After sleeping on it, this whole thing about Civilization being
conditioned upon who holds the Gun, still was buzzing around in my
head.
Are we really prepared to Shoot Ourselves Into Oblivion? If we insist
on packing, then we better begin packing for that final trip. Do you
ever think that one day in the far distant future, some creature will
stumble upon our ruins and shake their heads...or whatever they shake,
and speculate on how such a seemingly great civilization came to an
end?
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
*****
It's a classic example of Circular Thinking.
So we allow this person to hold a gun? As short a time ago as Monday,
September Tenth, slavery is being enforced by those with guns in their
hands. But of course the gun slingers are the point men, enforcing
the Law. And that Law was set in place by mostly White men, to enable
today's Slaves to be legally held at gun point. And with the holding
of guns as enforcers of the Law of the Land, the gun slingers feel
empowered to treat the Slaves with hatred and to abuse them for any
simple act defined as resistance.
This is the "Civilization" we now live in. The Guns Rule. The local
cop is packing, and will use his/her gun regardless of the infraction,
so long as the officer feels threatened. And Slaves do tend to scare
their Masters. Many States allow citizens to pack. The sense is that
if everyone has a gun, no one will use them...More Circular Thinking?
And now Teachers are being urged to pack, and Reverend Williams or
Jones or Johnson will preach the Gospel of Love and Peace from the
pulpit, while packing.
Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching as to War! Civilization! Maybe
the focus should not be on who holds the gun, but rather, on Why!
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
***
Original Post:(Author Unknown)
why the gun is civilization.
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing
me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force.
Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories,
without exception.
Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and
the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal
firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment
of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound
woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree
on equal footing
with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing
with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the
disparity in
physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all
guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for
a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's
potential victims
are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no
validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who
argue for
the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong,
and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A
mugger, even
an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the
state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways.
Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically
superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who
think that fists,
bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much
TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at
worst. The
fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of
the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the
field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as
a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be
forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but
because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of
those who would
interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would
do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that's why
carrying a gun is
a civilized act.
***
My reply:
Reason or Force.
Far too long we have followed this logic. A weapon will enable us to
force our opponent to capitulate. And we then call the result,
"Civilization".
But Violence does not beget Reason. Violence only begets Violence.
And if we want to call the result, "civilization", we are simply
announcing the end of our Human Race.
The choice should not be between reason and Force. The choice should
be between our current conception of Civilization and the creation of
a Superior Civilization. If we follow the belief that a gun will give
us civilization, then the end result will be the end of the Human
Race. A gun can only create a level playing field if it is the
biggest gun on the block. So we must build bigger guns, more deadly
methods of enforcing our "civilization". Guns, by the way, work well
in many situations, but poison works as well in others. Creation of
new weapons that can seek out an opponent without warning, mutant
viruses, super sound waves, all sorts of new, yet to be invented
weapons must be developed to counter the power of that gun. The end
result is never Civilization. The result is always more and bigger
violence.
The more difficult road to take is the one that calls for total
reconstruction of that which we call "Civilization". And that is the
discussion we need to turn to.
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
Monday, September 10, 2018
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Is carrying a gun a civilized act
Here's an interesting post from another list, with my reaction.
Carl Jarvis
******
why the gun is civilization.
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing
me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force.
Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories,
without exception.
Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and
the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal
firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment
of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound
woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree
on equal footing
with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing
with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the
disparity in
physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all
guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for
a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's
potential victims
are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no
validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who
argue for
the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong,
and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A
mugger, even
an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the
state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways.
Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically
superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who
think that fists,
bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much
TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at
worst. The
fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of
the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the
field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as
a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be
forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but
because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of
those who would
interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would
do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that's why
carrying a gun is
a civilized act.
***
My reply:
Reason or Force.
Far too long we have followed this logic. A weapon will enable us to
force our opponent to capitulate. And we then call the result,
"Civilization".
But Violence does not beget Reason. Violence only begets Violence.
And if we want to call the result, "civilization", we are simply
announcing the end of our Human Race.
The choice should not be between reason and Force. The choice should
be between our current conception of Civilization and the creation of
a Superior Civilization. If we follow the belief that a gun will give
us civilization, then the end result will be the end of the Human
Race. A gun can only create a level playing field if it is the
biggest gun on the block. So we must build bigger guns, more deadly
methods of enforcing our "civilization". Guns, by the way, work well
in many situations, but poison works as well in others. Creation of
new weapons that can seek out an opponent without warning, mutant
viruses, super sound waves, all sorts of new, yet to be invented
weapons must be developed to counter the power of that gun. The end
result is never Civilization. The result is always more and bigger
violence.
The more difficult road to take is the one that calls for total
reconstruction of that which we call "Civilization". And that is the
discussion we need to turn to.
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis
******
why the gun is civilization.
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing
me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force.
Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories,
without exception.
Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and
the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal
firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment
of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound
woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree
on equal footing
with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing
with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the
disparity in
physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all
guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for
a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's
potential victims
are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no
validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who
argue for
the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong,
and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A
mugger, even
an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the
state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways.
Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically
superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who
think that fists,
bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much
TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at
worst. The
fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of
the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the
field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as
a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be
forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but
because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of
those who would
interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would
do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that's why
carrying a gun is
a civilized act.
***
My reply:
Reason or Force.
Far too long we have followed this logic. A weapon will enable us to
force our opponent to capitulate. And we then call the result,
"Civilization".
But Violence does not beget Reason. Violence only begets Violence.
And if we want to call the result, "civilization", we are simply
announcing the end of our Human Race.
The choice should not be between reason and Force. The choice should
be between our current conception of Civilization and the creation of
a Superior Civilization. If we follow the belief that a gun will give
us civilization, then the end result will be the end of the Human
Race. A gun can only create a level playing field if it is the
biggest gun on the block. So we must build bigger guns, more deadly
methods of enforcing our "civilization". Guns, by the way, work well
in many situations, but poison works as well in others. Creation of
new weapons that can seek out an opponent without warning, mutant
viruses, super sound waves, all sorts of new, yet to be invented
weapons must be developed to counter the power of that gun. The end
result is never Civilization. The result is always more and bigger
violence.
The more difficult road to take is the one that calls for total
reconstruction of that which we call "Civilization". And that is the
discussion we need to turn to.
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
Monday, September 3, 2018
Once again it is time for Chris Hedges...
For your thoughtful consideration, here is Chris Hedges:
The Slaves Rebel
By Chris Hedges
Mr. Fish / Truthdig
The only way to end slavery is to stop being a slave. Hundreds of men and
women in prisons in some 17 states are refusing to carry out prison labor,
conducting hunger strikes or boycotting for-profit commissaries in an effort
to abolish the last redoubt of legalized slavery in America. The strikers
are demanding to be paid the minimum wage, the right to vote, decent living
conditions, educational and vocational training and an end to the death
penalty and life imprisonment.
These men and women know that the courts will not help them. They know the
politicians, bought by the corporations that make billions in profits from
the prison system, will not help them. And they know that the mainstream
press, unwilling to offend major advertisers, will ignore them.
But they also know that no prison can function without the forced labor of
many among America's 2.3 million prisoners. Prisoners do nearly all the jobs
in the prisons, including laundry, maintenance, cleaning and food
preparation. Some prisoners earn as little as a dollar for a full day of
work; in states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and
Texas, the figure drops to zero.
Corporations, at the same time, exploit a million prisoners who work in
prison sweatshops where they staff call centers or make office furniture,
shoes or clothing or who run slaughterhouses or fish farms.
If prisoners earned the minimum wage set by federal, state or local laws,
the costs of the world's largest prison system would be unsustainable. The
prison population would have to be dramatically reduced. Work stoppages are
the only prison reform method that has any chance of success. Demonstrations
of public support, especially near prisons where strikes are underway, along
with supporting the prisoners who have formed Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, which
began the nationwide protest, are vital. Prison authorities seek to mute the
voices of these incarcerated protesters. They seek to hide the horrific
conditions inside prisons from public view. We must amplify these voices and
build a popular movement to end mass incarceration.
