First of all I am not part of any feminist movement. But In looking at the bible, I would take offense on it, if I was a woman. The book seems chauvanistic in its delivery from the very begining. Woman was taken from man, eve led humanity out of paradaise. There was no importance given to women. They always serving men or ruining man's goodness, as in Solomon. Mary was just treated as the vessel fro Jesus. Now with all these items, I don't understand why women would submit to its teachings. It even showed in the church, where women can not be popes or priest.
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Why would women believe in the bible?
- Thread starter ProfLogic
- Start date
Karl R
Active Member
Society was extremely chauvanistic for the entire period that the bible was written. The bible reflects the chauvanism of the times.ProfLogic said:
Many women are raised to believe the bible from a young age. They may not like the chauvanism, but they are taught (and believe) that it represents the truth of god. Therefore, they follow it without questioning it.ProfLogic said:
Other women are raised in more liberal denominations where those passages are ignored by the church. The church believes that the important messages in the bible can be taught without perpetuating the chauvanism practiced by ancient cultures. The women in these churches might be unfamiliar with many of the passage you're referring to.
Other women believe (as I do) that the bible reflects not only the divine beliefs of god, but also the human beliefs of the authors. These women see the chauvanistic parts as remnants from an earlier time, and not important to the beliefs they practice.
Most perplexing of all, there are some women who seem to prefer a subordinate and submissive role in society. I do not understand this preference, but I have seen it too often to claim it does not exist.
Lindsey-Loo
Steel Magnolia
There are many important women in the Bible. Look at Rahab, who hid the Israelite spies, and Esther, who was not only Queen of a whole nation, but also saved the Jewish people from death. Think about the women at the tomb, who brought the good news of Jesus' resurrection to the apostles, and all the world.
The truth is, women don't have less important roles. They just have differant roles. I agree that women cannot become preachers or song leaders, or anything that would give them authority over the men. But how many men do you see teaching three year olds how to sing "Jesus Loves Me"? How many men do you know who prepare the Lord's Supper each week. How many men open their homes to group meetings, as well as prepare refreshments for afterwards?
Everyone is special to God. However, even if God told men to treat women lower than dirt, I would be a Christian. Because I deserve to be treated lower than dirt, but God sent His Son to die for me anyway. But you will find that's not the case.
The truth is, women don't have less important roles. They just have differant roles. I agree that women cannot become preachers or song leaders, or anything that would give them authority over the men. But how many men do you see teaching three year olds how to sing "Jesus Loves Me"? How many men do you know who prepare the Lord's Supper each week. How many men open their homes to group meetings, as well as prepare refreshments for afterwards?
Everyone is special to God. However, even if God told men to treat women lower than dirt, I would be a Christian. Because I deserve to be treated lower than dirt, but God sent His Son to die for me anyway. But you will find that's not the case.
A
angellous_evangellous
Guest
Victor said:No way! One of the most elevated humans apart from God is a WOMEN for Catholics. The Church is often called the "Bride of Chirst" for a reason. The Church has many female qualities and it's neutralized with a male priesthood...
The Church also venerates Mary and hundreds, if not thousands of female saints.
Booko
Deviled Hen
Very true, and also in the Orthodox church.angellous_evangellous said:
The thing is, in many Protestant churches, such as the one I was raised in, women are essentially absent, though they are present in the Bible.
Coming from an originally anti-papist denomination, you can imagine we didn't have much to do with Mary. We trotted her out for the annual Christmas pageant. She had no lines.
The only other woman we ever heard about was Ruth the Moabitess. And the churches take on Ruth, when I related it to Jewish friends, could be summed as: WAAAAHHHHH??????
The story of Ruth was all about obedience to your husband. Blind obedience, of course.
Oh no, there was one other woman we heard about in church. It was that woman who was best known for being a ho'.
Booko said:
Who was this woman? I'm interested to read about that one. I'm still unsure of my religion (leaning mostly toward Christianity though), but the thought of women being treated unfairly never crossed my mind as something to worry about nowadays (most of the time). Well, women have always been discriminated against.. Maybe God did instruct the authors of the bible to put down on paper his words but the bible was written by man, notGod himself.
