Karen Garst, PhD, has recently published Women Beyond Belief, her edited volume of 22 personal stories of modern women who have abandoned organized religion and moved on to live freely, beyond the repressions and restrictions of their faith communities.
Each narrative is a powerful and moving account of courageous women from varied backgrounds and countries who left their religious upbringing and milieu to live a more complete and unrestricted life, often undergoing great hardships in turning away from the pressures of family and community conformity that religions use all too well to keep people in the fold, but especially employ to keep women marginalized as second class citizens.
Her book provides a guide for women yet struggling to free themselves from the grip of religion. From the back cover:
“Their words serve both as a celebration of all who have taken similar steps under the weight of thousands of years of religious history-and as a source of inspiration for those individuals, especially women, who have deep doubts about their own belief traditions but who don’t yet know how to embrace life without falling back on religion.”
Karen pens a enlightening blog on religion and feminism at Faithless Feminist which proclaims clearly, right up front, that: “Organized religion is a cultural barrier to full equality for men and women.”
I highly recommend her edited volume for both women and men who wish to learn what so many have gone through in removing the intellectual and all too often physical shackles of religious coercion, and her informative and entertaining blog posts over at Faithless Feminist. Take a moment to peruse her blog and pick up a copy of Women Beyond Belief, you won’t be disappointed.
We are fortunate in today’s day and age to have so many speaking out against religion and for secular values. I’m pleased to have found another comrade in arms in Dr. Garst to help educate the world about the cruel mistake that is religion.
end religion now
waz
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