12Rods

It is pretty apparent to me that the bible is a reflection of the sexism running rampant in that time period? is this an accurate thought? what are some great examples or counter examples to this notion of sexism in the babble?

Rymmie1981

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well.....
damn, all I have is Ruth, but that's stretching it. I mean, the only way she gets to do anything for THE Big Daddy is to get Boaz to be her Big Daddy. And if anyone brings up Esther, I'm going to have a laughing fit, then completely demolish every bit of evidence from that book with more evidence from the same book where Esther was still treated like a second-class citizen after she was queen.

Then, Esther is the only book of the Bible that doesn't mention God, not even once. It's just a story of how Jews got to have one of their feasts. Um, otherwise, the rest of Bible is all about how women are whores and men are mostly holy.

Yeah, that's it...sure...

*goes and polishes the Uber Cross of Doom, waiting for the inevitable references to Ruth and Esther*

12Rods

haha i cant wait

Kryten

I find it so sexist that I am amazed any woman could be Christian. I think the same of Islam. Not to mention Hindus throwing women on pyres so they can serve their males in the afterlife. These religions seem to have been created so as to serve the domineering attitudes of men.

Toto

Sexism has been a constant feature of human history. The Bible reflects this. This does not mean that all of the women were doormats and slaves, but clearly women had a separate status from men and a separate function as breeding stock, and were usually considered the virtual property of their fathers or husbands.

Just google "sexism in the Bible." Most of the hits will be from Christians trying to argue against the idea that the Bible is sexist.

But God did allegedly tell Eve that he would increase her woes in childbearing, and Paul's letters tell women that they should not speak in church but should listen to their husbands. (It is likely that Paul did not write this, as other sources show him working closely with women preachers and organizers.) Still, the Bible itself is probably not as sexist as a lot of the church fathers and medieval thinkers were.

The Bible has driven some feminists to atheism. See Woe To The Women: The Bible Tells Me So by Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. (If you want to buy it, it's cheaper here.)

19th century feminist and freethinker Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote a Women's Bible with comments.

Do you have anything new to say on this issue?

Doctor X

There is a Queen Jane's Version parody bible, which I never bought because it is real expensive. However, it has "icons" and the one for sexism is a naked woman impaled on a stake.

There are quite a few of them. . . .

Of course it is sexist--men wrote it. It is one of the reasons, methinks, Friedman backed off his "I wonder if" thought probably born from a late night manuscript revision with cheap ganga that a woman wrote J. It would have to be a pretty self-loathing woman!

--J.D.

Toto

But a woman might have written the Gospel of Luke. Randal Helms points out a number of things written from a woman's point of view (the stirring of the fetus inside the womb) or little jokes about men lying around while women work.

Of course, this still doesn't make it a feminist document.

Doctor X

Helms' argument is nothing more than a "gee could it be?" and a weak one at that. Since it is used to sell his book, it does not do him credit.

Friedman became very upset with Harold "I Cannot Read the Texts Blooms attempt to cash-in on the "Female J" thing and obliquely slaps him in his newer edition.

It is fine and dandy to play these "what ifs" but it should not be the "selling point" of a scholarly work.

--J.D.

Plognark

What freaks me out is the women i've met who buy into this bullshit.
Obediant christian wife...ug....makes me ill.

A friend of mine; well, former friend, who went to a fundy college with his girlfriend of many years had serious issues at one point over the "obedient" part and he told her he was going to dump her ass if she didn't treat him with respect.

And you know what? The dumb brainwashed bitch went along with it after a few months of pining over him. Then she took out her frustrations on all of her friends and acquaintances and began telling off her friends who were even a little disrespectful to their boyfriends/husbands; even if it was just playful joking.

Sheer madness.

IMHO any self respecting woman should condemn this crap and send it back where it belongs: centuries in the past.

Rymmie1981

*affixes Temporal distortion module to Uber Cross of Doom*

I will happy to help any woman who wishes send scriptures into the past. Hell, I'll help any man, too. But, wait...if we send the scriptures into the past, won't we be the ones responsible for Christianity? But, if we don't send them into the past, Christianity will never happen, and none of us will be born. *sigh*

Just forget I said anything. These are not the driods you are looking for. All your base are belong to us. Dammit, Jim, I'm an atheist, not a geologist. *brain implodes*