SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION | FEBRUARY 13, 2018

Gender Schmender

Well, since gender is a headline-grabbing topic right now, let’s go there, shall we?
I’m no student of world religions, but the ministry seems to be a male-dominated field. In centuries past, women have, for whatever reason, taken a back seat in the religious arena while the men were more involved.

Public Relations Official of the Church of Scientology Moscow with the Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Orthodox Church

For example, I was the first female in my family to have a bat mitzvah (Jewish initiation ceremony). My parents knew of no girls in their generation who did and certainly there were none in my grandparents’ time.

Now, I'm not going to get all feminist on you here and say we have an equal rights problem in religion. I’m just giving you an observation. The right person for the job is the right person for the job, man or woman. And the reason I’m blogging on this? Scientology most definitely does not continue this “mostly male” trend.

A fairly new religion, Scientology is in a position of not having to carry on any tired old gender traditions. Scientology addresses YOU, a spiritual being, and the gender of the body is rather inconsequential. I’ve studied Scientology for many years and I’ve never read in a book nor heard in any lecture a procedure, theory, axiom or otherwise that applied only to a male or only to a female.

We have both men and women in every staff position at our Churches, including ministers and those who teach the religion. The training that an ordained Scientology minister goes through provides so much spiritual enhancement that many Scientologists choose to follow that path anyway, whether they work for the Church or not. Here’s an analogy: imagine a large percentage of Jewish people, male and female, training to the level of a rabbi. Or a large percentage of Catholics training to the level of priest, even if it’s not the profession they’ve chosen. Well, many people go through that degree of training in Scientology for the benefits it gives them in all areas of life.

The President of the Church of Scientology of the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, Calif

All three Scientology Churches in my area have a female Executive Director at the helm. They have taken on these positions as a direct result of their high sense of responsibility, their compassion, and their ability to apply the knowledge they’ve gained through this religion. Ask any one of them—their achievements with their Churches and the guidance they give have nothing to do with being female. I’m sure they’ll tell you their gender is as unimportant as the color of the flowers outside the front door. The Scientology community has great respect for them and they’ve earned it.

Scientology is, in other words, gender neutral. Spiritual help is there for those who reach for it. Just be willing to grab a Scientology book, read it, and apply it. Drugs will get in your road—we can help you with that. You’ll need to be literate—we can help with that too. But I guarantee gender won’t be a factor.

KEYWORDS

GENDER SCIENTOLOGY COMMUNITY

AUTHOR

Melissa Butz

Scientologist, bookkeeper, lover of family, friends and the outdoors

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