FEMINISM AND SCRIPTURE:
“The discrimination against women on a global basis is very often attributable to the declaration by religious leaders in Christianity, Islam and other religions that women are inferior in the eyes of God,” former President Jimmy Carter said last week.
While former President Carter's statement is technically correct, he managed to completely miss the point. The real question is not whether “religious leaders” promote discrimination against women. There exists any number of atrocities which have been committed in the name of “religion.” The real question (from the perspective of genuine biblical Christianity) is “does the bible teach discriminatory principles in relation to women's place in society.”
Feminism has long used this point as a bully-pulpit in the push for equal rights for women. But what does the bible actually teach on this matter? Does it actually teach that women are inferior in the eyes of God? Does the bible teach that women are to be suppressed, relegated to an inferior social status, and denied basic human “rights”? Does it actually teach that women are to mindlessly submit themselves to their fathers and husbands and become silently subservient?
Are the principles taught in the bible so primitive that they deserve the moniker “Iron Age,” or are there time-tested principles of wisdom in the bible that are desperately needed in our rapidly unraveling modern society? Does the bible give “license” to men and allow them to ruthlessly exploit their positions of power over women, or does it teach us to honor and exalt womanhood?
Modern feminism has derailed and has consequently become a mere shadow of the worthy cause it was in its infancy. Today feminism has shrunk to nothing more than the adaptation of masculine traits by women due to the fact that men have become effeminate and have abdicated their God-appointed responsibilities. What an utterly perverted and unattractive duality.
Randy Cofield
Some of the greatest heroes in the Bible were women.
ReplyDeleteBefore the time Israel foolishly demanded a king they were ruled by judges.
Deborah was one of the greatest judges Israel ever had.
She was not only a judge, but also a prophetess.
There was an occasion when God called upon Israel to gather an army to defeat a Canaanite king who had been terrorizing them.
When she ordered her weak-kneed general (ironically named Barak) to gather troops, he refused to do it, unless she led the war with him.
She pretty much called him a coward, and led the army to victory.
When the defeated king escaped to the refuge of an ally, it was the wife of the ally who executed God's commandment by driving a tent stake through the temple of the Canaanite king while he slept.
The women of the Bible weren't inferior in the least.
MANY of today's "feminists" are just angry lesbians...lets be honest.
Some just use feminism to bash Christianity.
Some use it to bash conservatives.
Those "feminists" don't care about women, they just hate Christian conservatives, that's all.
Funny how many "enlightened feminists" hate Sarah Palin, who is the epitome of what feminists claim to have been fighting for all these years.
Hopefully the younger ones will come out of their stupor, before all that hatred makes them old and ugly.
No one will want to marry them, then
lol
If this is the standard of debate I don't think we can take this as a serious discussion of the issues.
ReplyDeleteANONYMOUS,
ReplyDeleteFeel free to take the debate in whatever direction you choose. That is the point of these threads.
I offered a number of statement and questions for the sake of promoting discussion in the heading of this thread.
Sure, women in the Bible are totally equal. Jesus had 12 disciples, 6 male and 6 female. The Pauline epistles were even written by a woman- Pauline! About half of the prophets of the Old Testament were women, and most of the female characters were of totally good report. Most of them weren't harlots, concubines, turned into salt, sleeping with their father (Lot), or doing all kinds of mischief. The new testament doesn't teach that the head of the woman is the man 1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:22 - 25, women should not speak or teach in church 1 Corinthians 14:34 - 35, women should be subject to their husbands 1 Peter 3:1 -3, nor all of those in just a couple of verses 1 Timothy 2:9 - 15. Of course a couple of good stories that reflect kindly on women make up for it. Have you even read the Bible?
ReplyDeleteDR. WOLFFE,
ReplyDelete”Sure, women in the Bible are totally equal. Jesus had 12 disciples, 6 male and 6 female. The Pauline epistles were even written by a woman- Pauline! About half of the prophets of the Old Testament were women,...”
The New Testament indicates that Christ did in fact have a number of female disciples. Your tongue-in-cheek reference to numerical “inequality” is nonsensical. For example, all of the great mothers of the bible (Sarah, Hannah, Bathsheba, Mary, etc.) were female. Not one of them were male. If you applied the “logic” you are using here a case could be made that the bible was written by female chauvinists because it doesn't record any “great male mothers.”
"....and most of the female characters were of totally good report. Most of them weren't harlots, concubines, turned into salt, sleeping with their father (Lot), or doing all kinds of mischief."
On the whole, most of the male characters of Scripture were absolute scoundrels. There are certainly more accounts of flawed men in scripture than there are of flawed women. Again, your “logic” could be used to “prove” that the bible was written by female chauvinists. Yours is a red herring argument.
"The new testament doesn't teach that the head of the woman is the man 1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:22 - 25, women should not speak or teach in church 1 Corinthians 14:34 - 35, women should be subject to their husbands 1 Peter 3:1 -3, nor all of those in just a couple of verses 1 Timothy 2:9 – 15."
The bible also teaches that men are to be subject to God's appointed authorities (ie. Christ, government, employers, kings, etc.). Everyone is responsible for being subject to authority, and men are not exempt. The only alternative is anarchy and chaos.
Perhaps your beef is with men who have refused to submit to God's appointed authorities rather than with women being required to submit to authority?
Peace.
Dr. Wolfe asks RcoField, "Have you even read the Bible?"
ReplyDeleteLet me answer that question for Pastor Randy. The answer is both "Yes" and "No". He reads those parts of the Bible that supports his "own" emotional agenda (the Catholic issue comes to mind) and makes believe the rest of it doesn't exist.
Am I right, or Am I RIGHT?
Of course, readers would like an example I would imagine. Here is an example of a passage that Pastor Randy doesn't read or recognize as part of scripture, and not being part of scripture it does not apply to him (or anybody else). I think he looks at it like a pimple on the chin of Jesus Christ, that he wishes would go away.
ReplyDeleteJohn 14:12 - "Verily Verily I say unto you, He that believth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father."
GOLDENEAGLES,
ReplyDeleteHow positively diabolic of you. :-)
The mere fact that I disagree with your rather aberrant interpretation of John 14:12 is hardly proof that I haven't read the bible.
Peace.
GOLDENEAGLES,
ReplyDeleteOf course, it would be interesting to know if you agree or disagree with my response to Dr. Wolfe.
That is, after all, the subject being discussed on this particular thread.