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Home › Relationships

Joan Ganz Cooney | 05/27/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney Dislikes Any Religion That Treats Women as 'Others'

My father was an agnostic Jew …
By Joan Ganz Cooney RSS
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In response to: Do you identify with a certain heritage, culture or religion? If so, is there a particular tradition that you practice?
Joan Ganz Cooney
I was brought up a Roman Catholic and, while I left the Church years ago, I can still be moved at high Mass with beautiful music, and I have a sort of sentimental feeling about some of the rituals. On the other hand, I am repelled by its repressive nature and its departure from the simple but profound teachings of Jesus. My father was an agnostic Jew and I certainly feel that part of me when I read about the annihilation of the Jews under Hitler and when I encounter anti-Semitism. But I don’t feel any cultural or religious attachment. I’ve come to dislike all religions that treat women as "other," which most orthodox religions do. 
Read more about: Culture, Heritage, Lifestyle, Religion, Tradition

10 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Barbara B
Religion is always a touchy subject.  I respect all religions and hope that the world would be more tolerant of each other.  I was raised Catholic and still practice but I feel the Church needs some changes.  I am not tolerant when a few bad apples in any religion undermind what religion stands for and hides behind religion to do their dirty deeds
By Barbara B on 05/28/2009 9:08 am
Joan Isenberg

I grew up in a Swedish neighborhood so the nearest church was Swedish Lutheran and had some services in Swedish.  My mother yanked me out of church on Mother’s Day after some nasty cracks by the Pastor.  I’ve never been back outside of my wedding.  My soon to be Greek husband thought I should have a traditional one with the white gown and so forth, and the Greek Orthodox church too expensive.  My parents footed the bill.  As  you can see I was void of any critical thought or gumption.

I’m putting a photography business together and besides portraits and landscapes am advertising informal weddings.  Just read pot luck lunch or dinner receptions after a service in the yard or on the front steps might be hot.  The bride and groom’s friends are instructed not to bring gifts which would probably be returned. I hope I’m invited.

My new husband and I enjoy nature and wouldn’t be caught dead in a church.

Joan Isenberg, PhotographybyIsenberg.com under construction

 

By Joan Isenberg on 05/28/2009 9:19 am
Chris Broersma

I was baptised Catholic (My Dad was one); raised Episcopalian; married a wonderfulful guy who was Chrisitan Reformed and left that tradition as quickly as I could after (Still married to the same wonderful guy!); and am now back to being an active Episcopalian! 

Like you, Joan I want to see a denomination that respects and it is a faith that is a respecter of people (we don’t leave our minds at the church door, either.) 

 I love the liturgy and I am a person of faith…much as that is mocked these days.  I don’t believe in most churches who use faith and trust to control minds.  But I definitely believe in God.   

By Chris Broersma on 05/28/2009 9:56 am
Barbara
I’ve come to dislike all religions that treat women as "other," which most orthodox religions do. — I can relate to that.  Somehow most religions seem to be dominated by men who think they can keep women "in their place".  I was raised Catholic but left in high school when a priest told my class that a woman’s place is serving her husband in the bedroom or the kitchen, in that order.  No questions.  No other options.  (And to the question of what happens if your husband dies, the answer was to go back and live serving your father.)  Tell me a religion that truly values women as equal people and I might consider.
By Barbara on 05/28/2009 12:59 pm
Lauriate Roly

Barbara “when a priest told my class” - I am of the male gender. Much of what you say I know to be true. What your priest told you in class, was told to the whole congregation in my church during a novena. I was very young and was at my mother’s side when I heard the very Reverend Father O’Brien say those words, and young as I was, I realized, and could feel from the silent reaction of the congregation, that what was being preached, was not being appreciated. Just holding my mommy’s hand, I could feel her absolute resentment at such a ridiculously narrow-minded statement from the pulpit. She didn’t say a word. She was very quite for a long while, but as we walked home together, I could tell she was mad as hell. I’ll never forget that Wednesday night.

By Lauriate Roly on 05/28/2009 5:42 pm
R M

This is precisely the reason it’s a "man’s world". Religion and its followers have flouted for generations their gender-biased, chauvinistic views on women. Hundreds of generations have been raised to believe that women are the inferior sex. Women should cover their skin and their hair and sometimes even their faces but it’s always been okay for men to do as they please. In some middle-eastern countries it is still legal for a MAN to KILL his wife even if he only has a DREAM that she’s been unfaithful.

People as a whole put so much stock into their faith that they’re either too blind or too afraid to buck the system with any form of questioning even when as a general rule they are intelligent and logical people. Smarts and logic insinuate many things that religion simply manages to make people ignore. 

It’s only been in the last fifty years or so that anyone has had the guts to stand up and say something about it. Idiocracy knows no gender. Intelligence is not sexist. But traditional behaviors and values teach that someone is less of a person based on what falls between their legs. It’s preposterous. 

Even though we’re not quite there yet, everything should be on an even keel on the basis of sex (among other things). I’ll never believe that men are a superior sex and will only think of them as equals when they start giving birth and having their period!

By R M on 05/28/2009 3:07 pm
jules verne
Joined a local Lutheran church because I married into it and my son attended grade school.  However, when I found out things like, women didn’t have the right to vote, it preterbed me.  They had NO problem taking my $5,000 to help update the school and expand.  However, I couldn’t have a say so in the church.  Good riddens to mainstream religion.
By jules verne on 05/28/2009 6:01 pm
BL Lowry
I find it highly ironic that the Roman Catholic church hijacked all my high alter days: Yule,  Imbolc, Ostara, Beltaine, Midsummer, Lughnasadh, Mabon,  and Samhain. The even hijacked our tarranis, and renamed it a ‘Celtic’ cross; it ‘s a calendar!LLughnasaughnasadh
By BL Lowry on 05/28/2009 8:41 pm
BL Lowry
I have no idea why Lughnasadh is repeated at the end of my post!
By BL Lowry on 05/28/2009 8:42 pm
Christy Keller
I guess I am lucky. I work for my parish priest at a Catholic church that I am very active in and women in our parish pretty much keep it running, from the secretary (me), to the housekeeper, Religious Ed Director, youth minister, majority of women on parish council and several on the finance commission AND the huge number of female parishioners who volunteer and coordinate most parish activities. My boss never says anything demeaning about women in any way and is a wonderful man and priest. Yup, I am lucky.
By Christy Keller on 05/31/2009 6:18 pm