I just completed lesson 2 and read through most of the links (the few that work). Anyhow the first onewww.infidels.org="" l="" jennifer_drouin="" femxian.html="" n="" y="" library="" modern="" rg=""> The Role of Xianity in the Oppression of Women (1998), by Jennifer Drouin, had some interesting stuff in it, but I found quite a bit of it inaccurate and misleading. Also the author sounded like she was full of anger, which made you feel like you where reading a one sided article. So anyhow I thought I would post my thoughts on what I found out of place, so maybe other people can look into these topics more deeply in the future. That is what we are supposed to be doing with our lessons anyhow.

I'm not going to dwell on any of these points. It will be up to you if you want to research them more.

The Bible (NIV) says For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Unfortunately most people don't try to find what this really says and just figure that men should be able to lord it over their wives. But if we look deeper we will find that Christ acted like a humble servant to the Church. Some examples are, Christ washing his disciples feet and Christ dying on the cross for mankind%rsquos sins. I would tend to think that any woman would be happy to have a husband that is so devote and humble in his love towards her.

The word Christian is fast becoming a generic word to describe Western religion. Even Roman Catholics are calling themselves Christian, when in the past they where more than happy to see Christians put to death for not submitting to the Mother Church. So when an author uses the word Christian so freely without explaining how generic it has now become then I would highly advise you to be quite wary about their opinions of Christianity in general.

If one looks at the Adam and Eve story more closely you will find that Adam was not considered blameless for helping destroy paradise. In fact he stood there and let Eve partake of the forbidden fruit and did nothing about it. Some protector he was! Goes to show that one gender is just as bad as the other ; )

The Baptism of infants is not scriptural, nor is it practiced in Evangelical Churches. Only certain religions do this.

Using the proper corrections for Carbon Dating and the latest Archeological discoveries, mankind cannot be traced back more than 6,000 - 10,000 years. So the so-called 20 million year old Lucy is quite inaccurate. In fact all the so-called missing link finds have been proven as being completely false and or frauds. A most fascinating book on the ancient cultures of this earth is 'DEAD MEN' SECRETS by Jonathan Gray', # ISBN: 0805930388.

It has been said that the original most famous Woman of the Woman%rsquos Liberation movement (I can't remember her name, she was on a Stamp though) would find that the agenda of what today%rsquos feminists are pushing to be totally disgusting, and not the carrying on the least bit of similarly to the Woman%rsquos Movements original vision. I think Pat Robertson hit the nail right on the head with what he is quoted as saying in the second lesson.

Promise Keepers promoting woman as wanton, devious, unclean, treacherous etc. Being all the good that Promise Keepers have done in helping Men to become better husbands and fathers I find this a bit shocking and kind of hard to believe. Please someone show me where they have said this. I would find it quite interesting to see if they really have said something like this or if they have just been misquoted.

It doesn't matter if it's all men that are put in power or if it's all woman, either way humans will let their ego's get in the way and things will just end up going bad. Some of these Links at the bottom of the page direct one to sites that talk about Woman High Priestess that where doing human sacrifice, so as you can see, woman where not always suppressed but in fact did some of the suppressing themselves, even using religion, in ancient times.

I was just thinking about what a woman once told me. She said that she would much rather be in a working environment that has lots of men instead of woman. She said when it is all woman, they are always backstabbing each other, have lots of rivalry and never share any helpful information that could help them out in their jobs. This came as a bit of a shock to me. And a couple of years after she told me this I read an article that more or less stated the same thing.

For the Christian bashers here%rsquos a book for you. It is called 'A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey, by Brian D. McLaren, ISBN: 078795599X. It shows that as the world moves into the Post-Modern era, people are loosing their trust in science and turning to spirituality for fulfillment. The author explains why the Post-Modern population is starting to loose interest in the neatly packaged Modern version of Christianity. It shows the reader what the Bible is really about, and lots of other reasons why the Modern Church is fast failing in a Post Modern world. I found it quite interesting and enlightening.

Well this whole lesson #2 seems to be about discovering and accepting ones feminine side. I have no problem with that. I also believe that even though both male and female are human, they are also %lsquowired%rsquo quite different. I enjoy being a man, but at the same time I am not afraid to embrace my feminine side. Also I enjoy being around woman, and find that woman who are not afraid to embrace their femininity, to be the most enjoyable ones to be around.

Scott

Hello, Scott, and welcome.

Please do not assume that I agree with everything in the links for each lesson. Some are meant to give a broader viewpoint, some offer a contrasting opinion, all are intended to be read with discernment... as it states in the course introduction on the members index. some of the links are most valuable for what issues they bring up in you to be surrendered... which might be something for you to consider in your responses.

