I Stand with the Sisters

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I recently wrote a post that talked a little bit about my atheism, which is something that is extremely important to me. I have also, however, written an awful lot about women's rights and other social issues that are equally as important. That's why I'm choosing to highlight an important fight happening here in the United States.

I Stand With the Sisters arose as a response to the Vatican's condemnation and discipline of American nuns for choosing to focus on such crazy things as helping the poor and feeding the hungry rather than on things the Vatican sees as important--like standing against abortion or same-sex marriage. It's a grassroots movement designed to raise awareness of the Vatican's ridiculous decision to punish nuns who don't fall in line, as well as a show of support for nuns who are concentrating on making the world a better place rather than trying to make it a more divided one.

I've known four nuns in my lifetime. Yes, I know that's neither a statistically significant amount nor can their actions be used to make broad generalizations about all nuns. That having been said, all four of them have been kind-hearted, open-minded, and dedicated to doing good in the world. I once heard one of them say to a roomful of people at a dinner celebrating the LGBT community: "I'm sick and tired of seeing a 2,000-year-old book used as a way to discriminate against people and take away their rights." This woman is about eighty years old and has had my admiration since.

And she isn't the only one. As NPR reported in May:

The Second Vatican Council, popularly known as Vatican II, had asked religious orders to modernize, which for many nuns meant focusing more on social justice and other issues in their communities and less on promulgating church doctrine — including Rome's strict views on birth control and abortion. 

So, the problem seems to be that while nuns have been moving forward, the rest of the Catholic hierarchy hasn't been. There is also the matter of the Vatican prizing doctrine over people. Sister Simone Campbell told NPR's Melissa Block:

...what we do as women religious is, we minister to people everywhere who are suffering, who are being discriminated against, and we don't ask to see a baptismal certificate. We serve everyone we find, in keeping with the Gospel of Jesus. That's what we're doing.

The bishops have a different mandate and a different message. And they are trying to protect the institution and to worry mostly - apparently - about an orthodoxy that I can't quite understand. But our different missions still - serves one faith.

I have to say that I've seen nuns as being allies for a long time. They are about empowering women, aiding the poor, educating themselves and other people, and generally being awesome. In the wake of this new crisis, I feel the need to be their ally as well. We may not hold the same beliefs about the nature of the world, its creation, or whether or not there's a supernatural being behind it all, but we do stand on the same side of the social divide that has been tearing this country asunder for over a decade.

Please, please, please, regardless of your faith or lack thereof, pledge to stand with the sisters. Like their Facebook page in order to keep up with news about their fight. Visit the website to educate yourself more on the issues at stake. Write letters/call people/put up flyers to help spread the message as well as to voice your opinions on the matter. Pray (if that's what you do/what you think will help). If you're a priest or a man of faith, stand in solidarity with these women. If you're a woman of faith, press your religious community to be more open to women in positions of power within various denominations of whatever religion you follow. If you're an atheist, as I am, do not let your disbelief in god stand in the way of supporting women who are trying to make the world a better place. Stop letting the Vatican condemn women as feminists (as if that was a bad thing) simply because they don't agree with them.

One other thing that I suggest doing, if you haven't already, is to help one nun climb her way even further up the best-seller list. Apparently after the Vatican threw a hissy fit over Sister Margaret Farley's book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics it soared up to #16, although it has since dropped down to #26. Whether or not Sister Margaret is actually hoping to make it even closer to the top is actually irrelevant. Showing the Vatican that just because they say something doesn't mean everyone is going to jump to obey is a big step towards change.

I stand with the sisters. Do you?

-J

On Vaginas, Amendments, and the GOP

While reading through Dan Savage's blog yesterday, I came across this post: "What About My Right To Choose To Not Have A Choice?". The featured video, "Republicans, Get In My Vagina," features Kate Beckinsale, Judy Greer, and Andrea Savage playing Republican women discussing their desire to have the government deep down in their vaginas making decisions about birth control, abortion, etc. It is, frankly, hilarious, but it also reminded me about a caller on Stephanie Miller's show yesterday morning.

The caller was talking about North Carolina's discriminatory Amendment 1 (articles on CBS and NYT), which would limit legally recognized couples to those who are heterosexual and married only. While this is obviously a push by the government of North Carolina to ban gay marriage under the law, it also has consequences for heterosexual couples who choose not to get married or who decide to enter into a civil partnership. The caller pointed this out and continued on to say that this kind of intrusive law is being pushed by the same party that keeps calling for smaller government.

