SOLIDARITY & SUSTAINABILITY V2 N6 ~ Solidarity, Sustainability, Subsidiarity, Sustainable Development, Religion, Patriarchy, Gender Equity

Reflections on the Social and Ecological Impacts of Religious Patriarchy

Vol. 2, No. 6, June 2006

Luis T. Gutierrez, Editor

Newsletter Home Page

Humanity is currently on a global journey from patriarchy to solidarity, sustainability, and sustainable human development. The Solidarity & Sustainability newsletter is a series of reflections on how to mitigate patriarchal barriers to human development and, in particular, how to overcome the enormous obstacles caused by religious patriarchies. The newsletter integrates existing and emerging knowledge (empirical evidence, tradition, relevant experience, wisdom) to show that true religion radically transcends the patriarchal mindset. In fact, true religion always enhances human development, and should never be an obstacle to it. The "Millennium Development Goals" of the United Nations are used as a point of reference.

Theme of this Issue:
Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions 3

NOTE TO READERS: In response to significant feedback received from readers, this issue expands the mimetic analysis of the process toward the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church. It is reiterated that this analysis in no way implies intentional wrongdoing by anyone at the Vatican or elsewhere.

SUMMARY

This issue expands the mimetic analysis of the process toward the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church. The process is described in terms of the five Girardian phases: mimetic desire, mimetic rivalry, crisis (skandalon), scapegoating, and sacred violence.

The sequence of events that led to the Vatican's decision to "terminate" the process during the 1990s appears to provide a good fit as a case example of mimetic violence in patriarchal religious institutions. It would be surprising if similar cases examples cannot be found in any of the other patriarchal religious traditions.

It is hoped that this essay will motivate scholars from all religious traditions, and politicians regardless of party lines and vested interests, to seek new ways to exorcise mimetic violence form their institutions. Violence begets violence. Violence is the main obstacle to human development worldwide. If religious institutions want to preach peace, they better practice non-violence in their own internal affairs.

This issue also includes an invited paper written by a college student. Without using mimetic theory, he questions what kind of "salvation" can be found in religious institutions that become corrupted by absolute power and suffer delusions about having a monopoly of the truth. This article is on a separate page (link provided below).

OUTLINE

1. MIMETIC DESIRE IN WORSHIP
2. HIERARCHICAL MIMETIC RIVALRY
3. ECCLESIASTICAL SKANDALON
4. CHRIST IS THE SCAPEGOAT
5. VIOLENCE TO THE BODY OF CHRIST
6. SUMMARY OF VATICAN EXAMPLE
7. PRAYER, STUDY, AND ACTION
8. REFERENCES AND NOTES
9. LINKS TO ARCHIVED NEWSLETTERS

INVITED ARTICLE
What Will Be Our Saving Grace:
Does Humanity Need a New Religion?

By Robert Volpicelli

1. MIMETIC DESIRE IN WORSHIP

"What is mimetic desire? Desire obviously comes from other people, the social world. We desire what people tell us is desirable .... In other words, the desire of the one imitates the desire of the other, the desire imitates the desire and shows what is desirable when desiring" [01].

In the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), there is a mimetic desire to ordain Roman Catholic women to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopate. This desire has emerged in conjunction with the women's movement, as many of the faithful reject the idolatry of masculinity and desire to see the maternal face of God reflected in those who preside at worship. There is increasing awareness that women deacons, priests, and bishops would enrich sacramental ministry for the glory of God and the good of both men and women in the church. There is also increasing awareness about the nefarious effects of a male-only priesthood. Is it really God's will that only men can be ordained, or is it simply the perpetuation of 2000 years of ecclesiastical machismo? What would Jesus do, here and now?

