Jots and Tittles

I can't avoid it any longer. I've tried for months now to avoid the inevitable, but this morning when I started my computer, instead of my lovely little startup noise, the speakers popped and crackled and gave me nothing. My sound driver, it seems, is dead once more, since it's doing the exact same thing now as it did the last time it died. Glorious.

So, I suppose it's time to start over. I've spent the morning backing everything up (I still have a bit more backup to do, but I'm getting there), and this afternoon we'll pull out the system restore disk and see if we can't salvage something of this poor computer. This makes me sad. After today, I won't have Chicken Hunter or Risk on my computer any more, and it'll take me forever to get everything set up again the way I want it. It's really probably time for a new computer, but since I've not got nearly the finances for that, system restore is the next best thing.

This is not what I wanted to deal with today. Last night, I was reading that book about Sophia that Mom got for me, and I had a total faith crisis. Honestly, for about ten minutes there, I sincerely believed that I had messed up and they were right about Sophia after all. And, since it was around midnight, who was awake to console me? I did try to call Troy but I knew he was probably asleep already, and he was. So, I had to get over it myself. I prayed, I read my Bible, and I still felt uneasy about the whole thing. So I went to sleep with that weighing on my heart, and while I'm a bit better today as far as that goes, I'm still uneasy. I need to pull out my Bible--before our Bible study tonight--and pray more. This is definitely something that needs to be worked through sooner rather than later.

So, I suppose you could say that today isn't exactly one of my better days. But, I'll muddle through, and tomorrow will be better.

-Jaya-

As promised, here's the letter I got from Don Wallace (interspersed with my comments, in purple, as usual):

November 27, 2006

Dear Brittany,

I just got home from spending Thanksgiving with our nephew and his family.  I just now had an opportunity to read your letter and want to thank you for including me in the list of people you sent it to.

As you know, your dad and I have had fairly lengthy conversations about this subject. He can tell you what all we talked about. He knows my opinions. He doesn't agree with my opinions, but respects them and I don't agree with all he has to say on the subject, but I respect his thoughts and feelings. That being said, I'll address your letter. I won't respond to your entire letter, just the general thoughts included.

I don't experience the fears you feel about Voices of Sophia. You said there are "some members" whose attention have been garnered.  I am fairly close to the church and its members and I am only aware of two who have anything to do with Voices of Sophia at all. One has an active interest. The other a passive interest. We both know the one with the active interest is Beth. Beth is very much a feminist and as such feels strongly about being a feminist Christian in today's world, but I strongly doubt she is advocating a feminist theology for ours, or any other church.

Do you, indeed? But later, you address her praying the Lord's Prayer to "Our MOTHER who art in heaven" in church one Sunday, which is very much a part of feminist theology (and a part of it that frightens me). I believe that Beth is advocating a feminist theology for every church. If she was not, she would hardly be a member of the Voices of Sophia, or she would be so apathetic about it as to render her completely harmless. In that case, I wouldn't have bothered writing my letter.

The inclusive langauge is an issue that bothers your dad a lot and perhaps you as well. Inclusive language does not bother me at all. To me, it makes no difference what you, or anyone else, calls God. There is only one God and as far as I can see, that God does not worry about what he/she is called. The God I worship is the same God you worship. God is God no matter what name you use. As you probably know, the Hebrew language, as spoken in biblical times, had no pronouns. That means there were no he's, she's, hims or hers in the language.  Gender, when talking to or about someone was a non-issue. Women were a different class of person than men back then and language in the Bible reflects that. Hopefully, our society has learned that we are both of the same class.

Hebrew did not need pronouns because everything in the Hebrew language already had a gender. Like French or Spanish or Italian or whatever else, Hebrew has masculine and feminine forms of words. God is not feminine. Pronouns are just the English version--we have the generic "it," which is something that few other languages have, which makes us more sensitive to gendered language.  As for the God one person worships being the same as the God any other person worships, that is simply not the case. Don may very well worship the One God. I cannot say. But anyone who calls on Sophia and expects to talk to God might as well call on Sarah and expect to talk to Ashley. Assuming that you can re-name someone just because YOU don't like their name is incredibly rude and selfish. That gous double for God, who has given us so many options for calling on him that we are not at all justified in creating new ones.

Judy and I were not at the service when Beth used the word mother in the beginning of the Lord's Prayer. Jesus' prayer is recorded differently in Matthew than it was in Luke, but in neither version does it say mother, only Father. The Lord's prayer has been changed many times over two thousand years and there are several different versions being used today. We, as Presbyterians say debts and debtors while Methodists and others use trespasses and trespass against us. Catholics leave the ending we use off altogether. Those changes don't bother me one way or the other. However, I don't feel mother should be used, either as a replacement for Father or in conjunction with Father at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer.  Pastor Lynn, I'm sure, feels the same way. As a result, that issue has been addressed with Beth and it won't happen again.

