RE-HUMANISING WOMEN - ENDING MISOGYNY
10/04/2025
(my script for Thought For The Day on Good Morning Ulster on April 10th 2025...)
I remember an afternoon in a township in South Africa. We had been helping build houses with Habitat For Humanity and the day was done. We were waiting by the bus for our student teams to return from where they had been moving blocks, mixing cement, hammering roof beams…
Suddenly I became aware of a kerfuffle. There was a noise getting louder and then I saw a gang of people pushing and prodding some young men. By the time they got to us, it was very loud, a little out of control. Then the police had arrived.
Earlier in the day one of our team had been approached by some guys with a knife and asked for his sun glasses. This was the community bringing them to justice. The police got the men into a police car, almost to protect them and it was over…
It reminded me of the kerfuffle when religious leaders brought a woman in front of Jesus. There would have been the same tension in the air, noise as they shouted at the woman and Jesus.
She had been caught in the act of adultery. She was due for a stoning. But where was the man? And what would Jesus do? They were trying to catch him out. In fact the woman was maybe used as a pawn in order that they might be able to accuse Jesus and get him crucified.
Jesus wrote on the ground and then asked the ones who were perfect to throw the first stone. He looked up and it was just him and the woman. Jesus who could have cast the stone instead forgives her and send her off to a new and different life.
What Jesus does here is re-humanise a woman de-humanised by her culture. She was so dehumanised that the religious could throw her at a stoning to get Jesus. Jesus saw the woman as precious and fully human.
Since the start of Covid, 25 woman have been killed here in Northern Ireland. If you missed that in the morning haze. 25. And there are so many other types of abuse and discrimination happening to women in this society, even this morning.
Men, aren’t we at the root of this? We have to be better than this. We need to rid ourselves of every form of misogyny in every area of our society. We need to re-humanise every woman that we meet today. Make them equal, safe and set them free.