A murderous park rangerette, the defects in divine communications, and disenfranchised dumpster ducks. Were I you, I should not wish to miss any of that.
http://johnklawitter.podomatic.com/entry/2012-02-26T08_44_28-08_00
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Should God Let Women Drive Cars?
A BIT OF BACKGROUND: I wrote this brief rant in response to a troubled woman's rights website. Apparently in Saudi Arabia there is some serious sentiment backed by religious arguments (!) against women driving cars. Now I've from time to time teased my wife about this subject, ever since she backed into that tree (she claims it maliciously jumped over a few feet and smacked our car). Still, it is no joking matter in Saudi Arabia, and though I don't live there, I felt compelled to side with these women, who can never experience the thrill of zipping along with the convertible top down and the wind in their hair, much less the ordinary convenience of driving to the market rather than walking, which, in my own personal value system, certainly should be their right.
Looking around me, from what I see, the 'will of God' appears to be everywhere and in every case subject to human interpretation. To my mind this raises the probability that it is not the actual, undiluted will of Almighty God but rather, at least in part, the subjective (even if at times well-meaning) will of the less-than-almighty interpreters.
A belief system that mandates that "all things are by the will of God" is a good one for maintaining the positions of those who are in the perhaps relatively comfortable positions to interpret the Eternal Will; to cite an analogy, their situation is a bit like that of a small select bunch of happy minnows who have somehow convinced the rest of the minnows that they alone have interpreted the will of the great whale.
Laying 'the way things are' on 'the will of God' is one way to set aside the challenges of human growth. If one judges that all good will always be good and all evil will always be evil and there is nothing a person can do, then of course the next leap is to presume the will of God is to have it so. I personally do not think like that. That is not humility. That is supreme vanity far beyond what is allowed a human being, to presume to have absolute knowledge of the will of God in all things.
Now if it is the interpretation of some 'official interpreters' that God has mandated women should not be the lawful equals of men, then of course they should not drive cars. But I am suspicious of this interpretation. And further, in a world where the will of God once was that there were no cars, and now there are cars, how can it be that God willed that only men, the possibly fallible interpreters of God's will, men only may have the privilege to drive them? Forgive my suspicious nature, but this sounds terribly self-serving. Next, are we to believe males only can gather together at will to drink wine and gamble and lust and do other happy things that God has supposedly dictated that only men may do? Are we to believe men, no matter how individually stupid, are to be the masters of women? Why, minnows, why?
I don't think that we are straying from the question of everywoman's right to get behind the wheel of a Ford or a Ferrari, but rather that we are inquiring as to the heart of why things are as they are, half the world living in societies where women are treated less than as equals to men, subject to unspeakable atrocities, and even where some women are forced to seek justifying doctrines for why this must be so.
As for me posting here, I do not think you should put too much faith in my thinking. I am just a simple person, a moderately educated man, true, but just a simple person who looks for common sense solutions to everyday problems. This world we share is not as confusing as it seems, but it is a very difficult time made dangerous by the shrinking globe and the clash of cultures. We are all on a journey of exploration into the unknown. I say to you all, as I do at the end of my radio show, Be thoughtful, be kind, be patient, be true...and be safe comrade travelers...
Looking around me, from what I see, the 'will of God' appears to be everywhere and in every case subject to human interpretation. To my mind this raises the probability that it is not the actual, undiluted will of Almighty God but rather, at least in part, the subjective (even if at times well-meaning) will of the less-than-almighty interpreters.
A belief system that mandates that "all things are by the will of God" is a good one for maintaining the positions of those who are in the perhaps relatively comfortable positions to interpret the Eternal Will; to cite an analogy, their situation is a bit like that of a small select bunch of happy minnows who have somehow convinced the rest of the minnows that they alone have interpreted the will of the great whale.
Laying 'the way things are' on 'the will of God' is one way to set aside the challenges of human growth. If one judges that all good will always be good and all evil will always be evil and there is nothing a person can do, then of course the next leap is to presume the will of God is to have it so. I personally do not think like that. That is not humility. That is supreme vanity far beyond what is allowed a human being, to presume to have absolute knowledge of the will of God in all things.
Now if it is the interpretation of some 'official interpreters' that God has mandated women should not be the lawful equals of men, then of course they should not drive cars. But I am suspicious of this interpretation. And further, in a world where the will of God once was that there were no cars, and now there are cars, how can it be that God willed that only men, the possibly fallible interpreters of God's will, men only may have the privilege to drive them? Forgive my suspicious nature, but this sounds terribly self-serving. Next, are we to believe males only can gather together at will to drink wine and gamble and lust and do other happy things that God has supposedly dictated that only men may do? Are we to believe men, no matter how individually stupid, are to be the masters of women? Why, minnows, why?
I don't think that we are straying from the question of everywoman's right to get behind the wheel of a Ford or a Ferrari, but rather that we are inquiring as to the heart of why things are as they are, half the world living in societies where women are treated less than as equals to men, subject to unspeakable atrocities, and even where some women are forced to seek justifying doctrines for why this must be so.
As for me posting here, I do not think you should put too much faith in my thinking. I am just a simple person, a moderately educated man, true, but just a simple person who looks for common sense solutions to everyday problems. This world we share is not as confusing as it seems, but it is a very difficult time made dangerous by the shrinking globe and the clash of cultures. We are all on a journey of exploration into the unknown. I say to you all, as I do at the end of my radio show, Be thoughtful, be kind, be patient, be true...and be safe comrade travelers...
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