And yet, you said that Beth is not promoting a feminist theology. Some changes matter more than others. "Debts" vs. "trespasses" winds up saying about the same thing; you're not changing the original Greek wording, just translating it differently.  But "pater" does not translate to "mother." It's just that simple.

A lot of what you addressed in your letter speaks about our chuch and things that are happening within the First Presbyterian Church of Brighton. Much of what you are talking about are the results of suggestions and mandates by the Denver and National Presbyteries. You might want to send a copy of your letter to the Denver Presbytery as well as the National Presbytery so that they can respond to your issues as well.

Good advice. I'll have to look into that. But I kind of think it would be best to start small, in one church, and build on that.

You outlined many things in your letter that I won't respond to simply because, to me, they are non-issues.  That's not to say they are unimportant, because to you they are very important and I respect that. I'm only saying that I don't agree with all you say.

This frightens me. I talked about idolatry the rejection of atonement theology, and it is a "non-issue" to you? Atonement theology is the basis for our entire faith, and when that comes under attack and you don't care, that's a serious problem!

As I said, your dad can fill you in on the conversations he and I had.

Thank you for taking the time to research and write your letter. It's obvious you feel very strongly about those issues. Thanks again for including me. I really appreciate that.

You're quite welcome. I wish I'd made more of a difference, but since you were the only one who took the time to thoughtfully respond, I guess I have to take what I can get. Thank you for that, at least, and I pray that God is able to change your heart to see him better.

In Christ,
Don Wallace

Mother always told me never to lie. ^.^ And I'm not sorry, not in the least. Well, I am sorry that she honestly believes this, but I'm not at all sorry for what I'm about to do to it. It's been far too long since I tore one of the VOS arguments to little bitty shreds. So, here goes!  (My comments will be indented and purple.)

Language in Our Church
By Jody York Phillips

A bit of background: Jody goes to my old church in Brighton. I grew up around her; her son, Rusty, was only a year or two younger than I was, and I felt a special affection for him as he always seemed to be as I used to be: alone, in the back of the room, just watching, not really having any friends. Though I must wonder now if he did it for the same reasons I did... I always enjoyed Jody's company, though I didn't know her that well, and I certainly respected her very much. I grew up in her church, how could I not? Sadly, however, this kind of diminishes the respect a bit...

Inclusive language use in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has made news the past few months inside and outside of this church. So I thought I’d just wade into the fray with some history and personal observations. I first became aware of inclusive language during Raymond Kersting’s time here at First Presbyterian Church of Brighton (Colorado). That would be 29 years ago. Rev. Kersting was way ahead of his time. We were doing contemporary worship here before other churches knew what contemporary worship was. Contemporary at that time was folk music and many of us have come to love that type of church music although we seldom hear it anymore.

The fellowship hall in 1st Pres is named the Kersting Fellowship Hall. I never knew how to pronounce that when I was little; I think I butchered it in my mind! But Kersting retired before I was even born. As for the contemporary worship, my parents never went to the contemporary service; therefore, neither did we, no matter how much we wanted to like all the other kids our age. We went to the traditional service, with the old hymns and the organ and the liturgies and everything. I love those, now! Of course, when they started to change the Doxology and stuff,  it got less awesome... They don't do traditional services at 1st Pres any more. It's all contemporary, and it's all "inclusive" and so liberal I could puke. And I have never heard half the songs they sing in that church at ANY other service, anywhere. It's worse than the music you hear anywhere else, really. Like, worse than Bobby Righteousness and the White Knights of the Apocalypse. Or whatever. You know what I mean. Cheeseball, ridic, stupid, you name it. But that's just a personal preference.  Of course, I don't know what it says that they like to sing "Shine, Jesus, Shine" there... complete with the part that goes, "...set our heaaaaaaaaaarts ooooooooooooooon fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire (FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!!!!!)" but mysteriously lacking the part that goes "Fill this land with the Father's glory." I think it's something like "Creator's glory" instead, which doesn't have the same number of syllables so it messes up the whole song. Lame sauce.  But I digress.

During that time Rev. Kersting began changing words like man, men, and mankind to words that were non-gendered. His favorite word as I remember was “folk.” At the time I thought, “What difference does it make?” Later, after he had retired and we had three pastors who didn’t follow his lead, I realized it was important, very important to me.

Because he sensitized you to that kind of language. I'd be willing to bet you would never have noticed if you hadn't had him as a pastor. That doesn't make him right. That takes your focus away from God and onto the language being used.

Recently I attended a worship service at a Southern Baptist Church in West Virginia that is very close to my husband George’s heart. The people are friendly, welcoming, warm, and very dedicated to God and their church. The adult education teacher and the pastor are passionate in teaching the Bible. However, as I sat there listening I realized that not one of their remarks was addressed to me as a woman. There was only he/him man/men and mankind. There was not one her/she or humankind in giving illustrations of the text relating to people.

Again, would you even have noticed this if you hadn't been sensitized to it by Kersting? I don't think so.

