“Materialistic education,” warned a writer for the Watchman-Examiner in 1921, has been the
cause of a “moral letdown in the habits of women,” including “immodest dress,
improper dancing, frequenting immoral plays, and indulging in smoking,
gambling, swearing, and joy-riding.” The
same fear was mirrored in a 1928 issue of the Bible Champion. It predicted
that because of evolution “we are at the present time on the verge of a moral
breakdown among women.”…the widespread appeal of the antievolutionary movement rested, to a
significant degree, on its defense of Victorian gender roles and domestic
conventions because gender issues were such a central part of popular
antievolution rhetoric.
DeBerg, p. 138-9
The evolutionary theory seems more a post-hoc explanation to
justify irresponsible male behavior and a dual sexual standard (Bergman, 1996) .
Some creationists have pointed to
evolution as responsible for women’s straying from the societal roles that God
intended for them. What was the proper
role of women in society?
The role of women in society is a complex
issue and all societies have struggled with this issue. As far as I know, there is no society in which
gender roles were so ideal that it is considered as the example that all other
societies should follow. One could argue that one does an injustice to
an ancient culture when you judge them by modern standards. I agree. If,
however, science teachers are expected to treat the Bible as a book in which
the Creator of the Universe disclosed infallible details concerning the natural
world, questions concerning gender can appropriately referred to the Bible.
How were women treated in the Bible?
Were they equal to men?
In the following Biblical passages, I have used the Vulgate (in blue) and King James Version (in yellow) since these were in use for centuries (in contrast to most modern translations) and this chapter addresses the treatment of women in the historical past.
In the Bible
there are laws which single out women only (for example, for suspicion of
adultery).
Numbers 5
12 Speak to the children of
13 Shall have slept with another man, and her husband cannot discover it, but the adultery is secret, and cannot be proved by witnesses, because she was not found in the adultery:
14 If the spirit of jealousy stir up the husband against his wife, who either is defiled, or is charged with false suspicion,
15 He shall bring her to the priest, and shall offer an oblation for her, the tenth part of a measure of barley meal: he shall not pour oil thereon, nor put frank- incense upon it: because it is a sacrifice of jealousy, and an oblation searching out adultery.
16 The priest therefore shall offer it, and set it before the Lord.
17 And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement of the tabernacle into it.
18 And when the woman shall stand before the Lord, he shall uncover her head, and shall, put on her hands the sacrifice of remembrance, and the oblation of jealousy: and he himself shall hold the most bitter waters, whereon he hath heaped curses with execration.
19 And he shall adjure her, and shall say: If another man hath not slept with thee, and if thou be not defiled by forsaking thy husband's bed, these most bitter waters, on which I have heaped curses, shall not hurt thee.
20 But if thou hast gone aside from thy husband, and art defiled, and hast lain with another man:
21 These curses shall light upon thee: The Lord make thee a curse, and an example for all among his people: may he make thy thigh to rot, and may thy belly swell and burst asunder.
22 Let the cursed waters enter into thy belly, and may thy womb swell and thy thigh rot. And the woman shall answer, Amen, amen.
12 Speak unto the children of
13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither
she be taken with the manner;
14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his
wife, and she be not defiled:
15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor
put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:
17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:
18 And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy
offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:
19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another
instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:
20 But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:
21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy
people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;
22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.
Women who possess an inheritance should marry a man of her tribe; as a result her husband controls her inheritance.
Numbers 36
8 And all women shall take husbands of the same tribe: that the inheritance may remain in the families,
8
And every daughter, that possesseth an
inheritance in any tribe of the children of
children
of
If a man rapes a woman, he must pay a fine and marry the woman.
Deuteronomy 22
28 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, who is not espoused, and taking her, lie with her, and the matter come to judgment :
29 He that lay with her shall give to the father of the maid fifty sides of silver, and shall have her to wife, because he hath humbled her: he may not put her away all the days of his life.
28 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
29 Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her
away all his days.
If a woman helps her husband in a fight by grabbing his assailant’s genitals, her hand is to be cut off.
Deuteronomy 25
11 If two men have words together, and one begin to fight against the other, and the other's wife willing to deliver her husband out of the hand of the stronger, shall put forth her hand, and take him by the secrets,
12 Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her regard.
11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth
forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:
12 Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.
Judges
20 tells the tale of how men of the Tribe of Benjamin attack a man and rape
his concubine until she is dead. All the other tribes of
Judges 21
10 So they sent ten thousand of the most valiant men, and commanded them, saying: Go and put the inhabitants of Jabes Galaad to the sword, with their wives and their children.
11 And this is what you shall observe: Every male, and all women that have known men, you shall kill, but the virgins you shall save.
12 And there were found of Jabes Galaad four hundred
virgins, that had not known the bed of a man, and they brought them to the
13 And they sent messengers to the children of Benjamin, that were in the rock Remmon, and commanded them to receive them in peace.
14 And the children of Benjamin came at that time, and wives were given them of the daughters of Jabes Galaad: but they found no others, whom they might give in like manner.
15 And all
16 And the ancients said: What shall we do with the rest, that have not received wives? for all the women in Benjamin are dead.
17 And we must use all care, and
provide with great diligence, that one tribe be not destroyed out of
18 For as to our own daughters we cannot give them, being bound with an oath and a curse, whereby we said: Cursed be he that shall give Benjamin any of his daughters to wife.
19 So they took counsel, and said: Behold there is a yearly solemnity of the Lord in Silo, which is situate on the north of the city of Bethel, and on the east side of the way, that goeth from Bethel to Sichem, and on the south of the town of Lebona.
20 And they commanded the children of Benjamin, and said: Go, and lie hid in the vineyards,
21 And when you shall see the daughters of Silo come out, as the custom is, to dance, come ye on a sudden out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife among them, and go into the land of Benjamin.
22 And when their fathers and their brethren shall come, and shall begin to complain against you, and to chide, we will say to them: Have pity on them for they took them not away as by the right of war or conquest, but when they asked to have them, you gave them not, and the fault was committed on your part.
23 And the children of Benjamin did, as they had been commanded: and according to their number, they carried off for themselves every man his wife of them that were dancing: and they went into their possession and built up their cities, and dwelt in them.
10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the
edge of the sword, with the women and the children.
11 And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the
camp to
13 And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.
14 And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15 And the people repented them for Benjamin,
because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of
16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17 And they said, There must be an inheritance
for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of
18 Howbeit we may not give them wives of our
daughters: for the children of
19 Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of
the LORD in
from
20 Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21 And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the
daughters
of
22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we
reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.
23 And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto
their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
While
God is present on
Ex 19
15 He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.
16 And now the third day was come, and the morning appeared: and behold thunders began to be heard, and lightning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mount, and the noise of the trumpet sounded exceeding loud, and the people that was in the camp, feared.
15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet
exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
In the Bible, women are unclean after childbirth. They are unclean for a longer period if they have a daughter rather than a son.
Leviticus 12
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 Speak to the children of
3 And on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised:
4 But she shall remain three and thirty days in the blood of her purification. She shall touch no holy thing, neither shall she enter into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification be fulfilled.
5 But if she shall bear a maid child, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of her monthly courses, and she shall remain in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.
6 And when the days of her purification are expired, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtle for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest:
7 Who shall offer them before the Lord, and shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that beareth a man child or a maid child.
8 And if her hand find not sufficiency, and she is not able to offer a lamb, she shall take two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for a holocaust, and another for sin: and the priest shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed.
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2
Speak unto the children of
the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
4 And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her
purifying be fulfilled.
5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.
6 And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a
turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:
7 Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a
male or a female.
8 And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the
priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.
The issue of menstruation has confused cultures of the past. It is, after all, the only time when the loss of blood is not a sign of a biological problem. It is linked to reproduction, but not in ways obvious enough for many cultures to discern. It occurs at fairly regular intervals and may even have served as the most primitive form of calendar, informing ancient cultures of the passage of the seasons. For ancient Jews, menstruating women were considered unclean and men were prohibited from having sexual relations with women who are menstruating. (Note that this command lies in between the commands not to commit incest and not to commit adultery.) The same command is repeated in Leviticus 20.
Leviticus 18
18 Thou shalt not take thy wife's sister for a harlot, to rival her, neither shalt thou discover her nakedness, while she is yet living.
19 Thou shalt not approach to a woman having her flowers, neither shalt thou uncover her nakedness.
20 Thou shalt not lie with thy neighbour's wife, nor be defiled with mingling of seed.
18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
19 Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.
