(A selected reading from Charles Templeton's book, Farewell to God: My Reasons
for
Rejecting the Christian Faith)
In this section, Charles Templeton
discusses the position of women in the Church:
Throughout the history of humankind women have played secondary role in virtually
every society. The reason for this male dominance is as obvious as the man's
larger size and musculature. There have been exceptions but they have been
just that, exceptions. In Greek mythology, the Amazons were a tribe of warlike
women who established a patriarchal society in Asia Minor in which women
governed and waged war and men performed the household tasks.
Alas, ladies! - 'tis but a myth.
This ages-old dominance by men has, however, diminished dramatically in the
twentieth century, particularly in the Western world where women have reached
the point where there are few positions of authority to which they cannot
aspire. Women have become political leaders, presidents of great universities,
major players in the worlds of business, finance, medicine, science, and
the arts - in virtually every area where size and strength are not a
prerequisite.
The one area where this has not been so is in organized religion. Jewish
women in Orthodox synagogues - as has been true since time immemorial - may
not sit with or participate with the men and are required to remain silent
(this is not so in Conservative or Reform synagogues). Christian women, too,
have been marginalized over the centuries and it is only in recent decades
that they have begun to be recognized as equals and admitted to positions
of leadership.
Mr Templeton continues to say; the one church in which women have made
the least progress is the largest and the oldest - the Roman Catholic church.
The present Pope, John Paul II - despite the conflicting views of a majority
of the church's women members and not a few of the clergy-remains adamantly
opposed to premarital sex, the use of contraceptive devices, legal abortion,
and the consecration of women as priests.
As recently as 1965, Pope Paul VI in the encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human
Life) reaffirmed the papal principle that every act of sexual intercourse
"must be open to the transmission of life." Despite this the evidence is
clear that a large majority of married couples, including married theologians,
do not agree. They argue, in numbers, that contraception, by some means,
is a moral and pragmatic necessity in a marriage where the partners love
each other and need to express that love physically while, at the same time,
controlling the size of their family.
Increasingly, the Roman Catholic laity is making clear its opposition to
the rigidity of their church in matters related to sex. A recent sampling
in Canada by the Angus Reid polling organization indicated that 91per cent
of Catholics approve the use of contraceptives. Moreover, 84 per cent would
permit priests to marry and 78 percent believe that women should be to allowed
to become priests.
This change in attitude is increasingly evident in every branch of the Christian
church - Catholic, Protestant, and what have you.
Women are insisting that they play a larger and more significant role. And
they are being heard. Women now teach in Catholic seminaries, direct diocesan
chanceries and, in some parishes, fulfil virtually all of a priest's
responsibilities but the most important ones - saying Mass and hearing
confessions. And the pressure for change is increasing. A growing number
of Catholics, men and women, are speaking out for the democratic election
of priests and for optional celibacy -some are even contending for the blessing
of the church on the marriage of gay men and women.
"The time~ they are a-changin'."
In November 1992, the Church of England, after a passionate debate, decided
(by a margin of only three votes) to nullify the rule that only men may serve
as priests. By approving the ordination of women, some thirteen hundred women
deacons were made eligible for the priesthood. It should be added that, shortly
afterward, a large number of adamantly opposed priests announced that they
planned to leave the church and would consider joining the Roman church,
from which the Church of England separated in x 534 over the Pope's refusal
to grant Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Katharine of Aragon.
Hardly a ringing endorsement of women's rights!
In voting for the ordination of women priests, the Church of England was
following the lead of its sister Anglican churches in Canada, Australia,
and New Zealand. They were preceded by many other church bodies in various
parts of the world. Some of these:
· 1948: the African Methodist Episcopal Church approved the ordination
of women.
· 1956: the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in the United States
voted to allow women clergy.
· 1958: the Lutheran Church in Sweden agreed to ordain women.
· 1970: the Lutheran Church in the U.S.A. voted to do the same.
· 1975: the Anglican Church of Canada approved women priests.
· 1976: the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. approved women priests.
· 1980: the first woman bishop in the Methodist Church, U.S.A.
· 1989: the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church, U.S.A.
· 1992: the first woman bishop in the Lutheran Church, Germany.
· 1992: the first woman bishop in the Lutheran Church, U.S.A
In the face of all this change the Roman Catholic hierarchy remains inflexible.
To be a priest in the Roman church you must be a man. Nor may a woman be
installed as a bishop, an archbishop, a cardinal, or pope. Nor may a woman
hear confessions or officiate at the Mass. A woman may be consecrated to
serve as a "sister," but she may not aspire to or be appointed to any position
of sacramental authority.
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