Peace in the Congo

My colleague Mutombo Nkulu-N'Sengha at CSU Northridge founded an institute to bring peace and opportunity to his native area of the Congo.

http://www.bumuntupeaceinstitute.org/

Mutombo attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and now teaches religion at CSU, after deciding to marry and teach instead of becoming a career Jesuit. 

Check out his website and consider making a donation... or a visit to the Institute.

Here's a link to a radio interview on May 21 on VoiceAmerica's "Our Sacred Journey" with Audrey E. Kitagawa.  It's titled, "Bumuntu Spirituality and Global Solidarity in a Burning House."

http://businesss.voiceamerica.com/episode/61674/bumuntu-spirituality-and-global-solidarity-in-a-burning-house

Access to Early Abortions

It's been only 5-6 weeks since your last period, and you discover you're pregnant.

If you know you can't complete this pregnancy, and don't live in a large metropolitan area, it may take a lot of planning, travel, and expense to get the abortion you need.

Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) introduced a bill in the California Senate that would allow specially trained nurses, midwives, and physician assistants to perform abortions, thus increasing the number of qualified providers and locations where this procedure can be done.

Kehoe withdrew the bill, however, because it didn't have the votes to get through the Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee.

"The bill had the backing of the leaders of both houses of the Legislature and of Planned Parenthood but was opposed by an influential nurses union and by foes of abortion rights," reports Nicholas Riccardi of the Los Angeles Times.

Riccardi notes that the bill may not be dead, however, because "Bills are often revived and approved late in the legislative session."

I wonder why the nurses objected to the bill. 

Let's send emails and do what we can to support this bill.  To give nurses, midwives, and P.A.s the right to perform abortions is to give women greater control over women's reproductive choices. 



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-abortion-20120505,0,7073154.story?track=rss

Vatican Declares War on Nuns

The Vatican sent out a statement today criticizing American nuns for being influenced by "radical feminism" and taking a position in favor of women becoming priests.

If hearing a call from God to serve the church as a priest is seen as "radical," that shrinks the ground identified as faithful.  Would a strait jacket be a small enough place to keep the women?

The "doctrinal assessment" also said the leadership organization representing 80% of the 57,000 Catholic nuns in the US was not speaking out strongly enough against homosexuality and abortion.

In a reaction today, Annmarie Sanders, IHM, director of communications for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, said they were "stunned" by the conclusions of the investigation into them and their work.

http://www.lcwr.org/media/lcwr-statement-presidency-cdf-doctrinal-assessment

Essentially, the Vatican has declared war on American nuns.

Joseph Ratzinger may not live to regret it, but many men who were part of this "doctrinal assessment" will regret their schismatic ruling.

Do they actually think the nuns are going to "correct" their 1977 position opposing "the reservation of priestly ordination to men"? 

This attack will only increase the gulf between women of the Roman Catholic Church and the ruling men. 

Actually, this step will hasten the process of the Catholic church accepting regular ordination of women.  It places the issue on the front burner of the church's stove, where it will receive scrutiny and lots of heat.

Thanks, guys. 

Mark my words: you'll be ordaining women priests by around 2050. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Articles and commentaries on the move:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/is-pope-ratzinger-suffering-from-the-seven-year-itch/2012/04/19/gIQAAWlsTT_print.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/the-instructive-timing-of-the-crackdown-on-nuns/2012/04/19/gIQAbCPKUT_blog.html?hpid=z4#weighIn

http://juanitajean.com/2012/04/19/men-who-hate-women/

Martha and Mary: United

I am reduced to tears by today's flurry of accusations and defenses about "stay-at-home moms" vs. women who work outside the home.


My day started well, reading Psalm 37:
Delight in YHWH, and you'll be given the desires of your heart. 
Commit your way to YHWH, and trust in YHWH...
Rest in YHWH and wait patiently....


But at breakfast instead of reading newspapers I decided to turn on CNN to hear whether the UN-negotiated cease fire in Syria is actually taking effect. Big mistake.


Instead I heard sound bites of Hilary Rosen saying Ann Romney "hasn't worked a day in her life" and Republicans attacking Rosen and all Democrats for not respecting women who stay home and raise kids.


Michelle Obama weighed in via Twitter, and the president's news secretary was holding a press conference to list everything President Obama has done to support women who work outside the home, women who stay home and need the WIC program, women on Medicare, women who are teachers, etc.


So much for delighting in God's presence, trusting, resting, etc.  As I cleaned up the kitchen and dining area, (roses from Easter dinner now dying, dishes in the sink from the last couple days when I had to rush off to work at my part-time job), I felt depressed.


Not again.  Not this debate from the 1970s, accusing feminists of only valuing work outside the home and not respecting women who put their time into child care and housework. 


There's a reason why my blog is titled "Martha y Maria," in addition to my desire to honor the death of Martha Puebla in 2003 and the suffering of Maria Riveros and her daughter, whose life was endangered by an abortion done at home in Paraguay in July 2008.


Martha and Mary are the two women who were sisters and close friends of Jesus.  He stayed in the home of Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus when he visited Jerusalem.  They lived in Bethany, a few miles outside the city. 

This blog's subtitle is "Women's Lives, Women's Rights."  That could have been the name of the blog, but I wanted to announce that Mary, Martha, and the Bible would be the touchstone of all my writing.

Both were probably among the women present at the crucifixion and  the women who announced the resurrection to the other disciples.  Luke says, "Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles" (Luke 24:10-11).  Mary of Bethany is also known for anointing Jesus at dinner shortly before his death.

But the most well-known passage with Martha and Mary is Luke 10:38-42, where Martha says, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."

Jesus answers, gently but carefully, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Martha, like me this morning, has been distracted from that peace of mind that is every believer's goal: "Delight in the Holy One, commit, trust, rest in God's presence."

Jesus recalls her to the One Thing that is important: a heart committed to joy in God's presence. 

He also affirms choice.  Martha has chosen, Mary has chosen.  On this day when Jesus is present and teaching in their home, Mary has made the choice that most people looking back on this day would want to have made.  She is sitting at Jesus' feet, drinking in his words. 

"Recently, the phrase 'at his feet' has been reinterpreted as a term for learning from a teacher as a disciple (compare Acts 22:3, where Paul claims to have been educated 'at the feet of ' the famous teacher Gamaliel)," comments Mary Rose D'Angelo in Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Bible (Houghton Mifflin, 2000). 

This pull between Martha and Mary, between the kitchen and the arena of ideas and public action, has been part of the movement for women's equality, both in the 19th century and in the 20th-21st century. 

Women who ask for the right to vote, the option to do paid work outside the home, the right to be part of government, business, education, etc. have usually done so while being mothers.  The extended family has helped with child care and housework, or a husband has shared that work, or help has been hired, or day care facilities have been used.

The anti-feminist effort to keep women only in the home has been supported by claims that those who support women's work outside the home do not respect women who devote their lives to child care and homemaking.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the passion of the fight for equal rights including the ERA, I and others scorned the option of staying at home seven days a week while our husbands went out to their demanding but sometimes exciting work in the public sphere.  Yes, we talked about "working women" and meant "working outside the home."

Since then, however, the women's movement has been careful to note that women's work at home is challenging and demanding and important--and it is work. 

But every now and then, someone slips up and refers to "women who don't work" instead of "women who don't work for pay" or "women who don't work outside the home." 

If you listen to the full text of Hilary Rosen's commments on CNN, you will find she does affirm care for children and care for the home as Work--but there were those ten seconds where in criticizing Mitt Romney's frequent references to his wife as his source for the views of women, she says Ann Romney doesn't work.  Rosen is arguing that Ann Romney's views are those of a privileged, wealthy woman--they do not represent all women, especially those who are both raising a family and working outside the home to make ends meet. 

Those ten seconds are grabbed by Republicans who want to gain women's votes next November. Ann Romney says raising kids is work.  Other stay-at-home-but-activist women chime in.  

A free-for-all ensues. 

