Christian Students Uniting and Feminism
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jul 02 2008 at 12:38 PM
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UCATSA is differentiated not only because of its appearance, but rather because of its content. UCATSA is up front, and means to be in its biblical radicalism and its commitment to discipleship formation and church life. It's no ordinary Christian group. Being trapped within the time worn cliche of vacuous liberalism and self-inflated conservatism is not what UCATSA is about. From within the mainline tradition of theology it chooses to be deeply devotional and relevantly political in its stance to the Bible and life. Which means that whenever you attend a UCATSA meeting you will hear people struggling with the meaning of faith in the politics of life. Because language is indicative of faith's geography and freights power, the politics of our language seeks to evidence our commitment to the meaning of Christ's liberation in the world.

While ever sexism abounds the whole of the redemptive work of Christ is obscured. What is needed is a turn around, a repenting as Chung Nyun Kyung from Korea articulates, a metanoia beyond empty tokenism that leads to the recognition that:

"The male oppression of women is not a women's problem. It is a man's problem [that] men have to come to terms with. Only when ... men in the liberation movement incorporate the liberation of women as an intrinsic ingredient for [the] struggle for full humanity can their claim for people's liberation have integrity."

Sex bias in church life and language must be named for what it is - it is of human origin, it is a human construction. Patriarchy exists not by divine instigation - it is demonic in its consequences. As the biblical scholar Walter Wink has shown, it is antithetical to the redemption that the gospel brings, since it was only through "the Fall" that the female lost freedom and thereupon became submissive to males in a patriarchal society. In Engaging the Powers, p. 39 Wink points out that rather than being male dominated the Genesis account is quite egalitarian: "The image of God is male and female, and the first couple are created together as a reflection of the divine nature."

Because we are convinced that inclusivity is part of our discipleship you can expect the "Uniting Church in Australia Tertiary Students' Association" (UCATSA) on campus to welcome you into our efforts of justice and spirituality. Why not come and meet with one of the UCATSA campus groups?

With you in the learning,

Rev. Dr. John Hirt
UCA Chaplain to the Universities
jhirt@mail.usyd.edu.au

18th October 1998

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