When I was a Christian (the first two-thirds of my life), I didn’t think of myself as a woman. I was just a person. Although I didn’t notice it at the time, I think I felt this way because I was subconsciously relating to scriptures that were exclusively addressed to men. It wasn’t until I was in my early 30s and had already walked away from religion and Jesus that I realized that feminism and the lack of equality for women were still important issues that hadn’t yet been resolved, even in America (which I still thought of as the greatest nation on Earth).
It’s hard to fathom that I, the good Christian girl who didn’t wear pants because they were men’s clothing, could somehow ignore the fact that I was not the person being spoken to in the Bible, but rather a piece of property, a slave. Looking back, I see that the pastors of several churches we’d attended had difficulty dealing with my family because we had no man as the head of the household; and to make matters worse, we weren’t looking for a male authority figure in our lives. Other churches I attended had women in authority positions, preaching and teaching from the pulpit, clearly ignoring the scriptures below. My background, as I view it from afar, was a jumble of mixed messages.
Any one who has really read the bible knows that it is a sexist book and woman in it are considered property (slaves). Feminism is about equality between men ans woman, the woman in the bible are treated as slaves who's sole purpose is having children.
Feminism and religion (or at least Christianity and Judaism but other religions as well) are not compatible
Interesting post. I’m sorry to hear about your conflict with the Scripture. I believe the Bible speaks universally to all people, if not the words, the concepts do. I believe you can look at Christ and see he was respectful and loving to all women he came in contact with. I believe that the Bible shows high regard for women which doesn’t align with the popular views and attitudes of past cultures and societies. I don’t mean to argue with you but rather share my beliefs.
Chad:
There are certainly things in Scripture which can be used by people to repress and oppress women. The Bible was used to support Black Slavery in the USA and to support the Nazi’s in Germany. This doesn’t mean the Bible supports the oppression of women or slavery or Nazi-ism, but that fallen, sinful people twist the words of scripture.
Matt
But the bible dose support slavery and oppression of woman.
I hear ya. These issues were a problem for me when I was growing up. Big time. I use to acuse both my mother and father of being male chauvanist pigs. LOL My father was just very old school, and protective of me (the youngest and the only girl)… and my mother was completely brain-washed by religion to know “her place as a woman”. The churches we went to whole-heartedly reinforced this type of thinking.
I’ll never forget how when I was a teen, my mother and the church wanted me to wear some doily thing on my head – like all the women there – because basically it was “in the bible”, that women were beneath men and needed a covering for their sins between them and God.
You can imagine how well this went over with me as I was trying desperately to prove I could do anything my brothers could do. I refused and was frowned upon by the church leaders, the other “good christian girls” and my own mother.