Rotten Little Girls

As the November presidential election looms closer, it’s time to pick these candidates to pieces with deeper fervor.  And with only two that remain standing, Obama and McCain, it seems that in terms of women’s issues, it’s almost a case of, well…black vs. white.  As Dollface explained, Obama addresses a myriad of women’s issues while McCain almost completely ignores them, save his section on “Human Dignity & the Sanctity of Life.”  Now, of course the correlation between religion and politics has many factors besides the ever-popular abortion issue.  But the mere title of this category just reeks of religious undertones, and it is aimed almost entirely at explaining McCain’s pro-life policies (a term that my own mother ranted about as she complained that having kids was an anti-life policy for any woman).

Polls show the obvious – that people who consider religion an important part of their daily lives support McCain over Obama, (50% to 40%, according to this study).  And to me, McCain’s policies might support the organized Christian church’s stance on women’s issues, but he is flat-out wrong when he interprets what religion is really supposed to be about.

The glaring problem with organized religion that bothers me is the way in which people seem to forget what it is truly about. It’s not about making rules and forcing other people to bend to your will – spirituality is about people doing good, supporting each other and thinking in terms of acceptance rather than absolute morality.  Coincidentally, Christianity tends to punish “the second sex” as most immoral, even using the Bible to assign blame to hotheaded sexpots like Eve and Delilah.   I can not help but believe that this sexist and power-hungry stance is not the attitude on which Christianity, or any religion for that matter, was founded.

This is not to say that religion is necessarily a negative part of our world.   It provides purpose and meaning for many people, and creates a supportive community.  But so often this gets lost in the shuffle of political power plays.  By all means, worships Jesus Christ, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and the whole shebang – but if you are really going to get all Biblical about it, shouldn’t you at least hold true to Jesus’ teachings?  Using religion as an excuse to halt the advancement of women’s rights is not justifiable.  Nor is it an accurate depiction of the underlying theme of Christianity – and in fact of all religions – “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” Jesus preached about acceptance and equal worth for men and women long before the Bible was written.  In fact, he even had people breathing down his neck for NOT excluding women from his teachings.  His blatant refusal to subjugate women himself has been twisted and lost throughout the centuries, because above all, women should be allowed to make decisions for themselves – if indeed they do have equal status in the world.

Not to mention that the Bible makes no mention of abortion.  It is probably for this reason that there have been varied stances on the procedure throughout Christianity’s existence.  St. Thomas Aquinas and even some medieval popes believed that a fetus was not a person until “quickening” – when motion of the fetus can be felt and it is said to be showing signs of life.  While this varies from woman to woman, quickening typically occurs around 5 months.  Today a similar concept – viability – is used to determine the legality of abortions.  Referring to the fetus’ ability to live outside of the mother’s womb, viability is the basis of most abortion laws; this is why most late-term abortions are illegal unless a health risk to the mother or child can be proven.

In the context of this type of religious subjugation, supporting McCain’s views on abortion just stems to the larger issue: that supporting religiously-motivated policies allows for the hindrance of our female rights – rights to our own bodies, our own biological needs and our own life goals.  The doctrine of Christianity has proven that the church does not have the best interest of women in mind.  Its dismissal of the female experience is a result of the gender power struggle, rather than a policy of holding fast to religious teachings.  Even as supporters of McCain, women should be lobbying for him to include women’s rights in his political agenda.

Never mind that the Constitution above all stresses the separation of church and state.  Does anyone else wonder why the inclusion of religious-based opinions in our legal system is even an issue?  I don’t think most humans are so lost that they need a higher power to guide them around the universe of ethics.  Our personal decisions should reflect the freedom of choice in a world where morality is relative, not absolute.

Photo Credit: Christian Martyr on the Cross by Von Max (1865)