The problem that I have with the Tea Party and other uber-conservative groups (okay, one of the many problems I have with them) is that they rail against the Democrats for attempting to push things like health care and economic growth on the American public and then they turn around and try to shove their own morals down America's throat at the federal, state, and local levels.

For example, Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative was hammered by Republicans as an attempt by the government to control our diets and our waistlines. Right-wing bloggers, radio personalities, and pundits said all sorts of horrible things about her and basically came out in support of fat kids, diabetes, and heart disease, all because, they claimed, government had no right to try and help America stop being the land of the muffin top and the beer belly. Yet, if you listen to what conservatives are pushing--gay marriage should be illegal, abortion should be illegal, etc. (ad nauseum)--there is a huge disconnect between what they say about "big government" and what they think the government should be doing.

Now, obviously I'm a little biased about some things. I'm a woman. I'm bisexual. I'm pro-choice. I'm a liberal. I'm not going to deny that my support of same-sex marriage, rights for women, or anything else for that matter isn't tainted by my desire to have my government support freedoms that benefit me. But I'm also willing to admit that I don't mind having the government regulate things. Conservatives who bash Obama and the rest of the Democratic party for allegedly creating a big government aren't willing to admit that they want big government, too. Anyone who says that they're against the government getting into their business and then turns around and says they think that there should be an amendment passed stating that marriage is only between a man and a woman is a hypocrite and full of shit.

What's really striking to me is this: my support of gay marriage benefits the LGBT community, myself included; a conservative supporting a ban on gay marriage is benefiting no one. Similarly, my desire to have the right to choose whether or not I want to have an abortion affects only myself (and the father of the child); a conservative attempting to take away a woman's right to choose won't be affected either way. What I'm trying to say is that it really makes no sense to me why conservatives care so much. They can go on and on about what the Bible says or the sanctity of marriage or the right of every unborn child to grow up in a nation where once they pop out of the womb they're forgotten by the same people who wanted them to be born in the first place (okay, I'm editorializing a little there). In the end, there is nothing to support conservatives' claims that abortion, gay marriage, or any other issue they don't agree with is personally affecting them.

No one's heterosexual marriage has dissolved simply because the gay couple next door tied the knot. No one's children have been harmed by their sister's decision to have an abortion. People are, however, harmed by lack of health care, unemployment, and health problems stemming from obesity (which are exacerbated by their lack of health care). Clearly, the Democrats are pushing an agenda that has an eye toward improving quality of life for all Americans; the Republicans are pushing an agenda that has an eye toward controlling the personal lives of people they don't even know.

"Republicans, Get In My Vagina" is a satirical look at women's reactions to conservative laws and initiatives that attempt to control one aspect of their lives. It could just as easily have been called "Republicans, Get In My Marriage" or "Republicans, Get All Up In My Biz-natch." Regardless of what conservatives are for or against, their treatment of women, minorities, and the poor have alienated them and lost them the support of key constituencies they need if they expect to win any election, let alone the presidency. PoliticsUSA and The American Prospect, among others, have reported that women are leaving the GOP because they are fed up with policies that are designed specifically to control them and limit their choices (which could also be synonymous with "freedoms").

The GOP denies that it is waging a "war on women," even going so far as to ask some Republican congresswomen to throw themselves under the bus by claiming that conservatives aren't trying to pass laws that limit women's rights and that it's President Obama and his health care plan that are the real menace. Yet, Soraya Chemaly had absolutely no problem finding evidence of GOP animosity towards women when she wrote a piece for the Huffington Post aptly entitled "10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts." Thankfully, it's not just the rest of the world who thinks that; there are plenty of Americans who think that what's going on in today's political sphere is crazy.

While the 2012 presidential election is a big deal, it obviously doesn't matter in the long run as long as Republicans continue to keep their hold on state and local governments. In the almost four years that Obama has been president, conservatives have successfully blocked policies and laws brought to Congress by Democrats while passing measures at the state level that have sweeping implications for the rest of the country. It's almost as if the GOP is hoping that it can win the election so that it can make Mitt Romney the Wizard of Oz and continue its work as the man behind the curtain. The real way to successfully block the Republican agenda is by taking control of both houses of Congress and winning back gubernatorial seats that were lost in the 2010 "shellacking." Maybe the gender gap that is growing in the Republican party can help make that happen.

Oh, and one final note to Republicans: stay the hell away from my vagina. K, thanks.

-J