Carter: Many religious leaders have failed women

[SecularMotion]

Former President Jimmy Carter says religious leaders, including those in Christianity and Islam, share the blame for mistreatment of women across the world.

The human rights activist said Friday religious authorities perpetuate misguided doctrines of male superiority, from the Catholic Church forbidding women from becoming priests to some African cultures mutilating the genitals of young girls.

Carter said the doctrines, which he described as theologically indefensible, contribute to a political, social and economic structure where political leaders passively accept violence against women, a worldwide sex slave trade and inequality in the workplace and classroom.

“There is a great aversion among men leaders and some women leaders to admit that this is something that exists, that it’s serious and that it’s it troubling and should be addressed courageously,” Carter said at an international conference on women and religion.

http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/23011952/article-Carter--Many-religious-leaders-have-failed-women?instance=special%20_coverage_right_column

[dimbear]

1. Ever wonder whether slavery would have been less horrible if all the slaves were volunteers?

Just a thought.

Anyway, here are a few religions to look out for, having been grave offenders against the rights of women: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Mormonism, Shinto, various animisms. Tired typing.

You may wonder as to the why of it. Possibly women didn't make them up.

There should be differing degrees of outrage. For instance, while we abhor Christian British colonialism, there's some sympathy toward their abolishing suttee.

[MellowDem]

2. Correction: religion fails women...

Especially the Abrahamic ones. It fails them from the get go. Just read the books.

[rug]

3. The Constitution failed women in the U.S. for 130 years.

[MellowDem]

4. Yes, then we amended it

Any amendments to the Bible yet? The Torah? How about the Koran?

Nah, they gotta settle for terrible apologetics to get away from a terrible text that cannot be changed without undermining their own religion. Kinda sucks when a person must engage in intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance of their beliefs to be good people, while the consistent and honest believers are the most scary. Certainly says something about the belief system.

[rug]

5. You don't see women rabbis, women pastors?

Take your self-imposed blinders off.

[okasha]

6. He apparently doesn't see any

Native American women shamans or healers, or pagan (Wiccan, Druid, etc.) priestesses, either.

And he certainly doesn't see the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Schori, who also happens to be a Ph.D. scientist (oceanographer) into the bargain.

[rug]

7. I didn't know she was an oceanographer.

How cool.

[MellowDem]

9. Non-sequiter

Women in religion does nothing to address the point that religious texts that claim to have the perfect word of god cannot be amended.

Ignoring the text undermines the central claim of the religion.

I know some shamans and healers to this day kill others based on demon possession, or diagnose illnesses based on nothing. All religion is based on the same flawed premise, which can and does lead to harm.

[MellowDem]

8. Like I said...

I see plenty of intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance in regards to horribly misogynistic texts. No blinders here. I'd say progressive religion based on these texts, on the other hand, requires redacting a lot of the text.