SACRED SEXISM
God says of babies Leviticus 27:6: "For a person between one month and
five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a
female at three shekels of silver."
http://catholicity.elcore.net/CoreOnOrdinatioSacerdotalis.html A Defence of the
Idea that John Paul II used papal infallibility to declare female ordination
impossible
Christianity treats men as having more rights than women. It offers a male
patriarchal God. It may say that the fullness of male and female
distinctions are found in God. That might look like it makes God intersex
or something. So they answer that it is saying that God though called male
is not for he transcends gender. In practice however God is treated like a
male.
MAN, THE HEAD OF WOMAN?
The truly modern and mature person believes in sexual equality. It is awful
whenever such people praise the Bible for it claims that women are just
creatures to be dominated by men.
The mere fact that the New Testament affirms the Old Testament claim to be the
word of God is sufficient proof of its anti-woman stance.
Genesis says that God made the first man the master of the first woman to punish
her for leading him astray. Some say that does not mean that the same is to be
true of all women but only married women. They say Adam and Eve were husband and
wife and God was decreeing that the man must be boss. But why would God punish
just married women? All women are to be punished by being submissive before men.
When God made the punishments like painful childbirth and all be passed on this
punishment of obeying the man was to be passed on too. Genesis spelled out only
the two punishments for woman.
Genesis 1:27 says that God made man in his own image and male and female he
created them. The original had no punctuation so the text can be read as saying
that "God made man in his own image. Male and female he created them." This says
nothing about the female being the image of God. And if the author meant that
man and woman were made in the image of God he would have written, "God created
male and female in his own image." The way it is written is odd if he wanted to
convey sexual equality. It speaks of man as being the image and then after that
it says there is male and female. It could be interpreted as saying that man is
the image of God in the proper sense and woman is inferior as the mirror of God.
Christians who think that Genesis does not forbid equal rights for men and women
centre on Genesis 1 where God tells the first man and woman to be fruitful and
multiply and subdue the earth and all on it and conquer and control it. But
Genesis says later that the man and woman later sinned and lost God's blessings
and then God turned nature against them and ordered the woman to accept the man
as her master and be his slave. Man then is to subdue and conquer woman as well.
The command to control and subdue all on earth didn't apply any more in those
changed circumstances. This would indicate that the promise of equality would
depend on man and woman being faithful to God. If a rebellion happened, God
could render women obedient to men.
Adam and Eve were not literally married. If they were innocent and never sinned
they didn't need to be. Marriage is only necessary if people do wrong. Thus a
case can be made for saying the story means all women must submit to men. It
would be strange if God punished woman and decreed punishments that apply only
to married women or women during childbirth. The submission thing is the main
punishment and applies to all women. The punishment of submission to men was for
all women.
The Bible says that man is the head of woman for Eve was made for Adam for none
of the animals were suitable partners for him (Genesis 2). Paul says that women
were made for men and Adam was made first to show supremacy just like Genesis
says (1 Corinthians 11:9, 10). It says man and not just husbands, which makes it
worse.
Paul is not just saying that wives were made for husbands – though he brought
Genesis up to defend this view – for it makes no sense to say a wife is inferior
to a husband and that women are not inferior to men in other things for the
other things are not as serious as marriage so he is saying that women in
general are made for men and made to serve them.
Wives are told to submit to their husbands for they are as inferior to husbands
as the Church is to Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5). The man loves his wife as his
own flesh but she is not told to love him as hers so her body is as much his as
his own. The love the Bible commands for wives does not mean that the husband is
equal to or inferior to his wife but his wife only has value in so far as she is
his body. The husband gives the orders which gives him the advantage, the
control inferring that women must be dopier than stupid husbands. But the
smartest person should be allowed the final decisions if mutual agreement is not
possible. It is impossible to imagine that the ordination of women could be
allowable when you read all this.
The early Church had a problem with women based cults springing up.
That probably explains why we read in the First Letter to Timothy chapter 2 that
Adam was not deceived by the serpent's lies but his wife Eve was. Some say
it blames Adam for the first sin for he knew what he was doing and listened to a
deceived woman. Others note that the Bible often says deception in
spiritual matters is often self-inflicted so she was the one to blame.
Whatever the story is, the message is that a man is at risk of being fooled by a
woman. There is no room though for the idea that Eve was innocently led
astray - being deceived and being at fault for it are compatible.
THE SEXIST OLD TESTAMENT
The Old Testament has a very low opinion of women.
