Shuck and Jive


Friday, March 30, 2007

Sometimes I wish I was a RevGal

Do you notice the difference between clergy boy bloggers and clergy girl bloggers? There really is a difference. The clergy boy bloggers are like snarling packs of wild dogs verbally ripping at each other's throats. In contrast, the clergy girl bloggers talk about practical, helpful things. They blog about life as a whole, rather than useless theological or political abstractions (like I post about). Even though they may differ politically or theologically, they bond. Take for instance, the Friday Five thing they have going. They learn about each other and they actually become friends. It's fun! Of course, I don't really know how fun it is. I just see them having fun.

I have to say I have RevGal envy. I don't envy everything. I don't envy lower than average salaries than the clergy boys, or the difficulty getting ordained into the clergy boy's club, or the glass ceilings which makes it really tough getting head of staff positions in the tall steeple churches, or the sexual politics in the church. That is a lot not to envy.

But I do envy the community the revgals have. I envy the cooperative, collegial spirit. The clergy girls are changing the church for the better. I wish there were more clergy girls in our presbytery (we only have 4 or 5, I reckon). But the few we do have are great. They make the clergy boys behave better, I think.

Recently, I snuck over to the girls' side and posted a comment on a clergy girl's blog. It was not unlike hanging out with my wife and her sisters, crashing a bridal shower, or walking into the Presbyterian Women's meeting. It was a little awkward, but I posted anyway. I thanked her for a real funny post about magnets.






I admit, this isn't quite as funny when I post it. If I were a revgal I could give myself to Jesus without feeling, you know, different.















As a clergy boy, I have to post something like this:







Signed,
Clergy Boy (sigh)

5 comments:

  1. Gosh! What a relief to hear I'm not the only one with RevGal envy. My wife IS a RevGal, and they have so much fun while my blogging is just drudgery in comparison.

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  2. Hmmm. This reminds me of two things:

    a book I'm still working on reading and blogging about "Why men hate church" and a Pew Internet Study that's been in my in-box for a while called "How men and women use the Internet: women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. Men like the internet for the experience it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes."

    I find most of the guys that I know that blog do it to impart information. Or to play with HTML. To review music. Most women I know that blog do it to share books they read, or recipes, or photos (mainly of their homess and/or children).

    SL, not a RevGal but a woman-blogger.

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  3. Hi SL,

    Thanks for visiting the boys' side. : ) There very well be something to what you are reading. On one hand I don't like to say too much about gender differences as it can degenerate into stereotypes pretty quickly, yet on the other hand, gender does seem to be a factor in how we use the computer or participate in the workplace.



    Hi Brett,

    RevGal Envy. It could be a psychological diagnostic term for clergy boys!

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  4. When you put it this way I definitely think there is something to envy. Great sense of humor, John!

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  5. Thanks Aric!

    Welcome!

    Aric is another great SFTS student! I like those folks who come out of SFTS. My partner in crime at my previous congregation, Jay Wallace, was an SFTS clergy boy.

    Check out Aric's blog, y'all. Click his name, you will get there.

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