Changes+in+Recent+Times

Shifts Toward Inclusion

 It is obvious that there have been numerous changes in the intersection of gender, religion and communication over the millennia - far too many to even scratch the surface of within these pages. Many agree that momentus change in this area has happened in the past four decades, however, brought on in large part by the second wave of the women’s movement and later the gay rights movement and the questions and challenges they raised.  While Elizabeth Cady Stanton critiqued biblical traditions in //The Woman’s Bible// in 1895, Naomi Goldenberg (1979) explains that Stanton encountered opposition to that cause even from within her own ranks as many women felt that taking on the church would harm their focus on voting rights for women. Real changes in the structure, practices and language of faith traditions would take much longer to gain a foothold, and would encounter major opposition at every turn. In this page we will explore a few of these changes and how they are affecting the intersection of gender, communication and religious culture, including female defiance against a weakening patriarchal order in the Catholic Church and unorthodox Christianity in gay marriage. As we see, there are ways in which gender diversity is not only being acknowledged but accomodated in a dynamic religious scene.

 Welcoming Congregations

  In the 1970s, some religious organizations began looking at the spiritual needs of their gay members and the gay community at large. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) created the Office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Concerns in 1973, and in 1987 formed the Common Vision Planning Committee that found many precipitating reasons for the exclusion of the LGBT community from their churches. In order to address these underlying reasons, the UUA Assembly delegates in 1989 voted to initiate the Welcoming Congregation program to educate its members. A completely voluntary program for congregations seeing a need to become more welcoming of the LGBT community, it consists of a series of workshops intended to reduce prejudice and increase understanding and acceptance. The Welcoming Congregation program has since spread to other Christian denominations and Jewish congregations.

Recently released studies have shown that Welcoming Congregations are more active in other social justice issues, have more LGBT-focused ministries or programs, are more likely to address other sexuality issues, are more comfortable addressing sexuality issues in general, and are less concerned that LGBT advocacy will reduce their membership than other congregations. To read both a fuller synopsis of the results of the surveys, visit: [|National Gay & Lesbian Task Force]

In //Not in Families Like Us,// Cynthia Norman (1994) discussed the binary systems that promulgate abuse. Heterosexual and other is one of those binaries. One might suppose that having the support of a spiritual community that was a welcoming community to everyone along the gendex continuum Perry and Ballard-Reisch described in //There’s a Rainbow in my Closet// (Backlund & William, 2004) would make life in the closet, if not completely unnecessary, at least a lot more comfortable. The cognitive development and social learning for all future generations in those congregations would be that of inclusion not exclusion.

Women in Religious Leadership

 "This woman's question is a dangerous question... What is the role of women in the church? Is there such a thing as a woman being called to priesthood? Those are questions...I'm in good company calling for that discussion. I have never insisted that I know the answer. I do know that it's a question." - Sister Joan Chittister   <span style="line-height: 27px; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“This woman’s question” as author and international lecturer Sister Joan Chittester puts it, is not just dangerous, it is at the core of the answer to our central question - Is God a white male? If the language and symbolism of the Judeo-Christian tradition for generations has created and supported a male-centric image of God, and by extension and role model male leadership of the church, state and family, letting women in to any of those realms upsets the patriarchal order of all of them. <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia,serif;">I <span style="font-size: 11.2pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;">n her //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 80%;">Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions, // <span style="font-size: 11.2pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Naomi Goldenberg (1979) shares her experience of sitting in her first consciousness-raising group in 1971. When one woman shared her experience of giving up her attempt to be a minister because “The clergy can’t accept women in their ranks” (p.3), Goldenberg wondered what would happen to God as women started moving in numbers into the realm of religious leadership. She believed that the nature of a religion was found in the nature of the symbols and images of its rituals and beliefs, and that the psychology of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition depended on their masculine image of God. She stated, “Feminists change the major psychological impact of Judaism and Christianity when they recognize women as religious leaders and as images of divinity” (p. 5). Goldenberg, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton before her, felt that the Judeo-Christian religions were too patriarchal and misogynist to be changed from within. Many other women have also looked outside the traditional religious structures for a spirituality that included them more fully. <span style="font-family: Georgia,fantasy; font-size: small; line-height: 19px;"> <span style="font-size: 12.6pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia,serif;">In her book //Goddess: A Celebration in Art and Literature//, Jalaja Bonheim (1997) talks about the shivers sent down her spine the first time she read the four thousand year old story of the descent to the underworld of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth. She equates her own experience of “discovering” the Goddess with the surge of interest in Her in recent decades. In countless books, films and web sites, some sprinkled throughout this wiki, some listed at the end of this section, the Goddess, the Divine Feminine, the Sacred Feminine is explored by many writers and artists eager to fill the gap in western religion – the missing feminine aspect of God. Many have chosen to look for it in the counterpublic sphere of women's spirituality. Barbara Walker's //The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets// (1983) is an amazing compendium of hidden or misrepresented information in mythology, anthropology, religion and sexuality. Did you know that Eve was Adam's second wife? That there was a female pope? Margot Adler’s //Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America Today// (1986) provides a current picture of those practicing what many consider the oldest religion, paganism (the beliefs of country-dwellers) reframes that and other terms, and gives voice to these groups who have been muted and marginalized for centuries.

