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today's article
has christianity contributed to the need for feminism?
article by mikayla goodwin
5th march 2020
word count: 875
Ever since the beginning of time, women have been considered the weaker gender, causing society to view men as superior and overall better. It is clear Christianity and the way their beliefs portray women have contributed to the development of these toxic views toward them. Christianity has always had a clear belief that women are inferior to men as its stated within several verses in the Bible. Although not all Christians have strong misogynistic thoughts, the majority of Christians take the words within the Bible extremely seriously. Some husbands go as far as yelling at and hitting their wives when they do not full submit to them as the Bible says they must. Feminists want nothing more than for Christians to drop these ideals and change their beliefs around gender. This has been proved possible evident by feminist Christians who have realised how nonsensical various Bible’s verses are and changed their ideals and beliefs. Doing so will help take a step towards equality.
Feminism is a social and political movement with the ideologies that aims to create equal rights and opportunities between the genders. Its purpose is to acknowledge and change the amount of discrimination towards women. Feminists fight for women to be seen as strong and independent and push for people to let women have control of their own bodies and minds. One of the main contributions that led people to believe and partake in these toxic ideals is Christianity. Religion has always been an enemy to women’s rights. Many Christians consider feminism as a false theology as it fights against almost every one of their beliefs, or instance, abortion, traditional gender roles and sexualities. They go as far as fighting against and purposely preventing women from speaking publicly and ‘there are still many well-known churches, denominations, and organizations that are staunch in their stance against women serving as pastors.’ (Tom Talks. 2018) As well as God only ever being portrayed as a man due to Christians believing women are not powerful enough to have control over life and are too stupid to have strong beliefs. A solution that could help grow a healthy relationship between women and Christianity is allowing women to be in charge of churches and acting as the pastor or Elders, as well as letting women speak up and act for the church during public speeches, rather than fighting against it. Alongside with allowing God to be seen as gender neutral to avoid having one gender to be seen as superior and stronger.
There are over 200 verses in the Bible belittling and objectifying women. Timothy 2:11-13 reads ‘A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. Do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.’ stating that women must submit to their husbands and follow their every demand as men have more authority based mainly of Adam being formed first. This verse completely erases the right for women to be their own person and belittles what they want and what they believe. There are many other verses that have similar statements, such as Ephesians 5:22-24 and Titus 2: 4-5. Both these verses support the idea of women submitting to their husbands as well as their children. A recent example of this is a domestic violence case between a married couple from two years ago. The wife, Sally, states her husband, Peter, is abusing her as she is not a good wife that follows what the bible says. One night he yelled, "The Bible says you must obey me, and you refuse. You are a failure as a wife, as a Christian, as a mother. You are an insubordinate piece of shit." (ABC News. 2018). Research has proven that there is more likely to be domestic violence and abuse in a religious household rather than a non-religious one. A theology written by professor Steven Tracy in 2008 states that abuse expects are aware that men who often go to church are more likely than any other man to hit and yell at their wife regularly proving that Christianity has contributed to the lack of women rights and the need for feminism.
Majority of today’s society see feminism as angry women who believe woman are superior to men, and men should serve women, which is only evident in a few minor factors of feminism. Definitions such as those have led to people seeing feminism as a toxic social movement and causes people to consider feminism as a joke. However, true feminism still remains as the fight for equal rights between the genders. The Bible has always had a clear message of men being stronger and that women are slaves to men. These portrayals are problematic as they have led to abuse in married couples due to men thinking their wives must follow their every command, and rape in Catholic churches. This does not mean Christians and religion is completely to blame for the toxic ideals around females and it does not mean Christianity is terrible and should be completely disregarded. ‘Christianity is a major role player that influenced changes to society, sometimes for the better and other times in a negative way’ (Scielo. 2017). Everyone has a right to their own religion and beliefs. It also does not mean all Christians believe and agree with misogynistic thoughts, it often comes down to how the bible is interpreted by each individual. The verses and ideals within The Bible should be change and updated to match society’s views as they change and grow. This growth would help the gap of equality between the genders to minimise largely and would result in a lot of less abuse and domestic violence towards women. Alongside with this, the public should become aware of the difference between feminists and radical feminists. Feminists simply want nothing more than women to be seen as equal to men.
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bibliography
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