Ah, the Pope he wears a dress-
says he'll excommunicate
any fag who's in drag
for in his position
it's competition
and he's learning to share his feelings.
Ah, the pope he lives alone-
peons serve him on a plate,
condemns all women from his throne,
for to him it's chillin'
if any woman is willin'
and he's learning to share his feelings.
Ah, the Pope who lives alone-
has no women near his throne
so no female can ever bother
this very holey father
says it's Mary he adores
[though we've heard this all before]
and he's attempting to share his feelings.
Ah, the Pope he's never married,
disgusting thing to procreate,
children, babies make him harried,
though he needs them for his coffers
since there are no other offers
to get all the gold he can hold
and you're learning his true feelings.
Susan R. Grout 1995
A big question today, as it has been for centuries: what happened to women in all religions of the world? Why is it almost every major religion's policy is to exclude women from all the important functions of the churches? How can any level headed female today participate in a church which, for all practical purposes, shuns them because of their sex? From Muslims, to Jews, to Catholics to Baptists to Mormons, to name just a few, the treatment of women in their teachings and rules is frankly humiliating and in my mind, laughable.
Until very recently no woman was allowed on the altar in the Catholic churches, no altar girls. This has changed but priests are still not allowed to marry as if being intimate with a woman somehow makes the priest unclean. My own sainted Mother used to say, "if they allowed priests to marry they'd fill all those empty pews." She was right. And even though the Episcopalians have allowed women ministers for over a decade, and married clergy, I'm thinking they've not come to ruin.
My conclusion is that the men in charge are afraid. But of what? That women will bleed on their altar? That women will be unwilling to follow the rules that fosters misogyny and lets females be treated as second class citizens? Laughable.
What is not laughable is one sad statistic: 99% of the pedophilia in the churches is caused by men. I know that the Catholic church has gotten all of the publicity and lawsuits about the pedophiles, but truth be told, there are an equal number of pedophiles in all major religions, [see the list above] especially the ones that are fundamentalist and oppressive in their attitudes towards women. What all of the sexual predators in these hierarchies of the churches have in common is their sex: male. So remind me, why aren't women playing a bigger part in the hierarchy of these churches?
I realize that even though it is purported that the churches are all about spiritual values in fact they are also about power and money. This fact cries out for overseers.
Just as it is important for us to be electing more women in our country that is increasingly being less sympathetic to families of the poor, we also should be actively recruiting women as watchdogs in our churches. If these men want to keep the power in churches, they need to have check and balances. A good check for the males in power is to have someone of the opposite sex that can keep tabs on the emotional well being of their churches. This I realize is a grand fantasy on my part, but hey it's my blog.
So, is there any hope for the Pope? I would bring back a Pope John the XXIII, the jolly one who opened the churches and gave everyone the go ahead for a friendlier church, more about love than money. Is there any hope for this Pope, a former Nazi
and one who doesn't recognize that value of condoms even when there is very real danger of a woman getting AIDS from her husband? At this point, no. The Holy Father, that's really laughable.
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| Dante Gabriel Rossitti's St. Joan of Arc |
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