1st Corinthians pt3

11:
4 Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head disgraces his head, 5 but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head—it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil. 7 For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection F53 of God; but woman is the reflection F54 of man. 8 Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. 10 For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of F55 authority on her head, F56 because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. 12 For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled? 14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 But if anyone is disposed to be contentious—we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

Seems almost like he's saying at the end that the Christians had no custom of head coverings, so it's cool whatever you want to do. But that doesn't make up for the previous statements.

Look, I don’t have a problem with covering my head for church or prayer. I've never been asked to, but if I did I wouldn't care all that much. If I had to cover my head all the time I'd be pretty annoyed. But men not having to do it? That's not fair. And in Judaism, as I understand it, men do have to cover their heads- a man is supposed to wear a yarmulke when he goes to temple or engages in some other formal religious activity. And in the Bible, men wore prayer shawls to cover their heads when praying. I think some men still do that? But here's Paul, trying for some reason to weasel out of men having to cover their heads, while insisting that women still have to. It's very weird. Judaism was kind of sexist, but it was an organic sexism that grew out of a certain culture. But Christianity took that, made the policies even more unfair and redesigned the entire world to run that way. And it really brought out the worst in some people, because they couldn't deal with this thing that wasn't part of their mindset before.

His logic is pretty stupid. "Man came from God but woman came from man?" The image I get is of Adam building himself a love bot in his garage ala Warren on "Buffy". Adam didn't build Eve himself, nor did he order her to his own detailed specifications from God's Love Bot Catalogue. Only one version of the story even has the rib taking event, in the other version, and in the Sumerian/Babylonian/etc version man and woman are made at the same time. It's awfully, disturbingly arrogant of man to convince himself that he's responsible for the invention of women and that life revolves entirely around him. If life revolves entirely around men, which man does it revolve the most around?
13
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, F65 but do not have love, I gain nothing.

There are so many people out there who have read every Gospel and pseudo gospel and apocryphal gospel and every important holy book they can get their hands on. They meditate daily, and have never lied, stolen, cursed the name of God or committed adultery, they give to charity and have never struck someone on purpose and yet they're extremely unpleasant to be around. That's how I felt during the like, two days, I was on the ChristianWicca email list- "If these people are so bloody brilliant, why are they all so awful?" Frankly, I think it's part of what killed the Gnostic sects and damages a lot of other faiths. People don’t want to go where they don't feel wanted, even if the group that doesn't want them seems to be right about a lot of stuff. But they will put up with incredible amounts of pain and abuse from groups or individuals when they feel that the group or person "loves" them and wants them.


Following all the rules won't do much good unless your heart is in it. I think that's the central message of the entire New Testament. Sometimes that means, for the sake of your heart, you have to bend those rules. Sometimes, for the sake of your heart, it's better to keep them. There's been a lot of throwing babies out with the bath water done by everyone. The "theology of hate" that always tries to resurface- who knows, maybe they're right about some of what they believe, but it doesn't make them better people, due to the tactics they use to get their point across.

Intent, as I learned in magic, is more important than any other ingredient in a spell.

Now Paul, having explained how important Love is, goes on to illuminate the definition of Love.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I can't even think of a comment. I just like that whole bit.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, F66 but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

As they say on Sesame Street, you gotta put down the ducky if you wanna play the saxophone. You can't cling to the past (your inoccent childhood) and develop your future (mature grownup talents) at the same time. I don't think this means that everything from childhood has to be destroyed but for example, my doll collection is seriously holding me back from moving on with my life. I feel compelled to keep buying them even though I can't afford it, I'm running out of space (technically, I ran out of space several years ago) and whenever I try to move out I'm held back by the conundrum of what to do with my dolls.