"How to promote women's participation is one thing that secular leftists in the USA can learn from the religious."
AND
"Face it, organized religion attracts both men and women, but generic secular leftist orgs, even journals, have trouble doing so."
- thus showing that, again, the argument has again jumped the tracks of reason.
Religion - the place where the idea that men MUST dominate intellectual debate WAS INVENTED - is now more inclusive than the Left. Incredible. It is a completely incredible conclusion.
A lot of wastes of time like woodcarving, radio-controlled airplanes, theoretical mathematics , on-line gaming, and political theory debate are dominated by men. Women, shockingly, seem attracted to areas of Left thought that are more connected with promoting their rights and interests. Wow.
Women also seem to be attracted to areas of the Left where emotion, spirit and community are emphasized. Again, this makes sense. If you can't trust the words of a sexist society, you have to look for other evidence of real commitment to equity.
But when it comes to religion I would say "trust the words". Religious people are generally lovely - they are in it for the right reasons. But religion itself serves, at this point, largely to confuse their efforts to create a more compassionate society. I almost feel like this debate is coming at religion as if from an alien world. I like the naivete. I like the questioning of previous assumptions. But the conclusions.....whoa!
boddi