Secret Women's Business

"If your understanding of God is radically false, then the more devout you are the worse it will be for you" - William Temple What makes for human individual and corporate thriving is a fascinating question for me. What gives life and joy and inner peace for individuals and harmony in society? Any religion that teaches people to serve others obviously has some benefits for society in contrast to narcissism and competitiveness. But it can be a problem for individuals IF the god behind it is harsh and demanding, if no matter how much you give and serve, it's never enough. That's an anxious and oppressive space to live in... you're better off psychologically being an atheist than believing in that kind of god. The image of God that has been sitting with me powerfully lately is around that primal wave of love most (reasonably healthy) people feel when they hold their newborn child. To me this gives a profound insight into the theological claim "God IS love...

One of the sobering things about the study of history is to realise that ordinary, well-intentioned people have often cooperated with deeply inhumane practices. There were well-intentioned people who were involved with, or who at least failed to oppose, the horrors of the slave trade. There were well-intentioned people, both male and female, who opposed women’s suffrage and the rights of women to own property, to access bank loans, have equal pay for equal work and so on. There were well-intentioned Germans who felt that handing Jews over to the Nazi authorities was for the good of society. There were well-intentioned Australians who took “half-caste” indigenous children off their parents. Others who forcibly took children off single mothers for adoption. There were well-intentioned people who supported apartheid in South Africa. All of these actions, with the clarity of hindsight, involved cooperation with evil systems. Yet with that hindsight, they are exposed as profoun...