Religion & Law

The magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, with its patriarchal conception of the priesthood, is certainly not immune to Carter's critique, here.  One of the commentators at dotCommonweal writes:

The Bible is meant to be used. but in an enlightened way, under the guidance of the Spirit. The Catholic Church has made the same mistakes as the Southern Baptists, using the Bible to prooftext sexism, homophobia, slavery, rejection of religious freedom. We no longer quote ?compelle eos intrare? for the latter purpose, but our current official documents still quote Romans 1 to teach that gays and lesbians are disordered. Of course the Catholic Church claims to be more rational than biblical fundamentalists because its views are ultimately grounded in Natural Law ? but here comes another nasty twist: it is the Vatican, self-decreed ?expert in humanity? that discovers by oracular means what Natural Law dictates, and then treats its own dictates as Infallible, punishing any who demur. Our game, therefore, is every bit as weird and destructive as that of the Southern Baptists.

And, relatedly, read Fr. Richard McBrien's weekly column, this week titled "U.S. Women Religious and Loyalty Oaths", here.