Who should control a
woman’s body, mind and soul? Is Eve equal to Adam? Throughout history women
have been treated like second class citizens; property of men. They have been
blamed for being evil seductresses and sorceresses; leading the male sex to
ruin, through black magic and feminine wilds. They have been called too
intelligent, as well as, too ignorant, and too strong, as well as, too weak; to
have basic human rights for themselves. They have been misunderstood, hated,
abused, killed and in many ways totally ignored, but still blamed for all the
world‘s ills; controlled in one way or the other, body, mind and soul; for
thousands of years. These questions have especially been asked since the
beginning of the three main Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam which are for the most part patriarchal in nature. The Apostle Paul‘s
form of Christianity, also called Pauline Christianity reinforced a patriarchal
ideology.
In Pauline
Christianity women are viewed as just a part of a man’s body, not owning her
own; just a simple rib. This belief comes down from the teachings of the
Apostle Paul and misinterpretation, through language translation and biases,
and by Church leaders’ interpretations of the creation story of Adam and Eve in
Genesis. In the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible)
Genesis 2:21 and 2:22 states: “So Hashem God cast a deep sleep upon the
man and he slept; and He took one of his sides and He filled in flesh in its
place. Then Hashem God fashioned the side that He had taken from the man into a
women, and He brought her to the man”. In the true translation from Hebrew to
English, half of the being Adam is taken to make the being Eve; not just a
single rib. This means in the unchanged indigenous Jewish religion, if interpreted
correctly in Hebrew not Greek, man and woman are two equal halves of what was
once a hermaphroditic being, a being that was both masculine and feminine in
body. The equality of the sexes in the original writings of Judaism is also
supported by Genesis 1:27, which states: “So God created Man in his image, in
the image of God. He created him; male and female He created them”. On a
spiritual level God is seen as both masculine and feminine, viewing both sexes
as equal and important to the spiritual and physical worlds.
Both Protestant and
Catholic forms of Pauline Christianity have long banned the equal rights of
women throughout history, using false interpretations of Jewish biblical text
and gender biased in the Christian bible, to support their rules and laws. Pope
Gregory I (540-604) stated: “Woman is slow in understanding and her unstable
and naïve mind renders her by way of natural weakness to the necessity of a
strong hand in her husband. Her “use” is twofold; [carnal] sex and
motherhood.”Church leaders barred women from equal access to education, jobs,
medical treatment, owning property and many other basic rights. Her mind, body
and soul belonged to her male relatives or her husband. A woman’s husband could
beat her into submission under Christian law, because she was considered just a
child mentally, and the daughter of Eve, the deceiver; spiritually. Rabbi
Gershon Winkler writes: “Ruling class European men looked at and treated their
women basically as they did their African slaves…” A woman was not seen as a
complete human being without a husband, she was incomplete. John Wesley
(1703-1791) wrote: “Wife: Be content to be insignificant. What loss would it be
to God or man had you never been born.” Jewish leaders on the other hand viewed
the role of women as being important in Jewish society. Hugh Fogelman states:
“Judaism recognizes that women are endowed with a greater degree of
“binah“(intuition, understanding, intelligence) than men.” The woman was not
just a vessel for future generations, but an important factor in her community,
in both physical and spiritual matters. Jewish women were not only wives and
mothers, but they also were community leaders and businesswomen. Fogelman
writes: “For example, Jewish women had the right to buy, sell, and own
property, and make their own contracts.” Women were also viewed as equal to
their husbands. Fogelman writes: “Jewish women are held in high esteem in
marriage.” A wife must be taken care of and loved with respect by her husband,
and any type of martial abuse, physical or mental, is breaking Jewish law
(including rape). A woman is viewed as a complete human being, not just a
child, not just a mere rib. Fogelman states: “In Torah/Judaism, woman is the
completion of man, but, woman needs no completion herself. That is why a woman
says the blessing, each morning, “Blessed are You, Hashem, King of the
universe, Who has made me according to His will.” Man needs woman for
completion, man needs circumcision for elevation, but woman needs nothing
except what is within her, which was granted her by God.”
A woman’s choices
throughout history were very limited, wife and mother. Motherhood came with
many dangers, without proper care many had reproductive health problems that
shorten their lives or they died young in childbirth, from multiple pregnancies
without limit; most without proper care for both the mother and baby. Birth
control and pain control during labor was against Christian doctrine, because
of the Christian belief of “original sin“, where the pains and suffering of
birth is God’s curse on the female gender. Martin Luther (1483-1546) the German
leader of the Protestant Reformation said: “If they {women} become tired or
even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth, that’s why they are
there.” In the Jewish faith there is no concept of “original sin“, men and
women are all born inherently good; clean slates at birth. In pregnancy the
mother’s life comes first, The Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 69b states that: “the
embryo is considered to be mere water until the fortieth day. Afterwards, it is
considered subhuman until it is born.” Abortion was never taken lightly in
Judaism, because of the potential for life, but when it came to the physical
and mental well-being of the mother it was permitted; because a fetus does not
receive full personhood until half way out of the birth canal, when it takes
its first breath of life on its own. Pain relief in childbirth was also allowed,
to ease the mother through nature’s pain, which was not considered some curse
from God; children were considered a blessing not a curse. Many Christian women
during this time used Jewish doctors and midwives, for reproductive health
care. This could be dangerous to the Christian woman, who was breaking
Christian laws on procreation, and the Jew, who was viewed as a child of Satan;
both were seen as breaking Christian laws and crossing ethnic boundaries.