20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.
Leviticus 20
18 If any man lie with a woman in her flowers, and uncover her nakedness, and she open the fountain of her blood, both shall be destroyed out of the midst of their people.
18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among
The Bible treats infertility as a deliberate divine decision and often a reflection of woman’s worthiness.
Genesis 30
1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
Gen 20
18 For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.
1 Samuel 1
5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb.
6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.
7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her;
therefore she wept, and did not eat.
II Sam 6
21 And David said unto Michal,
It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the
LORD, over
22 And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.
23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.
Many have interpreted the above passages literally to mean that divine punishment or the absence of divine favor was the cause of infertility in women.
The rabbis had a saying that God reserves to himself four keys, which he will entrust not even to the angels: the key of rain, the key of the grave, the key of fruitfulness, and the key of barrenness. It was the sign of one set of above angels when Christ was seen with the keys of Hell and Death, or when he delivered the keys of heaven to Peter—still thrust down the backs of protestant children to cure a nosebleed.
So too, although the power to procreate is naturally implanted in men, yet God would have it accounted to his special favor that he leaves some in barrenness, but graces others with offspring “for fruit of the womb is his gift” (Ps. 127: 3 p.).
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion., p. 206
David exclaims that infants still nursing at their mothers’ breasts are eloquent enough to celebrate God’s glory, for immediately on coming forth from the womb, they find food prepared for them by his heavenly care. Indeed, this is in general true, provided what experience plainly demonstrates does not escape our eyes and senses, that some mothers have full and abundant breasts but others’ are almost dry, as God wills to feed one more liberally, but another more meagerly.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion., p. 200-1
1 Timothy 2
11 Let the
woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I
suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in
silence.
13 For Adam
was first formed, then Eve.
1 Corinthians 14
34 Let your
women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak;
but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith
the law.
As
mentioned in the previous chapter, these passages by
Man is the recognized guardian of things and the natural
protector of life, liberty, and property.
Women from their very nature are intended to be protected….Man to blaze
the way and direct the sterner things of life, of a political and military
nature, and woman to mould the social, moral, and educational conduct of the
home, administer the agencies of mercy, such as the Red Cross, and remain “as
the weaker vessel” unto the stronger as spoken of in the first Epistle General
of Saint Paul (3-7).
In First Corinthians
(11:1-10) the Great Apostle Paul says: “But I would have you know that the head
of every man is Christ: and the head of every woman is man…”
In his First Epistle to Timothy (
Here is a direct admonition commanding women
not to usurp authority over man in the application of laws.
And in his Epistle
to the Ephesians (
We search the
Scripture for Divine guidance in all things.
How strange it would be if its teachings did not apply to Woman
Suffrage.
In the face of
these divine teachings it is believed by many that equal suffrage for women is
contrary to the natural order of things.
The Subjugation of Man through Woman
Suffrage. , p.
8-9
MicFilm HQ 1121.H67 reel 952; University at
Some Extrabiblical writings do not depict women in a positive
light.
"Woe to you who love intimacy with womankind and
polluted intercourse with them! Woe to you in the grip of the powers of your
body, for they will
afflict you! Woe to you in the grip of the forces of the
evil demons! Woe to you who beguile your limbs with fire! Who is it that will
rain a refreshing
dew on you to extinguish the mass of fire from you along
with your burning? Who is it that will cause the sun to shine upon you to
disperse the darkness
in you and hide the darkness and polluted water?
The Book of Thomas The Contender Writing To the Perfect
The Gnostic Library: The Nag Hammadi
Library
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html
Flee, therefore, fornication, my children, and command your
wives and your daughters, that they adorn not their heads and faces to deceive
the mind: because every woman who useth these wiles
hath been reserved for eternal punishment.
For thus they allured the Watchers who were before the flood; for as
these continually beheld them, they lusted after them, and they conceived the
act in their mind; for they changed themselves into the shape of men, and
appeared to them when they were with their husbands. And the women lusting in their minds after
their forms, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers
appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven.
Testament of Reuben, Ch. 2: 17-19; from the Testaments of
the Twelve Patriarchs, from Press
Beware, therefore, of fornication; and if you wish to be
pure in mind, guard your senses from every woman.
Testament of Reuben, Ch.2: 20; from the Testaments of the
Twelve Patriarchs, from Press
Judas said, "You have told us this out of the mind of
truth. When we pray, how should we pray?"
The Lord said, "Pray in the place where there is no
woman." Matthew said, "'Pray
in the place where there is no woman,' he tells us, meaning 'Destroy the works
of womanhood,' not because there is any other manner of birth, but because they
will cease giving birth." Mary
said, "They will never be obliterated." The Lord said, "Who knows that they will
not dissolve and ... [2 lines missing]?"
Judas said to Matthew, "The works of womanhood will dissolve [...]
the governors will [...]. Thus will we become prepared for them." The Lord said, "Right. For do they see
you? Do they see those who receive you? Now behold! A true Word is coming forth
from the Father to the abyss, in silence with a flash of lightning, giving
birth. Do they see it or overpower it? But you are even more aware of the path,
this one, before either angel or authority has [...] Rather,
it belongs to the Father and the Son, because they are both a single [...]. And
you will go via the path which you have known. Even if the governors become
huge, they will not be able to reach it. But listen - I tell you that it is
difficult even for me to reach it!"
Mary said to the
Lord, "When the works [...] which dissolve a work."
The Lord said,
"Right. For you know [...] if I dissolve [...] will go to his place."
[The Dialogue] of the Savior
Wise men of old
gave the soul a feminine name. Indeed she is female in her nature as well. She
even has her womb. …As long as she was alone with the father, she was virgin
and in form androgynous. But when she fell down into a
body and came to this life, then she fell into the hands of many robbers. And
the wanton creatures passed her from one to another and [...] her. Some made
use of her by force, while others did so by seducing her with a gift. In short,
they defiled her, and she [...] her virginity.
The Exegesis on the Soul
I am Christ, the Son of Man, the one from you who is among you.
I am despised for your sake, in order that you yourselves may forget the
difference. And do not become female, lest you give birth to evil and (its)
brothers: jealousy and division, anger and wrath, fear and a divided heart, and
empty, non-existent desire. But I am
an ineffable mystery to you.
…………………….
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
The Gnostic Library: The Nag Hammadi
Library
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html
After he rose from
the dead, his twelve disciples and seven women continued to be his followers,
and went to
The Sophia (Wisdom) of Jesus Christ.
The Gnostic Library: The Nag Hammadi
Library
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html
For evil are women, my children; and since they have no
power or strength over man, they use wiles by outward attractions, that they
may draw him to themselves. And whom
they cannot bewitch by outward attractions, him they overcome by craft. For moreover, concerning them, the angel of
the Lord told me, and taught me, that women are overcome by the spirit of
fornication more than men, and in their heart they plot against men; and by
means of their adornment they deceive first their minds, and by the glance of
the eye they instill their poison, and then through the acomplished
act they take them captive. For a woman cannot force a man openly, but by a harlot’s bearing
she beguiles him. Flee therefore,
fornication, my children, and command your wives and your daughters, that they
adorn not their heads and their faces to deceive the mind: because every woman
who useth these wiles hat been reserved for eternal
punishment. For thus they allured the
Watchers who were before the flood; for as these continually beheld them, they
lusted after them, and they conceived the act in their mind; for they changed
themselves into the shape of men, and appeared to them when they were with
their husbands. And the women lusting in
their minds after their forms, gave birth to giants,
for th eWatchers appeared
to them as reaching even unto heaven.
Testament of Reuben (from the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, from Ruether, p.
93
A man may not lay
with a woman in the city of the
4Q270 Frag..
9 Col. 2. 12
Early
Jewish writers did not always depict women in a positive light. Philo argued
that both men and women had separate spheres in which they were meant to
operate.
For just as the man shows himself in
activity and the woman in passivity, so the province of the mind is activity,
and that of the perceptive sense passivity, as in woman.
--Philo,
Allegorical Interpretation II, 38
Men could not contest with women, nor
women with men, the functions which fitly belong to the other sex. If women should affect the practices of men,
or men attempt those of women, they will in each case be held to belie their
sex and win an ill name thereby. And
some virtues and excellences nature has so discriminated, that not even long
practice could make them common property.
