The Nunslap and the GOP's War on Women: Coincidence? I think not.

this would be me after 2 weeks.

I'm still pretty chapped about the Vatican's recent Nunslap against the LCWR, a group representing most American nuns, by the papal powers that be.


Garry Wills wrote an excellent article recently on the reason for the US nuns' and the Roman bishops' division.  It is, simply put, the pastoral versus the juridical.  Nuns serve those in need; bishops enforce Rome's rules. http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/apr/24/bullying-nuns/


One of many terrific quotes:  Now the Vatican says that nuns are too interested in “the social Gospel” (which is the Gospel), when they should be more interested in Gospel teachings about abortion and contraception (which do not exist). Nuns were quick to respond to the AIDS crisis, and to the spiritual needs of gay people—which earned them an earlier rebuke from Rome. They were active in the civil rights movement. They ran soup kitchens.


But here's my bigger worry:  that now, having let the monster out of the box on this nun thing, more stuff I'm pissed off about will start coming out.  Oh no, here it comes.


To wit:  it's hard to look at the Nunslap and not see echoes of the same thing in the situation certain factions of the GOP would like to put American women in, at least to hear the media frame it.  How is it possible, for example, that we can be having conversations in 2012 limiting women's access to contraception?  I understand fully the whole Church position that life begins at conception, BUT it's also true that during Vatican II, a papal birth control commission made a careful study of all the issues and theological angles, and recommended to Pope Paul VI a complete lifting of the ban on birth control, only to have the decision reversed due to machinations by a highly placed ally of the Pope.


If birth control, which the Church was ready to put to rest 50 years ago as an issue, is widely available, are the powers that be unable to do the math and see that abortions would go down due to so many fewer unwanted pregnances? - which would mean precious astronomical healthcare cost savings, at a time when we've got aging Boomers aplenty.


On different yet related note, on what planet does it make sense for insurers to provide coverage for Viagra but be reluctant to do so for birth control?  Listen, babe, my Insta-Boner is covered, but if it gets you pregnant, that's your deal, not mine. I'm not done being mad about that one but will save it for another post.


Don't get me wrong:  this isn't some rant from a member of the She-Woman Man-Hater's Club.  I like men, on a lot of levels.  I really do.  It's just that I keep getting the sense that if, for some of these well-heeled (mostly) gentlemen trying so hard to get these uppity women back in line and shut them up, if they could switch places with a woman for a while, some of this nonsense would never have been on the table.

Vatican to US Nuns (and all women): STFU!

Duct tape vould be zo much cheaper...

Until now, I have left religion alone like the ticking landmine it is, because that's your reality and blah blah blah.  But I can be silent no longer.  This latest outrage screams for an equally outraged response.

The Vatican has concluded a major investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which represents a huge percentage of women religious in this country, with an appropriately outrageous smackdown report:  Apparently, US nuns have been spending too much time focusing on social injustice and the poor, while remaining silent on or questioning other issues they should be pushing, such as the Church's official positions on male-only priesthood, homosexuality, and same-sex marriage.

Remember when our nuns were nice and quiet?

In other words, the nuns are less than jazzed-up about the very issues you would think intelligent, thoughtful religious women with no power in the hierarchy might be tempted to soft-pedal in favor of other, more practical and productive topics.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/us/vatican-reprimands-us-nuns-group.html


These women have given their lives to support an institution which does not support them.  They are NOT pushing for female ordination of priests or even deacons (don't even get me started on deacons).*  Just by asking questions and voicing opinions, they are accused of advancing a "radical feminist" agenda.

There's a backstory here which I may go into sometime, but suffice it to say this:  I converted to Catholicism, from nothing, in 2001.  I gave it the old college try for years, eventually becoming a lay pastoral minister, but needed to step back from it for a year.  It got lonely, though, and I had just started going back six weeks ago.  I figured I would just set my phaser to Ignore for the many parts that don't work for me.  Still good to sit quietly in a consecrated space with a group of decent people, right?  And the singing is nice.  An extra hour chilling with my family.

...but then this happens and reminds me (again) that I cannot ignore the vast gulf between the Church and what a lot of reasonable people think.  I cannot overlook the messages that these kinds of actions send not only to women religious, but to all women in the church, to our daughters and our sisters.  I can't be quiet about it any more.

* Did you know there used to be female deacons?  Yup.  Deaconesses.  The Church doesn't make much noise about that.  I learned it in my Called & Gifted Lay Minister training, incidentally paid for by the Archdiocese of Chicago.  Apparently they were very handy to have around, and there were a lot of them, until somebody got the idea that menstruation made women unclean.  So, like I said, don't me started...

Don't Get Me Started: Karzai Says Raped Afghan Woman Can Marry Whomever She Wants

So the Afghan woman who was imprisoned by Karzai's government for being raped, and then told by Karzai that she'd be released on the grounds that she married her rapist, is now being told she is free to marry whomever she wants.

Thanks, Mr. Karzai.  That's really big-hearted of you.  This is the government our government put in place, and is keeping alive with tons of American and NATO money.

Political-ish: Gaddafi's Sexy Ukrainian Nurse Is Sad Now

Oksana Balinskaya, Gaddafi's most faithful nurse, might be the only human either brave or clueless enough to come out and say she is mourning "Daddy" now that he's gone.  He was a terrible, evil, awful person, but I have to give her credit for not caring what people think (unless she doesn't actually know what people think, in which case I take it all back.)

It does raise a question:  is a person worthy of forgiveness, no matter what they do?  The Catholic Church would say yes - that even if humans can't find it in their hearts to forgive, they should try, and that God has already forgiven them regardless.

Hm.  Do you think even the most evil person deserves forgiveness?

Evil with a side of perv, times 3

This is one sick trifecta...
1. Moammar Gaddafi's "love den":  quease-inducing enough as is, but the adjoining gynecological exam room and operating theatre push it into a new super-yuckosphere.  The media didn't even want to linger.
2.  Pat Robertson: If your wife has Alzheimer's and you're seeing a lady on the side, better to divorce the wife & marry the mistress.  Apparently finding some other way to gratify your sexytime needs and taking care of your dang poor sick wife are out of scope for Pat.

3.  Dominique Strauss-Kahn:  now that he's free in France, former IMF head DSK says, "whoops, I meant I did have sex with that maid!"...but, he insists, it was consensual.  DSK, you look like Claude Rains and you have one heck of a speaking voice.  But you're still a f**er, and not in a good sense.  Makes me ashamed to have studied French.