COMMITTED TO LIFE

The focus of gender in light of current challenges

By Dr. Sandra Lassak*

Talking about feminism and theology may seem like a contradiction, which isn’t surprising given the inequality between men and women: the structural oppression of women, femicide, divorced couples, and discrimination against homosexuals among others.

Despite the fact that for decades women have been doing theology in our churches and theological spaces, most of these spaces remain highly patriarchal, if not downright misogynistic. The identities of women are fixed, formed around constructions of gender and sexuality justified by a religious and theological discourse which promotes the ideal woman as: virgin, submissive and servile. From this dichotomy of macho men and servile women a whole system of inequality and oppression based on gender has been constructed and continues to be maintained in some ways to this day.

Theology seems to be a field of men, despite the fact that women have been doing theology for decades, and it is because within the pyramidal structure of the Church we are outside the positions of power and decision making. Changing or questioning the structures and ideologies of this system is not in the interests of some male pastors, priests and theologians because it would weaken the power they want to maintain. That is why we find so much resistance and rejection to gender theories, because it is an approach that shows the unjust inequalities and offers help to overcome them in order to build communities of equals.

Since it emerged in the 1980s, feminist theology has been a theology articulated from the marginalized experiences of women and at the same time a critique of the patriarchal character of Theology. Based on realities and concrete experiences of women, feminist theology was part of the feminist movement, sharing the struggles for a social and political transformation, for equality, and dignified conditions for all. Therefore, feminist theology is not a theology only of women and for women, but is a theology that problematizes 'gender' and therefore should be important to all.

Clarification of feminism and why it is important to continue talking about feminism

Declaring oneself a feminist puts you in a position of suspicion accompanied by images and prejudices such as being a macho dressed as a woman, a lesbian, a woman who hates men, etc. However, national and international news indicate that misogyny, oppression and violence against women continue to be one of the biggest problems today at the global level.

In times of capitalist expansion, new excluded groups are spreading with greater speed and brutality, and among them are women. Social, political and economic interests have created structures of inequality throughout the centuries. And although thanks to the struggles of so many women - which have occurred throughout history – there have been some changes achieved, there is still a long way to go to have societies and communities of equals.

Women still belong to the most disadvantaged group.  They are the most affected by violence, poverty and discrimination as well as by the ecological crisis. They suffer from the effects of climate catastrophes, land grabbing and the destruction of life's foundations. Faced with this situation it is imperative to ask for new forms of solidarity including regional, national and international.

How can we, in these struggles for better living conditions, dignity and equal rights, connect and share among all women, who from different local contexts are organizing to promote processes of change (for example, the 'Ni una menos' or Women's March)? How can we and should we be part of this work as Christians?

In Latin America, religion has sold itself out by having an important role in the construction of gender legitimizing a patriarchal, capitalist and heteronormative social and economic system. Therefore, doing a social analysis we cannot leave out a religious analysis and a critical theological view.

It is also important to see the variety and diversity of experiences of oppression, recognizing the same structures of inequality and power behind them. Because at the core of talking about and analyzing gender relations is talking about power relations.

The conception of gender does not depend on an a-cultural biological determinism, but rather on each culture and worldview, “in that sense, every society, every community, every group and every person has a particular gender conception, based on their own culture.[1]” We learn from childhood to identify with the worldview and conception of gender roles in our culture. Because in the nation we live, as Simone de Beauvoir one of the first great women's rights defenders said, “One isn’t born a woman, one becomes a woman.”

Current challenges

According to theologian Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, theology always has to do with dreams and visions of a more just and united world; an issue that deeply touches humanity.[2] For this reason, it is necessary to articulate a de-patriarchicalization and decolonization from and with the women who, in their daily struggles, face colonial, capitalist and patriarchal oppression.

They are peasant women, indigenous, from popular urban sectors and also women who question - from their individual and collective experience - colonial and patriarchal relations; who fight together to overcome all kinds of oppression. In this way “... feminism is not just another theory, it is a theory, a conception, a worldview, a philosophy, a politics born from the most rebellious women against patriarchy,”[3]  says Bolivian Aymara, Julieta Paredes. Practically, feminism is a way of life, “a new way of understanding life and human relations,”[4] as theologian Ivone Gebara puts it.

The reality of our world, challenges us to permanently relocate in different senses, to leave the offices, the classrooms, the parishes, and place ourselves in the 'street'. Displacement impacts us, we will have to move from traditional spaces of religion and oppression and search for new spaces where more integral and equal spiritualties can be lived.

From the pluralities we have to construct new forms of heterogeneous and inclusive communities of coexistence with all people, with nature, and between countries and continents, and break down the mental as well as social, economic and political barriers and hierarchies.