: I just completed lesson 2 and read through most of the links (the few that work).

Keeping up with updating links for all the lessons has proven an impossible task. At the top of the links on each lesson is a link to a page that has all the links for all the lessons, that page gets updated more frequently but I am simply too busy to keep them really fresh. They were originally compiled with help from my Tribe.

They are really just an extra bonus anyhow, the real meat of the course is in the lessons and videos themselves. I'd certainly be grateful to anyone volunteering to update the current links and add new ones.

Anyhow the first onewww.infidels.org="" l="" jennifer_drouin="" femxian.html="" n="" y="" library="" modern="" rg=""> The Role of Xianity in the Oppression of Women (1998), by Jennifer Drouin, had some interesting stuff in it, but I found quite a bit of it inaccurate and misleading. Also the author sounded like she was full of anger, which made you feel like you where reading a one sided article.

It is true that modern feminism has quite a few of what I call "Feminazis" who seem to think that blaming men for everything is enough... in the short term it may be cathartic but in the long term blame is always disempowering.

: I'm not going to dwell on any of these points. It will be up to you if you want to research them more.

Well, I am not sure why you are discussing them at all, unless it is to surrender or release. Xianity IS repressive to women, it has been for centuries, and while you grew up in a more feminist culture, realize that for many centuries women were blamed for the "sins of eve" and were hardly considered human. I could go on about this, but really the point of the lesson is to let go of some patriarchal attitudes and reconsider the Divine as Feminine.

: The Bible (NIV) says For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Unfortunately most people don't try to find what this really says and just figure that men should be able to lord it over their wives. But if we look deeper we will find that Christ acted like a humble servant to the Church. Some examples are, Christ washing his disciples feet and Christ dying on the cross for mankind%rsquos sins. I would tend to think that any woman would be happy to have a husband that is so devote and humble in his love towards her.

Yes, and in modern culture such a man would get unkind labels like "pussy whipped."

: The word Christian is fast becoming a generic word to describe Western religion. Even Roman Catholics are calling themselves Christian, when in the past they where more than happy to see Christians put to death for not submitting to the Mother Church.

I do not know where you got that idea! Christian has been the term used for followers of Christ since Caesar's time.

So when an author uses the word Christian so freely without explaining how generic it has now become then I would highly advise you to be quite wary about their opinions of Christianity in general.

Let it go, Scott. It is not for you to be advising the other students of anything, and this is certainly not the place for preaching Christianity. This course is nondenominational.

 Focus on your own growing. Your attachment to your beliefs about Christianity must be surrendered along with everything else. Let it all go, and if it is as Goddess Wills then She will give it back.

Blessings...

Hello!

This may be a bit unrelated to the current discussion, but it is still connection to lesson 2, so I will post my reflections in this thread either way. =)

After studying the lesson 2 materials for some time (Haven't gone through all the links yet though) I was out for a walk, observing my surroundings, and one thing struck me. Women can have a real career now! But it often seems to be on patriarchical terms. They have to dress like men, be analytical like men etc. Especially in corporate businesses, politics. So even though women have much more rights these days, like voting, more even salaries, career oppurtunities etc, it is still often (but not always) shaped in a matriarchical mold.

So that could appear to be femininity fitting in a male mold.. But I am also seeing things in another perspective. I see a lot of the ideas of what is masculine and feminine breaking apart, not just inside me, but around as well. There is more and more open reseach, newspaper articles and such about men needing to expressing emotions, about opening up to intuition and feeling. And I am not just talking about the New Age community, but in everyday newspapers and ads.

I am starting to see these things and much more! And this lesson is excellent to be extra aware of what is going on outside and inside.

So what is going on inside? For years I have been aware of a resistance inside me to express my heart. It is not so much that it was a conscious choice earlier in my life to not do it. I simply wasn't aware of it!  But I remember especially from the teen years the strong pressure to keep up a certain facade and to be "tough"  But to be honest, I was bad at that. Real bad. I would often break down in tears or burst out in anger. Somehow I still had good friends that accepted me for who I was in spite of this.

I used to do a lot of sowing!  During the 90s it was very popular here to put cloth between the side seams of jeans to make them wider.

I made a lot of female friends. Not just "girlfriends" but friends. I always found it easy to talk to and hang out with women. EXCEPT when they talked about men and boys. My lack of confidence kicked in right away hah!

But looking back now I realize there was a big stifling, choking feeling inside me.. I was so used to it that I wasn't even aware of it. K has brought bits and pieces of it up constantly for surrender, something I am very grateful of!  There's still some there. But every day is becoming more open, less stifling!

Love
Gustaf