Commentary by Susan BrinkmannIn the same week that the U.S. House took steps to revive the ill-conceived Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) which could be used to add a constitutional right to taxpayer funded abortion, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg threw a wet blanket on the prospects of passage by saying she believes the process, which started in 1972, needs to start over.
Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDSIf Pope Paul VI was alive today, he would have every right to look at the #MeToo movement and say, “I told you so.” And he did – 50 years ago when he issued papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which put forth the Church’s teaching on love and marriage and on the use of artificial birth control. Since that time it has been called everything from puritanical to completely out-of-touch. But one thing it’s rarely been called is exactly what it turned out to be - the truth.
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDSToday is International Women’s Day, a day aimed at celebrating mostly “progressive” ideas about the nature and worth of women, but that doesn’t mean this day has to be spent focusing on “gender parity.” Why not spend it on much deeper issues such as how we can change the sexual norms that are so disrespectful and disadvantageous to women?
Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDSIn the age of the #Metoo movement and women taking a stand against sexual abuse, it’s not surprising that a boycott is already underway against the latest and, hopefully, last film rendition of the sado-masochistic “love” story known as Fifty Shades which one critic likened to “a bad Tinder date that lasted three years.”
In a powerful op-ed appearing on the Women Speak for Themselves (WSFT) website, executive director Meg Johnson encourages women to seize the momentum behind the #MeToo movement to change a culture that is too willing to present sex as “no big deal.”
