Kristof | Catholic Vatican Patriarchy As "Old Boys' Club"

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Perhaps I’m not fair to NYTimes columnist Nicholas D Kristof, having consumed his digital Kool-aid for only the last 24 months.

A dedicated liberal humanitarian and articulate writer on women’s issues, Kristof bends over backwards not to offend. My take on Kristof offers honey more often than vinegar, reasoned by a well-intentioned, moderate voice that says ‘yes we can.’

Words mean a lot, and I don’t recall Nicholas Kristof writing of global boys clubs and the patriarchy. Those are my words.

Last week, they belonged to Maureen Dowd. Today they are Kristof’s. Key voices on women’s issues are finally tackling big, bad words words, adding credentials and momentum to the baby voice of a fourth wave of feminism.

As Kristof writes today in A Church Mary Can Love, endless numbers of selfless priests and nuns are on the ground tending the poor and suffering, but …

It wasn’t inevitable that the Catholic Church would grow so addicted to male domination, celibacy and rigid hierarchies. Jesus himself focused on the needy rather than dogma, and went out of his way to engage women and treat them with respect.

The first-century church was inclusive and democratic, even including a proto-feminist wing and texts. The Gospel of Philip, a Gnostic text from the third century, declares of Mary Magdalene: “She is the one the Savior loved more than all the disciples.” Likewise, the Gospel of Mary (from the early second century) suggests that Jesus entrusted Mary Magdalene to instruct the disciples on his religious teachings.

In using words like ‘patriarchal’ and being willing to verbally critique the global Catholic hierarchy, Kristof moves front and center in the growing acknowledgement that the fourth wave of feminism MUST nail its primary plank to the reality that most global religions are patriarchal, infused with the belief that women must be subordinate to men.

This acknowledgement isn’t a popular one, but it’s a fact.

Mary Magdalene. By Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys. Ca. 1860Worldwide Muslim women, Catholic women, Southern Baptists and numerous other religious-affiliated women are pushing back vigorously against their religious patriarchies, arguing with a different line of reasoning that books —  including the Bible — have been rewritten, history retold and women’s very identity recast as wanton, sinning, unintelligent creatures who must be managed by men.

In his book, The Ratzinger Report, the Pope wrote: “I am, in fact, convinced that what feminism promotes in its radical form is no longer the Christianity that we know; it is another religion.”

Rosemary Radford Ruether, a professor of feminist theology at the Graduate Theological Union in California, said that among “liberal” Catholics, the Pope “is not our Pope”.

The Pope and his Conservative allies treat their position as the word of God, putting feminists in the treacherous position of being unfaithful not only to their religions, but to their national identities.

Absolutely I am considered unAmerican by many, even though I still get tears in my eyes when I hear the song ‘America the Beautiful’.

The patriarchy fully understands women’s desire for peaceful coexistence and harmony in our lives. New brain scans on women and men document that female brains light up with guilt and concern over what people will think of us. We want to be liked and have no desire to enhance our already tarnished reputations as global bad girls.

Fourth Wave of Feminism

Feminism has a complex history in America.

The first wave of feminism maintained a clear focus and agenda. The second wave began with focus but ended in total confusion about women’s identity. There was no anti-mother or anti-marriage focus among second-wave feminists.

Somehow, between militant feminists and Conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly, feminism as launched in the sixties and seventies became a bad-bad word.

In an upcoming interview, I am quoted as saying that I don’t know what the third wave of American feminism actually accomplished. Sorry, but I don’t.

Now we have genuine buzz of a fourth wave. Still skeptical about its possibilities in America, I do say that any fourth wave of feminism must return to the first wave with razor-sharp focus about our platform.

A clear understanding and articulation of how patriarchal religions and political, religious-driven nationalism oppresses the world’s women — including Americas — must get a starring role in any emerging, fourth-wave global women’s movement.

Vatican Has No Room for Women’s Rights

The Vatican is totally opposed to feminism and women’s rights. Pope Benedict can write that he doesn’t recognize the Catholicism feminists embrace. Many Catholic women embrace the ideals of Jesus, as Muslim women embrace the teachings of Muhammad. They don’t recognize Pope Benedict’s Catholicism, created by ordinary guys in their own image.

I’m an authority on neither. My own research focuses on spirituality and women’s lives prior to monotheism.

International feminists are united in believing that spirituality is critical in our lives and that men like Jesus and Muhammad treated women better than the patriarchal, chivalrous manner that Phyllis Schlafly’s on record advocating and honoring.

Both men created paths for women that were far more egalitarian than anything women have seen since these men walked the earth in and near Jerusalem.

Women’s lives were radically transformed under monotheism, which wasn’t the beginning of the patriarchy by any means.

Yes, the hot seat is uncomfortable for fourth wave feminists. Yes, we will be criticized and perhaps threatened, especially in a digital world with more fanatics than ever. And YES, having a clearly-articulated, reasoned voice on religion, the patriarchy, and the power of the international boys club is the only way we will be taken seriously. 

The next wave of feminism must carefully and clearly articulate key planks that unite women worldwide. Any argument that Vatican men, Mormon men, Southern Baptist men, Muslim men and Orthodox Jews know what’s best for women has no place in this movement. We cannot be negotiable on this plank. Let these men and women form their own boys club

The nonsense conversation about postfeminism, neofeminism, ‘why can’t all women just get together’ mumbo jumbo must end because women worldwide, and the men who support us, have important work to do.

In its growing reaffirmation of old-fashioned values, and the power of its reach, the Vatican stands against the world’s women, moreso than any other established institution in the world. Anne