Pauline letters make sure that the role of women in Jesus' time is not forgotten. In particular, Mary Magdelene is remembered. She is present in all of the synoptic gospels. She traveled with Jesus through Galilee. It is not exactly sure what Mary's relationship was with Jesus. In recent movies/books, (Da Vinci Code) it was suggested that they had a loving relationship. There is one woman who anoints Jesus in the gospels. Some scholars believe it was Mary Magdelene.
The Gospels sublty hint at the importance of women in the gospels. Many letters or writings have been changed to hide their importance. However, many women traveled with Jesus and even ministered to others. In class we learned that whenever a woman and the verb "to minister" is used, the translation is changed to "to serve." Now, to serve sounds more like waiting on someone, whereas minister sounds like religious work or healing is being employed. I think men have the upper hand with that translation.
Even though Jesus apostles were men, women traveled with Jesus, women gave their homes for his work, and some worked with Paul in his missionary work. Though women were important in Jesus' following, they were denied authority and downplayed throughout history.
In the times following Jesus death, women were allowed to study in the some of same philosophy schools that men were allowed. That meant that they were given the correct education and were allowed to have intellect, rather than emotion that 18th century men declared ruled woman's mind.
Paul declared that baptism made one born anew, or born again, like the gospel writing we read in our last form criticism. This meant slave, free, men women, jew, or gentile were destroyed and all that was left was who you were in the eyes of God. While women and men were created equal in this aspect, there was no social change that changed the status of men.
Today in the Church, women aren't allowed to be priests or deacons. How have we come so far away from the egalitarian kingdom Jesus once preached about? I have a feeling marriage will be allowed for male priests before women can bless or give homilies.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Service Learning Blog
I chose WFP and poverty.com
WFP (World Food Program) Has a shocking statistic- one in six people are malnourished in the world. That's such a horrible statistic. It brings to life the reality of hunger in the world. WFP sets goals to eradicate this hunger in the world. Poverty.com views poverty as something that can be changed. There is enough food for people, but we fall short of distributing it all. How can we let people starve without having compassion? This site is trying to change ethnocentrically american views (that everyone can get food and water), and that some people really do need help. It's not always a populations fault if they are impoverished or starving. We need to aknowledge that people starve because of us, not them.
I liked that these sites aknowledged hunger, but i think there are more issues than food that people deal with on a day to day basis, especially in America where food is more acessible.
The type of poverty that I see in Game is lower middle class. These pre-teens live in low income or middle class families, and many receive free lunches. They are usually considered at-risk. We have a few bullies, and a few super shy people. By mixing all kinds of people from all walks of life, they can understand themselves and others better. Game is a good way of helping kids increase self esteem. Also, hanging out with these kids once a week keeps them out of trouble. Living in poverty greatly affects their day to day lives, including education. It makes education difficult, because their parents may not advocate it or think it's important. Also, at home, if their parents arent well educated, they can't help them with homework. Many end up at community college because their parents think they can't pay for private or public universities. It makes healthcare difficult because they can't pay for good medical insurance or go to the best hospitals. Living conditions are poor, if one can't pay bills, they can hardly furnish a house.
I think it is absolutely neccessary to increase awareness of poverty in Spokane. We don't neccessarily advertise "GAME" in the Spokane community. If more programs like this were readily available, we might be able to improve the lives of hundreds of teens in America. I think it is important to attempt to live in solidarity with others. I think GAME is a good program to see poverty close up, and work alongside it to help change attitudes, so GAME mentees can view the world as more friendly and accessible.
When I think about people in poverty, i think of the woman that was so poor, but gave her last two cents to the collection plate. i think if people were more willing to give of themselves, we could more easily destroy hunger and poverty. If people were willing to give services, time, and money to important causes, we could change the world.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Reflection Paper #5 Paul's Letters
Paul is an interesting addition to the New Testament. His letters were to friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ around 45-50B.C. The purpose of his letters were to educate about Jesus and evangelize different types of people living shortly after Christ's death. Chapter 13 in Ehrman attempts to decode Thessalonians 1 so we can better understand Pauline letters. The letter Thessalonians was written to the peope of Thessalonica, smack in the center of Macedonia.
