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VOW
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HACIA UNA FE LIBERADORA
EDITOR'S NOTE: During the last couple of years, the Women's Ministry Program Area of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has published three small booklets advocating Feminist Theology. The first, written by Isabel Rogers, is entitled Toward a Liberating Faith: A Primer on Feminist Theology. Last Summer, the WMPA added two new titles to this "library," The womanist Theology Primer Remembering What We Never Knew: The Epistemolgy of Womanist Theology, by Katie G. Cannon, and Hacia una fe liberadora: Introduccion a la teologia mujerista, by Magdalena I. Garcia. When I met Aida Diego, I asked her to review the booklet on Mujerista Theology. What follows is her response. Remember, Aida Diego is a Cuban-American who has been ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament by the PC(USA).* Sylvia Dooling, Editor - - - January, 2002 Dear Sylvia: I must have read Magdalena’s booklet on the above mentioned subject about five times, and still don’t know where she is coming from or its purpose. All I feel is that there is a rebellious cry out, with no proposed solutions, other than the same “call to war of supposedly emancipated women, struggling to change history and its mistakes, without proposing the how to’s to practically and forever correct those mistakes and improve the present and future of the women, children and men they are purporting to be defending”. The booklet is a combination of statistics gathered from existing documents, and opinions of other Hispanic contemporary women “theologians”, which are set out to force God Himself to admit that He has been wrong all along. It is difficult to express an opinion on a subject without knowing the true reasons and experiences which have contributed to set in motion a trend of character, actions, attitudes and conclusions in a given situation, and I don’t understand where is Magdalena coming from. I met her a few years ago, during a local Hispanic women gathering here in South Florida, and had an opportunity of briefly talking with her. She seemed to me an intelligent, pretty and articulate young woman, with a clear mind. We spoke about ministry, theology and the present state of our society, and we did not touch on any issues, feminist or otherwise. At the time it seemed, that our common ground was our love and service to The Lord. When she starts her writing with statistics about the situation of women worldwide, the reader expects to see some kind of proposal as to “what can we, as women in general and as women in ministry within the church organization start to plan and place in motion to help, educate and “liberate” , to use her much used word, the underprivileged women of the world”, which are oppressed by ignorance, poverty, cultural traditions and political corruption, power and control; and then in this group I would also include the children and men that constitute the “poorest of the poor” everywhere. All I see in this booklet is the “struggle” to change the past; the “struggle” to change points of view; the “struggle” to change the Scriptural writings, the “struggle” to change the comfort zone of women who feel happy and content where they are, trying to enroll them in their “struggle” to prove everyone and everything wrong. I believe that each individual is unique and a world in his or herself. History, traditions, culture and education influence our perspectives and objectives, but nevertheless, each of us is unique and one of a kind as God’s creation that we are, and the influence that we can exert upon one another, should always be constructive and positive, in order to uplift and enrich ours and others lives. Education should be at the core of any project to improve ourselves, others and society. Statistics are good because they are the result of studies performed on different subjects with a purpose. But, what do we do with them after they are done? In Magdalena’s booklet, they should be used to gather the educated and knowledgeable and seek real and practical up to date solutions for the millions upon millions of poor children, women and men that are caught in a no win situation everywhere in the world. Are we in an “uphill” battle as women and as women in ministry? Yes we are. But does that give us the right to hate and divide in order to “attain and control”? Of course, NOT! We can “communicate”; we can “educate”; we can establish “with feminine elegance and dignity” our ground; we must seek rights and justice with a Christ-like attitude of love and compassion, and start reading the Bible with Christ-like eyes, and stop using it as a “bungee rope” to suit our personal interests, likes and dislikes and to gain power and control. The booklet of reference was distributed at the “Encuentro III” gathering in San Antonio last Summer. This is a Presbyterian Hispanic/Latino women gathering and Magdalena was one of the main leaders/speakers. She had the opening speech and curiously she opened it with the sad story of a very sick 11 year old undocumented immigrant girl in dire need of a liver transplant, to illustrate her sermon which was named “Be courageous…Don’t be afraid” based on Isaiah 35 & Luke 13:10-17. The different themes were: I. God sees our affliction; Weighed down by paralyzing fears; What do women fear?; II. God wants to alleviate our affliction; Weighed down by degrading traditions; III. God calls upon us to liberate others from affliction; Weighed down by unequal opportunities; 1. Being a woman means to be less healthy; 2. Being a woman means to be most probably a victim of violence; 3. Being a woman means to be recipients of less education and be poorer; Conclusion: A new hope. Her conclusion “A new Hope”, refers to the opening
illustration of the sick 11 year-old and the solution to her plight, which
was undertaken by the interest of a male colleague reporter in her case,
who insisting everywhere found a hospital in Miami who was willing to operate
the young girl for free. That was great and had a good outcome, but
what is very curious to me is that it was not Magdalena’s interest and
efforts to help this girl, even being a promoter of justice as she is,
but somebody else’s interest, in this instance a male co-reporter who took
upon himself to seek solutions for her.