What nourishes us is a spirituality of resistance and rebellion fueled by the sharing of realities and daily struggles, of solidarity and sisterhood. This spirituality is made real through action, a collective and diverse expression that seeks to build new relationships and another world of which we all dream.

This is the only way we will we be able to offer relevant contributions to the questions and problems that people live today. Because the discipleship and following of Jesus requires us to be part of the processes towards equality and justice.

Questions for reflection:

·      What would it mean to decolonize and de-patriarchicalize?

·      What does it mean to do theology from our context, our social and pastoral commitments?

·      For what would I want to make a commitment? 

*Dr. Sandra Lassak holds a Doctorate in Theology

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[1] Lagarde, Marcela, “El género, fragment literal: ´La perspectiva de género´, en Género y feminismo. Desarrollo humano y democracia. Ed. horas y HORAS, España, 1996, pp. 13-38.

[2] Vease Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth, Discipulado de Iguales, Una Ekklesia-lógica Feminista de Liberación. (Mujeres haciendo Teología desde Bolivia – Volumen III), p.214-235.

[3]  Paredes Julieta, en: Gargallo Francesca, Feminismos desde Abya Yala, Ideas y proporciones de las mujeres de 607 comunidades de nuestra América, Ciudad de México 2014, p. 96.

[4] Gebara, Ivone, Las aguas de mi pozo. Reflexiones sobre experiencias de libertad, Montevideo 2005, 133.

Peace is the Way

One of the many names for Jesus, the Incarnate Word, was the “Prince of Peace” (Eph 2:14 and Is 9:6).  In this time of Advent as we prepare to welcome the Prince of Peace into the world anew, we take a few minutes to reflect on this concept of peace in our own lives, our communities, and our world. 

Jesus came to bring peace to the world.  The first message of the risen Christ to his disciples was, “Peace be with you” (Lk 24:36).  We exchange these greeting with one another during our weekly celebration of the Eucharist: “Peace of Christ be with you.”  So what is this peace of Christ? The Peace Christ revealed in the Scriptures is not just about the absence of war, but rather the fullness of life. 

Think about the words of the prophet Isaiah that Jesus said he came to fulfill, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:17-21)  This is the peace we are called to help co-create with the Spirit of God. 

“To be at peace, humankind must be in right relationship with one another and with God.”  The work of peace, justice, and the care of creation all seeks to bring healing and wholeness to these broken relationships between ourselves, the planet, and God.  We can see how all of the areas are interwoven, and how we will not be able to achieve the peace of God, without first achieving justice in our world. 

Looking at the realities facing us today, we have a lot of work to do to realize the peace and justice of God.  We are inundated with news and stories of violence and injustice in our world today.  This violence can take many forms whether physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.  All that denies the dignity and equal worth of all God’s creation is a form of violence. 

One of the most blatant forms of physical and psychological violence is the perpetual warfare and exorbitant military spending of the U.S. government.  How can we ignore the pain and final messages of the people in Aleppo experiencing violent confrontations and bombings?  And there are many other parts of the world experiencing the same violence of war and conflict.

"America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776. "  54% of the Federal Discretionary Budget in 2016 went to Military and Defense.  Gun violence continues to plague our communities, with over 13,000 deaths and over 26,000 injuries from firearms in 2015.

            In Mexico, it is now going on ten years since the start of the “war against drug trafficking” (2006), and even if the main Mexican drug kingpins have been detained, their capture or abasement by the federal forces has not translated into a decrease of violence in the country or a weakening of the drug cartels. In reality, there were 172,876 reported homicides from 2007-2016, according to the statistics of the National Public Security System (SNSP), and 28,937 people were disappeared, according to the National Registry of Missing or Missing Persons.

Although the internal war in Peru ended in 2000, remnants of terrorist groups and drug trafficking operating in the valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers (VRAEM) have become a priority for the State which is why they continue to strengthen the institution of the Armed Forces. And while some countries have reduced spending on defense, in Peru defense spending has increased 1.7 billion soles between 2012 and 2016.

The face of victims of violence in Peru is that of a young woman. A recent study by the Catholic Pontifical University in Peru indicates that at the national level that 7 out of 10 women between the ages of 18 to 29 have been victims of violence; and in Lima-Callao it is as high as 9 out of 10.  In fact, on average, 11 femicides and 23 attempted murders are reported each month, the highest figures in the last seven years according to the Ministry of Women. 

Selfishness, hard heartedness, intolerance, fundamentalism… the world is hurting.  Humanity has turned against itself.  We need to ask for forgiveness for the destruction of so many lives.  We need to rethink our relationships.  We need to work for peace; life depends on it. 

