Know the Context or Suffer the Consequences

The Hindus used to justify India’s discriminatory treatment of the poor and lack of social mobility by the caste system. They did not understand the cause of class disparities, thus, they used their faith to justify them. They claimed that these classes were a result of karma from good deeds or dharma in a prior life, and consequently could not be undone. This belief not only promoted unfair societal practices, but also stopped anyone from trying to solve injustices. They were so uninformed, right? But what if blind faith is making us fall into this same trap everyday? Similarly, many Christian denominations today preach beliefs that followers often consider acceptable such as excluding women from the priesthood, considering homosexuality immoral, and a few other things. Church authority justifies barriers for these groups by saying that this is how God created the world, so it should stay that way. However when even an ounce of thought is put into it, these ideas are not only senseless, but utterly immoral. Some say it is okay for only men to be priests because Jesus was a man and all of his Apostles were men; he broke many standards of the time, and if he wanted women to be priests he would have made them Apostles. However, there are also many cultural standards of Galilee that Jesus did not break. He had absolutely no Native American Apostles, no Pacific Islanders, no South Africans, Hispanics, etc. You might say this is because he was in Galilee, and you would be absolutely correct. He was in Galilee, where people thought women were significantly more sinful than men and would never believe a female preacher. The Church today wouldn’t stop a Hispanic man from becoming a priest, so why would they stop a woman? There is currently an extreme shortage of priests, and they are still prioritizing a decision made in 30AD to the welfare of the Church now. The Catholic Church has the ability to do their part in destigmatizing homosexuality and women in the workplace, but instead they have accepted a point of stagnancy. People’s faith that this is how the world is meant to be may be being used to justify divisions in society. We learned from the troubles the caste system has caused for India that what God really wants is for everyone to have a fair chance in society. So far Christians have done a good job adapting to a progressing society, however we must persevere and pray that we can use faith in conjunction with reason to figure out the true context of issues that press our society today. SHARE Labels JesusMisinterpretationVeronica TadrossWomen in the Workplace