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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"></span><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66"><span style="color:blue">https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:whitesmoke"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:#2C2C2C"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:whitesmoke"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:#2C2C2C">Women Strive for Larger Roles in Male-Dominated Religions<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:whitesmoke"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#2C2C2C"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:whitesmoke"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#2C2C2C">By DAVID CRARY -
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#797979">January 14, 2019</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#2C2C2C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2C2C2C"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background:whitesmoke"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Women have been elected heads of national governments on six continents. They have flown into space, served in elite combat units and won every category of Nobel Prize.
The global #MeToo movement, in 15 months, has toppled a multitude of powerful men linked to sexual misconduct.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Yet in most of the world’s major religions, women remain relegated to a second-tier status. Women in several faiths are still barred from ordination. Some are banned from praying alongside
men and forbidden from stepping foot in some houses of worship altogether. Their attire, from headwear down to the length of their skirts in church, is often restricted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">But women around the world in recent months have been finding new ways to chip away at centuries of male-dominated traditions and barriers, with many of them emboldened by the surge of
social media activism that’s spread globally in the #MeToo era.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Millions of women in India this month formed a human wall nearly 400 miles long in support of women who defied conservative Hindu leaders and entered an important temple that has long
been off-limits to women and girls between the ages of 10 and 50.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">In Israel, where Orthodox Judaism has long restricted women’s roles, one Jerusalem congregation has allowed women to lead Friday evening prayers. Roman Catholic bishops, under pressure
from women’s-rights activists, concluded a recent Vatican meeting by declaring that women, as an urgent “duty of justice,” should have a greater role in church decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Many feminist scholars are challenging the rightfulness of long-standing patriarchal traditions in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, calling into question time-honored translations of verses
in the Bible, Torah and Quran that have been used to justify a male-dominated hierarchy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Social media is seen as a big catalyst in boosting activism and forging solidarity among women of faith who seek more equality. The #MeToo movement has been evoked — even in the ranks
of conservative U.S. denominations — as a reason why women should expect more respectful treatment from male clergy, and a greater share of leadership roles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“Women are looking for opportunities to have their voices heard and be more effective in their religious traditions,” said Gina Messina, a religion professor at Ursuline College in Ohio
who describes herself as both a feminist and a Catholic theologian. “Using social media is an opportunity to say what they think.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">She co-founded a blog called Feminism and Religion that has scores of contributors around the world and followers in more than 180 countries. She also co-edited a collection of essays
by Christian, Jewish and Muslim women explaining why they haven’t abandoned their patriarchal-leaning faiths.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“The perception seems to be that it is a feminist act only to leave such a religion. We contend that it is also a feminist act to stay,” the three editors write in their foreword.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Here’s a brief look at the status of gender equality in several of the world’s religions:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">___<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">ROMAN CATHOLICISM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:bb459188e19d49a5afe88e464ca5b8eb"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="800" height="525" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image007.jpg@01D51196.6FF918A0" alt="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:bb459188e19d49a5afe88e464ca5b8eb/800.jpeg"></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:bb459188e19d49a5afe88e464ca5b8eb"><span style="color:#787878;text-decoration:none">In
this April 18, 2018 file photo, bishops line up to greet Pope Francis during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Catholic doctrine mandates an all-male priesthood, on the grounds that Jesus’ apostles were men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">A decades-long campaign for women’s ordination has made little headway and some advocates of that change have been excommunicated. Women do play major roles in Catholic education, health
care and parish administration<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">While the recent meeting of bishops at the Vatican produced a call to expand women’s presence in church affairs, no details were proposed. The seven nuns who participated along with 267
male clergy were not allowed to vote on the final document.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Earlier this year, a Vatican magazine published an expose detailing how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean with little
recompense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">At the University of Dayton, a Catholic school in Ohio, religion professor Sandra Yocum says some of the young women she teaches “are having a hard time seeing where they fit in” as they
assess the church’s doctrine on gender roles and its pervasive clergy sex-abuse scandals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“They have a deep concern for the church,” she said. “They want to respond in some way and take a leadership role.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Messina sometimes engages in “small acts of dissent” to show displeasure with patriarchal Catholic traditions. At the recent funeral for her grandmother, she changed a Bible reading to
