So there has been some talk recently, stating that organized religion upholds the patriarchy and is a means to subjugate womankind under the yoke of misogyny and that, because of this, God Himself is sexist and bears ultimate responsibility for the brunt of the challenges faced by feminists. I’m here to tell you flatly that this is nonsense. For the non-believer, it would be easy to come to this conclusion but for the believer, no true faith in the Lord God Almighty can entertain such a notion.
God made men and women equal, yet complementary. For Adam, “no suitable helper could be found” among the animals. So God made woman. Clearly, they are equal, since, if they were not, then the most suitable helper would have been another man. “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”, is the usual humorous comeback to these sorts of debates.
Nevertheless, the Book of Genesis aside, it is possible to reverse-engineer this, seeing in the feminist fight for equality, the injustice of misogyny, the corruption of patriarchy, the sense of anger that inequality engenders, there is the inkling that this is not the way things should be – that equality is right, injustice is wrong, that patriarchy shouldn’t exist. All these things are good and are therefore of God, for God is not good because He is God but rather, He is God because He is good. If He is not good, He is not God.
I am also impressed with the example of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did many things for women during His Life. However, I will give three examples that especially stand out for me.
Our Lord decided to tell one person, and one person only, that He was the Messiah. In His infinite Wisdom, he chose the five-times-divorced woman at the well, with a live-in lover, who had stomped up the hill to the well at noon to flirt and chat up rough, burly Arab traders, en-route from Damascus to Egypt. “Nice girls” didn’t go to the well at lunchtime because that’s when these men would show up to water their camels. However, on that particular day, only Jesus was there.
Then, when Jesus was walking through a marketplace, a woman came up behind him. I daresay it was hot and dusty in first-century Palestine, with a lot of guys in swirling robes, men with beards. She was ashamed of her menstrual hemorrhage that bled constantly for 11 years. Not only was there the mess, the inconvenience of being permanently on her period, but there was also the ceremonial uncleanness, where she was obliged to remain in seclusion for a set number of days after her period stopped, then go up to the Temple to sacrifice a pigeon. Since it never stopped, she was always in seclusion. So she was breaking the Law of Moses laid down by God when she snuck into the marketplace. The men with beards wouldn’t have liked that but Jesus was OK with it since Love for God is the fulfillment of the Law. “If I just touch his cloak”, she thought, and instantly she was healed. Jesus called her out for this, not to embarrass her but to show the men with beards. “Be healed of your trouble,” smiled the Lamb of God. Indeed, the Law said that when a sacrifice was made in the Book of Leviticus, “even the wrappings were holy”, plus the heifer had to be red and it had to be female.
However, the most obvious example of His anti-misogynist credentials was the famous “Let he who is without sin” event. In this, a woman was caught in adultery and a seething mass of angry men lined her up against a wall to stone her to death. They found Jesus, not because they wanted His advice but because they were planning to set Him up to discredit His commitment to the Law, then screamed at him as he drew with His finger in the sand, “Our Law says she should be stoned to death – what do You say, what do You say?” Jesus drew a line in the sand, stood up and said, “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.”
Now pay attention to the subtext of this story. Exactly HOW do you catch someone in adultery? It takes two to tango, right? So this woman was having sex with a married man or else she was married and the guy was single or maybe they were both married but not to each other. Whatever – it’s an obvious set-up. Who caught them? Were there a bunch of men hiding under the bed? Did they burst into the room through the door? Further, the Law states that BOTH OF THEM should be stoned to death. So where’s the man? Why isn’t he up against the wall, too? If she’s married, where’s her husband to plead her case? Why doesn’t he show up to demand her lover be stoned?
The reason must have been to set up Jesus, in which case, they probably knew about the love affair for some time in order to find her so quickly when He breezed through their town. If she had a husband, he must have known and been planning to get rid of her. They thought she was expendable because, after all, you know, she was only a woman. This rabble was the patriarchy, pure and simple. They probably thought that the man was “seduced” by her “feminine wiles” and “couldn’t help himself” and all those usual excuses. They were happy to commit murder just to prove a point. So, unquestionably, they had sinned.
There then followed this tense stare-off between the Saviour and the patriarchy. Finally, they dropped their stones and left. Jesus said to the woman, “Is there anyone left to condemn you?” She answered no, so He said,
“Then, I don’t condemn you, either. Go in peace and sin no more.” Notice that He didn’t say she wasn’t a sinner. She WAS but He let her go. Why?
I put it to you that Jesus understands the patriarchy and doesn’t approve of it. Even in His day, as well as devout and holy, humble men and women who took the Law seriously and did things right, there were others, especially men, who used the Law to enforce unjust social structures and unfairness towards women, using false accusations or forcing women to break the Law to enact acts of hatred and violence towards women. Today, this continues in the Church but Jesus still does not approve of it.
Take the thorny issue of abortion. On the surface, it seems you can’t be feminist and religious. The Church is anti-abortion and pro-life. Feminists are pro-choice. Catholic teaching is that all Catholics must not vote for pro-choice political candidates. They must not support legalization. Feminists say abortion is necessary to achieve reproductive rights for women. What’s going on?
The fact is, God says, “Thou shalt not kill”. He does not say, “make abortion illegal”. He is saying, “There must be no abortion”. He has no interest in turning one million legal abortions into one million illegal ones. He doesn’t want a million. He wants zero.
Further, there is no feminist who likes killing babies or who thinks abortion is good. There is no woman stupid enough. The only reason why they support it is because legal abortion is SAFE for the mother, whereas illegal abortion is some doctor hacking her up with a rusty knife. A feminist just expects abortion to continue whether it’s legal or not. Why? Because they know the patriarchy still hates women, rapes them and shames their sexuality. For as long as that continues, there will be unwanted pregnancy from unwanted sperm making unwanted babies. Then these men have the audacity to use religion as the excuse to let this continue. So feminists demand reproductive rights to even up women and gain equality.
Why do these men hate women? This is due to toxic masculinity. So it’s high time that healthy masculinity took place in the Church and feminists should lead the way in achieving this. Indeed, they must, since God says there must be no abortion. He wants zero. Imagine if every man in the church possessed a healthy masculinity, loved women unconditionally and never raped. Then the patriarchy would disappear and there would be zero abortion.
Let’s hope for this! Let’s pray for it with confidence!
Until then, there are many women in this world who have had an abortion. Unquestionably, she has sinned. She has killed her baby. Nevertheless, I have faith that Jesus understands her predicament. I know He’s not sexist. I look forward to the day when the patriarchy exists no more in the Church or the world.
Then Jesus will say to her, “Is there anyone left to condemn you? Then I don’t condemn you, either. Go in peace and sin no more.”