My feeling at that time was, “Where do I fit into all this?” Why aren’t women addressed in some way? We are not invisible beings. We are given lip service that we as well as men have been made in the image and likeliness of God, so why do some churches fail to address us as children of God? I was very thankful for my church in Brighton, Colorado, as I walked out of that church West Virginia.

You ARE addressed. "Mankind" is a generic term meaning "human beings." It only sounds cooler and takes less time to say. Be glad you don't live in a country which speaks French, or Spanish, or some language along those lines. There IS no gender neutrality. It's all either masculine or feminine, and that includes everything from people to God to inanimate objects. It's only in English that you can be so hypersensitive to gender-neutral language.

With regard to our language for God, it is important to me to have a part of God who looks like me.

Whoa! Hold the boat - there's your problem. You don't want to worship God, you want to worship a god who looks suspiciously like you. You want to worship yourself, reflected in a god you've created to look more like you. It's much easier to worship a god of our own making, I'll readily admit, but that doesn't make it okay.  When you start trying to project yourself onto God, you stop worshipping God and start worshipping yourself.

A button given out at one of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assemblies I attended several years ago said, “God is not a boy’s name.” I love that and wonder why so many continue to refer to God only in male terms and why a more inclusive God seems to be such a threat to some.

Perhaps because God has revealed himself only in male terms, and we're trying to stay true to him? In the Bible, the only feminine imagery used for God is in the form of simile, not metaphor. For you non-English majors, that means that, with a simile, God is LIKE something. With a metaphor, God IS something. That's a big difference. God IS never female. He is only LIKE a certain feminine attribute.  And the inclusivity that radical feminism lauds is not the kind of inclusivity that God can condone. You cannot just choose to "include" sin as a part of your life. Nor can you choose to "include" parts of other faiths. When you begin to do that, you are no longer Christian.

Wisdom in the Bible is feminine. (See Proverbs 8 or the story of Solomon in I Kings which is full of “the wisdom of God” given to Solomon.)

Yes. But wisdom is not God. Wisdom is an aspect of God's character that is personified in feminine terms, much like an author might personify a tree (take The Giving Tree, for example) or any other inanimate object. And, at the risk of being repetitive, let me emphasize: WISDOM IS NOT GOD.

I don’t remember a time when I did not believe the Holy Spirit to be the feminine part of God.

Indeed? o.O That's not orthodox theology at ALL...

The Holy Spirit is the one whom I depend on and trust to lead me in the paths I’m to take in my life. So, for me there is indeed a part of God that looks like me. And, I’m blessed to be in a church that is sympathetic to that.

"For me"? Ah, so truth is subjective, now! Glorious, then nobody can know anything and we'll all sink into an existential quandary, filled with loathing and self-doubt and wracked with the pain and isolation of our pitiful meaningless existence. Spectacular. (Kudos to those who can name the quote! ^_~)  And there with that "part of God that looks like me" we have again that part of God that is not actually a part of God at all, but a blatant projection of oneself onto the divine, and worshiping that instead of the true God.

Oh, and by the way - it should be "on whom I depend." (English major.)

It is my hope that we as a community of faith can come together and honor each person’s understanding of God.

Again with the subjective truth thing. If that person's understanding of God is fundamentally flawed, I refuse to sit there and pretend that it is worthy of being honored! No, indeed, I will do all that is in my power to guide her back to the truth (or occasionally bludgeon her over the head with the truth, if I'm getting frustrated and there seems to be no other way... ^_~), and to God.  There is only one God, eternal and unchanging, and HE is the One to whom we have dedicated our lives, to whom be all worship and glory and honor for ever and ever, world without end, Amen.  End of discussion.

Closing God into a small box keeps us from experiencing the fullness of life God hopes for us and puts restrictions on our understanding and acceptance of other’s feelings and beliefs.

But you canNOT take that to such an extreme as to deny the Bible, God, and Christianity. Just because someone "believes" that Hinduism is the way to salvation doesn't mean it is!  True, we cannot fully understand God, for he is infinite and we are finite. But we aren't clueless. We aren't blindly grasping at whatever straws we can find, hoping that they might be some poor reflection of the divine.  We have been given the Bible, God's holy Word to us, with which we can form an understanding of his character and exactly who we are to worship.  To deny that is to deny Christianity, because our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God comes from the Bible and the Bible alone. There is no other book which claims him as Lord that did not take, as its source, the Holy Bible. If you throw that away, *slams Bible down on the table with a loud BANG* you have NOTHING left.

Glory be to God the Creator, the Savior and the Guide full of Wisdom.

