Bilgrimage

sharing my journey to hope's horizon

Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Pope and Patriarchy: A Calamitous Calculation for the Future of Catholicism

And the litany of names of women writers who have significantly influenced my life—who have made me the person I am, for weal or for woe—continues in my head: Sigrid Undset, Jane Smiley, Flannery O'Connor, Denis Levertov, Elizabeth Bishop, Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, Ellen Glasgow, Marilynne Robinson, Eudora Welty, Annie Proulx, Shirley Jackson, Doris Lessing, Anne Frank, Sylvia Plath, Julia Esquivel, Eavan Boland, Gladys Taber, Lois Lenski, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz . . . .

If women’s interpretation of the holy books carried the gravitas of any man’s word about them, and if women had significant influence on the process by which the rules are made, the world would be a very different place, I believe. Benedict may be pope, but he’s wrong, my soul tells me, to bank everything on patriarchy, and to welcome with such vigor those groups within the Christian churches who are most resistant to women’s voices. This is an unwise move, a move against the most powerful currents of hope in the world today. And a move against the Spirit’s tug.

The graphic is a Russian icon showing Sophia with Faith, Hope, and Love.
Posted by William D. Lindsey at 9:31 AM
Labels: Benedict XVI, misogyny, patriarchy, Vatican
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William D. Lindsey
I'm a theologian who writes about the interplay of belief and culture. My husband Steve (also a theologian) and I are now in our 49th year together. Though the church has discarded us (and here, here, here, and here) because we insist on being truthful about our shared life, we continue to celebrate the amazing grace we find in our journey together and love for each other. We live in hope; we remain on pilgrimage.... A note about my educational background: I have a Ph.D. and M.A. in theology from Univ. of St. Michael's College, Toronto School of Theology; an M.A. in English from Tulane Univ.; and a B.A. in English from Loyola, New Orleans.
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Selected Publications

Religion and Public Life in the Southern Crossroads Region: The Showdown States. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira, 2004. Ed. by William D. Lindsey and Mark Silk.

Shailer Mathews’ Lives of Jesus: The Search for a Theological Foundation for the Social Gospel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Singing in a Strange Land: Praying and Acting with the Poor. Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1991.

“On Being Church in the New Millennium: The Challenge and Gift of Gay Believers,” Theology and Sexuality 16 (2002), 96-104.

“AIDS, Homosexuality, and the Churches in America Today,” Bulletin for Contextual Theology in Southern Africa and Africa 7,1 (2000), 45-48.

“The AIDS Crisis and the Church: A Time to Heal.” In Christian Perspectives on Sexuality and Gender, ed. Adrian Thatcher and Elizabeth Stuart. London: Eerdmans and Gracewing, 1996. Pp. 347-66.

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