Newsweek’s cover story for the April 13th issue entitled The End of Christian America, provided me with the motivation to address religion from a gender perspective—something I had intended to do for a long time. However, as I started writing this essay I realized that the Newsweek story came out during Easter Week. For an international news magazine to promote its lead story with the words The Decline And Fall Of Christian America written in large red letters on a black background of its cover during the holiest week of the Christian calendar was an “in your face” attitude of disrespect by the media.
This blatant public disregard of the feelings of the Christian community in essence proved the point of the publishers. What would or could the Christian community do about it? The article—like most that appear in major news magazines—covered both ends of the spectrum that they addressed in an effort to show fairness; however, the headline and title of the article delivered the message. This attack on religion by the media and the powers that control it is part of a planned effort to destroy religious influence in society. I have addressed this issue in other articles and will now continue with the original intent of this essay.
The Newsweek article expressed little understanding of the reasons for the waning of religious and non-governmental institutional influence. I will comment on both of these conditions, as one bears upon the other. The reader familiar with my message will see gender woven into many paragraphs.
Religions are feminine in nature and reflect the materialization and personalization of unseen spiritual truths. They also represent the understanding by the local populace of matters spiritual and its resultant method of worship, which accounts for the same religion having dissimilar practices in different parts of the world.
Religions represent the common understanding and interpretation of the unseen by a particular group of people. This understanding might be based on scripture and/or from the sayings of prophets and other categories of “holy men.”
Changes in religion are not changes of the truth, which cannot be changed, but in the understanding of the truth, which continually changes. The Christian religion had its first change in understanding when Eastern Orthodoxy broke away from Roman Catholicism. The next major change came with the Protestant Reformation, which ushered in several different denominations. Every major religion has its various offshoots or sects, which represent groups of people with a similar understanding of matters spiritual.
The practice of considering religions as synonymous with scripture reflects erroneous thinking. Differences—sometimes vast—exist between religious practices and their sources. Christianity in particular was formed by a feminine materialistic culture more than three hundred years after the death of Jesus and spearheaded into acceptance by a Roman emperor who worshiped the Sun god. All liturgical Christian denominations derive their liturgy from the ritualistic worship of the Sun god for which there is no basis in the vast spiritual compendium called the Bible. Significant remnants of the European culture in the Middle East during the time of Mohammed influenced the interpretation of the Koran and the practice of Islam.
The spiritual understanding of a religion and its ability to communicate it varies inversely with the authority required to maintain its influence. The more that a religion can teach, guide, and train its members, the less authority it needs. Religions that preach blind obedience to dogma require complete authority over their members.
As spiritual awareness of people grows they become less inclined to have religious authority imposed upon them and instead seek to increase their understanding of themselves and their world. On the other hand, people want a certainty and constancy of matters spiritual. They want religion to be authoritative without it becoming authoritarian. The European influenced religions have never offered much enlightenment to its members and now that they have lost their authority they are rapidly losing their influence in society.
The societal structure in which religions function also affects their influence upon that society. Religions little influenced by European thinking offer great enlightenment and seemingly hold little authority over their members even though vast populations operate in accordance with their teachings. These religions function in a patriarchal society, which by definition has authority. There is respect for the father, the mother, for elders, for ancestors, for everybody and everything. Religions do not need added authority in patriarchal societies. Society IS the authority and all activity centers about the well-being of the family—the core of all patriarchal societies. You can be sure that the gurus, swamis, and enlightened masters that now offer their enlightenment to the Western world did not do anything without the blessings of their fathers.
We do not have such a society in America or the Western world, hence the Newsweek cover article indicating the decline of Christian influence in America. Indeed it has declined, and for two significant reasons. It has failed to provide enlightenment of the true meaning of Biblical scripture and instead relied upon fear to maintain its hold on the people. Secondly, all institutional authority in America and the Western world has collapsed.
While all religions are feminine in nature, the structure in which they function is masculine. Men build organizations; an inherent trait that manifests early in childhood. Boys form clubs, teams, and gangs. They know the abilities of each of their members: who can yell the loudest, run the fastest, lift the most, spit the furthest and even pee the furthest. These traits are utilized when it comes time to accomplishing a task that requires the participation of all members. As the boys grow into manhood the purpose of forming groupings becomes manifest—to provide the environment and means for women to bring forth life and nurture it. Whether to form a sailing crew, hunting party, or defensive detachment, the objective remains the same: the care of women and children.
Now that Western governments have done a comprehensive and thorough job of legislating away all male authority, all organizations and institutions have lost their virility. Civilizations decline when virility declines. All institutions and organizations in the Western culture have declined in influence and now rely on government support and involvement in one way or another as it attempts to become the substitute male.
The institution of the Church requires the same masculine leadership as any other institution. Its failure to provide this leadership is self-imposed. Focus on the Family for example, in its three decades of existence never extolled the virtues of manhood. It believes it can build families with fathers but without men. It does not understand the patriarchal structure of the universe. This thinking permeates all of Western society and consequently the influence of all its institutions are declining including its religious institutions.
As humankind continues its quest for spiritual meaning, the trend to meditation and an awareness of unseen forces increases; however, a new spiritually oriented world will not come about without the development of natural gender relationships called patriarchy. Enlightened or not, people need the patriarchal structure in which to function. Chanting OM, Amen or praying the Rosary will not sidestep that need.
E.G.