To sow and beget belongs to the man and is his peculiar excellence, and
no woman could attain it. And welfare in
child-bearing is a good thing belonging to women, but the nature of man admits
not of it…The female offspring of the soul is vice and passion, that emasculating
influence that affects us in each of our pursuits. The male offspring is health of soul and
virtue by which we are stimulated and strengthened. Of these the men’s quarters must be dedicated
wholly to God, the women’s quarters must be set to our own account, and
therefore we have the command “all that openeth the womb, the males to the Lord”.
--Philo,
The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel, 100-3
Philo felt that just men fathered sons
while unjust men would father daughters.
…the spiritual offspring of the unjust is never in any case male:
the offspring of men whose thoughts are unmanly, nerveless and emasculate they are by nature female.
Such do not plant a tree of virtue whose fruit must
needs be true born and excellent, only trees of vice and passions whose
off-shoots are female. This is why we
are told that these men begat daughters, while none of them is said to have
begat a son. For since just Noah who
follows the right, the perfect and truly masculine reason begets males, the
injustice of the multitude appears as the parent of females only…
--Philo, On the Giants,
4-12
Philo
Quest from Genesis
Book 1
20…But in a figurative sense, man is
a symbol of mind, and his side is a single sense-faculty.
And the sense-perception of a very changeable reason is symbolized by
woman…Inasmuch as the moulding of the male is more
perfect than, and double, that of the female, it requires only half the time,
namely forty days; whereas the imperfect woman, who is, so to speak, a
half-section of man [referring to Genesis in which woman was made from the rib
of one side of man], requires twice as many days, namely eighty. So that there is a change in the doubling of
the time of man’s nature (or natural growth), in accordance with the
peculiarity of woman….
--Philo, Questions from Genesis, Book 1
Philo felt that women were not equal in
honor to men and that the masculine soul was more noble
than the female soul. He argued that
Satan appeared first to Eve since women were more “accustomed to being
deceived”
27. Why was not woman, like other animals
and man, also formed from earth, instead of the side of man? First, because woman is not equal in honor
with man. Second, because she is not
equal in age, but younger. Wherefore
those who take wives who have passed their prime are to be criticized for destroying the
laws of nature. Third, he wishes that man should take
care of woman as of a very necessary part of him; but woman, in return, should
serve him as a whole….
--Philo, Questions from Genesis, Book 1
The soul has, as it were, a dwelling, partly men’s quarters,
partly women’s quarters. Now for the men
there is a place where properly dwell the masculine thoughts [these are] wise,
sound, just, prudent, pious, filled with freedom and boldness, and kin to
wisdom. And the women’s quarters are a
place where women’s opinions go about and dwell being followers of the female
sex. And the female sex is irrational
and akin to bestial passions, fear, sorrow, pleasure, and desire from which
ensue incurable weakness and indescribable diseases.
Philo, from Ruether,
p. 126
33. Why does the serpent speak to the
woman and not to the man? …And woman is
more accustomed to being deceived than man.
…Accordingly, since in old age the serpent casts off his skin from the
top of his head to his tail, by casting it, he reproaches man, for he has
exchanged death for immortality…
--Philo, Questions from Genesis, Book 1
Women were advised to cover themselves,
avoid the use of makeup, and warned against talking back to their husbands.
52. If
you walk in the way, cover
your head with your robe, and
with your
purity. This will save you from the
staring of evil people. Do not put make up
on your face, because no part of you
needs it. Let your face always look down,
and you are covered all around.
53. A
free woman shall not let
her hair down in the
Church. She shall not
leave her Children with baby sitters, she shall not cease the service of her
household, and she shall not talk back to her
husband.
Pages From Church History
Awlaad Al-Assal
(1200 AD)
The Laws Concerning Laymen
Early
Christian writers did not always depict women in a positive light. Kissing a woman was declared as a mortal sin.
COUNCIL OF
7. Seventhly, that to kiss a woman is a mortal sin since
nature does not incline one to it, but
the act of intercourse is not a sin,
especially in time of temptation, since it is an inclination of nature.
Women were
told to cover themselves by the early church fathers to prevent their beauty
from being a distraction during church services.
For that style of dress is grave, and protects from being
gazed at. And she will never fall, who
puts before her eyes modesty and her shawl; nor will she invite another to fall
into sin by uncovering her face. For
this is the wish of the Word (I Cor. 11:5), since it
is becoming for her to pray veiled (Paed. 3, 11)
Clement of Alexandra, from Ruether, p. 102
Many of the
early Church leaders felt that women were “a necessary evil” , “the devil’s gateway”,
worse than “the poisons of vipers”, “defective and misbegotten”,
Then, as to the manner in which the Early Fathers honored
woman, one has but to reflect how gravely they discussed the question of her
having a soul, and finally concluded that she died like a dog; or to recall St.
Chrysostom’s description of her as “a necessary evil,
a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly
fascination, and a painted ill”…Then there is the declaration of St. Gregory
the Great that “woman has the poison of the asp, and the malice of a dragon.”;
of St. Jerome, whose eulogy of woman as “the gate of the devil, the road of
iniquity, the dart of the scorpion…St. Bernard, also, apostrophized her as “the
organ of the Devil,” whilst St. John Damascene contented himself with the
comparatively mild description of “the daughter of falsehood, a sentinel of
Hell, the enemy of Peace”….
Aldred, 1907, p. 23-4
“In pains and anxieties dost thou bear (children), woman;
and toward thine husband (is) thy inclination, and he
lords it over thee.” And do you not know
that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence
of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live
too. You are the devil’s gateway; you
are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are
the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the
devil was not valiant enough to attack.
You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even
the Son of God had to die.
Tertullian, from Ruether, p. 105
…that the iniquity of women surpasses all iniquities which
are in the world, and that there is no wrath greater than the wrath of a woman,
that the poisons of vipers and dragons are healthier and less harmful for men
than familiarity with women…wanting to provide our descendants with things
necessary for the well-being of their souls as well as their bodies, we shall
receive under no condition any more sisters for the increase of our perdition,
but rather we shall avoid accepting them as if poisonous beasts.
13th century quote from Ruether,
p. 242-3
St. Thomas Aquinas; Summa
Theologica, Book I
Q. 92, 1st Article
Reply Obj. 1: As regards the individual nature, woman is
defective and misbegotten, for the active power in the male seed tends to the
production of a perfect likeness according to the masculine sex; while the
production of woman comes from defect in the active power, or from some
material indisposition, or even from some external influence, such as that of a
south wind, which is moist, as the Philosopher believes.
--St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Many blamed women for Eve’s temptation,
the birth of Cain, and the outcomes of other biblical stories.
Let no one say that Eve conceived nothing in her womb at the
devil’s word. The devil’s word was the
seed for her so that afterward she should give birth as an outcast and bring
forth in sorrow. In fact she gave birth
to a devil who murdered his brother…
Tertullian from Ruether, p. 105
Satan’s cleverness is perceived also in this, that he
attacks the weak part of the human nature, Even the woman, not Adam the
man. Although both were created equally
righteous, nevertheless Adam had some advantage over Eve. Just as in all the rest of nature the
strength of the male surpasses that of the other sex, so also in the perfect
nature the male somewhat excelled the female….Satan, therefore, directs his
attack on Eve as the weaker part and puts her valor to the test, for he sees
that she is so dependent on her husband that she thinks she cannot sin.
Martin Luther, Commentaries on Genesis, Vol. 1, p. 151
I am Eve, the wife of noble Adam; it was I who violated
Jesus in the past; it was I who robbed my children of heaven; it is I by right
who should have been crucified…It was I who plucked the apple; …there would be
no hell, there would be no grief, there would be no terror but for me.
--medieval poet, from Lerner, p. 142
Men were told to hate and be ashamed of the
conjugal and sexual aspects of their wives.
A good Christian is found in one and the same woman to love
the creature of God whom he desires to be transformed and renewed, but to hate
in her the corruptible and mortal conjugal connection, sexual intercourse and
all that pertains to her as a wife.
Augustine, from Ruether,
p. 161
In honor husband and wife are joined in public before the
congregation; but when they are alone, they come together with a feeling of the
utmost shame. I am not speaking now about the hideousness
inherent in our flesh, namely, the bestial desire and lust.
Martin Luther, Commentaries on Genesis, Vol. 1, p. 118
Some stated that women were not made in
the image of God.
A woman on the other hand should not have [jurisdictional]
power…because she is not made in the image of God; rather man is the image and
glory of God and woman ought to be subject to man and, as it were, like his
servant, since man is the head of the woman and not the other way about.
