Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Logo

Betsy - overall you have done a great job, however, personally I would like the word theology taken out.

An idea for a logo

This is just a thought. (I thought I'd cropped this, but it's showing up wrong. Back to the drawing board.)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Bishops condemn book by feminist theologian

And no, we're not talking about Mary Daly. We're talking about Sister Elizabeth Johnson, who in 2007 published a book called Quest for the Living God, which, among other things, discussed the female nature of God. The Committee on Doctrine of the US Catholic bishops recently announced that this book shouldn't be used by Catholic schools and universities.

I discovered the controversy thanks to the Facebook page of Feminist Peace Network, which pointed me to a Washington Post blog entry by Jason Pitzl-Waters of the Pagan Newswire Collective. He writes:
Leaving aside the “separate but equal” theory of religious gender roles for a moment, one has only to look towards the headlines to see how dangerous the idea of female empowerment still is within the world of faith and belief. The New York Times reports that a committee of American bishops have accused Catholic theologian and nun Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson of violating church doctrine, issuing a lengthy critique of her book “Quest For the Living God” due in part to her suggestion of using female imagery for God, an idea (among others) the Committee on Doctrine says “contaminates” traditional Catholic understandings of God. “Contaminates,” what an interesting and unintentionally apt choice of words! Because reading that critique you can see the fear of contamination dripping from its sentences, hoping against hope of placing (in the words of the NYT) “the study of the male and female aspects of God [...] substantially off-limits,” lest women once more start making offerings to the Queen of Heaven.
(If you don't know who the Queen of Heaven is, you can find this out by reading the rest of the post.)

I followed Pitzl-Waters's link to the statement of the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They object to more than her treatment of the female nature of God. They don't like her "pantheism" or her belief that non-Christian religions also convey useful knowledge about God. They think she undermines their rigid and unchangeable idea of a god who is all-powerful and unchanged by the suffering in the world. They object to her portrayal of the official Catholic God as an "arrogant monarch," and go to great pains to explain what a sweet, kind, caring monarch he is. And they strongly defend Biblical language that describes God as "father" and "lord." They insist that "The names of God found in the Scriptures are not mere human creations that can be replaced by others that we may find more suitable according to our own human judgment." They would surely resent being called sexist, but what they are saying is, (as Mary Daly would have put it) God is male, and male is God.

Why the bishops waited four years to attack this book is not entirely clear. The National Catholic Reporter says that "the committee felt compelled to publicly denounce the 2007 book because it is directed to a `broad audience,' and because it’s being used in many venues `as a textbook for the study of God.'" The same NCR post notes that Sister Johnson says that the bishops portrayed her book inaccurately and did not talk with her before condemning it. Cardinal Donald Wuerl responded that Johnson should have sought the bishops' imprimatur (official approval) before publishing the book. The NCR  has a link to Wuerl's statement.

One can only imagine the choice words that Mary Daly would have used about this situation. (Or, one could pick up a copy of the Wickedary.) But even some Catholics--including a Catholic columnist for the Washington Post--think that the bishops went too far in trying to stifle theological discussion. And sales of the book have increased dramatically.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Power from within

Last night at the Mary Daly discussion group at the Church of the Open Arms, part of our discussion involved pagan and goddess spirituality.

Later, I was working on finding information for a library science class online discussion about power and information. The definition of power used in the textbook seems to be all about power-over, but I know that among feminists there is also the concept of power-from-within, power that heals, achieves, nurtures, and cooperates, power that is so powerful that it does not need to dominate.

While I was searching, I ran across this biography of Starhawk and was reminded of the discussion we'd had earlier.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.  Live streaming of commemorative events can be viewed here.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A piece of women's history

I found this video on YouTube, showing a newscast of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp right before Christmas 1982:

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The story of the Feminist Peace Network

Feminist Peace Network is consistently one of my favorite blogs. As part of FPN's celebration of Women's History Month, this post shares the story of FPN's founding as it appeared in an article published in 2003 in Expository Magazine.

Feminist artist Lucinda Marshall founded FPN in the sad and confusing days following the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 and the invasion of Afghanistan shortly thereafter. A few months later, Marshall visited an FPN member in Washington, DC. After eating dinner in a restaurant one night, they realized that neither one felt safe walking to their separate destinations. This brought the realization that all of the mainstream news coverage about "terrorism" ignored the terrorism against women that goes ignored day after day. FPN's Statement of Conscience was the result.

Feminist Peace Network also has a Facebook page, and Lucinda Marshall has another wonderful feminist blog at Reclaiming Medusa.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

After everything we discussed last night, some good news

The effort to defund Planned Parenthood is faltering according to National Partnership for Women & Families. Even some conservatives are starting to recognize that cutting family planning, cancer screening, and HIV prevention services to poor women is a bad idea. For instance:
Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to former presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), wrote in a Daily Beast column that the proposal to cut funding for Planned Parenthood is "shortsighted political posturing," adding, "It's overreaching, and it's why Republicans get a bad name with many independent voters and women. ... Republicans would be well advised to keep their focus on real economic issues that have impact, like entitlement reform."
Entitlement "reform" is just one more trick to take funding away from important programs like Social Security. But if some conservatives are getting a clue that cutting services for poor women is a bad idea, that is a good thing.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Happy International Women's Day!

