Well, I've finally gotten around to starting a blog. I've called it Christian. Feminist. Mother. because they are the defining features of my life. What has prompted this auspicious occasion is actually a discussion I had on another website, <mamamia.com.au> about faith. It went something like this...
JohnJames
I’ve often wondered if, way way back in human pre-history, whether both language and religion were the by-products of children playing games with each other…
Don’t get me wrong…if you have faith in something, and it gives meaning to your life, then I’ll back you 100%…but religion and the mythical stories that go along with them…well so much of it comes across as silly when you look at it from the outside…
blah blah blah
JosieY
That’s the thing JJ – the stories in the Bible are just that, stories! The Jewish word is Midrash, it basically means a meaningful myth, a way of reading the stories to make meaning from them. The stories are about people trying to make sense of the world around them in reference to themselves and God. They were never meant to be taken literally. That doesn’t diminish the meaning or significance of them. Of course, this is just my view (although I am a biblical scholar). Many people feel that a literal interpretation is needed for their understanding of God and that is their right.
blah blah blah
rupoo
hey josieY. it upsets me greatly that you are training to be an ‘Anglican Priest’ and yet don’t believe the word of God to be just that – the word of God. not sure how this works as ministers in the Anglican church must subscribe to the 39 articles of faith, which it doesn’t appear you do.
I’m not judging your beliefs, I’m just questioning your wisdom and thought behind joining a universal communion that has fought bravely for the truth of the gospel over many centuries.
JosieY
Hi rupoo. I absolutely do believe that the Bible is the word of God, as mediated through men at a particular time and place in history. I do ascribe to the articles of faith, but again an interpretation of them that allows me to keep my faith and my common sense. The great thing about Anglicanism is that there is space for all of us. I am typical of a certain type of Anglican but there are plenty who disagree with me, and I am very comfortable with that.
Blessings,
Josie
I then wrote a brief post for MM about my biblical understanding. Whether or not they use it
is in the air at the moment, but I really enjoyed writing it. The hardest part was keeping it to one topic!
Being a Christian Feminist Mother (yes, it is possible)
When I told my mother I was applying to begin training as an Anglican Priest, her response was the same as when I told her I was moving in with my now husband... "no you're not". Of course, I listened to her as much as I did then... sorry mum.
I didn't grow up with religion, although I was always aware of God's presence in my life. I identified as an Anglican, but didn't really know what it meant. Coming from a science based family, I struggled with a lot of what I thought I knew about the God and the Bible - if God loved us, why did little African babies go to hell? How could Moses have parted the red sea? And I'm sorry, but the whole virgin birth thing just didn't sit well with me. As I completed my first degree, I read some popular commentaries on the Bible, that tried to use 'scientific' principles like eclipses and swarms of tiny insects to explain how the Bible really could be literally true. I remained suspicious.
Then I found my Church. The priest was a scholar, an educated man who pulled apart the stories in the Bible and explained what they meant. All of a sudden, I didn't HAVE to believe that a virgin could give birth or a man ascend into the sky on a flaming chariot. These became teaching tools, words from men (yes, men, I'll go into that in a little while) trying to explain what can not be put into words. They were baffled by the presence of evil and sin and death, just as we are now. But they had a faith and understanding that somehow God was behind it, and the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) was the result.
The Christian Scriptures (New Testament) were written decades after the death of a man they called Jesus Christ. There is plenty of historical evidence that this man lived and influenced the world in a significant way. His life and death were so compelling that people called him the son of God, Emmanual (God with us). There was much more written about Jesus that the 4 gospels and writings we know of from the Bible. The scriptures were gathered by a committee of men (there's that word again!) who chose those that seemed to best express the understanding they had of the man called Jesus son of Joseph.
But did Jesus actually say and do all that it says he did? The answer of course is that no one really knows, but many doubt it. What we do know is that the words and actions of Jesus were so compelling that people had to use extraordinary language to describe it. The blind can see, the lame can walk, and Jesus brings life back to those who have died. That is powerful language to describe a powerful man. The funny thing is, the more shocking the claim the more likely it is to be true. The people who were writing about Jesus would have tried to whitewash anything controversial, so when they didn't it must have been because it was such an intrinsic part of his character that they could not deny or hide it. So Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. Jesus lost his temper. Jesus dined and touched and loved the untouchable and unlovable, in fact gave preference to them, and told them theirs was the kingdom of God. Jesus wept.
And in the end, Jesus died alone, betrayed by one he loved, frightened and insecure. I believe that Jesus is the son of God in a very real way, that God worked in and through him in a way that can never be repeated, that Jesus and God and the Spirit are one. I also believe that Jesus was fully human and fully aware throughout all his actions that he may have been wrong, there may not have been a happy ending. Yet he lived in a way that reflected his faith in God and in humanity.
Jesus showed us how to live in a way that expresses God's love to all God's creation. ALL of it, not just the white educated male middle class. I am a (strident) feminist and I have a big problem with gendered language for God. You can tell me God in gender neutral till you're blue in the face, but as long as you refer to God as male it will effect how you think about God. Try saying "Mother God". Doesn't it bring up a whole different realm of thought? I went to a talk by a very (in)famous Episcopalian Bishop, John Shelby Spong. He spoke about the belief that man (and man alone) is made in God's image. How about we stand a man and woman side by side, he said, and take away all they have in common. We'll get rid of the skin, the bones, the internal organs -- what's left? Because apparently that's where God resides...
I am a Christian. I am a feminist. I am a mother. These parts of myself work together in a way that I believe enriches and enhances my life and the life of those around me. I am blessed, not brainwashed, and my children will grow up surrounded by the love of God and in the knowledge that they, human and flawed, are enough.
I should probably stop writing here, otherwise this post will go on forever! Stay tuned though, for my letter to my daughter on her birthday and to my FIL on his last days.
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