You are my new hero! So glad that you are fighting Grayson County and the corrupt good ole' boy system under which they govern. Grayson is a joke and has been a joke for years. I hope that you can bring love, light, and the United States legal system to the ignorant people of Grayson County. Perhaps they can be schooled in the fact that there is a seperation of church and state and that the laws of the United States government and the Constitution apply to them. They cannot continue to live with their heads in the sand believing that they do not have to answer to anyone and that they can do as they please. It is interesting that after they had time to "think" about their decision that they had a change of heart. I think it was a change of pocketbook and realized the ramifications of a lawsuit and the fact that the county does not have the money, legal background, or backbone to withstand a lawsuit. They know that they are wrong legally but to the local mob they will say that they still disagree with the camp. They want votes and they have to keep the locals happy by saying that they were wrong while speaking to the newspapers but in fact are still not supportive of the idea based on their religious ideas. Fair and partial they are not.
I want to be the grounds keeper! I,m a retired master builder,and would love to be at the next meeting with you. So ,when do we start? Those grounds need a little attention, and the driveway could use a little cleaning. And it is almost time for fall veggies to be planted.. So are you ready to start?
Why not just add the word Retreat to your request. And just do your work, wile on vacation! ( The Oracle Institute Retreat At Independence Va.) Now if those thumpers have a problem with that, well, I can handle them. So ,can I be the first Grounds Keeper?............jack
I know it sounds like the last thing you'd want to send those nutballs! Poor things! They are believing their thoughts! I just read a book called "Living On Love". I started seeing my heart chakra opening and a beam of LOVE going out to my kids and others. Amazing things have started happening to them and to me! LOVE is the strongest pioer in the Universe and it may be the only thing that can change a Born-again Christian's mind! I AM sending YOU tons of LOVE and LIGHT!
i am proud and humbled by your post. i wish you good luck and as a former resident of Grayson County I want you to know that the ones that support you outnumber the "christians" who do not. I have heard nothing but support for you in the local papers and think that this erroneous decision cannot stand.
so i have to admit that id never heard of the institute until i read the passage in the paper today. i started talking to 2 of my closet friends about it and we all agree that grayson is desperatly in need of a place like you have described on the website. however we were all dissapointed when we saw the posting stating the last meeting was held in jan. is there any chance of a meeting anytime soon? two of us would only be able to attend on weekends but we are all interested in bringing a new outlook to grayson. this county is in need of something to wake it up, one friend says. my personal opinion is that something or someone needs to bring grayson into the 21st century. the people here, as kind and welcoming as the passage mentioned, are still very behind the times and stuck in 1865. i for one would be very willing to do a whole lot to bring it up to date. any future events planned?
as a lifetime residint of this community and a woman of this century, i must admit its frightining to think so many closed minded and uneducated people and recent highschool graduates will be the future leaders for our county, state and country. something has to be done. this state of stupidity must end.
thank you so much for the work you are trying to start,
Fans have flooded the internet with their confused feelings. On the site Avatar Forums, Great Videos :: Music Video Codes :: Video Ipod the topic ‘Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible’ has more than 1,000 posts.
One thing I want to make clear … in this life , one cannot live without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy and Humanity are one and the same. Even when we try sometimes we fail , even if by our own terms , even if it’s to our own word. We can’t always live up to our promises , sometimes even our statements , our lies , or our truths.
Interesting insights. "Had enough of this story? Me neither. I won’t be satisfied until Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) is held personally responsible for shifting predatory priests from parish to parish to prey on new victims."
To shed some focus on the bigger picture - the one that's *really* at issue here -- consider Pantanjali in the yoga sutras said something like:
“vitarka badhane pratipaksha bhavanam” (2/33) This states that whenever you have a negative thought or rather a chain of negative thoughts in your mind, immediately start thinking of its opposite positive thoughts.
What would it feel like instead of getting angry, we got loving? What if instead of wanting to hang the bastards, force them to "come clean" and see them pay for their sins, we chose to love them more and more? What would it be like if we chose radical forgiveness instead of vengence? As we create the new world, we remain focused on this not that. How might life on the planet transmute? Eight paradigm?
Well said! Everyone I know has expressed similar praise for the movie, understandably! I have gotten quite a few surprised looks though, (even from Joyce!) when I expressed my chagrin at the degree of violence apparently deemed necessary to make the point with at least a portion of viewers. So your reporting of the Catholic reaction was helpful to me, albeit disappointing that apparently even the over the top violence didn't manage to beach their archaic point of view.
