Look, the man seems like he was a nice guy and all – but he compared abortion to hiring a hitman and reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s ban on women becoming priests. But no, they say, he allowed women to become lectors (who can read out loud at Mass) and acolytes (priest assistants who can, for instance, clean the altar). Yassss queen.
Take, for example, the vicar who was featured in the Telegraph last week for saying that Jesus was, in fact, a feminist. And maybe compared to the rest of Nazareth circa 30AD, he was. But sorry, remind me who his 12 disciples were again?
In core religious texts, women’s subordination to men is repeated to the point of tedium. To cite just a few, 1 Timothy 2:12 says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man”. In the Hindu Manusmitri: “In childhood, a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons”. And the daily Jewish prayer: “Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe who has not created me a woman”.
But that we have to take existing religion and unpick or subvert it speaks to a desire to hold onto something known rather than to start anew. Women are always fighting for the private members’ club to allow them in rather than asking if they’re better off without it.
It’s the oldest trick in the book, using a woman’s menstrual cycle to suggest she’s too hormonal to stand equal to men. In the privacy of our bathrooms, in the most insidious and demeaning ways, religion reminds us we are impure, that we are the source of Original Sin. It wasn’t Adam who first bit into the apple.
I once kept up this pretence. I told myself Hinduism was different because it handily encompassed female gurus and gods, like Lakshmi and Saraswati. Female deities are venerated and idealised as mother figures. Though never given proper agency and mind, women were protected by men.
square PRAVINA RUDRA
Don't be surprised that the rich are kinder than the poor
Read MoreTo reconcile the progressive beliefs I now have with believing in Hinduism would be like navigating a laser maze of contradictions – which I notice others do. In the short term, it’s easier to empower yourself through feminist retellings of your religion than to commence a break-up with a belief system, which is often how whole families relate to one another and endure the ensuing heartache. But, in my experience, it’s far more liberating and joyful to do without religion.
You could wait many, many lifetimes for them to decide a woman can be the next Pope when she can’t be a cardinal, bishop, priest or even a lowly deacon. Or you could step this way. The water might seem cold at first, but it’s far clearer.
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