Just got from a panel at the U - "Do Organized Religions Suppress Women's Rights?". The panel didn't really work coherently, and there was little common ground to be found, and little discussion on the subject matter. Most everybody simply cited some great equality passages from their scriptures and named fictional important women figures in the religion's history.

Muslim chicks clad in linens head-to-toe boldly claimed Islam does not oppress women's right whatsoever, that's all a thing of the past. You could literary see how submissive and immature these women (girls?) were. Apparently they just don't get it.

The only standouts and perhaps the only true believers there sure enough were two Christian chicks from the "Women of Virtue" organization. Both are converts. Suzi Sunderman is a self-described former lesbian of the butch variety. Juliane Moch was a hardcore bondage fan. They sat at the center, a blond and a brunette, with hair of the same shoulder length, identical style jackets and t-shirts and a hint of being overweight on their bodies. They are the same now, faceless stamps of a cristian identity model.

No big surprise they found what they wanted in Christianity. Jesus was obviously gay, and those trips to the lake with a bunch of dudes look really fishy now that the "Brokeback Mountain" is out. The whole crucifixion is plain hard-core BDSM.

Neither of the "virtual" ladies was able to get the questions read out by the host, and had to write them down first. They've obviously been emotionally disturbed for most of their lives. Still they were bold enough to preach to the perfectly stable audience. Feeling of a superiority so Christian indeed.

The dirty secret they did not know about was that they could not preach to the sane audience. Both tried the standard Christian approach of telling their very own and very personal, though not very original, sin-fast-and-find-Jesus and live-happy-thereafter stories. The story breaks, they cannot find the words and there's no real emotion coming through. That is all because of a dirty little thing - they let a shadow of doubt and criticality into their minds - they actually tried thinking about their faith, if only for a moment. The room is full of people of various religions and of outright atheists. Audience meets them with straight faces and they cannot help but start thinking who are these people and what you can say to convince them. That's the trap right there - they reflect on their own beliefs, and you just don't do that if you want to remain a Christian. Certainly you got to shut down your brains completely if you want to preach.

I'd wish this was a start for the virtual ladies, but I doubt it will, and that's just too bad.