by Paula Pacey
the Carillon

Luther College, with the financial aid of Lutheran Life Insurance, invited Professor Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen to speak at the twenty-fourth Luther Lecture.

It was attended by over 500 students and members of the community on Thursday, September 30th.

Van Leeuwan¹s topic was Faith, Feminism and Family in an Age of Globalization.

As social psychologist and philosopher, Leeuwan has some impressive credentials.

She first became interested in globalization and especially in the effects of colonization and modernity on the two-thirds world while completing her doctorate.

Her work often calls for a balance between diversity of opinion and agreement seeing men and women as ³neighbouring sexes² instead of opposite.

Though the talk was presented in a moderate way, it dealt with controversial issues such as sexism and diversity in family lives.

It brought up very controversial ideas and claims. At one point, Van Leeuwan talked about how homosexual families are more open to disaster. For the most part, the crowd was not appreciative of her views.

Van Leeuwen also discussed how men and women should not be at odds with each other and that they should work together for the sake of humanity.

She also talked about how today¹s men should not be blamed for the society which once had left women at home barefoot and pregnant.

Today, many men value women as no less a member of society as themselves. Women hold the same jobs as men and are beginning to get the same rate of pay, said Van Leeuwan.

She discussed the history of sexist views and talked about how sexism began to grow with the Industrial Revolution of the mid 1800¹s. Men worked in urban factories, distanced from their families. Their priority was to bring home the money, leaving the wife as the homemaker, unpaid and unvalued.

Stewart Van Leeuwen also noted how many marriages end in divorce today.

³Marriage is just a contract to fulfill personal desires,² says Van Leeuwen.

According to Van Leeuwan, ideals of marriage have been changed, as same sex marriages and common law living are now options of uniting. She stands opposed to gay / lesbian marriages and feels that children raised in these settings are scarred.

Lack of either sex as a role model in the family would minimize a child¹s social boundaries by having homosexual parents. Yet single parent families, as well as all girls schools have the same type of mono-gender environment and they are not called upon as being ³wrong². These ³domestic partnerships², including homosexual and heterosexual cohabitation relationships, are open to abuse financially and emotionally, according to Van Leeuwan.

Tanya Birkbeck, a Journalism student and a mother, found fault with Van Leeuwen¹s talk.

³I¹m perfectly content with the cohabitational relationship I¹m in... I do not see a difference between this and marriage!² said Birkbeck.

One frustrated first year Religious Studies Student said, ³She used too many big words. It was meant for scholarly people².

Not everyone agreed with Van Leeuwan¹s views on religion and sexuality. But one thing everyone could agree on was the need to make family life better, and though there is disagreement on both sides as to the means, the ends are similar.