Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

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On the Sex Scandals in Christendom, or: Why Religions Need Goddesses and Priestesses

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

To misquote Euripides: Alas, ill-rule in Christendom.

If you were thinking that the ongoing (and systemic) sexual abuse in the “Catholic” Church was a product of a misguided policy of clerical celibacy, think again.

As it turns out, the Southern Baptist Church, the US's largest Protestant denomination, has the same problem.

Particularly disturbing here is the fact that both churches have routinely acted to protect the organizations themselves rather than the victimized. Equally disturbing is the routine failure of both organizations to report sexual criminals to secular authorities. Christians have a long history of thinking that they're above the law.

One point is only a point. Two points make a line.

Christians of the world: the rest of us are really starting to wonder if this kind of thing is built into your religion.

Abuse of power—and, in particular, sexual abuse of power—is not, of course, only a Christian problem. Given power, human beings have demonstrated again and again their capacity to abuse that power, and by male human beings, alas, such abuse is all too often enacted sexually.

That's why societies—and religions, in particular—need built-in checks and balances.

Since women and girls are, in the majority of cases, the victims of this kind of abuse of power, one clear way to check it is to have women in positions of power.

That's why we need goddesses. That's why we need priestesses.

It may not be a cure-all solution to the woes of sexual abuse in human religion.

But it's a start.

 

 

 

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Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

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