Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ora!daemon
From: morphy@truebalt.cco.caltech.edu (Jones Maxime Murphy)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Newspaper Article
Message-ID: <1990Oct18.003900.28134@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 90 00:39:00 GMT
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	<60497.271b504a@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
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phs265y@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au writes:

>Well, I am afraid that I totally disagree with this.  I find the teachings
>of Jesus and the tenets of feminism (and socialism for that matter) 
>absolutely compatible.

You're missing the point. A *male* god sent down a *male* to redeem
us.  That's a significant sign of androcentrism.

>I am no feminist theorist but I believe feminism is about true equality
>between men and women.  Jesus was about true equality among all people 
>("love your neighbour (male or female) as yourself")

Jesus sounds like a really wise *man*.  Get it? Like his dad and the
overwhelming majority of prophets, Jesus was male.

>I believe that the trappings of Christianity (the church hierarchy etc..)
>reflect the fact that our world has been a patriarchy for the last several
>thousand years and it is a certainty that the church hierarchy has enforced
>patriarchy, but I believe that it has nothing to do with the essence of 
>Jesus' philosophy.

Like I said before, that's not the point.  The beauty of Jesus'
teachings is not the issue.  His gender is the issue, since it so
happens that his divine daddy and all known angels have the same
gender.

>If God is real, I don't think It necessarily conforms to any 
>human point of view (including my own I suppose).

Wait.  You're happy to cite the Bible's account of Christ's teachings,
but quick to drop the old scriptures when it comes to God's gender.
Hmmm... Remember that the accounts you have of Christ are also written
from a human point of view.  A *male* point of view.

>True, but I would like to think that this could change and that
>Christianity will still survive.  Female priests now exist in the
>Protestant churches, and the Catholic church will not survive unless it
>follows suit.

This is quite misleading.  Only a tiny minority of
Judaeo-Christian-Islamic denominations "allow" women to enter the
clergy, both in terms of denominations and total flock.  That's not
going to change in a hurry.

The ordination of women ranks very low on my list of threats to the
Catholic church's vitality. The church's stand on birth control,
abortion and divorce rank far higher.

I'm impressed by the misguided tenacity with which people attempt to
rationalize and even deny the gender bias of Judaeo-Christian-Islamic
tradition.  I realize now that I was quite lucky to survive my years of
Catholic indoctrination with my ability to question reasonably intact.

Jones Murphy
Physics Dept.
Caltech.