Feminism’s final frontier? Religion. [View all]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/churches-and-politicians-take-note-disrespect-women-and-they-will-leave/2012/03/07/gIQA9SwJzR_story.html



By Lisa Miller, Thursday, March 8, 9:27 AM

The battle of the sexes, waged this election season with such fulsome fury in the public space, is being fought in a much more painful, private sphere as well. In churches (and synagogues and mosques) across the land, women are still treated as second-class citizens. And because women of faith are increasingly breadwinners, single moms and heads of households, that diminished status is beginning to rankle.

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Susan’s story was published last month by a small Christian publishing house in a book called “The Resignation of Eve.” In its pages, the author, an evangelical minister named Jim Henderson, argues that unless the male leaders of conservative Christian churches do some serious soul searching – pronto — the women who have always sustained those churches with their time, sweat and cash will leave. In droves. And they won’t come back. Their children, traditionally brought to church by their mothers, will thus join the growing numbers of Americans who call themselves “un-churched.”

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It is not only Rush Limbaugh who demeans all women by calling one a slut and a prostitute. It’s Rick Santorum — that man of faith — who has stopped just short of calling working mothers selfish and who lumps all single moms together as his opposition, as he did in an interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council last year.

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The political analogies are clear. According to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Obama wins in any matchup against Romney, Santorum or Gingrich. Among women, though, his gains are huge: 18 points, 24 points, and 27 points, respectively. Unless the strident, authoritarian social conservatives loosen their stranglehold on American women, American women will abandon the Republican party (as they’re quitting church) and look for their candidates elsewhere.