I hate to spoil the mood, dears, but three stories have been in a holding pattern here on my desk and the Feast of the Holy Family is as good a time as any to remind people why Christianity exalts women, safeguards children and holds fast to the domestic environment best suited to the preservation of humanity.
We'll begin with polygamy, which is outrageously degrading to women -- who deserve one-on-one relationships in which both partners can give themselves totally to the other and provide a gift of self that honours each as a dignified subject. Finding that Mr Right has another Mrs Handy in his back pocket does little to foster marital bliss and can even lead one to drastic responses:
The death of a model who learnt that her husband was already married has shone
a light into the murky world of Muslim polygamy in Britain. Sahar Daftary, 23, fell 150ft from the twelfth storey of a block of flats
where she had gone to collect her belongings at the home of a businessman
whom she had married in a religious ceremony last year.
Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the head of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, told The
Times: “This story is very common, unfortunately. We have tried to plug
some of the holes in the whole system, but unfortunately our clerics do not
live on this planet.
Unfortunate, yes. Ironically, in a beauty pageant, Sahar Daftary was chosen as the "Face of Asia" -- all the more telling, given her tragic suicide (she was quite a beauty, which gave this story its legs). And remember that the Archbishop of Canterbury had endorsed the shari'a laws that these "extraterrestrials" insist on using, which only makes sense since his church has already abandoned ship on contraception, abortion, and same-sex unions. What's a little polygamy after that?
Secondly, since I posted a lovely icon representing the birth of Christ, a friend brought to my attention the stark differences in the way that Christians and Muslims see Christ here through a study of that image:
1. It is an image of human beings, which violates the traditional Islamic prohibition of images;
2. It depicts Jesus not as a Muslim prophet but as the incarnate Son
of God (his halo reads ο ων, the One Who Is, a title of divinity
derived from the name of God that God gives to Moses in Exodus 3:14),
in violation of the oft-repeated Qur'anic injunction that Allah has no
Son (4:171; 9:30; 25:2; 39:4; 72:3; etc. etc.);
3. In line with #2, it depicts what Muslims would consider to be idolatry, as the holy child's mother kneels and adores him;
4. In the beam or spear coming from heaven down to the child in the
cradle, it depicts the activity of the Divine in the world, assuming
the doctrine of the Trinity, which is rejected somewhat imprecisely in
Qur'an 4:171 and 5:116;
5. The cradle resembles a casket, foreshadowing the redemptive death of Christ, which is denied in Qur'an 4:157.
Then the writer goes on to remind us that the free will so cherished in Christianity -- indeed that characteristic through which we most mirror God Himself -- is nowhere in Islam, which exercises force to bring about "faith," which is all about coerced submission. (Remember our dear sister Martha, still imprisoned and probably listening to the whimpering cries of her starving children.)
Finally, Diana West sheds light on a dastardly dimension of US intelligence gathering operations here. It seems that Afghan's tribal chieftans would quickly sell each other out for a handful of little blue pills.
For some U.S.
operatives in Afghanistan, Western drugs such as Viagra were just part
of a long list of enticements available for use in special cases. Two
veteran officers familiar with such practices said Viagra was offered
rarely, and only to older tribal officials for whom
the drug would hold special appeal. While such sexual performance drugs
are generally unavailable in the remote areas where the agency's teams
operated, they have been sold in some Kabul street markets since at
least 2003 and were known by reputation elsewhere.
"You didn't hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a
silver bullet to make connections to the older ones," said one retired
operative familiar with the drug's use in Afghanistan. Afghan
tribal leaders often had four wives -- the maximum number allowed by
the Koran -- and aging village patriarchs were easily sold on the
utility of a pill that could "put them back in an authoritative
position," the official said....
As a firm supporter of our troops and their mission, I must say that this is wretched stuff indeed. I understand the difficult trade-offs that need to be made constantly, but this seems to be done without any moral qualms. None [shrug.] God will not be mocked, guys. This -- to me -- is far worse than water-boarding. Where is the outrage, the discussion, the chatter?
The link includes a collection of photos of the some of the unfortunate children who will only suffer more because of the availability of these "man-treats." Imagine the beloved GI's who hand out candy to the little ones who sidle up to them on duty, giving sweets to the girls while slipping the vile pills to their geriatric husbands. Shame.
Comments
“People have realized that the complete removal of the feminine element from the Christian message is a shortcoming from an anthropological viewpoint. It is theologically and anthropologically important for woman to be at the center of Christianity."
This is just another of the unintended consequences of the cultural acceptance of contraception and abortion! Men's sexuality has been robbed of its creative essence. It is now viewed as something that imposes a burden on women (when conception happens to occur), something used to control women or something that is purely recreational. Why would men bother?? In taking away their responsibility, we've also robbed them of their significance! In the big picture of humanity, men have been made into nothing more than a nuisance women have to figure out how to control in order to bring about the next generation. Men don't see it as their task to protect the vulnerable because they see themselves as the vulnerable ones. A few well preserved vials of sperm would make men entirely obsolete in the world's ethos today!!
That is astounding Robin, and good for you for standing up. At the heart of that matter, I think, is even worse than a gender mixing message. There is an increased sharper and sharper focus on the "self." Solid Catholic teaching returns our focus away from ourselves to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The original sin, Eve denied her womanhood when she desired to be like "gods." Since the only god she knew was the Father. Where was Adam? He stood impotent... in other words, they were divorced. There's a young girl at Robin's son's high school who was just told that she is the center of the universe and it's a tragic disservice to her.
Ditto what Mary said! A lot of high schools have very poor math and science depts, for boys and girls. I also am educated as a chemical engineer, but chose to teach the two years before we had children because its hours were more suited to spending time with children. (I was looking ahead). When it came time and I was pregnant with our first, I realized that I did not want to leave him with someone else, and was able to stay home full time. I am not sure it would have been that easy if we were used to another engineering income and not just a private school teacher income. Also some of my first job offers were out on oil rigs - I had no interest in that at all even though I enjoyed my engineering classes and did well in them. No one discouraged me from an engineering job, on the contrary I got a lot of flack for my decision not to pursue an engineering career.
I've been lurking, but this is one that irritates me. Beats the heck out of me what these "barriers" are. I was educated as a chemical engineer, where 1/3 of our class was women. However, in electrical engineering, only 1 or 2 out of 30 were women. Is it possible that women are Just Not Interested in some areas? Nah, it must be The Man keeping us down so we must legislate (and, I agree -- when they say "legistlate", I hear "quota"). And actually, I have a friend that was also a chemical engineer. When she lost her job, she decided not to go back into engineering and started working from home so she could spend more time with her 3 kids. Also, if nothing else, there are all kinds of incentives for women to enter science and engineering -- scholarships not available to men, guaranteed housing on campuses that do not guarantee housing to the general population, etc. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that schools in general are not preparing students for the hard sciences. It is truly a sad state of affairs, the lack of science education these days.