Author tells of the healing, hurtfulness of religion

by Juanita Westaby

Saturday, March 10, 2007
By Juanita Westaby
The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS—Religion has been a source of repression as well as of comfort to women around the world, according to Nancy Falk, a recently retired comparative religion professor from Western Michigan University.
Falk, who recently spoke at a gathering of the Freethought Association of West Michigan, told of Lily, the producer of a New Delhi television show, whose husband ran off with another woman.

Middle-aged and in failing health, she often makes a 12-mile trek up a mountainside to the shrine of the goddess Vaishnodevi. “She swears this goddess has helped her time after time when things have gotten tough for her,” Falk said of Lily, who must deal with the poverty, shame and disenfranchisement she felt after her divorce. Much of Lily’s feelings of alienation come from societal norms backed by religion.

A dichotomy

“Religion has harmed her, but religion has also healed her,” said Falk, who described private religious practices that afford women access to art, creativity, community, usefulness, meaning and a place of refuge and quiet.

Under many patriarchal religions, Falk said women are seen as flawed and blamed for evil, their roles are submissive only, they are excluded from public roles, stereotyped as emotional and any spiritual endeavor is blocked or co-opted. “It’s a very sad list,” said Falk, the author of “Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives.”

Pushed to leadership

Those women who are called to be religious leaders often find the circumstances dramatic and traumatic. “Some were jailed. Some were killed. They underwent startling transformations, from humble housewives to charismatic leaders,” Falk said. In her study abroad, Falk often meets with a group of monastic nuns, called Brahma Kumaris. They forgo any marks of deference, such as bowing or foot touching of the leaders. “They’ll greet each other and look right into their eyes—that long look—and say, ‘Peace,’” Falk said. “They are women who are simply being women.”