A chronology of the ordination of women in the Christian churches generally shows a regressive pattern up to about 1000 CE, and disappears during the Middle Ages. A restoration pattern starts in 1853, when Antoinette Brown was ordained by the Congregationalist Church (USA). But it is self-evident that Mary of Nazareth was the first Christian priest, "ordained" by the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. Mary Magdalene, the first witness of the resurrection, was sent as an "apostle to the apostles". That Jesus chose twelve men to be his apostles during his public ministry to the people of Israel makes sense. That he intended to exclude women from the priesthood forever is utter nonsense, a fabrication of male clerics in a church that became more and more clericalized following Constantine's Edict of Milan (313 CE). During the 20th century, the path toward women in roles of religious authority advances from the less clericalized churches to the more clericalized churches, finally reaching the liturgical churches such as the Methodists and Lutherans (1960s), the Anglican Communion (starting in the 1970s), and the Old Catholics (1980s-1990s). The RCC and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, with the most rigid patriarchal structures, still refuse.

But the mimetic desire for women priests in the RCC keeps building up, with many theologians and advocacy groups pressing for change. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) created fresh expectations that the RCC was getting ready to consider the signs of the times regarding women in ordained ministry (among other things). Sadly, many of these expectations have turned out to be false hopes; but the patriarchies and the patriarchs are old, and the desire to see women representing Christ at the altar is young.

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2. HIERARCHICAL MIMETIC RIVALRY

"Mimetism leads to rivalry which, in return, reinforces mimetism in a circular logic of cybernetic positive feedback." In other words, "It’s a pattern of rivalry that grows in intensity due to the mutual reinforcement of desire and rivalry." As desire grows, rivalry grows. This circular logic of positive feedback is well known in control systems theory, and is the cornerstone of many growth models [02].

The mimetic rivalry emerges from resistance to the mimetic desire. In the case under consideration, the resistance comes from the ecclesiastical patriarchy. In the RCC, the rivalry is triggered by the Vatican's refusal to seriously consider the issue and allow an open process of prayer and theological reflection. This resistance continues, and is becoming increasingly rigid, even though most catholic scholars (see, for example, Can Women be Priests?, Pontifical Biblical Commission, 1 June 1976) agree that there is no biblical basis for reserving priestly ordination to men alone.

It is no coincidence that the Vatican's initial act of public resistance closely followed the PBC report and the canonical approval (also in 1976) of the ordination of women by the Episcopal Church USA. On October 15, 1976, the Vatican published the "Declaration Inter Insigniores on the question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood." The document is a literalist rationalization of the male-only priesthood. It contains the following statements:

"The practice of the Church therefore has a normative character: in the fact of conferring priestly ordination only on men, it is a question of unbroken tradition throughout the history of the Church, universal in the East and in the West, and alert to repress abuses immediately. This norm, based on Christ's example, has been and is still observed because it is considered to conform to God's plan for his Church." The document concludes that the church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination."

One wonders whether the church was "authorized" and "alert to repress abuses immediately" while people were being burned alive during the inquisition, and whether the inquisition itself was "considered to conform to God's plan for his Church." Clearly, to do something wrong for 2000 years is no justification to keep doing it. And to imply that Christ's every action is normative for all time is absurd. During his earthly ministry, his mission was to the Jews, and he needed twelve male apostles to represent the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. Is Christ's example in expelling the merchants from the temple also normative? What about not having a place where to lay his head? If everything that Jesus did (or didn't do) is normative, then most of the Christian churches have strayed far away from "the straight and narrow path".

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3. ECCLESIASTICAL SKANDALON

"In Girard's view, it is humankind, not God, who has the problem with violence. Humans are driven by desire for that which another has or wants (mimetic desire). This causes a triangulation of desire and results in conflict between the desiring parties (mimetic rivalry). This mimetic contagion increases to a point where society is at risk (skandalon)" [03].

The skandalon in this case is that other Christian churches start ordaining women, including liturgical (sacramental) churches such as many provinces of the Anglican Communion, most Old Catholic churches, and most Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches. This increases the pressure on the Vatican, especially when surveys show that a significant majority of the faithful (not only in Europe and North America, but in other traditionally Catholic countries such as the Philippines) would welcome the ordination of women. The stage is set for the mimetic rivalry to become mimetic crisis, or skandalon.

