What Do We Expect?
This morning, I heard a story on NPR about the C Street Center, a place where some of the most notoriously "bad boy" fundamentalist Christians in congress live when they're in Washington. The Center's tax status is in question, because it doesn't actually perform any of the functions of a church, but claims to be a church for tax purposes.
C Street is or was home to folks like South Carolina governor Mark Sanford of "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" infamy, Chip Pickering from Mississippi whose wife has filed an alienation of affection lawsuit against his mistress, and John Ensign who had an affair with a staffer.
These three men are part of a growing number of fundamentalist Christian men who are better known for their philandering than their accomplishments. They range from these politicians to religious figures like Ted Haggard and even Jerry Falwell.
What's up with this? Even if you're not bothered by the affairs, you have to be astounded at the hypocrisy. How can someone be so publicly Christian and so privately icky? (Icky... a technical term.)
I have a theory. The problem isn't Christianity, but fundamentalism. Fundamentalists in various religions share an important conviction: The belief that women are inferior to men.
We all see the most extreme examples of this kind of fundamentalism whenever we see the Taliban on television, or see women in burquhas, or are reminded that Saudi women are not permitted to drive. Or we see it in cultures that practice female genital mutilation. We see it when the press is full of the latest young woman's escape from being one of a dozen wives to a man old enough to be her father.
How can men who've been taught that women are to "submit" themselves unto their husbands, or that the woman was created for man, or that God is male, and that women are not to be in positions of leadership over men, or the thousand other messages of a patriarchal fundamentalism, be expected to treat women with any kind of respect? Why are we surprised? As long as our churches teach men that women are second-class citizens, unworthy, responsible for the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden, weaker, and in general less than men in every way, men will treat their wives like the chattel that, deep down, they believe them to be. They will do as they please, all the while spouting platitudes about "family values" and "personal responsibility."
There are religions and cultures which are more egalitarian; where deities are gender-neutral or both male and female; where the creation story does not blame one gender for all the evil in the world; where the emphasis is on oneness and unity instead of exclusivity and hierarchy. Is there less infidelity there? I don't know. Is there less hypocrisy? Absolutely.
C Street is or was home to folks like South Carolina governor Mark Sanford of "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" infamy, Chip Pickering from Mississippi whose wife has filed an alienation of affection lawsuit against his mistress, and John Ensign who had an affair with a staffer.
These three men are part of a growing number of fundamentalist Christian men who are better known for their philandering than their accomplishments. They range from these politicians to religious figures like Ted Haggard and even Jerry Falwell.
What's up with this? Even if you're not bothered by the affairs, you have to be astounded at the hypocrisy. How can someone be so publicly Christian and so privately icky? (Icky... a technical term.)
I have a theory. The problem isn't Christianity, but fundamentalism. Fundamentalists in various religions share an important conviction: The belief that women are inferior to men.
We all see the most extreme examples of this kind of fundamentalism whenever we see the Taliban on television, or see women in burquhas, or are reminded that Saudi women are not permitted to drive. Or we see it in cultures that practice female genital mutilation. We see it when the press is full of the latest young woman's escape from being one of a dozen wives to a man old enough to be her father.
How can men who've been taught that women are to "submit" themselves unto their husbands, or that the woman was created for man, or that God is male, and that women are not to be in positions of leadership over men, or the thousand other messages of a patriarchal fundamentalism, be expected to treat women with any kind of respect? Why are we surprised? As long as our churches teach men that women are second-class citizens, unworthy, responsible for the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden, weaker, and in general less than men in every way, men will treat their wives like the chattel that, deep down, they believe them to be. They will do as they please, all the while spouting platitudes about "family values" and "personal responsibility."
There are religions and cultures which are more egalitarian; where deities are gender-neutral or both male and female; where the creation story does not blame one gender for all the evil in the world; where the emphasis is on oneness and unity instead of exclusivity and hierarchy. Is there less infidelity there? I don't know. Is there less hypocrisy? Absolutely.
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