nigh_invulnerable

I'm involved in a debate on another board where one of the fundies is asserting that women are/were not repressed in christianity. for the life of me, i can't think of any scripture or decent arguments to refute that (must be distracted 'cause it's friday afternoon). Anyone have any good quotes/references for that?

xxthe_leewitxx

This may or may not be of help to you. When in doubt, consult the Skeptic's Annotated Bible!

Beetle

I'm not sure you have any chance for success if you're arguing with a fundamentalist. No matter what examples of repression you come up can be met either with "'True Christians' wouldn't have done that" (for historical examples) and "it's not repression if it's God's will, then it's protection" (to refute examples from the Bible).

nigh_invulnerable

good point. actually, there's not much chance of succes EVER when arguing with a fundie. they'll always manage to justify their beliefs no matter what.

Deacon Doubtmonger

From the Freedom From Religion Foundation:

Why Women Need Freedom From Religion (contains a sampling of woman-demeaning bible verses)

And here's one by Bryan Hayward showing how the god/follower relationship exactly parallels that of abuser/victim:

The Abuse By Christianity

Doug

I've read on more than one occasion that women in the very early church were very important to the growth of Christianity (Stark's The Rise of Christianity comes to mind). In many ways the women of the early church found more independence and acceptance than normal society.

This all rapidly went away by probably 150 AD as Paul's teachings about women and historical societal norms regarding the treatment of women took hold in the Church. Other than some "liberal" Christian denominations, it's been that way ever since.

Deacon Doubtmonger

Oops -- just found a hard copy of this one while cleaning out some file drawers:

The Role of Xianity in the Oppression of Women

Adora

Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. And er, Paul again.

The man was completely fucked up.

blink

I went to a Christmas service one time just to hear the violinists who were playing. Had to sit through the preacher spewing misogynist baloney about how Eve caused suffering in childbirth and other evils. My violin teacher, a preacher's wife, asked me how I liked the service and I told her what I thought of the misogynist part...she said she didn't even hear it. It goes in one ear and out the other.
Why aren't there more hecklers in church? People should stand up and say, " What the heck do you mean by that?" Why would that be wrong? Disturbing the "peace" ?