PART ONE:

Fallacy number one:

Women in the world such as Angela Merkel and Oprah Winfrey inspire millions of women everywhere so that they may do what is best to actively help the world.

This is a non sequitur because I am implying that what Angela Merkel and Oprah Winfrey do has correlation with how the Catholic Church is run. I plan on constructing an entirely new sentence to begin this paragraph.

Fallacy number two:

Women are taking on far more responsibilities within their communities, and these skills of managing these important tasks prove them as an excellent candidate for helping the Roman Catholic Church in their time of need.

This is a false analogy. I’m assuming that because they do well with community responsibilities that they’ll be useful to the church. Again i will probably reconstruct the paragraph so that the fallacy will be removed. Perhaps I will create a new focus within that paragraph so that such a statement is supported by evidence within the church.

PART TWO:

There are many graphs on the trend in priesthood that I can put on the poster board, but I would also like to show images of the Catholic Church in general. So I may put statistical and graphical information on the sides and in the middle express the hardship and hope of the church with images and (using my three hundred words) quotes from those who are knowledgeable in the crisis. I also may have a chart of the things Dean Hoge wrote to help change the numbers in the priesthood amongst the images.

The presentation helped me realize how little I truly know about the topic. I know that women are restricted from being clergy, but I’ve never listened to any sort of validation for it. Granted, the one I usually got was “It’s just that way.” I’m very excited to see if there is possibility for change within the Catholic Church as it becomes a far larger religion across the country. It also helped me come up with an order for the paper to flow in, with information at the forefront and arguments following.

The questions afterwards made me validate that this topic is an important issue. I’m also going to work on focusing the exact wording of my question so that my topic becomes easier to understand. With the pointers I received from the questions asked, my topic has become narrower and far easier to execute.

1.An Ad Hoc Committee Of The Canon Law Society Of America., . The Canonical Implications Of Ordaining Women To The Permanent Diaconate: Report Of An Ad Hoc Committee Of The Canon Law Society Of America. Washington DC: Canon Law Society of America, 1995. Print.

2.Ferder, Fran. Called To Break Bread?: A Psychological Investigation Of 100 Women Who Feel Called To Priesthood In The Catholic Church . Mt. Rainier, MD: Quixote Center, 1978. Print.

3. Padgett, Tim. “Robes for Women.” Time . 27 Sep 2010: 53-55. Print.

4.Sentilles, Sarah. A Church of Her Own: What Happens When a Woman Takes the Pulpit. 1st ed. United States of America: Harcourt Books, 2008. Print.

5.The Committee On Doctrine Of The National Conference Of Catholic Bishops.,.10 Frequently Asked Questions About The Reservation Of Priestly Ordination To Men : A Pastoral Response. Washington DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1998. Print.

Although all of these sources prove invaluable to my research, I think it is very important to show both sides of the story. I will obtain many sources dedicated to showing the female’s perspective on their inability to be acknowledged priests of the Vatican, but 10 Frequently Asked Questions About The Reservation Of Priestly Ordination To Men : A Pastoral Response will be very useful since it is written by Bishops within the Catholic Church. After all, this is not a persuasive exercise but one of research (even though I would love to make many arguments about this topic). That book in particular will assist me in keeping my paper unbiased and a reliable research source.

In Stallybrass’s quote, he is really discussing exactly what research should be. Research is about learning about a topic and expanding upon it. You are not researching if you are relying on your own thoughts, but making a hypothesis. To truly understand a topic, you must read and learn as much as you can about it before making your own assumptions (educated assumptions, mind you) about it. To this research project, it speaks to how we must know our topic as much as we can before formulating opinions on our subjects. He also goes further to state that we are unable to think something about a topic unless we learn about it, because the ability to think about it means we must know something about the subject. Research is not truly about originality, but learning something someone else already may know and applying it to your own life.