I beg your pardon. That would be "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Or "Holy Spirit," if you prefer. Let's not get into the Holy Trinity debate. That's how I found out about this whole Voices of Sophia garbage, and I have no desire to discuss how God has named himself in the Bible AGAIN.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I got the Bible-slamming thing from my daddy.  He actually did that at the Session one day. I wish I could have been there, it must have been glorious to see the looks on their faces! I'm so proud of him!  ^.^
I wish I could be equally proud of the church in which I grew up. Admittedly, I never much cared for the place. I always felt as though they were judging me (and later found out that they were... go figure), and I never made any real friendships there. The only people I loved are the people who left when this radical feminist stuff started taking over. People like Bonnie DeLong. She was awesome, and one of the few people at that church I ever really, really loved.

One day soon, I'll post the letter I got from Don Wallace as a response to my first paper. He didn't really listen to my argument, of course, but that he took the time to write back (even if it was to say that he doesn't care, and he sees it all as a "non-issue," which freaks me out...) is somewhat encouraging. I get the feeling that this Sophia thing is far from over. The question is, can I make a living off of this? Because, as difficult as it would be, I would do it if God made it work. I would TOTALLY do it. Or if I married someone who could afford to take care of the finances and leave me free to fight this battle.  That would be sweet, too. Then I'd have an extra layer of support (not that God isn't enough; he's more than enough, but someone to hold me close when I've had a rotten day or they've been attacking me about my arguments, and kiss me and remind me that he doesn't think I'm wrong and neither does God, would be very nice). And I wouldn't have to worry about paying for stuff. Like, you know, life and whatnot.

But whatever. Clearly, that's not what God has in mind for me right now, so I'll just go with the flow and see what happens. I'm not in charge, here, and it's kind of fun. Wheeeeeeeeeee! Hang on, kids, God's driving! ^_^

-Jaya-

That's right. Check this out:
 http://www.vow.org/viewpoints/essays/06nov17-dowdy-argument-to-persuade.html

That's me! I'm published! You could cite me now and stuff! How crazy is that? I'm all kinds of excited about this.  It's always been my dream to be published (though I kind of imagined that it'd be more along the fiction lines of things...) but hey, this is just as good, even if I don't get paid for it.

Yeah, I have to run to class now. But I just got Sylvia's email saying that I'm official, and I had to share.  Now, THERE'S something to be thankful for!  ^_^ God rocks my face off!  *is deleriously happy*

-Jaya-

"Keep alert, stand firm in your faith,be courageous, be strong.  Let all that you do be done in love." 1 Corinthians 16.13

Well, dear friends, this is it. I have spent all day working on this paper, and though it's not done yet, I wanted to share what I have so far. Any suggestions regarding tone or organization or... well, really anything would be greatly appreciated. This has been very difficult for me to write, as I'm sure you can understand, and I think right now I've spent so much time wallowing in it that I can't see the forest for the trees anymore. It's addressed to the Sesssion of my old church, First Presbyterian Church of Brighton, Colorado (hence the letter format and the use of first person).  I hope you have some time on your hands, because it's currently about 6 pages long.

And so, without further ado, I give you... *drumroll* Just a few notes: clearly, I'm not done with the citations--hence all the things that say (citation) at the end.  And it needs some massive editing.  I still have to decide how many concessions I want to make to their liberal views, and how many of them I want to attack.  Not to mention sticking in some other sources so that I meet the stupid quota for how many freaking sources I'm supposed to have (12?!).  But that will wait until later.  Right now, I'm just so relieved to have it done that I couldn't wait to share it! ^_^  I finished one of the Lit Crit papers, too, which is exciting even though it's only a page and a half.  But that one's not worth sharing.  Besides, I have to go back and write more!

Huzzah, it's snowing!  I love snow.  Even though I have to drive in it.  And it's a Tuesday, and Tuesdays are always good.  Well, Tuesdays from about 8:30 onward, anyway. ^_^  Today has been a good day, even though I'm really tired.  I don't think I'll go to Old C's tonight, because I need sleep.  But on the plus side, I BSed a quiz pretty well (I think), my writing arguments class is going well (shocking!), adolescent's lit was... well, I'm not sure, to be honest, since I quit paying attention halfway through so I could write a story instead. >.>  Ahem.  But then after school I got to meet with Rich, the senior pastor up here at First Pres, and we had a really good conversation about the whole Voices of Sophia mess and what is being done to bring the church back to orthodoxy.  I found out that I really know a lot more about this business than I thought I did.  And it's kind of cool that I was bringing up ideas that he hadn't thought of before.  Like how one of the problems with the Sophia people's argument that the Atonement isn't valid because it paints God as an abusive parent (grr!  no!) is that they're confusing justice with mercy.  Justice, in and of itself, is harsh and it certainly isn't a "nice" thing.  If God was only just, and that justice wasn't tempered with mercy, then God would have let us all burn in Hell, since that's what we deserve.  In fact, that wouldn't be punishment enough.  "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God."  That sort of thing.  But that's not how it happened, because God's justice is tempered with mercy, and therefore he sent his son, his beloved son, who could handle the punishment, to take it for us.  That's not an abusive parent!  That's love at its finest!  And Rich brought up a good point, too, that I hadn't thought of, because he said that the Sophia women are operating from the faulty notion that all suffering is inherently evil.  Which it isn't; suffering can be (and is) redemptive, if we let God work through it. 

