One of the bizarre turns that this election campaign has taken is the assault on women’s rights by the Republican party. It seems crazy for politicians to advocate steps that could alienate potentially 50% of the electorate. Valerie Tarico argues that this is merely the flip side of their desire to appeal to their fundamentalist religious base.
Why can’t GOP politicians trumpet their religious credentials without assaulting women? Because fundamentalist religion of all stripes has degradation of women at its core. Fundamentalist Christianity is no exception…. fundamentalists believe that the Bible is the literally perfect word of the Almighty, essentially dictated by God to the writers. To believe that the Bible is the literally perfect word of God is to believe that women are tainted seductresses who must be controlled by men.
In other words, you can’t appeal to the gung-ho pro-god types without being anti-woman at the same time.
(Via Machines Like Us)
Weirdly:
http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/15/contraception-denigrates-me-as-a-woman/
You know what we in the medical field call people who use her methods? Parents.
To be fair NFP can be successful. But it takes a committed couple to make it work. It also takes an being able to deal with an unplanned pregnancy.
That was literally painful to read.
Ow…
It all comes down to Christianity being, fundamentally, about god’s chosen men controlling the rest of the world. Once you realize that, why Christianity has such a nasty history with bigotry and why it resonates so strongly with the GOP base becomes obvious. Verses that extol believing men to dominate others, discipline their children and control their women can be found in abundance throughout the Bible. Is it shocking those who insist on a literal reading of it would walk away with sexist, bigoted and harmful views?
“Bible-based religion”
I like that phrase. I think everyone should use it in place of the word ‘christianity’.
#2 julian
And patriarchy is the reason why so many want to regress back to the “old time religion”. That is, people aren’t patriarchal because of their religious beliefs; they are embracing those beliefs because they can justify their patriarchy.
Every rational reason to treat women as inferior to men has been shot to pieces (i.e. women are more emotional, are dumber, haven’t the same skills or abilities as men, can’t support themselves, etc).
If you have some sick need to dominate, control and abase women, religion is the only excuse you have left.
I read JustKat’s link and it gives me a chuckle.
“Why are women always treated like they are always fertile?” from a woman who spends most of the month monitoring her fertility??!!
Sorry, but isn’t the intent of NFP to have sex without becoming pregnant? Isn’t that willfully denying the God ordained purpose of sex? What hypocrisy!
So what would you call Judaism? (OK, actually the Orthodox might probably even agree with Talmud-based religion.)
Bible and women:
1 Timothy 2:11-15
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing.
Actually one can derive an argument for post-natal abortion from the Bible:
Leviticus 27:6
And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver.
This is worth remembering the next time you meet a fundie.
http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/5091/Religie/article/detail/3224300/2012/03/12/Vrouwen-keren-zich-af-van-vrouwonvriendelijke-christenen.dhtml
First sentence: Women in the USA turn away from church because ministers and religious politicians treat them like second rate civilians.
Can anyone provide more information?
Shalom Anat,
Good catch. Bible is just to generic of a term that Christians believe is a proper noun because their bible is The Bible.
I prefer to use the term Christian (or insert any religion) scriptures, with the emphasis on lower-case spelling indicating that no one groups scriptures hold any more authority than all others.
One of Mitt Romney’s problems as a Mormon is the scriptural authority of The Book of Mormon. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so. It is poorly written but worth the time because it provides great insight into our present political theatre.
B’shalom,
Jeff
Astounding, right?
I speak just enough Dutch to turn the Google Translate version (which is a lot better than I usually see for Dutch) back into English. To sum up:
-- Washington Post columnist Lisa Miller describes churches where women can’t speak or preach and where 13-year-old boys are held in more esteem than grown women
-- Evangelical pastor Jim Henderson’s book “The Resignation of Eve” warns of a female exodus from the church, which will be bad for both women and the church, and suggests that the time of female subordination to men is or should be “ancient history”
-- author Valerie Tarico notes that that ancient history forms the basis of modern Christianity, and while progressive Christians see the Bible as a testimony of good and evil, fundamentalists see it as the literal word of God. She gives a laundry list of nasty things the Bible says about women, and says she isn’t surprised by the Republican candidates’ attitude towards women, and expects we’ll see more of it as moderate Barack Obama squares off against Mormon Mitt Romney or “orthodox” Rick Santorum.
Sadly, some significant portion of that 50% agree with them. Women have been behind many of these attacks on reproductive rights, and many women support them.
My guess is that they think they have enough on their side to make it a non-issue. I really hope that isn’t true.
#6 mnb0
Ohh, I can do better than that!
How about the Bible advocating abortion?. Read Numbers 5: 12-31