Friendly Atheist - Another Reason for Women to Leave Christianity

[KichigaiNeko]

The whole of religion is based around man's insecurities, and a fear of things he has no power over... So, with religion, they feel like they can have power over women to give themselves that satisfaction that they aren't meaningless... But, they don't realise that it makes them even more worthless to society than they already are.

I love you frankieJ!! because that is EXACTLY what religion is all about!!

[frankiej]

Haha, I love me too

[frankiej]

but I am glad you agree about what I said...

[Kayenneh]

I can't even get properly mad at that shit.. Silly people be silly. Did they miss the memo on gender neutrality?

[ArmchairAtheist]

Without va-jay-jay we would not be where we are today. It is only because of va-jay-jay that men throughout history have waged wars, built empires, and destroyed them. They have looked towards the stars, painted and written works to the wonderment and betterment of existance, and "punched the pope" countless times.

All hail the glorious va-jay-jay. It is the most powerful thing in the universe.

[FutureAndAHope]

As a Christian I have no problem with women having authority over me, my pastor is actually a woman, and she is a very spirit filled person. My trust in her comes not as a result of gender but her relationship with God. In our church people only ever get put into positions of authority when she is confident they are spiritually mature. I know of other very famous women pastors like Joyce Myer and there is no way I would ever get up and say "Hey I am a man I am taking over your pulpit". It is true in the bible one of the apostles would not let women speak in church. But else where in the bible it says "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus ... There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" - Gal 3:26. So from that vesre we see God does not make a distinction between genders. In fact there are other places where in the New Testiment women did speak in services, as an example "Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied". Act 21:8-9 So these women prophecied or "spoke on God's behalf". Many people say in order to form a doctrine it needs to be in both the Old and New Testiment. Well in the Old Testiment we also find woman prophets, some to whom all the people both men and women came for spiritual advice. The following is a quote from a website that describes one such OT womans life

Deborah-- prophetess, judge and military leader-- is the most celebrated woman prophet of the Old Testament because she brought liberty to Israel through her faith, courage and boldness. Judges 4:4 is generally translated as "Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lapidoth. . ." but the Hebrew word here translated "wife" usually means "woman," and Lapidoth is not attested elsewhere as a man's name. Rather, it is the ordinary feminine plural for the word "fire." As her career demonstrates, Deborah was a fiery woman! The Hebrew is emphatic that SHE judged Israel at that time. Respecting her as a wise woman who heard from God and knew His Law, the people of Israel came to her for judgment. When the word of the Lord came to Deborah, she summoned Barak from Naphtali and directed him to obey God by mustering troops against the oppressor Sisera. When Barak agreed to do so only if Deborah accompanied him, she did not hesitate to go and rally the troops.

Also we find women were encouraged to be business people in the bible as is shown in the end of the book of proverbs: "She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard". - Pro 31:16

God is not in the business of oppressing any one man, woman, slave, free.

[coffeeveritas]

Because it gives men with penis-insecurities grounds for saying bullshit like this:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyath...ian-faith/

Quick example:

This doesn’t mean you can’t learn from a woman, or that she is incompetent and can’t think. It means that there is a certain dynamic between maleness and femaleness that when a woman begins to assume an authoritative teaching role in your life the manhood of a man and the womanhood of a woman is compromised.

To paraphrase a point I made about femininity I made earlier today, (coincidentally) I am a woman because I have a va-jay-jay...not because I accept a pre-defined role according to the make-believe character of an archaic book of iron-age fairy tales as interpreted by men so caught up in penis envy that they have to use that book in place of real confidence.

Oh yeah, every time I read something about women in the church (always written by men, because clearly they're the experts) I find myself thinking, "Are you insane?! Have you ever even met a woman?!"

According to the most recent books on "sexual purity" written by the church women are emotional creatures who dutifully please their husband's scarey sexual needs when all they want is hugs. Women are apparently mystified as to why men would even want to have sex. I don't know why the church is terrified of female sexuality, as a guy, it seems like a plus. The church is even wrong about men, saying that they're only interested in sex, which is the complete opposite of what modern psychology shows. Men have the same basic emotional landscape as women, they desire intimacy and empathy just as much, but many have learned to sexualize that drive.

It's like the church is just copy-pasting books from the 50's.

And don't even get me started on church councils made entirely of MEN deciding that the Bible really does say women can't be leaders when that's blatantly false. I end up sounding like a feminist, but, I mean, wow, it's so incredibly stupid.

[Justtristo]

But else where in the bible it says "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus ... There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" - Gal 3:26. So from that verse we see God does not make a distinction between genders.

However 1 Timothy 2:11-12 mandates that women learn in silence and submission, forbidding women to have teach or have any authority over men and be silent.

1 Corinthians 11:5-6 mandates that women who pray or prophesies must have their heads covered as well as being silent during services.

Ephesians 5:22-24 mandates that wives must submit to their husbands in everything, although the next few verses talk about husbands loving their wives in return. Much the same message about wives submitting to their husbands is in 1 Peter 3:1.

It is no wonder why the Catholic church, along with many conservative Protestant churches oppose women priests, deacons, pastors and elders. In this video by Pastor Jack Schaap he basically defends his sexist views biblically.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqN9Oan3YnU

[FutureAndAHope]

I guess the way I like to look at it is I would prefer to listen to a woman who actually seeks God, than a man who spends his whole day watching football. So if the woman is closer to God, she will make a better teacher. I am not disputing that God's way of doing things but note the verse about women being subject, also mentions men not disputing and being wrathful. Both are to be in quietness before God, both are to be subject to him. But hey to be honest I am not going to run up to my pastor when she gets back from her mission trip and say hey look woman be subject to me I am a man, it is God who exults and God who lowers, and I do actually believe some women have put a lot more work into their prayer lives than men. But how would I deal with Pauls verse, about women not teaching? Maybe in the Jewish culture that was acceptable, but maybe even God knows it is better to move with the times. Look I would be terrified of crossing horns with my woman pastor, she has more of God's presence than I do.

[frankiej]

I like when you said "mission trip"... Sounds like something epic.

It probably isn't though.

It will be people wasting money on spreading the "word" of God.