Posted on 04/25/2007 6:54:31 AM PDT by NYer
“WOW -- coming from RC tradition I thought I’d never return to the Rosary. But here it is and here SHE IS. Blessed be, Mairly.”
The “here” in this message, found on herchurch.org, is Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco. But the SHE is not the Mother of God. SHE is “God/dess.”
On Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Ebenezer opens its sanctuary for the “Christian Goddess Rosary.” The church says it offers “Goddess Rosary Beads” and that “prayers and suggested meditations will be on hand as well as incense, candles and bells.”
“The Goddess rosary is grounded in traditions of the Christian Church and the proclamation of the gospel which is a vision of release from bondage for a new creation,” says the church’s web site.
The Goddess Rosary page on herchurch.org says that though “God as Father plays an important role” in Christian tradition, its “exclusive emphasis... contributes to a limited understanding of God, an understanding that supports a domination structure that oppresses and subordinates women.” Jesus used “Abba” as a “revolutionary deconstruction of domination structures of his day in both religious and social institutions.” The modern task is to do the same with “Goddess.”
Ebenezer, however, does not want to eradicate masculine images of God but to balance them with feminine images to “confront the biblical texts, products of their day and cultures, for the blatant patriarchal biases and misogynist attitudes.” And herchurch.org cites three Catholic theologians in support this confrontation: Harvard’s Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Fordham University’s Sister Elizabeth Johnson, and Rosemary Radford Ruether (who will lecture students in the course, “The History of God in Feminist Theological Discourse,” at LA’s Mount St. Mary’s College this spring.) Ruether calls the exclusive use of male imagery for God “idolatry.”
Herchurch.org offers a “Hail Goddess” prayer by feminist theologian Carol Christ, formerly of Harvard Divinity School but now director of the Ariadne Institute for Myth and Ritual in Greece. The prayer goes: “Hail Goddess full of grace. Blessed are you and blessed are all the fruits of your womb. For you are the MOTHER of us all. Hear us now and in all our needs. O blessed be, O blessed be. Amen.”
“I felt that I had stepped into a Presence, like a mother’s warm embrace,” wrote Dalyn Cook of Ebenezer’s Goddess Rosary. “The attendees were few in number, yet there was a sense of fullness in this welcoming space. I inhaled deeply the earthy scent of the incense, sending up delicate tendrils of smoke which curled around the altar in a nimbus visible against the warm rays of the evening sun filtering through the stained-glass windows....
“From the basket of rosaries, I took into my hand a strand of vibrantly-colored beads with a silver goddess icon in place of the traditional cross. The goddesses came in a variety of shapes and sizes, celebrating the beauty of the feminine form; I found reflections of my own figure in the full hips and Rubenesque curves of my goddess,” Cook wrote.
That's some strange biology. How many mothers do you have? I only have one.
In your Bible, does the angel salute Rachel, Leah, Rahab, etc., as "full of grace" or "highly favored" daughter? Because my Bible only has one angel appearing to one girl in Luke chapter 1.
Oh wait, no Jewish woman would accept that title!
"Mother of my Lord" is a much bigger deal than "Queen of Heaven," and Mary accepted that one from Elizabeth without complaint or quarrel.
You haven't answered my question in post 154. Please answer it.
Because we name our churches after heroes of the faith and truths of doctrine, not after geography.
What a disgusting insult to The Mother of Our Lord. What a disgusting, diseased mind it must be to even give life to such an insult straight from hellish brilliance.
So Rachel carried Jesus in her womb for 9 months and raised Him? Or even Eve? I have a lot of ancestors but only 1 mother. I think you really lose my respect now, you seem to desparately want to prove what you believe and now you’re just getting silly.
You have a very short bible, for I see in mine that angels came to Sarah. God intervened in the births of Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, John the Baptist, well I could go on. Angels all over the place.
What was the question?
Right,.
You don't distinguish between your mother who bore you, and Eve? They're both equally important in terms of their relationship to you? Did Abraham ever salute Sarah as "mother of my Lord"? No, didn't think so.
I never said angels never came to anyone else, so that's a red herring.
Page up to #154 to see my question.
This discussion is getting ridiculous at this point.
LOL! Your hysteria is showing. I have a bale of hay I can send you so you can have a lot of straws to grasp.
Me! Me! I guessed it would!
Even given these facts,that the women gave birth supernaturally, through God, the women are accorded respect but not respect above their Lord. David's mother is even nameless. Those are the facts, and it is the invention of the Roman Catholics who in fact defied tradition, and who elevated Mary to Queen of Heaven.
The only protocol that concerns us in the bible is God's, so that would be his son Solomon who ruled after him.
Now, that's just wrong.
You have stated that Jesus is not God, ergo you are not a Christian. It’s not an insult, it’s a statement of fact. The Trinity is Co-equal. That is something you must accept in order to be Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Methodist, Baptist, or Episcopal. I realise you reject denominations. But I say again, if you reject the Trinity, and Jesus, you are guilty of heresy. I suggest you repent.
Why do you need Mary to intercede for you? You can pray directly to God/Jesus yourself.
“feminist theology,” eh? if ideas were diseases...
Hasn’t this been discussed on this forum for an almost infinite number of times?
Surely you are aware of that.
From another great-grandparent,
ROE
I find this disgusting as well, rrc. I also believe that as a non Catholic I do belong to Christ’s One True Church, the entire body of believers, which includes you as well!
I can’t help but see the short link from worshiping Mary to worshiping a goddess. And please don’t tell me Mary isn’t worshiped. She’s prayed to, sung to, feasted, adored, festooned with flowers, etc. What is that if not worship?
Not trying to give you a hard time, just stating the obvious.
= = = =
Ahhhhhh, yes, but . . .
when it is raining . . . as Proties, we don’t know ANYthing about RC rain . . .
when it is obviously snowing . . . as Proties, we don’t know ANYthing about RC snow . . .
when it is a hurricane, . . . . as Proties, we don’t and CAN’T know ANYthing about RC hurricanes.
. . .
The minute we think we observe something on the part of RC’s we have to remind ourselves that by magicsterical law, we cannot possibly know anything from observation. We have to wait for the encyclicals from Rome to tell us what the real truth is.
At least, that’s my understanding from all the RC pronouncements hereon about such.
. . . . maybe with slight editorializing here and there.
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