-Demona- Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 "The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of woman's emancipation." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton From Genesis onward, women are established as second-class citizens in the world. According to the Christian creation myth, the woman Eve was created from the man Adam's rib (Gen 2:20-22), establishing his superiority over her, and then she "seduces" her dull-witted husband into eating the apple provided from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 3:6). Because of this, they are both made to wear clothes and are then kicked out of Eden (Gen 3:21-24). According to the Bible, the blame rests squarely on the woman's shoulders for this... even though her husband and the snake were willing participants. She endures worse punishment than Adam; he's merely made to work for a living because he listened to her (Gen 3:14-19). The barbaric stories further in the book drive this home. There is, within the Christian Bible, an obvious bias against women. Two of them are the trial if a woman is even suspected of committing adultery (Num 5:15-31) and another embarassing public judgment if she is suspected to not have been a virgin on her wedding night (Deu 22:13-21). I shouldn't even have to mention all the wars that Yahweh has the Israelites start, only to enslave and rape the conquered foes' women. There's plenty of stories in the bible of young women being offered up to appease the wrath of men and God alike. The most famous one being the story of Lot (2 Pet 2:7-8. Gen 19:8). When a large group of men come to his house and speak of their desire to rape the male angels visiting Lot, Lot instead offers his daughters to the crowd so the angels would remain undefiled. He tells the mob to do what they please with his daughters... and this same man is referred to in the text as being righteous and just! Furthermore, when a woman has been raped, it's not considered a crime against the woman. It's a crime against the males in her family (Gen 34:31). According to the ten commandments themselves, women belong to men and are therefore property. The "loving and just" Bible God says so (Exo 20:17). And I'm not even past the first five books in the Bible yet. Why would any woman in her right mind want to uphold a belief system that looks upon womankind as mere property and offers them no justice if wrong is done to them? The God of the Bible clearly doesn't believe in equality. Why should he be worshipped by the women whose foremothers fought for us all to have basic human rights accorded us? The "word of God" is merely a flawed screed of the misogynistic desert-dwelling tribe who wrote it, and abusive men among us today can use Biblical law and their Christian faith as an excuse to beat their wives and children. And who needs that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick5 Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 Let's not forget that "man is the head of the woman, and christ is the head of man". Funny how the most persistent fundies I argue against over the internet, are females. Just another example that illustrates how hypocritical they all are. According to their own cult, they're supposed to shup up and do as I say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycorth Posted June 18, 2006 Share Posted June 18, 2006 We hear of how women got the shit end of the stick, and then we are told that a man must love his wife as Jeezus loves his church. Yet more examples of the Babble being little more than a contradictory mass of errors. Then again, if husbands love their wives like Jeezus loves the church, then no wonder Xian men were so encouraged to abuse their women. After all, how does Jeezus "love" his church? By terrorizing it with threats of punishment if it doesn't obey him? By making a bunch of promises he never lives up to? By swearing he'll come right back and then fail to show up? By saying he'll look after the church but in reality leaving it to fall apart and devolve into more feuding sects and greater chaos? Sounds just like the sterotypical abusive husband/deadbeat dad to me. Jeezus really set a heck of an example, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurari Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Why would any woman in her right mind want to uphold a belief system that looks upon womankind as mere property and offers them no justice if wrong is done to them? The God of the Bible clearly doesn't believe in equality. Why should he be worshipped by the women whose foremothers fought for us all to have basic human rights accorded us? The "word of God" is merely a flawed screed of the misogynistic desert-dwelling tribe who wrote it, and abusive men among us today can use Biblical law and their Christian faith as an excuse to beat their wives and children. And who needs that? Because a lot of women are taught from birth to be like this, even if they aren't christian. My family was agnostic, but my father ruled with an iron fist because he was "da man" and he got to rule the house because he had a penis. I was expected to be a perfect little chaste doll, save myself for marriage, be a good student, go to college to get a high end degree, then throw it all away to get married. Then I was to become a good little wifey, submit to my husband, and pop out kidlets. For a long time, this is what I believed would become of me because "That's the way things were." It took me a long time of fumbling around in the real world to grow a spine...or figure out how to. Because I was never taught how to do things like balance a checkbook, rent an apartment, work with beurocracy, gather any business sense, or learn how to stand my ground with people in confrontations. Men were supposed to do that all for me. Which on some level, was kind of an appealing idea to be taken care of for the rest of my life. Until I realized that's not how the world works. My family wasn't happy when I turned out to become a crazy, bisexual college dropout who is marriage free, childfree, and a freelance comic book artist. Screw 'em. I got the much better end of the deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godlessgrrl Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Biblical misogyny is one of the biggest reasons why I left the fold. I can't tolerate following any religion that teaches me that I'm somehow inferior to men because I have the wrong set of plumbing and too many X chromosomes. Fuck that shit, grammaw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RHEMtron Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 what annoys me is how pastors will mention passages like "man is the head of every woman" but then say the bible isnt really sexist because it also says "man shall love his wife" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicoleeann Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 No one can argue that the bible is sexist. not to mention it encourages slavery (slaves obey your masters) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Variable Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Let's not forget the verse that says if a woman doesn't bleed on her wedding night she's to be taken to her father's doorstep and stoned to death. Despite the fact the science has proven that up to 40% of women do not bleed their first time and many baby girls are simply born without hymens. Deuteronomy 22:20 "But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house" The price for a piece of skin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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