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Gender + "God" [Episode 11]

In Episode 11, McCall and Cass UnBox 'Gender and Religion'.

This episode is jam-packed with new guests Blake and Heather; plus Jenny Sieck, Alison WhiteAcre, and Brother Matthew Paul are back to UnBox Gender and how it relates to the religions (or spirituality) that are near and dear to their hearts!

Are women the downfall of humanity? The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) would have you believe so.

  • Who was the very first person that lived? What sex were they?

  • Did monotheism's misogyny intentionally kill the Feminine Divine?

  • Are there other interpretations of Eve, Adam, and the Creation Story?

  • Are we positive that Adam was actually male?

  • Who was 'Lilith'?

  • Might females really be the chosen ones, to redeem all of 'man'kind?

  • Is Androgyny the goal of human evolution?

From Eunuchs to Elvis. Ruby Rose to Virginia Woolfe. We use every resource we can, to face the hard questions we have, in an attempt to recover from the biased judgments we've developed.

Starting with the concept of Women's Intuition, breaking down preconceptions of androgyny, and exploring God's possible intention with Adam & Eve, McCall & Cass use history, literature, interviews, and conversation... to "UnBox" Gender and Religion.

  • “It’s the Vanity of men to make God into OUR image.” -- Blake

  • [19:22] "And do you not know that you are Eve? God's sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil's gateway. You are she, who first violated the forbidden tree, and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him, who the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: man. Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die. Woman, you are the gate to hell!” -- Tertullian, from Women, Sex, and the Law by Rosemarie Tong

  • [20:22] “Eve, having become disobedient was made the cause of death, both for herself and for all the human race." -- Women in Early Christianity: Translations from Greek Texts, edited by Patricia Cox Miller

  • [21:17] “Take the snake, the fruit tree, and the woman from the Tableau. And we have no fall. Nor frowning judge. No Inferno. No everlasting punishment. Hence, no need for a savior. Thus, the bottom falls out of the whole Christian theology. Here's the reason why in all the biblical researches, and high criticisms, the scholars never touch the position of women.” -- Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach by Ilana Pardes

  • [23:45] “One of my favorite fantasies, is that one Sunday, not one single woman, in any country of the world, will go to church. If women simply stop giving our time and energy to the institutions that oppress, they would have to cease to do so." -- Sonja Johnson

  • [31:31] “I think of my intuition as a gift to be able to, on occasion, just quiet out the world and tap into something bigger, and deeper, than anything in my logical brain.” -- McCall

  • [44:46] "In each of us, two powers preside - one male, one female. The androgynous mind is resonant and porous, naturally creative, incandescent, and undivided." -- A Room of One’s Own, by Virginia Woolf

Recommended Resources

Summary

  • [03:33] Variations of Genders

  • [07:43] Eunuchs (Matthew 19:12)

  • [09:28] Blake on the androgynous Creation story

  • [12:27] Faithless Feminist - McCall

  • [13:41-24:22] “Thanks God for Blaming Eve… NOT.” reading

  • [24:23] Gender gap in religious service attendance - McCall

  • [26:16] Heather: Females’ role in faith

  • [28:52] “Domestic proselytization”

  • [29:27] Constantine’s mama

  • [30:28] Intuition - Cass + McCall

  • [31:54] Jenny Sieck: Women’s Intuition

  • [32:06] Evelyn Fox Keller (American physicist) book - Reflections on Gender and Science (1985)

  • [34:00] Male Intuition

  • [36:07] Alison: Tapping into spirituality, musical intuition in coaching

  • [39:08] Maybe Intuition isn’t Female - Cass + McCall

  • [40:44] Blake: Androgyny and Intuition

  • [42:19] Androgyny 101 - McCall w/Cass

  • [43:15] Plato’s story of the first people: Male-Female “circle” people

  • [44:46] Virginia Wolfe’s “Androgynous Mind”

  • [45:28] Elvis, Mick Jagger's Mr. Fish dress, Hendrix, Bowie

  • [47:31] Single-Mother household shift

  • [46:43] Gender Queer activists in 1980-90s

  • [48:12] The Vatican’s Gender Identity dismissal - McCall

  • [49:11] Dichotomies aren’t Natural

  • [50:45] Creation stories & blaming the (first) Female - McCall

  • [52:30] Genesis 1:27 + 2:22

  • [53:50] Rabbinical legend of Lilith

  • [54:42] Eve fucks the serpent, eats the apple, gets the blame

  • [56:03] Brother Matthew Paul:

  • [56:49] “Does God blame women?”

  • [57:08] How Genesis has been applied / Misogyny

  • [56:57] Flawed Human Interpretations

  • [57:24] The Divine importance of Eve

  • [57:40] The New Eve: Mary/Jesus

  • [58:11] “God elevates what should always have been.”

  • [58:38] The greatest “Yes”

  • [58:49] Mary = social justice for the fall

  • [59:05] Male-dominated theology bypasses female redemption

  • [59:21] “She will crush your head”

  • [59:54] Genesis 3:15 = SHE?! Her?

  • [1:00:30] Protestant translations made it “He will…”

  • [1:01:12] Mary’s Divine motherhood is “the Blow that Crushes Satan”

  • [1:01:49] Learn to blame ourselves for the fall of man = our female shame - Cass + McCall

  • [1:02:22] ‘Hope and interest’ in redefining our own Higher Powers, as a “God” who treasures women.

  • [1:03:53] 3 bonus episodes upcoming!