Among my own "peacenik" community, we were just as touched by the expression of LIGHT that permeated the entire LOVE Vibration and would have been just as moved to be immersed in the digital graphic 3 D portrayal of a peaceful, cooperative, collaborative, mutually supportive, inter related and connected civilization! We didn't need the violence to get the message of Truth, Love and Light!! In fact, those of my generation remember taking the position during the "cold war" that , rather than fighting "bad guys", we needed to develop and model the vision of our founding fathers in living into such a culture ourselves, to which anyone who saw it would say: "Yes, this is what we want too", True freedom and democracy in Love and Light. So thank you for all that YOU do to continue this dream that has never before been so close to becoming Reality! Many Blessings, In Love and Light, geoff byrd PS. Didn't intend to be "anonymous, not verified" Ha Ha I guess I should have signed in!
I just want to point the very specific example that Van Jones recently made while accepting an award from the NAACP. He looked into the camera and addressed Glen Beck, the person that one might say had a lot to do with Jones removing himself from an appointment to the White House because of so-called scandalous accusations. Unfortunately for us, Jones is also a thought leader with regard to the indivisability of social justice and environmental integrity. Anyway, he looked at the camera and said something like, "Glen Beck, I see you and I hear you and I love you man, and there is nothing you can do about it. I love you and there is nothing you can do about it." Jones was modeling the essential element of the much needed, coming world: unconditional love. When we can put this into action in our communities, we will be ready and able to deal with the shifting in the world with regard to energy, food, weather, species extinction, clean water and clean air.
Blessings on your grandmother and your family, Laura ... Canada and healthcare ... I am grateful beyond measure that I live in Canada. I've been quite ill for over two years, and so far, my medical needs are being met. I take care of the rest. So glad that Ruby has daily care ... and how sad that humanity's sense of family (at least in the West) has eroded to the point where we have to hire other people to give hands-on presence and care to our elders and any loved one in need of practical aid. Our culture slices the love right out of relations -- they're transmuted into deals and sales. It is also a tragic fact that we tend to work so long and hard outside our homes that we're are exhausted at the end of the "working day" -- What's left for those we live with but fast food and half-awake care? 46 million American citizens without healthcare ... That's more people than the entire population of Canada (We're about 34 million people). At the same time, there are powerful people inside and beyond our federal government who want to eradicate our healthcare system. Forgive my harsh words here but Stephen Harper, our prime minister, is sometimes referred to as "George W. Bush with a brain." I read this phrase -- "Canada's population grew by 0.19% in the fourth quarter of 2008, the fastest fourth-quarter growth rate since 1992" -- and I think: Doesn't that sound an awful lot like a corporate annual report? (Link: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/090326/dq090326a-eng.htm) What must come to matter to the nth degree in our culture -- a meaning that we have desecrated -- is that one beloved grandmother is injured and needs consistent, compassionate and practical tending. Every family has a "beloved grandmother" -- someone who is ill, injured or otherwise depleted; someone who needs a loving eye and a competent, merciful hand. There are many, many people who are willing to step in for family members who are too busy with other things to care for their own. People who often come from places that we call "third-world" -- judged habitually as "third-rate" -- people from the "lower classes" and from cultures that honour the value of relation above such values as wealth, power, fame, conquest ... Family is biology, yes ... and it is also a choice. As you ask, Laura: "How big is your family?" P.S. -- I read and commented as I went ... and I see that your grandmother is holding her own! :-)
The Na'vi make a bond to fly as a Banshee (Ikran). The Schleicher K7 Rhönaler is the cloest experience on this planet. Soon I will have a Avatar Wing Dragon flying.
Thank you so much for writing this. I have to say, you had me at the title...that was so funny, and yet sadly true. I have seen Avatar and LOVED it. I watched it in complete awe that finally messages like this of love and unity are making it to the big screen. The love for nature and each other was an amazing theme all throughout this movie and you are so right, our future depends on things like this. I also thought it showed the barbaric ways that humans have operate upon for so long so well. It was just a perfect movie for the new Earth where people are ready to embrace the deeper and more unified messages.
Even if the Christian Church is more flexible now than it used to be, it still has an important role when it comes to influence its followers worldview. I think that this is something normal to happen, especially for someone who had been raised as a christian. Still, in some cases opinions can change in time, depending on individual personality.
