The first speaker was Teresa Stanton Collett, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas. Among all her legal PowerPoint slides was one titled "Church's Vision of a Women's Life," I took notes:
- Happy childhood in the home of her parents.
- Developing friendships with men and women based on mutual respect and care.
- Discerning God's plan and committing to follow it.
- Making a total gift of self in marriage OR living a chaste life
- Perhaps blessed with children.
You know, that sounds like a wonderful life. There's lots of wiggle room for individual choices and choices to be made within the context of a marriage. No one ever told me as a young adult to discern. I never heard the word until about 10 years ago. I heard a lot of feminist stuff though.
Look at the fourth bullet point about marriage or living a chaste life. There are both joys and sacrifices in both paths. I like the second bullet point about friendship with both sexes based on mutual respect and care. There's nothing in this vision about offering yourself up as a sexual toy or what kind of career you should have or what kind of education you should have or not have.
Professor Collett also spoke about civil disobedience and touched on administrative law. She only had an hour to speak, and the law can be very complicated.
1 comment:
That DOES sound like a wonderful life. And I like the counter examples you give: discernment vs. the mania of finding the perfect career/going to the perfect school, etc. Mutual respect vs trying to win popularity through fooling around.
Sometimes the message of the Church seems so beautiful that it is hard for us "on the inside" to understand why others don't see it so clearly as a big shining beacon of hope.
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