Sunday, December 4, 2022

Mr. Chairman

 

Mr. Chairman…

Ahem, that is, I meant to say: Chair

Chair, it has been observed that the Bible has a decidedly sexist bias having been written by men for men.

Seemingly Jesus himself is one of the chief culprits here:

To appoint twelve males as apostles would seem to indicate that he was not immune to prevailing first century Jewish prejudices involving the severe dis-empowerment of women. His choice of these men seems also to be wanting in discernment including as it did the ‘bad apple’ Judas, although measured against the mediocrity of the other eleven, he at least showed a measure of resolve. Jesus could surely have done better by including certain women of noble character and spiritual stature such as Martha and Mary Magdalene.

Further, he unfailingly addressed God as ‘Father’ and never as ‘Mother’. This too must be considered unacceptably patriarchal in the light of current enlightened mores relating to these matters. 

It would seem then Chair, that one of the chief tasks of this commission would be to educate Jesus. 

It is worth mentioning however that in pursuing this objective we might well encounter considerable difficulties, not least of which is that Jesus is God, and indeed were we to attain our goal we might discover that the situation had become less sexist but more ‘Godist’.

 

Peter Frow

September 2022

                                    Grain

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