Self imposed celibacy? We could say so, for two thousand years we tried to keep an imaculate image for representatives, what did we achieved by that? Does God loves us more if we are celibate? If we are priests we can't pretend to be saints, it's not our nature no matter how hard we try. Marriage is an act blessed by God, I still try to understand why celibacy was imposed in the first place.
If one only uses Jesus's words instead of the words of those who wrote about him, and if one looks for common denominators in what He said, and puts into a separate category things He said that do not seem to fit, Something very inner eye-opening begins to emerge that is a revelation to some and silly to others. What emerges for me are several things, including that He uses the term "heaven" to mean "clarity of sight and thinking" -- unadulterated by the beliefs, assumptions and conclusions we acquired as we became adults and are habitually inclined to use as adults. Thus, "being born again" or "reborn" to me means seeing once more with the clarity of an unaduterated child anything that will be obscured or distorted by what one "knows" to be true because she or he insists on it being true.
For examples, see Matthew 19 and 20. for more.
By the way, speaking of Matthew 20, ask a 100 priests of any Christian denomination -- or most other students of Jesus' Teachings, how many groups went into the vineyard, and you are likely to get an answer of five. Yet He clearly says two, the first and the last. And for an obvious reason, as Jesus clearly but subtly said, the three other groups went their way instead of the owner's way. At least clear for readers of His parable who are clearly paying attention to not just what, but how Jesus is exquisitely conveying this Teaching. Yet who among us prefers to see things wholly clearly, with a total lack of ego -- the way an innocent babe does rather than as an adult with all of the priviledges (and cognitive constraints and spiritual baggage) that come with being an adult? Of course, we find the same Teachings within Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, Wicca, and Paganism... And, of course, Heraclitus said the above as well. And got the same blank stares that Jesus did!
I occasionally give a brief course called Time and The Templix about all this and some other things which are of interest only to advanced fellow seekers, those of us who know that what much of what we know may be worth less. Perhaps, I could give it at your school same time?
The article is not misleading. It discusses current mysogyny within the five primary religions and simply points out an unpleasant truth: the Dalai Lama has NOT ordained a woman. Pointing to links about ordained nuns is not irrelavant. And pointing to books about mythological goddesses adds little to the conversation either.
We need to be talking about TODAY, RIGHT NOW, 21st CENTURY. None of the orthodox religions measure up when it comes to REALLY appreciating the feminine half of god.
Interesting post, Laura. Certainly male dominance, both in institutions and in family life, goes way, way back. The root cause may not be religion itself, but religions have generally picked up and powerfully reinforced that pattern. What is fascinating to study (and we need more of it) is patterns in earliest Christianity. It was short-lived, but even the New Testament gives indications that women were being more equally included and willingly followed, in some cases, by both men and women. Some of the many sects of Christian belief and practice, from the first thru the third centuries particularly, were not nearly as heirarchical (i.e. increasingly male-led) as was the Pauline line. That group, soon after Paul's lifetime, became the more literalist and eventually "orthodox" Church. This "catholic" church then became the Roman Catholic Church, with a very strictly controlled and all-male leadership. The Christian/Gnostic or other groups more egalitarian were still vibrant for some time, but eventually were suppressed and overwhelmed by the proto-orthodox and later Catholic Church.
A related observation on post-Reformation developments, mainly Protestant: In general, the more independent (of large institutional control) and "charismatic" (respecting right-brained, creative, spontaneous worship, etc.) a movement or set of churches, the more they have used female leadership. And in many cases, as they drift back toward more rationalistic/dogma-oriented styles over time, the less women are involved in leadership. This is perhaps both natural or "automatic," and by decree from formal leadership. The more recent movement in mainline denominations like Methodists and Episcopalians toward more women leaders, and at higher levels, is of a different nature and more likely to "stick." Looking beyond just the US, in the German Lutheran (state) Church, the first woman was just elected to their top position.
Thank you so much for responding to HerStory: First Feminist Literary Journal of Rider University with this insightful and persuasive argument about the role of worldwide popular religions on women's roles.
Several times he upheld women as models of kindness. "My original teacher of compassion (was) my mother," a woman who was illiterate but had "a very, very warm heart."