Others, like Rosemary Radford Ruether (1983), focus on the links traditional religion makes between woman/body/nature, and how male dominance has used, misused and exploited all three. Writer and lecturer Andrew Harvey (1995) takes that idea and explains it’s relevance for humanity at this time in history: “…it is time that we all, in the name of the sacred feminine, in the name of this great revolution, call all the religions to a new order. We must examine what they’ve left us, and how saturated their preconceptions are by exactly the kinds of rejection of the body, of sexuality, of nature, that we must now reverse for the planet to be saved and for the vision of the Divine Mother, of a liberated humanity at play at her feast, to be realized” (p. 238).

Whether working from within religions, or from outside remembering, re-envisioning, re-imagining, reframing, renaming and re-establishing ancient Goddess religions or working for gender and sexuality equality in other public realms, the continued and increasing inclusion of women in leadership positions and images of the divine feminine is changing the face of God.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center; display: block; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="text-align: center; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">For further exploration of the Sacred Feminine and Women's Spirituality: <span style="text-align: left; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;">//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">**The Gospel According to Woman** //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">by Karen Armstrong

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">**WomenSpirit Rising** //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">edited by Carol P. Christ & Judith Plaskow

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">**When God Was a Woman** //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;"> by Merlin Stone

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">**The Feminine Face of God** //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">by Sherry Ruth Anderson & Patricia Hopkins

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">**The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets** //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">by Barbara Walker

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">**Drawing Down the Moon** //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center; display: block;">by Margot Adler

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Inclusive Language, Equal Marriage & Reproductive Freedom<span style="font-size: 19px; font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: 27px;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,fantasy; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">One of the benefits of living in a democratic society, especially one that has a separation of church and state, like the United States, is that it makes it more difficult for one culture, whether of race, ethnicity, gender or religion, to have complete authority over all areas of life in the society. While religious culture still has great influence on our political and public life, changes can be made in the public or political arena without the approval of any official state religion. This has indeed been the case with inclusive language, equal marriage and reproductive freedom.

As DeFrancisco and Palczewski (2007) pointed out with numerous citations, "Research conclusively demonstrates that sex-exclusive language //does// influence the perception of those who read and hear it" (p. 115). Attempts to use inclusive language instead of the Patriarchal Universe of Discourse and semantic polarization of the language used in many Judeo-Christian faith communities (He-man references to God, etc.) has met with various levels of success. Many progressive churches and temples have adopted inclusive language over the past few decades, while others have remained firm in keeping their exclusive language. In other areas of society, such as education and government, efforts toward inclusive language have become commonplace and accepted. Do you think this may have something to do with the feeling that sometimes the polarized groups in this country (progressive/conservative, blue state/red state, etc.) seem to be speaking different languages? As we have learned is true for gendered communication, they probably are not from different planets, they may have just had different social and linguistic conditioning.