Keeping that in mind, that is the most probable reason why some parts of the bible perceives women to be lower than man. Women do play an important role in life. Without the difference in the mindset that women have versus men, I bet the whole world would be a cold place to be.
Booko
Deviled Hen
The woman taken in adultery, and later equated (wrongly) in the West with Mary Magdalene.Kavi said:
If you read about Mary Magdalene in the NT with no connection of the "fallen woman" sort, she's quite a different character.
Maybe there's a reason the first people to see the risen Christ were all women.
Even if you assume no mysogynistic bias in Biblical texts, it's pretty clear there has been plenty of that bias in historical interpretations. That's not unique to Christianity, though, but religion generally up until quite recently.
It would certainly be more boring.Keeping that in mind, that is the most probable reason why some parts of the bible perceives women to be lower than man. Women do play an important role in life. Without the difference in the mindset that women have versus men, I bet the whole world would be a cold place to be.
btw, have you taken the religion test that showed up in another thread? If you're leaning towards Christianity, it could be interesting to find out what comes up for you. There's quite a lot of variation in denominations, after all.
Bishka
Veteran Member
Kavi said:
I'm still unsure of my religion (leaning mostly toward Christianity though), but the thought of women being treated unfairly never crossed my mind as something to worry about nowadays (most of the time). Well, women have always been discriminated against.. Maybe God did instruct the authors of the bible to put down on paper his words but the bible was written by man, notGod himself.
Keeping that in mind, that is the most probable reason why some parts of the bible perceives women to be lower than man. Women do play an important role in life. Without the difference in the mindset that women have versus men, I bet the whole world would be a cold place to be.
:clap Awsome post. I gave you frubals, I hope they went through.
Booko said:The woman taken in adultery, and later equated (wrongly) in the West with Mary Magdalene.
If you read about Mary Magdalene in the NT with no connection of the "fallen woman" sort, she's quite a different character.
Maybe there's a reason the first people to see the risen Christ were all women.
Even if you assume no mysogynistic bias in Biblical texts, it's pretty clear there has been plenty of that bias in historical interpretations. That's not unique to Christianity, though, but religion generally up until quite recently.
It would certainly be more boring.
btw, have you taken the religion test that showed up in another thread? If you're leaning towards Christianity, it could be interesting to find out what comes up for you. There's quite a lot of variation in denominations, after all.
Maybe! Those possibilities are endless; we could sit here all night coming up with theories of why the first people to see the risen Christ were women.
Yes, the reason for those interpretations, I think, are because of the differences in physical build. Back then, they just assumed they were the better ones to take the lead on everything.
I'll check for that thread. It should be interesting to see the outcome.
ProfLogic said:
Logic, would you please be so kind to do the following:
1) follow this link...
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/topix.html
2) then use Ctrl-F to find all articles regarding women, read them all carefully,
3) then go back here and compare what you think of Bible-women relationship after you have given enough information with what you used to think while being under-informed.
God bless!
MdmSzdWhtGuy
Well-Known Member
Women in the Bible are typically the temptress, the reason for a particular man's downfall, or simply the vessel for that man to carry on his lineage. Yes, there were important female characters in the Bible, of course, but one cannot ignore the mysogenistic characterization of women throughout the old and new testaments.
Women are blamed for all of us getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden, it is because of Eve giving in to temptation that women have painful menstruation and childbirth, lest we forget.
Women are to keep their head's covered if around any other man besides their husband, women are not to be heard to speak aloud in Church. . . any of this stuff ringing any bells?
B.
Women are blamed for all of us getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden, it is because of Eve giving in to temptation that women have painful menstruation and childbirth, lest we forget.
Women are to keep their head's covered if around any other man besides their husband, women are not to be heard to speak aloud in Church. . . any of this stuff ringing any bells?
B.
Booko
Deviled Hen
MdmSzdWhtGuy said:
If you know the wider cultural context of Paul's remark, it's not banning women from speaking in church -- it's a call not to disturb services in the church by shouting over the dividing wall.
Hm, I haven't been to many churches these days where men and women are even separated, and I've never seen any women shouting out questions to her husband about something in the sermon. It seems to be a non-issue these days.