You are my new hero! So glad that you are fighting Grayson County and the corrupt good ole' boy system under which they govern. Grayson is a joke and has been a joke for years. I hope that you can bring love, light, and the United States legal system to the ignorant people of Grayson County. Perhaps they can be schooled in the fact that there is a seperation of church and state and that the laws of the United States government and the Constitution apply to them. They cannot continue to live with their heads in the sand believing that they do not have to answer to anyone and that they can do as they please. It is interesting that after they had time to "think" about their decision that they had a change of heart. I think it was a change of pocketbook and realized the ramifications of a lawsuit and the fact that the county does not have the money, legal background, or backbone to withstand a lawsuit. They know that they are wrong legally but to the local mob they will say that they still disagree with the camp. They want votes and they have to keep the locals happy by saying that they were wrong while speaking to the newspapers but in fact are still not supportive of the idea based on their religious ideas. Fair and partial they are not.
I want to be the grounds keeper! I,m a retired master builder,and would love to be at the next meeting with you. So ,when do we start? Those grounds need a little attention, and the driveway could use a little cleaning. And it is almost time for fall veggies to be planted.. So are you ready to start?
Why not just add the word Retreat to your request. And just do your work, wile on vacation! ( The Oracle Institute Retreat At Independence Va.) Now if those thumpers have a problem with that, well, I can handle them. So ,can I be the first Grounds Keeper?............jack
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And it would appear that a law degree is exaclty what is required for this particular engagement.
Now you have come full circle to include the spiritual wisdom you have acquired to the never-ending life
education.
Love and light to you. :) ~ wendy
I know it sounds like the last thing you'd want to send those nutballs! Poor things! They are believing their thoughts! I just read a book called "Living On Love". I started seeing my heart chakra opening and a beam of LOVE going out to my kids and others. Amazing things have started happening to them and to me! LOVE is the strongest pioer in the Universe and it may be the only thing that can change a Born-again Christian's mind! I AM sending YOU tons of LOVE and LIGHT!
i am proud and humbled by your post. i wish you good luck and as a former resident of Grayson County I want you to know that the ones that support you outnumber the "christians" who do not. I have heard nothing but support for you in the local papers and think that this erroneous decision cannot stand.
laura,
so i have to admit that id never heard of the institute until i read the passage in the paper today. i started talking to 2 of my closet friends about it and we all agree that grayson is desperatly in need of a place like you have described on the website. however we were all dissapointed when we saw the posting stating the last meeting was held in jan. is there any chance of a meeting anytime soon? two of us would only be able to attend on weekends but we are all interested in bringing a new outlook to grayson. this county is in need of something to wake it up, one friend says. my personal opinion is that something or someone needs to bring grayson into the 21st century. the people here, as kind and welcoming as the passage mentioned, are still very behind the times and stuck in 1865. i for one would be very willing to do a whole lot to bring it up to date. any future events planned?
as a lifetime residint of this community and a woman of this century, i must admit its frightining to think so many closed minded and uneducated people and recent highschool graduates will be the future leaders for our county, state and country. something has to be done. this state of stupidity must end.
thank you so much for the work you are trying to start,
stephanie jones
Fans have flooded the internet with their confused feelings. On the site Avatar Forums, Great Videos :: Music Video Codes :: Video Ipod the topic ‘Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible’ has more than 1,000 posts.
One thing I want to make clear … in this life , one cannot live without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy and Humanity are one and the same. Even when we try sometimes we fail , even if by our own terms , even if it’s to our own word. We can’t always live up to our promises , sometimes even our statements , our lies , or our truths.
----------------------
Home Theatre :: Home Theatre Systems :: Sony Home Theatre
Interesting insights. "Had enough of this story? Me neither. I won’t be satisfied until Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) is held personally responsible for shifting predatory priests from parish to parish to prey on new victims."
To shed some focus on the bigger picture - the one that's *really* at issue here -- consider Pantanjali in the yoga sutras said something like:
“vitarka badhane pratipaksha bhavanam” (2/33) This states that whenever you have a negative thought or rather a chain of negative thoughts in your mind, immediately start thinking of its opposite positive thoughts.
What would it feel like instead of getting angry, we got loving? What if instead of wanting to hang the bastards, force them to "come clean" and see them pay for their sins, we chose to love them more and more? What would it be like if we chose radical forgiveness instead of vengence? As we create the new world, we remain focused on this not that. How might life on the planet transmute? Eight paradigm?
Laura!
Well said! Everyone I know has expressed similar praise for the movie, understandably! I have gotten quite a few surprised looks though, (even from Joyce!) when I expressed my chagrin at the degree of violence apparently deemed necessary to make the point with at least a portion of viewers. So your reporting of the Catholic reaction was helpful to me, albeit disappointing that apparently even the over the top violence didn't manage to beach their archaic point of view.