Bernard of
I fail to see what use woman can be to man if one excludes
the function of bearing children.
Eve gains her importance in this discussion of sexual
reproduction because, as Augustine makes clear, she was created as an aid for
begetting children. After all, Augustine
argues, if God had intended to create as an aid either for work or
companionship, clearly a man would have been preferable: “But if the woman was
not made for the man as a helper in begetting children, for what purpose was
she created as a helper? She was not to
till the soil with him since there was not yet any such toil to make help
necessary. If there were such a need, a
male helper would have been preferable.
The same thing could be said of the comfort of another’s presence if,
perhaps, Adam wearied of solitude. How much more agreeable for companionship and conversation in a
life shared together would be two male friends rather than a man and a woman.
--Robbins,1988, p. 153
It was argued that women were inferior to
men and therefore prohibited from ruling over men.
But Moses wanted to point out in a special way that the
other part of humanity, the woman, was created by a unique counsel of God in
order to show that this sex, too, is suited for the kind of life which Adam was
expecting and that this sex was to be useful for procreation. Hence it follows that if the woman had not
been deceived by the serpent and had not sinned, she would have been the equal
of Adam in all respects. For the
punishment, that she is now subjected to the man, was
imposed on her after sin and because of sin, just as the other hardships and
dangers were: travail, pain, and countless other vexations. Therefore Eve was not like the woman of
today; her state was far better and more excellent, and she was in no respect
inferior to Adam, whether you count the qualities of the body or those of the
mind.
Martin Luther, Commentaries on Genesis, Vol. 1, p. 115
The law of God ordains the woman to be in subjection and not
to rule; which is clear from the writings of both the Old and the New
Testament.
Knox, Vol. 3, p 222
The Small Catechism
You husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing
honor on the woman as the weaker sex…
Martin Luther p. 494
True it is indeed, that Nature hath proposed to her self to
bestow on man, besides the faculties convenient for his species, those also
which are proper to his sex, to wit, the active virtue in order to generation
and heat and drought to serve as instruments to that virtue, as she hath
bestowed on the woman the passive power, and cold and moisture, to perform the
function of the maternal cause. But all
the inclinations consequent to those qualities, as confidence or fearfulness,
liberality or avarice, etc. are onely dispositions
framed in the soul, without her knowledge, and beside, or against her
intention. …For a man who should not be
courageous, or a woman who should not be timorous, would be guilty of the same
imperfection as a lion that should not be fearful and a hare that should not be
courageous.
de la Chambre
, 1665, p. 14-5
Witch-hunters explained why the innate
deficiencies in women predisposed them to witchcraft and surrender to Satan.
I said above that the sex is to be taken into consideration;
for, other things being equal, greater faith is to be placed in the revelations
of men. The feminine sex is more
foolish, and more apt to mistake natural or demoniacal suggestions for ones of
Divine origin. Women, too, are of a more
humid and viscous nature, more easily influenced to perceive various phantoms,
and slower and more loath to resist such impulses. Therefore women are quicker to imagine, but
men are less obstinate in holding to their imaginings; and since women have
less power of reasoning and less wisdom, it is easier for the devil to delude
them with false and deceptive apparitions.
Further, since women are lascivious, luxurious and avaricious in their
manner of life….
Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum p. 137
Human obscenity is a great delight to an evil spirit. All female workers of harmful magic are
slaves to Venus and there is not a virgin among them, just as there are none
among Calvinists and other haters of celibacy.
Hence it appears that there is a close link between magic, heresy, and
lust.
As is discussed elsewhere, Catholic and
Protestant churches sanctioned men who would strip women and search for
physical signs that they were witches.
In June 1591 at Iesi, a village a mile distant from Bridisi,
the Judge ordered a gaoler to serach
Mugeta, who was charged with witchcraft. The gaoler
therefore stripped her to see if he could find any devil’s mark, and at last
found on her left thigh a mark like a shell.
Into this he thrust his weapon with all his force, but Mugeta uttered no cry, nor could he get one drop of blood
from the wound; but when he lightly pricked the place next to the mark, she
roared aloud in pain, and much blood flowed from it.
Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum p. 57
Since women were viewed as a source of
temptation at best and the root of all evil at worst, many who sought to lead a
holy life were advised to avoid women.
Recognizing that the wickedness of women is greater than all
the other wickednesses in the world, and that there
is no anger like that of women, and that the poison of asps and dragons is more
curable and less dangerous to men than the familiarity of women, [we] have
unanimously decreed for the safety of our souls, no less than for that of our
bodies and goods, that we will on no account receive any more sisters to the
increase of our perdition, but will avoid them like poisonous animals.
Abbot Conrad of Marchtal, 12th
century, from Noble, p. 136
…Chrysostom, another great
champion of the [monsastic] movement, “sternly
reminded the monks that Christ had armed them to be soldiers in a noble fight,
to cast down demons and wage spiritual warfare, not to devote their days
waiting on girls.”…Martin of
Noble, p. 54
According to Cassian, one Apa Paulus
“had made such progress in purity of heart in the stillness of the desert that
he would not suffer, I will not say a woman’s face, but even the clothes of
that sex to appear in his sight.” In his
Institutes Cassian
himself warned future monks that “when
the Devil, with subtle cunning, has insinuated into our hearts the memory of a
woman, beginning with out mother, our sisters, or certain pious women, we
should as quickly as possible expel these memories for fear that, if we linger
on them too long, the tempter may seize the opportunity to lead us unwittingly
to think about other women.”
Noble, p. 56
Theodore was not the only young clergyman of ascetic
leanings to be driven into the desert through fear of his own susceptibility to
women… “The disciple of Apa Sisoes said to him, “Father, you have grown old. Let us move a little closer to the settled
land.” The Old Man said, “Where there is
no woman, that is where we should go.” The disciple said to him, “What other place
is there that has no woman, if not the desert.?” The Old Man said to him ,
“Take me to the desert.”
Brown, p. 242
…Augustine moved in a monochrome, all-male world. He imposed strict codes of sexual avoidance
on himself and his own clergy. He would
never visit a woman unchaperoned, and did not even
allow his own female relatives to enter the bishop’s palace. He expelled a young clergyman who had been
found speaking with a nun “at an inappropriate hour of the day.”
Brown, p. 396
Not only were men told to isolate
themselves from women, women were advised to isolate themselves from the rest
of the world.
Women should study for their own sake, or, in the best case,
for the education of their children as long as they are very little. It is not proper for a woman to be in charge
of schools, to socialize with strange men, to speak in public, or to teach at
the risk of jeopardizing their own [virtue] and chastity. The honest woman stays at home, unknown to
others. In public meetings she should
keep her eyes down, be silent and modest, seen but not heard.
Vives, Renaissance, from Noble, p. 174
Nicholas of Lyra likewise noted
with approval the custom practiced in royal households of keeping young women
of the ruling family locked up and out of sight, so that sexual temptations
would be minimized.
Brundage, p. 428
Female asceticism grew out of the Christian household. It was the individual householder who was
thought to benefit most directly from the piety of his virgin daughter…Such
virgins had no life outside their parent’s household. They were supposed to leave its inner rooms,
if at all, only to participate in the ceremonials of the local church…In the
words of an Egyptian writer, “In every house of Christians, it is needful that
there be a virgin, for the salvation of the whole house is that one virgin. And when wrath cometh upon the whole city, it
shall not come upon the house wherein a virgin is.”
Brown, p. 263-4
The argument for the separation of the
genders has continued to modern times.
False also and harmful to Christian education is the
so-called method of ‘co-education.’ …There is not in nature itself, which
fashions the two quite different in organism, in temperament, in ability,
anything to suggest that there can be or ought to be promiscuity, and much less
equality, in the training of the two sexes.
Pope Pious XI, 1929, from Noble, p. 275-6
Women who could read or who “thought
alone” represented a greater potential danger.
And if radical religious women made their mark as preachers
and prophets, they also did so as martyrs, for, like their early Christian
counterparts, they often faced death for their beliefs. In
Noble, p. 191
Throughout
Noble, p. 207
And one anonymous writer in
Lerner, p. 31
These women existed, women of extraordinary talent, of
genius, with the capacity and the will to excel, create and define. Isotta Nogarola, accused of incest with her brother to explain her
literary achievements; Sor Juana de la Cruz selling
her precious library at the Archbishop’s command to show her humility;..and that otherwise
unknown girl of sixteen, one Lucinda Foote, who was denied admission she sought
to
Lerner, p. 45
We have heard much of the emancipation of the female part of
the race; it forebodes nothing but evil.
