[Utah Girl]

My point (and I didn't make it very well) is that the feminists assume since women aren't allowed to have the priesthood in some churches, or men and women are separated at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, that that is oppression. They look from the outside in, and make assumptions that aren't true.

[ignatz_q]

My point (and I didn't make it very well) is that the feminists assume since women aren't allowed to have the priesthood in some churches, or men and women are separated at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, that that is oppression. They look from the outside in, and make assumptions that aren't true.

And you are correct that that's wrong, no question about it. But my point (and I realize and respect that you may disagree) is that a person would be hard pressed, I think, to find any fundamentalist religious movement that did not have women members who felt legitimately oppressed.

It's not about whether or not I think they're oppressed. The key is how the people in these communities feel themselves.

[tuesday afternoon]

I'm one of those "outside looking in" people, so bear with me. There seems to be a fundamental (so-to-speak) flaw in this argument. In the United States, no one is forced to be part of a religious group (with cultic exception). What I observe are people who wish to makeover a religion in their own image.

I attended service at an Orthodox temple and found the male/female separation quite natural.