28 Cheshvan/15 November, 2009
Nov. 15th, 2009 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyI finished “Half the Sky” this morning. It really makes me want to do something useful.
Today I did more cross stitch and actually got to go rollerblading. Bear came over today and it was a really warm day, very reminiscent of early fall. We rollerbladed for half an hour and then walked along the beach for another hour. I so needed the exercise. It felt good. I felt a little rusty since I got tired a bit easier than usual but it was good to move. Later in the evening Bear and I practiced his Russian by reading a Russian version of “Little Red Riding Hood.” He is getting good. It was just good to relax with him here and eat dinner, wash the dishes together and just watch “The Simpsons.” I can’t wait until Thanksgiving and five uninterrupted days together.
Deuteronomy WTF moment of the day: chapters 21 to 25 is about various fun laws, some concerning women that cause lots of trouble today in some parts of the world. Some laws try to protect women like women captured in war who might be taken in as ‘wife.’ The law forbids a man from selling her later. Or the law protects the rights of the firstborn son by a wife the man might not love, so he doesn’t give preference to children from a beloved wife instead. Yet many laws today don’t exactly work to women’s benefit yet some churches and nations still insist on them. The law in chapter 22, for example, that requires a man who rapes a virgin to marry her and never to divorce her is taken advantage of in Ethiopia where in many village it is a negotiating marriage tactic. A man might kidnap the girl he likes and rapes her to force her and her family to acquiesce to a marriage – they call it custom. And the right to stone a wife after a wedding night if there is no evidence of bleeding because it supposedly shows she was promiscuous is just not right on medical reasons. At least there is recognition that a girl in the middle of nowhere is not responsible for her own rape. This is definitely the part of the bible I have most problems with, mostly because it is still used to justify so much. Of course, there is also a law that says that women can’t wear men’s clothing and vice versa. And there are some fun laws like a man who just married shouldn’t serve in the army for a year but stay home and bring happiness to his new wife. And there are lots of laws to help the poor whether in debt or letting them have leftover harvest. And this is probable the most unusual law in this reading, “If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, 12 you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.” (25:11-12).
Today I did more cross stitch and actually got to go rollerblading. Bear came over today and it was a really warm day, very reminiscent of early fall. We rollerbladed for half an hour and then walked along the beach for another hour. I so needed the exercise. It felt good. I felt a little rusty since I got tired a bit easier than usual but it was good to move. Later in the evening Bear and I practiced his Russian by reading a Russian version of “Little Red Riding Hood.” He is getting good. It was just good to relax with him here and eat dinner, wash the dishes together and just watch “The Simpsons.” I can’t wait until Thanksgiving and five uninterrupted days together.
Deuteronomy WTF moment of the day: chapters 21 to 25 is about various fun laws, some concerning women that cause lots of trouble today in some parts of the world. Some laws try to protect women like women captured in war who might be taken in as ‘wife.’ The law forbids a man from selling her later. Or the law protects the rights of the firstborn son by a wife the man might not love, so he doesn’t give preference to children from a beloved wife instead. Yet many laws today don’t exactly work to women’s benefit yet some churches and nations still insist on them. The law in chapter 22, for example, that requires a man who rapes a virgin to marry her and never to divorce her is taken advantage of in Ethiopia where in many village it is a negotiating marriage tactic. A man might kidnap the girl he likes and rapes her to force her and her family to acquiesce to a marriage – they call it custom. And the right to stone a wife after a wedding night if there is no evidence of bleeding because it supposedly shows she was promiscuous is just not right on medical reasons. At least there is recognition that a girl in the middle of nowhere is not responsible for her own rape. This is definitely the part of the bible I have most problems with, mostly because it is still used to justify so much. Of course, there is also a law that says that women can’t wear men’s clothing and vice versa. And there are some fun laws like a man who just married shouldn’t serve in the army for a year but stay home and bring happiness to his new wife. And there are lots of laws to help the poor whether in debt or letting them have leftover harvest. And this is probable the most unusual law in this reading, “If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, 12 you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.” (25:11-12).
