Carl Bernstein on a national news cable television channel commented on how thick Senator Clinton’s ankles were! No one rebuked him. That is sexism.

A nationally syndicated talk show host asked whether or not Chelsea Clinton’s rear end would be as big as her mother’s. That is sexism. Illustrations could go on and on.

Both racism and sexism are evil. Both deny the humanity of the victim. Both have been historically supported by Christian leaders. The Pope has owned slaves. It was the Bible Belt of America that supported first slavery during the civil war and later segregation.

It was the Bible Belt that was instrumental in destroying the Equal Rights Amendment. The two largest Christian Churches in the world, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox tradition, still refuse to ordain women and many Evangelical Christians are publicly negative toward the move to give women equality in all areas of life.

Racism, however, has reached the level of consciousness where it is recognized at once and condemned. Sexism is still socially acceptable in many areas, still justified by many religious voices from Benedict XVI and Pat Robertson. Both continue to use some version of the discredited “separate but equal” argument, that originated as a justification for segregation.
In this election the nation has a chance to exorcise both demons.

My sense is that just as black men were given the vote before women, so racism will be expunged before sexism. We will be a better country when both have been expunged from our national life. The Christian Church will be an authentic community of God’s people when both have been confronted and exorcised. To call an all-male priesthood “an ancient sacred tradition” is not an adequate cover to justify debilitating sexist prejudices in the Body of Christ.