Greeley: Jesus Would Be a Feminist, by Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star, March 10, 2007

Greeley: Jesus Would Be a Feminist

By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
March 10, 2007

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/faith/172899

It's a notion that's earning journalist, best-selling author and Catholic priest Andrew M. Greeley even more attention of late: If Jesus were alive today, he'd be a radical feminist.

So does that mean Jesus would be donating money to Planned Parenthood and working to break the proverbial glass ceiling in corporate America?

"No, that's not what it means. It means that he would endorse the complete equality of women," Greeley wrote in an e-mail. "But since I'm not his press spokesman, I can't say where he would stand on issues that did not exist in his day."

At his home, Rev. Andrew Greeley discusses his book, which says "Jesus was not sexless; he was not a eunuch."
Photo by A.E. Araiza / arizona daily star

The part-time Tucsonan spoke about Jesus as a feminist during an interview with NBC. He's been sought after by the national media recently to talk about his latest book, titled "Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and His Relationships with Women." On Sunday, Greeley will speak about the book at the East Side Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church — the parish he attends when he's in Tucson.

The book is garnering attention for presenting Jesus as a man who promoted equality between the sexes. And no doubt Jesus was sexually magnetic to women like Mary Magdalene, Johanna and Susanna, who are described in the Gospel of Luke as traveling with Jesus and the male apostles, Greeley says.

"He was the kind of man on whom women could easily form what we today call crushes," Greeley writes in the book. "He did not demean them or talk down to them or keep them in their place — whatever that place might be."

"The Jesus we have shaped to fit our ideas, our needs, our fears, may be a very interesting and special person, but he's no longer Jesus."

Andrew M. Greeley, priest and author

Book review

Coming Sunday

To Learn More

• The Rev. Andrew M. Greeley is scheduled to speak about his new book, "Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and His Relationships with Women," at 2 p.m. Sunday at Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, 1800 S. Kolb Road. Admission is $4. A limited number of books will be available for purchase.

&bull Greeley also is scheduled to attend a book-signing event March 17 at Borders at Park Place, 5870 E. Broadway, at 2 p.m.

Greeley says Jesus was likely attracted to women, too.

"Jesus was not sexless; he was not a eunuch. He had the same hormones as do all male humans," he writes in the book. "All we can demand of Jesus because of who and what he was would be that he never exploit a woman or a woman's love. Jesus indeed had hormones, but because he was who he was, he focused his sexual energies on the task of announcing the kingdom of God."

But Greeley debunks the notion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married, an idea promoted in Dan Brown's best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code."

"Jesus, we must assume, must have sent unmistakable signals — a mixture perhaps of affection and dignity — to women that while he liked women, indeed delighted in them, he had other concerns in his life," he writes.

The book reflects the "deep awe and wonder at the elusiveness and mystery of Jesus," said Monsignor Thomas Cahalane of Our Mother of Sorrows.

"It's an easy read and not an obscure theological treatise," he said. "What's interesting are his insights and applications from the parables of Jesus. It's presented in a popular way."

The presentation is consistent with Greeley's reputation for questioning the status quo.

"The Jesus we have shaped to fit our ideas, our needs, our fears, may be a very interesting and special person, but he's no longer Jesus," Greeley writes in the introduction to his book.

On a side note, the book compares Galilee — the northern part of Palestine, which Isaiah called a land of foreigners — to Tombstone.

"It would appear that Galilee was relatively peaceful, though still restless, in the time of Jesus. It was a border country with a mix of religions and ethnic groups in their own enclaves," he writes. "Sometimes the Arizonan in me inclines me to offer Tombstone as a contemporary metaphor, though Capernaum, a prosperous fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, was not as dangerous as Tombstone was in the era of the Earps and the Clantons."

• Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com.