Dec 6, 2009 -- 7:16PM, karemiss wrote:

I don't know which spirituality or religion you practice, but if it helps, I was reading the Aramaic version of "The Lord's Prayer" And it seem that the word most likely  for Jesus to use would have had been "Our Parent", instead of "Our Father" -thus including both the female and male principle of the Divine.

"O Birther! Father/mother of the cosmos...." yes, that is a wonderful translation!

Dec 6, 2009 -- 7:16PM, karemiss wrote:

I have also read that the in the Jewish tradition, the Spirit of God ( I suppose the Holly Spirit) is considered to be female (The Shekina) and there is Sofia, apparently God's wisdom (or daughter, depending how you intrepret the Bible) who is also a girl ;-).

I believe it was Kathleen Norris who wrote a book about the Holy Spirit, in which she said the Holy Spirit was definitely female. I forget the title of that book; Norris is better known for "The Cloister Walk," which is also a good read, but it's not the one about the Holy Spirit. And there was an article in Parabola ages ago that equated the dove descending on Jesus when he was baptized with the feminine side of God; the Bible says it's the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.

Nov 14, 2009 -- 7:14PM, Ethanol_emillee wrote:

and yes. i believe many people are becoming tired of male domination in this world. (because im only 16 and i still live at home) i go to (baptist) church and have to her all about male domination and influence. it makes me want to scream sometimes. it is time for women to take a stand against this testosterone filled world.

How will doing to men exactly as they do to us improve anything, though?  Women aren't better than men, they are equal.  Men are equal to women, too, you know, that's what equality means.  In my opinion, it's focussing so much attention on gender, which only exists for breeding purposes anyway, that causes all the trouble.  Oh, there's a lot of fun in the differences, but they are irrelevant to anything important.  Cultures will not improve until people recognize each other as people first and most importantly, and make gender as important as height or hair color in important matters.