Trevor Phillips Quotes
It's perfectly fair that you can't be a Roman Catholic priest unless you're a man. It seems right that the reach of anti-discriminatory law should stop at the door of the church or mosque.
Bingham, John, and Edward Malnick. "Christians under fire from equality chief Trevor Phillips." The Sunday Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 3 Mar. 2012.
The Kotel -- or the "Western Wall" or the "Wailing Wall" as most outside of Israel call it -- is the Holiest of Jewish places where many Jews gather and pray. But the Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis who were charged by the Israeli Government to manage the Wailing Wall and vicinity had refused to allow women to pray at the wall. After much litigation, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that women had a right to pray there or anywhere else. After much foot-dragging, a small out of the way area at the wall was designated for women, but many Jews wanted to pray as a family which also offended those Rabbis in control of the area, After more Supreme Court Litigation the Government was ordered to establish an area at the Wall that was open to all. The Israeli Government Ministerial Committee for Holy Places was charged with implementing the Supreme Court rulings. However, Regev--who had ambitions of running for Prime Minister, was a conservative whose political base included the Ultra-Orthodox. When they objected to the Supreme Court Ruling, she resigned from the Commission she chaired rather than implement the law of the land. Her official view on the dire consequences of women (or mixed gender) praying at the Wall brought her the support of her base and the strong opposition of most Israeli women and many men as well.
It took only 10 days after the First Continental Congress met for religious bigotry to arise. After hundreds of years of Catholic/Protestant strife, each sect looked upon the other, not only as theologically wrong, but dangerous to the liberty of the other. Unfortunately, the organied religions had acted so badly towards other religions, that everyone was justified in fearing the other religions. This quotation illustrates a then typical attitude of many American Protestants that the Catholic Church was a threat to national security. Ironically, in modern times, anti-Catholic bigots use this quotation to demonstrate that the United States was founded as a Christian Protestant nation—not a general Christian nation. A small, vicious anti-Catholic sentiment still exists, usually by a minority of right wing Protestant religious fundamentalists. Protestant England had just repealed the laws making Catholicism illegal, but this was regarded at that time as intolerable for the new America. This was one of the disputes which that the Founding Fathers were faced with later and one of the reasons that they were so absolute in the need for the 1st Amendment.
Within Christianity there has been a continual debate regarding a woman’s proper role in society in general and in church affairs in particular. This quotation is often used to justify a husband’s dominant role over the wife. Also it supports those who object to women in the ministry or the priesthood. See {587062}. It is useful to note that much of Islam which preaches a similar view of females, probably learned it from Christianity which preceded Islam by almost 600 years.
It is noteworthy that women did not at the time even have the vote, but were still politically active.
Mark Trevor Phillips OBE ARCS FIC is a British writer, broadcaster and former politician. In March 2015, Phillips was appointed as the President of the Partnership Council of the John Lewis Partnership for a three-year term. His is the first external appointment since 1928.