make the passage gender-neutral.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“We have to continue to push — regardless of whether it’s in our generation or five generations from now.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Rose Dyar, a senior at the University of Dayton, says she’s determined to team with other young Catholics to help the church overcome its challenges. The ban on female priests isn’t enough
to drive her from Catholicism, but it dismays her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“I absolutely support women’s ordination,” she said. “Unfortunately I don’t foresee it happening anytime soon, and that breaks my heart.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">_______<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">ISLAM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:1c24537886f74b8ca16dff1c20249f3c"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="800" height="500" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image008.jpg@01D51196.6FF918A0" alt="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:1c24537886f74b8ca16dff1c20249f3c/800.jpeg"></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:1c24537886f74b8ca16dff1c20249f3c"><span style="color:#787878;text-decoration:none">In
this June 15, 2018 file photo, Palestinian women pray in Eastern Gaza City during Eid al-Fitr. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Some of the most important traditions and practices of the Prophet Muhammad were preserved and carried forth by the women closest to him— his wives and daughters. But as with many other
major faiths, women in Islamic tradition have largely been relegated to supporting roles throughout recent history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Women in Islam do not lead prayer or give traditional Friday sermons. In larger mosques where women are welcome, they are almost always segregated from men in the back or allocated spaces
on other floors with separate entrances and exits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">In Saudi Arabia, a male-dominated interpretation of Islam bars women from traveling or obtaining a passport without the consent of a male guardian. Only this year did the kingdom allowed
women to drive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Changes are happening elsewhere. In Tunisia, President Beji Caid Essebsi has proposed giving women equal inheritance rights with men — a much-debated topic around the Muslim world. In
the Palestinian territories, Kholoud al-Faqih became the first female Shariah court judge in 2009, in part to help women beset by domestic violence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Some women are challenging interpretations that state only men must attend traditional Friday prayers. A few have chosen to create their own prayer spaces, like the Women’s Mosque of America
in California where women lead the services and female scholars share their knowledge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The bylaws for that mosque were drafted by Atiya Aftab, who teaches Islamic Law at Rutgers University and is chair of the board at her mosque — a first for a woman in New Jersey. She says
moves in the U.S. to expand women’s roles in the Islamic community have sometimes been met with conservative backlash, but the momentum for change seems strong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">In Texas, Muslim women recently formed a group that has investigated and publicized instances of sexual, physical and spiritual abuse committed against women by Muslim community leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">_______<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">JUDAISM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:6e1920879354454aa74664f425c28b27"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="800" height="533" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image009.jpg@01D51196.6FF918A0" alt="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:6e1920879354454aa74664f425c28b27/800.jpeg"></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:6e1920879354454aa74664f425c28b27"><span style="color:#787878;text-decoration:none">In
this Feb. 7, 2016, file photo, Israeli women wear Tefillin, also known as Phylacteries - small leather boxes containing religious texts usually worn by Jewish men, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The gender situation within Judaism is markedly different in Israel and the United States, which together account for more than 80 percent of the world’s Jewish population.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The largest U.S. branches, Reform and Conservative, allow women to be rabbis, while the Orthodox branch does not. In Israel, the Conservative and Reform movements are small, and Orthodox
authorities hold a near monopoly on all matters regarding Judaism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">One major source of contention: the Orthodox-enforced policy of prohibiting women from praying alongside men at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Numerous
women protesting the policy have been arrested, and several American Jewish groups were angered last year when Israel’s government backtracked on plans to expand a space where both men and women could pray.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">However, there have been moves to expand Orthodox women’s roles in religious life. A Jerusalem congregation, Shira Hadasha, has adopted a liberal interpretation of Jewish religious law
that incorporates women’s involvement in services, such as leading Friday evening prayers and reciting from the Torah on the Sabbath.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">An Orthodox organization called Tzohar is trying to advance women in roles where social custom, not religious law, has excluded them — such as teaching Jewish law or certifying restaurants’
compliance with kosher standards.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“If Jewish law does not say that something is prohibited, but just because of social or cultural reasons women were not involved, we see no reason that they should not be involved, said
Tzohar’s chairman, Rabbi David Stav.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">_______<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">MORMONISM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:e6e11c96aca34894b6f30d2ff105aec3"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="800" height="533" id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image010.jpg@01D51196.6FF918A0" alt="Russell M. Nelson"></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:e6e11c96aca34894b6f30d2ff105aec3"><span style="color:#787878;text-decoration:none">In