A woman’s soul was
also always being questioned, some church leaders even questioned if she even
had a true soul. Some spoke of the female being somewhere between an animal and
her male counterpart. Some even spoke of the female sex as filth. Tertullian
(160-220) an early Christian philosopher stated: “Woman is a temple built over
a sewer, the gateway to the devil. Woman, you are the devil’s doorway. You led
astray one whom the devil would not dare attack directly. It was your fault
that the Son of God had to die; you should always go in mourning and rags.”
Church leaders believed that women were weaker both spiritually and sexually
than men, believing that the female gender was more prone to the evil side of
spirituality, and that women were naturally sexually attracted to the devil;
which controlled them to the point of demonic possession. In the past a women
who believed in gender equality was often silenced by fire for being a witch.
It was believed that a woman must be listening to the devil, to think of
herself as equal to a man. Clement of Alexandria (150-215) stated: “Every woman
should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman.” Any religion
that celebrated womanhood, the feminine side of God or viewed women equal to
men; were considered blasphemy against Christianity. This included Judaism,
some forms of Christianity, and folk beliefs that focused on the Divine
Feminine. Rabbi Winkler writes; “For example, Jews had to tone down the roles
of their women in religious life and function to avoid suspicions of
witchcraft, a suspicion held of all women — their religious affiliation
notwithstanding — who exhibited independence, learning, and mystical prowess”.
A woman was always under suspicion of devil worship by Christian authorities,
just because she had the misfortune of being born a female.
Today, women are
gaining equal rights throughout the world, especially European countries and
here in United States, because of women suffrage and modern feminism. Women are
beginning to be released from the role that Simone De Beauvoir called: “the
Eternal Feminine”, the saintly mother or the perverse man-hating sorceress.
Education is open to women in every discipline, they have choices in careers,
even those once offered only to men; as well as marriage and motherhood or
both. Women have the right in most of the developed world to birth control, and
safe medical help throughout pregnancy, and controlling their own bodies and
fates but the world could still do better for poor women and women living still
in oppressive regions. Women can go into political and leadership roles, and
make a difference in the world around them. Today many, Christian denominations
like, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and others, view a woman as equal
to a man, having female ministers, teachers, and religious leaders. Renewal,
Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Humanistic, Kabbalah (mystical
Judaism), some Orthodox, and various other forms of Judaism; also view women as
equal to men. Women are becoming Rabbis, teachers, and religious leaders in
most of Judaism’s denominations, except for Orthodox. The Jewish people are slowly
regaining the Divine Feminine, which was once lost. Pagan religions, which
celebrate both the God and Goddess, are making a comeback throughout the world.
Women as well as men do not have to fear being put to death in a large part of
the world, because of believing in equality of the sexes.
But there are still
many parts of the world that women are still living under violent patriarchal
religious rules. There are those in the Europe and the United States whose
views mirror the darker side of Christianity‘s past, viewing the female gender
as the weak, sinful, and the dark other, to the male sex. That must be
controlled and put down to a different level of existence. Many Conservative
Christians today who follow Pauline Christianity view feminism as a demonic
philosophy, which is anti-Christian; going against ancient biblical sex roles
of being wife, mother, helpmate and caretaker. The female sex is valued for the
womb inside her, and the future generations that will come from it. They
believe that the female is just the weaker piece of the male sex, without a say
in anything that might affect her, physically, mentally, and spiritually,
believing that only her male counterpart should make the decisions that affect
her body, mind and soul. Women are not to hold leadership roles, or careers
that place them over men. To step out of this role a woman is considered evil,
separating her from the path to the heavens. Feminism is viewed as dangerous to
the biblical order of things because it stands for women’s right and for women
to control their own lives and bodies Pat Robertson stated: “The feminist
agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist,
anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands,
kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become
lesbians.” Robertson’s viewpoint is a mirror image of Christian leaders throughout
history, on the dangers of equality of the sexes, and the evil female. Feminism
is also viewed as cheapening the roles of wife and motherhood. Austin Cline
writes: “Many people in modern America complain that motherhood and raising
children have been devalued by the feminist movement and the efforts to get
women into the workplace. These same people, however, are the religious
conservatives who have throughout America’s history been responsible for the
actual devaluing of women’s contributions to society. Motherhood and raising
children haven’t been devalued because of feminism and women working in the
corporate world; instead, they have been devalued precisely because they are
seen as “women’s work” and unsuitable for men.”
No comments:
Post a Comment