The strike began Aug. 21, the 47th anniversary of the 1971 killing of the
Black Panther prison writer and organizer George Jackson in California's San
Quentin. It will end Sept. 9, the 47th anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison
uprising. It is an immensely courageous act of civil disobedience. Prison
authorities have innumerable ways to exact retribution, including placing
strikers in solitary confinement and severing communication with the outside
world. They can take away the few privileges and freedoms, including the
limited freedom of movement, yard time, phone privileges and educational
programs, that prisoners have. This makes the defiance all the more heroic.
These men and women cannot go elsewhere. They cannot remain anonymous.
Retribution is certain. Yet they have risen up anyway.
In addition to making demands about wages, the prisoners are calling for an
end to the endemic violence that plagues many prisons. During a riot in
April at Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in South
Carolina, seven prisoners were killed and 17 were injured as prison guards
waited four hours to intervene.
Prisons in America are a huge and lucrative business. The private prison
contractors Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group have annual
revenues of $1.6 billion and more than $2 billion, respectively. They spent
a combined $8.7 million on lobbying from 2010 through 2015, according to
OpenSecrets.org. Global Tel Link, which runs the privatized phone services
in many prisons, is valued at $1.2 billion. The food service corporation
Aramark, a $8.65 billion company, has contracts in 500 prisons across the
country although it has been accused of serving contaminated and spoiled
food that has led to food poisoning. The money transfer corporation JPay
Inc. is a subsidiary of the telecommunications firm Securus Technologies,
which is owned by the private equity firm Abry Partners. JPay made $53
million in 2014 on transfers of $525 million, through an average charge of
10 percent to those sending money to prisoners. Corizon Health has a
contract to provide health care to more than 300,000 prisoners nationwide.
It earns about $1.4 billion a year. And there are many other corporations
with equally large revenues and profit margins within the prisons.
Private corporations exploit prison labor in at least 40 states. In some
cases these workers are paid next to nothing. They have no benefits,
including Social Security participation, and cannot form unions or organize.
They are not paid for sick days. And if they complain or are seen as
troublesome they are placed in solitary confinement, often for months.
Some of the country's biggest corporations have moved into prisons to take
advantage of this bonded labor force. They include Abbott Laboratories,
AT&T, AutoZone, Bank of America, Bayer, Berkshire Hathaway, Cargill,
Caterpillar, Chevron, the former Chrysler Group, Costco Wholesale, John
Deere, Eddie Bauer, Eli Lilly, ExxonMobil, Fruit of the Loom, GEICO,
GlaxoSmithKline, Glaxo Wellcome, Hoffmann-La Roche, International Paper,
JanSport, Johnson & Johnson, Kmart, Koch Industries, Mary Kay, McDonald's,
Merck, Microsoft, Motorola, Nintendo, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Quaker Oats,
Sarah Lee, Sears, Shell, Sprint, Starbucks, State Farm Insurance, United
Airlines, UPS, Verizon, Victoria's Secret, Walmart and Wendy's.
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote that "the degree of civilization in a society can be
judged by entering its prisons." Prisons expose how far a state will go to
exploit and abuse its most vulnerable. Life in the American prison system is
a window into the corporate tyranny that will be inflicted on all of us once
we are stripped of the power to resist. The poorest families in the country
are forced to pay an array of predatory fees to sustain incarcerated
relatives. This is especially cruel to those children whose only contact
with an incarcerated parent is through phone service that costs four or five
times what it does on the outside. Prison life is one of daily humiliation
and abuse. It entails beatings, torture, rape-especially for female
prisoners who are preyed upon by prison staff-prolonged isolation, rancid
food, inadequate heating and ventilation, substandard or nonexistent health
care and being locked in a cage for days at a time, especially in supermax
prisons.
Slavery within the prison system is permitted by the 13th Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution, passed in 1865 at the end of the Civil War to create a
new form of slave labor. It reads: "Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. ." Plantations in the
South and industries such as Florida's vast turpentine farm operations,
which survived into the early 20th century, used the 13th Amendment to force
black convicts to do the same uncompensated work that many had done as
slaves.
"Imprisoned in stockades or cells, chained together at night or held under
armed guards on horseback, the turpentine farms were bleak outposts miles
from any chance of comfort or contact with the outside world," Douglas A.
Blackmon writes in "Slavery by Another Name," a description of convict life
for tens of thousands of African-Americans that is eerily similar to today's
prison conditions. "Workers were forced to buy their own food and clothes
from a camp commissary and charged usurious interest rates on the salary
advances used to pay for the goods-typically at least 100 percent."
Prisons, which contain mostly poor people of color, over half of whom have
never physically harmed anyone, are part of the continuum of slavery, Black
Codes, Jim and Jane Crow, convict leasing, lynching and the lethal,
indiscriminate force used by police on city streets. Prisons are not
primarily about crime. They are about social control. They are about
profiting off black and brown bodies, bodies that in blighted,
deindustrialized neighborhoods do not produce money for corporations but
once locked away generate some $60,000 a year per prisoner for prison
contractors, police, parole agencies, corrections officers, phone companies,
private prisons, money transfer companies, medical companies, food venders,
commissaries and the industries that manufacture body armor, pepper spray
and the gruesome array of restraints and implements-four- and five-point
restraints, restraint hoods, restraint belts, restraint beds, stun grenades,
stun guns, stun belts, spit hoods, body orifice security scanners (BOSS
chairs), tethers, and waist and leg chains-that look like a collection
amassed by the Marquis de Sade. Prisons are also where we warehouse the poor
who are mentally ill. It is estimated that 25 percent of the prison
population has severe mental illness. Those with crippling mental disorders
are given not therapy but cocktails of powerful psychotropic drugs that turn
them into zombies sleeping 20 hours a day.
Once corporations moved manufacturing overseas and denied those in poor
communities the possibility of a job that could sustain them and their
families, they began to extract billions in profit by putting bodies in
cages. Since 1970 our prison population has grown by about 700 percent. We
have invested $300 billion in prisons since 1980. The prison-industrial
complex mirrors the military-industrial complex. The money is public; the
profits are private. Those who enrich themselves off the incarcerated are
morally no different from those who enriched themselves from the slave
trade.
Prisoners, once released, often after decades, commonly suffer from severe
mental and physical trauma and other health problems including diabetes
(which is an epidemic in prisons because of the poor diet), hepatitis C,
tuberculosis, heart disease and HIV. They do not have money or insurance to
get treatment for their illnesses when they are released. They have often
become alienated from their families and are homeless. Stripped of the right
to public assistance, unable to vote, banned from living in public housing,
without skills or education and stigmatized by employers, they become
members of the vast criminal caste system. Many are burdened with debts
because of monetary charges in the criminal justice structure and a
predatory system of prison loans. Over 60 percent end up back in prison
within five years. This is by design. The lobbyists for the
prison-industrial complex make sure the laws and legislation keep the
prisons full and recidivism high. This is good for profit. And it is profit,
not justice, that is the primary force behind mass incarceration. This
system will end only when those profits are wrested from the hands of our
modern slaveholders. The only people who can do that are the slaves and the
abolitionists who fight alongside them.
The full list of national demands from "the men and women in federal,
immigration, and state prisons" reads:
1. Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies
that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place
of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing
wage in their state or territory for their labor.
3. The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned
humans a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their
rights.
4. The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be
rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and
parole. No human shall be sentenced to death by incarceration or serve any
sentence without the possibility of parole.
5. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole
denials of black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied
parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular
problem in southern states.
6. An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting black and
brown humans.
7. No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at
their place of detention because of their label as a violent offender.
8. State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation
services.
9. Pell grants must be reinstated in all U.S. states and territories.
10. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences,
pretrial detainees, and so-called "ex-felons" must be counted.
Representation is demanded. All voices count!
The Slaves Rebel
By Chris Hedges
Mr. Fish / Truthdig
The only way to end slavery is to stop being a slave. Hundreds of men and
women in prisons in some 17 states are refusing to carry out prison labor,
conducting hunger strikes or boycotting for-profit commissaries in an effort
to abolish the last redoubt of legalized slavery in America. The strikers
are demanding to be paid the minimum wage, the right to vote, decent living
conditions, educational and vocational training and an end to the death
penalty and life imprisonment.
These men and women know that the courts will not help them. They know the
politicians, bought by the corporations that make billions in profits from
the prison system, will not help them. And they know that the mainstream
press, unwilling to offend major advertisers, will ignore them.
But they also know that no prison can function without the forced labor of
many among America's 2.3 million prisoners. Prisoners do nearly all the jobs
in the prisons, including laundry, maintenance, cleaning and food
preparation. Some prisoners earn as little as a dollar for a full day of
work; in states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and
Texas, the figure drops to zero.
Corporations, at the same time, exploit a million prisoners who work in
prison sweatshops where they staff call centers or make office furniture,
shoes or clothing or who run slaughterhouses or fish farms.
If prisoners earned the minimum wage set by federal, state or local laws,
the costs of the world's largest prison system would be unsustainable. The
prison population would have to be dramatically reduced. Work stoppages are
the only prison reform method that has any chance of success. Demonstrations
of public support, especially near prisons where strikes are underway, along
with supporting the prisoners who have formed Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, which
began the nationwide protest, are vital. Prison authorities seek to mute the
voices of these incarcerated protesters. They seek to hide the horrific
conditions inside prisons from public view. We must amplify these voices and
build a popular movement to end mass incarceration.
The strike began Aug. 21, the 47th anniversary of the 1971 killing of the
Black Panther prison writer and organizer George Jackson in California's San
Quentin. It will end Sept. 9, the 47th anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison
uprising. It is an immensely courageous act of civil disobedience. Prison
authorities have innumerable ways to exact retribution, including placing
strikers in solitary confinement and severing communication with the outside
world. They can take away the few privileges and freedoms, including the
limited freedom of movement, yard time, phone privileges and educational
programs, that prisoners have. This makes the defiance all the more heroic.
These men and women cannot go elsewhere. They cannot remain anonymous.
Retribution is certain. Yet they have risen up anyway.
In addition to making demands about wages, the prisoners are calling for an
end to the endemic violence that plagues many prisons. During a riot in
April at Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in South
Carolina, seven prisoners were killed and 17 were injured as prison guards
waited four hours to intervene.
Prisons in America are a huge and lucrative business. The private prison
contractors Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group have annual
revenues of $1.6 billion and more than $2 billion, respectively. They spent
a combined $8.7 million on lobbying from 2010 through 2015, according to
OpenSecrets.org. Global Tel Link, which runs the privatized phone services
in many prisons, is valued at $1.2 billion. The food service corporation
Aramark, a $8.65 billion company, has contracts in 500 prisons across the
country although it has been accused of serving contaminated and spoiled
food that has led to food poisoning. The money transfer corporation JPay
Inc. is a subsidiary of the telecommunications firm Securus Technologies,
which is owned by the private equity firm Abry Partners. JPay made $53
million in 2014 on transfers of $525 million, through an average charge of
10 percent to those sending money to prisoners. Corizon Health has a
contract to provide health care to more than 300,000 prisoners nationwide.
It earns about $1.4 billion a year. And there are many other corporations
with equally large revenues and profit margins within the prisons.
Private corporations exploit prison labor in at least 40 states. In some
cases these workers are paid next to nothing. They have no benefits,
including Social Security participation, and cannot form unions or organize.
They are not paid for sick days. And if they complain or are seen as
troublesome they are placed in solitary confinement, often for months.
Some of the country's biggest corporations have moved into prisons to take
advantage of this bonded labor force. They include Abbott Laboratories,
AT&T, AutoZone, Bank of America, Bayer, Berkshire Hathaway, Cargill,
Caterpillar, Chevron, the former Chrysler Group, Costco Wholesale, John
Deere, Eddie Bauer, Eli Lilly, ExxonMobil, Fruit of the Loom, GEICO,
GlaxoSmithKline, Glaxo Wellcome, Hoffmann-La Roche, International Paper,
JanSport, Johnson & Johnson, Kmart, Koch Industries, Mary Kay, McDonald's,
Merck, Microsoft, Motorola, Nintendo, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Quaker Oats,
Sarah Lee, Sears, Shell, Sprint, Starbucks, State Farm Insurance, United
Airlines, UPS, Verizon, Victoria's Secret, Walmart and Wendy's.
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote that "the degree of civilization in a society can be
judged by entering its prisons." Prisons expose how far a state will go to
exploit and abuse its most vulnerable. Life in the American prison system is
a window into the corporate tyranny that will be inflicted on all of us once
we are stripped of the power to resist. The poorest families in the country
are forced to pay an array of predatory fees to sustain incarcerated
relatives. This is especially cruel to those children whose only contact
with an incarcerated parent is through phone service that costs four or five
times what it does on the outside. Prison life is one of daily humiliation
and abuse. It entails beatings, torture, rape-especially for female
prisoners who are preyed upon by prison staff-prolonged isolation, rancid
food, inadequate heating and ventilation, substandard or nonexistent health
care and being locked in a cage for days at a time, especially in supermax
prisons.
Slavery within the prison system is permitted by the 13th Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution, passed in 1865 at the end of the Civil War to create a
new form of slave labor. It reads: "Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. ." Plantations in the
South and industries such as Florida's vast turpentine farm operations,
which survived into the early 20th century, used the 13th Amendment to force
black convicts to do the same uncompensated work that many had done as
slaves.
"Imprisoned in stockades or cells, chained together at night or held under
armed guards on horseback, the turpentine farms were bleak outposts miles
from any chance of comfort or contact with the outside world," Douglas A.
Blackmon writes in "Slavery by Another Name," a description of convict life
for tens of thousands of African-Americans that is eerily similar to today's
prison conditions. "Workers were forced to buy their own food and clothes
from a camp commissary and charged usurious interest rates on the salary
advances used to pay for the goods-typically at least 100 percent."
Prisons, which contain mostly poor people of color, over half of whom have
never physically harmed anyone, are part of the continuum of slavery, Black
Codes, Jim and Jane Crow, convict leasing, lynching and the lethal,
indiscriminate force used by police on city streets. Prisons are not
primarily about crime. They are about social control. They are about
profiting off black and brown bodies, bodies that in blighted,
deindustrialized neighborhoods do not produce money for corporations but
once locked away generate some $60,000 a year per prisoner for prison
contractors, police, parole agencies, corrections officers, phone companies,
private prisons, money transfer companies, medical companies, food venders,
commissaries and the industries that manufacture body armor, pepper spray
and the gruesome array of restraints and implements-four- and five-point
restraints, restraint hoods, restraint belts, restraint beds, stun grenades,
stun guns, stun belts, spit hoods, body orifice security scanners (BOSS
chairs), tethers, and waist and leg chains-that look like a collection
amassed by the Marquis de Sade. Prisons are also where we warehouse the poor
who are mentally ill. It is estimated that 25 percent of the prison
population has severe mental illness. Those with crippling mental disorders
are given not therapy but cocktails of powerful psychotropic drugs that turn
them into zombies sleeping 20 hours a day.
Once corporations moved manufacturing overseas and denied those in poor
communities the possibility of a job that could sustain them and their
families, they began to extract billions in profit by putting bodies in
cages. Since 1970 our prison population has grown by about 700 percent. We
have invested $300 billion in prisons since 1980. The prison-industrial
complex mirrors the military-industrial complex. The money is public; the
profits are private. Those who enrich themselves off the incarcerated are
morally no different from those who enriched themselves from the slave
trade.
