Category: Women and Ministry

A Feminist “Nutt” Point of View by Shannon Nutt

This is the first blog post I have written, so the concept of being a blogger is a little foreign to me.  But I will just jump in!

I grew up in a religious house that became far more religious after my mother passed away from brain cancer when I was thirteen.  My single father became heavily involved in the Lutheran Church, thinking this was the best way to raise his two daughters.  I was happy to go to church and get the structure that the church provided.  I was also grateful that I went to a church that had a female pastor.  Lacking a mother, it was nice to have a strong female role model who was breaking into the “boys’ club” that was the church.  Having found a postitive, female role model, I was really upset when I heard very conservative members of other churches and my own family say that women have no business speaking or leading people in church.  I was around sixteen when this was happening, and it broke my heart to see women telling other women that they have no right to be heard in the church.  Continue reading “A Feminist “Nutt” Point of View by Shannon Nutt”

Son of Man: An Updated Gospel Story of Jesus Set in South Africa by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

January 12, 2012

Son of Man is an updated story of the life of Jesus set in the fictional State of Judea that is modern day South Africa – complete with warlords and child soldiers.    It could easily be mistaken for modern day Rwanda or Darfur with its modern issues and political overtones.  Roger Ebert stated, “The secret of the movie is that it doesn’t strain to draw parallels with current world events – because it doesn’t have to.”  The director draws parallels between the gospels and 21st century Africa.  According to Dartford-May, “we wanted to look at the Gospels as if they were written by spin doctors and to strip that away and look at the truth.”  The director “captures the rhythms of African life in both rural settings and sprawling townships.”  “Feather-clad young angels offer an eerie echo and reminder of Africa’s lost generations.”

The movie also sticks with what Eric Snider calls “Traditional African trial music, dance, and costumes” as a type of worship or or allusion to Jesus’ godhood.  Judea is in flux; warlords and corruption take center stage.  Poverty, violence, and oppression affect the all of the people.  The key idea is that Jesus is a freedom fighter – one that fights injustice and oppression.  The director does not emphasize “Jesus’ divinity so much as his leadership, good sense and compassion.”  Jesus is not violent and his followers, most of whom were former child soldiers, are encouraged to respond non-violently, which goes against their upbringing and training. Continue reading “Son of Man: An Updated Gospel Story of Jesus Set in South Africa by Michele Stopera Freyhauf”

Does Christianity Open a New Space for Cambodian Women? By Katie Schubert

The following is a guest post written by Katie Schubert, a Ph.D. student in the Theology, Ethics, and Culture program at Claremont Graduate University.  Her academic interests include feminist ethics, postcolonial feminism, human rights and religion, and Southeast Asian Studies focusing on Cambodia.  Her work explores Cambodian women’s experience of empowerment through religion. 

Christianity has often been blasted (and understandably so) for its patriarchal character, for justifying violence, and for its instrumental use of power throughout its long history.  In transnational feminist literature the work of missionaries is often referred to as the epitome of problematic transnational work, automatically assumed to be evil, likely because of the history of missionaries’ collusion with violent invasion and attempted erasure of previously existing systems.

But can Christianity also be freeing, a vehicle for change, even a vehicle for feminism? Continue reading “Does Christianity Open a New Space for Cambodian Women? By Katie Schubert”

Interlocking Pieces and the Maleness of Jesus: Exegeting the “America’s Pope’s” Statement on Gay Marriage and Ordination of Women By Michele Stopera Freyhauf

On a 20/20 interview, posted August 21, 2011, Morley Safer interviewed the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan.  Dolan is also referred to as “America’s Pope.”  In this article, Safer calls him a scholar and a “passionate defender” of issues that he considered to be “settled questions.”  These settled questions? Gay marriage and women’s ordination.

