The Church of England is tieing itself in knots with the concept of “taint” to allow dioceses to opt out from male bishops who have ordained female vicars or male bishops have been ordained by a female bishop/vicar etc (and have therefore been contaminated?). This seems to me to be similar to physical or moral contamination in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

It demonstrates the principle of thought object fusion where contamination/ immoral/ shameful ideas can be transferred from one object/person to another to the person who fears being contaminated by a female bishop! I wonder if they genuinely believe this or is it just politics? What learning experiences have occurred in such individuals for them to develop such an aversion to women as vicars/bishops?