by Joan Chittister, OSB
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace
I’ve got a dance date for you Feb. 14, on Valentine’s Day.
Eve Ensler, actress and author of “The Vagina Monologues,” invites you to join crowds in 177 of the 196 countries of the world who have decided that enough is enough. It is time for those who really believe in the full humanity of their daughters and in the moral integrity of their sons to tell the world they will no longer tolerate violence against women.
Actually, whether you know it or not, your entire life, if you are a woman, has been directed at a moment like this. If you are a man living in a distorted and deformed gender-driven world, you have been looking for something like this to demonstrate your real manhood, your genuine convictions, for a long time now.
So what is it and where did it come from? Well, in a way, it actually came in response to now-former Congressman Todd Akin’s remarks about “legitimate rape” in the last election. Akin, you recall, insisted that in a “legitimate rape,” a woman’s body itself makes pregnancy impossible. The inexcusably ill-informed thinking behind that kind of remark electrified the country…
Very powerful – brings tears to my eyes! I’ll certainly share! Thanks for passing this along and encouraging us to dance for our lives and the lives of others.