The Taliban has reached back into Afghanistan’s dark past to reinstate the rule that all women must wear full-body covering in public. If a woman violates the rule, the responsible male will be punished. This totally removes any agency from women’s lives, reducing them to wall hangings in the house. That’s theocracy – religious practices forced on all citizens; ours however is a democracy. Could never happen here, right?
Except Christianity is a religion and its practices may soon be required of all of us. Whatever Jesus says in the New Testament may become the law of the land. What does he say about abortion, contraception, gay marriage, LGBT rights? No, no, no, and no, right?
Actually, Jesus didn’t think any of those “sins” were worthy of mention. He said nothing about any of them. He talked about the poor and the vulnerable and the outsider. His focus was compassion, not condemnation. How unlike the hypocrites who loudly invoke his name when they would strip women of their rights, except, of course, the right of women of color and all women living in poverty to suffer. That’s a right they must keep.
