by Skald
Women cannot be officially ordained in Thai Buddhism. Only male monks are recognized as "legitimate".
In the Christian catholic church, women cannot be priests or bishops... and a woman certainly could not be the Pope. In Islam, women cannot be imans. Most (all?) Christian protestant sects are explicitly or implicitly male-dominated.
I find all of this a bit mind boggling. Its hard for me to believe that in 2005, most people still accept the notion that men are "more spiritual" (whatever that means) than women. The fact that most women accept this is even more amazing.
Authority religions today are inherently macho-male enterprises. No wonder they are so harsh to women. No wonder they call for a wife's "obedience" (but not the husband's). No wonder they have such hatred for and fear of sex. No wonder they are opposed to abortion but support war.
While I understand the selfish reward for men, I cannot imagine why intelligent women continue to believe this nonsense. Nor can I imagine why a decently confident man would need such idiocy to prop up his ego.
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2 comments:
This is something really ridiculous, isn't it? I wish I could say that it's hard to believe how all these religions seem determined to live in the past, but that's really what organized religions usually do. There are movements in certain christian sects to allow women to be ordained, but they tend to meet lots of resistance. Some buddhists have done a lot to revive previously extinct sects of women monastics. I've linked to one in the Mahayana tradition. The Theravadan buddhists aren't as keen on it, especially in societies where women are still considered socially inferior. Still, it's good to see that small steps are being taken *somewhere* to involve women.
Well, at least the Methodist church (in which I semi-grew up)has no problem with ordaining women. In fact, the Methodist minister in my home town is a woman.
What's interesting, though, is to look at the early history of the Catholic church -- esp. while Irish Catholicism was going it's own way while Rome was busy collapsing. Pre-Augustian Irish Catholicism allowed women in pretty much any role men could fill. It also allowed priests to marry, etc.
Some of the Gnostic Gospels indicate a much stronger role for women in the early Christian Church as well.
None of which explains why a majority of the population (which women are) put up with all this stuff. I won't even talk about "female circumcision" -- except to mention that it's another way a major religion tyrranizes women.
TFD
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