The way to say it without sounding like a chauvanist is to say it like a feminist. There is no cultural basis for asserting that Sr. Nirmala is acting out of an Indian cultural perspective. The beauty of culture is its adaptability. The Indian pantheon of religions include many female deities, and their is no Hindu sanction against abortion. The cultural imperialism of Europe and the patriarchy of Roman Catholicism (objected to by most Catholic women I might add) is what Sr. Nirmala is dutifully regergitating as per the requirements of subservience in her Catholic church heirarchy. The rigidity of the backward patriarachal Euro-Centrated position you find objectionable in Sr. Nirmala comes from Rome and hundreds of years of Vatican mysogynist jibberish. It hails from no where else. Ellen Starbird >I am not sure how to say this without sounding like a cultural chauvanist, >buuut, one of the most frightening things about someone like Sister Nirmala >is that her strong positions on things like abortion and poverty simply >reinforce some of the most negative gender stereotypes for women and children >in India and around the world. Poor women are poor by the 'grace of god', >and 'must accept' their physiological reproductive role as the primary >guidance for all their actions while on this earth. The subordination of >women in 'natural' and 'god'given'. Now, if someone wants to become a nun >and accept this, that's fine with me, but I cringe when they shout such >suppression out for the rest of the world to emulate. >maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >In a message dated 97-09-13 16:31:13 EDT, Doug writes: > >>Mother Teresa's successor, a Brahmin-born Nepali now known as Sister >>Nirmala, seems more frankly appalling than her predecessor. From the NYT >>story by Barbara Crossette - web version (the print version ran something >>had the Brahmin ID right after one of her remarks on the beauty of poverty): >> >><quote> >>At a news conference Friday, Sister Nirmala reaffirmed a few of her >>predecessor's more controversial tenets. She said that abortion was >>unthinkable even in cases of rape. And she said that she, like Mother >>Teresa, was not interested in what caused poverty, which she described as >>"beautiful," or in changing the social environment in which it thrives. >> >>"Poverty will always exist," Sister Nirmala said. "We want the poor to see >>poverty in the right way - to accept it and believe that the Lord will >>provide." >><endquote> >> >>Doug
