Carter & his Church
First things first: I uploaded 56 pictures of our Eurotrip to Flickr. You can check them out here.
In other news: after 60 years, Jimmy Carter has left the Southern Baptist Church over its “subjugation of women”. Quoth Carter:
At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities. [...] The truth is that male religious leaders have had — and still have — an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world.
I wholeheartedly agree with Carter, by the way, and I think it’s incredible that, after six decades of public involvement, he’s chosen to distance himself. I would go a step further, however: male religious leaders have used their “option to interpret” for many more purposes than subjugating women. Selective use of biblical passages is hypocrisy of the first order: you can’t both outlaw homosexuality and eat shellfish; you can’t both think of women as your property and give her gold or pearls. Picking and choosing is not an option if your world view is as black and white as your favorite biblical commands say it is.
