God forbid that my posts should be organised...

My father just lost his job. That's the third time in as many months. My father is an intelligent, polite and professionally experienced man. My father is over 60 years old; my father finds it exceptionally difficult to get job interviews these days. People, employers, want young blood. They want people fresh out of universities, people with years ahead of them. My dad has years of experience behind him, and no one seems to want to give him anymore.

***

"...We should not be influenced by cultural interpretations of a divinely inspired text," said one of the leaders at my friend Laura's church. Apparently, if he had his way, women would be seen and not heard within the church environment. He 'lets' women play a part in his services, in the spirit of 'live and let live', but he doesn't like it. Gender equality is 'dangerous liberalism' in his eyes.
Laura told me this today. I'd like to say I expressed respect for his dedication to the biblical texts and outlined my disagreements in a moderate and understanding fashion, but that would be very, very untruthful of me. See my previous post for some of my views on feminism. It's something of a sore point, nothing makes me spit like good ol' gender issues.
As me and Laura were bitching seven kinds of fury about this guy, a nasty, niggling thought crept into my head.
Let me get it straight how I stand on this. Women are equal to men. Different, yeah, we may be physically weaker, men may be less good at multi-tasking or whatever it is that we're meant to be good at, but we are equally human, equally able to succeed, equal in God's eyes. Men and women have as much right as each other to preach, to spread the Gospel, to go on missions, to be evangelists, teachers, youth-leaders, vicars, pastors, ministers, revolutionaries. I have never once doubted that.
I'm no expert, I see it like this: you have to be aware of the context of the Bible. In the same way that you can't take an isolated verse and try to use it as a teaching, you have to read it in its chapter, you can't read the Bible as a work on its own. It is a book that was written by people at a certain time. Divinely inspired? Most definitely. The word of God? Yes, but God didn't write it down himself. It was inspired by someone perfect, but it was written by people who are human - inherently flawed. Could we write a text predicting the social values of the future? No. But we could write a text describing the truths we know about our God, truths that are constant and eternal. If we did, it would be influenced by the way we live, the values that are instilled in us without us even realising. The truth would remain the same, but if someone was inspired by God to write the Bible today, it would be completely different to the one put down 2000 years ago.
I figure, the Bible isn't something you read, it's something you have to understand. You can't just take it at face and leave it at that. You have to figure each bit out, find the truth in it. I don't believe God wants women to be submissive to men, to be silent in church and wear headscarves, or whatever. It might say stuff like that in the Bible, but to me that's not the truth in it.

I was thinking all this, and saying it too, at lunchtime today, when a nasty, niggling thought popped into my head.
Where do we draw the line?
I believe, completely, that gender equality and Christianity are compatible. What if I'm wrong?
When people attack Christians for not approving of homosexuals, I think, can you prove that it is right to be gay? I'm contradicting myself. If we have to look beyond the context of the Bible, could I prove that it's wrong?

***

Still single. It's very nice actually. I thought I'd have so much more time to myself now, but I don't. I was trying to work out why I'm still as stretched for time as I ever was, and I realised. Before, I was doing everything I wanted to do and making time for him. Now I'm just doing what I want to do and it's just the right amount.

***

Holloway interview: T minus two days.
Number of plays I have to read in order for my interview questionnaire to be a vaguely accurate account of my reading habits: 1 down, 7 to go. Why did I lie, why?
I'm listening to: Alanis Morrisette:

"I'm sane but I'm overwhelmed
I'm brave but I'm chicken-shit
I'm sick but I'm pretty, baby."