43

 

Bible  Study

by Dr.  Chuleepran.

 

Background on People Living With AIDS (PLWA)  in Thailand

 

Dr. Chuleepran began by sharing her experience as a woman pastor. She shared that as a woman pastor in her church, she was asked to officiate several funeral ceremonies  for people who died of  AIDS, who were either Christians or Buddhists.  In most cases, women were the victims.

 

She  recalled one incident when a Buddhist monk asked her to  counsel some women whose husbands have died of AIDS. This came as a surprise to her as monks never invited women pastors to the temple.  While talking to these women, she found out that these women have lost hope in living.  They believed that because of 'Karma', they could not do anything to change their situation.  They failed to realise that there is hope for the young child, father or mother at home.  People living with AIDS in Thailand  faces marginalization, i.e. nobody wants to spend time with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This helped the pastor to think about:

ĄP  How young people/ elders in the church can reach out to People living with AIDS?

ĄP  How can the issue of 'Karma' be explored, i.e. 'did God curse these people?'

ĄP  How to read the Bible with a gender perspective?

ĄP  How women and men can read the Bible differently according their own experiences?

 

She hoped that, through the issues above, the youth can challenge their society.

 

Bible Study on Judges 4

 

The participants were asked to take turns in reading the Bible passage. She asked   the participants to ponder on the following questions:

 

1. Why, like in the story of Deborah in the Old Testament (OT), the status of women is  the lowest ?

 

The common Jewish prayer by men is  " I am thankful that I am not born a woman", and a woman can be divorced for the sole reason that she cannot cook well.  But the story of Deborah is about a very courageous woman, a woman who led a society where the status of women was low.

 

2. "What does this chapter mean to you personally?

 

Participants shared that this passage talks about Deborah, a woman who suffered for her society. Society should listen to women in every situation. Both men and women should communicate together.

 

44

 

To these comments, Dr. Chuleepran added that in the midst of trouble in her society and as the people are crying desperately for justice, Deborah came forth as a leader that the people can look up to.  This projects the characteristics of patience that is often related to women. Deborah as a very courageous woman worked together with men. When this situation is applied to People Living With AIDS, this story will give them hope. They will realise that there are other people who are going through the same pain they are going through.

 

3. How we can apply this story of Deborah to our work, ministry and life ?

 

Deborah is a very ordinary woman.  In today's context, People Living With AIDS and sex workers are very difficult issues for women. Through the situation of the sex workers, we see the oppression of women in the society.  We are still struggling on how to handle the issue of sex workers within our movement. In Honkong, sex workers projects  what oppression mean in modern days.  Sex workers have a very complicated psychological profile, which we cannot understand.  A big challenge for me is when I listen to their story.  Sex workers are the extraordinary women in our society as they are very brave to survive in our society.

 

Then She added that, in society, women are always looked down. They are assumed to have no capabilities. This is a good opportunity to train women to be like Deborah in our society today i.e. to be a part of the decision making bodies in the society.

A few feedbacks by participants are as follows:

 

ĄP  To picture a violent woman like Jael in this same chapter is difficult to accept.

ĄP  Women are always expected to do the menial jobs like washing, cooking and cleaning.  In my life, even after graduation, I am still expected to do these jobs although I prefer more masculine jobs like hammering and carpentry.

 

The story of Deborah contradicts the situation of the sex workers today.  The law is not in favour to the situation of women and violence against women is widespread.  So many things are also expected from women, i.e. being beautiful and quiet.

 

45

 

A few comments by the participants are as below:

 

The whole aspect of leadership comes from here.  We tend to identify leadership in an individual basis.  Leadership should be perceived as leadership for empowerment.  Singling out an individual as a leader is a biggest problem in India.

 

In New Zealand, we have more women in the workforce than men but they still hold the leadership.  If women are successfully coming up, they have to come out of patriarchy. By the presence of patriarchy, we cannot do much for women.  We also should not explain women in men's term, as for example here, Judith is termed as beautiful. 

 

Women should write their own stories to communicate with other women. Patriarchal way of defining women should not be the only way.

 

In conclusion, She reflected that how as a woman pastor, she brings her children everywhere even to work.  To this, the members of her church advised that her children should not be with her while she is doing pastoral jobs and this makes her a "bad" pastor.  But as a woman pastor, She found that their advice was hard to do accept.  Hence, this illustrates that, women, like Deborah, should write their own stories for women.  Bible studies for women should be done in a woman's perspective.