I KNOW A WOMAN WHO. .…. from early years on didn’t know a lot about the Catholic Faith. Yet, over the years has come to know much more about them and realize that many of that Faith are genuine believers. Her recollection of her encounters with one particular priest is not to encourage anyone to denigrate Catholics.
The priest, with whom she had her encounter, was the nephew of her and her husband’s best friends. (These friends were the kind of friends that they shared most all of their activities with, such as organizations, and community functions, and had many family get-togethers. Their main activity was playing the card game of Bridge.) He, the Priest, was much loved by this large Catholic family and could be quite charming. He bragged about much of his rebellious ways which the church hierarchy admonished him and which many thought were humorous. He also loved to show the community his pet python.
Her first really eye-opening encounter with this Priest was at an Easter party his Aunt and Uncle had at their home. In the course of the evening someone mentioned to the Priest that the woman I know taught bible studies to women. The Priest then went on a diatribe about how Paul’s teachings about women were so unfair and wrong. Naturally, she made an effort to explain that God didn’t make women lesser than men; but, rather gave them a different role. The Priest went on to make the statement that biblical scholars no longer accepted the first eleven chapters of Genesis as a genuine part of the Bible. She countered that the New Testament quoted many of those occurrences and thus validated those chapters. The line was drawn between them; and, not wanting for the discussion to grow into an argument, since they were at a party, they dropped their conversation.
A few months later the woman I know and the Priest were at a dinner party at the same friends’ home. This dinner party had approximately 20 family and friends. She and the Priest were at the same table when he began to regale the guest about how he had written a letter to Governor Mike Huckabee admonishing him about letting a death row penalty prisoner be executed. The woman was in a quandary. She didn’t want to start an argument, but she also didn’t want the other guests to assume since a Priest thought the death penalty was wrong that he would be speaking for God. Finally, defending the integrity of God won out and she commented to the Priest that in Genesis 9 God instituted the death penalty.
His response in front of everybody: “YOU ARE JUST AN ARROGANT BITCH!”
I KNOW A WOMAN WHO….did not take offense, but smiled knowing that Priest had been exposed.
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This writing is not a biography, but rather one of a series of recollections of times when God did a work of grace in the life of a particular woman. She is not a woman who had any extraordinary talents or had any special abilities to make her stand out. She was neither pretty or ugly; and, not extraordinarily smart, but of good intelligence. In other words she personifies most women. However, what does make her recollections unique is that this woman knew God through saving faith in the work of Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for her sins and achieved victory over death by rising from the dead.
Written by Amarlis Harmon
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