Nicholas Kristof, author with his wife Sheryl WuDunn of the very hot book “Half the Sky: turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide”, wrote a column this week Does Religion Oppress Women?

I highly recommend the book, but I commented on the NYT that I found this very question their achilles heel. It’s true that the Vatican and other evangelical churches help care for the poor and dying around the world. Reality is, though, that when a woman is not allowed to use protection or birth control in these parts of the world, having the church there to care for dying AIDS women is noble, but I argue hypocritical at best.

The suffering of millions of women who cannot protect themselves is a massive stain on the religious community, in my opinion. Walking among these poor women — not allowed to protect themselves from an AIDS-infected husband, I could not look them in the eye, as a religious leader.

I do believe the religion has historically oppressed women and only the more enlighted religions, like the Anglicans, can preach respect for women. I am not qualified to speak about either Islam or Judaism in these parts of the world.

Former US president Jimmy Carter made what Kristof calls a “magnificent new speech”, delivered remotely to the Parliament of the World’s Religions, meeting in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve reprinted the entire speech and added visuals that were not associated with former President Carter’s words.

Speech by Jimmy Carter to the Parliament of the World’s Religions

Melbourne, Australia, Dec., 2009

I am pleased to address the Parliament of World Religions about the vital role of religion in providing a foundation for – or correcting – the global scourge of discrimination and violence against women. As will be seen, my remarks represent the personal views of a Christian layman and a former political leader.

There are international agreements as well as our own Holy Scriptures that guide us:

Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, origin … or other status …”

The Holy Bible tells us that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

Every generic religious text encourages believers to respect essential human dignity, yet some selected scriptures are interpreted to justify the derogation or inferiority of women and girls, our fellow human beings.