Prisoners, once released, often after decades, commonly suffer from severe
mental and physical trauma and other health problems including diabetes
(which is an epidemic in prisons because of the poor diet), hepatitis C,
tuberculosis, heart disease and HIV. They do not have money or insurance to
get treatment for their illnesses when they are released. They have often
become alienated from their families and are homeless. Stripped of the right
to public assistance, unable to vote, banned from living in public housing,
without skills or education and stigmatized by employers, they become
members of the vast criminal caste system. Many are burdened with debts
because of monetary charges in the criminal justice structure and a
predatory system of prison loans. Over 60 percent end up back in prison
within five years. This is by design. The lobbyists for the
prison-industrial complex make sure the laws and legislation keep the
prisons full and recidivism high. This is good for profit. And it is profit,
not justice, that is the primary force behind mass incarceration. This
system will end only when those profits are wrested from the hands of our
modern slaveholders. The only people who can do that are the slaves and the
abolitionists who fight alongside them.
The full list of national demands from "the men and women in federal,
immigration, and state prisons" reads:
1. Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies
that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place
of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing
wage in their state or territory for their labor.
3. The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned
humans a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their
rights.
4. The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be
rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and
parole. No human shall be sentenced to death by incarceration or serve any
sentence without the possibility of parole.
5. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole
denials of black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied
parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular
problem in southern states.
6. An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting black and
brown humans.
7. No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at
their place of detention because of their label as a violent offender.
8. State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation
services.
9. Pell grants must be reinstated in all U.S. states and territories.
10. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences,
pretrial detainees, and so-called "ex-felons" must be counted.
Representation is demanded. All voices count!
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara—A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony
On 8/31/18, Democracy Now! <announcement@democracynow.org> wrote:
> A Democracy Now! Special Report
>
> View this email in your browser
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> Today Democracy Now! broadcast this exclusive story and we wanted to make
> sure you didn't miss it.
> -Amy Goodman
> https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/31/four_days_in_occupied_western_sahara
>
>
> ** EXCLUSIVE: Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara—A Rare Look Inside
> Africa's Last Colony
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> In this exclusive broadcast, Democracy Now! breaks the media blockade and
> goes to occupied Western Sahara in the northwest of Africa to document the
> decades-long Sahrawi struggle for freedom and Morocco's violent crackdown.
>
> Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United
> Nations and the international community. Thousands have been tortured,
> imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation.
>
> A 1,700-mile wall divides Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those
> who fled into exile. The international media has largely ignored the
> occupation—in part because Morocco has routinely blocked journalists from
> entering Western Sahara.
>
> In late 2016 Democracy Now! managed to get into the Western Saharan city of
> Laayoune, becoming the first international news team to report from the
> occupied territory in years. Read More →
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> View this email in your browser
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> https://www.democracynow.org/
> Today Democracy Now! broadcast this exclusive story and we wanted to make
> sure you didn't miss it.
> -Amy Goodman
> https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/31/four_days_in_occupied_western_sahara
>
>
> ** EXCLUSIVE: Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara—A Rare Look Inside
> Africa's Last Colony
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> In this exclusive broadcast, Democracy Now! breaks the media blockade and
> goes to occupied Western Sahara in the northwest of Africa to document the
> decades-long Sahrawi struggle for freedom and Morocco's violent crackdown.
>
> Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United
> Nations and the international community. Thousands have been tortured,
> imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation.
>
> A 1,700-mile wall divides Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those
> who fled into exile. The international media has largely ignored the
> occupation—in part because Morocco has routinely blocked journalists from
> entering Western Sahara.
>
> In late 2016 Democracy Now! managed to get into the Western Saharan city of
> Laayoune, becoming the first international news team to report from the
> occupied territory in years. Read More →
> (https://democracynow.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a&id=f2a175859f&e=35e44558a7)
> https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/31/four_days_in_occupied_western_sahara
>
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Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Fwd: [acb-chat] We Shall Overcome...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2018 15:28:02 +0000
Subject: Re: [acb-chat] We Shall Overcome...
To: "General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
range of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or
whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion
list." <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Cc: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
"It is probably best, then, for modern day Christians to heed the
words and warning of bishop Augustine, who once said, "
si comprehendis non est Deus
." If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God."
As an Agnostic, I take my place among those who do not understand.
As a person who observes the world around me, and hopefully learns
from experience, I see the Human Species as one more Life Form on this
Planet. We are linked to all other Life. We suffer from "Grandiose
Imagination!"
We have mistaken our ability to manipulate our environment as a sign
of our superiority. As the song warns, "Fools rush in Where Angels
Fear to Tread..."
Carl Jarvis
On 8/28/18, Demaya, Diego via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
> What the early church thought about God's gender
> [https://cdn.theconversation.com/avatars/517571/width170/image-20180723-189319-1wcqno3.jpg]David
> Wheeler-Reed
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__theconversation.com_profiles_david-2Dwheeler-2Dreed-2D517571&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=T0iffRdVZqOOsDYnlRhcd7ZhiZrafQd8hLuiteiLhTg&e=>
> August 1, 2018 6.37am EDT
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230043/original/file-20180731-136673-128azg9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip]
> All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carolyn
> Fitzpatrick<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_All-5FSaints-5FEpiscopal-5FChurch-5F-28Fort-5FLauderdale-2C-5FFlorida-29-23_media_File-3ASanctuary.JPG&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=feZEua_BetzX_Kx90Cr8Fdx7TDGZJvHGWJREx7IJW9c&e=>
>
> The Episcopal
> Church<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.episcopalchurch.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=BBCncJUOjziQajz9c-gCps7urgGWH33nNdqhVsOpVjQ&e=>
> has decided to revise its 1979 prayer
> book<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.washingtonpost.com_news_acts-2Dof-2Dfaith_wp_2018_07_18_the-2Depiscopal-2Dchurch-2Dwill-2Drevise-2Dits-2Dbeloved-2Dprayer-2Dbook-2Dbut-2Ddoesnt-2Dknow-2Dwhen_-3Fnoredirect-3Don-26utm-5Fterm-3D.3e4113671ca0-26wpisrc-3Dnl-5Ffaith-26wpmm-3D1&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=piFZ8KOxYbki8Kw_hH9mHGdrp9ibWhi7jaFLP58R7pg&e=>,
> so that God is no longer referred to by masculine pronouns.
>
> The prayer
> book<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bcponline.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=xtoC1oxCktpP0qy7jsus4P2kE3WCR-W-BjprVyu4w5w&e=>,
> first published in 1549 and now in its fourth edition, is the symbol of
> unity for the Anglican
> Communion<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.anglicancommunion.org_identity_about.aspx&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=3JEGYwYd9j2Rfj8fiK_Ba1o-6N0MVpg5ybwJMBI2Uhw&e=>.
> The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion founded in
> 1867. While there is no clear timeline for the changes, religious leaders at
> the denomination's recent triennial conference in Austin have agreed to a
> demand to replace the masculine terms for God such as "He" and "King" and
> "Father."
>
> Indeed, early Christian writings and texts, all refer to God in feminine
> terms.
>
> God of the Hebrew Bible
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Hebrew
> Bible. Stock
> Catalog<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.flickr.com_photos_stockcatalog_25547697457&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=sqRWcuFy0IBTYJcvszDeprmAaJoFErdBeooUpbTzJoM&e=>,
> CC
> BY<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__creativecommons.org_licenses_by_4.0_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=k-fypL6SCahw5adL6KitSKvcAWZmJhSQVgVKaQ93Euo&e=>
>
> As a scholar of Christian origins and gender
> theory<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__scholar.google.com_scholar-3Fhl-3Den-26as-5Fsdt-3D0-252C7-26q-3Ddavid-2Bwheeler-2Dreed-26btnG-3D&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=Rp0HSUHyAcgD_ATCjBBTwc2PbH5Jhnneb0CYlGSDtRc&e=>,
> I've studied the early references to God.
>
> In
> Genesis<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DGenesis-2B1-253A27-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=19RqPfjlyQ4FuvCD5c26H04qUfko9G9kPag0JT7-GyE&e=>,
> for example, women and men are created in the "Imago Dei," image of God,
> which suggests that God transcends socially constructed notions of gender.
