Keeping it real to the point where I will offend most of my readers

For many years I have struggled with the idea of patriarchy. For a while I really threw myself into the idea of living a life dominated by patriarchy. I desperately wanted Bill to be the spiritual head of the household. I wanted to be completely submissive to him. Luckily for me Bill didn't buy into my ideal.

Most of my life as a teenager and an adult I have been drawn to the Sacred Feminine. I have tried desperately to suppress my feelings. I can't hold back any longer. There has to be equality and balance between the divine male and the divine female.

I've been reading Sue Monk Kidd's memoir The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (Plus)and she has put into words exactly how I feel.

"A woman in Deep Sleep is one who goes about in an unconscious state. She seems unaware or unfazed by the truth  of her own female life, the truth about women in general, the way women and the feminine have been wounded, devalued, and limited within culture, churches, and families. She cannot see the wound or feel the pain. She has not acknowledged, much less confronted, sexism within the church, biblical interpretations, or Christian doctrine. Okay, so women have been largely missing from positions of church power, we've been silenced and relegated to positions of subordination by biblical interpretations and doctrine, and God has been represented to us as exclusively male. So what? The woman in Deep Sleep is oblivious to the psychological and spiritual impact this has had on her. Or maybe she has some awareness of it all but keeps it sequestered nicely in her head, rarely allowing it to move down into her heart of into the politics of her spirituality."

and "In Christianity God came in a male body. Within the history and traditions of patriarchy, women's bodies did not belong to themselves bu to their husbands. We learned to hate our bodies if they didn't conform to an ideal, to despise the cycles of menstruation-"the curse,"--it was called. Our experience of our body has been immersed in shame."

Did you know that the early church fathers debated whether or not women had souls, and if they did indeed have souls, could they be saved.

I in now way doubt the divinity of Jesus or His saving grace. What I am sick of is 2000+ years of male dominance.

<3

Wendy

Comments

[melissa]

have yuo ever read "growing strong daughters?" its a book about raising our girls to be strong women, proud of who god created them to be. it talks about embracing their feminity, since god created us that way, but also helping them find their voice, USE their voice and see themselves as valuable - not just "somebody's wife" or "somebody's mother." it doesn't minimize those roles, but talks about the role of women beyond that.
i loved it!!!

[Wendy Fairfull]

Thanks for the book suggestion. I will look into it.
I was so worried I would get angry emails about this post. Thanks for being so nice :)

Wendy

[Dawn]

Hey Girl, You know I love you but I just don't understand the remark about the early church fathers. Just because they believed it at the time doesn't mean you shouldn't learn from what they say today. I mean early medicine used to bleed people and drill holes in their heads. Does that mean we shouldn't believe in modern medicine?

[Gene Smith]

Which early church fathers? Peter? Paul? James? Sorry, Wendy, if you're going to make a statement like that, you need to back it up with some reference. I'm not denying the statement, but neither am I confirming it - back up the statement with some reference and we can discuss, but to just throw it out there like that sounds more like opinion, or "something you read", than documented fact.

Your "feelings" aside, scripture is quite clear on the roles of men and women - it has nothing to do with "dominance" and everything to do with how we were created. There is nothing in scripture against strong women (see Ruth, Priscilla, Esther, and others). So which part of scripture do you think is incorrect?

See ya...... Gene

[Wendy Fairfull]

Here is one example:
At the Council of Macon, in 584 AD, in Lyons, France, forty-three Catholic bishops and twenty men representing other bishops, debated what must have surely been the most compelling issue of the day:

"Are Women Human?"

After arguing the point, the bishops voted. thirty-two, yes; thirty-one, no. Women were declared human by one vote.

I hope you read the post that I wrote today. I was feeling very angry with God. I'm over it.

[Gene Smith]

Yes I've read it, and I'm trying to help you buck up, honey. The downfall in the above argument is "After arguing the poing, the bishops voted...". See, the bishops don't get to vote on whether or not women are human - God has already declared them so in scripture.