Thursday, May 31, 2012

Patience, Perspective and Respect and Responsibility

Fred wrote:This is one of your best articles yet.  I'm one of those men who loves and appreciates women for who they are and admire the skills and talents I see in many.  I'm sure that my view is different from many since my maternal grandmother was a preacher of the Gospel of Christ and held the rank of what is now called an "ordained licensed minister".  Also my Mother (at 91 years of age) continues to conduct evangelistic meetings, preaches from time to time as special guest in local churches and even at our denomination's Theological Seminary.  Quite naturally I support her (and others like her) in the struggle to be recognized for who they really are in clerical circles and in the world.
I have struggled with the ideas coming out of the feminist movement which you describe -as it seems to me they want to turn "Our Father" into "Our Mother".   There is only one God - and He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We humans are not God although we can have God forgive our sins and come to dwell in our hearts.  That can only happen when we accept the Holy Scripture by faith.  
 
To Fred: While I am thrilled for those of you who have had the parenting that would lead you to have God manifest in the form of mother, father, brother, or any other human sense, I feel fortunate that I have been able to sense The Holy Spirit in my soul by moving past the manifestations that I was taught to be the only true states of Divinity.

I may be headed straight to hell for my beliefs, but I certainly hope not. I felt like I was in hell as long as I tried to experience The Spirit of Divinity in listening only to the mothers and fathers of my childhood religion and reading only The Judeo-Christian Bible without a historical and geographical perspective.

I treasure conversations with those learned in their religions so that I can find similarities in the sense of The Spirit among many faiths from many generations of trying to understand the greatest mysteries in life's continuum. I know that I am not a scholar, so if I can understand the essence of what a person learned in their faith is attempting to impart, I feel like others in our human state can also find some truth in the different manifestations of The Almighty. Maybe we can stop fighting over the face of that which is so awesome that we are not meant see the whole at any one time.

Maybe "seeing" manifestations of The Almighty is like the story of the elephant and the blind men. Each of us is experiencing only a small part. I'd like to stop fighting and start listening so that I, too, can "see" manifestations that others "see."

This takes patience, perspective and respect. I pray daily for all three. Holy Spirit, take my heart; Holy Spirit, take my head; Holy Spirit, take my tongue; AND MAKE MY WORDS YOURS INSTEAD.
Jack wrote: I still do not see in the near future humans being comfortable with men having many women friends and the same with women having a lot of men friends, for some reason WE as a generation find this concept hard to manage because of the jealousy and ego's of both sexes. Seems to work for awhile in some relationships then the BIG BANG, and not creation either.
Well at least that is how I have seen life.
I have no problem with equal pay, I can admit that many jobs are better done by women, but I still see a difference in the sexes where brute strength is required, on a continual basis.
Mentally? Many times I think mentally, men are dwarfs, and very narrow minded.

To Jack: My nieces tell me about male and female friends who "hook up" even though they're only "friends." While I don't condone casual "hook-up" sex, I do hope that this leads to people learning the difference between animal attraction and what it takes to build a partnership for parenting.

Richard told me early in our relationship that the difference between humans and other animals is the humans' ability to say "no" to animal instincts. Maybe not in my lifetime, but I hope we will train our young men that they are not, in fact, dogs with no self-control. There are many who believe that a thing is not wrong unless one is caught. For the fathers who spread their seed without thought, maybe DNA testing will be a wake-up call.

I also see differences in the sexes. I do, however, know that not all men are physical and not all women are emotional. I am simply grateful that we have begun the process of recognizing the gifts of every human, even if they are different from "the norm."