Rebellious Tears: A Feminist Christology

Rebellious Tears: A Feminist Christology

Violence against women has been there for a long time, what wobbles us all are the various and diverse ways of how these violent activities are carried out against women. The violence against women is not only physical, but also psychological which represses the integrity of a woman. The traditions we embrace and the faith we follow have made us slaves to the ancient ideologies by negating our reason to think. Gender discrimination in the name of purity and pollution has made us blind towards women’s power and perfection.

A Case study
Kovillor[1] is one of the three villages in the Vattavada Grama Panchayat. Lakshmi[2] was born and brought up in this village and she is now 24 years of age. She stays with her parents in a small house; she has one son by the name Shetrian who is 8years old. Shetrian has regular fits from the age of 2 and he is still suffering with it. In our personal encounter with Shetrian we found that apart from fits, he is also mentally imbalanced. Going deeper into the details about the problem of Lakshmi many mind boggling realities came up. In the initial discussion we were told that the husband of Lakshmi died when Shetrian was in the womb and because of this grief Lakshmi’s son is affected by fits. But later when we started enquiring about her, we came to know that Lakshmi became pregnant before marriage at the age of 15 immediately after her first menstruation, by which time, according to her, the father of child had already died. But in reality the man who was responsible for her pregnancy is still alive; he left her when he came to know that she was a pregnant and now this man is married to another woman.[3]
When this case was reported to the Panchyat, an enquiry was held, and the man accepted that the child is his only. Within a couple of days, even before the matter was not fully settled, he fled away from the village. After this the Panchayat asked Lakshmi to go and stay in the house of the man, who fled, but she denied. There was pressure from her parents to abort the child so that they can get her married as soon as possible.[4] But Lakshmi did not agree to this proposal, instead she went ahead with her pregnancy and gave birth to Shetrian.
Under the Child Survival Program (CSP) of the Marthoma church, the child was taken to Trivandrum Medical College for a medical checkup.[5] There the doctors suggested some medicine and asked them to come for regular checkups every six months. But now they have no finances to continue the medicine and visit the doctor again. Now Lakshmi is a single parent taking care of her child, staying in a rented house with her parents. She used to work as a daily wage laborer and in the past year has spent Rs. 20,000 on the treatment of her child, which they have taken for interest. Due to the fear that her child may get the attack of fits, she rarely goes for work, only her parents work regularly. As a result the financial constrain on the family is ever-growing. During our interaction with Lakshmi, she said that the only thing she wants from God is the good heath of her child and the day he gets healed will be the happiest day of her life.
Case Analysis
Social Conditions:
The societal setup of Koviloor has been a significant contributor to the situation of Lakshmi. She finds it difficult to cope up with the societal framework where women are always expected to live in the shadow of Men as a result everybody looks at her with sympathetic eyes, and also because of the improper co-ordination of the village heads, the man had enough time to flee away from the village. The people who were involved in resolving the issue are of no help to her now.[6] They people look down upon at her as she is not staying with her “husband” and that her child is not medically fit.
Apart from this, sometimes girls of very young age have been found to be pregnant. In order to avoid this pregnancy the people use natural medicine without going to proper hospitals or clinics. Lakshmi in the same way was pressurized by her parents to abort the child, but she did not heed to their pressure. She went head with her pregnancy and gave birth to a boy.

Economical Conditions:
The money lenders also are the agents of exploitation for this woman. She has taken an amount of Rs. 20,000 for an expounding interest of Rs 20 per 100. The people of this village do not save their money in banks; they basically lend the money for high interest and try to increase their capital. She also rarely works as a daily wage laborer in the fields for which she gets an amount of rupees fifty per day, which by all means is very less. In this village the time of working of men and women are almost the same but there is a massive gap between the wages of the both. If a man gets 150 per day a woman will get only 60-75 a day[7]. Apart from this the amount of money she spent on the child for the regular medical needs is also very high. They were four people living is a small hut and they got it on lease for three years by paying an amount of Rs 3000.

Legal
The legal system in Koviloor is very interesting and innovative. This village comes under Vattavada panchayat, which is termed as the case less Panchayat in India. This village does not have a police station; they have a village court with five men as its head. When we enquired about Lakshmi’s case, one of the Panchyat head told us that this case was not reported to the police but was brought to the village panchayat. The man accepted in the Panchyat that he is the father of the child of Kamleshwari. When the man fled from the place the Panchayat heads asked Kamleshwari to occupy the house of the man and live there as his wife but she did not agree to it. Later the panchayat heads told that as the man had left the place they can’t do anything[8]. As a result she had to stay in her own house. Women don’t have any space to approach the panchayat and they are not allowed to the panchayat proceedings, all their arguments will be collected before hand from their houses and will be presented by the one of the panchayat members later the decisions will be made known to them.