The period from 1976 to 1994 is critical. After Inter Insigniores was published in 1976, the following sequence of events took place:

In 1976, the Anglican Church of Canada ordained the first group of female priests.
In 1977, the Anglican Church of New Zealand ordained the first group of female priests.
In 1979, the Reformed Church in America admitted women to the offices of deacon and elder.
In 1983, an Anglican woman was ordained in Kenya and three Anglican women were ordained in Uganda.
In 1983, the Vatican published a new revision of the Code of Canon Law. Canon 1024 states unequivocally that "only a baptized male validly receives sacred ordination."
In 1984, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints authorized the ordination of women.
In 1985, Conservative Judaism admitted women as rabbis (Reformed Judaism had done likewise in 1972); and the first group of women was ordained to the diaconate by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
In 1988, the World Council of Churches launched the Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women. One of the recommendations was to "reinstate the ancient tradition of ordination of women to the diaconate."
In 1988, the Vatican published the apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity of Women), Pope John Paul II, 15 August 1988. This document, for the first time ever, acknowledges that both men and women are human beings who share equally in human nature, neither one being superior to the other. But it reaffirms that women cannot be ordained, so the dignity of women is equal to the dignity of men but does not include the sacramental dignity of the priesthood.
In 1990, the Anglican Church of Ireland ordained the first group of women priests.
Also in 1990, it becomes known that Ludmila Javorova and a few other Czech women had been secretly ordained to the priesthood in 1970 by Roman Catholic bishop Felix Maria Davidek. These women were ordained to serve as priests for the underground church in communist Czechoslovakia. The Vatican quickly declared that these ordinations were both illicit and invalid.
In 1992, the Church of England and the Anglican Church of South Africa approve the ordination of women.
In 1994, the Scottish Episcopal Church ordained the first group of female priests.

During the second half of the 20th century, the number of scholarly theological publications showing that the male-only priesthood is not a matter of revealed truth became an avalanche. Likewise, the number of groups actively praying and working for the ordination of women in the RCC increased significantly in the 1970s and 1980s. By the early 1990s, the mimetic rivalry had become a mimetic crisis. The Vatican, not being able to produce a coherent explanation for keeping women excluded, had to find some scapegoat.

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4. CHRIST IS THE SCAPEGOAT

"It is at this point [skandalon] that the scapegoat mechanism is triggered. This is the point where one person is singled out as the cause of the trouble and is expelled or killed by the group. This person is the scapegoat. In brief, a scapegoat is someone selected to bear blame for a calamity. Scapegoating is the act of holding a person, group of people, or thing responsible for a multitude of problems" [04] that they may or may not be responsible for.

The exclusion of women from holy orders is rooted in millennia of patriarchal thinking, whereby men are superior to women. Undoubtedly, excluding women from presiding at the altar reinforces the scapegoating of women generally by males. But scapegoating women in this case would not do, for obvious reasons. Therefore, the scapegoating was transferred to God. The scapegoat is the Risen Christ. The Roman Catholic Church, according to the Vatican, is not authorized by Christ to ordain women. The implication is that Christ is the one who is making things difficult for the pilgrim church on earth.

Actually, this rationalization is implicit in the 1976 document, Inter Insigniores, but it is stated more bluntly in the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone," Pope John Paul II, 22 May 1994:

"Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis had never been announced in advance as infallible teaching, therefore it could not possibly be infallible (canon 749.3). When people kept raising doubts about the dogmatic nature of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the Vatican retroactively declared that the teaching was infallible. This complex maneuver required the publication of two additional documents: Responsum ad Dubium in 1995, and Ad Tuendam Fidem in 1998. Some readers may want to study these documents. The bottom line is that, having absolute priestly power, they can rationalize dogmas and canon laws as they see fit.
In a recent question-and-answer session with the Boston Globe, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, had the following to say:

"QUESTION: I was wondering, following up on that, setting aside your obligation to accept, of course, the prohibition of women as priests, whether you find the rationale for that doctrine compelling, and what would happen to the Catholic Church were it to be changed?
"O'MALLEY: Well, to me it's a matter of faith. The church's teachings go back to the time of Christ and the apostles, and it's not something that we can change. If I could have the opportunity to say to our Lord, "Well, you know we really need to have women priests today, it would be so much easier for the church, could you change this for us." But we believe there are certain things that are givens. And this is one of the things that we believe is a given."

