Date: Thu, 4 Aug 94 12:33 CDT
From: grasse@pobox.upenn.edu (Karen Grasse)
Subject: Re: Promise Keepers

At 10:55 PM 8/3/94 -0500, Bruce_Bradshaw@wvi.org wrote:

> Michael, I think your intent is commendable, but there is
> too much marital abuse by Bible-believing Christians.
> scripture.  I think much of the N.T. teaching on woman had liberated
> women from the roles they had held in their particular life
> situations.  I think Jesus was particularly deliberate about
> challenging some of the Jewish beliefs and practices concerning
> women.
>
> However, the scriptures, particularly those concerning women, have to
> be interpreted according to the cultures in which they were
> written and to which they were written.  My fear is that many of
> these 52,000 male promise keepers--and millions of others--will read
> the scripture without seeing how progessive nature N.T. teachings
> about women are.  Therefore, rather than continuing the Christian
> tradition of empowering women, these men will interpret the N.T.
> teachings on women according to their own cultural contexts.  This
> interpretation will prevent them from seeing the N.T. as
> empowering women, and influence them to desire a loving relationship
> with their wives, but nevertheless, there interpretations
> of scripture are more likely to facilitate a relationship that
> disempowers and dominates women.
>

 Bruce, Thank you! for being the male voice who understands where this kind
of teaching leads in the long run and what it implies for women. You
articulate very well  what I was trying to get at in my "spouting off"
posting. 
               
                -- KAREN

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Karen Grasse                            
Coordinator, Special Projects
Office of CEO/Dean                                                
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center 
E-MAIL: grasse@pobox.upenn.edu   
TEL:    (215)898-0748 
FAX:    (215)898-6599  
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