Oh, and we talked about the Confessing Churches, and how our church joined (glorious!), and what our church believes.  It was just all so good.  God is the awesomest.  Wow.

So, yes.  It's been an excellent day.  Truly excellent.  And now I'm off to read some C. S. Lewis before I go to the Source, because I can use it as reading for class!  ^_^  Did I mention that today was a good day? 

-Jaya-

Boo. I didn't get off work until 6 tonight, and it was a very long 8 hours. And for the last hour I pretty much did nothing but watch Rosie do stuff.

I was so worried that I wasn't going to get a job at the beginning of this summer. Not that it really made much of a difference in how I went about looking for one, of course--what is there to do, apart from distributing resumes like fliers? I swear, I think I got to the point where I could recite the required information in my sleep. But it wasn't like I was frantic about it or anything, at least not until the last day before Mom would make me go home. I was SO relieved when I walked into National Furniture and Rosie offered to take me on. It was only temporary, she said, and at that point neither of us knew how long it would last, but I would have taken anything. And I kind of did. It was like working at the clinic again, not knowing what I was doing next and always having to ask someone for direction. But it was a job, and that was all I cared about.

A few weeks in, Rosie told me that she would probably only need me until the end of June. The first thing I did was I didn't tell my mom--I'm not stupid enough to do that, she'd have had me home quicker than you can say used furniture! No indeed, I just quietly started looking for another job. Which I didn't find, but it didn't matter too much, because the end of June came, and Rosie still kept finding things for me to do. July came and went, and here it's August already and I'm still at good ol' NFR. What can I say? Just make yourself the most valuable person in the world, able to do anything (and if you can't do anything, be handy with a search engine which will tell you how to do whatever you can't--Google and I are best friends now!) and willing to try anything, and voila! Instant job security. It's pretty awesome, let me tell you what. Now Rosie wants me to stay on through September, at the very least, and unless I get an internship I have no intention of leaving. How cool is that! I prayed and prayed and prayed for this job, and not only did God answer my prayer but he keeps on answering it, long after I need the answer at all. Wow. If it wasn't official before, it is now: God is the best EVER, world without end, amen. ^_^

~*~*~*~

Random shift of subject: last night at like 9, Troy IMed me (or maybe I IMed him... whatever) and wound up inviting me over to play video games. He had Guitar Hero (great fun!) and if I brought my lappy there was talk of Risk (I love that game!). So of course I headed on over, who wouldn't? To be honest, I was nervous to play Guitar Hero. I was totally sure that I'd suck, especially because both he and DJ actually play guitar, and the last time I played... um... well, it was a long time ago. Really long. I'm thinking 5th grade-ish, but I could be wrong. So when I did well, I was shocked--especially when I managed to hold my own against both of them! Wow, I'm good at stuff! Even if it is just video games and sucking up at work. And then we played Risk, which we stopped before it ended but it was decided that I won. I think if they'd ganged up on me they could have still defeated me, but maybe not. The problem is, now Risk is on my computer... yes, I've played a game already today--against the computer, anyway--and no, I didn't win. In fact, it was kind of ridiculous. I should know better than to spread myself so thin, I mean, honestly! How can I expect to hold all my territories with only one guy in each of them? Duh. Should have known better, but I'm not the brightest crayon in the box. Maybe next time I'll play classic Risk and see if that makes a difference. I seem to remember being able to cram as many troops into one country as I want--which would be SOOOOO nice! None of this "you can't stick any more reinforcements into this country because you SUCK" stuff. And none of this having 23 armies in one country and only being able to move 2 of them into the country you want to reinforce. Stupid thing.

Good grief, how pathetic is it that I just spent 10 minutes going on about Risk? That's enough of that!

~*~*~*~

I was reading more about the Voices of Sophia thing yesterday. CREEPY. I don't care what they say, they aren't Christians any more. These women are sick. Somewhere I wrote a little, ah, well, I guess you could call it an essay, about the whole thing. Let's see if I can find it... Here we go (anything quoted is in purple):

Now, before we get started, I am a fanfiction author, and therefore I have to put a disclaimer at the top of everything I write. So here goes:

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the voices of Sophia or any of the quotes I have here. All of the quotes were taken from internet articles found through a Google search usinge keywords like "Reimagining" and "Sophia" and they shouldn't be that hard to find if you want to look them up.  I'm not going to link to anything here because I don't want to give them that much recognition. I'm not making any money from this, and I'm only giving my opinions on this. You're free to disagree with me, but please don't sue me. I need that money to get through college. I'm only doing this for fun, and because I thought some other people would get a kick out of my thoughts on the matter.

