Is all religion based on male power?

by ThomasCovenant 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthlover

  JW:
  Good point- again, they had to fight an uphill battle to get recognized for their spitirual endeavours
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  I quit!

  I'm only guessing but I think the belief that God is male may have got started in very primative societies where whoever could club the hell out of everyone else got to be in charge so they came to believe that if God could make all this he could definately club the hell out of everyone so he must be male. Because we are physical beings I guess it was easiest for us to try to relate to God in a physical form and may people still do. From what I can see some branches of Christianity and other religions are getting away from the belief that God must be male or female. It only makes sense that if there is a God he/she would be beyond that. And that is another problem at least with English. We really don't have a good word for referring to something that could be male or female or neither other than "it".

  Things are changing in society and I think if churches are to survive they need to catch up. A woman might go work and be in charge of a large group of people and do just fine yet if she attends a church she may be told that it is scriptural for men to be in charge of everything even if the there are more capable women available. The Watchtower is good example of how that view works out. The Episcopal Church here in the US has Churches breaking off from the main body over a woman being made the Presiding Bishop and acceptance of homosexuals into the fold. It seem crazy to me in this day and age people would still think that way. Katharine Jefferts Schori Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church is just as capable of doing her job as any man so why should her anatomy be taken into the equation?

  One reason I don't think the scriptures should have the final say is that I don't believe they always created the viewpoint of the time in which they were written but in many case only refected it. For instance the Bible never condemned slavery. That is why it was so easy for people here in the US to own slaves and consider themselves good Christians. Also I think at time the writer of the Bible projected their own views when writing on a subject. For instance Jesus didn't seem to have the same views about women as Paul did.
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  Balsam

  Yah it is really too bad that male dominated religions ended up taking over and oppressing women. Today at least we do have women ministers and I love that. I go to a Presbyterian church and our Pastor is a very nice woman whom the entire church loves.
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  Pistoff

  Being submissive to men doesn't make women less equal it is just a different role.

  Yea, the submissive role.

  Debator, the WT does not let women teach, hold positions or pray publicly. That is UNEQUAL. So say all you want that they have equal opportunity, by saying they have a submissive 'role' you are denying them equality of opportunity.

  Jesus' treated women equally; then whoever wrote the psuedo Pauline letters pushed them back into the role they had in hebrew life: submissive and second class.