WOMEN AS CLERGY:
The status of women in society and religion
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Equal rights for women: an overview:
In colonial days, power in North America was concentrated among white, male, Christian,
heterosexual land owners. In many colonies:
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African-Americans were enslaved; |
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Women were not permitted to vote; |
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Jews could not hold office; |
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Homosexuals could be executed or sentenced to long jail sentences; and/or |
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A person had to own land in order to vote. |
Over the centuries, restrictions on women and minorities have been lessened. The United
States and Canada have moved with agonizing slowness towards the concept of "liberty
and justice for all."
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Gays and lesbians have gained a
few fundamental civil rights protections in some states, including the right to
enter into civil unions in Vermont. But the many hundreds of
advantages and responsibilities that are automatically given to
married couples by the federal government are still denied them. In other
states homosexual activity is criminalized and can be punished with a 10 year jail sentence. | |
Women and racial minorities are now
permitted to enter almost any profession. They are protected from discrimination by civil
rights laws in many states and across Canada. The two notable exceptions are that:
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some combat assignments within the Armed Forces are still restricted to men only. |
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women are prohibited from positions of authority within many religious organizations. |
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In recent decades, discrimination against individuals on the basis of race, or gender
has been viewed with increasing disgust throughout North America. Societal pressure will
probably increase on those religious organizations who are seen to follow racist and
sexist policies.
As with so many other instances of social change, the more liberal faith
groups have
modified their practices first; they now select clergy on the basis of the individual's
intelligence, personality and knowledge - without regard for their gender. However, the
most conservative traditions within many religions have not followed suit. They find it
difficult to conform to the secular standard, because their sacred texts are
interpreted as restricting positions of authority to men. To treat women equally in their churches would
ignore the teachings of scripture, as they view it. They feel that their stance is not driven by a desire to oppress women. Rather,
they devoutly feel that the Bible does not authorize their denomination to ordain women.
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The U.S. and Canada have numerous civil-rights laws at the federal, state/provincial
and local level. But most include a clause that allows religious groups to freely
discriminate against men or women. The most important U.S. legislation in this area is the
Civil rights Act of 1964. It criminalized discrimination in employment on the basis
of gender, race, and other grounds. But Section 702 it exempted "religious corporations,
associations, or societies with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular
religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such corporations,
associations, or societies of their religious activities."
This exemption
was widened in 1972 to allow religious groups to discriminate on the basis of an
employee's religion for all activities -- not just in their religiously oriented
activity. Thus, a denomination could refuse to ordain women and also refuse to
hire women to staff their bookstore. The establishment
clause of the First amendment guarantees unusual freedom for religious institutions to
discriminate in their selection of employees -- freedom that is not allowed
other employees.
There have been many attempts to sue Christian employers on grounds of sexual
discrimination; almost all have failed. Of the few that have succeeded, unusual factors
were involved:
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Pacific Press Publishing Association is a Seventh-Day
Adventist publishing group which discriminated economically against some of its
female employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the publishers,
claiming that the company should be subject to the Civil Rights Act. This claim was based
on the facts that the company was not a purely sectarian organization, that the employee
involved was involved in administrative tasks with little religious content, and that the
church itself has a policy against economic discrimination on the basis of gender. The
employer was found guilty of discrimination. |
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Fremont Christian School It provided health insurance for everyone in its employ,
with the exception of its married female employees. They argued from their Assembly of
God beliefs that only the husband can be the head of a household. The court found that
the School already gave equal wages, group life coverage and disability coverage to all
employees, without regards to their gender or marital status. Thus the court could require
the school to extend health insurance benefits to all without infringing on its religious
freedom. |
It would seem that religious organizations can discriminate against its female
employees with relative impunity. It is only when:
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the organization is less than fully sectarian, |
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the employee's job has little or no religious content, |
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the employer is unable to justify discrimination on deeply held religious grounds, or |
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they discriminate financially against women in an inconsistent manner |
that they may be required to treat their female employees equally. Churches can
continue to deny ordination to women with complete safety from government or court
interference.
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U.S. federal labor statistics indicate that the number of women who describe themselves
as "clergy" increased from 16,408 in 1983 to 43,542 in 1996. As of 1996, 1 in
every 8 clergy is female in the U.S.
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The percentage of female graduate students at 229 North American Christian schools of
theology has risen from 10% in 1972 to 30% in 1997. 1 In some
schools of theology, over 50% of the students are women. |
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"A Chorus of Amens as More Women Take over Pulpit," The Washington
Post, 1998-JUL-25
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Copyright © 1996 to 2002 incl., by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance.
Extracted from file femclrgy.htm on 2000-DEC-17
Latest update: 2002-JUN-3
Author: Bruce A. Robinson
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