What Can be said of the Dignity of Human Persons?
A Reflection in the trying times of the Delta virus and other tragedies.
The scenes coming from Kabul as Afghans put themselves in danger to reach the airport with the hope of leaving the country, are heartbreaking. The fall of the Afghan government, the disbanding of the military, and the rapid takeover by the Taliban seemed to come as a shock to everyone involved - although the finger pointing has just begun and will likely go on for some time. A central worry for many people in the west is the fate of the women and the girls, since the memory of the lives of women under the last Taliban regime is well known. Given that, it is ironic that the second reading for this weekend comes from Ephesians 5:21-32. It is the passage that begins with “Brothers and Sisters, be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is head of the church…”
In today’s missal the option is given for the reading to begin with “Husbands, love your wives…” thereby bypassing some of the more egregiously paternalistic language. But anyone who has been part of the church for any length of time, will not be fooled. The church continues to have a hierarchy when it comes to gender, and women remain at least one step down from those who are in charge. I bring this to our attention today so that we as a body of people can be reminded that we have only in recent history cast off some of the chains that kept women down: the right to vote, the right to own property, the right to custody of children, the right to sign documents on their own, etc. Some of these things were based on the legally accepted fact that women were not capable of doing anything without the assistance or supervision of a male family member, usually their father or their husband. And of course, there are other chains that persist…
Some of the customs that kept women down in the past were just that, customs. Culturally created traditions that had nothing to do with competence or intelligence, but which served the purpose of maintaining male dominance. I point this out because there are many expressions and traditions within Islam just as there are many expressions and traditions with Christianity and most of those traditions are cultural and not grounded in faith or spirituality. It is, I think, important to remember this so that in the coming days we can recognize and counter the inevitable conversations about Islam as repressive rather than the culture of the Taliban.
We have known our own repressions. When I was in elementary school I could not go to school unless I was wearing a dress. No pants, no pantsuits, no long maxi skirts, only knee length dresses. Even on the coldest winter days dresses were mandated. Pants could be worn under dresses going to and from school but not during class time. In high school there were other mandates, one had to wear stockings – this meant that one had to shave one’s legs --- sure you didn’t ‘have to’ but the hoots and hollers of the other students would have humiliated you into doing so. We had dress down or grubby days once in a while and girls were allowed to wear pants – but not jeans! All of this is cultural. Some younger women today would be surprised to know that we didn’t always resist, because it was just the way it was.
At church, (remember?), girls had to wear hats or doilies or scarves on their heads – and it was a given that they would be wearing a dress. Only boys were altar servers. I remember those days and I also know that I didn’t give some of that stuff much thought. It was just the way that it was. When a culture begins to change it is gradual at first. I remember stashing a pair of jeans to change into, under my coat when I went out on the weekends since my parents thought jeans were something that could only be worn to work in the garden. I remember when a close girlfriend got a job at the company where my father worked and how upset he was that the company had to order special tools for smaller female hands. I remember too losing my credit cards along with my maiden name when I married, since credit had to be based on my husband’s credit history. He had none and mine didn’t count. By this time, I was paying attention. Things didn’t seem fair or just but there was little I could do to change things except hope that the men who did make all the decisions would “allow” women to have some freedom.
The majority of the churches or spiritual centers, which are the keepers of a society’s values, were more interested in maintaining order than in promoting the value and dignity of each and every human person. There were homilies given about uppity women and the depravity of the youth of the day. At the same time there was the outrage of an endless war, in Vietnam, and the church railed against the hippies that protested war and lifted up those who enlisted. The same approach was taken in regard to civil rights: maintaining order was of paramount value. The dignity of persons was only given a nominal head nod.
All of the above is to say that too much of what is held up by the church as necessary and good is cultural. It remains in order to maintain the order and the power structure that is in place. We have little reason to condemn or point fingers at Afghanistan without taking a very close look at ourselves first. The USA did not go into Afghanistan because we were concerned about women’s rights. In fact, it should not be the role of one country to impose their culture on another. As much as we might want change, we wouldn’t want an outside country to come in and straighten out our own record on issues of gender and race. I believe in, and pray for, the Afghan women, particularly those who have known some freedoms, who will lead their country’s gradual cultural change. It will not be easy. It never is.
War is always wrong. Extracting resources from less advantaged countries to increase the wealth and advantage of others is always wrong. Producing and profiting from war related industries is always wrong. There has been nothing right with the wars in the Middle East – or any war - from the very beginning. There was never a way to end the evil in a dignified and honorable way.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” Jesus said, “Turn the other cheek.” Jesus said, “Forgive seventy times seven times.” Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The words of Jesus are very difficult to receive and act upon. In today’s reading from John 6:60-69 Jesus is responding to the people’s incredulity around the Eucharistic Meal. Today the hardest words of Jesus are those that call on us as human beings, created in the image of God, to love one another. To follow Jesus is not easy. To follow Jesus, we must sometimes set culture and tradition aside, and in the messy work of extracting ourselves from evil, there will undoubtedly be pain.
May God forgive us.
Women carry the national flag of Afghanistan at an Afghan Independence Day protest in Kabul on August 19, 2021. Stringer/Reuters