Gay Marriage: Incest, “Necessary Attributes,” and Interlocking Pieces

Dolan makes an unbelievable comparison of gay marriage to the desire to marry his mother:  “I love my mom, I don’t have the right to marry her.”  He further compared gay marriage to his desire to be a shortstop for the Yankees, which is not possible because he does not have “what it takes.”  Both analogies Dolan uses give a clear indication that he does not understand what a committed relationship looks like for a gay couple.  Many in society share this ignorance.  In fact during my daughter’s health class, at a public school no less, she was told that sex was only between a man and a woman because they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.  Not only does this fail on words, it lays the foundation for bullying, repression of identity, sexual confusion, and problems for children who are members of a modern family.  Besides, last time I checked not all puzzles have interlocking pieces.   Continue reading “Interlocking Pieces and the Maleness of Jesus: Exegeting the “America’s Pope’s” Statement on Gay Marriage and Ordination of Women By Michele Stopera Freyhauf”

The Vatican’s Spiritual Violence Against Women’s Ordination By Rosemary Radford Ruether

The Vatican has adopted what amounts to a “zero tolerance” policy against those Catholics who actively advocate for women’s ordination, particularly against anyone involved in the movement of Roman Catholic Womenpriests which, for the past three years, has ordained thirty-five women in the United States. This movement began in June, 2002, when seven women were ordained by some Catholic bishops in Austria. Later several of these women were ordained bishops by these same bishops. They, in turn, have ordained more women priests. From this has sprung an increasingly organized movement, which is developing the theological vision of church which they hope to generate and are laying down the formal rubrics for education and preparation for ministry of those aspiring to be ordained in their community.

The Vatican summarily excommunicated the initial seven women ordained in 2002. As more women were ordained it was at first silent and then decreed that anyone being ordained in this movement, as well as those supporting it, were automatically excommunicated. This saved them the trouble of addressing each of these women individually. However, they have escalated their campaign against women’s ordination in the last month in response to Maryknoll priest, Father Roy Bourgeois, who on August 9, 2008 in Lexington, Kentucky, concelebrated the mass where long-time friend, Sevre-Duszynska, was ordained. Father Bourgeois also preached the homily at this ordination mass, where he denounced the Church’s refusal to ordain women as a sin comparable to the sin of racism. “Sexism is a sin” he declared. Continue reading “The Vatican’s Spiritual Violence Against Women’s Ordination By Rosemary Radford Ruether”

Feminism, Ontology and the Priesthood of all Believers

At a surprisingly early age, perhaps nine or ten, I became the author of my own spiritual narrative, meaning, I took it upon myself to initiate and pursue the deep mystery of my faith.  Weekly Mass was an event, not an obligation, and something to which I attended without my family. The singleness of my worship at such a young age drew stares and whispers from those families who had arrived in tact. And while I was not unaware of their curiosity, I found it easier to lose myself in the absolute wonder of my environment. This was the world to which I belonged.  I was at once home and alive in a devotion filled with sacramentals, those objects of religious piety that created a force field of God’s protection around me. 

While the mystery of God’s love enveloped and graced my adolescence, a slow and creeping suspicion began to take hold of my faith. Because of my “girlishness,” I was barred as an alter server, and I began to absorb my otherness. I worried about my difference, and began to question the fairness of God. Telegraphic messages of inferiority caused me great confusion. The implicit reality that as female I was ontologically challenged, slowly sifted its way into my psyche and I would argue, my soul as well.

As a budding young feminist, what I found within the teachings of the church, either implicit or explicitly, did not coincide with what I felt to be the inner me.  On the cusp of adulthood, the collision between self and Church [read as God] was inevitable. The catechetical formation of my youth, of coming forth equally male and female in the image and likeness of God seemed like a childish myth and certainly not the reality of the andocentric church to which I was now departing.

Fast forward twenty years, and I cautiously found myself back in the Catholic Church, only this time in the arms of feminist theologians. I was hooked.  Their writings informed my life choices, directing me towards my current doctoral pursuit.  Yet I have found the academic arena is able to shield and protect me from the pain I continue to feel within the institutional church. To demonstrate the interweaving of the challenges and nourishment I experience as a Catholic I addressed above, I would like to share with you the following story. Continue reading “Feminism, Ontology and the Priesthood of all Believers”