God approved of men having several wives at the one time for he could have said
he didn’t approve even if it was something he had to allow or tolerate. When God
calls the second or whatever woman a wife it is most likely that he thought that
was what she was (Exodus 21:10). He could have limited sex with the other wives
but did not so they were real wives in his view. God never even tried to put
Abraham or David or Solomon off polygamy and they could have gotten away with
having one wife which he should have done if he couldn’t tell everybody that it
was wrong.
God could at least have forbidden sex between the man and the second or third or
whatever wife. God condoned adultery. God could at least have been honest enough
to tell men to have other women if they wanted and to make some kind of legal
contract with them but not to regard them as wives. To call a second wife in
addition to the first a wife is to say that plural marriages are valid. And the
Old Testament does that many times.
God apparently had tremendous trouble with his stiff-necked people and when he
forced so much on them – like the overused death penalty - that was unwelcome he
could have declared women equal to men. Perhaps he could have ordered them to
believe that women were equal and let them treat them as inferiors for once the
belief is changed the discrimination will gradually be phased out. If you
believe in the Bible you must denounce the doctrine of sexual equality.
God is evil if he has given men and women different roles and these roles were
for making husbands the masters of their wives (Genesis 3:16). Liberal
Christians say that the man can be the master of his wife as long as she is his
master. But read Genesis chapter 3 which says God made man the master of woman
to punish her – it was something she was not supposed to like. It would not be
punishment if it was mutual submission for that is necessary for marital
harmony. It would not be punishment if she were so stupid that she needed
somebody to tell her what to do UNLESS God was making woman stupid so that she
needed a man. That would be a daunting punishment indeed.
The Old and New Testament says that Eve’s punishment is given by God to all
women (Genesis 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:14,15). It is obvious that when childbirth was
made painful for Eve after her sin and all women suffer that the curse was meant
for all women. God punished Eve by saying her husband must rule over her and
said this in the context of dishing out permanent punishment to Adam, her and
the snake and to their offspring so it means all women must be ruled by their
husbands. You can’t have a woman minister or priest who is ruled by the husband
so women clergy are prohibited.
God could have made us as hermaphrodite creatures which can have sexual
relationships and which only have babies if they are ready and by
self-impregnation and only if they are moral. It is wrong to create roles where
none are needed. That is discrimination. To praise the Bible God is to praise
sexism. The current system in which any nincompoop can be a father or mother is
diabolical and clearly proves that God does not like children.
If a man lies with a married slave they are not to be put to death (Leviticus
19:20). If she had not been a slave the pair would have been stoned to death
(Leviticus 20:10). All the man had to do to atone was to have a ram sacrificed.
The man should have been put to death if the law that adulterers should be put
to death was fair. God does not think much of the woman when he regards her as
no better than a sex doll and her marriage as insignificant.
Women could not become priests under the Jewish Law. And divorce was the
privilege of the men.
A pair who were married and divorced were not allowed to remarry each other if
the woman had married another man in between for it was an abomination before
the Lord (Deuteronomy 24). The Law makes a difference between men and women so
since it does not lay down the same rule when it is a man who married someone
else it is inferring that it is okay for a man to do what the women did. The
rule is plainly absurd. Marriage should be for life and marrying a previous
marriage partner again is better than marrying somebody new. The Law forbids
adding to its rulings meaning that it is a sin to make a rule allowing women to
divorce even if times change.
The Old Testament demeans women by having one rule for the men and a harsher one
for the women.
CONCLUSION
The Roman Catholic Church is a cult for it would and indeed does harm the rights
of women. It makes even men who believe that women are equal subconsciously
adopt serious forms of chauvinism. Christianity looks down on women. The Bible
does it and therefore the Bible should be a banned book. To revere the sexist
Jesus is to revere the oppression of women for he is regarded as an infallible
being.
BIBLE VERSION USED
The Amplified Bible
WORKS CONSULTED
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, Uta Ranke Heinmann, Penguin, London, 1991
Reality, Vol 61, No 4, April 1996
The End of Silence, Karen Armstrong, Fourth Estate, London, 1993
The Head Covering, Timothy Nelson, Mourne Missionary Trust, Kilkeel, Co Down
The Woman’s Role, Dr Curtis Hutson, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
1985
Your Daughters Shall Prophesy, Rita W McCormick, Outlook Press, Co Down, 1979
Note:
The Furrow is available from
St Patrick’s College,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare
