Pfft. As enlightened as the rest of them. White guy supports ban on female ordination of an Asian religion. The best thing I ever did for myself was take a religious studies course in University. At the time, I was lost. I was trying to break away from the Church that my mom dragged me to as a kid. I was struggling with ideas of going to hell, losing family, and add that to the suicide of my best friend. I was in a pretty bad place. I bought myself copies of every major religious works, including books about Buddhism. I genuinely read scriptures from various religions trying to find the one for me. I still carried the mindset that I HAD to have a religion. When I took the religious studies course, I suddenly understood that religion was about power. It was about controlling women. Religion was not about a higher being. It was about strict social structures in an organized society and a group of elites got to control the money and power under the guise of a higher order. Sure, it was the merchant class that held the money, and the political class that held the power... but it was the religious class that bossed both around. I hold particular resentment toward the church because of my childhood. My paternal grandmother was Buddhist and that didn't rub well with my Christian mother. I eventually grew to hate all religions nearly equally but with a soft spot for Buddhism. The ban on women reminds me not to hold soft spots. ALL religions hate us. And we should equally hate all religions and not let them tell us who is and isn't worthy. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/24/asia-pacific/society/briton-thailand-foreign-monk/