Saturday, April 10, 2004
Protest challenges archbishop's ban on washing women's feet
This story is about more than a protest and more than religion.
AP Story (in GuvWurld archive, links to multiple sources)
This story shows people protesting their religious leaders for excluding females from participating in a Holy Thursday foot washing ritual. I am struck by this quote:
"I keep telling her she can do anything the boys can do. It's difficult when the church tells her she can't."
This from a mom brought to the protest by her 13 year old daughter. Here's the leap I'm making on the significance. Much publicized recently have been the gay weddings (click here for the Gay Rights section of the GuvWurld archive). I have seen less press on the abortion bans pushed in Tennessee and South Dakota. In my recent essay, The Wolf Test, I drew a connection between these issues on the basis that both are about "throwing down the gauntlet and refusing to abide by laws [that] can no longer [be] conscience[d]."
I think the church protest fits that because we see people questioning those who they probably have never even considered questioning. In each of these examples, the questions themselves go right to challenging the myths among our prevailing paradigms and I suspect it would appear that way from any political orientation.
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AP Story (in GuvWurld archive, links to multiple sources)
This story shows people protesting their religious leaders for excluding females from participating in a Holy Thursday foot washing ritual. I am struck by this quote:
"I keep telling her she can do anything the boys can do. It's difficult when the church tells her she can't."
This from a mom brought to the protest by her 13 year old daughter. Here's the leap I'm making on the significance. Much publicized recently have been the gay weddings (click here for the Gay Rights section of the GuvWurld archive). I have seen less press on the abortion bans pushed in Tennessee and South Dakota. In my recent essay, The Wolf Test, I drew a connection between these issues on the basis that both are about "throwing down the gauntlet and refusing to abide by laws [that] can no longer [be] conscience[d]."
I think the church protest fits that because we see people questioning those who they probably have never even considered questioning. In each of these examples, the questions themselves go right to challenging the myths among our prevailing paradigms and I suspect it would appear that way from any political orientation.
Top of Page / GuvWurld Blog Home Page
