Pat Bean's blog

Aging My Way – Pissed and Speaking Out

One of the reasons I left the Baptist Church when I was 14 was that a hell fire and brimstone preacher replaced the calm, gentle pastor who spoke mostly of God’s love for us. He recognized his congregation’s goodness and focused on that instead of calling us all sinners, whether we were or not.

I later quit the Mormon Church, among other things, because as a woman I was a second-class citizen who couldn’t reach the highest degree of glory without a man. I’ve never thought of myself as a second-class citizen, especially since circumstances pushed me into being the family breadwinner, a position which many women find themselves in, want it or not. It wasn’t easy, and for years I fought against a system that paid men more than women for the exact work, and in fact often still does.

I’ve long looked for an answer as to why I was drawn to organized religion in the first place. My parents never went to church, but I felt a need to do so. I’ve never found a satisfying answer to my question. But today, I’m pretty much an atheist, although I shy away from that word. I do believe in a higher power, but I think it’s inside each of us and we have to find it on our own.

Meanwhile the years, particularly recent events, have brought me to the conclusion that some of those who call themselves Christians are the least Christ-like of all. Racism and bigotry have infected their circles. And, more personally, they are advocating, in one way or another, that men are better than women. And women who were raised that way believe it.

The most recent examples are the Baptists expelling churches that have women pastors, and the Shiny Happy People documentary that exposed the IBLP (Institute of Basic Life Principles) which teaches, among other insidious things, that females, from birth, are to be subservient to males, even their incestuous brothers.

Sounds to me like it’s the men writing the rules – and always has been.  

I’m pissed – and scared that this kind of thinking will become more acceptable in the world I live in. And also sad that so many women in the world are still treated as slaves and servants without even the ability to leave their homes, and may even be married off when they are still children.

This is not the kind of blog I like to write. But if we women — and men who don’t have to dominate women to prove they are men – don’t at least speak out against this kind of thinking … well, I fear it’s going to be a sad place for the futures of our female great-grandchildren, of which I now have four.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.