Feminism and Religion

The Great Round – Falling leaves in late August 2026 by Sara Wright

Red squirrel is running down the hill with a baseball in his mouth! The sphere-like object is one of the wild apples, pale yellow with a pink blush. This morning when I was weeding ferns, I noticed how many of these fruits were nibbled. The deer are here at least twice a day chunking down whole fruits. Mothers and fawns come by every August to feast on these ripened golden apples. So does everyone else! So many fruits hit and bounce off the metal roof before tumbling to the ground that I can’t believe there are still so many apples hanging from that tree. All around me curled crinkled wizened brown or pale yellow leaves drift listlessly to the ground. Windless days make it obvious that falling leaves belong to the end of one season and the beginning of another. A poignancy rises from within because summer is almost over and we had so few days of cerulean skies with puffy white clouds. Lots of murky yellowish blurs at sunset, masses of pollen and thick humidity leave me enervated most of the time. I’ll be the first one to admit it; I miss those wondrous summer days we all took for granted. How much has changed…I am sad to leave a season behind that never blossomed into what seemed to be a timeless canvas of blue and gold.

The Legacy of Carol P. Christ: What is the Cause of Violence? A Response to Karen Armstong

This was originally posted on January 12, 2105

“So, when we in the West talk about religion as the cause of this violence, how much are we letting ourselves off the hook, and using religion as a way to ignore our role in the roots of this violence?” Karen Armstrong, author of Fields of Blood

This statement was made by scholar of religions Karen Armstrong in an interview in Salon magazine in response to characterizations of Islam as a violent religion by Bill Maher and others. Speaking in the context of the rise of anti-Islamist prejudice in Europe, Armstrong said that Maher’s demonization of “the other” was the kind of talk that could lead us back to the concentration camps.

Bill Maher makes blanket statements against religion in general and Islam in particular. Maher clearly does not have a nuanced view of any religion. He is fueling anti-Islamic sentiment when he singles out Islam as a violent religion. If religions are going to be criticized as violent, then we must not limit ourselves to criticizing Islam, but must begin closer to home, by discussing the relation of religion and violence in the Bible, in Christianity, and in Judaism. My rule of thumb is always to begin with Christianity because it is the hegemonic religion of western cultures.

Becoming the Elder I Hoped to Be by Rabbi Nadya Gross

I have always been old by association. My husband is nine years older than I am, and so for most of our life together I have lived a little ahead of my own age, attending to the questions of the next decade before I reached it. I never minded. In truth, I think I was born looking forward to growing old.

I grew up surrounded by elders who were accomplished and gifted people, men and women whose wisdom shaped the way I saw the world. Chief among them was my Savta, my grandmother. She initiated me into a Kabbalah tradition that had been passed down through her mother-line, from woman to woman, across generations. I watched her and I knew what I wanted: to grow up to be just like her, wise, kind, gifted, and fully present to the world as it is. With elders like her around me, aging never looked like something to fear. It looked like something to anticipate with joy.

Miriam MacGillis Discusses Thomas Berry’s View of the Universe, part 2 Transcribed by Janet Rudolph

Introduction: Miriam MacGillis is a modern-day prophet who not only holds a broad understanding of cosmology but brilliantly expresses it. She was an early colleague of Thomas Berry, introducing many people to the Story of the Universe. I have had the great honor of transcribing the eight tapes of her lecture series called Education for a Small Planet from 1986. Excerpts from tape 1A can be read here and here.

She was a protégé of Thomas Berry and on these tapes spoke about three principles which have been at the heart of the unfolding of the universe from the beginning. As she says, They are very simple and can’t be separated. I’m just separating them now [to discuss them]. In reality they’re three in one. They are extremely simple. Very often, the simplest things are the hardest things to grasp. But once we really begin to reflect on them and their implications, it’s so logical, so clear, so simple.

The first is the principle of differentiation. I posted Miriam’s discussion of differentiation here.

Below is the long delayed 2nd part, where she discusses the next two principles; interiority and communion. Her words have been lightly edited.

Second principle. The principle of interiority. Or subjectivity. And all that means is that whether we’re speaking about this particular atom or whether this is Harry or Henry or Homer or horse, or hippo, each is its own unique articulation of the universe, its own integrity. It has its own inner spaces, which are unique to itself. Hydrogen is hydrogen, it is not helium. And it is hydrogen because as you probe the inner spaces of that, whatever causes that to be hydrogen in those inner spaces has an integrity that will always unfold hydrogen. And the universe only can be at any moment, the sum total of all of that. And because each is what it is, it’s different.

From the Archives: Priestess at the Crossroads by Joyce Zonana

In order to transform what is happening at the Mexico/U.S. “border” (and elsewhere) we must first break down the borders within our heads—all the borders in all our heads. Mr. Trump tells us “If you don’t have Borders, you don’t have a Country”; my response today is: “Who needs countries? Who needs genders? Who needs races or competing religions? What we need is Coatlicue.”

Moderator’s Note: This was first posted on June 29, 2018 during the first Trump administration. Unfortunately this post is as timely now as it was then. Joyce passed on June 11, 2025. We miss her terribly. Her wisdom lives on.

As so many of us recoil in horror at the Trump administration’s cruel attempts to enforce an impenetrable border between the U.S. and Mexico, I find myself struggling to understand what he and his supporters mean by “borders,” and why they are so invested in maintaining them. The administration’s vicious immigration policy, recently epitomized in a brief tweet on June 19^th, 2018—Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when slaves were finally freed throughout the U.S. at the end of the Civil War—“If you don’t have Borders, you don’t have a Country” has sent me back to Gloria Anzaldúa’s visionary 1987 book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.

Grounded in her experience as a queer mestiza raised in the Texas/Mexico borderlands, Anzaldúa’s bilingual, cross-genre manifesto argues for the transformative role of the mestiza, no longer “sacrificial goat” but “officiating priestess at the crossroads”:

Two Poems by Darlene O’Dell

Quiet, Piggy

Though the slur also concerns chickens
and eggs and which came first—
did the master create the puppet
or the puppet the master?

suppose, for instance, one posits
an argument for compassion—
the bare minimum, as in let’s not
disappear people and torture families

a few crumbs under the table
hardly enough for a dog and a widow—
let’s not torment the targeted
and call it Jesus

Autumn Lessons, by Molly M. Remer

Keep it simple and sacred
whisper the trees,
let go with grace
and trust the turning,
watch how the leaf
rides the air
all the way to the ground.
Let life astonish you,
mess and magic all entwined.
Be patient with yourself.
Feel the mask slip away
as the mist rises
and mystery
invites you
in.

I have now been writing for Feminism and Religion for 14 years. Last summer, I compiled a post with 13 summer lessons from 13 years of posts here at FAR. I bookended that post with a Winter Lessons post as well. And, then a Spring Lessons post. Now, finally, I am rounding out the series with thirteen lessons from Autumn:

Monarch Saga Continues in to 2026 by Sara Wright

This summer marks the first year I have not had butterflies in my wildflower garden in August, a very troubling development. June and half of July were good months with some monarchs, many swallowtails and a multitude of fritillaries flying through the field. The latter two were as prevalent in my garden as last year, although painted ladies, pearly eyes, and admirals were scarce. No monarchs around the house this year. On July 15 I saw two up by the corner perching on the milkweed who were probably the same ones I saw just above me on the circle later that day. On July 17th out of state neighbors sprayed their property with pesticides. The wind was fierce. The monarchs disappeared. I have not seen a monarch or any other butterfly since (except one fritillary that appeared briefly last week).

Because I think the same monarchs return to the sparce milkweed patch on the corner before they come here, I immediately looked for eggs*. I kept looking day after day for the rest of the month, noting the bizarre leaf distortion on this small clump of milkweed that I had not seen anywhere else. Due to pesticidal drift from a few feet away? On August 6th I was walking by the distorted milkweed and spied two monarch caterpillars. Oh no!

The Legacy of Carol P. Christ: Does Masculine Have to Be the Opposite of Feminine?

This was originally posted on January 5, 2105

“Furthermore, like Obama, [de Blasio] projects a masculinity that is empathic and introspective — anathema to the patriarchal attitudes that dominate hierarchal institutions like the police.”

I wish the analysis that accompanies this quote had been mine, but maybe I should be glad that it comes from an insightful young man who goes by the name liamcdg. He argues that the real beef the New York police have with Bill de Blasio is his challenge to their definition of masculinity as dominance, or shall we say white male dominance.

As noted by liamcdg, in the NYPD version of reality, parents should teach children to comply “to comply with New York City police officers even if they think it’s unjust.” In terms of competing definitions of masculinity, the NYPD version is that men in power should be respected simply in virtue of their position, even if they are acting or appearing to act unjustly. In other words we should respect the powerful because they are powerful.

To be empathetic is to be able to put yourself in another person’s place, and in its literal meaning, to feel the feelings of another. In the recent public conversations about race and the police, both Obama and de Blasio have invited white Americans to put themselves in the place of a black man stopped by the police for little or no reason and to ask themselves how they would feel in that situation.

From the Archives: “Lilith: Evil Demon or Feminist Role Model?”

Author’s Note: For the next 9 months or so, you will be seeing “From the Archives” blog posts from me, as I will be spending the time writing a book on Judaism and ecofeminism. The feminismandreligion.com community is extremely important to me, which is why I want to stay ‘involved’ even while my writing obligations currently lie elsewhere. I hope that in the meantime, you will enjoy these repeats.

See you again here ‘in person’ sometime in 2027.

Because I did not get to say it in September as we were on hiatus:

לשנה טובה ומתוקה

This post originally published 8 October 2023. This year Simchat Torah was the 3rd of October.

Today, we celebrate Simchat Torah (the Joy of the Torah) which marks the end of a cycle of Torah readings and the beginning of a new one. Therefore, the Torah portion for October 14, 2023 is Bereshit (Genesis 1:1-6:8), the first parshah of the Torah. This parshah is most known for its myths surrounding the beginning of the world, including, within it, two creation stories, the first one running from 1:1 to 2:3 and the second from 2:4 to 2:25. These accounts of creation are followed by a story about Adam, Eve, a snake, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The parshah concludes with the happenings of Cain and Abel, the descendants of Adam and Eve, and Noah, a man who found divine favor.