Phew! Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to business. So. For those of you who don't know what the Voices of Sophia are, here's a brief history lesson for you: way back in the early 90s, there were some ladies in the Christian church who got together to "reimagine" God. What emerged, as far as I can tell, is the voices of Sophia. They claim that God is (at least in part) the female goddess of wisdom, Sophia (which is "wisdom" in Greek, I believe). It's all about feminism and recognizing your inner woman and your inner wisdom and all sorts of fun new-age stuff. It denies the deity of Jesus Christ as such, and ridicules the Atonement.

In all honesty, I'm not quite sure what to make of these women. Clearly, they're no longer Christian, and why they still cling to that name so fervently is beyond me. When you've clearly stated that CHRIST is not all that important in your religion, how can you possibly claim to be a CHRISTian? Besides, you silly feminists, Christ was a man--why in the world would you want to attach yourselves to his name? You should be called Sophists, of course. Just don't hang around Socrates or anything. He and the Sophists weren't too friendly. Say, there's a thought! Maybe I should do a comparison between the Sophists and the Voices of Sophia. Just to see how much they have in common. That might be fun! But it'll have to wait for another day, because I don't have time for it today.

Most of the time, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at the stuff these women have come up with. So I've settled for ridiculing them with glee--I figured that was a happy medium, right? So, here are some of the reasons why I'm torn between laughing at their stupidity and crying at what they're doing to my God:

Chung Hyung Kyung, professor at Korea's Ewha Women's University, instructed the crowd of women to seek help from the trees if they are in need of energy: "When we do pranic healing, we believe that this life-giving energy came from god and it is everywhere, it is in the sun, in the ocean, from the ground and it is from the trees ... We ask god's permission to use this life-giving energy for our sisters and brothers in need. If you feel very tired and you don't have any energy to give, what you do is ... go to a big tree and ask it to `give me some of your life energy'" (AFA Journal, Feb. 1994).


Great mother of pearl, are you kidding me? You mean, instead of guzzling caffeine like it's going out of style, I can just walk across the lawn to that big weeping willow out back and ask it for energy? Wow, I've been wasting my whole life! I can imagine the looks on my roommates' faces if I did that. *dies laughing* Well, when ol' Grandmother Willow starts to talk back, I'll tell Pocahontas for you.

Delores Williams, theology professor at New York's Union Theological Seminary, told the gathering: "I don't think we need a theory of atonement at all...Atonement has to do so much with death...I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff...We just need to listen to the god within."


*twitch* And weird stuff? I beg your pardon, but Jesus only DIED on the cross so that you could be free from stuff like sin, and death, "and weird stuff" like that. I'll admit, this one comes a lot closer to making me cry than it does to making me laugh. Jesus Christ is not "folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff." You're completely missing the point, you stupid, stupid woman! He died an horrific death so that you might live, so that you could approach God directly, and you're spitting it back in his face.

"Atonement has so much to do with death..." Wow, thank you for that stunning observation, o mistress of the obvious. It's kind of about how he died so that we wouldn't have to. Remind me again why this is a bad thing?

And you know what? I find it more amazing that God sent us a son than I would had he sent a daughter. Because it was kind of expected that a woman would be a servant to everyone. That was the culture. But to have a man taking on a woman's role--and taking it even further? Wow. What a guy. How cool is it that I can have a personal, one-on-one relationship with him? And by the way, I'd like to see these people explain how so many millions of real Christians have very real relationships with Jesus, and know him as Lord and Savior, if he's not. Sigh. But I digress...

In a seminar on 'Re- Imagining Sexuality-Family,' lesbian theologian Mary Hunt said, `Imagine sex among friends as the norm. ... Imagine valuing sexual interaction in terms of whether and how it fosters friendship and pleasure. ... Pleasure is our birthright of which we have been robbed in religious patriarchy" (AFA Journal, Feb. 1994).


Ok, I'm imagining... AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! My eyes! It burns! Great flying monkeys, that disgusts me. I mean, ew ew ew ew ewewewewewewewewewewewwwwwww! My friends and I can have deep, meaningful relationships without going at it like rabbits, thank you very much. I believe that sex is a beautiful, sacred thing that is to be shared between two people of opposite gender who have decided to give themselves to each other fully through marriage, and that's all. No group sex, no "sex among friends" or "friends with benefits" or whatever you want to call it. Ew. *shudders* *twitches* *dies*

And what the heck is this about pleasure is our birthright blah blah blah? That's not Godly at all, and nowhere near Christian! Pleasures are from God, of course, but they're not to be perverted into something that he has expressly forbidden. And calling it a patriarchal thing is unfair, because it's not like there's any shortage of perverted guys out there who'd be delighted to be invited to indulge in whatever sick pleasures happen to turn them on this week. That's not a gender thing, that's a perverted thing.

Brock has suggested Christian missionaries from the West have much to learn theologically from ancient cultures. She praised Lakota Indians for their cleansing "sweat lodge" ceremony and Tibetan Buddhists for their selection process of "the reincarnated" Dalai Lama.

Which pretty much makes it a conglomeration of a whole bunch of other religions, and not Christianity any more. I'm sure that there's plenty in the Bible about not letting other religions corrupt your own... some day I'll look it up and see what I can find.


She asserts that biblical achievements of women were largely omitted because of oppressive patriarchy--a system she calls the central "cause in evil and suffering."


So how do you explain the books of Ruth and Esther? How do you explain the stories of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Mary (pick one, there are certainly enough to choose from), Yael (all right, I only picked her because of my friend, but she was still a cool Biblical woman), Delilah... I could go on but I think you're getting the point. There is certainly no shortage of women in the Bible.

Throughout the conference, 50 monitors stood guard around the room, admonishing and exhorting attendees whose participation seemed less than heartfelt. Though participants had initially been told that joining in was voluntary, the conference newsletter advised that hanging back in Sophia worship would not be tolerated: "[P]articipation is intended for ALL in the gathering-rituals are not spectator events We thank you all for your full, active, conscious participation. May Sophia continue to bless your pilgrimage."


Oh, man, they would have hated me. I wouldn't fall for that swill, and I can assure you right now that my participation would have been "less then heartfelt." I don't even like to be that demonstrative in my own church, with a few very notable exceptions. My faith is a very personal thing, and I don't like to feel that it's on display. I'm definitely not one of those on my knees in the aisles with my hands raised and my eyes closed--there are days I wish I could, and there are times when I'm by myself at home and I do get on my knees and throw my hands in the air, but in front of others? No way. Did it ever occur to these women that some of us are a bit more naturally reserved than that? For all their talk about respecting the differences in others, they sure seem to have a very low tolerance for women who are of different temperaments than they are. To quote Jane, "You do not make sufficient allowances for differences in situation and character!"
When I asked participants, "Who is Sophia?", they seemed surprised and uncertain how to respond. One woman volunteered that "Sophia is the divine energy in women being unlocked by the goddess rituals." Another said, "She is the god who has been ignored too long-she is liberating the energy of all women for the good of the community." One man told me that Sophia "is the incarnation of wisdom in the women I have known." But one young woman's response seemed particularly illuminating: "Sophia is the wisdom within me."

This woman helped me understand why the excitement at "Re-Imagining" seemed so infectious, and why those caught up in it seemed loathe to question its source. The "Re-Imagining" participants were happily engaged in that most modem of enterprises: worshipping themselves, right down to the "bodily fluids" that figure so prominently in their prayers. They wanted to believe the conference program's heady words: "Sophia is the place in you where the entire universe resides."

There is so much wrong here... I don't even know where to start. I totally agree with Ms. Kersten, the author of this particular article, that these women are worshipping themselves. Disgusting. And "bodily fluids"? Dare I ask? On second thought, I probably don't want to know what the heck they were thinking. "O splendid saliva, o magnificent menstrual blood, o tragical tears, o.. errm... ubiquitous! Yeah! O ubiquitous urine!" O, please. And I hate menstrual blood, thanks--I've seen more than enough of it to last me several lifetimes, and it's definitely not worth worshipping. Ew.

Oh, and here's another part I love to hate. "Sophia is the place in you where the entire universe resides"? Aside from the physical impossibility here (har har har, I know it's a metaphor, but it's a stupid one, okay?), this doesn't even make sense. Here we have, ladies and gents, for your very much viewing pleasure, one of the finest examples of liberal nonsense available. Take some feel-good, namby-pamby crapola like the quote above and turn it into your mantra du jour. Let me just take a quick inside me and see if I can find the universe... *please stand by while the author searches for the universe* *elevator music* Hmm. Well, this is interesting. I see Jesus... I see some selfish corners of sin that have yet to be purged (more of those than I'd like, actually)... I see the banana I just ate... but definitely no universe. Which is actually kind of a relief. I mean, what kind of responsibility would I have with the whole universe inside of me? No thanks, I'll let God take care of that. I'd just mess the poor universe up so badly it'll need therapy for years.


Ah, now, this next one hits very close to home--literally--because it was written by the director of children's ministries for the church in which I grew up. I will never forget the terror that struck my heart when she stood up to introduce herself and said, "I'm so excited to be bringing feminism into this church!"

*Gags* I was sitting there thinking, "And I'm so excited to be going to college 60 miles away where I don't have to watch you corrupt this poor old church any further than it's already been corrupted..." I pity the poor innocent children who are being twisted by this woman's instruction in the church, because she has quite a way with the little ones and that skill is certainly not being used to forward God's kingdom. For example:

...the very issues and ideas raised in and through self-identified feminist efforts—issues and ideas such as the role of experience in theological inquiry, the power of language, sexual integrity, environmental concerns, the centrality of self-determination—illuminate absences and gaps in the patriarchal church.

Um, last I checked, none of those concerns are solely "feminist" as she implies. Perhaps the fems have adopted them to fit their political agendas, but those particular concerns have been around for much too long to be considered feminist--in fact, since the beginning of the Christian church, for some!

