Seen on Friendly Atheist: a female referee was forbidden to ref a boys’ high school basketball game because it would mean putting her in a position of authority over males. Which, according to the Bible, is a big no-no.
To condemn this as bigoted and repulsive would be redundant, since others — even some Christians — have already done so. Therefore, I’ll address this question: is Christianity to blame for this, considering that most Christians don’t actually agree with such first-century bigoted “morals”?
I believe that, yes, Christianity is to blame.
Consider the facts:
- the Bible includes that passage. And it’s in the New Testament, after Jesus, so one can’t use the old “oh, that’s in the OT, Jesus changed all the rules” excuse which allows Christians to ignore the prohibition on eating shrimp or wearing mixed fabric, but to believe homosexuality is still an “abomination”.
- many denominations, and therefore many believers, believe (and teach) that the Bible is 100% true, and the literal word of God. (think about why they refuse to accept the fact of evolution: it’s not because it disproves God (it doesn’t), but because it means that Genesis isn’t literally true.)
Now, Christians could have changed the Bible. It’s not like they didn’t do it often in the first couple of centuries after Jesus, after all. Or they could have left that passage in there, but with a warning that it corresponds to Paul’s bigotry, not to what God actually wants. More liberal church leaders could actually denounce that passage as unjust and incompatible with a “god of love”. Or, like some other denominations do, simply accept that the Bible had many authors, many of its parts are parables or myths, and it was a product of its time, not to mention that it was edited often in the beginning, so it’s quite possible that someone inserted his own beliefs and agenda in it — which at the time would almost surely include bigotry.
But no. They still insist that the Bible is the literal word of God, 100% accurate, and so on. Which means God is a sexist bigot. And they’re OK with that.
If Christianity says “this book is 100% true”, and that book includes sexism, then Christianity is sexist, and is to blame for the sexism it causes.
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** The real issue — it’s social control **
Xian males, like their muslim brethren and jewish father, shudder at a technological world in which mental agility has replaced physical strength as a core measure of economic utility. This reordering of values strips away a core faith-based lie: god-ordained male supremacy.
Unresolved to this day is a decades long struggle over gender equality — equal productive and reproductive rights. Who does The House and Senate back? The relevant group, women themselves, tens of millions of them?
Or white male second-hand-god salesmen? Spewing pro-natalist social Darwinism tarted up as “family values”. Fundies are obvious offenders, but RCs run a close second.
Women’s aspirations, self realization, reproductive self-determination must be crushed by direct force. Xian domestic terrorism, like muslim domestic terrorism, humiliates, intimidates, and batters women back to submission.
Protected by complicit federal and state officials, cells of xian thugs have been targeting women and their humane values for decades. Irrationality drives scientific knowledge about sex from America’s schools just as it drives medical research abroad.
Xian political ideologues must eventually embrace state totalitarianism. Their “truths” can never win popular support. An open society will repudiate a nihilism composed of literalist lies, morally repugnant beliefs, and puritanical rules.
bipolar2
2008c.
women are equall to men…. infact men need women, Adam needed eve cause he was too incompentant she may have ‘decieved’ him with the friut by she never lied … adam eat it with no questions … like a puppy being told to fetch.
It is in my firmness belief that every person must be given their rights and those rights be exercise. Religions that discriminate and impose hierarchal roles really slow down societal progress. It is a fact that human nature is naturally selfish. If you let one group whether it be religious, certain governmental parties or one gender to rule above the other it would certainly turn to corruption, oppression and personal gain. If power goes uncheck it leads to abuse even though it is claimed that hierarchy is needed for order and protection. Most of the time, the hierarchy and order is use to maintain power by one group to keep the other group subordinate and powerless. There needs to be a balance of power in everything- family, society and religious belief. History attest that absolute power corrupts absolutely, whether it be monarchy, dictatorship, theocracy that subordinates women to men, caste systems and gender or racial suprimacy. Even today, you can see its results in Third world countries and poverty stricken places in the world. Most third world have little or no women’s rights at all. Their economy is slower because there’s not much money circulating around, they have a higher domestic violence rate (sometimes culturally acceptible), low education cause families can’t afford, human trafficking and corruption within business and governemntal functions, just to name a few. I think that what keeps a nation prosperous is when justice is upheld, reduce crimes, get people educated, balance of power and maintain a balance between capitalism and environmental responsibilities.