Females Should Have No Authority Over Males

This is one of those mind-boggling moments: a female basketball referee was told she could not continue refereeing a boys basketball game at St. Mary's Catholic school in Kansas City because... wait for it... she is a woman. Yes, you read right. Apparently, the school claimed that she was a woman and thus should have no authority over males.

It is far too easy to treat this situation as if these folks at St. Mary's were nuts. This is obviously a strong religious belief for the school, and presents a classic challenge to liberal democratic theory: how might we be tolerant and/or respectful of religious belief while at the same time upholding the protections enshrined in political liberalism. The answers, as you might expect, are often about how we can negotiate good accommodations that satisfy both demands. As you know, I'm a strong humanist and atheist, so I tend to side with liberal philosophy on these issues, but... I am not blind to the fact that often we can (and have) disenfranchise(d) religious communities.

However, in this case it seems that the school has made a very simple mistake. The female referee is not really asserting authority over the "males." She is exercising a legitimate authority granted to her by credentials and professional bodies to referee basketball games and uphold the rules of the game. The gender of the players seems irrelevant in this case. Her role is to professionally and fairly uphold and administer the official rules of the game she officiates whether the players are girls or boys. Hence, her rule-governed decisions are not based on the gender of the player, but on what constitutes appropriate rules. In short, the school seems to be extending the notion of "authority over males" quite far here. Would any of these boys be able to take jobs in which they have to take orders from a female supervisor? What about encounters with female nurses, doctors, police officers? What about completing homework assigned by a female teacher? What are the limits or constraints of this religious belief?

According to the AP report, the school "is owned and operated by the Society of St. Pius X, which follows older Roman Catholic laws." For those not in the know, the Society of St. Pius X is the same group formerly headed by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, opponent of the Second Vatican Council reforms, and eventually excommunicated by Pope John Paul II. In an interesting twist, back in 2005 Pope Benedict XVI approach the society and established a groundwork for possible reconciliation.