Paul isn't what we would consider a prophet in modern times; standing in the middle of times square handing out bibles. No, he visited Jews where they worshipped in cities. Out of some sort of goods shop, he sold useful things while preaching good deeds and about the gospels. It was difficult to convert others at those times because Greco-Roman religions didnt' mind if one took part in other religions. However, there were some very strict philisophies in Greco-Roman times as well-stoic and cynic, which preached to rid oneself of dependency on material things. So one would place dependency on things that are unchangeable. Cynics took this ideology to an extreme and regected social concepts as well. It could have been easy to convert a stoic to christianity since one's belief in God can remain constant and inchangeable. However, a cynic might be less inclined to follow Christ because of the belief that religion is a human need.
Those that visited Pauls shop could have been pagans or polytheistic. So his message was not what we would consider a "bible thumper"'s message. We have some ideas of what his message could have been-to give up false idols, and that his God was monothestic. Then he threw a curveball-there is another part of God, Jesus' son. It probably wasnt a foreign concept to have two Gods, but to make the two Gods one was probably confusing to most Greco-Romans who knew polytheism to be true. Paul also stressed in his letters the importance of the crucifixion, that God died to rid us of our sins, and therefore we are forgiven. Paul also made sure that his followers knew of the apocalypse. This was a great way to get people to rethink their lives before they were "doomed to eternal damnation".
Pauls letters are sent to groups of people, rather than individuals. Ehrman points out that this means it's likely that groups of people met together in small gatherings or churches. Since there weren't official christian churches yet, they might have met secretly in someone's home. Ehrman says it could have been like other guilds at the time, such as trade organizations. All associations at these times had certain codes/rules they had to abide by. Most associations were a life-insurance like association where they planned to have members of the association buried according to the association. They also did social things together. These associations normally had fees involved. Christian communities activities might have been leading the groups in discussion. Because the groups met illegally, they were very tight knit.
The secret societies were constantly under pressure, being criticized by many and accused of perverted allegations. The christians were questioned about their sexual desires, therefore Paul wrote to the thessalonian Christians to stay pure.
Paul started to worry that Jesus wasn't coming back. The Thessalonians had little to hope for. However, he had the idea of a 3 story universe. God is in the highest story, we are on the earth (2nd) and those who have died are below us (1st story). He promised, like Jesus, that the dead would be raised and would be with God;
Paul was coined as the apostle of the Gentiles. He stuck to those who knew little abut Judaism and taught them a new world of ideas. He gave them hope in a world of turmoil and confusion.
Paul isn't what we would consider a prophet in modern times; standing in the middle of times square handing out bibles. No, he visited Jews where they worshipped in cities. Out of some sort of goods shop, he sold useful things while preaching good deeds and about the gospels. It was difficult to convert others at those times because Greco-Roman religions didnt' mind if one took part in other religions. However, there were some very strict philisophies in Greco-Roman times as well-stoic and cynic, which preached to rid oneself of dependency on material things. So one would place dependency on things that are unchangeable. Cynics took this ideology to an extreme and regected social concepts as well. It could have been easy to convert a stoic to christianity since one's belief in God can remain constant and inchangeable. However, a cynic might be less inclined to follow Christ because of the belief that religion is a human need.
Those that visited Pauls shop could have been pagans or polytheistic. So his message was not what we would consider a "bible thumper"'s message. We have some ideas of what his message could have been-to give up false idols, and that his God was monothestic. Then he threw a curveball-there is another part of God, Jesus' son. It probably wasnt a foreign concept to have two Gods, but to make the two Gods one was probably confusing to most Greco-Romans who knew polytheism to be true. Paul also stressed in his letters the importance of the crucifixion, that God died to rid us of our sins, and therefore we are forgiven. Paul also made sure that his followers knew of the apocalypse. This was a great way to get people to rethink their lives before they were "doomed to eternal damnation".
