03-11-2006, 05:10 AM
http://www.atheistsunited.org/wordsofwisdo...ndez/women.html
Christianity Versus Women
by Julia Hernandez and Al Seckel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Christians claim that their religion has raised women from a state of degradation to a higher level of equality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout its history, the Christian religion has deprived women of their right to be treated as equal human beings. Today, Catholic, Mormon and fundamentalist Christian churches still prevent women from taking an equal place among men in their church hierarchies. These churches also oppose equal rights legislation, the right of women to pursue a career outside the home, and the freedom of choice over their own bodies.
Why?
The Biblical Ideal
The inferior status endured by women under Judaism and later under Christianity is a logical result of the Bibles sexist attitude towards women. Throughout the Bible there is a clear-cut inequality between men and women. Men are considered more important, more useful, more valuable, and wiser than women. The womans role is to remain silent, obey her husband, and to bear and bring up children. She is to support her husband in all of his decisions. Women are not permitted to have any authority over men. The biblical ideal is always the submissive woman.
These biblical attitudes reflect the primitive culture in which the Bible was written. The need to justify this unbalanced attitude towards women undoubtedly led to the invention of the Eve myth. Eve, in her "weakness," ate the forbidden apple and consequently ruined humanity for all time. This single story has given a rationale for the hatred of women.
A few women were glorified in the Story of Ruth and the Song of Solomon, but they were valued only for their obedience and battle spirit. These books are sometimes offered as evidence of the Bibles positive attitude toward women!
Newer translations and revisions of Scriptures may change some wording, but the traditional misogyny remains. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote in The Womans Bible, "Whatever the Bible may be made to do in Hebrew or Greek, in plain English it does not exalt and dignify women." [8, p. 12]
Silent and Obedient
There are far too many Biblical quotations denigrating women to list all of them here. The following are some examples: (New International Version)
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." (Genesis 3:16)
"If, however, the charge is not true and no proof of the girls virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her fathers house and there the men of the town shall stone her to death." (Deut. 22:20-21)
The Lord said to Moses, "Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." (Num. 31:17)
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, as unto the Lord...Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Eph. 5:22-24)
"Women should remain silent in churches. They are not allowed to speak; but must be in submission as the Law says." (I Cor. 14:34-35)
"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner." (I Tim. 2:11-14)
"The head of every man is Christ, and the head of every woman is man." (I Cor. 11:3)
"For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man." (I Cor. 11:8-9)
Holy Sexist Men
By quoting the biblical texts concerning "the proper role of women" theologian, preachers, and husbands were able to convince themselves and women that a womans inferiority was ordained by God and women have suffered because of this for centuries. Saint Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic theologian and philosopher stated:
"As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten; for the active power in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness according to the male sex. while the production of women comes from he defect in the active power; or from some material indisposition, or even some external influence, such as that of a south wind, which is moist as the philosopher Aristotle observed." [1, p. 87]
Things did not change for the better when Martin Luther came along. Luther wrote:
"God created Adam Lord of all living creatures, but Eve spoiled it all. Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house and bear children. And if a woman grows weary and, at last, dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing; she is there to do it." [9, p. 923]
Saint Augustine declared, "Any woman who acts in such a way that she cannot give birth to as many children as she is capable of, makes herself guilty of that many murders."
Today, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, head of the "Moral Majority", strongly opposes equal rights legislation because it "defies the mandate that the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." "Furthermore," Falwell states, "I believe that at the foundation of the womens liberation movement there is a core of women who were once bored with life, whose real problems are spiritual problems. These women have never accepted their God-given roles."
The Southern Baptists, the nations largest Protestant denomination, voted at their 1984 convention against the ordination of women, stating they must "preserve a submission that God requires." The resolution cites the Bible in holding that women should not be placed in authority over men in churches "lest confusion reign."
Pope John Paul II still tours todays overpopulated world telling women that they are forbidden to use birth control or have an abortion even in the case of incest and rape. He instructs women to go back to their traditional roles as "obedient and serving companions to their husbands." He also refuses to have an audience with anyone who advocates the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. At the present time, just as in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church argues against the ordination of women priests, because a menstruating priestess would "pollute" the alter. [6, p. 272ff] The Catholic Encyclopedia still declares that women are inferior to the male sex, "both as regards body and soul."
Josephine Henry, a leading 19th century suffragist, castigated the churches for their consistently sexist attitudes over the centuries:
"Has the Church ever issued edict that women must have equal rights with men before the canon or civil law? No institution in modern civilization is to tyrannical and so unjust to women as it the Christian Church. It demands everything from her and gives nothing in return. The history of the Church does not contain a single suggestion for the equality of women...Though tyranny and falsehood alone is Christianity able to hold women in subjection." [9, p. 924]
Witch Trials
One of the most barbaric and heinous crimes in the history of humanity was the torturing and burning of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children as witches. Not one person would have died for the invented crime of witchcraft, were it not for the Inquisition (The Catholic organization for exposing and punishing religious heretics), and Biblical passages such as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18) All witchcraft trials, secular and ecclesiastical, Protestant and Catholic, resulted
from using this and similar Biblical quotations.
