What I am thinking is that women could be a very useful scapegoat. Every part of the document will be vexing to some set of people, and because women have a vote, each of those sets of people can either say "if only those women had not been there, this part would have been written in a more conservative way, because women are liberal and…
What I am thinking is that women could be a very useful scapegoat. Every part of the document will be vexing to some set of people, and because women have a vote, each of those sets of people can either say "if only those women had not been there, this part would have been written in a more conservative way, because women are liberal and have bad ideas" or "if only those women had not been there, this part would have been written in a less conservative way, because bishops are liberal and have good ideas", depending on the preferences of that set of people. Each set of people can then have as many mental reservations about the document as there are vexing paragraphs in the document, while simultaneously asking that everyone else accept the remainder of the document as the soft and gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit, our friend, advocate, sanctifier, living flame of love (because maybe the women were outvoted on that point). We should be grateful that our sex has the opportunity to serve the church in humility in this way.
What I am thinking is that women could be a very useful scapegoat. Every part of the document will be vexing to some set of people, and because women have a vote, each of those sets of people can either say "if only those women had not been there, this part would have been written in a more conservative way, because women are liberal and have bad ideas" or "if only those women had not been there, this part would have been written in a less conservative way, because bishops are liberal and have good ideas", depending on the preferences of that set of people. Each set of people can then have as many mental reservations about the document as there are vexing paragraphs in the document, while simultaneously asking that everyone else accept the remainder of the document as the soft and gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit, our friend, advocate, sanctifier, living flame of love (because maybe the women were outvoted on that point). We should be grateful that our sex has the opportunity to serve the church in humility in this way.
I really prefer not to serve the Church as a scapegoat.