Justice for women in the Church

Over the past fifty years of ministry in both my study and experience I have becom more and more convinced that the deepest root of homophobis both in our culture and in our church is feminapbobia, the fear and suppression of the feminine. Consequently, the most important contribution that can be made to gay liberation is for the gay community to commit itseelf to women's liberation.




I published a book that deals with this connection in the epilogue: Emerging From The Heart Of The World. The book was recently reissued by Lethe press. The title is Freedom, Glorious Freedom: The Spiritual Journey To The Fullness Of Life For Gays, Lesbians, and Everybody Else. ( A summary of that study can be found in my article Misogyny and Homophobia on my website: www.johnjmcneill.com.)

I am aware that many bloga deal even better than I with empowering women in the Church. My hope is to offer a few suggestions for an effective pragmatic program to help brings this about.

My fist suggetion is to, as Republicans would say, "Starve the beast". The Vatican and the Bishops will not empower woman until they see it as a financial neccesity. Lets call on all the faithful to stop giving money to the institutional church and contribute money instead directly to charity. Refuse to directly support the institutional church until it deals with its female members in a just manner.



My friend Brendan Fay suggested that money should be sent to Mary Hunt's organization WATER, to set up a scholarship fund for woman, who feeling called by God to priesthood, need support to attend a seminary and prepare themselves to become effective priests.

In my next few blogs I will make further pragmatic suggestions on how to go about achievig justice for women in the institutional church.