this Oct. 6, 2018 file photo, female and male members of The Tabernacle Choir perform in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Women in the Mormon church are barred from being priests, leading local congregations or holding the top leadership posts in a faith that counts 16 million members worldwide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The highest-ranking women in the church oversee three organizations that run programs for women and girls. These councils sit below several layers of leadership groups reserved for men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The role of women in the conservative religion, officially named The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been a subject of debate for many years, with some members pushing
for more equality and increased visibility for women.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The church has made some changes in recent years; women’s groups say they mark small progress. In 2013, a woman for the first time led the opening prayer at the faith’s semiannual general
conference in Salt Lake City. Later that year, a conference session previously limited to men was broadcast live for all to watch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Mormon women are still expected to wear skirts or dresses to worship services and inside temples, but the religion has loosened its rules in recent years to allow women who work at church
headquarters to wear pantsuits or dress slacks and to let women serving proselytizing missions to wear dress slacks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The church shows no signs of budging on women’s ordination. Kate Kelly, the founder of a group called Ordain Women that led protests outside church conferences, was expelled from the faith
in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“We’re in it for the long haul,” said Lorie Winder Stromberg, 66, a member of Ordain Women’s executive board. “I think women’s ordination is inevitable — but I have no sense of the timing.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The gender-equality situation in these two Asian-based faiths is difficult to summarize briefly. Neither has a single supreme entity that enforces doctrine, and each has multiple branches
with different philosophies and practices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">In Buddhism, women’s status varies from country to country. In Thailand, a Buddhist stronghold, women can become nuns — often acting as glorified temple housekeepers — but only in 2003
won the right to serve as the saffron-robed full equivalents of male monks, and still represent just a tiny fraction of the country’s clergy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">India’s Sabarimala temple had long banned women and girls of menstruating age from entering the centuries-old house of worship. Some Hindus consider menstruating women to be impure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">The Supreme Court in September lifted the ban, and violent protests broke out after women entered the temple. Earlier this month, women formed a human chain spanning than 600 kilometers
(375 miles) to support gender equality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“The Hindu temples at present have almost 99 percent male priests,” said women’s rights activist Ranjana Kumari, director of New Delhi-based Center for Social Research. “Things have to
improve.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">SOUTHERN BAPTISTS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:9a2f8282db4e4bf194e6f740d25a3780"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="800" height="533" id="Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D51196.E5CFDFF0" alt="https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:9a2f8282db4e4bf194e6f740d25a3780/800.jpeg"></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:#104BA5;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/3dc6b0999bf04614b1de21863cbfdd66/gallery/media:9a2f8282db4e4bf194e6f740d25a3780"><span style="color:#787878;text-decoration:none">In
this June 12, 2018 file photo, rape survivor and abuse victim advocate Mary DeMuth speaks during a rally protesting the Southern Baptist Convention's treatment of women, outside the convention's annual meeting in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter, File</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:#787878;text-decoration:none">)</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#787878;background:whitesmoke;text-decoration:none"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">While many Protestant denominations now ordain women, the largest in the U.S. — the Southern Baptist Convention — is among those that don’t. It advocates that women submit to male leadership
in their church and to a husband’s leadership at home.</span><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Southern Baptist leaders say this doctrine aligns with New Testament teaching. One passage they cite quotes the apostle Paul as writing, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority
over a man.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">A recent statement from SBC leadership insisted that Southern Baptists “are not anti-woman.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“However, because Scripture speaks specifically to the role of pastor, churches are under a moral imperative to be guided by that teaching, rather than the shifting opinions of human cultures.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">Cheryl Summers, a former Southern Baptist who has challenged the church to improve its treatment of women, describes this gender doctrine as “tortured logic” — especially given the accomplishments
of SBC women in the secular world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">“There’s tremendous cognitive dissonance for a woman of faith who is leading professionally or through volunteer efforts when she experiences the glass ceiling and walls in her place of
worship,” Summers said via email.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:whitesmoke">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2C2C2C">For the past year, the SBC has been roiled by a series of sexual misconduct cases involving churches and seminaries, prompting some activist women to demand new anti-abuse
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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