Arno Gaebelein
from Bendroth, p. 68
Education for women was very much linked
to religion. In general, the Protestant
for Reformation sowed the seeds for educational opportunity for women. There were some exceptions, however.
The disbanding of monastic orders and their schools during
the Reformation seriously affected the educational opportunities of
Englishwomen. For nearly a century there
was no tradition of learning for them, and upper-class girls were trained only
sufficiently to compete in the marriage market—that is, to acquire
“accomplishments” such as embroidery, music and singing. Jonathan Swift lamented that “not one gentleman’s
daughter in a thousand can read or understand her own language or be the judge
of the easiest books that are written in it….They are not so much as taught to
spell in their childhood, nor can ever attain to it in their whole lives.”
Lerner, p. 33
Of course there were other factors in the
denigration of women, such as an inaccurate evaluation of their “biology”. However, some of these ideas came from vitalists (discussed elsewhere) who, instead of trying to
explain the body in terms of natural processes, referred to a supernatural
“vital principle” which stemmed from their religious beliefs. While some argued that God had made women
(and those of other races) inferior, or at least different, vitalists
could argue that these differences resulted from differences in an individual’s
vital principle, which stemmed from the divine.
In Enlightenment France the vitalist
physicians of
Williams, p. 3-4
One of the most remarkable features of the history of
Montpellier vitalism in the Enlightenment, then, is
the fashion in which the creators of this medical discourse of “natural”
limitations—those established by temperament, class, age, sex, region, and
race…A crucial dimension of this story is…the peculiar “sensibility” of women,
who…were volatile, imaginative, and similarly ill-constructed for the work of
reason and science.
Williams, p. 8
The study of
sensibility was as important in Roussel’s treatise as
it was in other vitalist analyses: sensibility, he
argued, “provides the basis” for all knowledge of the interrelations of the
physical and the moral. Like children,
women exhibited high sensibility; their “existence consists more in sensations
than in ideas or in corporal movements.”
Dominated by rapidly changing sensations, women were capricious and
inconstant; they lacked interest in politics, ethics, or science; their lives
were characterized by those “sweet and affectionate sentiments” so necessary to
the happiness and well-being of society.
Education and training could not alter the basic character of women…
Williams, p. 55
Some counted on the clergy to help them
keep women in “their proper place.”
In 1620…King James called upon the clergy for aid in keeping
his female subjects in their proper place.
According to one contemporary account, “the bishop of
Noble, p. 223
In the 19th
and 20th centuries, when women sought equality, many used
theological arguments against them.
There is a full-fledged rebellion under way not only against
the headship of man in government and church but in the home….The cultivation
of the modern woman’s idea of “my individuality” is bound to be a destroyer of
the home life.
1919 from DeBerg, p. 45
Fundamentalists touted motherhood as the “chief function of
woman,” and the proper ambition for women is “not to be a great woman, but
rather to be the mother of good men.”
DeBerg, p. 46
“I know there are those who will object…at the idea of a
husband and father being a monarch in his family, whose word is law. But God has made him so...” [1886] Against the New Woman
of the 1880s, “who desires to be her husband’s equal…resents his natural place
as the head of the family and affronts his innate mastery,” conservative
religious leaders posited a “federal headship” of Adam over Eve because Adam
(and all men) had the priority in creation, or because Adam had performed
better in Eden than Eve.
DeBerg, p. 49
We are not surprised, therefore, to
learn that if order and subordination are to be preserved in the government of
God, she is to be officially in subjection.
1887-8 from DeBerg, p. 50
The Head of Christ is God.
Man has a Head—Christ. Woman has
a head—man. Wife has a head—husuband.
1910
from
DeBerg, p. 50
…it is high time to…revolutionize or abolish college
athletics for girls. That some of our
women aspire to…mannishness is painfully evident, but we can hardly afford to
facilitate this tragic transition…Evermore may we pray to be delivered from the
masculine woman and the feminine man…
1910 from DeBerg, p. 55
The Christian Workers Magazine told its readers that when
woman assumes: “the prerogative of power which belongs to the man and seeks to
dominate the world or all of its activities, as she is doing today, she then
possesses the spirit of the beast and is like an angel of light fallen from
heaven.”
DeBerg, p. 58
We have been accustomed to view the woman’s rights movement
as too insignificant and too absurd to deserve serious attention. But…this move is assuming proportions and
manifesting a spirit some of our most thoughtful minds with no little
alarm…For, in fact, the sun shines not more clearly in the heavens than this
law does in the word of God…”The man,” says St. Paul, “is the head of the
woman.”
--Southern Review,
1871, from Ezell, 1975, p. 230
Now let’s talk about what feminism is not. Feminism is not and
never will be anything remotely connected with the World Church of the
Creator…We believe that being a capable nurturing mother to White Children is
the ultimate Holy “career” for any White woman to fulfill…
--church member, from Ferber, 2004, p. 103
Throughout most of history, women have not
been given an equal voice in society. In
the mid-1800s and early 1900s, many women began to demand this voice. When women were finally more free to have
their opinions heard, it is no surprise that not all
women shared the same feelings on religion, just as all men did not. Many of the women who were the pioneers of
the movements to grant suffrage to women and to seek equal treatment under the
law were quite critical of conservative biblical literalists.
The doctrine that woman must remain covered when in the
sacred church building shows itself in the
Gage, 1893, p. 28
At certain periods during the middle ages, conversation with
women was forbidden. During the Black
Death, the Flagellants, or Brotherhood of the Cross, were under such
interdict. In this last decade of the 19th century,
the Catholic Church still imposes
similar restrictions on certain religious houses. Early in 1892, the queen regent of
Gage, 1893, p. 29
When Innocent III completed the final destruction of
sacerdotal marriage, it was not upon disobedient priests the most sever
punishment fell, but innocent women and children. Effort was made to force wives to desert
their husbands. Those who proved
contumacious were denied Christian burial in an age when such denial was looked
upon as equivalent to eternal damnation; property left such wives was
confiscated to the church; they were forbidden the eucharist;
churching after childbirth was denied them; they were termed harlots and their
children bastards, while to their sons all office in the church was
forbidden. If still contumacious they
were handed over to the secular power for condign punishment, or sold as slaves
for the benefit of the church…At numerous times in the history of the church
women have been brought to despair by its teachings, and large numbers driven
to suicide. A similar period was
inaugurated by the confirmation of priestly celibacy. The wives of such men,
suddenly rendered homeless and with their children classed among the vilest of
earth, powerless and despairing, hundreds shortened their agonies by death at
their own hands.
Gage, 1893, p. 36-7
It was not uncommon for women to be openly carried off by
priests, their husbands and fathers threatened with vengeance in cases of their
attempted recovery. During the height of
the Inquisitorial power it was not rare for a family to be aroused in the night
by an ominous knock and the cry “The Holy Fathers,
open the door!”
To this dread
mandate their could be but one reply, as both temporal
and spiritual power lay in their hands.
A husband, father, or son might thus be seized by veiled figures; or as
frequently a loved wife or young daughter was dragged from her bed, her fate to
remain a mystery. When young and
beautiful these women were taken to replenish the Inquisitional harem; the “dry
pan,” “boiling in oil,” and similar methods of torture, threatened, in order to
produce compliance on the part of wretched victims. No Turkish seraglio with bow-string and sack
ever exhibited as great an amount of diabolical wickedness as the prison-harems
of the Inquisition.
Gage, 1893, p. 42
Among general canons we find that “No woman may approach the
altar.” “A woman may not baptize without
extreme necessity.”…”Woman may not receive the Eucharist in morbo suo menstruale.” At the Synod or Council of Elvira, 305 or
306, several restrictive canons were formulated against woman. Under canon 81, she was forbidden to writer in her own name to lay
Christians, but only in the name of her husband. Women were not to receive letters of
friendship from any one addressed only to themselves.
