Unless your local media runs articles by the Associated Press or Religion News Service, you might not be aware of their current series on “women’s roles in male-led religions.”
Most religions are pretty patriarchal, aren’t they, unless you count numerous female deities as making Hinduism women-friendly. But wait — there was that whole thing about female temple prostitutes — so maybe even Hinduism favors the guys as well.
So let’s look some news about issues linked to this.
In 2018, the Lilly Endowment Inc. put together a $4.9 million grant to fund 13 new positions at The Associated Press, Religion News Service and The Conversation in an effort known as the Global Religion Journalism Initiative.
Since then, evidence of this collaboration have been sparse, so this new series that premiered last week is one of the first major efforts on that front.
First out of the blocks was a Dec. 8 piece in The Conversation by Deborah Whitehead of Religion News Service giving a summation of womens’ efforts –- over a broad swath of denominations and religions -- to either be ordained or attain more power in their congregations. The main holdouts, she said, were Orthodox Jews, Latter-day Saints, Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists.
I’m not sure why she didn’t mention Eastern Orthodox Christians, who likewise don’t ordain women but once had a tradition — in the distant past – of female deacons. See here for a debate among two Orthodox scholars about the matter.
The way Whitehead’s piece –- and indeed the entire series that I’ve seen to date — is that women’s ordination is the logical, progressive next step. The sub-headlines that describe the opposing point of view include “Opposition to change” and “Other forms of discrimination,” so it’s not hard to see where this series is headed. This is advocacy journalism, especially when it comes to changing the priesthood in ancient churches
This is not to say I haven’t some sympathy with what’s written.
The RNS/AP effort concerns the failure of religious denominations to promote their women, but I have a similar horror story of me and a female friend trying to get hired onto Christianity Today in the early 1990s. Some Christian companies were not about to hire women into influential spots for reasons that had nothing to do with theology. (As for me and my friend, we moved onto positions in the secular media.)
Also on Dec. 8, RNS’ Clair Giangravè and AP’s David Crary produced this piece about women who’ve risen to high positions in the Catholic Church, mainly as a result of appointments by Pope Francis.
A growing number of women hold consequential positions in the church and at the Vatican. But it’s the roles women occupy at the grassroots level — in parishes, dioceses and universities — that suggest to female Catholics that despite the institution’s slowness to change, women are taking the lead, making new demands and inspiring new perspectives.
Nuns in the United States have been among those setting the pace. Several of them have played prominent roles in social justice activism; two others have been the recent leaders of the Catholic church’s vast network of hospitals and health centers… Worldwide, a growing number of women serve as chancellors in dioceses and as members of bishop’s councils. In January, Francis changed canon law to allow women to be lectors and acolytes, giving official recognition to female service during Mass.
Francis has also been pushing (there are debates about this still) the idea of female deacons, the article said. It didn’t mention the WomenChurch movement, where Catholic women have sought ordination outside their church while still offering Catholic rites such as Holy Communion. Typically, these women have been excommunicated by their local bishops.
Also on Dec. 8, Aysha Khan of RNS and Miriam Fam, a Cairo-based reporter for AP, wrote on how Muslim women are increasingly stepping up by serving on Islamic courts, leading Quran study circles and teaching in Islamic institutions.
One of the article’s more interesting finds is Aziza Moufid, a Moroccan religious guide who guides younger women.
Moufid, who recalls looking up to the female university professors who taught her Islamic studies, has been working as a guide mostly via WhatsApp during the pandemic. She uses the platform to explain sayings of the prophet to children; to help women learning to memorize and recite the Quran; and to counsel teenage girls about a myriad of topics from modesty to prayers to menstruation.
“There are sensitive issues that some of them may not dare discuss even with their mothers or sisters,” Moufid said. “But there’s no such shame between us. I tell them, ‘I am your sister. I am your friend. I am your mother.’”
Of all the pieces, I learned the most from this one, which admitted that female imams are a distant possibility at best.