Pauls letters are sent to groups of people, rather than individuals. Ehrman points out that this means it's likely that groups of people met together in small gatherings or churches. Since there weren't official christian churches yet, they might have met secretly in someone's home. Ehrman says it could have been like other guilds at the time, such as trade organizations. All associations at these times had certain codes/rules they had to abide by. Most associations were a life-insurance like association where they planned to have members of the association buried according to the association. They also did social things together. These associations normally had fees involved. Christian communities activities might have been leading the groups in discussion. Because the groups met illegally, they were very tight knit.
The secret societies were constantly under pressure, being criticized by many and accused of perverted allegations. The christians were questioned about their sexual desires, therefore Paul wrote to the thessalonian Christians to stay pure.
Paul started to worry that Jesus wasn't coming back. The Thessalonians had little to hope for. However, he had the idea of a 3 story universe. God is in the highest story, we are on the earth (2nd) and those who have died are below us (1st story). He promised, like Jesus, that the dead would be raised and would be with God;
Paul was coined as the apostle of the Gentiles. He stuck to those who knew little abut Judaism and taught them a new world of ideas. He gave them hope in a world of turmoil and confusion.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Politics of Jesus
First, the Politics of Jesus talks about a few of the misunderstandings between liberals and conservatives. The author compares today's battles between both sides to that of the Salem Witch Trials. Verbal fights in the name of God have escalated to violent wars through vandalism and protests. The author points out that conservatives are the "worst" players. Conservatives also have more power than liberals, they've been around longer and dominate political establishments. One of these establisments is the Heritage Foundation, which i ordered a free copy of the constitution from. So not only do these foundations have money, they have the means of media to reach people.
There is a miscommunication in the politcal world that "liberals and liberalism" are at fault for the flaws in america. In fact, the words liberals and liberalism are very different terms. Liberalism is an ideology that pertains to a more republican characteristic. Liberalism pertains more to freedom from government,which is an old republican ideology.
Conservatism is also an ideology. There are two different types of conservatism: Moral and political. Moral has to do with the purging of sins. These sins included adultery, murder, and occasionally the subjeccts of homosexuality, abortion. Political conservatism has to do with spending less money and having less regulations from the country, and more regulations that have to do with local levels.
Jesus was about liberal politics, and moral conservatism. That is, he wanted to give more money and more freedom to the poor while remaining ethical, doing good deeds, etc.
Liberals are often viewed as child and family hating. They want more taxes and to spend more money. They are portrayed to republicans as a crime to society. They are viewed as Christ-haters. When conservatives make these demeaning remarks, they aren't acting as Christ did. How can they cover their attacks as defending christ when Christ's biggest teaching was to love others as you love yourself? Some conservative preachers followed suit, asking not to make peace with enemies, but to continue hating them.
Classes in society directly contradict Jesus' teaching. However this is a conservative ideology:that classes must exist to have a well balanced government.
There is a miscommunication in the politcal world that "liberals and liberalism" are at fault for the flaws in america. In fact, the words liberals and liberalism are very different terms. Liberalism is an ideology that pertains to a more republican characteristic. Liberalism pertains more to freedom from government,which is an old republican ideology.
Conservatism is also an ideology. There are two different types of conservatism: Moral and political. Moral has to do with the purging of sins. These sins included adultery, murder, and occasionally the subjeccts of homosexuality, abortion. Political conservatism has to do with spending less money and having less regulations from the country, and more regulations that have to do with local levels.
Jesus was about liberal politics, and moral conservatism. That is, he wanted to give more money and more freedom to the poor while remaining ethical, doing good deeds, etc.
Liberals are often viewed as child and family hating. They want more taxes and to spend more money. They are portrayed to republicans as a crime to society. They are viewed as Christ-haters. When conservatives make these demeaning remarks, they aren't acting as Christ did. How can they cover their attacks as defending christ when Christ's biggest teaching was to love others as you love yourself? Some conservative preachers followed suit, asking not to make peace with enemies, but to continue hating them.
Classes in society directly contradict Jesus' teaching. However this is a conservative ideology:that classes must exist to have a well balanced government.
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