Gage, 1893, p. 50
During the earliest days of Christianity, women were
baptized quite nude, in the presence of men, by men, their bodies being
afterwards anointed with oil by the priest who had baptized them. One of the earliest schisms in the church
arose from the protest of women against this indignity, their demand to be
allowed to baptize those of their own sex, and the opposition of men to this
demand…Nude baptism is still practiced when converts are received into the
Greek church, no position or station in life excusing from it, Catharine, the
first wife of Peter the Great being baptized in this primitive Christian
manner. As late as the seventeenth
century a work upon the “Seven Sacraments” set certain days in which female
penitents were to appear entirely unclothed before the confessor in order that
he might discipline them on account of their sins.
Gage, 1893, p. 93
Boston as “The Bloody Town” rivaled Salem in its persecution
of women who dared express thought upon religion matters in contradiction to
the Puritanic belief; women were whipped because of
independent religions belief; New England showing itself as strenuous for
“conformity” of religious opinion as Old England…
Gage, 1893, p. 124
Gage, 1893, p. 125
Laws were passed which could limit the free speech of women
such as “A Law to Punish Babbling Women” enacted by the General Assembly of
Virginia, 1662 and “A Law for the Punishment of Scolds in Massachusetts” (Gage,
1893, p. 147).
The reason given by the judge for punishing the woman, is extremely suggestive of woman’s condition under
the law. The wife
who had been sold, the innocent victim of this masculine transaction, was
sentenced to a week’s imprisonment with hard labor, while the man who sold her
and the man who bought her escaped without punishment or censure. The judge in quoting the tenth commandment,
graded the wife with the ox and the ass in the belongings of man; the decision
thus ranking her with the cattle of the stable…The selling of a wife as a cow
in the market place was by no means uncommon during the early part of the
century in England…Instances of wife sale are not uncommon in the United
States, and although the price is usually higher than that given for English
wives, reaching from three hundred to four thousand dollars, still, as low a
sum as five cents has been
recorded. A prosperous resident of
Gage, 1893, p. 148-9
The old Slavs recognized the equality of woman in household,
political, and religious matters, and not until Byzantine Christianity became
incorporated with, and part of, the civil polity of its rulers, did
Gage, 1893, p. 166
I regard the Bible as I do all the other so-called sacred
books of the world. They were all
produced in savage times, and, of course, contain many things that shock our
sense of justice. In the days of
darkness women were regarded and treated as slaves. They were allowed no voice
in public affairs. Neither man nor woman were civilized, and the gods were like their
worshipers. It gives me pleasure to know
that women are beginning to think and are becoming dissatisfied with the
religion of barbarians.
Eva Ingersoll, 1898, from Gaylor, p. xii
The woman who possesses lover for her sex, for the world,
for truth, justice and right, will not hesitate to place herself upon record as
opposed to falsehood, no matter under what guise of age or holiness it appears.
Matilda Joslyn Gage, 1893, from Gaylor, p. 1
Their religion and the Bible require of women everything,
and give her nothing. They ask her
support and her love, and repay her with contempt and oppression.
Helen Gardener, 1885, from Gaylor,
p. 11
So far from woman owing what liberty she does enjoy, to the
Bible and the church, they have been the greatest block in the way of her
development. The vantage ground woman
holds today is due to all the forces of civilization, to science, discovery,
invention, rationalism, the religion of humanity chanted in the golden rule
round the globe centuries before the Christian religion was known. It is not to Bibles, prayer books,
catechisms, liturgies, the canon law, and church creeds and organizations, that
woman owes one step of her progress, for all these alike have been hostile, and
still are, to her freedom and development.
From Maine to Georgia—from the Atlantic to Missouri, they
swarm like locust; and, under the name of foreign
missions, home missions, Bible missions, tract societies, societies for educating pious young men, to spread the gospel, pincushion societies, …they have laid the whole country
under contribution. Figures cannot
calculate the amount collected by those public and private robbers…
…like a pestilence [they] cover the land; not to scatter
blessings among the distressed, root out ignorance, (as somebody wisely said of
them), or diffuse the lights of knowledge, to ennoble the age, or amend
mankind; not to break the chains of slavery, or teach man his religious or
political duties, or cultivate the arts and sciences, no; quite the
reverse. Their object and their interest
is to plunge mankind into ignorance, to make him a bigot, a fanatic, a hypocrite,
a heathen, to hate every sect but his own (the orthodox), to shut his eyes
against the truth, harden his heart against the distress of his fellow man, and
purchase heaven by money…
…Do these Presbyterians, or
orthodox…think we have forgotten what use they made of power when they had
it? Do they think we have forgotten how
they drenched
Anne Royall, 1829, from Gaylor, p. 27-30
It is often asserted that woman owes all the advantages of
the position she occupies today to Christianity, but the facts show that the
Christian Church has done nothing specifically for woman’s elevation. In the general march of civilization, she has
necessarily reaped the advantage of man’s higher development, but we must not
claim for Christianity all that has been achieved by science, discovery, and
invention.
Men can never understand the fear of everlasting punishment
that fills the souls of women and children.
The orthodox religion, as drawn from the Bible and expounded by the
church, is enough to drive the most imaginative and sensitive natures to despair and
death. Having conversed with many young
women in sanatoriums, insane asylums, and in the ordinary walks of life,
suffering with religious melancholia; having witnessed the agony of young
mothers in childbirth, believing they were cursed of God in their maternity…
It is that marriage is considered a
defilement by the Church, and in one sect denied its priesthood. A woman, in order to be permitted to clean
the floor of the ‘Holy of Holies’ in some cathedrals, must be single!
I consider the bible the most degrading book that has ever
been written about women…
In the early days of woman-suffrage agitation, I saw that
the greatest obstacle we had to overcome was the bible. It was hurled at us on every side. The ballot for woman was contrary to God’s
holy ordinance. Woman was born to be
submissive, subjective; she must be subservient to her husband in all things
and at all times. These were the
admonitions of pulpit and press.
It is one of the mysteries that woman, who has suffered so
intensely from the rule of the church, still worships her destroyer and “licks
the hand that’s raised to shed her blood.”
The clergy are, practically, the most irresponsible of all
talkers.
Marian Evans, 1855, from Gaylor,
p. 185
…in order to help preserve the very life of the Republic, it
is imperative that women should unite upon a platform of opposition to the
teaching and aim of that ever most unscrupulous enemy of freedom—the Church.
Matilda Joslyn Gage, 1890, from Gaylor, p. 211
Woman’s increasing freedom within the last hundred years is
not due to the church, but to the printing press, to education, to free-thought
and other forms of advancing civilization.
Matilda Joslyn Gage, 1893, from Gaylor, p. 224
Matilda Gage, speaking during a Free Thought convention held
at
Lerner, p. 163
Christianity has been cruel in much to the human race. It has quenched much of the sweet joy and
gladness of life, it has caused the natural passions and affections of
it to be held as sins; by its teaching that the body should be despised, it has
brought on all the unnamable filth which was made a virtue in the monastic
orders…
Ouida, 1895, from Gaylor,
p. 257
In
Susan Wixon, 1893, from Gaylor, p. 288
In the face of a history replete with abuse, cruelty, scorn,
and dogmatic insolence toward woman, the Christian church still has the
audacity and impudence to declare that it has been her friend—that it has done
everything for her elevation and advancement.
It says that what she is today she owes to the church. A blacker falsehood was never uttered.
Susan Wixon, 1893, from Gaylor, p. 289
Women are a very small factor in the Holy Writ…The Bible
estimate of woman is summed up in the words of the President of a Presbyterian
Theological Seminary in his address to a class of young preachers. He said: “My Bible commands the subjection of
women forever;”
Josephine Henry, 1905, from Gaylor,
p. 318
The question of souls is old—we demand our bodies, now. We are tired of promises, God is deaf, and
his church is our worst enemy.
Voltairine de Cleyre,
1890, from Gaylor, p. 355
Exodus
Job 25:4 “How can he be clean that is born of woman?”
Leviticus 12:1-2,
5: And the Lord spake
unto Moses saying: speak unto the children of Israel, saying: if a woman be
delivered, “…and bear a man-child then
she shall be uncleaf for seven days…But if she bear a
maid-child, then she shall be unclean
for two weeks…”
In 1847, a British
obstetrician, Dr. Simpson, used chloroform as an anesthetic in delivering a
baby. A scandal followed, and the holy
men of the Church of England prohibited the use of anesthetic in childbirth,
citing Genesis 3:16: “God said to woman Eve, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy pain in childbearing. In pain thou shalt
bring forth children….and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.”
Ecclesiastes
7:26-8: “I find a woman more bitter than death; she is
a snare, her heart a net, her arms are chains.
No wickedness comes anywhere near the wickedness of a woman. May a sinner’s lot be hers.”
…..Moving into the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Aquinas, the well
known 13th century Italian thologian,
said: “Woman is defective and accidental…and misbegotten…a male gone awry…the
result of some weakness in the (father’s) generative power.”
The renowned
Protestant clergyman, Martin Luther said: “God created Adam lord of all living
creatures, but Eve spoiled it all. “ And: “Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house and bear and bring
up children.” Again: “If woman grows weary and, at last, dies from
childbearing, it matters not. Let her
die from bearing, she is there to do it.”
…Samuel Butler, the English poet, wrote: “The souls of women
are so small that some believe they’ve none at all.”
Meg Bowman, 1988, from Gaylor, p.
530-1
The appropriate duties and influence of woman are clearly
stated in the New Testament. Those
duties and that influence are unobtrusive and private…We can not, therefore,
but regret the mistaken conduct of those who encouraged females to bear an
obtrusive and ostentatious part in measures of reform, and countenance any of
that sex who so far forget themselves as to itinerate in the character
lecturers and teachers.
Pastoral Letter of the General Association of
To point out that, according to the Bible code, woman is,
practically, disinherited and regarded as a slave, whom man, in his divine
superiority, has a right to coerce into marriage, without her consent, by means
of brute force, fraud, and purchase…the fact that Leah and Rachel were considered
as so much cattle to be given in wedlock to Jacob as reward for seven years
service each; that in Deuteronomy 21: 10, 11, the Hebrews are advised in the
name of the Lord, to force beautiful captives from among their fallen
enemies—unto whom they might have a desire—to be their wives; in Judges 20, the
right of the children of Benjamin to waylay the daughters of Shiloh is insisted
on; in I. Timothy 2, Paul “suffers not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority
over the man, but to be in silence…”
Aldred, 1907, p. 8
The ground work of the whole conversation in regard to
suffrage is ably summed up in the following quotation from the Encyclopedia Brittanica:….Infants, minors,
idiots and insane persons have everywhere been excluded on the ground that sound
judgement is necessary for the exercise. Persons convicted of crimes have been
excluded as a security to society and almost universally women, for reasons
based on their relation to society and the opposite sex.
This is certainly
clear enough to forever set at rest the well-worn cry about being classed with
idiots and criminals. As well object to
the ten commandments because women are mentioned in
one of them in connection with the ox and the ass.
Mrs. Estelle McVickar, p. 9
Again, as contrasted with the monogamy characteristic of
Greek and Roman civilization at its best, the Old Testament insists on polygamy
with all its accompanying degradation and subjection of woman, the New
Testament nowhere prohibiting it, and Luther, Milton, and Bishop Burnet holding
that, there being no express discharge against it, it was compatible with God’s
law. Not only so, but should the student
turn his attention to a consideration of the scriptural basis of the polygamous
teachings and practices of Mormonism…
Aldred, 1907, p. 9
How can [woman] subscribe to a theology which makes her the
conscious victim of another’s will, forever subject to the triple bondage of
man, priest, and the law…? How can she
endure our present marriage relations by which woman’s life, health, and
happiness are held so cheap that she herself feels that God has given her no
charter of rights, no individuality of her own?
Antoinette Brown Blackwell’s is perhaps the most telling
story about the
reconceptualization of religion which accompanied and
strengthened the quest for woman’s rights.
An early feminist, a seminarian from Oberlin, one of the first ordained
woman ministers in the country, she was a woman of strong life-long faith. But even her gentle creed precipitated a
crisis of faith during her first year of ministry, and she resigned in doubt
and spiritual anguish. After a time, her
faith was restored, but in a new form, one which is emblematic of the liberal
reformers’ stand” “My present religion is a free one; all its truths are
revelations from Nature’s God to the soul; and one must be outside all
sectarian pressures to speak it freely.”
The antipathy of many early fundamentalist leaders to
feminism was deep, widespread, and well documented; indeed, the movement’s
literature is rife with strident antifeminist pronouncements, some of them
bordering on outright misogyny.
Bendroth, p. 31
The Old School wing of the Presbyterian church,
which the Princetonians represented, was known for
its cultural conservatism. Before the
Civil War, Charles Hodge and his Princeton colleagues Archibald Alexander and
Samuel Miller, referring to themselves as an “Association of Gentlemen,” not
only condoned slavery from their hierarchical reading of Scripture but firmly
opposed innovations in women’s sphere.
Slavery, at least as an abstract state, was neither moral nor immoral,
Hodge argued in 1860, but a means of promoting the “general good” of society
through the imposition of righteous order.
“In this country,” he reasoned, “we believe that the general good
requires us to deprive the whole female sex of the right of self-government”
because they are “incompetent
to the proper discharge of the duties of citizenship.” According to Hodge, arguing otherwise
elevated reason above the authority of Scripture.
Bendroth, p. 34-5
As Calvinists, they believed that the subordination of women
was inherent in the created order.
Calvin taught that Eve came from Adam’s rib as his loving subordinate,
not his equal; sin did not create inequality, but only intensified its effects,
transforming women’s role into an onerous burden.
Bendroth, p. 36
It was no great leap, therefore, to link emancipated women
with the “apostasy of the last days.”
James Brookes’s immoderate attack on
“Infidelity among Women” in 1886 was the first of many diatribes against the
new woman.
Bendroth, p. 47
Some feel
that there can be an anti-woman bias in religious thought, even today.
The Feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family
political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their
children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.
--Robertson Fundraising letter, 1992,
But women, one little remark. Please don’t make your husbands think that in
order to accept Jesus Christ, they have to submit to you, because no macho man
wants to do that. They’ll submit to
Jesus, but they kind of like to be the head of the household. And that’s scriptural. And that’s the way it should be.
Pat Roberston, from McCuen, p. 141
Moral Majority set out to fight those ills, and Falwell led the way with a stridency he now at least
halfway regrets. His followers loved it
when he denounced
Martz, p. 108
The women’s liberation movement, by making
women believe they have to be macho, has induced tens of thousands to
smoke as a sign of freedom to rebellion…
Robertson, p. 210
Participants in the African Women’s Leadership Institute
made a list of the terms used to describe feminists in their societies:
“Lesbians, Power hungry, Emotionally deprived, Sexually frustrated, ‘Bejing women’, Sexually promiscuous, Unmarriageable,
Against God’s plan, Castrators, Westernized, Witches, Women who want to have
testicles, Elite.”
Meredith Tax from Reed, p. 27
As the core constituency of the New Right in the 1980s,
fundamentalists and their neo-evangelical cousins won a large share of public
credit (or blame) for defeating the equal rights amendment.
Bendroth, p. 1
Falwell, then and now, blames “weak men”
for the downfall of the American family.
Any woman who is not in a subservient position to her husband is a
“moral pervert”, “godless humanist”, and an “enemy of every decent society.”
Martinelli, p. 3
A woman who, either intentionally or through necessity,
stands in the place of a man is wrong, “the very nature of God within her is
corrupted.”…Wives remain disobedient, “because they are ignorant of Satan’s
devices in their lives.”
Sumrall’s strongest warning about adultery is projected
toward the Christian woman. “God says
that a woman who breaks wedlock is judged like a woman who sheds blood. An adulteress is just as bad as a murderess;
both of them will pay with their lives.”
Martinelli,
There are
those who would still argue that the Bible should be used to determine what is appropriate behavior for women, especially in
marriage. Elizabeth Hanford, in her book Me? Obey Him?
Makes just such an argument.
Here is an order of authority in the universe, and it set up
like this:
God
Christ
Man
Woman
God made woman to be the keeper of the home, to make a haven
within its walls, a retreat from the stress, of battle, the nourisher
of the children. A woman’s body is
fashioned primarily for being
a wife and mother.
There are many other Scriptures concerning obedience to
authority; these specifically tell a wife to obey her husband.
Before we go any
further, let’s consider” regardless of your idea of what the Scriptures mean, can
we agree that they all say a wife
should obey her husband?
Beyond a shadow
of a doubt, the Scriptures say a
woman ought to obey her husband!
Suppose a woman feels God is leading her definitely opposite
to what her husband has commanded. Who
should she obey? The Scriptures say a
woman must ignore her “feelings” about the will of God, and do what her husband
says. She is to obey her husband as if
he were God Himself. She can be as
certain of God’s will, when her husband speaks, as if God had spoken audibly
from Heaven!
