Stopping in Bywater

[Gita]

Between New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward and her shining downtown skyscrapers squats a poor community known as Bywater.

Walking the five miles from Katrina reconstruction back to the French Quarter, I passed the corner of Piety Street. And there I noticed the sign outside a church announcing the day's sermon: "Putting a Woman in Her Place," Timothy 2: 9-15.

This particular letter from the misogynistic Apostle Paul to someone named Timothy instructs women to learn in silence and not to be teachers. He also commands women to be subjects to their husbands, serfs to their kings.

As I walked the hot, treeless streets, I had time to reflect how different life is now for women who learn by asking questions, by commenting in class and by voicing opinions that might not necessarily match those of their husbands.

[Sissy Anderson]

@Aradhana, I don't think it's possible to harp on this too much. Maybe on an idividual scale, but on a larger scale, no way.

[Aradhana Choudhuri]

@Gita Another, better, read than Paul's. My opinion, anyway.

@Sissy not to harp on this too much, but I have seen this happen over and over with girls I tried to encourage to study various engineering disciplines; the dissonance is acute.

[Brittany]

I do enjoy reading the boards outside of the different places of worship. New Orleans was a city built around religion and sin. Every church profited from the need to be forgiven for the night before. Great 6

[Sissy Anderson]

@Brian, can think of words that make more sense.

[Brian Michael Barbeito]

religion is one weird thing. i don't
think it has much if anything to do with
God.

[Glen Green]

Serf's up! Where's that Dude when you need him? He'll know what to do.

[jkdavies]

I checked the dictionary; pious has several entries; after "reverence for god" the second entry was "sanctimonius"... Perhaps Timothy needs this lesson...

[Sissy Anderson]

Yes, woman have the right to reach or try to reach their full potential without some shithead binding them with chains of any kind. Important six Gita.

[Robert Crisman]

Seeing as the opinions many women voice are more grounded in reality than those of their husbands, to say the least, I'd say the difference in their lives is a good thing for all of us.

[Mike Handley]

Nonfiction spawned by fiction. Can't be any more entertaining, though it's scary. Love the street name. And methinks the preacher must be having woman troubles.