Women's Ordination and the Double Standard

I was surprised to see this headline on CNN.com yesterday, “Catholic Church defends male-only priesthood”. Apparently, certain groups, that have little or no understanding of Catholic doctrine, are planning billboards and protests in favor of women’s ordination during the Pope’s visit to London.

The Catholic Church has been defending this position for 2,000 years, which makes this headline that more absurd and amusing. It is typical of CNN and the rest of the mainstream media to try to dig up anything to portray the Church in a negative light in hopes of boosting their ratings. This next line from the article further displays the reporter’s ignorance of the Church’s history:

“It's rare for the Catholic Church to defend its fundamental positions in this way.”

I guess countless teachings and statements by bishops and Popes through the centuries, including public documents by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI in which they said they do not have the authority to ordain women, doesn’t matter for this reporter. This next quote from Fr. Wang in the article must have gotten the feminists and other liberals really upset.

The bottom line is that Jesus chose 12 men - and no women - to be his apostles, Wang argues.


The choice was "deliberate and significant, not just for that first period of history, but for every age," Wang says.


Men and women are equal in Christianity, he continues, but "this does not mean that our sexual identity as men and women is interchangeable. Gender is not just an accident."

I was actually surprised to see that CNN had the guts to publish these lines. Thank you Fr. Wang for having the courage to defend our faith in this article.
I just want to make a few observations on women’s ordination. First, the Catholic Church has never been and never will be a democracy. Spending thousands on billboards and other ads that say “Ordain Women Now!” will not accomplish anything other than making you look foolish. Secondly, if the issue of women’s ordination is such a sticking point for you that it causes you to openly dissent against a fundamental teaching of the church, then it may be time for you to either repent or look at another church. I hear the Episcopal Church ordains women, and is run more like a democracy. We have all seen what that has done for church unity in that denomination.

My final point is that many of same people that accuse the Church of being sexist over issues such as women’ ordination and abortion are the same ones who are not only silent over Muslim’s treatment of women, but are also supporting the mosque near ground zero. Think about this. Why is it only the Catholic church that is singled out as being sexist? Why are other denominations ignored? Islam, Mormonism, and Orthodox Judaism all restrict women’s ordination. When was the last time CNN or any other media network had a story about women’s treatment in Islam? For some reason, it is politically incorrect to portray Islam in a negative light, while it is open season on Catholics.

Let me clarify my position here. I don’t support a mosque near Ground Zero. I don’t have a problem if they want to build one anywhere else in New York. But putting one on Ground Zero is extremely insensitive to the victims families. Given the history of Islam, it also gives the perception that this mosque is being built as a sign of conquest by the Muslims, especially since the imam behind it is a radical who praised the attacks and said that the U.S. brought this upon itself.

That being said, if you are going to scream about religious tolerance, then stop the double standards and show that same tolerance towards all denominations, and not just a chosen few. If you are going to print headlines about women’s roles in a church, then give that same treatment to all denominations and not just a targeted few. I am just tired of Christianity, and especially the Catholic Church, being attacked by the biased media and society in general. It’s absurd and frustrating to witness our beliefs constantly under attack, while at the same time being told that we need to be tolerant and more sensitive to the Muslim faith and especially this proposed mosque.

But then as Christians, we have to share some of the blame for this. This unfair treatment of our faith continues because we allow it. Only when we finally have the courage to shove political correctness where it belongs and defend our beliefs, will we finally see a difference.

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