What about the power of the keys? What about the Lord's promise that the church would do greater things than he had done? The cardinal knows perfectly well that the church is authorized to ordain women here and now. Oh well, at least the good cardinal is praying to the Scapegoat ....

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5. VIOLENCE TO THE BODY OF CHRIST

"Mimetic desire leads to mimetic rivalry and mimetic violence in general conflicts that can be solved by the sacrifice of a scapegoat we know now as an “emissary victim” to restore peace." [05].

The sacred violence in this case is the publication of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and the subsequent documents, and the implication that the male-only priesthood is a matter of faith and the issue is not to be discussed anymore. This has a cooling effect on the movement for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church, because now all the effort must be displaced to show that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis lacks the requirements for infallibility as defined by Vatican Council I in 1870 and explained by Vatican Council II in 1964. It should be kept in mind that the Vatican I definition on infallibility is the only one that has been issued as a formal definition of the faith. Vatican II refrained from defining any new dogmas. Therefore, the 1994, 1995, and 1998 documents are nothing but mental gymnastics to coerce the faithful into silence. This coercion does violence to Christ, who is not "authorized" by the patriarchs of the church to call women to the ministerial priesthood, and does violence to the "body of Christ" (i.e., the entire church) inasmuch as it keeps women excluded from priestly service.

Having twelve male apostles may have been the "lesser evil" 2000 years ago. It is the greater evil today. It is a clear sign that the RCC suffers from the triple addiction to wealth accumulation, absolute power, and worldly recognition. The political correctness of having only men in roles of authority is 5000+ years old. The RCC's adherence to such political correctness is 2000 years old. So, in this regard, the church has not been counter-cultural for 2000 years. The newly found devotion to political incorrectness (specifically with regard to women in roles of religious authority) is, therefore, an unpleasant surprise that smells like fear, not love.

This is a mimetic analysis of an important episode in the RCC. There is absolutely no implication here of intentional wrongdoing by anyone at the Vatican or elsewhere. Only God can judge.

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6. SUMMARY OF VATICAN EXAMPLE

In brief, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, and the sequel of dubious documents that provide the scaffolding to perpetuate the exclusion of women from the Roman Catholic priesthood, seem to provide a good case example for the Girardian theory of mimetic violence. It is a relatively recent episode that reached the point of sacred violence toward the end of the 20th century. It may be no coincidence that shortly thereafter, on September 11, 2001, patriarchal violence exploded again, albeit with far less finesse.

Physically and psychologically, violence begets violence, and religious violence begets religious violence. The reason is that violence is mimetic, and religious violence is mimetic to the core. Violence is the main obstacle to making progress toward the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. Mimetic theory provides an understanding of violent human behavior in both secular and religious institutions. It is hoped that this essay will motivate scholars from all religious traditions, and politicians regardless of party lines and vested interests, to seek new ways to exorcise mimetic violence form their institutions. The following web site is a gateway to reference material and current research on mimetic theory: [06].

It could be worse. Many people would have been burned at the stake if the women's ordination issue had emerged as recently as 500 years ago. Now we know that pychological violence is even more harmful and has a very long tail. At the moment, it seems that "things are getting better and better, and worse and worse, faster and faster" (Tom Atlee). It is time to grow in patient endurance, and never lose hope:

Faced with a wall, a man said to his comrade,
"We can go no further." His comrade said,
"But there is a crack in the wall." The man
said, "But the wall is so large and the crack
is so small." To which his comrade said, "A
crowbar in the crack, and we'll be on our way.
Or set a few seeds in it, and they'll take that
wall down for us in God's good time. Which
shall it be?" They were soon on their way.
Tom Atlee

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7. PRAYER, STUDY, AND ACTION