Caste System:
Caste is a deeply rooted issue in this village and the way the village is stratified depicts this. In the Scheduled Caste class division there are 4 caste people namely Paraiyan, Chakkiliyar, Pallan, and Valluvan. Those who are included in the OBC community are Aasariyar community, Maravar- Saervai- Devar community, Vellalar community, Telugu- Chetitar community Barber community, Nadar community, Muthaliyar community and Muslim and Christian community people. Only the Chakkiliyar community people are living in the colonies and the other community people in their own houses in the village[9]. The Chakkiliyar community people do not have the right to take water from the common tap, so they have to go to separate places to get water. Another thing is that the other community people do not take part in the Chakkiliyar community’s functions or festivals. But this community people will play music instruments in other community programmes and festivals[10]. Kamleshawari belongs to the Maraver caste and the man belongs to Manadiyar which is considered lower to Maraver. This made the family of Lakshmi not to accept their marriage in the first place and in the mean time that man absconded.

Christological Perspective

Human experiences are both the starting point and the ending point of the circle of interpretation[11], herefore Experiences of women are crucial for feminist theologizing. Violence against women has been continuing by various oppressive structures. Here I would like to posit some important questions in front of us, how can Christology from a feminist perspective challenge our faith, what are the implications of this Christology for the church?
In the search for elements of a Christology that would liberate women, feminist theologians strike gold in Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection. Jesus’ proclamation of justice for all, including women, Jesus’ treating of women with grace and respect and restoration of their identity in the Gospels.[12] Therefore, let us construct a Christology in the light of feminist liberation, a Christology that is contextual meeting the needs and the aspirations of suffering women.
For evolving a relevant and contextual Christology[13] I would like to analyze the case along with two biblical passages. Luke 7:36-50 and John 11: 28-44. Let us analyze the Biblical narratives and the case one by one. In the case of Lakshmi’s tears are the central characteristic of her life. Tears were there when she was narrating her experience. She must have been in tears when the father of child had left her and went away to marry another women. She must have been in tears when the Panchayat was not able to solve the case. She must have been in tears when she was asked to abort the child by her parents. She was in tears when she was narrating about the plight of her child. Her tears narrated to us that how much she loved her son and how desperately she wanted to see him medically fit. Her tears were the sign of submission in a patriarchal world, her tears were the sign of suffering she had gone through, her tears were the sign of her oppressed state, and her tears were the sign of her willingness to be liberated from her exploited state. It was her tears that made Lakshmi to rebel against the existing subordinating structure and go ahead with her life and give birth to her child.
In the light of the suffering of Lakshmi this Lukan narrative Luke 7: 36-50 is of great significance for us as it touches on the relationship between the Christological motivation and a women’s action that is forgiveness of sin and recognizing her service.[14] As far as the women is concerned, the characteristics are gender specific in such a way that they neither weaken nor lighten the gender dimension, but heighten and strengthen it, the women not only failed to fulfill the demands of Pharisees, but was well known as local whore.[15] Luke names the man a Pharisee therefore clearly he is a well respected man who had invited Jesus. Therefore this gender dimension sets its step on the whole story. Jesus had no choice but to protect herself from being touched by her, but Jesus allows himself to be touched by her. She weeps and her tears wash the feet of Jesus and dries his feet with her hair further she anoints Jesus with the ointment. Later Jesus responds to the women and indicates that she shares in salvation.
In the narrative of John we come across two emotions of Jesus, being disturbed in spirit and that of Jesus weeping. Now how should we look upon the anger and tears of Jesus? “Jesus was angry because despite the testimony of the Bible, despite the signs of Jesus wrought among them, which all bore witness to the life of the divine sovereignty that had come into the world through him, and despite the word that he proclaimed, with its emphasis on the promise of life now and hereafter, they mourned, like the rest of people.”[16] It was this unbelief of the people in the presence of him who is the “Resurrection and the Life” (John 11- 17-25) that made Jesus angry. His tears may have been through the grief for Lazarus: his illness and death. It is also possible that the tears were motivated by the unbelief that caused him anger. It is, however, perhaps more likely that they were brought about by the sight of the havoc wrought among people through sin and death in this world. It would be harmonious with what we know of Jesus in this Gospel if anger by reason of unbelief was balanced by grief over the tragedy of the human situation, from which not even the people of God can extricate them.[17]

