file under: institutions, outdated.

so the pope's been laid to rest. and with him a rather unfortunate legacy. or at least what seems to be, if we accept the propaganda puked up by the religious right.

johnny p. was indeed quite the social conservative, but we also shouldn't forget that for all the religious right's appropriation of all things religious for devious neocon ends, the catholic church is still a surprisingly liberal institution.

i read an interesting article in the NYT last week about how GWB has appropriated the pope's "culture of life" terminology from his last encyclical in order to resonate with catholic voters. and while the pope is indeed a hardliner on contentious issues like abortion, women in the clergy, and same-sex marriage, one shouldn't accept this neocon appropriation at face value. the 'culture of life' is a lot more than just not having abortions - it's distinctly focused on workers' rights and living conditions, pacifism, distribution of wealth, preservation of natural resources, and many many other things. not least of which is an absolute opposition to the death penalty. reconcile your policies with that, neocons. which is why it made me sick when american councils of priests told their congregations that they were obligated to vote for GWB because he was the 'pro-life' candidate. gosh, 17355 dead iraqis... is that pro-life? 152 executed prison inmates in texas... is that pro-life? blatant profiteering, corporate cronyism, and union-busting... are any of these things pro-life? just because you don't think that people should be allowed to kill babies doesn't instantly make you "pro-life."

anyways, back to the church. i support reproductive rights. but the idea of women in the clergy is kind of troublesome to me, kind of for the same reason that it troubles me when women stay in unfulfilling relationships. why do women want to enter the clergy so badly when the central authorities of the church don't want them to? i think that the church's banning of female priests is emblematic of a much larger problem in its worldview that's not simply going to be fixed by letting women into the clergy. even the gospels that the church chooses as canonical are carefully chosen and edited to minimize the role of women in the life of Jesus. the catholic church is an essentially patriarchal institution, and i don't think that it will ever be truly reformed.

maybe i just don't really understand what it's like, but it seems to me like the efforts put into lobbying for the vatican to ordain women could be more usefully spent in the creation of a church with a doctrine that was egalitarian right from the get-go. quit pining for the acceptance of an institution that's not interested, and get one that is.