The Sydney Anglican Church League says that Sydney Anglicans are not sexist, and that the ABC ran with it's story about submissive Anglican wives because it was hard up for stories! And isn't that typical of Sydney Anglicans to downplay stories that relate to the denigration of women?
No... Sydney Anglicans are just misunderstood ... and all they are really trying to do is mirror the Sydney Anglican Diocese's relationship with a God. The fear-based relationship that says God will love and protect you as long as you submit to Him.
This concept when applied to marriage, transforms itself into a relationship of inequalities, where the role of a male is to protect His defenseless wife (just like God protects His defenseless Sydney Anglican men ) ...just as long as His wife remains submissive to His thoughts and actions, regardless of the integrity attached to these... and this is because Sydney Anglican Men incarnate God and women don't!
So does the Sydney Anglican wife surrender herself totally and adopt the personal and spiritual truth of her husband... regardless of His intellectual and emotional capacity ...and all because he mimics God in the relationship?
If she marries a man who has Aspergers Syndrome ...then does she see the world as black and white as he does?
If she marries a man who suffers from depression and anxiety, then does she only ever see and experience a world of darkness that is based on fear?
If she marries a gay man who is repressing his sexuality to be accepted by Sydney Anglicans, then does she ever experience real passion and romantic love, and does she have to remain in an unfulfilling relationship?
If her spouse has an intellectual delay, then does she have to drop her IQ and go on a disability allowance too ... all because he has to lead when dancing?
And if her spouse dies ...does she have to rely on the charity of others... because she no longer has the skills to earn a living and feed herself and her family?
If only Sydney Anglicans had based their theology on God's unconditional love, then the culture of the diocese would have be more loving and inclusive, and women and men would have been created compatible within the church and marriage, without the need for regulatory behaviours to be placed upon people. It seems like Sydney Anglicans have learnt nothing from history, and still rely on the submission of women to moderate their men's behaviour. If you are not convinced, then just mention the name Muriel Porter in Sydney circles, and watch the men gnash their teeth and growl with displeasure; or reflect back to the 2008 Sydney Synod where the male clergy gave Narelle Jarrett a standing ovation for declaring herself unsuitable for ordination as a single woman, because she didn't have a penis.
Sydney Anglicans have developed a flawed kind of 'separationist theology' and have trumpheted it as Biblically authentic because it parallels the oppressive treatment of women as described in Biblical times ...the type of unjust stereotypical behaviours that Jesus opposed.
Separationist theologies produce separationist societies, and from them come separationist pathologies. Pathologies like the ones associated with the deaths of these women, and the attitudes of those who judged them as deserving of their fate. The "she made me do it" mentality, which absolves violent men from taking responsibility for their violent actions against women. I'm sure Sydney Anglicans would much rather Samantha's story.
Calam... what's with the picture... don't you know anything? Sydney Anglicans are not evolutionists...they didn't come from apes!
Really Bill... Is that why that nice Mr Ould got so angry with Fr David Heron, when he implied that Sydney women like Mr Ould's wife, were behaving like trained gorillas. Bill...you know how Phillip Jensen created the MTS as a prerequisite to ministry....well I reckon mixing in the real world is a prerequisite to preaching!
Yes Calam... Fr David Heron's humour made the point ...but missed the mark a fraction...he really should have said that Sydney Anglican women are trained to behave like Martha who was prepared to reinforce the societial inequalities that Jesus opposed.
Well Calam and Bill... I knew them Sydney Anglicans never came from apes...I reckon that Mars launch will find their ancestors! Fancy calling a Sydney Anglican woman's behaviour stupid or like that of a trained gorilla... it is offensive to stupid people and gorillas!
And then they're outraged that Anglicans elsewhere in the world consider them a crude and nasty cult. Their justification for this appalling misogyny is exactly the same as the Taliban's.
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