The revised Equal Employment Opportunity Law enforced in 1999 prohibits gender discrimination in every stage of working lives starting from classified advertisements, recruitment process, and employment until retirement.
Are there any female Celebrants out there? Anyone seen a woman priest on those glossy ads? ........
Ironically, the popularity of the Christian-style wedding is partly because it represents more emancipation for women. The Shinto wedding headdress for women is to 'hide the horns'.This hat is a 角隠し, tsunokakushi.
(Image from Wikipedia under CCL)
-----------------
Employers cannot discriminate on the basis of gender in either western countries or in Japan. However, there is still debate in certain Christian circles about the issue of the ordination of women in the Church. In that the Japanese wedding chapels try to recruit men exclusively; the industry bears more resemblance to certain Christian groups rather than Western culture. On this understaning it is not accurate to call the Japanese phenomenon as Western-style - it is much more akin to (some) Christian-styles.
---------------------
Job Type: Entertainment jobs
Looking for male foreigners living in Japan to become wedding ministers. Part-time positions available right across Japan.
Earn up to 12,000 per ceremony. Perfect job for English teachers or students.
This ad can be seen here. If in fact jobs are being offered then it is in contravention of Japanese law. Not only is it inaccurate to call it an Entertainment Job, but the gender requirement makes it illegal. It is only appropriate for English teachers or students with the correct visa.
-------
Homosexuality
To the author's knowledge, there is nothing preventing a homosexual couple celebrating a Christian-style wedding in Japan. There are videos which can be seen on YouTube which show a man dressed as a Christian priest conducting a mock wedding for a lesbian couple which attracted a degree of media attention. If Christian-style wedding events are religious events in law, what measures are there to prevent homosexuals from making the error of celebrating a 'wedding' in a Christian context?
------
7 comments:
Hotels and wedding companies are not biased, they really don't even think about gender equality. They only care what the customers want, because they only care about profits. That's what they are in business for - the very reason for their existence. Money. Plain and simple.
If customers wanted female celebrants, there would be female celebrants. But I guess you would object to that because they are not ordained. How many ordained females are there in Japan? Better you research such facts before getting on your high horse about this.
Actually, females are employed quite a lot in the wedding business. Most emcees are female. That's not a gender issue - it's what the customers want. Foreign men are not wanted as emcees, so there aren't any.
One more time, try to get a bit of reality in it into your head, it is NOT a gender issue, it's a business issue.
Quite simple really.
Thank you for your comment. If the whole thing is purely market led you bring up an interesting point: Why do the customers want a male celebrant rather than a female?
If the answer to that question is something like Japanese think "to do it right you need a western man", don't you feel that this myth needs to be challenged? This is very much a gender issue.
As for how many ordained women ministers there are in Japan I have no idea; but I do know that two out of the four ordained pastors within 20 minutes of my home are Japanese women.
You guess that I would object to non-ordained women (or men?) presiding at wedding celebrations. Personally no, I would not object as I have no reason to object.
"To the author's knowledge, there is nothing preventing a homosexual couple celebrating a Christian-style wedding in Japan."
Correct.
God doesn't mind either. I was speaking with Him about it just this morning.
"...what measures are there to prevent homosexuals from making the error of celebrating a 'wedding' in a Christian context?"
Define "error".
Whereas men and women with homosexual tendencies must be respected, behaviour which the Bible condemns cannot be approved by the true Church.
It would be unfortunate if the gay community in Japan adopted the fashion of 'wedding celebrations' in a Christian context without being aware of what the Word of God teaches about such unions.
"Cannot be approved by the true church". That argument fails. If a couple of gays are not members of the "true church" then they are not bound by any laws of the "true church". (What is the "true church" anyway? Christian church? Christ never said anything about gays...)
And what's the "error" I asked about before?
The Word of God condemns many things. It was written quite a while ago. Some things change, some things don't. How many of these passages, written years ago, still apply today?
Deuteronomy 22:13-21 (Stoning a bride to death if she's not a virgin. And nothing about stoning a man to death if he's not a virgin.)
Mark 10:1-12 (Divorce is forbidden)
Leviticus 18:19 (Sex forbidden during a woman's period)
Mark 12:18-27 (If a man dies childless, his widow must have intercourse with his brother. Doesn't say anything about if the brother already has a wife...)
Deuteronomy 25:11-12 (Look it up!)
The list goes on and on.
Today, we understand much more about human reproduction than the ancient Jews. Male semen was considered to contain all the life of a child. The woman, being a lesser mortal, was merely the incubator - they didn't know about the female egg. Therefore male masturbation, withdrawal birth control and yes, gay relations, were lumped together as crimes of preventing the birth of a child - i.e. equivalent to murder.
Saying that something is 'wrong' without really considering things throughly is just showing prejudice for something you don't happen to like.
May I suggest that read this post on the understanding that my compass is the Bible. There are mysteries in the Word, but not the ones you bring up. I am not trying to score points here neither am I interested in discussing homosexuality per se on this site. However:
“If a couple of gays are not members of the "true church" then they are not bound by any laws”
Exactly right: 1Jn 3:4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
"What is the "true church" anyway?"
2Tim 2:19"The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."
"And what's the "error" I asked about before?"
1Cor6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ……….will inherit the kingdom of God.
"How many of these passages, written years ago, still apply today?"
Jn 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Rom 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Rom6:14/15 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Very interesting, but you haven't answered any one of my questions. And as for not discussing homosexuality - well, you brought the subject up in the first place.
You seem to be confused about some pretty basic things.
God is love, and we all have love in our hearts. God has blessed my partner and myself to love each other, just as a husband and wife love each other. God has directed us to share our love with each other.
And you say that's an 'error'?
Post a Comment