The roots of male bias in the church - From The Stand

In researching data for a homily at the Women's Sunday worship service at the Union Theological Seminary "Salakot" Chapel, I turned to Challenges to the Inner Room, a compilation of essays and speeches on women by Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB. a particular essay, "Woman and Religion," had what I precisely wanted. It presented the historical roots of male bias against women in religion, beginning with the writing of the Bible by men writers, its interpretation by men, and its being taught for the last 2,000 years by men. The result of this monopoly over writing and interpreting and teaching has led to the use of the Bible "to justify the subordination and discrimination of women," writes Sister Mary John," and yet, women, not men, are the most constant believers in the Bible or God's word."

The monopoly was in context with the "monotheistic patriarchalism" of the Hebrews, which considered God a patriarch. Mananzan describes the patriarchy thus: "There was a pronounced male domination over women. It had a double standard of morality favorable to men. Women were considered properties of their fathers or husbands. The women's main contribution was bearing children. That was why to be barren was a curse. Needless to say, they were excluded from cultic participation except as spectators. They had to observe ritual purification for menstruation and childbirth. It must be said that despite those limitations, prominent women emerged in the Old Testament. These were Deborah, the mighty prophetess; Esther, who saved her people; Ruth, a symbol of fidelity; Judith, who was considered an honor to her people and the glory of Israel, Delilah, Tamar, and others.

The coming of Jesus of Nazareth and the ensuing Jesus Movement were critical to the then Jewish society. Mananzan quotes another Roman Catholic theologian, Elizabeth Fiorenza, who writes that the Jesus renewal movement "stands in conflict with its Jewish society and is 'heretical' with respect to the Jewish religious community. The earliest Jesus traditions expect a reversal of all social conditions through the eschatological intervention of God. This is initially realized in the ministry of Jesus. Therefore the Jesus movement can accept all those who according to contemporary social standards are marginal people and who are, according to the Torah, 'unclean', the poor, the exploited, the public sinners, the publicans, the maimed and the sick, and last but not the least, the women."

In the early Christian communities, the character of the Jesus movement found expression in the abolition of social distinction class, religion, race, and gender. Mananzan cites Galatians 3:8 which finds expressions in Gentiles, slaves, and women assuming leadership functions in the missionary activities.

Unfortunately, the egalitarian elements in the Jesus movement gradually got eliminated in what Fiorenza calls "ecclesiastical patriarchalization." This was a part of the "apologetic development of cultural adaptation that was necessary because the early Christian missionary movement, like the Jesus movement in Palestine, was a countercultural conflict movement that undermined the patriarchal structure of the Graceo-Roman politeia."

This ecclesiastical patriarchalization led to the exclusion of women from church offices; women had to conform to their stereotyped role in patriarchal culture. Mananzan writes that it was "no longer a woman's call to discipleship that wrought out her salvation but her prescribed role as wife and mother."

The situation went on relentlessly throughout Church history, The Fathers of the Church became increasingly misogynistic in their writings. Tertullian, for example, told women "to dress in mourning and rags . . . redeeming thus the fault of having ruined the human race. You are the Door of hell: you, finally, are the cause why Jesus Christ had to die." Thomas Aquinas considered women as "misbegotten males."

Stress was placed on vowed celibacy both for men and women. Monasteries were established, and convent life became circumscribed by the rules imposed by clerical authorities, who were male. In the Middle Ages, there emerged a systematic persecution of charismatic women who were condemned as witches. Between the 13th and 18th centuries, about a million women, including Joan of Arc, were burned to death.

As many of us might know, women in pre-Spanish Philippines enjoyed equal status with men. In the 16th century, Spain brought Christianity and Western civilization with its patriarchal society to the Philippines. The same misogynistic trend that was present in the Western Church was, of course, brought to the island, writes Mananzan. The friars spared no effort to mold the Filipino women to the image and likeness of the Spanish women of the Iberian society of their time.

The same patriarchal structure dominates the Catholic and Protestant traditions in the country. The hierarchy of many Protestant denominations refuses to have women ordained, but more so of the Catholic Church, even if, Mananzan says, "progressive theologians find no fundamental reasons for the discrimination."

With the historical religious bias among the church hierarchy, it is not difficult to see why patriarchalism exists in almost every aspect of life in western societies as well as in ours.

This noon, Bulong-Pulung as Westin Philippine Plaza will feature panelists who will talk about the Philippine women's situation five years after the holding of the Fourth International Conference on Women in Beijing. Panelists will be former senator Letty Shahani, Dr. Inday Ofreneo, Ermelita Valedevia, and Trining Doming.