PRAYER

A Prayer for Mercy
My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit
That’s going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful
Who follow them down
I love my church and country, we could use some mercy now.
Every living thing could use a little mercy now
Only the hand of grace can end the race
Towards another mushroom cloud
People in power, well
They’ll do anything to keep their crown
I love life, and life itself could use some mercy now.
Yeah, we all could use a little mercy now
I know we don’t deserve it
But we need it anyhow
We hang in the balance
Dangle ‘tween hell and hallowed ground
Every single one of us could use some mercy now.
Mary Gauthier, Mercy Now, CD Mercy Now, 2005

STUDY
Can Women be Priests?, Pontifical Biblical Commission, June 1976
Inter Insigniores, Declaration of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the question of admission of women to the ministerial priesthood, 15 October 1976.
Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone, Pope John Paul II, 22 May 1994.
Responsum ad Dubium, Concerning the Teaching Contained in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 28 October 1995.
Apostolic Letter Motu Propio Ad Tuendam Fidem, by which certain norms are inserted into the Code of Canon Law and into the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Pope John Paul II, 18 May 1998.
Tradition and the Ordination of women, Catholic Theological Society of America, 1997.
Fallibly Infallible? A New Form of Papal Teaching, Hermann J. Pottmeyer, America, 3 April 1999.
A Priest Called Ludmila, Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, The Tablet, 2001.
Crisis Fatigue and the Co-Creation of Positive Possibilities, Tom Atlee, Co-Intelligence Institute, 2003.
Al-Qaeda’s Defining Moment: The Prominence of the Scapegoat Strategy, Madaleine Sorkin, Colorado College, 2004.
Alienated Catholics: Establishing the Groundwork for Dialogue, Catherine M. Murphy, Santa Clara University, 26 March 2006.
How faith turns violent ~ We have begun to understand the ways violence and religion are linked; now we must learn to break those links, Vern Neufeld Redekop, Ottawa Citizen, 22 May 2006 .
ACTION
Take it easy. Enjoy the Summer. Go to the pool. Have a cold beer. Relax.

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8. REFERENCES AND NOTES
NOTE TO READERS: Click on the reference [##] to go back to the text.
[01] Mimetic Desire, Wikipedia, 12 May 2006.
[02] Mimetic Rivalry, Wikipedia, 12 May 2006.
[03] Skandalon, Wikipedia, 12 May 2006.
[04] Scapegoat, Wikipedia, 16 May 2006.
[05] Sacred Violence, Wikipedia, 12 May 2006.
[06] Colloquium on Violence and Religion, Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

9. LINKS TO ARCHIVED NEWSLETTERS

The following are links to previous issues of the newsletter:
V1 N1 May 2005: Cross-Gender Solidarity
V1 N2 June 2005: The Phallocentric Syndrome
V1 N3 July 2005: From Patriarchy to Solidarity
V1 N4 August 2005: Synthesis of Patriarchy and Solidarity
V1 N5 September 2005: From Solidarity to Sustainability
V1 N6 October 2005: Dimensions of Sustainability
V1 N7 November 2005: Analysis and Synthesis of Objective Evidence
V1 N8 December 2005: Solidarity, Subsidiarity, and Sustainability
V2 N1 January 2006: Synthesis of Solidarity and Sustainability
V2 N2 February 2006: Sustainable Human Development
V2 N3 March 2006: Patriarchy and Mimetic Violence
V2 N4 April 2006: Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions
V2 N5 May 2006: Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions 2

|Back to SUMMARY| |Back to OUTLINE|
|Back to SECTION 1| |Back to SECTION 2| |Back to SECTION 3|
|Back to SECTION 4| |Back to SECTION 5| |Back to SECTION 6|
|Back to SECTION 7| |Back to SECTION 8| |Back to SECTION 9|
|Link to Volpicelli's Article|

The Pelican Symbol

The pelican is a legendary symbol of commitment to generous service to others, especially those who are most vulnerable. Sources:
The Physiologus, circa 400 CE
Adoro Te Devote, 13th Century
Dante's Paradiso, 14th Century
Donna Hrynkiw, 1999
Rev. William Saunders, 2003
Rev. Silvia Roberts, 2004

Feedback

Dr. Evandro Vieira Ouriques, Professor of Communications, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and developer of a Sustainable Theory of Communication. Those who can read Portuguese can find his online publications by searching for his complete name. He has sent articles on, A New Epistemological Perspective for Solidarity and Sustainability in the Essentially Patriarchal and Emblematic Crisis of Western Mindset and The Sustainable Theory of Communication. Both are excellent. The first one is too long, but the second is to be published as an invited paper in the July issue of this newsletter.