Gay marriage and civil unions is another issue that is being played out in both the political and religious spheres. Currently, Rhode Island is the only state in New England that does not recognize some form of legal relationship for gay couples. Might that have something to do with it's status as being the most Catholic state in the country? Listen to this [|CBS News Report] and/or the videos below and share your thoughts on this or any issue discussed on this page in the Discussion section.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> media type="youtube" key="YOdBYy2phMs" height="289" width="350" media type="youtube" key="xeKGlDn7WU8" height="289" width="350" <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;"> Reproductive freedom is another hot button topic with an intersect between private and public, religious and political life. Despite the fact that abortion was legalized in the U.S. in 1973, abortion is still not easily accessible to many women today due in large part to pressure, policies and practices of religiously-motivated anti-abortion groups. According to a July 2008 [|Guttmacher Institute Report] in 2005, 87% of U.S. counties did not have a legal abortion provider. In a world where overpopulation is a serious concern, the fact that Viagra is covered under many health insurance plans and birth control pills are not, raises many questions. What questions do you have about the intersection of religion, politics, gender/sexuality and communication?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Some Final Thoughts<span style="font-size: 19px; font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: 27px;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">We know from our studies in this course that both verbal and nonverbal communication influence gender identity formation. We have shown in this project some of the ways in which gendered communication within Judeo-Christian faith communities has been androcentric, has changed over time, is challenged by marginalized groups and has spawned exploration into a Goddess worshipping and polytheistic past. We have highlighted some specific examples of the subordination and denigration of women with sacred texts and church doctrine and how the idea, language and symbolism of God as a straight male have created, allowed for and encouraged sexist and patriarchal attitudes and behaviors. We have also provided some examples of major changes from within faith traditions and how those in the larger cultural context can either support or challenge sexism and patriarchy. Some of this is happening through modern media representations like advertising that is intended to draw attention, through recent movies like //The DaVinci Code// or the //Harry Potter// films and books that take these muted challenges to a wider mass audience, with the expected backlash resulting.

In his book //The Alphabet vs. The Goddess (1998),// surgeon and writer Leonard Shlain proposed that the invention of the printing press and the very act of reading strengthened the "male" side of the brain, thus assisting the arising patriarchy. He also believed that the transition from page to screen in which we are currently involved, will help bring the necessary balance to the brain of humanity. Hmmm...right back to nature vs. nurture? Or is this a nurture of nature theory?

Can you imagine an androgynous God? A transgender God? An inclusive God? How do you envision God - now or in the future? We'd love to know your thoughts on this or any other issue our group has raised in these pages. Thanks for exploring!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">References

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> Adler, Margot. (1986). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Drawing down the moon. // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">(2nd Ed.). Boston: Beacon Press.

Backlund, P. and William, M.R. (Eds.). (2004). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Readings in gender communication // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">. Belmont,CA: Wordsworth <span style="font-family: Arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> Bonheim, Jalaja. (1997). <span style="font-family: Arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Goddess: A celebration in art and literature. <span style="font-family: Arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal;"> //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">//New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang.// <span style="font-family: Arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 25px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal;">Chittester, Sister Joan. (2006) Perspectives on Gender and Religion [TV broadcast] Retrieved July 12, 2009 from // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> [] <span style="font-family: Georgia,fantasy; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px;"> DeBonis, Michael. (2008, November 24). Female Priest Challenges Church Law [Radio broadcast]. Chicago: WBEZ. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> DeFrancisco, V. and Palczewski, C. (Eds.). (2007). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Communicating gender diversity. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Thousand oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Goldenberg, Naomi. (1979). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the end of traditional religions //**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">. **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> Boston: Beacon Press.

Guttmacher Institute. (2008, July). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Facts on induced abortion in the United States. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Retrieved July 18, 2009, from []

Harvey, Andrew. (1995). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">The return of the mother. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> Berkeley, CA: Frog, Ltd.

Interfaith Working Group. (n.d.) //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Religion and sexuality // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">. Retrieved July 15, 2009, from <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px;">[]

Lillis, Mike. (2008, July). McCain's birth control dodge [Electronic version]. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">The Washington Independent. Norman, Cynthia A. (1994). Not in families like us: The social construction of child abuse in America. [Conference paper] Retrieved July 8, 2009 from http://www.tikvah.com/cc/conference.html //  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">Ruether, Rosemary Radford. (1983). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; text-decoration: none;"> Sexism and God-talk. Boston: Beacon Press. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> Shlain, Leonard. (1998). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">The alphabet versus the Goddess. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;"> New York: Penguin Group.

Walker, Barbara G. (1983). //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">The women's encyclopedia of myths and secrets. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">New York: Harper Collins.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; color: rgb(128, 128, 128); text-align: center; display: block;"> Main | Polytheism to Monotheism | Liberation & Oppression | <span class="wiki_link">Lingering Challenges | Shifts Toward Inclusion