While Reif and Nakashima Brock did not know each other, their feminist stance of commitment to social justice and praxis should give us pause.
In 2002, Claremont Graduate University and the Immaculate Heart Community collaborated and created an endowment to sponsor a Lectureship in honor of the memory of feminist teacher, scholar and activist, Dr. Patricia A. Reif. Each year the Dr. Patricia A. Reif committee invites cutting edge feminist scholars in religion to discuss the intersection of their research interests and its influence on their scholarship, activist work and teaching in the broader sense of the term, both inside and outside of the classroom. This year the Reverend Dr. Nakashima Brock is the select guest Lecturer to honor Reif’s life, memory, and legacy. Tammi Schneider, committee member and Dean of the School of Religion stated Nakashima Brock’s visit is timely because in three weeks the national U.S. presidential elections will define the trajectory of our country for, minimally, the next four years. Nakashima Brock’s involvement in the Occupy Movement on a local and national level extends from her feminist commitment and advocacy for the rights of the 99% of our country who are being squelched by U.S. policies that favor the elite 1% of our nation. For Nakashima Brock it is a moral imperative for persons of faith and goodwill to educate individuals and take a stand on policies, on a state and nation-wide level that safeguard the livelihoods of the majority poor of our country. For Nakashima Brock this means quality health care for all, living wages and decent jobs, free high quality public education through college, and an end to the prison-military-industrial complex. Continue reading “Social Engagement as Feminist Praxis in the lives of Patricia A. Reif & Rita Nakashima Brock By Teresa A. Yugar”
Half the Church by Lorie Winder
Last week’s nationwide airing of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide reminded those of us who read the Kristof/WuDunn book of the same title how profoundly we were affected by its revelations. For those unfamiliar with either, the book and two-part film document one of the most shameful realities of the twenty-first century, namely, the continued, widespread oppression and degradation of millions of women linked to gender discrimination. Lest we feel impotent when confronted with such a grim reality, the film presents the inspiring stories of courageous women who are making a difference—a Cambodian woman, for example, sold into prostitution as a child, who escapes and later builds a school and refuge for girls with a similar history. Such stories challenge us with what Half the Sky calls “the single most vital opportunity of our time: the opportunity to make a change.” Continue reading “Half the Church by Lorie Winder”
Like Rain on Dry Land by Marcia Bedard
When first I moved to a rural mountain community near Yosemite, I was spiritually parched, and my soul felt dry as a bone. Desperate for the rich conversations of my sisters, after taking an early retirement from the CSU Fresno Women’s Studies Program, I had an intuitive sense that I might find some like-minded women friends in a small group that met weekly at our local church, led by Diana, our courageously and outrageously feminist pastor, who has since moved on to what I hope are friendlier communities for feminist pastors.
If PFLAG, and similar marginalized groups, had found an oasis there, in what was called (in order to please the church fathers) a Women’s Bible Study Group, so could I. A year before, this would have been my last choice of groups to join, but in a town where fundamentalist churches thrived, and Starbucks was the only place you could find a copy of literature as subversive as The New York Times, it was my only choice. It was in the church basement, amidst a thinly disguised knitting/bible study group, that we gathered weekly to receive what turned out to be a truly holy (meaning wholly) communion of spirit, enriched by various reading that Diana generously shared with us. Continue reading “Like Rain on Dry Land by Marcia Bedard”
A Sea Change Towards Women’s Ordination by Mary Ellen Robertson
If I see a flaw in contemporary Mormon feminism, it’s that we haven’t ventured outside our own religious community to partner with other religious feminist activists. Working separately or in ignorance of the work already done by other religious feminists, we’re more likely to spend time reinventing the wheel than building upon the lessons learned.
Fortunately, there’s an exciting shift afoot.
Last week, Catholic and Mormon women came together for a dialogue on women’s ordination.
Hosted by Claremont Graduate University, this discussion brought together six women from patriarchal religions to explore what happens when we call an all-male priesthood into question and examine the theological and cultural assumptions upon which an all-male priesthood rests. Continue reading “A Sea Change Towards Women’s Ordination by Mary Ellen Robertson”
Working and Working Out: “Health,” Obesity, and Labor by Stefanie Goyette
What I think we must consider in analyzing any form of “health” that is encouraged, and even enforced, is that such encouragement comes back in the end to the ability to work, to be “productive,” and, in turn, to spend the money that one earns.
