Regardless of the context, leadership is too often simply an imitation and implementation of business management strategies that are designed to ‘lead’ people toward a predetermined goal. In business the goal is to maximize profits, minimize cost, and increase production, and as long as it is serves that purpose, employee satisfaction is sought and minimally maintained. I reviewed Ronald A. Heifetz classic text on leadership, Leadership Without Easy Answers, which does take the discussion of leadership into a different direction. And although it does not fall in the direction I want to eventually go, it does offer a solid place to start this conversation on leadership. [1] Continue reading “Leadership As Risk And Open Dialogue By Xochitl Alvizo”
Category: General
LGBT Saints: Feminism Leads to a Queer Theology of Sainthood By Kittredge Cherry
The following is a guest post written by Rev. Kittredge Cherry, lesbian Christian author and art historian who blogs about LGBT spirituality and the arts at the Jesus in Love Blog. Her books include “Equal Rites” and “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More“.
Feminists have criticized saints as top-down tools of the dominant morality, but as a lesbian Christian I find that sometimes the opposite is true. The desire for saints rises from the grassroots, and LGBT saints can shake up the status quo. Feminist theology is helping me in a quest for new models of sainthood that lead to LGBT and queer saints. The LGBT saints attract people with the quality of their love. They show us not only THEIR place in history, but also OUR place — because we are all saints who are meant to embody love. Continue reading “LGBT Saints: Feminism Leads to a Queer Theology of Sainthood By Kittredge Cherry”
Halloween Matters (Part II): An Immigrant Family, Christian, and Feminist Parenting Perspective by Grace Yia-Hei Kao
“[W]e have not gone the store-bought, costume-in-a-bag route, even though we recognize that the proliferation of ready-made options is a godsend to time-strapped, dual-career parents.”
This is a second part of a previous post about the shifting personal importance of Halloween. Now that I’m a mother of two young boys, I find that my husband and I are constantly looking for teachable opportunities. The holidays have accordingly become excellent ways for us not only to spend quality time together, but also to impart our values. We manifest our commitments even in something as simple as costume choices, as I explain below.
(1) We do not indulge the Manichean-like stage that our four-year old child is in. As befitting a boy his age, our primo is fascinated by superheroes and has asked on a number of occasions if he could be one for Halloween.
Halloween Matters: An Immigrant Family, Christian, and Feminist Parenting Perspective by Grace Yia-Hei Kao
“I had realized that my parents legitimately had more important things to do than to carve pumpkins or buy costumes. But as a young child, I equated participating in the cultural phenomenon that is Halloween with being an American. I, as a daughter of immigrants, just wanted to fit in and join the fun.”
Seeds of Hierarchy By Xochitl Alvizo
Last month I was at an event that I helped organize. Inevitably I was here and there and everywhere: greeting people, making sure things were in place, answering questions, and taking pictures (I’ve been the official ‘unofficial’ photographer at this event for 4 years now). But, the one thing that will stick in my memory was the reminder that the little things count: “What we are doing in the present is creating the future, is the future.”[1]
You see, while I was taking pictures of people at one of the tables I ended up in front of someone I had not yet met, so I introduced myself and asked him his name. After he told me his name, Joe – a first year masters student, immediately proceeded to tell me how intimidated he was by me. He told me that I was famous and that he got so nervous each time I came around that he tried not to look at me because he wouldn’t know what to say. (Obviously he couldn’t have been truly intimidated since he was able to tell me all this – but the lightning speed in which he talked and his obvious nervousness made me realize there was some truth to what he was expressing). Continue reading “Seeds of Hierarchy By Xochitl Alvizo”
Outsider Looking In: A “Tradition” of a Different Name By John Erickson
The following is a guest post by John Erickson, doctoral student in Women’s Studies in Religion at Claremont Graduate University. His research interests involve an interdisciplinary approach and are influenced by his time as the director of a women’s center and active member in the GLBTQ and women’s rights movements. His work is inspired by the intersectionality of the feminism, queer identity, and religious political and cultural rhetoric. He is the author of the blog, From Wisconsin, with Love and can be followed on Twitter at@jerickson85.
I often read on this blog about the effects various religious traditions have on people’s personal and professional psyches. As I sit in class, I listen to people tell their harrowing stories of how they “escaped” restrictive religious practices or were able to “work within” their religious community to attempt to or even in some cases create the change they wanted to see.
