brighid

There are two many branches of “Protestant faiths” to give an accurate rendering of those statistics at this time. I am just too busy. Maybe someone else can delve into that. Although I am fairly certain that this female equality is not common amongst all Protestant faiths – ie: Methodist and Baptist come to mind, but then again there are so many sects of both of these. And these developments are fairly modern considering the 2,000 year reign of Christianity in that Catholicism is the mother and Protestantism is a relatively young child.

It is the so called “liberal” and “reformed” churches of the world that allow women to move through the hierarchy of the church and minister. There are no female Imans or Mullahs and there are certainly no female Catholic priests – except maybe Sinead O’Connor who was ordained by a sect of Catholicism. You go girl! But when it takes 2,000 years for a women to become ordained in a sect of Catholicism I think it’s safe to say that equality of women is not the case in this cult.

I know of a few female rabbis in the reform movements of Judaism – but again, this is a modern phenomena and this does not make the orthodox and mainstream sects of Judaism very happy at all. One of my closest friends (who is a gay woman) is getting married next year and it will be performed in her Temple – one of only 10 to have been sanctioned by a Synagogue here.

Christianity, as a whole and historically has been pretty damn clear about the treatment of women and so many of their theologians espouse such misogynistic crap that it should serve as no point of surprise that domestic violence and the poor treatment of women has been rampant for far too long. I mean – women didn’t even get the right to vote until 1920 – and that was after decades of fighting for these rights. There is a speach by Sojourner Truth (an extremely Christian woman) that always gets me – Ain’t I a Woman – and it speaks eloquently of what so many women feel:

Several ministers attended the second day of the Woman's Rights
Convention,
and were not shy in voicing their opinion of man's superiority over
women.
One claimed "superior intellect", one spoke of the "manhood of Christ,"
and
still another referred to the "sin of our first mother."
Suddenly, Sojourner Truth rose from her seat in the corner of the
church.
"For God's sake, Mrs.Gage, don't let her speak!" half a dozen women
whispered loudly, fearing that their cause would be mixed up with
Abolition.

Sojourner walked to the podium and slowly took off her sunbonnet. Her
six-foot frame towered over the audience. She began to speak in her
deep,
resonant voice: "Well, children, where there is so much racket, there
must
be something out of kilter, I think between the Negroes of the South and
the
women of the North - all talking about rights - the white men will be in
a
fix pretty soon. But what's all this talking about?"
Sojourner pointed to one of the ministers. "That man over there says
that
women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to
have
the best place everywhere. Nobody helps me any best place. And ain't I a
woman?"
Sojourner raised herself to her full height. "Look at me! Look at my
arm."
She bared her right arm and flexed her powerful muscles. "I have plowed,
I
have planted and I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me.
And
ain't I a woman?"
"I could work as much, and eat as much as man - when I could get it -
and
bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne children and
seen
most of them sold into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's
grief,
none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?"
The women in the audience began to cheer wildly.
She pointed to another minister. "He talks about this thing in the head.
What's that they call it?"
"Intellect," whispered a woman nearby.
"That's it, honey. What's intellect got to do with women's rights or
black
folks' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint and yours holds a quart,
wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?"
"That little man in black there! He says women can't have as much rights
as
men. 'Cause Christ wasn't a woman. She stood with outstretched arms and
eyes
of fire. "Where did your Christ come from?"
"Where did your Christ come from?", she thundered again. "From God and a
Woman! Man had nothing to do with him!"
The entire church now roared with deafening applause.
"If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world
upside
down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back
and
get it right-side up again. And now that they are asking to do it the
men
better let them."

brighid

Justus

Simply Thank You for giving me insight There is something both uplifting and at the same time humbling in the speech ... I Love / admire & respect strength in women be it Physical .. Mental ... Moral or Emotional P/S I am a male

Ron Singh

In sikhism, and in life, men are equal to women.

Straight Hate

Asatru/Norse-Heathenism, the polytheistic religion of pre-Christian, Europe is one that comes to my mind as being gender-equal. It may appear that polytheism is dead, but Asatru has been making a tremendous comeback in recent times (now officially recognized by Iceland). Apparently, from articles I've read on the religion, long ago some circles actually placed the woman with the "key" to the household - essentially, she was the master and not the man. Good to hear, but not all that surprising when you look at the Norse pantheon.

hinduwoman

Yes, but masters in the sense of what? Christian marriage ritual says, "with all my worldly goods I thee endow", but the exact opposite happens legally. So too in hinduism the woman supposedly is the 'empress' of the household.
Besides take a look at Beowulf. Women had very little actual power to influence the course of events. Also it is my understanding that while men could have as many concubines they wished on Norse culture, the women had no such right.