> Furthermore,
> Deuteronomy<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DDeuteronomy-2B32-253A18-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=C7gsWMoMTCDuYlJk27dQfxlGJHsY8qLtOos_w5ulI-c&e=>,
> the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible written in the seventh century
> B.C.<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.oxfordscholarship.com_view_10.1093_0195133242.001.0001_acprof-2D9780195133240&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=c4LnFYnPs97rhVGsP5XwC8kaFWCrV7mlolkLy4HzOsE&e=>,
> states that God gave birth to Israel.
>
> In the oracles of the eighth century prophet
> Isaiah<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DIsaiah-2B42-253A14-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=egkHSYy9Xs8qm77GV1Kb_tZdoVNSkIeBYqqhJzE4qfM&e=>,
> God is described as a woman in labor and a mother comforting her children.
>
> And the Book of
> Proverbs<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3Dproverbs-2B8-253A22-2D23-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=DC7yqSDgViXEmXCGhKFevx9mqX9CyYQPKal14jYXsK0&e=>
> maintains that the feminine figure of Holy Wisdom,
> Sophia<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__cac.org_sophia-2Dwisdom-2Dof-2Dgod-2D2017-2D11-2D07_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=ueuFBusO1bEMerLmh6f1NBzj_jnMa2G-dHkM7DPNCTU&e=>,
> assisted God during the creation of the world.
>
> Indeed, The Church Fathers and Mothers understood Sophia to be the
> "Logos,"<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.britannica.com_topic_logos&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=Aq3zofPI-WoUtPiWau0ByaGFMmxb312yadixn2NIdUg&e=>
> or Word of
> God<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DJohn-2B1-253A1-2D18-26version-3DNIV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=RsScTkHmeZjHZJDGwq4_n5IrzY9w0ammhRzGLgdpdeY&e=>.
> Additionally, Jewish rabbis equated the Torah, the law of God, with Sophia,
> which means that feminine wisdom was with God from the very beginning of
> time.
>
> Perhaps one of the most remarkable things ever said about God in the Hebrew
> Bible occurs in Exodus
> 3<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DExodus-2B3-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=gXrYDmdrL2du2u4RVc_epjdUH0CE58iihq3R5oJbD5o&e=>
> when Moses first encounters the deity and asks for its name. In verse 14,
> God responds, "I am who I am," which is simply a mixture of "to be"
> verbs<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.desiringgod.org_articles_10-2Dthings-2Dyahweh-2Dmeans&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=c-hY2t7ZLMWyQPlyOFZ601N-zzXVclKARL7KBlMUdpY&e=>
> in Hebrew without any specific reference to gender. If anything, the book of
> Exodus is clear that God is simply "being," which echoes later Christian
> doctrine that God is
> spirit<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.rep.routledge.com_articles_thematic_pneuma_v-2D1&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=molK5FRZrQwQbmeOq5JV7BFwm4g6q9ogFKT-zeDLDWk&e=>.
>
> In fact, the personal name of God,
> Yahweh<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.jewishencyclopedia.com_articles_11305-2Dnames-2Dof-2Dgod&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=86Flbz-ih9ByRUhZfQFHY_4FK8n7IzfwEGm-N0GwLo4&e=>,
> which is revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, is a remarkable combination of both
> female and male grammatical endings. The first part of God's name in Hebrew,
> "Yah," is feminine, and the last part, "weh," is masculine. In light of
> Exodus 3, the feminist theologian Mary
> Daly<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.feministes-2Dradicales.org_wp-2Dcontent_uploads_2010_11_Mary-2DDaly-2DBeyond-2DGod-2Dthe-2DFather-2DToward-2Da-2DPhilosophy-2Dof-2DWomens-2DLiberation.pdf&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=J_iTO39ZTmEpa1amXz3Ny2CzVbtoxVy5EDBpSoHs3pA&e=>
> asks, "Why must 'God' be a noun? Why not a verb – the most active and
> dynamic of all."
>
> God in the New Testament
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]New
> Testament.
> kolosser417<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pixabay.com_en_bible-2Dthe-2Dgospel-2Dof-2Djohn-2D3520556_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=yROTYUsSEkn-GCXCOfkFx6ZeBA-_BcbUcZhCemPk95k&e=>,
> CC
> BY<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__creativecommons.org_licenses_by_4.0_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=k-fypL6SCahw5adL6KitSKvcAWZmJhSQVgVKaQ93Euo&e=>
>
> In the New Testament, Jesus also presents himself in feminine language. In
> Matthew's
> Gospel<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__biblehub.com_matthew_23-2D37.htm&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=B8iVOd0Wl-4hJkcoTVtd4lEs4QhBh8AOogonoQQEdHo&e=>,
> Jesus stands over Jerusalem and weeps, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you
> who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed
> to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her
> wings, and you were not willing."
>
> Furthermore, the author of Matthew equates Jesus with the feminine Sophia
> (wisdom), when he writes, "Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." In
> Matthew's mind, it seems that Jesus is the feminine Wisdom of Proverbs, who
> was with God from the beginning of creation. In my opinion, I think it is
> very likely that Matthew is suggesting that there is a spark of the feminine
> in Jesus' nature.
>
> Additionally, in his letter to the
> Galatians<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.usccb.org_bible_galatians_0&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=zygn0fQvDFHEiRUqEvHAfnGijqTudym2HHCXPvOAxvI&e=>,
> written around 54 or 55 A.D., Paul says that he will continue "in the pain
> of childbirth until Christ is formed in you."
>
> Clearly, feminine imagery was acceptable among the first followers of
> Jesus.
>
> The church fathers
>
> This trend continues with the writings of the Church fathers. In his book
> "Salvation to the Rich
> Man,"<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__st-2Dtakla.org_books_en_ecf_002_0020442.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=-GbsdUj_hAhUu0aAgaB06dIIAY20LGrhMcY7OjzVkeQ&e=>
> Clement<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.christianitytoday.com_history_people_evangelistsandapologists_clement-2Dof-2Dalexandria.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=vauq0p7YYdfSCWhqMRPizX9CEb2JlLGOofspc6lO7YE&e=>,
> the bishop of Alexandria who lived around 150-215 A.D., states, "In his
> ineffable essence he is father; in his compassion to us he became mother.
> The father by loving becomes feminine." It's important to remember that
> Alexandria was one of the most important Christian cities in the second and
> third centuries along with Rome and Jerusalem. It was also the hub for
> Christian intellectual activity.
>
> Additionally, in another book, "Christ the
> Educator<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.newadvent.org_fathers_02091.htm&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=VdBkKifm4Mzy62epsf0zGcByhnTgOlqsnjrKvLiLeS8&e=>,"
> he writes, "The Word [Christ] is everything to his little ones, both father
> and mother."
> Augustine<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.christianitytoday.com_history_people_theologians_augustine-2Dof-2Dhippo.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=eQ4jPH3wbUbl4lNvBrZm-EbbFU29fKcMV-p7o7O8tZI&e=>,
> the fourth-century bishop of Hippo in North Africa, uses the image of God as
> mother to demonstrate that God nurses and cares for the faithful. He
> writes<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__faculty.gordon.edu_hu_bi_ted-5Fhildebrandt_otesources_19-2Dpsalms_text_books_augustine-2Dpsalms_augustine-2Dpsalms.pdf&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=awspPHjMSy-_auUWDpv-2Z29pqyhFAmtwBOHjDK0xWk&e=>,
> "He who has promised us heavenly food has nourished us on milk, having
> recourse to a mother's tenderness."