Righteous Demoncrats shout that Republicans have opposed legislation helping welfare mothers (who choose to stay home with their children), equal salaries for women in the paid work force (the Lily Ledbetter Act), etc. 

Righteous Republicans shout that Democrats don't respect women who stay at home, don't value The Family and Marriage, etc.

Women are the rag doll being yanked about by both sides.  We are used and torn in the battle for presidency of the world's most powerful nation, just as men yank women about in the battle for power in some Muslim contexts:  "You must be completely covered (Iran).  You must wear the hijab (Shiites in some countries)... You must not wear the hijab (France)."

I am saddened to see women being used in the clash of ideologies. I lost some momentum in my day by taking time to comment on the exploitation of women occurring today in the presidential race. 

But now I will return to the work I had planned--both at home and in teaching--and try to keep my mind and heart focused on God's presence.

Commit your way to YHWH, and trust in YHWH...

Rest in YHWH and wait patiently....

George McGovern's daughter

Thank you to Kathy for sending me a link to this story in USA Today about George McGovern's family losing a daughter to addiction 17 years ago.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-04-06/addiction-drug-abuse-alcholism-recovery/54082322/1

There's now a good organization in South Dakota for help with addiction.

Boycott JC Penney

Plastered on the front page of my LA Times today is a sticker proclaiming "It's best price friday."

 Really? And I thought it was Good Friday, remembering the day when Jesus was sentenced and executed. 

Never have I seen the god of merchandising so directly challenging/parodying the holiest day of Christian faith.

Sad.  

"Choose this day whom you will serve," said Jesus. "God or money?"

Boycott JC Penney and write to the LA Times.

Payback to Clinic Stalkers

Thank you to my daughter Marie for pointing out this commentary on the Jezebel website about Voice of Choice, a new group that calls people who harrass abortion providers and clinic owners.

http://jezebel.com/5897699/brilliant-abortion-clinic-landlord-teaches-protesters-that-payback-is-a-bitch?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow



The Washington Post first reported on Voice of Choice:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-clinics-landlord-turns-the-tables-on-anti-abortion-protesters/2012/03/29/gIQAThgwiS_story_1.html

Todd Stave is the owner of a building in Germantown, Maryland, that houses the Reproductive Health Services Clinic.  Dr. LeRoy Carhart provides women's health care in this building, including late-term abortions. 

I heard Dr. Carhart speak two years ago in Minneapolis at the annual meeting of Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options. He risks his life daily to continue to offer women choice--including those who are carrying fetuses that cannot survive after birth.  To force these women to complete all nine months of a tragic pregnancy is inhumane.  This doctor is a saint--he worked with Dr. George Tiller and knows the price he may pay for caring about pregnant women who want to end their pregnancies.

When Todd's daughter began being harrassed at her middle school by protestors, he asked friends to call some of the people who routinely left threatening phone calls at his home.  He specified that the calls had to offer prayers for the anti-abortion callers--but that they could mention the names and schools of family members. 

So this is where legal access to abortion stands in 2012 in the US: harrassment of harrassers. 

Meanwhile next door in Mexico, the Roman Catholic Church continues to prevent women from having legal access to ending pregnancies, and the Pope visits to cheer on the Catholic Church in Mexico.

Women continue to lose their lives in botched, back-alley abortions in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and so many countries of the world--but these protestors in the US don't care about that.

Pro-Death Policies

LA Times columnist Sandy Banks wrote about Project Prevention on October 17, 2009.


http://digitalmicrofilm1.proquest.com.libproxy.csun.edu/RollForm.aspx?jobNum=proquest


This program gives poor women access to long-term contraception--IUDs, implants, hormone patches, and shots.


Drug-using women who have multiple pregnancies and give the babies away are the target of this program.    See http://www.projectprevention.org/


They are even paid for using birth control through this program.


"We are helping mothers heal when we keep unwanted children from being born," writes Sandy. 


She was moved to write her column after reading about the deaths of two foster children who had made their way through LA County's child welfare system.


Miguel Padilla, age 17, hanged himself, and Lazhanae Harris, age 13, was stabbed to death, both in 2009.


