CW: sexism
I finally took the time to read an article that has been passed around in my
circles on Facebook, in which a Roman Catholic cardinal claims that the Church
is “too feminine.” (And I suspect many
pass the article around for the supposed irony of the image that accompanies
it: a bunch of dudes in frilly lace, one
of whom is complaining about the Church being “too feminine.” Get it? It’s supposed to be funny—because
they are men wearing lace. Never mind that men can pay heed to aesthetics.)
Anyhow, Cardinal Burke is of the opinion that opening up altar service
to women has been detrimental to young men choosing priestly vocations because:
“Young boys don’t want to do
things with girls. It’s just natural… It requires a certain manly discipline to
serve as an altar boy in service at the side of [a] priest, and most priests
have their first deep experiences of the liturgy as altar boys.”
*Gag.* Having trained altar
servers of various identities, I would say “manliness” is not a
prerequisite. Attention to detail and
reverence are not gendered categories.
He also believes that the upswing of “radical feminism” has, since the
1970s had grave impacts on the Church and have been scaring men away from
marriage— “These young men were concerned that entering a marriage would simply
not work because of a constant and insistent demanding of rights for women.”
The focus on
women’s issues, he said, plus “a complete collapse” of teaching the faith and
“rampant liturgical experimentation,” led the Church to become “very
feminized.” That turned off men who “respond to rigor and precision and
excellence,” Burke said.
“Apart from the priest, the sanctuary has
become full of women,” he said. “The activities in the parish and even the
liturgy have been influenced by women and have become so feminine in many
places that men do not want to get involved.”
Cardinal Burke
represents a particularly shrill opinion about the Church that is not limited
to the Catholic side of things. The
evangelical world is having this conversation, too. As Kristen Rosser notes on her blog (and as is cross-posted to Patheos), there
is a lot of talk about the fact that the Church seems to be 60/40 women to
men. And many men, typically in
leadership, bemoan the gap.
Why do they
think this is the case? A few of the
common responses are that women may be more spiritual than men and that the
church’s music, messages and ministries now cater to women.
David
Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church (Thomas Nelson, 2004), put
it this way:
“[W]omen believe the purpose of Christianity is to find “a
happy relationship with a wonderful man”—Jesus—whereas men recognize God’s call
to “save the world against impossible odds.” ... While the church was
masculine, it fulfilled its purpose. But in the 19th century, women “began
remaking the church in their image” (and they continue to do so), which moved
the church off course.
I know a lot
of women in the Church. I know a lot of
women in leadership in churches across denominational lines. I cannot
think of one who believes that the insipid “Jesus is my boyfriend” mentality is
a sufficient statement of faith or motivation for the proclamation of a Kingdom
that seeks to throw down the principalities and powers. To reduce women’s expressions of Christianity to
some sort of wish fulfillment of the perfect man is to go about telling lies
about our people. It is belittling.
I've pointed to some rather blatantly sexist examples of this conversation about the gender gap, but it is happening in other parts of the American Church as well. Christianity
in America seems to go through a “crisis of masculinity” every twenty years or
so. Typically it coincides with social trends that resonate further than the religious tradition; but still, crises of masculinity tend to flare up in Christian circles around the same time the national conversation goes there. Here we are again, perhaps. I have no solution to this, but I offer the
following food for thought—which guides me in wondering if there is a crisis
worth panicking about.
- How do we define “masculinity” in a modern Christian context?
- What about butch persons? Do they tip the balance back toward "masculine"?
- How do we define “femininity?”
- Is there a femininity meter somewhere that we can calibrate? Or is femininity based on the number of women present?
- Is this a theological issue or a demographic panic?
- How are we defining who has power in these contexts?
- In denominations that ordain women and LGBTQIA folk—can we go about reaffirming “masculinity” without reifying the sins of sexism and heterosexism?
- If we cannot affirm men's ministry without belittling or tokenizing women's ministry and/or religious experience, might there be a deeper issue?
- Masculinity as it is culturally conditioned rests on privilege and violence to uphold. Does Christianity then offer a critique of masculinity? Are we willing to make men angry if we challenge those forms of masculinity?
- Does masculinity inherently deserve to exist, no matter what its content?
- Could the Gospel actually be about calling us together across lines of gender?
- Maybe femininity and masculinity are not actually necessarily equal. Is it possible that, by the current standards of the world—in which power, control, and domination hold sway— the gospel is feminine?