>
> And,
> Gregory<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.franciscanmedia.org_saint-2Dgregory-2Dof-2Dnyssa_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=t8xLCkTweXOsGsR8rSlfFC_ty-OcnoajumDpIyMd-ZQ&e=>,
> the bishop of Nyssa, one of the early Greek church
> fathers<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com_the-2Dthree-2Dcappadocians_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=cZSkZHf8QvliT9Rr1ZeByjDXbezfnX2ELJhOGcZ9kBA&e=>
> who lived from 335-395 A.D., speaks of God's unknowable essence – God's
> transcendence – in feminine
> terms.<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__books.google.com_books-3Fid-3DE2NStO5kLqkC-26pg-3DPA292-26lpg-3DPA292-26dq-3DThe-2Bdivine-2Bpower-2C-2Bthough-2Bexalted-2Bfar-2Babove-2Bour-2Bnature-2Band-2Binaccessible-2Bto-2Ball-2Bapproach-2C-2Blike-2Ba-2Btender-2Bmother-2Bwho-2Bjoins-2Bin-2Bthe-2Binarticulate-2Butterances-2Bof-2Bher-2Bbabe-2C-2Bgives-2Bto-2Bour-2Bhuman-2Bnature-2Bwhat-2Bit-2Bis-2Bcapable-2Bof-2Breceiving-2Bnyssa-26source-3Dbl-26ots-3DmoBVMhAlyo-26sig-3DfsWjDAO2cr1mBog6pvIuy8DUPVE-26hl-3Den-26sa-3DX-26ved-3D0ahUKEwi-5F1OTSpLjcAhVkg-2DAKHewqDQIQ6AEILjAC-23v-3Donepage-26q-26f-3Dfalse&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=rFLb2xYCXW3CEWj4oFE5ubTcm_dfiBs4o2KC8q_6BaQ&e=>
> He says,
>
> "The divine power, though exalted far above our nature and inaccessible to
> all approach, like a tender mother who joins in the inarticulate utterances
> of her babe, gives to our human nature what it is capable of receiving."
>
> What is God's gender?
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Do
> images limit our religious experience? Saint-Petersburg Theological
> Academy<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.flickr.com_photos_spbpda_14168383736_in_photolist-2DnA1ESd-2DdbhTWL-2Db6fKUV-2DdvP12P-2DiA2fs9-2D6xCQfA-2DWrcVkg-2DaabhnB-2DDTP354-2Da9sem3-2DcUmDRy-2DbH6GGH-2D4JEdMT-2DeaujPx-2DeEKdMv-2DfcLrs8-2DaaijXb-2D9pJERP-2DdQEGMa-2DZhMSaC-2D67iAmy-2D4PP32o-2Daa9yxM-2DdBsy8B-2D67ixL3-2Do96QZo-2D67izg1-2Dc9NnNQ-2D8sNUMg-2Dcty7iC-2D8CqH3f-2D5HM1fi-2DWRBLpk-2D9EBApX-2DSQTTW8-2Da9hwe9-2D8vRUWH-2DBe3puZ-2Da9i7sE-2Dec1NAW-2DezMxga-2Db6fK3F-2D5qKRPx-2DdQ79LW-2Di9jSBX-2D5Qzj2V-2D4nWZHg-2Djw2Fu9-2Daa9pDg-2D8zYZUN&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=EtMXo9STN6jDc2uzX711f1IzDSV0rn5A-CyJe8u3FX4&e=>,
> CC
> BY-ND<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__creativecommons.org_licenses_by-2Dnd_4.0_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=ax67a1xHwciCFV_2_H8niuRPTJuRZbE_nlyvY2jf4Z4&e=>
>
> Modern followers of Jesus live in a world where images risk becoming
> socially, politically or morally inadequate. When this happens, as the
> feminist theologian Judith
> Plaskow<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__jwa.org_encyclopedia_article_plaskow-2Djudith&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=xk9R2opCAuXQjc4Dq1DYRpIAICg1nG7nlNpKUqTnIas&e=>
> notes<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__books.google.com_books_about_Standing-5FAgain-5Fat-5FSinai.html-3Fid-3DmJX78S4ejiAC-26printsec-3Dfrontcover-26source-3Dkp-5Fread-5Fbutton-23v-3Donepage-26q-26f-3Dfalse&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=QzzmDB9lGXRlI5q0f4iuB8S1U755XqQ2TRqwbio7J1g&e=>,
> "Instead of pointing to and evoking the reality of God, [our images] block
> the possibility of religious experience." In other words, limiting God to
> masculine pronouns and imagery limits the countless religious experiences of
> billions of Christians throughout the world.
>
> It is probably best, then, for modern day Christians to heed the words and
> warning of bishop Augustine, who once said, "si comprehendis non est
> Deus<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.thinkingfaith.org_articles_20080828-5F1.htm&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=cNkbohH8-t8tAWkyRyYX7ebEp5HaehYdZO3JZrwoYe4&e=>."
> If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God.
>
>
>
>
>
> This article was republished on the Houston Chronicle from:
>
> https://theconversation.com/what-the-early-church-thought-about-gods-gender-100077<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__theconversation.com_what-2Dthe-2Dearly-2Dchurch-2Dthought-2Dabout-2Dgods-2Dgender-2D100077&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=KK96a1TOz2ARDcKMj40U6AcV5INqFY-sPUBBKchB4vQ&e=>
>
>
>
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
acb-chat mailing list
acb-chat@acblists.org
http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
From: Carl Jarvis via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2018 15:28:02 +0000
Subject: Re: [acb-chat] We Shall Overcome...
To: "General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
range of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or
whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion
list." <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Cc: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
"It is probably best, then, for modern day Christians to heed the
words and warning of bishop Augustine, who once said, "
si comprehendis non est Deus
." If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God."
As an Agnostic, I take my place among those who do not understand.
As a person who observes the world around me, and hopefully learns
from experience, I see the Human Species as one more Life Form on this
Planet. We are linked to all other Life. We suffer from "Grandiose
Imagination!"
We have mistaken our ability to manipulate our environment as a sign
of our superiority. As the song warns, "Fools rush in Where Angels
Fear to Tread..."
Carl Jarvis
On 8/28/18, Demaya, Diego via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
> What the early church thought about God's gender
> [https://cdn.theconversation.com/avatars/517571/width170/image-20180723-189319-1wcqno3.jpg]David
> Wheeler-Reed
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__theconversation.com_profiles_david-2Dwheeler-2Dreed-2D517571&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=T0iffRdVZqOOsDYnlRhcd7ZhiZrafQd8hLuiteiLhTg&e=>
> August 1, 2018 6.37am EDT
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230043/original/file-20180731-136673-128azg9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip]
> All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carolyn
> Fitzpatrick<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_All-5FSaints-5FEpiscopal-5FChurch-5F-28Fort-5FLauderdale-2C-5FFlorida-29-23_media_File-3ASanctuary.JPG&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=feZEua_BetzX_Kx90Cr8Fdx7TDGZJvHGWJREx7IJW9c&e=>
>
> The Episcopal
> Church<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.episcopalchurch.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=BBCncJUOjziQajz9c-gCps7urgGWH33nNdqhVsOpVjQ&e=>
> has decided to revise its 1979 prayer
> book<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.washingtonpost.com_news_acts-2Dof-2Dfaith_wp_2018_07_18_the-2Depiscopal-2Dchurch-2Dwill-2Drevise-2Dits-2Dbeloved-2Dprayer-2Dbook-2Dbut-2Ddoesnt-2Dknow-2Dwhen_-3Fnoredirect-3Don-26utm-5Fterm-3D.3e4113671ca0-26wpisrc-3Dnl-5Ffaith-26wpmm-3D1&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=piFZ8KOxYbki8Kw_hH9mHGdrp9ibWhi7jaFLP58R7pg&e=>,
> so that God is no longer referred to by masculine pronouns.
>
> The prayer
> book<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bcponline.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=xtoC1oxCktpP0qy7jsus4P2kE3WCR-W-BjprVyu4w5w&e=>,
> first published in 1549 and now in its fourth edition, is the symbol of
> unity for the Anglican
> Communion<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.anglicancommunion.org_identity_about.aspx&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=3JEGYwYd9j2Rfj8fiK_Ba1o-6N0MVpg5ybwJMBI2Uhw&e=>.
