Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site k.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!k.cs.cmu.edu!tim
From: tim@k.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Sexism and Religion
Message-ID: <560@k.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 01:28:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: k.560
Posted: Sat Sep 21 01:28:05 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 12:06:43 EDT
References: <547@k.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA>, <1629@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
Lines: 57

> From mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) Thu Sep 19 08:39:33 1985
> Message-ID: <1629@umcp-cs.UUCP>
> In article <547@k.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA> tim@k.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Tim Maroney)
> writes:
>
> >None of the monotheistic religions are sexually egalitarian.  Judaism
> >incorporates many discriminatory commandments and temple practices.
> >Christianity also incorporates discriminatory temple practices and has
> >historically been very sexist.  I don't see Moslems as being qualitatively
> >different from Jews or Christians in this respect.
>
> Considering that a number of christian denominations have actively promoted
> ordination of female clergy, and justified doing so theologically, I don't
> see how there is any justification for this monolithic evaluation of
> christianity.  There are so few values held in common by the various
> christian sects and denominations, in fact, that ANY blanket statement is
> probably false.

In a letter to Time magazine, published in the issue of 23 Sept 85, Nizar
Hamdoon, the Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S., states:

"I was surprised to read the unfair and misleading information on Islam in
your story "Sex and the Singular Imam" [WORLD, July 29].  Islam has never
put any stipulations on women being subjected to men except that they be
show respect.  Muslim women have entered every walk of life.  They are
politicians, fighters and poets, sharing with men almost all social duties
in addition to raising their children.  There are numerous examples cited in
the Holy Koran and the hadith of women and their significant role in society
and the family.  The Prophet Muammad himself was a father and a husband who
cherished and respected his relationship to women.  Indeed, the first
believer in his message was his wife Khdija, who stood beside him from the
first moment."

I have also heard Jews deny that there is any sexism involved in their laws
and temple practices, such as shutting up all the women in the back of the
synagogue behind a curtain.

Yet the fact is that in Jewish, Moslem, and Christian societies, women have
almost always been treated as inferiors, and in the organized religions have
not been granted authority in any way commensurate with that of men.  To
deny this is either to lie or to deliberately blind oneself to fact.  Things
are changing in all three religions during this century; for instance the
move (mentioned by Wingate) to allow women to speak in church in a few
Christian churches, despite the instructions in the letters of Paul.  If one
is to blame Islam for its centuries of oppression of women, then one must
also blame Judaism and Christianity for the precisely similar phenomena in
their religions and societies.  Letting just one, or even two, off the hook
and leaving the other to hang is nothing more than a hypocritical double
standard.  I am not sure whether Wingate meant only to defend his religion,
or to leave the accusations about Islam intact, but I am sure many took his
message as an argument in favor of the idea that Christians are somehow less
culpable for the sexism of their religion than Moslems are for the sexism of
theirs.  This is false; all are equally culpable.
-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
ARPA:	Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K	uucp:	seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim
CompuServe:	74176,1360	audio:	shout "Hey, Tim!"


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com