Ending the War on Women: Lent & Liberation

Last Sunday we had the extraordinary privilege of having the Reverend Dr. Jay Emerson Johnson with us for a Rector’s Forum entitled “Ending the War on Women: Lent & Liberation” where he challenged us to think "both historically and theologically about the recent flare-up in this war on women.”

“I want to be really clear and explicit right up front that I'm offering these observations as a white gay man,” he began. “I say this because I am perplexed by the near deafening silence from so many white gay men concerning the twin poisons of sexism and racism in North Atlantic societies today. This is deeply troubling to me, especially since homophobia is but a symptom of a much deeper confluence of male privilege and white supremacy in our history and in our world. If we fail to link male privilege with white supremacy we do so, I believe, at our grave peril.”

“We should note, for example that the latest fiascoes over access to contraception are not just brief regurgitations of the so-called culture war. They are instead of instances of a much longer and deeper struggle for control over women's bodies -- and therefore, also a struggle for the liberation of all bodies. It is also a struggle for the liberation of all bodies: women's bodies, men's bodies, children's bodies, the bodies of all other animals ... the body of this planet itself, Mother Earth. Indeed there is a direct link between the kind of male privilege that lays claim to women's bodies and rapes this planet for resources. I truly believe if we ended the war on women we would save the planet."

Trust me when I tell you NOT to miss this one: