Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Newsletter Gospel

In a discussion of some of the current Catholic positions on gender, my spouse pointed out that Paul's letters were directed at specific communities, and that some of the strictures in them might have been intended as local, not universal prescriptions.

To take a contemporary analogy, four thousand years from now a religious community will still divide by surname their offering duties into the "Salads," "Desserts," and "Main Dish" tribes, with place of pride going to the semi-priestly "Setup Committee"....

Don't believe me? Look at the Talmud. We've been trying to make universal laws out of marching and building and cooking instructions for millenia now.

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