I’ve trusted God right into a heck of a lot of things that he sure didn’t do a whole lot to get me out of - probably because he’d rather me figure it out myself. It’s never been church teaching that one is obligated to starve, or be homeless, in order to attend Mass.
I was what was more or less considered parentless at 18 due to the manner in which my adoption worked.Emperor_Markus:
I’ve trusted God right into a heck of a lot of things that he sure didn’t do a whole lot to get me out of - probably because he’d rather me figure it out myself. It’s never been church teaching that one is obligated to starve, or be homeless, in order to attend Mass.
And Xanthippe_Voorhees is right - for many of us, that “slight deficiency” might be “can I pay rent this month or am I getting evicted?”
And I firmly believe that some of us found out the hard way that he won’t. Plus, there’s a difference between “poverty” (as a vocation) and “starvation” or “homelessness.” And you can bet if you turned down work (even if it involved working on Sunday), you’re not going to be eligible to get any help, even from the church.
Wait, so now you’re claiming that no women should work, ever?
Trust me, I’ve been in the workplace for a while, and I could say the same about many men. Drama is a problem whenever you put a bunch of people in the same place. Welcome to human nature. (As a side note, I’ve often found certain men will claim “drama” any time a woman makes an issue that they don’t personally think is important.)
Oh please. Women cause drama and cause men to unzip their pants?
I assure you, as someone who was a manager, men, especially young men can be just as, if not more dramatic, than women. At least with young women, I rarely had to tell them to keep the scatological humor to a bare minimum.
How are women, in your opinion, who are not married and does not wish to live under her parent’s roof at 20 or 30 or 40 supposed to live?
Jesus? The church? No.
Work did not “stress me out” more than any job would any person. I loved the last job I had, which was helping students get their degrees. I was often on the phone with gasp men, counseling them on what classes to take, and what opportunities they could seek. It was good work, and I did a good job.
God gave me gifts that made me REALLY, REALLY good at that work. I advised my gasp male co-workers often. There was no drama and we all kept our pants on.
Also, don’t forget, the church has made and is making saints of MANY working women. Bl. Chiara was a mother and a doctor.
It is not the church that teaches women should not be in the workplace, it’s you.
When I was growing up in rural WA, my dad always wore his “good” jeans to church (Assemblies of God). His work jeans were like the ripped up ones you see at the store–except his had started out whole, had been shredded by work and then patched by my mom. So, for church, he’d wear his “good” jeans (which were immaculate), maybe a sweater, and his cowboy boots (those being his dress shoes). My mom, believe it or not, believed in ironing jeans, which happened every Sunday…This outfit was a big step up from his work clothes, which consisted of: those ripped jeans (filthy when he came home from the woods), wool long underwear during the winter, a logger shirt, perhaps a wool coat, a ballcap (perhaps STIHL?), and logging boots. The latter inevitably had metal spikes in the bottom.
Wow. That’s so wrong.
At the very least I suspect it was middle-class cluelessness rather than malice. In a church where most people worked a 9-5 professional job that made good money, I don’t think it occurred to the pastor that a working man might find a suit to be an expense not in the budget.