Abstract

Sex & the Clergy

The article discusses the United States religious left's unwillingness to deal with gender, sex and reproduction issues. Part of the problem is that women are virtually absent from the leadership ranks of the progressive religious movements. These movements are run, for the most part, by men of good will who have eloquently opposed the war in Iraq, tax cuts and the lack of adequate healthcare. But they do not understand the role that women and sex play in the modern world. Social conservatives have built their movement on hostility to women and women's rights. Many progressive religionists seem annoyed that issues like abortion rights, teen sexuality, gay marriage, stem-cell research and shared power between men and women take up so much space--space they are excluded from because they will not take straightforward, honest positions on these issues. In the case of abortion, schizophrenia abounds: First Jim Wallis, the moderate evangelical preacher who speaks frequently on behalf of religious progressives, tells us we should not focus on this issue at all; then he expounds on what the Democrats should do to attract "'centrist' Catholic and evangelical voters." Few have gone so far as to say that a progressive religious agenda for justice that fails to recognize the moral agency of men and women to make decisions about family planning, abortion and marriage partners is unacceptable. The feminist theologian Rita Nakashima Brock is an emerging voice for religious feminism and an effective advocate for a women-centered progressive agenda.