Birth Control, Abortion, Divorce, AIDS, Punishment of sexual 'offences', Women and the Church, Judaism Islam, Women and the Family, Gender roles, male domination and the place of women,

The Catholic church's policies on birth control, abortion and divorce all impose constraints upon women, not only catholic women, but all women who live where the law follows catholic doctrine, and in the developing world where religious pressure from the evangelicals as well as Roman Catholics prevents funding of UN health and population control programmes if they do not conform to their religious principles.

1. The religions constrain the option for women to control their own fertility, limiting their families by using modern methods to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and STDs, (sexually transmitted diseases). Even in the face of the catastrophic AIDS pandemic. It steadfastly refused to contemplate the option of terminating unwanted pregnancies in the face of demands by women not to have unwanted children, and the overwhelming evidence that safe, early abortion would save thousands of women's lives and prevent accidental sterility by tubal infection.
2. Religious opposition to divorce is another area in which the lives of both men and women are affected. Many women have been locked into unhappy marriages or abusive relationships because of this, and they are prevented from moving on to happier more fulfilling lives and where new families have been established couples cannot re-marry. Divorce is bad enough for the distress suffered when families break down, without stigma and animosity caused by religion.
3. These religiously inspired problems are not confined to the Christian and Jewish religions, Islam is if anything worse where it is strongest, and in Muslim countries or where Sharia Law is instituted, horrific punishments of mutilation and stoning for infidelity are amongst the worst aspects of religious activity still prevalent today. Women are killed or horribly disfigured by acid attack for adultery in countries that maintain religious patriarchy. Even rape can lead to arrest and punishment of the women victims, while the men go free.

The Roman Catholic religion's, attitudes to sex and procreation and the guilt and shame that it has engendered about sexual activity and the human body. Their attitudes to sex are themselves contradictory, at once sinful if indulged in for pleasure, acceptable for the expression of love but only within marriage, but really desirable only for the procreation of children.

The very notion of a religion run by celibate men and women, priests, monks and nuns (Brides of Christ), who call themselves mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, dedicated to the worship of a virgin mother, her son, and his heavenly father, supposedly created without the sexual act, gives a clue to their distorted notions surrounding sex. Their enforced celibacy is supposedly the highest sacrifice and yet the purest form of life, is odd to say the least and explains much of the prudery by religious people on this topic.

More than that, the revelations about the extent of paedophilia among RC priest in England, Ireland and the US, only now being uncovered after decades of abuse, illustrates one aspect of the perverted attitudes to sex, of the religions, and in this case the Roman Catholic religion in particular.

Attitudes to contraception, abortion; sex for procreation but not for pleasure, persecution of homosexuals, and the cruelty and abuse inflicted by priests and nuns, on children in their care, and the cruelty and censure of unmarried mothers in the Industrial schools and Magdalen Laundries in Ireland even into the 1960s; and the punitive attitudes to prostitutes, but not their clients - are all part of the same perverted pattern and the social problems they cause, on divorce, contraception and abortion.

The church's sexual symbolism and doctrines have had a profound effect in shaping our cultural attitudes, mores etc. In fact the more they preach against what they call sin, the more young people in particular, are likely to react with 'equal and opposite' behaviour, now that there is less susceptibility to guilt caused by belief in that all knowing, all seeing god, and fear of divine retribution. So once again religion distorts life at a personal, and social level, creating confusion and problems where there could and should be choice for individuals and couples to decide for themselves how best to order their personal lives, for their own and the greater good!

This confusion over contradictory messages leads to an inability for many people to discuss the subject in a rational way, and impedes the free flow of ideas and information about it, which in turn hampers the widest understanding of all the emotional, physical, and psychological and health aspects. This is mirrored in the way the drug debate has been hampered by religious attitudes to pleasure and happiness being something that can only be achieved through religion and 'spirituality', earthly pleasures being only a poor substitute! Sexual pleasure being only one of these second rate pleasures.

Like every other aspect of human psychology and physiology people vary in their need for and desire for sexual activity. The problem now is that it has become almost impossible for anyone to 'admit' that sex is not all that it's cracked up to be and that they can 'take it or leave it', and that for some, many even, their lives are full enough with better things. This is the new heresy. And I suspect that men's anger at women for asserting their rights is one of the phychological spurs to the use of sex as a weapon against women - Rape.

It is as unacceptable that people should have to feign sexual feeling that they do not have as that those whose sexual needs and desires are not fulfilled. Compulsory sex is a bad as no sex when it is desired, and it is time we got away from both, in both the pulpit and the press. The days should be long gone when women have to fake orgasms, succumb to unwanted sex for fear of being called 'frigid', when men have to make up or exaggerate their sexual prowess or number of conquests.

When every relationship is judged on the sexual attractiveness of the partners, people are from a very early age driven to a distorted view of the importance of appearance, already important enough at puberty, excesses lead to today's obsessive and widespread consumerism, design labels, alcohol to enhance an attractive view of oneself, despair for those who feel unattractive, acceptance of underage sex, anorexia and so on and so forth.

