Voicing Bethany

The title, it is hoped, conveys the purpose of this blog:  an attempt to articulate something that is in many ways ineffable - the mystery of Mary's relationship with Jesus, the spirituality of Bethany as a place that was important to Jesus, and the spirituality personified by the women of Bethany. 

It is hoped that this blog will be a place to explore aspects of female Christian spirituality that are all too often ignored, despite the obvious importance of women to Jesus in His earthly ministry.

Centuries of misogyny have resulted in deplorable conditions for most of the world's women.  As Richard Stearns notes in The Hole In the Gospel (Thomas Nelson, 2009):

"Compared to her male counterpart, a girl growing up in the developing world is more likely to die before her fifth birthday and less likely to go to school, since girls are often forced to work rather than attend school.  (As proof, two-thirds of the world's 800 million illiterate are women.  In Niger, only 15% of the women can read.)  She is also less apt to receive adequate food, heath care, and economic opportunities, but more apt to be forced to marry before age 16 and to be the victim of sexual and domestic abuse.   Some two million children, mostly girls as young as 5 years old, are part of the growing commercial sex trade around the world.... [women who manage to survive] are denied property rights and inheritance in many countries.  In fact, women own less than 1% of the world's property.  They also work two-thirds of all the world's labor hours, but earn just 10% of the world's wages [citations omitted]."

Any committed Christian will know what Jesus would think of this!  How can we create Bethany in the world today?  Let's look at Jesus's vision of equality and humanity for women that is radical even by today's standards (and difficult for many people in the world - and even in the church - to accept).

(BTW, if you haven't read Hole In Our Gospel, I highly recommend it!!)