Catholic Feminism: Common Sense or Oxymoron?

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. (Eph. 5: 25-30)

During my engagement, I found myself explaining to a professional colleague (not a Catholic, nor, to my knowledge a practicing Christian of any kind at the time) that the passage above is, when taken in historical context, a feminist statement. In ancient times, men were expected to love their wives about as much as they were expected to love their cattle.   This message of Paul's was probably a bit of a surprise to them.

In the end, I told my colleague, if husbands do indeed follow the model above, women could safely "submit" to them without fear or loss of dignity, as the end result would be a mutual relationship in which each spouse places the other first.   If both strive for the ideal St. Paul lays out for us, neither spouse will be able to habitually treat the other as a mere object for exploitation.

This would also mean that both spouses should object to social and cultural trends that encourage violations of human dignity, and especially those trends which encourage gender-based exploitation and discrimination.

Simcha Fisher, a self-described Catholic feminist and blogger for the National Catholic Register, explains what Catholic feminist ideals look like in the present world in a recent post:

My husband says I’m a feminist. I know many liberal feminists would recoil in horror at that assessment: After all, I have all these kids, and I’m a member in good standing with that horrible old misogynistic Church, with its oppressive rules about reproduction and obedience. I’m pro-life and wholeheartedly follow the Magisterium’s teaching on the male priesthood and contraception, and try to make the Blessed Virgin my model.

So what makes me a feminist? Some would say that all faithful Catholics are feminists, because the Church is the most pro-woman organization around: The Church honors and values the particular gifts of women, and demands that men treat women with dignity and even a little bit of fear. John Paul II famously called himself a “feminist pope”; and in practical terms, the Church has probably done more for the physical well-being of women around the world than any other charitable organization.

Catholics who are feminists recognize that, while so many true wrongs have been righted in the last 50 years, the poor treatment of women in America has just been displaced, not eradicated. So now, instead of corsets and disenfranchisement, we have widespread pornography, abortion, and abandonment of every kind. We have gained some necessary ground, but lost so much else that is valuable in the process. Most of my Catholic friends see the world this way.

...

What change would I like to see? From the secular world: Stop thinking of women as sex objects; but at the same time, stop thinking of women as identical to men. Stop treating fertility like a disease; but stop pretending that women can be full-time mothers and full-time careerists. Stop blaming men for everything that is wrong with the world. It’s tiresome and counterproductive.

From my fellow Catholics: Stop thinking of women as objects who are here to save you from personal sexual sin; and stop thinking of women as intellectually inferior to men. Stop assuming that all women are meant to bear child after child no matter what; and stop pretending that if women just tried a little harder, men would be happy all the time. Stop blaming women for everything that is wrong with the Church. It’s cowardly and childish.

That’s for starters.

But feminism is not all about complaining and protesting. What I would like most of all is for women to ask themselves honestly, without worrying about history or politics, “What is it that I, as a woman, can do especially well? How can I help other women do what they do well?”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/what-is-a-catholic-feminist/#ixzz1Oe03Z7Ui

Not a Bushism. It's a real word!

Google's Word of the Day:

misprize: to despise; also, to undervalue.

What is a "schoolmarm", anyway?

Somebody found my blog while searching for the etymology of that word.

I could be a typical teacher and tell my reader to go look it up in the dictionary. :)

But I guess, since I'm in a good mood right now, I'll tell you anyway.

Here is one definition I found on Dictionary.com--including etymologies, such as are available:

From the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD)
school·marm (skōōl'märm') n. --A woman teacher, especially one who is regarded as strict or old-fashioned.


Schoolmarm is a a compound of the word school and the dialectal marm (variant of ma'am).

According to the AHD, the etymology of school is as follows:
[Middle English scole, from Old English scōl, from Latin schola, scola, from Greek skholē; see segh- in Indo-European roots.]

Ma'am is itself a dialectal variant of madam, which, according to the AHD is derived from the Middle English word madame, which itself is derived from the Old French ma dame (which, if I'm not mistaken translates as "my lady")

There you go. The etymology of a schoolmarm.

For the origins of this schoolmarm, read this post.

For your inner vocabulary nerd:

jejune: lacking in nutritional value; also, immature; also, dull.

Soo many possible applications for this word...

Spelling it out...

A clear definition of what we mean by "Culture of Death".

For literary examples, check out works such as Brave New World, 1984, and The Giver.

In film, see Gattaca.

Or the Twilight Zone episode known as "The Obsolete Man"

"Don't take the play so serious!"

There are two things you can do when confronted with racial slurs. You can get offended, and try to silence the person using them. Or, you can appropriate them, and turn them into terms of endearment, thereby taking the sting out of the words in question.

Here's a little story about what happened when some people did the latter, but found themselves in a confrontation with someone who did the former.

Who came out looking like the bigger person?

Word fun: Use these three in one sentence.

flagitious: grossly wicked; scandalous

defenestration: an act of throwing someone or something out of a window.
(for more on this delightful word, click here)

obsequious: servilely attentive; fawning.

badinage: light, playful talk.

Use three of the four in a single sentence. Extra credit for humor, alliteration, or use of all four words.

For instance:

During the defenestration of his person, the deposed monarch marveled at the flagitious badinage among his formerly obsequious subjects.

Why it pays to learn a romance language.

Ever heard the word "herstory" before? It is pronounced like "history" only it has a "her" at the beginning instead of "his"

Yes, it was coined by womyn, and is sometimes used plafully. There are unfortunately, however people who sincerely believe (despite their advanced education) that the word history is a compound of "his" (the posessive masculine pronoun) and "story".