Also very curious is that after her long speech on the above, as reported in “La Antorcha” of October, 2001, which dedicated the entire publication to report about Encuentro III, a young woman from Chicago, Lucy Arroyo, dared to ask Magdalena: “If we are all Christians, and consider The Bible as our utmost authority, why do we need the ‘Mujerista Theology’?” Since she was in a rush and confrontations are never pleasant, she rushed an answer: “A mujerista does not doubt the Bible’s authority but questions what is said by those who claim to be the maximum authority in Bible interpretation; a mujerista does not rebuke what is said in The Bible, but questions what is said that The Bible says.” Oops!! Now she entered the realm of the inspired Scripture and the translations………not to mention the forefathers and theologians that have helped us to understand God’s plans and purposes for each of us. It is also curious to say that it is mentioned in her speech, that she is a happily married woman for 12 years and has a 3 years old adopted son. She is Cuban by birth, belongs to a middle class Christian family, and is well known and liked by her Cuban brethren. A baby cries out for attention, pain and food. What is the feminist movement really crying out for? What kind of “lack”, “want”, “pain” or “food” are they in need of? They all have a common need though, which is “a selfish unending thirst for Power and Control”. They lack love, compassion, sympathy and alienate those who do not think and agree with them; it all reverts to “Power and Control”. As another point of interest for those reading this opinion, I am a three career professional woman, who owned business for 23 years in the corporate world before being ordained as a Presbyterian Minister; married twice, mother of three, step-mother of four and grandmother of 15. A Cuban-American for 42 years, from middle-class extraction socially, a Christian by birth and confessed since age 14. After a lifetime of experience and experiences, I concluded a long time ago, that as children of The Living God, we should all be of one Christ-like mind and heart, in order to contribute to the betterment of this world in which we live; that all Power and Glory belongs to Him and that we must love one another and teach everyone we have the opportunity to meet about the Love, Redemption and Salvation that is ONLY in and through Him, Jesus The Christ. In His Love and in His Service, Rev. Aída Meléndez Diego ________________________________
Started to work as Secretary/Caseworker with the Episcopal Church in South Florida in the newly established Cuban Episcopal Center, and from that position, travelled to several of the large cities in the States, to present and advocate the Cuban plight among the Episcopal churches, in order to seek assistance and sponsors to relocate the great numbers of Cubans and their children arriving in a constant flow. It was at this time that I felt Called by The Lord to ministry; but the church denied to sponsor me, because: "we are not ready yet for women ministers........" I was also used as a English/Spanish translator for Christian Ed. curriculum to be used in the Episcopal churches and missions in Latin America; was school guidance counselor in a Episcopal Church in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and finally established a Spanish congregation and outreach ministry in Hoboken, New Jersey within a 100+ years old anglo congregation. All of these happened between 1961 and 1969. In 1970 I attended Hunter College in New York City, school of Social Work, through a 15-week on-the-job training and schooling program with certification for immigrant professionals, through the American Council for Emigrees in the Professions (ACEP), sponsored by the State of New York. In the on-the-job portion of the program I chose to specialize in drug addiction, and did it at the Morris Berstein Institute, which is part of the Beth Israel Health Systems in NY. During that decade, I married and had two of my three children, and upon the birth of my daughter, we moved down to Miami, Fl. to be close to family. Between 1973 through 2000, I first became self-employed as English/Spanish/English Court and documents translators, while obtaining Insurance and Real Estate licenses, and opened an independent insurance agency in 1976, which was sold in 1984 and joined Allstate Ins. Co. as Accounts agent until 2000. While an agent, I had the opportunity of attending a Pastoral Counseling class in So. Fla. Center for Theological Studies here in Miami, and it was there that my heart burned again to become a Minister of the Lord. This time, everything fell in place, and I went to seminary full time, graduating an M.Div. in 1996, and was ordained in 1999, a Presbyterian USA Minister of Word and Sacrament. Since
being ordained, I have worked as Parish Associate, Interim Associate Pastor,
I am married. My husband had four children, three of which I helped raising. We have 15 grandchildren, 9 local and 6 in Georgia.
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