I wonder what a church dedicated to exhaling the freedom of a woman to make decisions for herself would look like — a church that would praise the Mother instead of the Father. Most contemporary religions don’t allow women to take leadership roles in their churches. Women in these churches are taught that they are only fit to follow the lead of the pastor and the men of the church council, though the women do all of the organizing and work that sustains and nourishes the congregation and greater community. The men, alone, decide.
Women have fallen for this unequal paradigm for millennia. Why is that? Is it because women know the true value of life? We know that it’s more important to care for each other than to dominate. I imagine the women who followed Moses out of Egypt rolled their eyes as the male leadership wandered aimlessly in the desert in their search for the promised land. The women knew this illusory land would hold no promise for them. There were children to feed and folks to care for, the dead to be prepared for burial. It was the women of Israel who sustained the group on their long journey, not the men.