hinduwoman

Themesong of modern day religious apologetics.

Found it in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism (probably Buddhists would say it too).
Never mind what the holy books and holy men actually said; never mind how women have been treated in practice by the community; never mind what their actual position is even today; just believe when apologists twist everything into pretzels to catch up with feminism.

a)The sayings do not mean what everyone had always thought what they mean
b)Men and women are different and the laws just recognize it
c)Women actually are given a high position of honour and status, you misunderstood it because you don't have the eyes of real faith.
d)The present day low position of women is a result of degeneration from pure earlier times and contamination by other cultures.

Most upsetting is that these people (and women among them) are trying to fool themselves, not only outsiders. :banghead:

Ben Willott

This greatly disturbs me as well, and for some reason I feel very uncomfortable pointing it out to female believers.

So many women are subjected to tyranny, and told daily that this is for their own "protection". Surely this is one of the tyrant's oldest tricks, yet I have met women ready, willing indeed, to believe this and furthermore to subject their daughters to the same.

This is why the bravest people in my opinion are women who defy their religions. They are doubly hated by religions, simply because they are women into the bargain (I'm looking at you, Islam).

I can sit through horror flicks unmoved, but when I imagine what it would be like to be a woman under the rule of sharia or biblical law, my skin crawls.

The Evil One

This demonstrates once again that society leads and religion follows.

Society decides that equality of women is a good thing, and relgions fall over themselves to find any possible justification for such a stance in among the overwhelming tides of misogyny in their doctrines and dogma.

Heathen Dawn

Go Wicca!

(Nope, Gerald Gardner didn’t treat women well either; but nowadays the religion has equality of the sexes in it)

Starboy

If women want a fair break in society then they should be supporting a fully secular society with everything they got. The men should be doing the very same thing. Who knows, someday the shoe may be on the other foot.

Starboy

lpetrich

A good test: does the religion allow female priests, clergy, whatever?

Deacon Doubtmonger

Feminists have responded (correctly) that men have long placed women on a pedestal; of course, once there, they can't move and aren't permitted to step down. Those so exalted, being so much better and more virtuous than us men, surely have the strength to take on all the housework, all the childrearing, and all the emotional nurturance, and the virtue to realize why God commands them to do so, and God forbid they should ever want to be merely human and seek relief from these great and holy burdens ...

The most galling example I've seen of this is from T.D. Jakes' Woman, Thou Art Loosed, which purports to honor and empower women:

Not only would it be more accurate to title this book Woman, Thou Art Confined Forever by Sacred Bonds, but if this dink-wit experienced one-tenth of one percent of the pain of a typical contraction, he'd change his tune but good!

Deacon Doubtmonger

religion

Valdemar

Leviticus Chapter 27
27:2
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.
27:3
And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
27:4
And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels.
27:5
And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
27:6
And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver.
27:7
And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

Hardly equal, eh?

hinduwoman

Yes, but that is because Wicca is a modern religion. So it would have the biases of presentday society inbuilt into it.

Sarpedon

I seem to recall from some buddhist scriptures some of the female bhikkus being harrassed by demons. The demons said that they should stick to womanly things and leave spiritual exercises to the men, and that the women couldn't possibly be smart enough to achieve enlightenment. The women then proceded to argue effectively against what the demons said, and in at least one case managed to convert the demon.