Feminism and Religion

IN THE NEWS: Women’s Ordination in the Catholic Church

On October 6th, the first Catholic women’s ordination in Los Angeles was performed when two women were welcomed as priests into Roman Catholic Women Priests. There are now 143 women ordained worldwide in a movement that has refused to wait for the Vatican to acknowledge women as leaders in the Church.

There has been a great deal of dialogue around the issue of women’s ordination in the Catholic Church. Organizations like Women’s Ordination Conference are focused on the mission of ordaining women in the Catholic Church and argue that women in leadership roles will lead to change in policies that are oppressive to women. However, other movements argue that ordaining women simply continues the hierarchical culture of the Church. Continue reading “IN THE NEWS: Women’s Ordination in the Catholic Church”

IN THE NEWS: To Have Eyes to See

Recently at a symposium on interreligious dialogue one of the Muslim feminist scholars present said, “Just once I would like to be able to have a conversation about Islamic Feminism without automatically having to be put on the defensive.”

When someone is a member of a targeted group it is very hard to have the space to critically reflect on one’s tradition, much less be willing to do so with others. From the get go the person is put in the position of having to defend and speak for the whole. And as feminists, the amount of criticism received for participating in a tradition that others have judged to be irredeemably patriarchal and oppressive, can be downright exhausting, making dialogue all the more difficult. Continue reading “IN THE NEWS: To Have Eyes to See”

Monthly Highlight: Mary E. Hunt

As a Catholic feminist theologian, activist, teacher, and writer Mary Hunt has made a massive impact in the field of feminism and religion. Following the completion of her graduate education (MA, Harvard Divinity School, M.Div., Jesuit School of Theology, Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union), Mary recognized a strong need for theological, liturgical, and ethical development by and for women and responded by co-founding WATER (The Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Water) in 1983. Over the last 3+ decades, she has been instrumental in addressing social injustice and creating change in religion and community. Continue reading “Monthly Highlight: Mary E. Hunt”

IN THE NEWS: Health Care, Contraception, and Religion

A case brought forth by a mining company challenging the required coverage of contraception without a copay by employer health care plans was dismissed Friday in a Missouri court. The mining company argued that the requirement was conflicting with its owners religious beliefs. Continue reading “IN THE NEWS: Health Care, Contraception, and Religion”

IN THE NEWS: Wives – Silent, Hidden, and Unnamed

“Jesus said to them, ‘My wife…'”

It is now public news that there is a fragment of ancient text in which Jesus makes reference to a wife. Based on testing of the papyrus fragment the text is calculated to have been from 150 years after Jesus died, a time when Jesus followers are still discerning how they should live and what practices they will keep. Though scholars all agree that this does not prove Jesus actually had a wife, it does reflect the liveliness of the debate nonetheless: Karen King explains, “This fragment suggests that some early Christians had a tradition that Jesus was married…There was, we already know, a controversy in the second century over whether Jesus was married, caught up with a debate about whether Christians should marry and have sex.”

The fragment also makes reference to a female disciple. Continue reading “IN THE NEWS: Wives – Silent, Hidden, and Unnamed”

IN THE NEWS: An All Women’s City in Saudi Arabia – Liberating or Continuing the Cycle?

It was recently reported that Saudi Arabia will develop a women’s only city in order to allow career oriented women to pursue work while abiding by the countries Islamic laws. While work for women is not outlawed by Sharia Law, currently only 15% of the workforce is made up of women in Saudi Arabia. This new municipality will produce women run firms and production lines and will create a total of 5000 new jobs. Continue reading “IN THE NEWS: An All Women’s City in Saudi Arabia – Liberating or Continuing the Cycle?”

Catholic/Mormon Dialogue on Women’s Ordination

The Catholic/Mormon Dialogue on Women’s Ordination at Claremont Graduate University will take place Wednesday, September 19, 2012. It is an incredibly relevant topic today and particularly interesting with a Mormon/Catholic presidential ticket before us.

It makes sense to bring Catholics and Mormons together to dialogue about this issue. Women’s ordination in both Churches is considered a taboo topic and one that if discussed in public can lead to excommunication. Certainly the women who will stand publicly to address this issue and share their passion and conviction for the need to ordain women are courageous and committed to the recognition of the full humanity of every woman and every man. Continue reading “Catholic/Mormon Dialogue on Women’s Ordination”

IN THE NEWS: Religious, Atheist, and Political Feminists – Unite?

This post is the first of a new weekly feature on Feminism and Religion that will be published every Wednesday. “In The News” is designed to invite discussion on topics that are showing up in news and media outlets and are relevant to feminism and religion.

Diane Winston recently wrote an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times regarding the role of faith in politics. She comments that recent poll results give the impression that religion is not playing a significant role in the current elections, for how else does one make sense of the fact that the Republican Party’s ticket is made up of a Mormon and a Roman Catholic? However she is quick to point out that although religious labels may be passé, “the religious values that inform who’s taxed, what’s regulated, how jobs are created and when or where we help those in need,” are still very much the driving force behind how people vote and with whom they form coalitions. Thus, in the U.S. seemingly incompatible religions as well as denominations within those religions have come together in an effort to control and legislate women’s bodies and autonomy. As the editors of the Religious Dispatches asserts, “the Moral Majority couldn’t have come together without a big interfaith effort.”