• I am interested in researching the role of women in religious practice. I will focus specifically on Christianity, Paganism, and Islam.
• because I want to find out what the expectations of women in religion are in contrast to men. This includes how punishment is varied in men and women for the same crimes; the level of status women can attain within their religion; and the freedom (or lack thereof) that women possess as members of their religion.
• and this is important because of  religion’s heavy impact on society, and the treatment of women within their religion greatly impacts society’s treatment of them.

1. Which religion of the three allot the most power to women? Which of these the least? Why (for both questions)?

2. In a modern world where women are now of nearly equal status of men by way of social hierarchy, why are religious views not modernized to fit that equality?

3. ( A skeptical teacher question) Are you focusing on only America or the entire world? In the same vein, are you focusing on only one branch of each of the religions mentioned or are you making a general analysis of all three?

Whenever there are catastrophic disasters in any country, two things happen. An official story, or what some refer to as a “cover story,” goes out to the people who are not directly involved with the situation. Reassurances of everything being alright or even of justice being served will spew out of the government sources so that citizens do not feel totally alarmed. When it came to the bombing in Hiroshima, however, many still believed that the bombing was utterly wrong and caused nothing but havoc, destruction, and pain. So when a museum is faced with the desire to display our history, it has to choose one of three directions. According to the articles provided, many of the veterans believed that with this exhibit people would be further vindicated to judge those who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the exhibit finally came up, going by the pictures from the museum’s website, it was more contextual than in situ. After all, to display what it was truly like bombing Japan would probably lead to far more negative feelings against those who were given the task of performing the mission. Many historians and veterans were still upset with the exhibit, and it came down not too long after being put up. Sometimes, even museums–who attempt to show the true course of history–show too much bias to allow everyone to feel at peace with their exhibits. If they were meaning to shock, job well done.

Soy Health Benefits

For those who are vegetarian and vegan, soy has been a god-send. In the health food industry, soy has been found in almost everything: soy milk, tofu, and fake-meat products. There are great qualities of the bean. They help in matters of the cardiac system, menopausal symptoms, and osteoporosis. There is also other evidence in it helping with pancreatic and breast cancers. After the hippie age, companies and big-business has found the product was an interest for their consumers that they began exporting the product heavily.

However, there is research to counter these claims of health. There are an array of “anti-nutrients” in soy that actually cause distress within the body. Also, there is a property in soy that causes red-blood cells to clump together (haemagglutinin). Animals have been observed to avoid soy entirely when encountered with it. The critters that were exposed to soy had cases of calcium and other minerals being sucked out of the body, as well as different kinds of cancers. So be careful in choosing your “health-foods.”

Many of the points for and against soy are based on only speculation and assumptions of future consequences. I do think that there are positive results of intaking soy, but to replace your entire diet with soy products is a dangerous thing to attempt. After all, a balanced diet is key to true health.

Letter to Henry Clay

As the title may reveal, “Letter to Henry Clay” is a letter printed in The North Star on December 3, 1847. It addresses, and criticizes, many of the points made in a speech given by Henry Clay at the Mass Meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, November thirteenth of the same year. All of the data about its printing is clearly labelled at the top of the letter.

The purpose of this letter is quite clear: to debunk Mr. Clay’s arguments about slavery. Douglass takes nearly every argument made by Clay and states clearly, and not without some heat, why each point is immoral, unethical, and contradictory.

With the arguments made by Douglass, it is obvious how he feels about slavery from a personal and worldly view. Slavery affects him still, even as a free man of the north, so the assumptions made my Clay are argued with a sharp tongue. It is a matter close to his heart and he will go the limit of blatantly insulting the other’s validity to prove his points.

I am filled with questions about how Fredrick Douglass can tolerate having so much bitterness and anguish towards the man he writes to. Were there other men that he successfully debunked with such detail and skill? Was this what he did from day to day, or was the speech made by Henry Clay so revolting that he no choice but write to him? The amount of material he has written on the matter shows that not only Henry Clay evoked this reaction, but how one man can tolerate being spiteful towards so many people leads one to wonder how Fredrick Douglass coped.