Unless there is obedience all the time, there is no obedience
any of the time. So, if you choose when
to obey your husband, you are not obeying him at all.
Don’t misunderstand.
I am aware that ungodly men sometimes demand things of their wives that
are revolting and wrong. And you can
tell me of many other cases. But the
fact remains that I
have never known of a case of a wife where, when a woman said to her husband,
“I obey you implicitly, as if you were God, and trust you to make the right
decisions for me,” then set out to do it in a loving, sweet, heart-yearning
submission, that he required her to do wrong.
The overwhelming weight of the Bible testimony about a
wife’s obedience is that God expects a woman to obey her husband cheerfully,
immediately, and without reservation.
“It just doesn’t seem fair,” you wail. “Can’t I ever do what I want to do? Don’t I have any rights at all?” You picture yourself as a Victorian
housewife, long-skirted and fully bustled, bending over a scrub bucket and
string mop, pushing back a tendril of hair from your sweaty face. You picture your husband, mustachioed and
glowering, standing over you with a whip.
“If I do what you are saying,” you argue, “I’ll just be a plain old
slave. Don’t I have any rights?”…For you don’t have any rights,
no rights at all. You lost them on the
day you rebelled against God.
We’ve said you have no rights—but that’s only half the
story. The Christian wife has no rights,
she’s a bondslave—but how wonderful are the
privileges come with being a bondslave of Christ.
…a woman has the privilege of choosing which man she will
obey. She needs to obey only her own
husband, not every man!
Certainly you get to express an opinion—if you are asked.
For the Sake of the
Children, Submit
Children are frightened and confused by conflict in the
home.
God intended the union of man and wife to be inexpressibly
sweet, satisfying beyond words. But the
entering into that garden of mystery and wonder is through the door of a wife’s
submission. There is great joy beyond
that gate! For your own sake, enter in.
I am the “him” about whom the author
is speaking. With twenty-three years of
watching her life as a dedicated pastor’s wife and successful mother of seven
children….Not always has she agreed with me in everything, but she has never
“bucked” any decision I have made. Her
long hair is more than just a concession—it typifies exactly what First
Corinthians 11 says it ought…I have seen strong-willed, nagging wives changed
into sweet, submissive wives after counseling with the author….The strong Bible
message on a good wife’s position is especially needed today when women’s lib
and unisex are gaining such a following.
Unless our homes can return to the principles given in this book,
Pastor Walter Handford,
Introduction
WOMEN
MINISTERS
In serving God as a priest or minister,
one develops a special relationship with God.
In many denominations, this relationship is described with the word
“sacrament”. In bringing people of the
congregation closer to God, marrying newlyweds, baptizing infants, comforting
those who suffer, etc. one develops a special relationship with others. Throughout most of history, the ability to
share in these experiences was reserved for men only and women were prevented
from serving as priests and ministers.
Women were not permitted to study for
priesthood in monasteries. In order to
prevent women from attempting to do so, this tale was told of a woman who made
such an attempt.
In a very old life of St. Calais we read of a woman named Gunda who was enticed by the subtle Deceiver to mock the
Holy Spirit. For she put on man’s
clothing and tried to enter the monastery of the Saint, to test the truth of
this prophecy that no woman would ever be able to enter there. But, by the just judgment of God, before she
even came in sight of the closed approach to the cloisters, she was seized by
the devil and driven back; and was so shamefully tormented by him that I blush
to speak of it. For he thrust her head between
her thighs, so that she who had tried to imprint a false kiss upon the holy
threshold was forced to kiss the filthy parts of her own body; and she had to
exhibit openly to all who wished to see it that sex which she tried to conceal
beneath a man’s clothing.
Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum p. 121
Martin Luther felt that God had exempted
women, children, and incompetent people from the ability to serve as ministers
because of their created nature.
It is, however,
true that the Holy Spirit has excepted women, children, and incompetent people
from this function [serving as minister]…Even nature and God’s creation makes
this distinction, implying that women (much less children or fools) cannot and
shall not occupy positions of sovereignty, as experience also suggests and as
Moses says in Genesis 3[:16], “You shall be subject to man.”
Martin Luther On Councils and the
Church p. 551-2
The right of women to speak out on matters
of theology became an issue early in the history of the American colonies. In 1635, Anne Hutchinson began holding public
meetings to discuss Scripture and theology.
She was exiled.
Anne Hutchinson had “stepped out of [her] place,” in the
succinct phrase of Reverend Hugh Peter, of
--LaPlante, p.2
Governor Winthrop continued, according to the transcripts
that were made that day of the trial.
“And you have maintained a meeting and an assembly in your house that
hath been condemned by the general assembly as a thing not tolerable or comely
in the sight of God nor fitting for your sex.”
--LaPlante, p. 12
It was reported that Miss Hutchinson
assisted in births which resulted in monstrous miscarriages as a sign of God’s
disfavor on her actions.
Miss Hutchinson being big with child, and growing toward the
time of her labor as others do, she brought forth not one (as Mistress Dyer
did) but (which was more strange to amazement) thirty monstrous births or
thereabouts, at once; some of them bigger, some lesser, some of one shape, some
of another; few of any perfect shape, none at all of them (as far as I could
ever learn) of human shape. These things
are so strange that I am almost loath
to be the reporter of them…But see how the wisdom of God fitted this hudgement to her sin every way, for look—as she had vented
misshapen opinions, so she must bring forth deformed monsters.
--
The Catholic Church still does not permit
women to serve as priests. Many
protestant denominations do allow women priests although this practice is
controversial, especially among fundamentalists.
A.C.
DeBerg, p. 79
[The pastor] went on to explain that the Christian school at
his church would not hire a woman as principal, “because there would be male
teachers who would then be required to submit to female leadership, which we
believe would be outside the standard of God…In the microcosm of the family,
you have tow options. If you are a
single woman, then you need always to be in the context of submitting yourself
to men in general. If you’re a married
woman, then you need to submit yourself to the authority of your husband.
--Ingersoll, 2003, p. 18
It is much harder to function in my seminary position as a
woman. Yikes! THe structure is
very hieararchical… I am often ignored (the greatest
insult) or simply not consulted in matters, even for which I have shouldered
the greatest responsibility! I am weary
right now with being a woman in this man’s world of the seminary.
--Ingersoll, 2003, p. 68
A lot of guys just avoided my classes. They would say, “Who would want to take a
theology course taught by a woman anyway?”
--Ingersoll, 2003, p. 74
A
Bendroth, p. 121
On August 9, 1964, in Durham, North Carolina, Addie Davis was ordained to the ministry, the first
Southern Baptist woman to take such a step…Davis never found a Southern church
to pastor and went north. Others were
entering positions on college campuses, in counseling, and in various
chaplaincies in which they were unhindered by the reluctance of local Southern
Baptist churches. Ten years later, the
new Southern Baptist Journal began
reporting regularly and disapprovingly on ordinations of women. By then, they estimated that the number had
grown to fifteen. Most of the women who
were ordained in the 1970s still went into nonparish
ministries because so few Southern Baptist parishes would hire them.
--Ammerman, p. 91
Fundamentalists perceived that national agencies were
actively promoting a cause [women in the ministry] that was plainly
contradicted in scripture and they wanted it stopped. Fundamentalists argued that they did not want
their Cooperative Program dollars going to support women ministers. They added that it was only fair that
agencies do what the majority of Southern Baptists wanted and they were sure
than 99 percent of Southern Baptists opposed women pastors. They buttressed their arguments with their
own reading of scripture. When the Bible
says that a pastor must be “the husband of one wife,” they claimed, it
obviously rules women out. And when it
says that women should be silent in church and submissive to their husbands,
God’s intentions are made all the more clear.
No matter how a woman feels, the Bible says she cannot really be called
by God to become a pastor.
--Ammerman, p. 93
[Nancy Hastings Sehested] accepted
the 1988 call to pastor
--Ammerman, p. 94
When Christ’s role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacramentally, there would not be this natural resemblance
which must exist between Christ and his minister if the role of Christ were not
taken by a man. In such a case it would
be difficult to see in the minister the image of Christ. For Christ himself was and remains a man.
--Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1977, --Wills,
2000, p. 105
Creationists who are concerned about the
equality of women are to be applauded. I
am not sure that saying, “Women are not treated equally and the biologists are
to blame” accomplishes anything, however.
At the very least, it overlooks the role that conservative religion has
had in limiting the role women have been allowed to play in society for
thousands of years.