What is “health”? What does it mean to be “healthy”? Physical well-being and energy? Mental and emotional balance? A sense of general control over one’s body and self? I had originally meant to speak of the frequent reduction in our culture of “health” to appearance: sexual attractiveness, muscle tone, body size, etc., but Lesley Kinzel has already given an analysis of this paradigm, twice, in fact. Go read her articles, then come back here and we’ll talk about some other stuff.
Attractiveness as a measure of “health,” which we will consider as being already established as a cultural fact, effectively defines health neither as a personal sense of well-being nor as a set of conditions agreed upon in consultation with a physician. Rather, aesthetic criteria render health a metric that lets other people judge – and judge others on – a level of “health.” This judgment affects women disproportionately and, being external, reduces the value of female subjective experience and the power of subjectivity in the individual. Yet this externalization by no means ends with quotidian social interaction, but also extends to the medical establishment and the regulation of bodies in terms of the normal and the pathological – no great revelation here (Foucault already said it) – and these measures are already part of the intrinsic layout and values of the culture to which a given medical establishment belongs. Continue reading “Working and Working Out: “Health,” Obesity, and Labor by Stefanie Goyette”
THE INTERPRETER; or An Introduction to Hermeneutics by Daniel Cohen
He showed us that every text contains two messages, one formed by the ink and the other by the spaces left between the inked letters, the material included and that which was excluded, and that the message was never complete if only the first text was read.
(Hermeneutics: The art or science of interpretation, especially of scripture. Oxford English Dictionary)
It was all the interpreter’s fault.
He came to our city looking for employment. It was soon clear that he had a wide knowledge of many languages, and most of our merchants began to employ him in their dealings with foreign traders. We saw him speeding from one to another, in those sandals of his with the odd widening at the heels, often pausing to tell one merchant of a recent purchase of interest by another. It seemed that trade prospered with his coming. Our merchants became wealthier and busier than they had ever been. Continue reading “THE INTERPRETER; or An Introduction to Hermeneutics by Daniel Cohen”
It’s Junk Science by Brian Froelich
Le
t’s be honest. It’s not about the junk science. There were some crazy things said recently but they were crazy with a purpose.
Republican Rep. Todd Aikin (who is a policy blood brother to Republican Reps. Paul Ryan and Chris Smith) effectively said a woman’s subconscious can determine if she gets pregnant. He said as a result of a rape a women’s body can shut down its reproductive mechanisms. Of course this is junk science. And Republicans quickly reacted to the predictable public uproar by castigating Rep. Aikin and seeking his resignation from the race. (Two interesting exceptions to that list were former Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and current Congressional candidate Rep. Chris Smith. Huckabee by his stout defense and Smith by his silence.)
But this had nothing to do with Republicans’ regard for science. In fact science is held in very low regard in the Republican party. This is best exemplified by the fact that the Republicans appointed Rep. Aikin to the Congressional Science Committee. Continue reading “It’s Junk Science by Brian Froelich”
Hijacking the Nuns? by Kate Conmy
When stuck between a vow of obedience and a hard place known as the Vatican, sisterhood may be our only prayer. Since April 18, 2012, the U.S. nuns have been cast into the headlines as the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) released a harsh assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an umbrella organization, representing 80% of U.S. sisters. Accused of “radical feminist themes,” “corporate dissent,” and among other things, not taking an official stance on some hot Catholic issues, nuns have become frontrunners of a revolution.
The groundswell of support and solidarity pouring forth from faithful Catholics and the media has been unprecedented by all standards; when the secular feminist website Jezebel is calling for Sr. Simone Campbell , executive director for the Catholic lobby group, NETWORK, for president, the issue has clearly gone beyond the choir. The movement has taken on the adage “we are all nuns,” expressing a shared sense of oppression by the Catholic Church. If the second largest religious domination in the U.S. (10%) is “former Catholic,” then this shared sense of betrayal by the Vatican may not be new, but it has found new energy in the conflict between Rome and the American nuns. Continue reading “Hijacking the Nuns? by Kate Conmy”