Although I enjoy listening to my peers talk about the issues that have followed them along throughout their life, I find myself struggling to personally validate these experiences in relation to my non-religious background. More specifically, I want to associate with your feelings but I just cannot seem to relate in any way no matter how hard I try. Continue reading “Outsider Looking In: A “Tradition” of a Different Name By John Erickson”
Anita Caspery, IHM: Prophetic Icon of Renewal By Cynthia Garrity-Bond
this we were, this is how we tried to love,
and these are the forces they had ranged against us,
and these are the forces we had ranged within us,
within us and against us, against us and within us.
Adrienne Rich
Last week a colleague of mine forwarded the sad news that Anita Caspary, IHM, had died at the rich age of 95. This was the same day (October 5) that Steve Jobs passed away from his battle with pancreatic cancer. The tension between the two figures was not lost on me. The death of Jobs, an icon of ingenuity and leadership, wonderful husband and father, is mourned throughout the world. The life and legacy of Anita Caspary will be remembered and mourned as well, but by comparison, on a much smaller scale. That’s unfortunate, because the life and legacy of Caspary as an instrument for change in the lives of Catholic women in general, and Women Religious in particular is what legends are made of.
As an IHM sister, Caspary was teacher, poet, author, and president of Immaculate Heart College (1958-1963), but is best known in her role as Mother General Sister Humiliata (1963-1973) of the IHM’s. In Witness to Integrity, Caspary dramatically chronicles the painful struggles and controversies between the IHM sisters and Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles, James Francis McIntyre, in which 600 IHM Los Angeles nuns were released from their canonical vows in 1970. Released because of their self-determination in remaining at the center of their religious fidelity and thought by putting into practice The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Up-to-Date Renewal of Religious life, or Perfectae Caritatis. Addressed to priest and religious, this decree sanctioned the exodus from the middle ages for the sisters by insisting they join the modern world in both dress and discernment of vocation that best utilized each sister’s talents. In an exert put forth from the 1967 Decrees of the Ninth Chapter, the IHM community clarify their position for renewal: Continue reading “Anita Caspery, IHM: Prophetic Icon of Renewal By Cynthia Garrity-Bond”
The Misbegotten Male: Male Sex-Selection & Female Abortion By Cynthia Garrity Bond
I turned away and, despite myself, the tears came, tearsOf weakness and disappointment; for what woman
wants a girl for her first-born? They took the child from
me. Kali said: “Never mind. There will be many later
On. You have plenty of time”
To our modern sensibility, the ancient Greeks understanding of procreation is as far reaching as say Nordstrom’s may be to any dollar store. To the Greeks, men’s testicles had a particular function or job to fulfill: the left one produced girls with the right one producing boys. For Aristotle, if you were willing to “man-up” and take the pain, tie off your left testicle during intercourse in order to insure the birth of a son. In this formula, if something were to go wrong, even though you followed the correct game plan and a girl was born instead of the hope for son, something obviously went wrong at conception, thus the term “The Misbegotten Male,”i.e. a daughter, as the misbegotten. Continue reading “The Misbegotten Male: Male Sex-Selection & Female Abortion By Cynthia Garrity Bond”
Mary Daly: My Springboard Into Critical Feminist Thought By Katie Driscoll
This post is written in conjunction with the Feminist Ethics Course Dialogue project sponsored by Claremont School of Theology in the Claremont Lincoln University Consortium, Claremont Graduate University, and directed by Grace Yia-Hei Kao.
Katie Driscoll is pursuing an MA in the Applied Women’s Studies Program at Claremont Graduate University and is participating in the Feminist Ethics Course Dialogue project.
Mary Daly, a professor of theology at Boston College, is known as a radical feminist, one who is widely understood to have epitomized the stereotypical “man-hating femi-nazi.” Daly earned the latter title as the result of a dispute with Boston College concerning her supposed refusal to grant male students admittance into her classes. This dispute ultimately resulted in Daly’s retirement from Boston College in 1999. Somehow, Daly remained a presence on campus, attending panels and other events for years to follow. I had the privilege of meeting her twice while attending BC between 2002 and 2006. I cannot claim that she was particularly warm or personable. She was actually quite cold and demanding. While I was never close to Mary Daly, I feel that I owe her my deepest gratitude for her role in my Self-discovery. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect upon her influence in my life and, utilizing the insights of some of Daly’s former colleagues and students, to set the record straight regarding her alleged refusal to allow men into her classes. Continue reading “Mary Daly: My Springboard Into Critical Feminist Thought By Katie Driscoll”
Feminism and Religion 