> The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion founded in
> 1867. While there is no clear timeline for the changes, religious leaders at
> the denomination's recent triennial conference in Austin have agreed to a
> demand to replace the masculine terms for God such as "He" and "King" and
> "Father."
>
> Indeed, early Christian writings and texts, all refer to God in feminine
> terms.
>
> God of the Hebrew Bible
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Hebrew
> Bible. Stock
> Catalog<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.flickr.com_photos_stockcatalog_25547697457&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=sqRWcuFy0IBTYJcvszDeprmAaJoFErdBeooUpbTzJoM&e=>,
> CC
> BY<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__creativecommons.org_licenses_by_4.0_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=k-fypL6SCahw5adL6KitSKvcAWZmJhSQVgVKaQ93Euo&e=>
>
> As a scholar of Christian origins and gender
> theory<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__scholar.google.com_scholar-3Fhl-3Den-26as-5Fsdt-3D0-252C7-26q-3Ddavid-2Bwheeler-2Dreed-26btnG-3D&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=Rp0HSUHyAcgD_ATCjBBTwc2PbH5Jhnneb0CYlGSDtRc&e=>,
> I've studied the early references to God.
>
> In
> Genesis<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DGenesis-2B1-253A27-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=19RqPfjlyQ4FuvCD5c26H04qUfko9G9kPag0JT7-GyE&e=>,
> for example, women and men are created in the "Imago Dei," image of God,
> which suggests that God transcends socially constructed notions of gender.
> Furthermore,
> Deuteronomy<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DDeuteronomy-2B32-253A18-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=C7gsWMoMTCDuYlJk27dQfxlGJHsY8qLtOos_w5ulI-c&e=>,
> the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible written in the seventh century
> B.C.<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.oxfordscholarship.com_view_10.1093_0195133242.001.0001_acprof-2D9780195133240&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=c4LnFYnPs97rhVGsP5XwC8kaFWCrV7mlolkLy4HzOsE&e=>,
> states that God gave birth to Israel.
>
> In the oracles of the eighth century prophet
> Isaiah<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DIsaiah-2B42-253A14-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=egkHSYy9Xs8qm77GV1Kb_tZdoVNSkIeBYqqhJzE4qfM&e=>,
> God is described as a woman in labor and a mother comforting her children.
>
> And the Book of
> Proverbs<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3Dproverbs-2B8-253A22-2D23-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=DC7yqSDgViXEmXCGhKFevx9mqX9CyYQPKal14jYXsK0&e=>
> maintains that the feminine figure of Holy Wisdom,
> Sophia<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__cac.org_sophia-2Dwisdom-2Dof-2Dgod-2D2017-2D11-2D07_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=ueuFBusO1bEMerLmh6f1NBzj_jnMa2G-dHkM7DPNCTU&e=>,
> assisted God during the creation of the world.
>
> Indeed, The Church Fathers and Mothers understood Sophia to be the
> "Logos,"<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.britannica.com_topic_logos&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=Aq3zofPI-WoUtPiWau0ByaGFMmxb312yadixn2NIdUg&e=>
> or Word of
> God<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DJohn-2B1-253A1-2D18-26version-3DNIV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=RsScTkHmeZjHZJDGwq4_n5IrzY9w0ammhRzGLgdpdeY&e=>.
> Additionally, Jewish rabbis equated the Torah, the law of God, with Sophia,
> which means that feminine wisdom was with God from the very beginning of
> time.
>
> Perhaps one of the most remarkable things ever said about God in the Hebrew
> Bible occurs in Exodus
> 3<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biblegateway.com_passage_-3Fsearch-3DExodus-2B3-26version-3DNRSV&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=gXrYDmdrL2du2u4RVc_epjdUH0CE58iihq3R5oJbD5o&e=>
> when Moses first encounters the deity and asks for its name. In verse 14,
> God responds, "I am who I am," which is simply a mixture of "to be"
> verbs<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.desiringgod.org_articles_10-2Dthings-2Dyahweh-2Dmeans&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=c-hY2t7ZLMWyQPlyOFZ601N-zzXVclKARL7KBlMUdpY&e=>
> in Hebrew without any specific reference to gender. If anything, the book of
> Exodus is clear that God is simply "being," which echoes later Christian
> doctrine that God is
> spirit<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.rep.routledge.com_articles_thematic_pneuma_v-2D1&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=molK5FRZrQwQbmeOq5JV7BFwm4g6q9ogFKT-zeDLDWk&e=>.
>
> In fact, the personal name of God,
> Yahweh<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.jewishencyclopedia.com_articles_11305-2Dnames-2Dof-2Dgod&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=86Flbz-ih9ByRUhZfQFHY_4FK8n7IzfwEGm-N0GwLo4&e=>,
> which is revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, is a remarkable combination of both
> female and male grammatical endings. The first part of God's name in Hebrew,
> "Yah," is feminine, and the last part, "weh," is masculine. In light of
> Exodus 3, the feminist theologian Mary
> Daly<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.feministes-2Dradicales.org_wp-2Dcontent_uploads_2010_11_Mary-2DDaly-2DBeyond-2DGod-2Dthe-2DFather-2DToward-2Da-2DPhilosophy-2Dof-2DWomens-2DLiberation.pdf&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=J_iTO39ZTmEpa1amXz3Ny2CzVbtoxVy5EDBpSoHs3pA&e=>
> asks, "Why must 'God' be a noun? Why not a verb – the most active and
> dynamic of all."
>
> God in the New Testament
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]New
> Testament.
> kolosser417<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pixabay.com_en_bible-2Dthe-2Dgospel-2Dof-2Djohn-2D3520556_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=yROTYUsSEkn-GCXCOfkFx6ZeBA-_BcbUcZhCemPk95k&e=>,
> CC
> BY<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__creativecommons.org_licenses_by_4.0_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=k-fypL6SCahw5adL6KitSKvcAWZmJhSQVgVKaQ93Euo&e=>
>
> In the New Testament, Jesus also presents himself in feminine language. In
> Matthew's
> Gospel<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__biblehub.com_matthew_23-2D37.htm&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=B8iVOd0Wl-4hJkcoTVtd4lEs4QhBh8AOogonoQQEdHo&e=>,
> Jesus stands over Jerusalem and weeps, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you
> who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed
> to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her
> wings, and you were not willing."
>
> Furthermore, the author of Matthew equates Jesus with the feminine Sophia
> (wisdom), when he writes, "Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." In
> Matthew's mind, it seems that Jesus is the feminine Wisdom of Proverbs, who
> was with God from the beginning of creation. In my opinion, I think it is
> very likely that Matthew is suggesting that there is a spark of the feminine
> in Jesus' nature.
>
> Additionally, in his letter to the
> Galatians<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.usccb.org_bible_galatians_0&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=zygn0fQvDFHEiRUqEvHAfnGijqTudym2HHCXPvOAxvI&e=>,
> written around 54 or 55 A.D., Paul says that he will continue "in the pain
> of childbirth until Christ is formed in you."
>
> Clearly, feminine imagery was acceptable among the first followers of
> Jesus.
>
> The church fathers
>
> This trend continues with the writings of the Church fathers. In his book
> "Salvation to the Rich
> Man,"<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__st-2Dtakla.org_books_en_ecf_002_0020442.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=-GbsdUj_hAhUu0aAgaB06dIIAY20LGrhMcY7OjzVkeQ&e=>
> Clement<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.christianitytoday.com_history_people_evangelistsandapologists_clement-2Dof-2Dalexandria.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=vauq0p7YYdfSCWhqMRPizX9CEb2JlLGOofspc6lO7YE&e=>,
> the bishop of Alexandria who lived around 150-215 A.D., states, "In his
> ineffable essence he is father; in his compassion to us he became mother.
> The father by loving becomes feminine." It's important to remember that
> Alexandria was one of the most important Christian cities in the second and
> third centuries along with Rome and Jerusalem. It was also the hub for
> Christian intellectual activity.
