Jezebel, Sheba, and Hillary?

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Women are not allowed to become clergy in many conservative religious groups. Is it hypocritical to think that a woman can lead a nation and not a congregation?

On matters of women in the church, it's time to take the lead from women themselves. To date, the lore and history of organized religion, not to mention the career of priest and preacher, has belonged to men. But what do women want? Contradictory ideas can be held at the same time. In politics, most female voters tell pollsters that they are in broad sympathy with feminist goals: equal pay, opportunity at executive jobs, the right to control their own bodies. Yet so-called security moms put Bush over the top in the past two elections, and the unexpected popularity of Sarah Palin suggests that social conservatism, combined with spunk and dedication to one's family, fits the mold of a reformer.

In religion the contradictions are even stronger. The image of women in Christianity grew from Eve: temptress, sinner, fleshly, and disobedient. Yet at the same time the natural role of wives and mothers has always been nurturing and loving. It has taken centuries to unravel the knot that ties women to prejudiced, outworn roles that few want to play today. In the Middle Ages a martyred woman was a saint, now she simply possesses low self-esteem and puts up with abuse. Seduction and temptation lose their sinful connotation once sex becomes mutual between the two sexes and a natural response that deserves no shame or guilt. We tend to regard peace as a feminine quality. Yet conservative devout women, especially in fundamentalist denominations, often turn out to be supporters of the Iraq war and violence against abortion clinics.

It's against this tangled web of values that the question of a woman as president or a woman as clergy exists. From the outside, it may seem a natural step for Episcopalians, traditionally the most liberal of Protestants, to allow women bishops, yet this is one of the chief causes for a bitter rift in the faith. Women priests in the Catholic church, again from the outside, seems like an innocuous reform. But to the Church's hierarchy, it spells a tear in the fabric of tradition and male authority going back to Peter, founder of the faith. Electing a woman to be president is a progressive reform that has been a long time coming. It would strengthen the country and make our democracy more honest -- as it is, women are grossly under-represented in Congress. Women in the clergy is also a much overdue reform, but one can't equate it with politics. In conservative churches, a worldview is at stake, and in that worldview white male dominance has been the rule. Therefore, to a strict conservative, one can't break rules simply to be fair.

I am making these points because the question of women in the clergy seems like a slam dunk; one can hardly imagine why any woman would be against it. Yet we cannot imagine why young Turkish women are fervent about bringing back the veil, or why the burqa should exist in the first place. Culture and tradition are as conflicted and entangled as human nature itself.

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Comments

[Charism]

The Catholic Church was instituted at the Last Supper with Christ and His Apostles. He had a number of women companions as well, all witness to His life, death and resurrection, and the Pentecost, the beginning of the church.

Christ destroyed the power of original sin over our lives.

Men under the bondage of original sin do not respect women and consider them inferior. Women have a far greater vulnerability to abuse. The prisons and most violent crimes are committed by men, the pogroms, the annihilations of peoples and countries.

Two thirds of Christianity was lost by force by Islam. In India right now, the Untouchables are becoming Christians because it recognizes the basic dignity of their humanity. They are undergoing great persecution at present.

It is not the the church fathers in themselves but the Holy Spirit working through them. Woman is the protected gender.

The church is teacher and guide. What people want for leadership in their countries is up to them.

Alot of people have a very surface understanding of Christianity and do not realize the depth of fractures. The United States has the most splintered Christianity in the world, home to thousands of sects claiming to be the right one because of individuality and not understanding through reason and history the nature and mission of church as well as the limits of human leadership and institution.

[Dave24]

You say: It has taken centuries to unravel the knot that ties women to prejudiced, outworn roles that few want to play today.

Hopefully everyone can unravel the knot that ties the majority of the global community to prejudiced, outworn narratives that seek mental control by placing a single filter over the entirety of the universe and life - known as scripture.

"God" is an idea. It's an idea. That's all it is. People can have profound experiences, this is true - but giving credit to some unknowable, intangible thing is irrational and just plain stupid. If something is intangible and unknowable (like God is often described), how do you know it's there not to be known?

We need to see reality, not pretend to see it through fictitious literature.

[Triangle1]

From what I've seen, every woman who has come close to a real power position is immediately destroyed by the media. I always wondered how humanity could have "propagated" with just Adam and Eve. Did their children have incestuous relationships? Were their grandchildren all cousins and brothers and sisters at the same time? http://mespace.wordpress.com

[nerakami]

It is the fear of individuality... separating oneself from the crowd. It is easier to be a part of the pack mentality than it is to be the rebel or the champion of being true to oneself.

[GrainOSand]

The right analysis at the right time. Hypocrisy is at the heart of many of the ills of the world.