#and outwith probably a bunch of the evangelical megachurches which *may* have literally started with that premise

[hedge-rambles]

Mhmm. Science, political philosophy, organised religion, "our culture/traditions", ethnic/national identity - none of these things is inherently oppressive, but all have convenient potential to be used as methods of or provide justification for social control etc.

Social models of control and systematic oppression require some form of justification to be available to counter dissent*, and certain institutions naturally make for good tools in that. It's not because these institutions are themselves evil, nor does it mean they will always turn out evil (and much of the time they don't). They're just...points of authority that can be used to manipulate the populace.

This Thing That Seems Pretty Bad Is Actually Ok And You Shouldn't Question It Because:

The Church says it's a moral imperative, the gods have decreed it so.

Our Scientists have said it's the Natural Order, it's really for the best, it's how things will always be.

This is The Way Of Our People, who are you to question it? Are you saying our whole culture is wrong?

Otherwise the Communists/Capitalist/Whoever Win.

Because they're Them, not Us, and They are Different so the same rules cannot apply.

But as creekfiend says, that's not the main purpose of these systems usually. It's just a way in which they may be co-opted to reinforce pre-existing power structures, that have usually already started to arise through other factors. You start doing a thing that creates a social imbalance (often for very uncomplicated economic or social reasons) and then as that grows in magnitude, you find a way to justify it to a populace who starts going "ok this seems a bit much though, doesn't it?".

The tl;dr: of all this is that yeah, sure various organised religions have been used to support and justify systems of oppression but this is a feature of society, not specifically organised religion. If organised religious institutions didn't exist it would have been something else instead. And the upshot of that is that, if we're to avoid and deconstruct systems of oppression, we need to look at the broader patterns and forces at work, rather than just going "ban religion that'll fix everything" because like, it won't. Look for where the social authority lies, and who benefits from maintaining these systems.

Because the villain in all this isn't "religion" or "science" or "culture", it's powerful people exploiting and manipulating others to defend their power. And they'll use whatever tools they have available to them.

*(and there will always be dissent both from people being oppressed and from people amongst the oppressive classes because like, people are people all over).

I think a lot of this 'religion is necessarily oppressive' stuff honestly is kind of like the confusion about ppl thinking that like, slavery and scientific racism and etc came about BECAUSE OF beliefs that Black people etc were not fully human rather than those beliefs -- those ARGUMENTS, really -- being JUSTIFICATIONS that were invented to allow white ppl to continue to engage in slavery which was at its core about economic exploitation. Like that most systemic bigotry serves a Useful Purpose to those in power and that's why it exists; the policies aren't put in place because of the beliefs. The cart isn't pulling the horse. Christian stuff was used to justify the same things that later, "scientific progress" was used to justify in the west (e.g. scientific racism, eugenics, etc. Very very very much rooted in the idea of certain beliefs and cultures as inherently more rational and forward thinking because BEING RATIONAL AND VALUING SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS WERE CULTURAL VALUES AT THE TIME.) (This does not say anything about Science. It says things about Institutes and power and oppression.)

Similarly, you see a lot of people saying "well religion is used to justify oppression by the people in power" and its like yes. Religion is not unique. Beliefs about what is true about the world -- ideology -- can always be used to do this and frequently is.

When there are common beliefs held by a majority of people in a given culture those beliefs will be used by the people in power to explain and justify the things they do to maintain power and control in society.

This isn't a function of religion. It's a function of power.

When people say "well, this religious rhetoric is/was used to justify misogynistic legal standards in this society" the answer is yep. And if it wasn't that it would be something else because that society had an investment in that specific kind of oppression of women. We have seen this morph into 'rational' 'scientific' explanations for women's inferiority and justifications for making women second class citizens once the cultural values swing more towards rationality and science, as well. Thats... regular.

Like... love to have a good faith convo about this with someone who doesn't get weird and reactionary about "Religious People" but sure not seeing much of that going on. Weirdly.

Anyway.