Reliance on religion?

One aspect of both readings I found confusing was the strong presence of religion and political organizations holding meetings inside the churches. Today religious organizations and their members are, for the most part, strongly against homosexuality and feminist practice, so it was difficult for me to read these excerpts and understand how feminist activists and homosexuals were welcomed into the churches to organize and even worship.

It seems as if churches rely on patriarchy because the majority of religious leaders are male and religious doctrine suggests submissiveness in women to their husbands. With this in mind, the fact that women formed coffee houses in churches, planned feminist activism, and held women's socials/lesbian dances there was baffling. I feel that if this were common practice today, preachers would be spiking the punch and eliminating all the "crazy feminists trying to make all women lesbian and convince them not to have families."