This is not so.

The American Heritage Dictionary describes the origins of the word as follows:

[Middle English histoire, from Old French, from Latin historia, from Greek historiā, from historein, to inquire, from histōr, learned man; see weid- in Indo-European roots.]

That's right. The word "history" is derived from Latin and Greek. Now there are many people who know more about both languages than I. However, I am certain the Latin and Greek scholars will confirm that the singular masculine possessive pronoun in both languages is not "his". Modern day Romance languages retain words derived from the same roots, such as historia in Spanish.

Etymology does not have to hamper linguistic agendas, though. If the womyn still want to get picky without uninformed back-formation of their words, they could always re-derive the word from the Greek for "learned woman".

Oops. Sorry "learned womon"

Latin Word of the Day from your English Teacher

Understanding the origins of English words often helps us to understand their deeper semantic undertones and their proper usage.

Many English words are derived or directly borrowed from Latin. This is especially true of medical terminology.


Today's word:

fetus: (noun, masculine): birth, offspring, produce, bearing of young, young brood, that which is brought forth



Non-technical Modern English translation, with reference to homo sapiens....baby!



Sources: Cassell's Latin Dictionary (1968), Teach Yourself : Latin Dictionary (1992), Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary (1995).

"The Culture of Me" IS a culture of death.

Joe over at Evangelical Outpost posts about people who understand what abortion is and what it does, and participate in it anyway. The suggestion here is that many of us in the pro-life movement are naive, because many of us assume that nobody can do this sort of thing and know what it is.

There are many people who have been saved from the horror of abortion because they have been given information that helped them see what abortion destroys.

But how can there be people who know, but don't care enough to let it stop an abortion from happening?

Joe puts his finger on a cultural trend toward unbridled selfishness, and self-indulgence, even at the expense of other people. A culture where we throw away ex-spouses like worn-out furniture if they don't satisfy every single one of our selfish needs. It is a culture where pregnancy is treated like a disease, where birth control gives us meaningless sex on demand, without responsibility or (we like to tell ourselves, anyway) without consequences. Where having children is ok, as long as you don't change your life around them or have more than the average two. A culture where you can get pornography on your cell phone, where toys for young girls encourage them to be boy crazy before they even start puberty, where certain young teachers think it is OK to sleep with their students, because they feel like it, and where students will sleep with each other in public because they think it is cool.

We have created for ourselves a culture in which our consciences are so warped, many of us have come to sincerely believe that the greatest sin is against the Self: not doing what I feel like doing, when I feel like doing it, and with whom, no matter who may get in the way. Joe calls it a "Culture of Me. But I think Culture of Death is still the most accurate term.

Sin is by definition a choice of a the temporary over the Eternal and the law of God. The Natural Law, being a part of God's creation, is God's law. The gravest sins are those wherein the sinner knows he is violating God's law, and does it anyway. Many of the people Joe mentions in his article excuse themselves like this: "I know this is wrong, but I'll do it anyway, and then I'll repent." This does not mitigate the gravity of the offense. It deepens it. God only forgives us if we are genuinely repentant. Why take chances, when you can avoid the sin in the first place, and save yourself the trouble of repenting later? "For the wages of sin is death."

In the case of abortion, this is quite literal. It leads to the physical death of an innocent human being, and the spiritual death of other human beings.

Those who have experienced the horrors of abortion, and who have come to regret it--truly and fully regret it know better than anyone that this is true.

Many of them have reached out to God already, and been forgiven.

There are others who know, but prefer their denial to the discomfort of facing the truth. There's another problem. The "Culture of Me" denies that suffering could possibly, in the long run, lead to better things.

We are swimming against the current of our own society, in which many of the basest and ugliest parts of mankind's sinful tendencies are glorified. If sin leads to death, and the culture celebrates sin, it is a Culture of Death.

And a people in desperate need of repentance, forgiveness, and healing.

Monkey Muffins!

I love watching M*A*S*H. It's a perfect balance of goofy humor and serious social commentary.

Colonel Potter is one of my favorite characters. He is the kind of authority figure I think anyone can respect. He takes his role seriously, but has good horse sense when it comes to dealing with people. Ideal characteristics for a commander and a doctor, or any kind of leader, for that matter.

One other aspect of Potter's character that I like is his old-fashioned politeness, even in his most gruff moments. This forces him to use the kind of verbal creativity sorely lacking among most of the rest of us when we are frustrated. Where most people would utter a tired string of hackneyed expletives, often referring to bovine excrement, Potter expresses anger forcefully, uniquely, and without compromising his character.

TV Acres lists some of his catchphrases:

"Horse Hockey!" - When the veteran military career officer Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan) got angry at his troops on the military comedy M*A*S*H/CBS/1972-83 he shouted phrases like "Horse Hockey!" But the power of his putdowns came mostly from his "bark" rather than his bite. The following is a select list of some of his best blusters and bravado: Buffalo Bagels!, Buffalo Chips!, Beaver Biscuits!, Bull Cookies!, Cow Cookies!, Geeze Louise!, Great Ceasar's Ghost!, Great Horse Hockey!, Mother McCree!, Mule Fritters!, Pigeon Pellets!, Pony Pucks!, Road Apples!, Sufferin' Sheepdip!, Sweet Limburger!, and What in the Name of Sam Hill!

You have to give the show's writers some creativity points here, I think.

But, you may not know that Monkey Muffins, another exclamation of Potter's are not only something certain zoo animals throw around. They are also a food.

A google search for the words "monkey muffins" yields some rather interesting recipes, including one called "Cheeky Monkey Muffins". 'Nuff said.