Saturday, August 05, 2006

Challenge from Women Priests

I found this article interesting. As I mentioned in my own article on women's exclusion, the Roman Catholic arguments sound very much like those the Baha'is use. When I was researching, I was reading some of the official statements, and if you changed a few technical terms, it could have been the UHJ talking.

The huge difference -- both an advantage and disadvantage -- is that the Baha'i exclusion applies only at the top. That means that it's easier to live with, and easier to ignore. It is also far more difficult to stage the type of protest this article is talking about. The "womenpriests" group can get male bishops to secretly ordain women, who can ordain other women, which gives a certain type of legitimacy. After all, men get to be priests by being ordained by bishops, too. But the Baha'i Faith has an elective structure. If some renegade NSA members, like these unnamed male bishops, decided to put women in a position where they are excluded (i.e. the UHJ), the ballots would be just quietly disqualified, and nobody would hear any more about it.

3 comments:

Karen said...

Because I've been busy with other things.

Anonymous said...

Dear Karen,

Greetings. I'm not sure that you remember me. But we've indirectly come in contact on Beliefnet. Since your presence has left (which is missed by the way), I've gone through my own journey with regards to the gender/sexuality issues in the faith. I am also disturbed by the lack of free speech/intellectual space in the faith. It's stiffling....So basically, while right now I'm still registered, I attend a UU church on sundays and am in the process of disengaging from Bahai soon enough. Its kinda sad really.

In any case, with regards to your comment about women, I think that something needs to be done to let Haifa know that the Covenant is just NOT enough to excuse this type of behavior. To have the audacity to lay such sexism at the feet of a few out of context comments by the Master is outrageous!!! The more I think about this sly sexism, the more angry and outraged I get. No more swallowing my rights for the sake of the Covenant. The truth is the truth.

Peace.
Afiya

Anonymous said...

Sexism is just one of the reasons why I have left organized religion.

-Melody