Heroes: June 11

"Why indeed must 'God' be a noun? Why not a verb - the most active and dynamic of all."

"It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God."

I realize that citing Mary Daly as one of my heroes may be offensive to some--often poeple forget the amazing things she has written, said, and done and focus only on the most outrageous things she has written, said, and done.

I had the pleasure of listening to her talk and meeting her after the lecture several years ago. She was quite gentle with the folks in the audiance who heckled her--quite vehemently I might add. I had expected her to "rip him a new one" but that wasn't at all what she did. She treated him with respect, even though he gave her none whatsoever, and took the time to listen to what he said and then said something to the effect of "you don't really care what i say or think, so i won't waste my time arguing with you" and moved on. I was highly impressed.

If it wasn't for Mary Daly's loud voice and courage to speak against the church's stance on women would those of us who are now pastors and preachers be here? She was a large part of the voices which demanded that women have a new role role in the church. She came to believe that there wasn't room in the church for her or other women. Obviously, I don't agree with everything she says but I honor and respect her intelligence, strength and courage to stand for what she believes in.

In addition, her writing is fantastic and she is bitingly funny. I adore how she crafts her own words--I love my copy of the Wickedary--her dictionary of these crafted words. I highly reccomend that you check it out. My favorite paper that I wrote in seminary was a paper that I wrote about Mary Daly. I took the freedom to write as she does and it was the most passionate and fun paper I've ever written.

God bless Mary Daly!

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