Among my own "peacenik" community, we were just as touched by the expression of LIGHT that permeated the entire LOVE Vibration and would have been just as moved to be immersed in the digital graphic 3 D portrayal of a peaceful, cooperative, collaborative, mutually supportive, inter related and connected civilization! We didn't need the violence to get the message of Truth, Love and Light!! In fact, those of my generation remember taking the position during the "cold war" that , rather than fighting "bad guys", we needed to develop and model the vision of our founding fathers in living into such a culture ourselves, to which anyone who saw it would say: "Yes, this is what we want too", True freedom and democracy in Love and Light. So thank you for all that YOU do to continue this dream that has never before been so close to becoming Reality! Many Blessings, In Love and Light, geoff byrd PS. Didn't intend to be "anonymous, not verified" Ha Ha I guess I should have signed in!
Great post
Islam
I just want to point the very specific example that Van Jones recently made while accepting an award from the NAACP. He looked into the camera and addressed Glen Beck, the person that one might say had a lot to do with Jones removing himself from an appointment to the White House because of so-called scandalous accusations. Unfortunately for us, Jones is also a thought leader with regard to the indivisability of social justice and environmental integrity. Anyway, he looked at the camera and said something like, "Glen Beck, I see you and I hear you and I love you man, and there is nothing you can do about it. I love you and there is nothing you can do about it." Jones was modeling the essential element of the much needed, coming world: unconditional love. When we can put this into action in our communities, we will be ready and able to deal with the shifting in the world with regard to energy, food, weather, species extinction, clean water and clean air.
Blessings on your grandmother and your family, Laura ... Canada and healthcare ... I am grateful beyond measure that I live in Canada. I've been quite ill for over two years, and so far, my medical needs are being met. I take care of the rest. So glad that Ruby has daily care ... and how sad that humanity's sense of family (at least in the West) has eroded to the point where we have to hire other people to give hands-on presence and care to our elders and any loved one in need of practical aid. Our culture slices the love right out of relations -- they're transmuted into deals and sales. It is also a tragic fact that we tend to work so long and hard outside our homes that we're are exhausted at the end of the "working day" -- What's left for those we live with but fast food and half-awake care? 46 million American citizens without healthcare ... That's more people than the entire population of Canada (We're about 34 million people). At the same time, there are powerful people inside and beyond our federal government who want to eradicate our healthcare system. Forgive my harsh words here but Stephen Harper, our prime minister, is sometimes referred to as "George W. Bush with a brain." I read this phrase -- "Canada's population grew by 0.19% in the fourth quarter of 2008, the fastest fourth-quarter growth rate since 1992" -- and I think: Doesn't that sound an awful lot like a corporate annual report? (Link: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/090326/dq090326a-eng.htm) What must come to matter to the nth degree in our culture -- a meaning that we have desecrated -- is that one beloved grandmother is injured and needs consistent, compassionate and practical tending. Every family has a "beloved grandmother" -- someone who is ill, injured or otherwise depleted; someone who needs a loving eye and a competent, merciful hand. There are many, many people who are willing to step in for family members who are too busy with other things to care for their own. People who often come from places that we call "third-world" -- judged habitually as "third-rate" -- people from the "lower classes" and from cultures that honour the value of relation above such values as wealth, power, fame, conquest ... Family is biology, yes ... and it is also a choice. As you ask, Laura: "How big is your family?" P.S. -- I read and commented as I went ... and I see that your grandmother is holding her own! :-)
The Na'vi make a bond to fly as a Banshee (Ikran). The Schleicher K7 Rhönaler is the cloest experience on this planet. Soon I will have a Avatar Wing Dragon flying.
Thank you so much for writing this. I have to say, you had me at the title...that was so funny, and yet sadly true. I have seen Avatar and LOVED it. I watched it in complete awe that finally messages like this of love and unity are making it to the big screen. The love for nature and each other was an amazing theme all throughout this movie and you are so right, our future depends on things like this. I also thought it showed the barbaric ways that humans have operate upon for so long so well. It was just a perfect movie for the new Earth where people are ready to embrace the deeper and more unified messages.
Great News!
Dear Yale:
We would be most honored to explore your teaching a class! Please contact me at your convenience.
Laura@TheOracleInstitute.org
Even if the Christian Church is more flexible now than it used to be, it still has an important role when it comes to influence its followers worldview. I think that this is something normal to happen, especially for someone who had been raised as a christian. Still, in some cases opinions can change in time, depending on individual personality.
