Sotomayor, sexism, social location, and social justice

I've been thinking a lot about the status of women in the U.S., religion and the world this week.

I just looked for and couldn't find an image of the good old boys -- er, Senate Judiciary Committee, who grilled Sonya Sotomayor this week. But, with the exception of Senator Feinstein, the images I saw were predominately older, white men. I couldn't help but think that they looked pretty much the same as the panel that held hearings on Clarence Thomas almost twenty years ago. I was both infuriated and amused as I listened to these white men lecture Sotomayor on equality and the need to not have her face and gender affect her decision-making. Do they really not understand at any level that THEIR race, class, and gender affect the way they make decisions? (Uh, no.)

That led me to thinking about feminist and liberation theology that taught us that we must always begin by acknowledging our unique social location and how it affects how we think, live, and act. Guess those aren't on the Senators' required reading lists.

But maybe they'll listen to former President Jimmy Carter, who earlier this week published this letter on behalf of a group of retired statesmen from around the world called "The Elders." Read it here http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/12/jimmy-carter-womens-rights-equality Carter eloquently speaks out against discrimination and violence against women in all of the world's religions and calls us to understand that recognizing and supporting women's equality is part of God's call to us.

I hope the predominately white men who control the Congress and the world's religious bodies are listening.