On Wed, Feb 23, 2000 at 11:11:36AM -0600, Snarfblat wrote:
> In my
> experience, organized religion is a very patriarchial and constrictive
> environment, which I would imagine, would put off most people here. Is
> there a near mutual exclusion between open minded women (or men) and the
> church?
No.
Christianity started out as a splinter group within Judaism -- a minority
group within a minority group (the Roman Emperors weren't terribly kind to
their Jewish subjects). Jesus preached liberation to the poor, the crippled,
the politically oppressed, and foreigners. Admittedly the Bible's record on
women's rights isn't exactly spotless. But Christianity began as a radical
movement, questioning the status quo in every way. Then after three hundred
years the Roman Emperor adopted it as the state religion, and it was all
downhill from there. So *organized* religion is generally (IMNSHO)
a dangerous thing and almost a self-contradiction. It wasn't always thus.
(Hmm. It's 5 in the morning. I'll probably regret this message when I
wake up. Actually, this is a real hot button issue of mine, and my Christian,
socialist and feminist friends all have trouble with my opinions,
for different reasons. I'm trouble all round!)
HTH,
Claudine
(hoping that this isn't *too* off-topic for 'issues'!)
--
Claudine Chionh
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