Let us concentrate on the elements of Christology; what is common in the three narratives is that the central characters of these three narratives ‘wept’ [18] in their situation of hopelessness. Jesus allowed his tears to mingle with that of Mary and Martha when they lost their brother Lazarus.[19] The tears of Jesus were dynamic as it led him into a liberative action, liberation from death. What followed was a life affirming exertion. After weeping Jesus advanced to his tomb to call him out of it.
In the Lukan narrative Jesus did not weep himself but he allowed the tears of the sinful women to mingle with his feet/body. The tears of the woman were the expression of how much she had suffered; as a result he intermingled with the suffering of the women. Her kissing of Jesus’ feet, drying the feet of Jesus with her hair and anointing with ointment, were the signs of her willingness to be liberated from her bondage. Jesus certainly valued her tears and what followed these tears was again a life affirming exertion. The tears of the sinful woman led Jesus into a liberative action. The woman is recognized as an example of faith which is established through the reversal of status between the sinful women and Simon the Pharisee.[20] Tears rather being the symbol of submission became the symbol of liberation.
Tears in patriarchal society are associated with women as they are looked upon as more emotional than men, but the tears here are associated with Jesus. The tears in both the narratives were very unique. In both these narratives tears are rebellious in nature. They were rebellious against the subordinating structures of the society. They were rebellious to what was life-negating; they were rebellious against hegemonic agencies of oppression. There is a need to re formulate the notion of tears being a sign of suffering. Jesus certainly rose above this stereotypical of tears. We should ascend from the stereotypical of tears as a sign of sorrow and suffering. Tears should be seen as agents of rebellion. Jesus valued the importance of tears. It was the tears that drove him for a liberative action. Therefore tears are not passive in resistance they are active as it takes resistance to step further to liberation.
In order to respond to the wants and aspirations of women the church has a greater task at its hand. It needs to identify the tearful Jesus who was rebellious against the subordinating structures of society and who affirmed the dignity of women and restored equal status to them with men. The church has to recognize itself with the tears of women such as Lakshmi which are the consequences of the diverse atrocities carried out on them. In doing so the church will become a part of their suffering and it will become imperative for the church to work for their liberation and see the weeping Jesus as the liberator. Thus the tears which are looked upon as signs of sorrow and suffering in a patriarchal society will be transformed into agents leading to liberation. The tears that are associated with women are associated with Jesus now; as a result the life and ministry of Jesus will become central for women liberation.
In feminist Christology what we need is not the negation of the old but a better reformed and relevant Christology in context. The task of New Testament Christology is hermeneutical key to see Christos.[21] Feminist Christology discovers Jesus as a liberator specifically with regard to the suffering of women. He brings salvation through his life, re-establishing women to full personal dignity in the reign of God, and inspiring their liberation from structures of domination and subordination. This is a challenging Christology, as is every form of liberation theology. It aims at throwing away oppressive structures for the community of equals.

Bibliography
Russell, Letty M. ed. Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985.
· Seim, Turid Karlsen, The Double Message: Patterns of Gender in Luke and Acts (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.
Lalpekhlua, L. H. Contextual Christology: A Tribal Perspective. ISPCK: Delhi, 2007.
Evangeline Anderson Rajkumar, “Politicising the Body: A feminist Christology,” Asian Journal of Theology. . April 2004.
Beasley George R., Murray. Word Biblical Commentry: John Vol. 36. USA: Word Book Publishers, 1987.
Webliography
http://www.cta-usa.org/wicl/00femchrist.html.
Interviews:
ü Interview with the health worker of child survival program Shanthamma on 6th September 2007
ü Interview with the village Panchayat head, Mr. Periyadanam on 6th September 2007
ü Interview with the manager of Child Survival Program Mr. Iscaria on 8th September 2007
ü Interview with Mrs. Mercy teacher on 10th September 2007
ü Interview with Anndavan a farmer on 13th September 2007
ü Interview with Mr.Mani belonging to the Chakkiliyar community on 5th September



[1] It is located in Kerela and falls under the jurisdiction of Idukki District
[2] The name has been changed due to security reasons
[3] Interview with the health worker of child survival program Shanthamma on 6th September 2007
[4] Interview with the village Panchayat head, Mr. Periyadanam on 6th September 2007
[5] Interview with the manager of Child Survival Program Mr. Iscaria on 8th September 2007
[6] Interview with Mrs. Mercy teacher on 10th September 2007
[7] Interview with Anndavan a farmer on 13th September 2007
[8] Interview with the village Panchayat head, Mr. Periyadanam on 6th September 2007
[9] A small booklet of report on Vattavada Gram Panchayat.
[10] Interview with Mr.Mani belonging to the Chakkiliyar community on 5th September
[11] Letty M. Russell, ed., Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985), 111.
[12] http://www.cta-usa.org/wicl/00femchrist.html. 12-10-2006 , 9:00 Pm
[13] L. H. Lalpekhlua, Contextual Christology: A Tribal Perspective (ISPCK: Delhi, 2007), 3-6. Points out that the need of contextual Christology arises mainly due to failure of existing Christology to meet the needs and the aspirations within the local culture, the failure to respond the suffering of the local people. Therefore for a feminist Christology the sufferings of women and the liberation of women plays an important role, and how the image of Jesus will help us to fight against the injustices done on women.
[14] Turid Karlsen Seim, The Double Message: Patterns of Gender in Luke and Acts (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 89.
[15] Turid Karlsen Seim, The Double Message…, 90.
[16] George R. Beasley-Murray, Word Biblical Commentry: John Vol. 36 (USA: Word Book Publishers, 1987), 193.
[17] George R. Beasley-Murray, Word Biblical Commentry…, 194.
[18] Kamaleshwari, Sinful women and Jesus.
[19] Evangeline Anderson Rajkumar, “Politicising the Body: A Feminist Christology” Asia Journal of Theology (April 2004): 105.
[20] Turid Karlsen Seim, The Double Message…, 91.
[21] This definition of Christology was given by Dr. David Joy in a class lecture on the task of New Testament Christology at United Theological College