A Little Honesty, Please

     Driving in the car with a man whom I had just met, he was talking to me like he did not know what I had been or who I was. Maybe he did know who I was and thought I needed to be "reformed." He was telling me about how Christians in China have to be very careful. That if one teaches the Bible, one can be killed. I have heard the same story, but I have also heard much recently that the Chinese government has kind of adopted a "Don't ask, Don't tell" about practicing the Christian faith.

    But the lecture on Christianity in China lead to another lecture on the virtues of the Christian faith, in his mind. According to him Christianity is the only faith that has given women equal rights. All other faiths have suppressed women.  I did not want to get into any major discussions of World History with the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans who all had women gods and women priest.  I did not want to try to venture into the oriental religions as I do not know much about them myself.

     And I was very pleased with myself that I kept my tongue and did not point out to him that his Southern Baptist still do not want women to be preachers; that the Roman Catholic Church has been trying to shut up the American nuns, and will not let women be Priest. That as a Presbyterian I have a personal memory of the fight to allow women to be Elders and Ministers.  Jesus was very progressive in his day in the treatment of women, widows,  children, and foreigners, but the history of those who followed Jesus does not indicated that they have been more progressive in the treatment of women. St. Paul tries to limit the involvement of women in worship.

     The defense of Christianity is a worthy thing, but to do it with inaccurate information does not help the cause.  As Linda Fairstein in her series of mystery stories with Alex Cooper, the woman who tells her story about being raped had better be honest in all parts because if it is shown you lie or misuse the facts in one small place, the jury will think we are lying all the time.