My own recent reading and thinking have focused especially on the importance of giving young boys in the church both the opportunity and the skills to express the full range of human emotions, including emotions that are stereotypically considered "feminine," such as affection and fear.

Okay, perhaps I'm being a bit dense here, but haven't men, throughout all of recorded history, valued affection and acknowledged fear? Let's see, we've got Shakespeare, who wrote some of the most beautiful and romantic love poetry out there. We've got Victor Hugo, who wrote the romance between Marius and Cosette in Les Miserables--some of the sappiest stuff in the world, too, it could make you gag! We've got the classics by Jane Austen, every one of which is partially a romance which values true affection in men above all else, as long as the affection is reciprocated. ("You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." *swoon*) We've got Jesus Christ himself saying "No greater love has a man than this: that he would lay down his life for his friends." Hmm. And how about fear? Well, how about Jesus? Do you think he wasn't afraid when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, begging God to take this cup from him? How about all those lines about how bravery is being afraid and doing it anyway--not being afraid is just stupid? Hmmmmmmmmmm!

But what breaks my heart is this story, which she shared in May of 2006:

I invited the children to take a turn in speaking any feelings or thoughts into the tape recorder. "Then, if you'd like," I added, "we can share our recording with some of the adults in our church. I think God wants adults to listen to children." 8-year old Brandon paused before speaking into the recorder, said some silly nonsense words that made the other children laugh, and quickly passed the tape recorder to the next child. Then, before the next child could speak, Brandon impulsively grabbed the tape recorder back and he whispered into its microphone, "I love you, God. I really love you. Thank you."

Wow. And under normal circumstances, I would be jumping for joy and praising God and echoing dear Brandon's sentiments over and over again. I might even stick in some Hallelujah Chorus because it'd about express what I was trying to say. But I have to wonder, with this woman's influence tainting his perception of God, whether he was saying that to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords... or to Sophia. I pray it was the former, and fear it was the latter. If it was indeed the former, then that is one of the most beautiful, touching stories I have ever read. If it was the latter, then that is one of the most tragic, heartbreaking stories I have ever read.

Sigh.  I can't do this any more.  I can't take it.

My glorious, wondrous, beautiful Heavenly Father:

You are indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lord. You are first, last, and always, you are my rock and my redeemer, you are my Savior and you are my everything. What a wonderful gift you have given us, in Jesus Christ! And then, to give us your Holy Word, that we might ever read it and find you, that you could be revealed through the stories that are as amazing today as they were when they were first written--Lord, I cannot think of the words to thank you, but I love you. I really love you. Thank you!

Father, I lift up to you Brandon. I ask that you reveal yourself to him, that you give him the wisdom to see through the lies and the fog of his church and bless him with your real presence. I pray that you would bless him indeed, and that you would not take your hand away from him. I ask that you would hold him in the palm of your hand and that you would not let any harm come to him through the deception of the women around him.

My Lord, I pray also for the women involved in the Sophia movement. Show them the error of their ways and bring them back into your loving embrace. Give them a glimpse of your true character and help them see what they are doing. Give them the strength to stand up for the truth, and to help the women around them discover their mistakes. Bless them as well, Father. Reveal to them your might and your glory, and bring them home. I know you have not stopped loving them. Show them the joy which you give freely to your children and lead them to understand how it is fundamentally different from the superficial physical pleasures they are chasing after.

And God, I pray for myself as well. I know that I do not see all things clearly as you do, and I know that my arguments here are not entirely Godly, either. Please open my eyes even more to your truth, and please help me to correct the errors in my thinking. If there are things in which I am quite deceived, do not leave me in the dark, but show me. My King, I ask that you would bless me as well, and that your hand would always be upon me, and that your guidance in my life would be its driving force. I do love you, God, ever so very much, and I am all in awe that you love me back. Help me to be your daughter. I want to be your dear little girl. Forgive me the sins I have committed this day and this week and all the days of my life, and cleanse me of them all.

Thank you, God. You are so wonderful. I can't even begin to think of how to tell you how awesome you are. Thank you for leading me to a church in which I can finally feel your presence and find your people with ease. Thank you for giving us beautiful music with which to worship you, and beautiful people with whom to worship you. I love you, God. I can't say it enough. I love you!

In Jesus' most precious and holy name I pray,
AMEN

Mmmhmm, and if you can't figure out my political stance from that, I shall think you a simpleton indeed! The formatting got a little bit funky with a couple of the paragraph breaks, but whatever. It was fun to write, if a bit depressing.  Some day I should really go back and find Biblical support for those arguments, but I'll admit that when I started all I wanted to do was laugh at how utterly ridiculous some of their claims were.  I wasn't looking for facts, necessarily--just fun.

Well, I think this is more than long enough, so I'll leave you with that and take off.  Good night!

-Jaya-