Self imposed celibacy? We could say so, for two thousand years we tried to keep an imaculate image for representatives, what did we achieved by that? Does God loves us more if we are celibate? If we are priests we can't pretend to be saints, it's not our nature no matter how hard we try. Marriage is an act blessed by God, I still try to understand why celibacy was imposed in the first place.
Jesus church
Dear Laura and fellow seekers,
If one only uses Jesus's words instead of the words of those who wrote about him, and if one looks for common denominators in what He said, and puts into a separate category things He said that do not seem to fit, Something very inner eye-opening begins to emerge that is a revelation to some and silly to others. What emerges for me are several things, including that He uses the term "heaven" to mean "clarity of sight and thinking" -- unadulterated by the beliefs, assumptions and conclusions we acquired as we became adults and are habitually inclined to use as adults. Thus, "being born again" or "reborn" to me means seeing once more with the clarity of an unaduterated child anything that will be obscured or distorted by what one "knows" to be true because she or he insists on it being true.
For examples, see Matthew 19 and 20. for more.
By the way, speaking of Matthew 20, ask a 100 priests of any Christian denomination -- or most other students of Jesus' Teachings, how many groups went into the vineyard, and you are likely to get an answer of five. Yet He clearly says two, the first and the last. And for an obvious reason, as Jesus clearly but subtly said, the three other groups went their way instead of the owner's way. At least clear for readers of His parable who are clearly paying attention to not just what, but how Jesus is exquisitely conveying this Teaching. Yet who among us prefers to see things wholly clearly, with a total lack of ego -- the way an innocent babe does rather than as an adult with all of the priviledges (and cognitive constraints and spiritual baggage) that come with being an adult? Of course, we find the same Teachings within Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, Wicca, and Paganism... And, of course, Heraclitus said the above as well. And got the same blank stares that Jesus did!
I occasionally give a brief course called Time and The Templix about all this and some other things which are of interest only to advanced fellow seekers, those of us who know that what much of what we know may be worth less. Perhaps, I could give it at your school same time?
Warmest regards, Yale
The article is not misleading. It discusses current mysogyny within the five primary religions and simply points out an unpleasant truth: the Dalai Lama has NOT ordained a woman. Pointing to links about ordained nuns is not irrelavant. And pointing to books about mythological goddesses adds little to the conversation either.
We need to be talking about TODAY, RIGHT NOW, 21st CENTURY. None of the orthodox religions measure up when it comes to REALLY appreciating the feminine half of god.
Interesting post, Laura. Certainly male dominance, both in institutions and in family life, goes way, way back. The root cause may not be religion itself, but religions have generally picked up and powerfully reinforced that pattern. What is fascinating to study (and we need more of it) is patterns in earliest Christianity. It was short-lived, but even the New Testament gives indications that women were being more equally included and willingly followed, in some cases, by both men and women. Some of the many sects of Christian belief and practice, from the first thru the third centuries particularly, were not nearly as heirarchical (i.e. increasingly male-led) as was the Pauline line. That group, soon after Paul's lifetime, became the more literalist and eventually "orthodox" Church. This "catholic" church then became the Roman Catholic Church, with a very strictly controlled and all-male leadership. The Christian/Gnostic or other groups more egalitarian were still vibrant for some time, but eventually were suppressed and overwhelmed by the proto-orthodox and later Catholic Church.
A related observation on post-Reformation developments, mainly Protestant: In general, the more independent (of large institutional control) and "charismatic" (respecting right-brained, creative, spontaneous worship, etc.) a movement or set of churches, the more they have used female leadership. And in many cases, as they drift back toward more rationalistic/dogma-oriented styles over time, the less women are involved in leadership. This is perhaps both natural or "automatic," and by decree from formal leadership. The more recent movement in mainline denominations like Methodists and Episcopalians toward more women leaders, and at higher levels, is of a different nature and more likely to "stick." Looking beyond just the US, in the German Lutheran (state) Church, the first woman was just elected to their top position.
Hello Laura,
Thank you so much for responding to HerStory: First Feminist Literary Journal of Rider University with this insightful and persuasive argument about the role of worldwide popular religions on women's roles.
Keep up the great work, sister!
~Julie
http://www.dalailama.com/news.91.htm
Several times he upheld women as models of kindness. "My original teacher of compassion (was) my mother," a woman who was illiterate but had "a very, very warm heart."
http://www.dalailama.com/news.227.htm
In defence to the Dali Lama.
http://www.dalailama.com/news.203.htm