>
> Additionally, in another book, "Christ the
> Educator<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.newadvent.org_fathers_02091.htm&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=VdBkKifm4Mzy62epsf0zGcByhnTgOlqsnjrKvLiLeS8&e=>,"
> he writes, "The Word [Christ] is everything to his little ones, both father
> and mother."
> Augustine<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.christianitytoday.com_history_people_theologians_augustine-2Dof-2Dhippo.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=eQ4jPH3wbUbl4lNvBrZm-EbbFU29fKcMV-p7o7O8tZI&e=>,
> the fourth-century bishop of Hippo in North Africa, uses the image of God as
> mother to demonstrate that God nurses and cares for the faithful. He
> writes<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__faculty.gordon.edu_hu_bi_ted-5Fhildebrandt_otesources_19-2Dpsalms_text_books_augustine-2Dpsalms_augustine-2Dpsalms.pdf&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=awspPHjMSy-_auUWDpv-2Z29pqyhFAmtwBOHjDK0xWk&e=>,
> "He who has promised us heavenly food has nourished us on milk, having
> recourse to a mother's tenderness."
>
> And,
> Gregory<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.franciscanmedia.org_saint-2Dgregory-2Dof-2Dnyssa_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=t8xLCkTweXOsGsR8rSlfFC_ty-OcnoajumDpIyMd-ZQ&e=>,
> the bishop of Nyssa, one of the early Greek church
> fathers<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com_the-2Dthree-2Dcappadocians_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=cZSkZHf8QvliT9Rr1ZeByjDXbezfnX2ELJhOGcZ9kBA&e=>
> who lived from 335-395 A.D., speaks of God's unknowable essence – God's
> transcendence – in feminine
> terms.<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__books.google.com_books-3Fid-3DE2NStO5kLqkC-26pg-3DPA292-26lpg-3DPA292-26dq-3DThe-2Bdivine-2Bpower-2C-2Bthough-2Bexalted-2Bfar-2Babove-2Bour-2Bnature-2Band-2Binaccessible-2Bto-2Ball-2Bapproach-2C-2Blike-2Ba-2Btender-2Bmother-2Bwho-2Bjoins-2Bin-2Bthe-2Binarticulate-2Butterances-2Bof-2Bher-2Bbabe-2C-2Bgives-2Bto-2Bour-2Bhuman-2Bnature-2Bwhat-2Bit-2Bis-2Bcapable-2Bof-2Breceiving-2Bnyssa-26source-3Dbl-26ots-3DmoBVMhAlyo-26sig-3DfsWjDAO2cr1mBog6pvIuy8DUPVE-26hl-3Den-26sa-3DX-26ved-3D0ahUKEwi-5F1OTSpLjcAhVkg-2DAKHewqDQIQ6AEILjAC-23v-3Donepage-26q-26f-3Dfalse&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=rFLb2xYCXW3CEWj4oFE5ubTcm_dfiBs4o2KC8q_6BaQ&e=>
> He says,
>
> "The divine power, though exalted far above our nature and inaccessible to
> all approach, like a tender mother who joins in the inarticulate utterances
> of her babe, gives to our human nature what it is capable of receiving."
>
> What is God's gender?
> [https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Do
> images limit our religious experience? Saint-Petersburg Theological
> Academy<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.flickr.com_photos_spbpda_14168383736_in_photolist-2DnA1ESd-2DdbhTWL-2Db6fKUV-2DdvP12P-2DiA2fs9-2D6xCQfA-2DWrcVkg-2DaabhnB-2DDTP354-2Da9sem3-2DcUmDRy-2DbH6GGH-2D4JEdMT-2DeaujPx-2DeEKdMv-2DfcLrs8-2DaaijXb-2D9pJERP-2DdQEGMa-2DZhMSaC-2D67iAmy-2D4PP32o-2Daa9yxM-2DdBsy8B-2D67ixL3-2Do96QZo-2D67izg1-2Dc9NnNQ-2D8sNUMg-2Dcty7iC-2D8CqH3f-2D5HM1fi-2DWRBLpk-2D9EBApX-2DSQTTW8-2Da9hwe9-2D8vRUWH-2DBe3puZ-2Da9i7sE-2Dec1NAW-2DezMxga-2Db6fK3F-2D5qKRPx-2DdQ79LW-2Di9jSBX-2D5Qzj2V-2D4nWZHg-2Djw2Fu9-2Daa9pDg-2D8zYZUN&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=EtMXo9STN6jDc2uzX711f1IzDSV0rn5A-CyJe8u3FX4&e=>,
> CC
> BY-ND<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__creativecommons.org_licenses_by-2Dnd_4.0_&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=ax67a1xHwciCFV_2_H8niuRPTJuRZbE_nlyvY2jf4Z4&e=>
>
> Modern followers of Jesus live in a world where images risk becoming
> socially, politically or morally inadequate. When this happens, as the
> feminist theologian Judith
> Plaskow<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__jwa.org_encyclopedia_article_plaskow-2Djudith&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=xk9R2opCAuXQjc4Dq1DYRpIAICg1nG7nlNpKUqTnIas&e=>
> notes<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__books.google.com_books_about_Standing-5FAgain-5Fat-5FSinai.html-3Fid-3DmJX78S4ejiAC-26printsec-3Dfrontcover-26source-3Dkp-5Fread-5Fbutton-23v-3Donepage-26q-26f-3Dfalse&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=QzzmDB9lGXRlI5q0f4iuB8S1U755XqQ2TRqwbio7J1g&e=>,
> "Instead of pointing to and evoking the reality of God, [our images] block
> the possibility of religious experience." In other words, limiting God to
> masculine pronouns and imagery limits the countless religious experiences of
> billions of Christians throughout the world.
>
> It is probably best, then, for modern day Christians to heed the words and
> warning of bishop Augustine, who once said, "si comprehendis non est
> Deus<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.thinkingfaith.org_articles_20080828-5F1.htm&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=cNkbohH8-t8tAWkyRyYX7ebEp5HaehYdZO3JZrwoYe4&e=>."
> If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God.
>
>
>
>
>
> This article was republished on the Houston Chronicle from:
>
> https://theconversation.com/what-the-early-church-thought-about-gods-gender-100077<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__theconversation.com_what-2Dthe-2Dearly-2Dchurch-2Dthought-2Dabout-2Dgods-2Dgender-2D100077&d=DwMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=ICjU9CxHPcug0RJocin0cVVdZXZ7asiKfH92JngYzVU&s=KK96a1TOz2ARDcKMj40U6AcV5INqFY-sPUBBKchB4vQ&e=>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Monday, August 27, 2018
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Re: [acb-chat] "As I see it": Edited notes of King George III
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|
![https://cdn.theconversation.com/avatars/517571/width170/image-20180723-189319-1wcqno3.jpg]David](https://cdn.theconversation.com/avatars/517571/width170/image-20180723-189319-1wcqno3.jpg]David){kind=link}
![https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Hebrew](https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Hebrew){kind=link}
![https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]New](https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]New){kind=link}
![https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Do](https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip]Do){kind=link}
On Sunday, August 26, 2018 03:01:13 PM EDT, Carl Jarvis via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
What an amazing find! The following notes were found in an old trunk
filled with Jarvis memorabilia. There is no signature, but it sounds
like...well, I'll wait to hear what you think. I will pass them along
without further comment.
Carl Jarvis
****
Hmm...those pesky upstart rebels keep stealing my emails before I
write them. A Pox upon them all!
What I wished to say, while sitting on my throne this early morning,
was just what should we consider the wicked Paul Revere? Should we
label him a simple "whistle blower"? or should he be charged as a
Traitor, to be hung from the neck until dead?
And what of that surveyor George Washington and his band of hooligans?
Have they gone mad? Do they forget that this is a Land of Laws and
proper processes? We must get the word out to the Commoners. They
far outnumber the Fools among them. They will rise up and join our
Army, bringing an end to this insanity.
Hmm...and now I cannot seem to find my Royal Toilet Paper.
On 8/26/18, Carl Jarvis via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>
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