[Vision2020] Idaho’s religious extremists perpetuate control of women

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman with thanks to a friend and fellow Viz subscriber that still isn't Betsy Russell.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/03/24/2048302/idahos-religious-extremists-perpetuate.html
 
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Dan Fink: Idaho’s religious extremists perpetuate control of women
It is an unfortunate truth that religious extremism and misogyny go hand in hand.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently pointed to this insidious link, both overseas and here at home. She noted that religious zealots seek male mastery: “It doesn’t matter what country they’re in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress, they want to control how we act, they even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies.”

Religion’s excesses and abuses transcend boundaries of class and creed. In places such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, radical Islam marginalizes women by, essentially, banishing them from public life. A growing ultra-Orthodox Jewish population in Israel has the same goal, heaping abuse on secular Israeli women and derogating them to the back of the bus on public lines passing through their neo-medieval enclaves.

Closer to home, the situation is less dire but still deeply troubling for those of us who seek equality for women. Male Republican presidential candidates appeal to their evangelical base by condemning birth control as sinful, thereby denying women (and their partners) even the most basic reproductive rights. When a brave Georgetown University law student dared to speak out for those reproductive rights, the unofficial mouthpiece of the Republican right, Rush Limbaugh, called her a slut.

Here in Idaho, too, religious extremists wage war on women. Our selectively libertarian Republican legislators and governor loathe the interference of the federal government in their affairs — and yet they have no compunction whatsoever when it comes to their own unwelcome intrusion into the lives of Idaho women. These so-called advocates of freedom who rail against President Obama’s health care legislation would require an invasive and unnecessary ultrasound procedure for any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy in our state.

As Gail Collins wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed: “Just try to envision yourself in a doctor’s office for a consult. Then imagine you’re joined by a state legislator. How many of you think the situation has been improved? Can I see a show of hands? Thought so.”

By catering to the misogyny of our own religious extremists, our lawmakers have exposed their libertarian rhetoric to be nothing more than a thinly veiled rationale for male privilege.

Yet religion need not be archaic and misogynistic.

Today, I am proud to say, most of the rabbis being ordained in my Reform Jewish movement are women — and feminists. Progressive streams of Christianity and Islam have an important role to play in the fight for women’s rights here in America and around the world. Although much of the Bible reflects a patriarchal past, which has been exploited and distorted by men seeking power over women, Torah begins with a radical statement of gender equity. In the opening chapter of Genesis, the first version of the Creation, God creates humanity—male and female alike—in the Divine Image.

True religious commitment to this core teaching requires that we grant to women all of the privileges that have too often been reserved by and for men.

Dan Fink is the rabbi for the Ahavath Beth Israel congregation.

The Idaho Statesman’s weekly faith column features a rotation of writers from many different faiths and perspectives.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown


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