wfn.org | Biblical families mirrored today's diversity

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 9, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-23-71B{271}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #270.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The families of biblical times were just as diverse as
those today, according to a Presbyterian leader who has forged a
contemporary Christian ethic for families.

"There is an incredible range of forms of family throughout the biblical
witness," said Rebecca Todd Peters, during a June 7 panel discussion on
"Feminism, Faith and Family" at the Church Center for the United Nations. A
doctoral candidate in Christian ethics at Union Theological Seminary, Peters
also has been actively involved in the World Council of Churches.

The discussion was one of five sponsored by Ecumenical Women 2000+ and
Religion Counts during the U.N. Special Assembly assessing progress since
the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing. Ecumenical Women 2000+
includes the United Methodist Office at the United Nations.

The June 7 speakers also were personal symbols of family. Peters brought her
baby to the gathering, and Adena Berkowitz, a board member of the Jewish
Orthodox Feminist Alliance, had to leave early to pick up her children.

Peters noted that one of the gifts the Bible offers today's culture is the
message that families of that era were not perfect but full of strife and
confusion. Most importantly, she said, the Bible "reflects the reality of
human experience in a way that makes it accessible to an imperfect
humanity."

Her guidelines for a contemporary Christian ethic for families include
recognizing the variety of forms of families present in society;
acknowledging the difficulties in intimate relationships and admitting that
intimacy is not easy to achieve; accepting the limitations of emotional
support; respecting and valuing all family members; accepting personal
responsibilities within the family system; nurturing the "ecology" of family
relationships, which is how the relationships work together to form a whole;
acknowledging the social importance of care giving; and recognizing the need
for healing and reconciliation within families.

Berkowitz, who is a consultant to Hadassah, the largest women's Zionist
organization, described how family involves the larger community and gave
examples of how Jewish law protects women and their family responsibilities.

However, Fazeleh Rasouli, U.S. coordinator for the Women Human Rights
International Association, pointed out that millions of women suffer every
day "just because they are women. Misogyny is the root cause of women's
problems in various societies."

A Muslim herself, Rasouli rejects the repression imposed on women by Islamic
fundamentalists in Iran and other countries, and the over-emphasis on the
differences between men and women to justify discrimination. 

"For us women," she declared, "freedom begins the minute we believe no one
can prevent the emancipation of women." 

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United Methodist News Service
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