Women accused of witch craft were more severely punished than men. An English law of 1683, for instance, stated that for the crime of witchcraft, a man may be hanged, but a woman must be burned. Throughout Europe about 80% of those burned for witchcraft were females. This was due to the long-established belief in a females inherent disposition to sinfulness and wantonness.
When the Catholic Church declared was on female doctors, healing became a crime punishable by death if practiced by a woman.
Conclusion
The harm dome to women by the Christian religion began with the Bible giving the stamp of Gods approval to the oppression of women. Christian men used the Bible to keep women silent, submissive and uneducated for centuries. Women who objected were quickly introduced to the rack and stake.
Today many churches directly affect womens lives by using their immense wealth and power to work against laws which would give women equal rights, and access to birth control and abortion. What Ms. Stanton said in the 19th century is still true today, "The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of womens emancipation."
If women are to win rightful status as equal human beings in this world, it is first necessary to recognize that the Bible is merely an ancient book of fables which keep alive the sexist practices of antiquity. The Bible is like any other book of mythologies: It should be viewed as a curiosity, not a book to be followed.
Civilization has advanced only through human compassion and reason. Women will be accepted as equals when these qualities, not religion, are nurtured. Separation of church and state is absolutely essential for the attainment of womens rights.
References and Suggested Reading:
1.Clark, Elizabeth, Women and Religion: A Feminist Sourcebook of Christian Thought, New York, Harper & Row, 1977.
2.Coriden, James, Sexism & Church Law: Equal Rights and Affirmative Action, New York, Pauliot Press, 1977.
3.Gaylor, Annie, Woe to the Women--The Bible Tells Me So, Wisconsin, Freedom From Religion Foundation, 1981.
4.Larue, Gerald, Sex and the Bible, New York, Prometheus Books,
1983.
5.Raming, Ida, The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex
Discrimination?, New Jersey, Scarecrow Press, 1976.
6.Reuther, Rosemary, Religion and Sexism, New York, 1974.
7.Robbins, Russell, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, New York,
Crown Publ., 1960.
8.Stanton, Elizabeth, The Womans Bible, Washington, Coalition Task Force on
Women, 1895, reprinted 1974.
9.Walker, Barbara, The Womans Encyclopedia of Myths and
Secrets, New York, Harper & Row, 1983.
Copyright © 1984, Atheists United
Christianity Versus Women
by Julia Hernandez and Al Seckel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Christians claim that their religion has raised women from a state of degradation to a higher level of equality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout its history, the Christian religion has deprived women of their right to be treated as equal human beings. Today, Catholic, Mormon and fundamentalist Christian churches still prevent women from taking an equal place among men in their church hierarchies. These churches also oppose equal rights legislation, the right of women to pursue a career outside the home, and the freedom of choice over their own bodies.
Why?
The Biblical Ideal
The inferior status endured by women under Judaism and later under Christianity is a logical result of the Bibles sexist attitude towards women. Throughout the Bible there is a clear-cut inequality between men and women. Men are considered more important, more useful, more valuable, and wiser than women. The womans role is to remain silent, obey her husband, and to bear and bring up children. She is to support her husband in all of his decisions. Women are not permitted to have any authority over men. The biblical ideal is always the submissive woman.
These biblical attitudes reflect the primitive culture in which the Bible was written. The need to justify this unbalanced attitude towards women undoubtedly led to the invention of the Eve myth. Eve, in her "weakness," ate the forbidden apple and consequently ruined humanity for all time. This single story has given a rationale for the hatred of women.
A few women were glorified in the Story of Ruth and the Song of Solomon, but they were valued only for their obedience and battle spirit. These books are sometimes offered as evidence of the Bibles positive attitude toward women!
Newer translations and revisions of Scriptures may change some wording, but the traditional misogyny remains. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote in The Womans Bible, "Whatever the Bible may be made to do in Hebrew or Greek, in plain English it does not exalt and dignify women." [8, p. 12]
Silent and Obedient
There are far too many Biblical quotations denigrating women to list all of them here. The following are some examples: (New International Version)
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." (Genesis 3:16)
"If, however, the charge is not true and no proof of the girls virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her fathers house and there the men of the town shall stone her to death." (Deut. 22:20-21)
The Lord said to Moses, "Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." (Num. 31:17)
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, as unto the Lord...Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Eph. 5:22-24)
"Women should remain silent in churches. They are not allowed to speak; but must be in submission as the Law says." (I Cor. 14:34-35)
"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner." (I Tim. 2:11-14)
"The head of every man is Christ, and the head of every woman is man." (I Cor. 11:3)
"For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man." (I Cor. 11:8-9)
Holy Sexist Men
By quoting the biblical texts concerning "the proper role of women" theologian, preachers, and husbands were able to convince themselves and women that a womans inferiority was ordained by God and women have suffered because of this for centuries. Saint Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic theologian and philosopher stated:
"As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten; for the active power in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness according to the male sex. while the production of women comes from he defect in the active power; or from some material indisposition, or even some external influence, such as that of a south wind, which is moist as the philosopher Aristotle observed." [1, p. 87]
Things did not change for the better when Martin Luther came along. Luther wrote:
"God created Adam Lord of all living creatures, but Eve spoiled it all. Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house and bear children. And if a woman grows weary and, at last, dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing; she is there to do it." [9, p. 923]
Saint Augustine declared, "Any woman who acts in such a way that she cannot give birth to as many children as she is capable of, makes herself guilty of that many murders."