I don't think that I'm the only woman in our discussion group who has been inspired by the democratic uprisings taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. Here are some feminist links related to that situation:

A few days ago, Naomi Wolf's opinion piece on The Middle East feminist revolution was posted by Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera also has a feature on Women of the revolution.

Truthout has cross-posted an article from Ms. on the role of  women in the uprising in Bahrain.

Back in February Democracy Now! posted an inspiring interview with Nawal El Saadawi. And finally, while it's not specifically about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, here is Democracy Now's feature on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day:

Friday, March 4, 2011

Where to find it

I keep thinking back to the discussion we had at the Mary Daly discussion group this past Wednesday, and thinking how great it was. We talked about local politics, about whether male (and female) behavior is biologically caused or socially conditioned, and about activism. It was much better in real life than the way I've been able to describe it.

Anyway, one question that came up was whether there is a place to find posts about local activist events of all kinds. And the answer is, at least in theory, yes. It's called Oklahoma Citizen, and they have an events listing here. You might also want to check out the Oklahoma Women's Network Blog.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Women's Bodies, Women's Freedom Poetry Cafe Feb. 5

 It's been fun, but Snowpocalypse 2011 seems to be almost over. By Saturday, roads should be open and life should be almost back to normal (at least for a little while). If you're in Oklahoma City, or can get to Oklahoma City, here's a great way to celebrate: OKC's own Lauren Zuniga will be the featured performer at a poetry cafe at Church of the Open Arms on Saturday night (that's Feb. 5th) from 7-9 p.m. The poetry cafe is a benefit for the Oklahoma Coalition For Reproductive Justice.

January 22nd marked the 38th anniversary of the 1973 US Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which for the first time guaranteed women in the early months of pregnancy the right to obtain an abortion. Both nationally and in Oklahoma, that right is under increasing attack. In 2010, the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice formed to defend abortion rights, and met with a surprising degree of success. The poetry cafe is free, (and there will be refreshments), but if you can make a donation, 100 percent of all money collected will go to support the work of OCRJ.

In the interests of full disclosure, I ought to say that I am one of the poets who will be reading that evening.

Hope to see you there.

(Cross posted from Talking to Myself.)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

When You Say Abortion

Here's the second collective poem from last night: (You can find the first poem here.) With this second poem, it seemed to work better to use the starting phrase only once, as the title. With both poems, I put in the verses in the order in which the slips of paper were given to me, and I tried to follow the line structure of the originals as much as I could. Now that these are down in "print," we can work with them and edit them as we choose.

When You Say Abortion

Billboard
Controversy
Who's right
Who's wrong
pain suffering
will there be a light at the end
of the tunnel.

You are talking about an issue
that is really none of your business
Stay out of it...It's up to me.

What if I hadn't been
born. I wouldn't be here to debate the issue.
When you say abortion
I say: Birth Control
Why not start
with that decision?

You think you have found the proof that any woman
who claims her own life must have innocent blood on her hands.

Let me come into the world now or not
it doesn't matter to me -- I am well
In your decision -- be well and love much

A seed
A flower
Should it live
or die
or take
responsibility
for actions

I think of Deborah, Tracy, Jean,
Julie, Terri, Grace, Susan, Amy, Brenda,
Mary, Bailey, Trina, Amber, Wendy...

I think every woman's choice
I chose to keep my child
but respect another woman's choice not to

It's My Body

Here's the first group poem from last night's Mary Daly discussion group. I ended up repeating the phrase "it's my body," because many of the segments didn't make sense without it.

It's My Body

It's my body.
My pleasure and delight are  my own,
but sometimes now I see my Grandmother in the mirror,
strong, soft, faded, fresh, vulnerable, powerful.

It's my body.
It's not a machine meant for making babies
and not some contraption designed to evoke delight in an outside observer.
It is me. It is my  home.

It's my body.
My spirit guides my body in its unique way.
to love and to birth.
I need no other spirit to interfere. Likewise
I shall not interfere with your spirit.

It's my body.
Justice means giving birth
Not giving birth
My body, my right -- poor, black, rich, white
all women

It's my body.
Everything about it belongs to me.
I will be the one to decide how it will be.
No one else has the right
to

It's my body.
and I'll do with it what I want to
let it be
run, jump, stand, roll
hold your arms
out and spin in
the sun.

It's my body.
Not your body.
I don't want yr insults or compliments
I can't believe we are still having this conversation
I blame you if I can't feed my baby
I can't afford your decisions