Robert Volpicelli, Ithaca College, wrote to share an interesting paper entitled Preachers Preach of Evil Fates. This paper has been revised under the title, What Will Be Our Saving Grace: Does Humanity Need a New Religion?, and is published as an invited paper in this issue. To access Volpicelli's article, click here.

Rev. Patricia K. Townsend: "As both a Presbyterian pastor of an urban church and an environmental anthropologist, I have been looking for an efficient entry point to a Girardian approach and have found books and lengthy articles off-putting. Your current issue [May 2006] is a good one."

Dr. Wendy C. Hamblet, Professor of Philosophy, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York: "There are a great many peace groups that have come to these gendered conclusions, you are not alone in your thesis! See, for example, Abraham on Trial, by Carol Delaney. Many people working on this gender issue recommend women and their tendency toward nurture as a safer alternative for any type of rule. However, your idea of [gender] balance is a new twist on the topic. "

Announcements

WOMEN AND ORDINATION IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES: Conference at Lincoln Theological Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, University of Manchester, UK, 12-14 July 2006. For more information, visit the conference website, or contact Dr. Ian Jones.

CALL FOR PAPERS: A conference on Global Built Environment: Towards an Integrated Approach for Sustainability is to be held 11-12 September 2006, Preston, UK. Please submit abstracts by 15 February 2006 to Professor Monjur Mourshed, Senior Lecturer, Built Environment, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, United Kingdom.

CALL FOR PAPERS: The 14th international conference of the Society of Human Ecology (SHE) will take place 18-21 October 2006 at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. SHE welcomes proposals for sessions, multi-session symposia, as well as individual papers. Contact the Conference Committee, SHE XIV.

United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

UN MDGs

UN MDGs:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Interested in more information and data? Click the map below:

AC/UNU
Millennium Project

Global Challenges

The Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University is proposing the following 15 questions on the global challenges facing humanity.
1. How can sustainable development be achieved for all?
2. How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict?
3. How can population growth and resources be brought into balance?
4. How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes?
5. How can policymaking be made more sensitive to global long-term perspectives?
6. How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone?
7. How can ethical market economies be encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor?
8. How can the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune micro-organisms be reduced?
9. How can the capacity to decide be improved as the nature of work and institutions change?
10. How can shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the use of weapons of mass destruction?
11. How can the changing status of women help improve the human condition?
12. How can transnational organized crime networks be stopped from becoming more powerful and sophisticated global enterprises?
13. How can growing energy demands be met safely and efficiently?
14. How can scientific and technological breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?
15. How can ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions?

For more information, visit the Global Challenges Facing Humanity web page. To submit your ideas on how to answer these critical questions, send them to AC/UNU with a copy to Jerome Clayton.

Global Change

Dr. Global Change

Got a question?
Visit Doctor Global Change, resident expert at the site of the Global Change Research Information Office (GCRIO).
Source: GCRIO

Gender Balance in Religion

Women in Roles of
Religious Authority

[blackwomanpreacher]
Preaching the Gospel
Source: Unkown

Gender Balance in Society

Women in Roles of
Secular Authority

[corazonaquino]
President of the Philippines
1986-1992
Source: Wikipedia

Religious Patriarchies

The Patriarchs of the
Twelve Tribes of Israel

Old Testament Patriarchy

Sikh Patriarchy

Islamic Patriarchy

Buddhist Patriarchy

Hindu Patriarchy

Orthodox Patriarchy

Shinto Patriarchy

Vatican Patriarchy

"The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery - not over nature but of ourselves"
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962

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