Lazhanae was the third of nine children born to a drug-using mother who gave each child away at birth.  Lazhanae's siblings include one who died as a toddler; five who wound up in foster care, and two who are unaccounted for. In 2009 the mother was only 33 years old. 


Sandy's concluding comment: the rights of these children "ought to be as important as Mom's."


She means that being pro-life while a child is unborn is not enough. 


A truly pro-life policy would make birth control widely available to women at no cost and would not encourage women to complete pregnancies if they don't plan to keep the baby.  It would make sure that unwanted babies actually have good homes and education.


Our new national health care plan would take steps toward making contraception available to all women at no cost.


Those who oppose widespread access to contraception are pro-death.  Their restrictions would cause more abortions, more unwanted babies put up for adoption, and more children ending up in the child welfare systems of the nation. 


The end result is more children like Miguel and Lazhanae who die in their teens or earlier because they were unwanted and never had a fair chance in life.

We are the Pawns

It's a chess game between the Ayatollah and the Pope. 

On both sides, women are the pawns, along with voters and the religious faithful. 

Sandra Fluke is a pawn who got out of control and became a threat, so the Pope sent out his knight Rush to decapitate her. 

Sandra made it to the finsh line, however, and gained the powers of a queen, quickly taking bishop Santorum. 

We need to place both the Pope and the Ayatollah in checkmate, then unite the pawns and make peace between the red and the black squares of the board.

How To Control Women

Amid the swirling currents in this year's electoral cauldron, a teachable moment caught the attention of many this week.

Thank you, Rush Limbaugh, for opening our eyes. 

Thank you, President Obama, for making that phone call to Sandra Fluke to support her for speaking in defense of regulations requiring that contraception be available free of charge in the new health care program.

Thank you, Sandra, for your courage.

Without your help, Rush, many people would still be thinking that women have a fair amount of equality in this country.  They might still be thinking that "women's lib," as it was called in 1968, has been accomplished. 

After all, 17% of  our senators are women.  We've seen two women make serious bids for vice president in the last thirty years.

We have the Pill, and women who live near big cities even have access to abortion, unless they go to the wrong hospital or clinic. 

Lots of women, including mothers of young children, have jobs outside the home and earn about 80% of what men earn.  They may even be the sole wage earner for their family if a man has left or been laid off. 

Women with education and ideas are valued almost as much as those with scantily clad bodies, except on television and in films, and in some job interviews. 

It looks good to many, but you opened our eyes, Rush, by calling Sandra "a slut" and "a prostitute" in your show on Feb. 29.

You opened our eyes to the continued existence of the ancient and honorable double standard.

Women can and must be controlled by questioning their sexual purity, but men don't need to be controlled. 

Men get to speak out and have important roles in politics, business, and government, regardless of whether they may be sexually active.  These days they may run into a little media attention if they have multiple divorces and affairs, but certainly not if they are college students. 

Sandra spoke about women at her college not having access to birth control unless they go outside the student health plan and pay up to $1000 per year for the Pill and related doctor visits.  She applauded the new plan that makes contraception part of the basic health care package. 

For this, she is branded with words of shame.

Women having access to contraception is not okay with Russ nor with the Catholic bishops in this country nor with a handful of other religious and political groups.  Rather than debate the issues before Congress, as Sandra tried to do, these folks use barking dogs like Rush to intimidate women. 

It's not so different from Afghanistan, where a woman who shows an inch of her ankle gets the same labels and may even be killed. 

The goal is the same: control women and their bodies.  If they get out of line, whack them.

Only in this way can we preserve the social order.  

In Afghanistan, it's the rule of the Taliban and an ancient interpretation of Muslim law that must be preserved.

In the US, it's political power and a "biblical" view of marriage and sexuality that must be preserved.   

The politicos here and the Taliban there are men, of course.  The ones interpreting the Holy Scriptures have also been men in both places, for the most part

Thus it comes down to gender politics--men trying to retain control over women's bodies and lives, as part of keeping their own political power.

In some places, however, women like Sandra are standing up to these forms of social control.

Call me anything you like, they say.  I will still use my voice.