From young children through childhood and adolescence and adulthood the concentration on sexual activity and attractiveness as the be all and end all of human life, blights lives, and at the other end of the spectrum is major part of the ageism of modern western society. Once ones sexual attractiveness declines, ones value is seen to decline to zero, and women are the first and most deeply affected by this devaluation of them as people with characteristics and attributes separate from their use as sexual partners.

So much human misery has been caused by the twin Gorgons of the value of virginity, abstinence and prudery on the one hand, and promiscuity, exploitation and prostitution on the other it is time to expose some of the roots of more of our attitudes to the harsh light of criticism of religion and the softer light of humanistic rationale.

Gender Issues

The place of women in society is a sphere of human life in which religion has perhaps wreaked the most deep and damaging havoc.

Family

The religious idea of family at the centre of human existence, with the man as dominant at its head, a woman inferior as carer, child bearer, domestic worker and pleasure provider, while made tolerable and even happy by many, has in modern times become a prison, so severely does it constrain the personal relationships within it.

While they claim to stand for god's purpose in giving a stable loving relationship in which to rear children, the actuality of religious marriage has for many had the effect of enslaving women and children in each others exclusive company. Turning men into meal tickets who see little of their children. By the very nature of childbearing it is necessary to construct a framework within which all the members of a family can satisfy their needs. In previous generations the extended family dictated by the needs of pre-industrial production gave support to its members. The industrial revolution made women and children into dependants. The nuclear family, has limited the ways in which man and women can come together to form families that are able to support each other, through their various stages of life now that life expectancy is so much greater than in the past. Yet the message of the church cannot adapt to these changes. It cannot accept different forms of family, because it cannot accept the validity of marriage between homosexual people, other couples or groups living together outside of marriage, and even refuses to sanction the adoption of children in need of the individual care they need by such families.

The attitudes to family honour, engendered by some religions, Christian sects, Muslims and Jews leads to misery and dysfunction caused by religious beliefs that lead to the casting out of family members. The most serious manifestation of this idea is the fact that there are whole cultures in Muslim countries and cultural groups in this country today in which a woman is considered better dead than defiled. Fathers and brothers will pursue and kill daughters or sisters for disobeying or being forced to disobey their cultural rules.

Fathers, brothers, even mothers will override all human compassion and family love to punish a woman who wants to marry outside their faith or against their wishes. Marital or sexual 'crimes' such as adultery can lead to women being beaten, imprisoned, maimed or outcast from their families or even killed in extreme cases. There are even occasional reports of wives being killed on the death of their husbands, a practice called Suttee that was common in India in the past.

Forced marriage, still prevalent today, is an abuse of women, and unbelievable as part of civilised society yet it still goes on and is apparently sanctioned by the religions of the Indian subcontinent.

The reluctance to seriously examine the roots of these attitudes in order not to upset religious believers, and the unwillingness to criticise aspects of culture, however harmful for fear of being called racist by upholders of these cultural-religious values has until modern times, prevented discussion in the wider media. As usual politicians are unwilling or unable to address these issues if they rely on voters of particular religious persuasion.

That a woman's worth depends on whether she is a virgin, a mother, has sex inside or outside of marriage, is called a 'spinster' a 'slut' or a 'whore', has ten children or is childless, is still evident in many ways. Women are expected even encouraged to feel guilty, sullied, dirty & worthless when they have been raped. Victims are often said to be 'inviting rape' if they wear 'provocative' dress. Just as women in Muslim countries are required to wear the all enveloping Burka in order not to inflame men's passions should they have to look at a woman in the street!

Attitudes to rape and raped women have been coloured by the doctrines of the 'great' monotheistic, male dominated religions, the worst current examples being in some Muslim countries where a raped woman can be arrested and sentenced to being stoned to death for sex outside marriage because she dared to accuse her attacker of raping her while the rapist was not punished!

Traditional religious ideas of chastity, virginity and the worth of women as subservient to men, their fertility and sexuality, are still reflected in, and dictate current attitudes towards women,

Male Domination & The Place of Women

It is noticeable that family structure and the place of women in the family and in society, as promoted by the religions, is the same as that defined by the religions for themselves and their structures. This is hardly surprising given that all the 'great religions' were started my men, have male 'fountainheads' and prophets, are run by male priests and function in the interests of men. The different expectations of men and women, the stereotypes of women as temptress, whore or virgin go to the very root of religion. The sage, loving father, shepherd protecting his sheep are a long way from the experience of men, experienced by many women.

The subtext here is the way human sexuality and sexual relations have been manipulated in the interests of the religions and through them, men and male elites, monarchy, military and church. Homosexuality, celibacy, the enjoyment of sex, celebration of the human body, are all aspects of human experience in which religion has produced distortion, guilt and fear where there should have been free responsible pleasure and openness. Even today our laws reflect this religious domination. The differences in the way men and women are treated under the law when it comes to prostitution, women are harassed, debased, subject to pimps and law enforcement, while the men who enjoy their services are not censured in any way. Nor should we forget the effect of religious attitudes to sex and marriage has on both men and women.

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