Between my parents, I was raised in two mainstream churches, both of which allowed and encouraged female ordination. (One, the United Church of Canada allowed female ministers in 1936, 6 years after its creation, and the other, the Anglican Church of Canada (Episcopal) allowed the ordination in the seventies/eighties). I grew up in an environment in which female figures of divine authority were normal and abundant, and sermons often thoughtfully addressed gendered concerns. My first introduction to feminism was in a religious context, as my mother taught me how to place the scripture alongside the liberal, feminist values that she also taught me.

Conservative religious doctrine does not create the social attitudes-- it merely reflects them, and provides an excuse for them. (As my doctrine reflects my values). Anyway, I believe that liberal voices/values have a place in the religious discourse; these organizations and people can allow for moderation between the extremes of the non-religious, and the wackos on the right...

I belong to a moderate/liberal denomination (Conservative Judaism), and we had a female cantor and a male rabbi. Over the years since I was in the congregation, we have had a male former rabbi who led services on occasion (He was ordained before women could be, as was possibly our current head rabbi. Ordaining women dates back to the 80s in my denomination.) We have a male head rabbi. We had at one point a female assistant rabbi who didn't last very long (not because she was female, but because the assistant rabbi is the youth rabbi, and she was BAD at dealing with kids/teens), and now there is a male assistant rabbi.

My denominational organization has released (deliberately) two contradictory opinions on gay marriage, and the rabbi of each congregation gets to pick which opinion s/he wants to follow. The congregation I belong to (purely by chance, because I'm still on my dad's membership) does support gay marriage.

Basically, I think religion is as diverse as the American culture. Conservative religion echoes the conservative culture, liberal religion echoes a more liberal idea.

I am glad that many churches are deciding to have a more liberal attitude when it comes to Bible interpretations and just on values as a whole and how they want to approach them, but I think it is way too idealistic to think that all of them will change (And I actually mean most of them when I say this...I know that not every church will ever change because there are just ignorant and hateful people in the world; see Fred Phleps) I really don't think that liberal churches will tip the scale and become more popular than conservative churches unless some sort of miracle happens and God appears to all of them at once and tells them "Hey, chill out." They have to decide within themselves to change, society cannot change them as much as we would like to think it can. If anything, the more society changes, the more they resist.

This is an interesting question. One of the reasons why I keep popping up this community forces me to think about things that I hadn't really thought about before.

My father was Lutheran and my Mother was Catholic so as a consequence I was raised in a pentecostal church. -More on that later but my reading of history eventually led me to humanism-One of the interesting things about the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in which I was raised was that as conservative as they are they were founded by a Woman. Most of the leadership roles are filled by men, but I think this has more to do with the culture surrounding fundamentalist christianity than any actual bar.

As conservative as my father is on many social issues like abortion, Gay Marriage, he's always been a big supporter of Women having an active role in the leadership of the Church. He likes to say that "Luther said that a woman with a bible in her hands was more powerfull than the pope."

To answer your question, I think that there is a bit of symbiosis involved -At least in American culture- because those who have certain views on sex, equality, marriage, tend to seek out those institutions that support their preconcieved notions about how the world works.

To me as a humanist this makes perfect sense. Our religion is in some respects a reflection of our culture. However insitutional change takes at least a generation longer than change in the general part of society, because institutions create their own inertia. I have hope that someday the Catholic Church, and others, will allow women ministers -The Lutherans are ahead on this one, My little brother was married by a female pastor,- but it will take longer than my lifetime for it to happen. Its only been 50 years since the institution of the venacular mass, and changing the language used in the liturgy is a much smaller step than chaning the role of a group that has been traditionally subordinated to patriarchal power.