"Anthropologists suggest that the majority of male initiation rites were concerned with leading the young male on journeys of powerlessness, whereas female fertility and puberty rites had the exact opposite function: to sign the young girl with emblems of power and dignity. The rites gave them both what they needed to get started, but from opposite starting places. The male could not be trusted with power unless he had made journeys of powerlessness; the female would not even know she had power unless she was taught and encouraged to trust it.
This could seem shocking, but read the four Gospels and note Jesus’ consistently distinctive attitude toward the two genders. He is invariably calling the woman upward: “Go your way; your faith has restored you to health!” (Luke 8:48) and “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). To a woman who has just spoken “up” and “back” to Jesus, he says, “Woman you have great faith!” (Matthew 15:28).
Conversely, he is steadily calling the males downward: “Zacchaeus, come down!” (Luke 19:5); “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last” to the Twelve (Mark 9:35); and “Get behind me, Satan” to “the prince of the apostles” who wants to avoid suffering (Mark 8:33). Our selective memory is really rather amazing, that we have not noted this clear pattern in the Scriptures. Could that be what we mean by patriarchy?"
~ Richard Rohr, Unitive Consciousness Beyond Gender
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