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<DIV><FONT size=2>From: <EM>The Washington Post</EM></FONT></DIV>
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<H1>Religion lays foundation for gender discrimination</H1>
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<P class=posted><STRONG><FONT size=5>Frances Kissling | Apr 13, 2011
6:59 PM</FONT></STRONG></P></DIV>
<P>When women of different faiths who are committed to women’s equality get
together, there is little space between their views. They agree that official,
internal discrimination against women which withholds the most important
leadership roles from them is rampant. At the same time, no institutional
religious leader accepts the premise that he or his denomination seriously
discriminates against women. Heaven forbid! If it were not for religion, women
would not be educated and would have minimal health care. Increasingly religious
leaders speak out publicly against some human rights abuses women experience,
but minimal efforts are made within the congregation to curb violence against
women in the family. </P>
<P>The absence of a commitment to eliminating gender discrimination is most
evident in the denial of opportunities for spiritual or congregational
leadership. Whether it is the persistence of laws and practices that prevent
Muslim women from leading prayers in many mosques or the fact that few women
rabbis are heads of class A synagogues, or even the fact that Tibetan Buddhism,
the branch led by the Dalai Lama has not yet fully ordained a single woman while
Chinese, Korean and other branches of Buddhism have women know we are not equal.
The kind of leadership that actually influences teaching and policy, the top
“jobs”, are still reserved to men. I know this best in my own faith Roman
Catholicism so I will discuss that, but let me be clear gender discrimination is
pervasive within almost all religion. </P>
<P>It was in the mid 1980’s that theologian Dan Maguire and I were on Nightline
discussing the role of women in the Catholic church with then Archbishop John
Foley who was the president of the Pontifical Council of Social Communications.
The archbishop was insisting that the Catholic church did not discriminate
against women. He pointed to great women the church honored; mostly long dead
ones like Mother Frances Cabrini and St. Catherine of Sienna, and, of course,
Mother Teresa. Dan quipped immediately “Why not make Mother Teresa a cardinal if
you value her so much?” Foley was momentarily taken aback, although there was a
hint of a smile. Recovering, Foley noted that “Mother Teresa had not expressed
an interest in such a position.” She was, he implied, an appropriately humble
woman who would not seek such office, in fact she would probably turn it down if
asked.</P>
<P>Now, does anyone seriously think there is a male priest around who would say
“Lord, I am not worthy?” In the 1980’s a sense of entitlement was still the
province of men. I thought things had changed until I read a 2010 interview in
the Washingtonian with<A
href="http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/16580.html"> Fr. Tom
Reese</A>, considered a progressive Jesuit, so progressive, that the Vatican
sought and ultimately got him fired as editor of the Jesuit magazine America.
Reese was asked what issues were off limits in the church but should be
considered. He acknowledged that “a lot of them are in areas that affect
women—birth control, abortion, women priests, married priests. The more educated
a woman becomes, the more alienated she becomes from the church. That’s a recipe
for disaster. The church can be run without men; it cannot be run without
women.” “Wow,” I thought “this is great.” And then the shoe dropped. Reese
explained why women were important. “Women pass on the faith to the next
generation. They teach their kids their prayers, they talk to them about God.
They are interacting with kids all the time. Priests get five minutes on
Sunday.” </P>
<P>Sure, an argument can be made that educating the next generation as parent is
the highest form of contribution to faith. But if that is true, how come so few
male religious leaders choose that role? What Reese seemed unable to link the
fact that most of the issues the church did not wish to discuss – sexuality and
reproduction, women priests and married male and female priests had to do with
the fact that women were not in formal leadership roles. So long as the issues
of intimate human relationships were seen as the province of women and of
culture while the big political issues of war, poverty, migration, violence and
the theological issues such as how we image God and what is expected of us in
the larger world, solutions to the problems of discrimination against women in
both society and the world would elude us. As long as boys and girls watching a
papal visit or attending mass see only men dressed for success and believe only
the boys can grow up to lead women will not be equal. The role the religion
plays in gender discrimination is to lay the foundation for it.</P>
<P class=posted>Frances Kissling | Apr 13, 2011 6:59
PM</P></FONT></DIV>
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