Mario and Viviana: I am afraid your logic will lead the Taliban in Afganistan and others to conclude that is ok to discriminate against women in the manner they have: that's our religion, take it or leave it. No room for ratioanl thinking, just be obedient to the Dark Ages.
Here are some insights into the issue sent to me by a Goan woman by private email so I have not included her name. I am forwarding without comment. QUOTE: 1. The bias against women and women priests comes directly from the Jewish religion. The role for women was to bear children who would be Jewish - a Jew by definition has to have a Jewish mother. Hence, even Solomon whose mother was not Jewish does not qualify as a "Jew." Women had no divorce rights, they (not the men) were stoned for adultery, and there were no Jewish women priests. 2. I had a very good orthodox Jewish friend who sent her son to an exclusive Jewish school in _______. She told me that the boys said a prayer every day, thanking God that they weren't born a woman! 3. There is no evidence that Jesus established a priesthood in the Gospels. Subsequently, the Church developed a theology that seemed to point that way. But where's the evidence? Jesus was called Rabbi (Teacher) not a priest at all. The early Church had many women leaders and founders of churches. So perhaps, there should be neither men or women priests. The Protestants came to that conclusion, hence they have Ministers. After the Temple was destroyed, the Jews themselves went back to the pre-Mosaic tradition of Rabbis, not priests. 4. The idea that women are inferior was extended by theologians like Augustine and Aquinas. They wrote that women were defective males. This, I believe, is also the position in the Koran. These ideas that women are un-holy and inferior is very Middle Eastern. It is certainly not Indian. Indian spirituality places the highest spiritual value on the Feminine. In fact, the goal of Yoga is to develop and discover the feminine in all of us as the creative force. So, I have no idea why Indians like us, of all people, swallow these unwholesome and unworthy ideas about feminine inferiority. These ideas are used to put women down and keep them down, and to justify abuse of all kinds. In the 21st century, women aren't taking them seriously becasue we have more than proved our worth these days. 5. Research and reading and reflection about reality will show that we don't have to believe every single last thing that a group of self-serving men in Rome or Mecca pronounce as "Truth" so they can propagate a system that allows them to live in style like Princes! UNQUOTE Regards, George
