Posts Tagged ‘Mary of Magdala’
S+C | Why be a Christian dissident?
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on August 6th, 2008
Episode #13 is a conversation about the challenges of living the conscience that disagrees with the official policies of the Church you love so much.
Barbara is a Roman Catholic who has been faithful to the calling she has felt since she was a young child, to be in the priesthood. While she was young, she hoped the Church would change its policies regarding women in the priesthood, but that hasn’t happened.
I have been raised in a church (Christian Science) founded by a woman, so I have lived with the assumption of equality between men and women in the Church. And yet, I relate to Barbara’s struggle, because Mary Baker Eddy, the woman who founded my denomination, struggled with opposition to the Christian church authority on other topics that were established around the time of the first Church Councils in the fourth century.
Even though the mainstream Christian Church still opposes what Barbara and I find true in our Christian lives, we agree it’s necessary to hold our ground. We both see a need to inspire Christians to return to earlier Church practices that both liberate women and support spiritual healing. Our motives are to be closer to God and to serve others, and we have no interest in opposition for the sake of argument. Barbara is preparing to become a hospital chaplain; and I’m in the healing ministry using prayer and Bible study.
We’d love to welcome your thoughts on the subject. Have you experienced a heart-felt disagreement with the Church you love? If you have, how are you praying about it? How are you being guided to deal with it? Be sure to leave your comments here at the end of the show notes on Spirituality and Christianity.
Here are some links related to our discussion: