Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00168)

At 02:23 AM 12/9/96 +0000, Bart Lidofsky wrote:

>Tom Robertson wrote:

>> Bart Lidofsky wrote:

>> >       Annie Besant wrote that all who believe in the Brotherhood of
Humanity
>> >belong in the Theosophical Society, and those who do not believe are
>> >still our brothers (in a genderless sense, of course). Mr. Robertson is
>> >my brother, but I believe that he clearly demonstrates his disagreement
>> >with the 3 Objects, in any of the methods of stating them, in his
>> >message.

>> I fail to see how forming a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of
>> humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color, means
>> that one must consider men and women to be identical.  I would say just the
>> opposite, since masculine and feminine are examples of Yin and Yang, which
>> are literally as different as are night and day.

>	But Yin and Yang are equal, and your writings show an opinion that men
>are superior to women.

You are, at best, confusing the distinction between equal and identical.  If
men and women are equal but not identical, then men must be superior to
women in some ways. That I mentioned some ways in which I thought this was
true, at the same time mentioning as many ways in which I considered women
to be superior to men and explicitly mentioning that I considered them to be
equal overall, makes me wonder what motivates you to so blatantly
mischaracterize what I have written.

I know little of the politics of various Theosophical organizations.  One
member of this list has already branded me as hateful because of my opinions
and because of the particular Theosophical organization to which I belong,
and this is the only guess I have for what motivates you, also.  Who is the
true Theosophist: one who sees differences, but overall equality, between
men and women, and who is willing to discuss it rationally, or one who
rejects other Theosophists as evil because of which organization they belong
to and which honest opinions they have?