Patriarchy

Does freedom of religion mean allowing the patriarchal to control the sexuality of women? Does freedom of religion mean allowing the religious to psychologically torture homosexuals? Does freedom of religion mean allowing the religious to undermine human progress in a democracy? Does freedom of religion mean allowing domestic abuse under the veil of religious multiculturalism?

As a humanist, I say loudly "No." Are any major religious leaders confronting these issues among themselves? I do not hear many religious leaders loudly standing up to the Catholic hierarchy on female reproductive rights. And since when did insurance policies come under religious control? Where is the outcry from the usually vocal insurance industry?

Organized religions are an extension of patriarchy. The religious support of the American Republican Party is all about patriarchy. "Family values" is code for patriarchal control of women and children. "Cultural conservative" is code for a patriarchal reactionary.

As a young man in the role of a nurse in an acute psychiatric hospital, I learned many things about patriarchy and control. I saw how deeply the society fears confronting patriarchal control in families and in heterosexual couples. This is fear planted by religion and family/cultural conditioning. The conflict between religion and human progress has never been clearer. The obstruction by patriarchy to human progress has never been clearer.