Saturday, September 02, 2006

Emperor or Empress?

You may have heard that previously the Japanese government was considering revising the succession laws. Currently the last male born into the royal family was born in 1965. The Crown Prince only has one child, a daughter. But his sister-in-law is pregnant and has not wanted to know the gender of the child ahead of time. Because of this the plan to allow females to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne have been halted.

Source: Reuters

I think it is interesting to look at succession. Many times only males take the throne--at least until there aren't any. This was certainly the case in England until they started having problems and women took to the throne. Elizabeth I was certainly a strong monarch and may have removed many doubts that it was bad to have a woman at the helm of Britain. Catherine the Great certainly didn't brook any detractors while she ruled Russia. Even in modern times Margaret Thatcher has been Prime Minister of Great Britain, and if I recall correctly the current German Prime Minister is a woman.

Of course in these Unenlightened States of America we keep women down and don't let them become president. We are such horrible people aren't we?

I personally don't have a problem with women in power (only as pastors, which the Bible says is not to be done). I just don't want the first female US President to be Hillary. *shudder* *shudder*

~Matt

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