In the name of religion, the worst crimes against humanity have ever been perpetrated.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Pulling the Plug on Patriarchy by Felicity Artemis Flowers
As a radical feminist I ask: What is the root of violence? What is the root of ethnic cleansing, rape, war, the threat of nuclear war and the destruction of the natural world? What inspires it? What fuels it?
I believe the root is patriarchal religion.
I can explain this simply. A couple of months ago on "Nightline" with Ted Koppel there was a show about wife-burning in Pakistan. The crew and cameras were right there interviewing women who had recently been burned by their husbands and their husbands' families. The women of Pakistan, by the thousands, are tortured, usually to death, by their husbands and it is not considered a crime in that country. The crew interviewed one woman who screamed in her bed, a large percentage of her body burned with acid her husband had poured all over her. There was no medical help available to her. Her daughter tried to care for her, under threat that her own husband would come after her and harm her. There was a 16 year-old "bride", who died the day after the interview, from her husband's family pouring gasoline on her and setting her on fire. She screamed and screamed as she told the crew what they did to her. This is done to Pakistani women by the thousands every day. No one goes to jail, for it is sanctified by the religious beliefs of that culture that follows the teachings of the Koran.
Toward the end of the broadcast they interviewed a Pakistani woman who is a Professor of Theology here in the United States. She was an extremely well-educated, articulate feminist woman. She said that the Koran does not teach men to control and torture women, that the men merely misinterpret the religion in this way. But she misses the most essential point of the discussion.
Unless a religion specifically teaches the followers to worship and honor women and the Earth, then it teaches them not to. Religions focus on symbols and ideas that represent what is valued by the culture. The religion is the psychic blueprint of the culture. If what is being focused upon and worshipped are things other than Life itself, the living Earth, nature, and women who are the givers of life, then there is an implicit message that these things are not important, not worthy of reverence, not sacred. The only things that are considered sacred are abstract concepts and constructs, such as "God", that are separate from the tangible, living world. In patriarchal dualistic thinking, whatever is not considered sacred is a commodity, only valuable if it can be exploited. Thus the denigration, torture and exploitation of women and the natural world is implicitly sanctified by patriarchal religion.
Also, most every war is fought in the name of patriarchal religions. Each side hating the other. Each having God on their side. The violent patriarchal system is plugged-in to patriarchal religion which psychically fuels and feeds it.
It is clear to me that the time has come for all people of conscience, all people who truly love Life, not only their own dear life but All Life on Earth, to let go of all religions that do not specifically teach reverence for women and the Earth. In the past I have said and written that I felt there was room on this planet for all religions to co-exist peacefully. I no longer feel that way. Here, at the pivotal end of this climactic millennium, when hope has been all but lost, when push has come all the way to shove, it seems the only way to effectively undo the insanity of this biocidal, genocidal, mutually suicidal global system is for all people who are awake and paying attention, and I know we are many all around the world, to reject and renounce Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and all other religions that forsake women and the living world. It all has to go. And then we can reweave the tapestry of the human psyche from the spiritual reverence for all Life on Earth. Only from this spiritual foundation can we create a new world.
I hereby send out a call to all people of conscience of the World to give-up patriarchal religion right now. Stop defending it and sentimentalizing about it. Instead I call us to actively, boldly and articulately speak out against it. Together we can pull the plug, give death to the system that clearly, itself, wants to die. We just need to come out and say it, stop letting the fear of now being 'nice' all the time keep us from speaking the plain, obvious truth, that could bring the world to sanity.
It's time to help the system of patriarchy die. Now.
It's the kindest thing we can do.
Let's pull the plug.
Felicity Artemis Flowers is a feminist theorist, High Priestess, ritual and performance artist and founder and director of Artemis Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the spiritual empowerment of women. For information and to get on the mailing list, write to Artemis Institute, P.O. Box 2260, Sebastopol,. CA 95473, or call 707-795-8403.