Female Priests

Deist....
Seeing that religion was invented by men for the sole purpose of indoctrinating their followers into worshiping a god of their choosing... for whatever reason. Can't see the male ego being overpowered by something as simple as sharing the power the glory of their domain, they never have and never will. Look how hard it's been to find equality in the western for woman in general.

But imagine that it had not been established by the male ego, or for that matter maintained by the male ego.

What then, or more realisitically, what now?

T
K
O

Re: Female Priests
I question is not so much if religion became more gender neutral so much as it is: Does the female of the species act any differently than the male in a potion of religious authority?

To perhaps answer that in part I have not seen evidence that (when all is said and done) female political leaders act differently than their male counterparts.

Re: Female Priests


the two female priests meantioned in the link I provided are part of a movement to change the Catholic church. Many requests have been made of them to simply form their own church, but they feel the church itself need reform.

An example is that they say they are "both pro-life and pro-choice." "[we think] everyone should have the opportunity to make the right choice." This kind of messege is shaking up a lot of people. It just got me wondering what if women would have written the bible to say things like

Women are "unclean" during menustration

ETC

T
K
O

Simply because some women under some circumstances attempt to make changes to some institutions does not in and of itself aver that woman act differently than men in positions of power.

The viewpoint that woman act differently than men in positions of power in general is the distillation of the consideration at hand and not simply that some may speculate that woman act differently than men in positions of religious power.

Statistics would be your friend here TKO and I have not seen evidence that (when all is said and done) female leaders act differently than their male counterparts.

Now that's not to say that women act the same as men in positions of religious power but it is to say I'm not aware of any truthiness is such speculations.

I guess it's something to ponder over the next 20 years.

T
K
O...

In any case since we are stuck with the thorn of organized religion, I have no problems with the fairer sex claiming positions of religious power.

why shouldn't women be allowed the chance to go down on young children of their sex just like men? Let them be priests....

Women have already been preaching, hearing confessions, granting forgiveness and caring for the sick for thousands of years.

The question is "why shouldn't they finally be recognized by organized religions and given the title?"

is it? that's great, i've been saying exactly that for years.

if you're jewish, you can put an orange on the seder plate to show your support for female rabbis. the story goes, a woman was up on the bimah (pulpit) and giving a talk or conducting a meeting, and a man stood up and said "a woman belongs on the bimah like an orange belongs on the seder plate!"

religion can change, it's really up to us. the more reasonable we become, the more reasonable religion will become. but sooner or later will we need to find a way to deal with extremists, not just the ones that pose a phsyical threat to us, but the ones that simply can't grasp the idea of abandoning religious bigotry. i think there must be a way, if we look long enough.

My experience, over my life, with the fairer sex is.... They will talk their way out of a sealed steal box, they can talk under water with a mouth full of marbles, always have the last word in anything and worst of all they seem to think before they talk... Thus giving them a huge advantage over the stronger male sex. Having said that, I must say, the male has the advantage in shortening disagreements, he usually can rely on his superior strength..

A major function of religion is its "authoritative" role in the social regulation of sexual relationships. In that respect "women priests" were antithetical to patriarchal monotheism. However since the advent of birth control and the emancipation of woman from their traditional biological role we have seen a related change in their social mobility. Its as simple as that! All the theological "discussion" constitutes arbitrary rationalization and/or resistance to a technological shift.

it's always reassuring to agree completely with fresco, although i'm not sure that it's reassuring that it's reassuring

actually, i don't agree with the last part- technology can be just as arbitrary as religion. like *most* religious ideals, it can express ethics but deriving ethics isn't something that technology can inherently do. i think there are exceptions in both cases, but they're rare and beautiful. we certainly agree about women, sex, and much of religion, where those all meet.

If anything they have a higher capacity for the sacred and profane. In the western world females seem to be more prominent among the nonsecular clergy. Also the passive sex-drive would be less likely to get 'em in trouble. Finally the phenomena of synchronous menstruation proves females are more suited to communal living. So sure-absolutely, if there must be male priests, let there be female priests.

There are many women religious leaders. Perhaps not in the Catholic Church, but in many other Christian Churches.

I was married by a female minister in a Christian Church.

There is only one problem I can see with female priests.... They will say what they believe and believe what they say... As long as it's the spoken word of their particular god.