So what can we do to be artisans of peace?  Earlier this year representatives from around the world gathered to discuss experiences of nonviolence, Jesus’ way of nonviolence, how Nonviolence and Just Peace is already being lived out in communities, and how to move beyond unending wars – replacing the doctrine of “Just War” with “Just Peace.” 

The final statement coming out of this gathering is titled: “An Appeal to the Catholic Church to Recommit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence.”  Some of the highlights of that appeal include: incorporating nonviolence explicitly into the life and work of the Church, training ourselves in nonviolent practices and strategies, initiating a global conversation on nonviolence, rejecting “just war theory,” and being a prophetic voice to challenge unjust world powers. 

Pope Francis for the World Day of Peace also calls us to recognize: “Non-Violence: A Style of Politics for Peace.”  This is because as people of faith we cannot remain indifferent.  We must commit ourselves to incarnating the Peace of Christ in the world.   

What if we each made a commitment for this coming year to support an environment of “just peace” through active non-violence?  What kind of impact might we be able to have collectively?   

“Jesus, the Incarnate Word, called his disciples to love their enemies (Mt 5:44), which includes respecting the image of God in all persons; to offer no violent resistance to one who does evil (Mt 5:39); to become peacemakers; to forgive and repent; and to be abundantly merciful (Mt 5-7).  Neither passive nor weak, Jesus’ nonviolence was the power of love in action.” 

Please, take some time to pray with an image of the Incarnate Word, asking him to teach you his way of peaceful love in action. 

Biblical Text: Mt 5:38-42

• How do you understand Jesus’ proposed third way of nonviolence?
• What does it mean to return good for evil?  
• How do you seek to understand someone who is different from you? 
• How do you confront those who are violent or promote violence? 

We have been called to promote practices and strategies of nonviolence.

• How can you learn more about nonviolent strategies and skills and incorporate them into your own life and ministry? 
• How is Nonviolence and Just Peace connected to our incarnational spirituality, recognizing Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is the Prince of Peace?

We end this reflection asking the God of Life to give us all we need to realize God’s peace, the peace that has been sown into our very being. 

Give us your peace – Pedro Casaldaliga

Give us, Lord, that strange Peace

That sprouts in the midst of struggle

Like a flower of fire;

That breaks in the middle of the night

Like a hidden song;

That arrives in the midst of death

Like a longed for kiss.

Give us the Peace of those always walking,

Stripped of any advantage,

Clothed in the wind of nebulous hope.

That Peace of the poor

Who have already overcome fear.

The Peace of the free

Who cling to life.

The Peace that is shared

In fraternal equality

Like water and the Host.

Print version: http://bit.do/cWF6R 

Theological and Social Reflection on Human Trafficking

Where is your brother or sister?

Theological Reflection on Human Trafficking 

When we think about the situation of human rights around the world, one of the most egregious abuses of human rights that comes to mind is modern day slavery in the form of human trafficking. That is because the traffickers abuse women, men, and children from all corners of the planet and subject them daily to various situations of exploitation. Human trafficking is a crime that can lead victims to: sexual exploitation, forced labor, domestic servitude, forced child begging, or extraction of organs.

‘The LORD said: Where is your brother?’ (Gen 4:9)
According to the International Labor Organization, it is estimated that every year between 600,000 and 800,000 men, women, and children throughout the world are victims of Human Trafficking within and outside their countries of origin. These people are forced to generate wealth for others through forced labor in different areas like prostitution, mining, agriculture, industry, or forced military recruitment.

In Peru there are between 3,000-4,000 victims of human trafficking each year. All are led by necessity, tricked by false promises of legitimate work and instead converted into sexual objects. And in Mexico, they have the largest number of trafficked persons in all the Americas. 70% are victims of the cartels, or organized crime groups, which operate throughout the country. They kidnap people of all ages and force them to work as prostitutes or other forced labor, and in many cases the local, state, and federal authorities are complicit as well.

 “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9) 
As Pope Francis reminds us in his apostolic exhortation Evangelium Gaudium, about the joy of the Gospel in the world today, we cannot be indifferent to the cry of God when we are asked, ‘Where is your brother or sister who is enslaved? Where is the brother and sister whom you are killing each day in clandestine warehouses, in rings of prostitution, in children used for begging, in exploiting undocumented labor? Let us not look the other way. There is greater complicity than we think. The issue involves everyone!”  It truly does involve everyone when we think of all the ways we are complicit. Human trafficking does not happen in a vacuum. There are many factors that contribute to its proliferation and promulgation.

