Archived Posts For Why I…
why I’m a feminist
Posted on October 18, 2007 by Laura Beimers
Filed Under Emerging Questions, Why I... | 6 Comments
(Laura initially wrote this as a comment on “What Does Christian Feminism Look Like“, but I thought it deserved being highlighted as its own post - Geoff)
At the start of last year some of the units I took in my Midwifery degree required us to keep a reflective journal on various womens issues: feminism, sexuality, body image, sexual/physical abuse, the double shift, pornography, aging, female genital mutilation, the list goes on.
We were asked to answer the question, “Would you describe yourself as a feminist?”
My answer turned out to be yes, but it took a lot of digging to come to that answer. Feminism is made up of so many different branches and streams many of which disagree with each other (sounds like the church hey!). ‘Feminist’ is not an easy label to pick up and give ones self on a whim. Baggage comes with it, baggage to be dealt with.
So I sat down and out lined all the streams of feminism I could find so I could identify what I agreed with in each and what I didn’t. I came to the conclusion there was no way I could not call myself a feminist.
Being a feminist to me means that I’m concerned about gender inequalities and discrimination against women, and oppression of women. I think that women are oppressed by a society built on patriarchy, but that the solution does not present itself in the form of matriarchy. We are people, it’s a human problem, a sin problem not solely a gender problem.
Patriarchal influence and dominance affects women’s psyche, and life experiences. I’m very concerned about this in the health sector (being a midwife I’m highly passionate about this stuff). I’m also very concerned about heavy patriarchal influences on the Christian faith. How we see God, defines our experience of God.
A year ago I realized I thought of God as being a certain gender: God was a ‘He’. Actually God is beyond gender. Yet gendered language gives us clues about the character of God and the role God has in our lives. We are created in the image of God, male and female. As a feminist I’m concerned about the language we use to describe God. I am happy to call God, ‘Father’, but in the same breath I also happily call God, ‘Mother’.
In seeking out the feminine part of God (which I believe is only perfect because God is also perfectly masculine) I think our relationship with God changes drastically. Earlier I felt a male God could only ever understand my life experience as a woman by playing a distant role that had some how created women. When I see God in a female capacity I realize my experiences as a woman, physical and otherwise, are actually a small reflection pointing to the larger more amazing nature of God.
Complex is really the only way to put it… reading back over these last few paragraphs, I know some feminists would take issue with my use of the word gender. Which just goes to show you feminists don’t even agree amongst themselves.
why I still go to church
Posted on September 11, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Church, Why I... | 4 Comments
As someone who has been interested in the “emerging conversation”, and believe that there is a lot wrong with the model of institutional church we find in western society, I’ve been forced to reconsider whether or not “going to church” as an activity is still something I ought to be doing. It’s been important for me to attempt to separate out the feelings of obligation or habit that come from attending a church service on Sunday mornings for essentially the entirety of my life. I haven’t needed to wrestle with whether or not discipleship and ministry should happen in community: that seems to me to be self-evident. But whether or not attending a regular church service is integral to working out my faith has become an important question for me. For the sake of clarity, my church service occurs on Sunday mornings. I don’t believe that it needs to; it just does. So when I refer to Sunday mornings, the day, time and details is flexible.
1. Sunday Morning is my primary point of contact with wider church
Most of the people I walk closely with, I tend to see during the week. My youth group kids, my small group (although circumstances have changed a bit recently there), my mentor-type person, etc. But if I’m going to have any sort of input, interaction or connection outside of the people in my immediate “circles”, it has the best chance of happening by rocking up on the Sunday morning and chatting with people.
2. Being part of a wider community
Rocking up on a Sunday morning has been a constant remider for me that the picture of ministry in our church is much bigger than the things that I do. It connects me with a church who is out-working their faith in many varied ways, and reinforces the point that we’re all pushing to further the same kingdom. It wouldn’t be uncommon for happenings (whether positive or negative) in the youth group to become overwhelming in their importance in my mind, and being able to step back from them and recognize the vastness of the work of the kingdom, even feeling that the last hope for our teenagers doesn’t rest on my shoulders. It has been the most valuable reality check and certainly helps to shift my focus back onto letting God work.
3. There’s just something about…
Worshiping. Hearing a sermon even. Taking communion with 200 odd people (and I do mean odd). Standing together with a community of people and sharing a wider mission together. One of the things I miss about not being in an Anglican church (and haven’t been since I was 13), is that it’s much rarer for us to speak a prayer together. And there’s something special about joining together in worship, in prayer, and affirming the same beliefs together.
4. Being Equipped
I know it’s not the fashionable thing, but I do enjoy a good sermon. Sometimes I even enjoy average ones. And while the old war horse cliche about people never being able to remember what was preached on a Sunday, I do think that I develop and grow through the words preached in sermons. And it’s a part of growing my theological thinking that I don’t control myself: which is a good thing for someone who wants to be very careful about not creating a picture of God that’s “whatever is best for me”.
So that’s my list. Or some of my list. There are more reasons, better reasons, and probably even truer reasons. What reasons do you have for going/not going to church?