Many in the U.S. have advocated for a larger role for women in mosques, from better prayer spaces for female worshippers to more seats on governing boards and a more friendly mosque culture. Some are also calling for a more decentralized leadership model at mosques, one that includes a paid female resident scholar in addition to a male imam.
While there is hope for such advances, “things are not great for women in leadership ... in our sacred spaces,” right now, said Tamara Gray of Rabata, a nonprofit working to empower Muslim women to imagine themselves as leaders, scholars and teachers.
A Dec. 9 piece on women in Buddhism by Luis Andres Henao explained that while women can be ordained as monks in the Mahayana school of Buddhism (China, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam), they can’t in the Tibetan tradition (China, Mongolia) and they’re only beginning to do so in the Theravada school (Sri Lanka and –- unofficially -– in Thailand).
What puzzled me was this: If women can already be nuns in these traditions, why are they pushing to be monks? Maybe the answer is obvious, but it escaped me.
Most interesting quote:
Author and journalist Michaela Haas praised Tsomo, Palmo and other women profiled in her book “Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.” But she’s disappointed by the lack of progress.
“We should be further along, and despite these great women teachers, the tradition hasn’t changed that much,” she said.
“They have to work extra hard and do double the work and be super, super qualified.” Meanwhile in some monasteries, she said, women, even nuns, are tasked with cooking and laundry, “so it’s still an old-fashioned understanding of gender roles.”
Also on Dec. 9, Adelle Banks (RNS) and Peter Smith (AP) came out with a piece on women gaining top roles in black Protestant churches. Women have been ordained in Pentecostal congregations for decades.
The following sums up the theme.
Most major Black Christian denominations in the U.S. have no doctrinal bar to ordained women leaders in the way that Catholicism and some other denominations do, and women have preached and been ordained in historically Black churches since at least the 19th century.
Yet denominational leadership remained all-male until the 21st century, and women are still the exception in the top rungs.
Most telling quote:
Religious organizations still need to do more to provide women chances for leadership development, said the Rev. Maisha Handy, associate professor of religion and education at the Interdenominational Theological Center, a consortium of historically African American seminaries in Atlanta…
Women pastors often receive assignments to smaller congregations with fewer resources or opportunities to gain experience and preparation for denominational leadership, Handy said.
“It’s not just about ordination. It’s about placement,” said Handy.
I’ve read the exact same sentiment in articles about women in the workplace. Lack of network opportunities, lack of models and assignments in out-of-the-way posts that go nowhere happen in the secular milieu as well.
This past Sunday, Bob Smietana (RNS) and Holly Meyer (AP) did a piece on Southern Baptist women that quoted both women who were satisfied with the status quo. The best quotes in the piece are from Katie McCoy, who left a dead-end position at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth to become the new women’s ministry director for Texas Baptists.
The article seemed quite even-handed, although I hope to hear more on outliers like Saddleback Church, one of the country’s largest SBC congregations, which ordained three women in May. I have yet to see the definitive piece on what led to Saddleback taking this step only a few weeks before the denomination’s annual convention.
I assume a piece about women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will show up and hopefully something about women in Reformed Protestant congregations, which were totally left out of this piece, but who are also barred from being elders, much less pastors. I’m curious if there will be mention of Anabaptist traditions, which also forbid women in leadership roles.
Also, I hope to see a sympathetic treatment of the theological reasons why some people –- certain Anglican groups come to mind –- who feel that female leaders are a betrayal of scripture. I get that it’s not a popular position, but it does deserve some explanation. Otherwise, the whole debate is framed by one side, with the opponents’ POV left unsaid because it doesn’t seem worth repeating.
By the way, AP’s Deepti Hajela just did this piece on women leaders in Hinduism. Although most of the examples were from women in the United States, there was mention of one leader in Pune, India’s academic center. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the premises in these stories, it is to RNA/AP’s credit that they’re engaging in such a huge topic and have employed significant resources for it.
FIRST IMAGE: Inset photo is of an actress portraying the Virgin Mary in the new release “Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers.” Publicity photo used with permission.