One invisible but powerful factor is the objectification of people, which prioritizes money and profits over people. We stop seeing the other as a human being, and rather we see them as a profitable resource to exploit. Are we aware of the labor practices of the large companies from whom we buy their products or use their services? Are we aware of the labor practices for the food, coffee, and tea we purchase? If not, we could be supporting human trafficking. For example in Zambia, the largest percent of forced child labor is in agriculture (including coffee and tea) and mining (metals used in products/technology sold in other countries.)

Added to this objectification is the widespread violence against women, their oversexualization, the social phenomenon of the ‘patriarchal-macho' that contributes to raising men and women within structures of domination based on gender; social myths regarding male sexuality and their demands; and the 'normalization' or tolerance of crime which demonstrates the lack of moral consistency of society. Are we not outraged that more than 80% of trafficking victims are women and girls? And don’t forget that if there were no clients, trafficking wouldn’t exist.

Another factor is unfettered global capitalism which has created drastic disparities in wealth, leaving many families struggling to survive in extreme poverty. In the search for income and opportunity, many of the poor and vulnerable become victims of human traffickers who trick them by promising a better life. It is estimated that around 15,000 people are trafficked across the border into the U.S. each year. There is no person in this world who knowing the daily conditions experienced by people in a situation of trafficking, would willing choose it. It is precisely that the victims were looking for something different for them and their families, and were tricked instead.

Trafficking also continues because it is not well understood, and not just by average citizens walking down the street, but also by authorities that fail to execute the laws and declarations that exist so that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”  However as we stated earlier human trafficking is the third largest organized crime in the world and generates between 32 and 36 billion dollars a year. So there is still a lot of work to do.

‘The LORD said: What have you done?’ (Gen 4:10) 
Scripture reminds us of God’s call that we have special concern for those who suffer and are the most vulnerable such as widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.” Even if we don’t know their names or faces, these are our brothers and sisters; they are the suffering body of Christ in the world today. We are called to strengthen our solidarity and affirm the dignity and rights of all people, and to denounce human trafficking and the economic and social systems that support it.

Part of our work to combat human trafficking, is to bring the reality of this modern day slave trade out of the shadows and into the light, so we can recognize our own complicity. Because in the words of a survivor of human trafficking the oldest profession in the book isn’t prostitution, it’s turning a blind eye.

We must continue to educate ourselves, to reflect on the current reality in light of our faith teachings, and take action. As Jesus, the Incarnate Word, reminds us in Matthew “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my sisters or brothers, you did it to me.” We are our brother and sister’s keeper. We know where they are. We know what they are suffering. What will we do?

Reflection Questions:
1) In what ways might I be complicit in creating a world where human trafficking exists?
2) What more do I want/need to learn about human trafficking in my own city/country?
3) Where do I feel called to get involved in the work to end human trafficking and promote human dignity?

Read PDF version here: http://bit.ly/2ct8Gyd

Laudato Si Online Conference June 13-17th

The celebration of the Laudato Si’ anniversary next week will be memorable.

We are glad to announce that Senior Vatican officials, world-renowned experts of multiple disciplines and leaders from different faiths will come together in the Laudato Si’ Online Conference to share their Laudato Si’ insights with you.

It will be an exciting online conference that you can join from your computer, in which prominent leaders will dialogue in depth about Laudato Si’ and each of its chapters.

• Vatican officials such as Cardinal Turkson (Pontifical Council Justice & Peace), Bishop Sanchez Sorondo (Pontifical Academy of Sciences) and Cardinal Onaiyekan (Archbishop of Abuja)
• World-renowned experts such as Jeffrey Sachs (bestselling author & UN Senior Advisor), Marcia McNutt (Editor-in-Chief of the Science journals) and Veerabhadran Ramanathan (atmospheric scientist)
• Faith leaders such as Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Rev. Kyoichi Sugino (Buddhist Dharma Teacher) and Din Syamsuddin (Islamic scholar); and
• Notable theologians such as Fr. Michael Perry (Minister General of Franciscan order), Mary Evelyn Tucker (Yale University) and Fr. Sean McDonagh (Columban eco-theologian).

Space is limited so register today!

REGISTER FOR THE ONLINE CONFERENCE

This online conference was developed in the interest of following the Pope’s “urgent appeal for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet”.

Our common home is in grave danger from climate change and the wider environmental crisis. Every month this year has been the hottest one on record.The faith community was VITAL in lifting up the moral call for action on climate at Paris. We cannot let this energy die away. This is a moment for us to remind ourselves why we are acting, to re-engage our communities, and to show our governments that we are still here, willing to dialogue and hungry for action.