
Sunday night I watched an interesting documentary on faith - "In the Name of God." I was miffed that there was only one woman included in the religious leaders concept and she was a Hindu woman in white gowns who hugs. Everyone else was male. Is religious leadership only valuable if it comes from men? Men carry on, dominate, direct so many faiths. Women are the underskirts or the evil Eves who need to be hidden and silenced just by being who we are. Religion seems almost a macho field, like football games. And yet women make up the majority of congregations and saints. Finally in the last decade, some Christian and Jewish faiths have invited the female soul into the holiest of holies to allow them to serve God in a special capacity, as I do. But many men are still in denial of this. They don’t want the female voice. They refuse to share the Eucharist when blessed by woman’s hands. Yet we, the mothers of men, can change their diapers and nurse them with our breasts but are not worthy to be church leaders. Women certainly number among the most prestigious saints, and of course Jesus would not have been born without a humble Mary.


And worse, it’s the age when one atheist or agnostic can so disrupt courtly minds or hire such convincing lawyers that all the foundations of Christmas or other religious celebrations that bring joy to the majority have to be shut down. Something is wrong here. How can traditions held for two to three thousand years all of a sudden be outlawed? Because someone doesn't like it? How can the marble crib in the basement of a church in Bethlehem be forgotten? If you’ve touched it, you never forget the magnitude of what happened in that manger on a bed of straw. I’m sure God is watching and his spirit is in pain.
We are poor fighters without guns and weapons. We prefer the easy way out. We are so busy selling God, we forget to look at our own lives. We claim to not be racist, yet our churches speak loudly of racism since so many of them are still all white or all black. We select who is allowed to kneel at our altars. Didn’t Jesus attend to the needs of all men and women, even the Samaritans? Our pretentious words get out of hand. We are His. He is Ours. But really, who knows who will be chosen? Won't we all? Is every sin forgiven? Our greed goes over the top. Our eyes see the glory of ourselves, not the Lord. We fail to brandish swords of truth, of right and wrong, of humility. We are slack on tolerance, acceptance, forgiving, love, and patience.
We need to look again at the four gospels to see who God’s only Son was and what His words (not some interpretation of them) actually said. Are you attuned to how He thought, responded, reacted, loved? Are you familiar with how He got here, what Scripture foretold? I follow this God. He is who I want to walk with and in whom I have faith. I’ve touched his crib, his rock of agony at Golgotha, the soil of his cross, his empty tomb. I feel him everywhere I turn and in everyone I meet. I continually long for tomorrow when I soar off of this horizon to touch his hand. God bless you all.

1 comment:
Amen! I agree in many ways, too long the men have controlled the church heads, and look what has happened. One voice among many, and you are truly blessed with the vision and faith. Bright blessings.
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