Today, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, head of the "Moral Majority", strongly opposes equal rights legislation because it "defies the mandate that the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." "Furthermore," Falwell states, "I believe that at the foundation of the womens liberation movement there is a core of women who were once bored with life, whose real problems are spiritual problems. These women have never accepted their God-given roles."
The Southern Baptists, the nations largest Protestant denomination, voted at their 1984 convention against the ordination of women, stating they must "preserve a submission that God requires." The resolution cites the Bible in holding that women should not be placed in authority over men in churches "lest confusion reign."
Pope John Paul II still tours todays overpopulated world telling women that they are forbidden to use birth control or have an abortion even in the case of incest and rape. He instructs women to go back to their traditional roles as "obedient and serving companions to their husbands." He also refuses to have an audience with anyone who advocates the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. At the present time, just as in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church argues against the ordination of women priests, because a menstruating priestess would "pollute" the alter. [6, p. 272ff] The Catholic Encyclopedia still declares that women are inferior to the male sex, "both as regards body and soul."
Josephine Henry, a leading 19th century suffragist, castigated the churches for their consistently sexist attitudes over the centuries:
"Has the Church ever issued edict that women must have equal rights with men before the canon or civil law? No institution in modern civilization is to tyrannical and so unjust to women as it the Christian Church. It demands everything from her and gives nothing in return. The history of the Church does not contain a single suggestion for the equality of women...Though tyranny and falsehood alone is Christianity able to hold women in subjection." [9, p. 924]
Witch Trials
One of the most barbaric and heinous crimes in the history of humanity was the torturing and burning of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children as witches. Not one person would have died for the invented crime of witchcraft, were it not for the Inquisition (The Catholic organization for exposing and punishing religious heretics), and Biblical passages such as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18) All witchcraft trials, secular and ecclesiastical, Protestant and Catholic, resulted
from using this and similar Biblical quotations.
Women accused of witch craft were more severely punished than men. An English law of 1683, for instance, stated that for the crime of witchcraft, a man may be hanged, but a woman must be burned. Throughout Europe about 80% of those burned for witchcraft were females. This was due to the long-established belief in a females inherent disposition to sinfulness and wantonness.
When the Catholic Church declared was on female doctors, healing became a crime punishable by death if practiced by a woman.
Conclusion
The harm dome to women by the Christian religion began with the Bible giving the stamp of Gods approval to the oppression of women. Christian men used the Bible to keep women silent, submissive and uneducated for centuries. Women who objected were quickly introduced to the rack and stake.
Today many churches directly affect womens lives by using their immense wealth and power to work against laws which would give women equal rights, and access to birth control and abortion. What Ms. Stanton said in the 19th century is still true today, "The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of womens emancipation."
If women are to win rightful status as equal human beings in this world, it is first necessary to recognize that the Bible is merely an ancient book of fables which keep alive the sexist practices of antiquity. The Bible is like any other book of mythologies: It should be viewed as a curiosity, not a book to be followed.
Civilization has advanced only through human compassion and reason. Women will be accepted as equals when these qualities, not religion, are nurtured. Separation of church and state is absolutely essential for the attainment of womens rights.
References and Suggested Reading:
1.Clark, Elizabeth, Women and Religion: A Feminist Sourcebook of Christian Thought, New York, Harper & Row, 1977.
2.Coriden, James, Sexism & Church Law: Equal Rights and Affirmative Action, New York, Pauliot Press, 1977.
3.Gaylor, Annie, Woe to the Women--The Bible Tells Me So, Wisconsin, Freedom From Religion Foundation, 1981.
4.Larue, Gerald, Sex and the Bible, New York, Prometheus Books,
1983.
5.Raming, Ida, The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex
Discrimination?, New Jersey, Scarecrow Press, 1976.
6.Reuther, Rosemary, Religion and Sexism, New York, 1974.
7.Robbins, Russell, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, New York,
Crown Publ., 1960.
8.Stanton, Elizabeth, The Womans Bible, Washington, Coalition Task Force on
Women, 1895, reprinted 1974.
9.Walker, Barbara, The Womans Encyclopedia of Myths and
Secrets, New York, Harper & Row, 1983.
Copyright © 1984, Atheists United