Patriarchy

I have thus far resisted commenting on the manufactured tempest-in-a-teapot controversy regarding religious-affiliated health and social service providers who are screaming foul over the proposed federal rule that would require employer-based health insurance plans to cover contraception.  But this story seems to have an undeservedly long shelf-life and I just can't stand it any longer.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been particularly outspoken in crying foul - contriving to make a case that they are somehow victims of religious persecution.  The nut of the matter, as I understand it, is that they want a complete exemption from any requirement that their affiliated organizations, Catholic Social Services, Providence Health Care Systems, and the like, cover contraceptives in their EMPLOYEE health plans.

The bishops are outraged.

Many of these employees are not Catholic, of course, and it seems to me that if there is any religious persecution at play here, the only plausible victims are the men and women who would be denied coverage for necessary contraceptive services by virtue of the religious dogma of their employer.

Indeed the bishop's reaction has all the hallmarks of a well planned and prepared in advance political ambush.  The ink on the proposed rule was not even dry before the media assault began.  And it was immediately jumped-on by the Republican Congressional leadership - all male, of course.

Republicans are outraged too. 

The instantaneous reaction of the bishops to the contraception mandate stands in stark contrast to their decades long slow-motion reaction to the ongoing tragedy of widespread sexual abuse by priests.  It literally took decades for these Churchly Whim-Whams to conclude that sexual abuse of a minor is a matter for the secular authorities in this life regardless of the consequences for these brutes in the presumed afterlife.  I, for one, strongly suspect they still don't get it.

But I digress.

For me, the take home message from the contraceptive imbroglio is that Christianity like its sister monotheistic religions Islam and Judaism remain fundamentally patriarchal and indifferent, at best, to the core interests of women.

True, the bestial treatment of women in many Islamic countries is nearly universally deplored in the West.  And the appalling behavior of the ultra-orthodox toward women in Israel would not be tolerated in America - even in the Bible and hookworm belt.  Still, at root religion in America remains overwhelmingly the purview of men and no woman should be surprised that her interests are secondary when the boys start playing politics.