The Radical Feminist Blues...

Questions from a Ewe
January 16, 2015

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I spoke with a bishop friend this week and asked him to explain to me just exactly what a, “radical feminist” is. He said he didn’t have the foggiest.

Since I wrote my last blog article, I’ve been thinking a lot about poor Cardinal Ray Burke. He would have been a young adult during the Second Vatican Council when Catholics’ proverbial cheese was moved. Being from Wisconsin where people take their cheese seriously enough to adorn their heads with it during sporting events, I realized that cheese moving is no easy thing for poor Ray. So, on this whole “respect women” and “women’s equality” thing, he’s just stuck – culturally incapable of moving his cheese. After all, there’s a Green Bay Packers game this Sunday and that cheese needs to be firmly affixed to his head, like for any good Wisconsin native.

In all seriousness, Ray's father died when he was very young. I have to wonder how that loss was handled and how all that impacted his development, including his views on gender roles. He speaks of the importance of manly male fathers forming their children properly, yet it seems his own father was gone long before Ray hit adolescence. Could he be projecting his romanticized notions of fathers (and mothers) upon the world as ideal based upon a void from his own life? His words certainly seem to come from an alternate reality than the one I know, but then my father is still with me. I do not have to imagine what it's like to have a father; I just experience it.

Nonetheless, sometimes when you so insistently remain in one place as Ray tries to do, you wind up moving in comparison to others. If they move forward, you move backward in comparison. Similarly one’s actions or inaction can result in unintended consequences.

In my last blog article, I indicated that Ray’s insistence to retain the church’s historical sexist and misogynist culture by declaring the female church was too feminine, he created unintended consequences. By saying the female church was too feminine he opened the possibility to saying the church’s clergy was too masculine. Thus, he theologically opened the door for female ordinations.

Upon further review, he actually created a second more likely unintended consequence. Ray’s probably going to insist that the clergy must remain male. And so, by advocating for a more masculine church (which is supposed to be a female married to Christ and his proxies, the clergy) while insisting that the clergy remain 100% male, he is in fact saying that he advocates for the male hierarchy to marry the male church…a model for same sex marriage.

Now I realize these unintended consequences from his vociferous protection of the church’s historical sexist and misogynist attitudes might not be easy for a guy from Wisconsin…it’s more cheese movement. So, I got to thinking that Cardinal Burke also spent four years as archbishop of St. Louis, Missouri – an historical home of blues music. With that in mind, the Spirit again moved me to compose a song on behalf of Ray. I call it, “The Radical Feminist Blues.”

[a link to the YouTube vocal recording of the song. http:]

Here are the lyrics:

The Radical Feminist Blues

Now poor Ray, he ain’t got a clue

What radical feminists actually do

He’s got the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, says it ain’t o.k.

For women to do stuff ‘cept pay, pray, obey

He’s got the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, thinks it’s absurd

For women in the church to actually be heard

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Workin’ and prayin’ and fashion displayin’, he’s got the radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, he thinks it’s a fright

If women should have equal rights

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, thinks it’s pretty shoddy

That women might know what’s best for their body

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, finds it silly

Unless women dress like him, really frilly

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Workin’ and prayin’ and stylin’ and brayin’, he’s got the radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, He doesn’t find it funny

When women help the poor but don’t send him money

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, feels the earth falter

Whenever he sees a woman on the altar

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, it makes his hair curl

To even think of an altar girl

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Workin’ and prayin’ ‘til his hair is grayin’, he’s got the radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, feels his manhood decline

Unless he’s surrounded by men of his kind

He gets the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, says genders complement

As long as the women stay in their own tent

Or else it’s the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Now poor Ray, he likes women a lot

Just not to hang with, that's moral rot

It gives him the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

Workin’ and prayin’ and fashion displayin’, he’s got the radical feminist blues

Workin’ and prayin’ and stylin’ and brayin’, he’s got the radical feminist blues

Workin’ and prayin’ ‘til his hair is grayin’, he’s got the radical feminist blues, radical feminist blues

His cheese got moved; it cramped his groove

Poor Ray…