Is the Christian Bible Demeaning Towards Women?

The topic for this week’s discussion revolved around the question: Is the Christian bible demeaning towards women? Needless to say it was a challenging topic, but we endured! We briefly discussed the history of women’s oppression, made analogies to the Adam and Eve narrative, and spent a large portion of the time determining issues (and possible resolutions), that arise when Christian churches input dress codes on their female members.

We started with the status of woman and man in the beginning chapters of Genesis. We find that Adam and Eve were almost identical, hence the verse "bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2: 23 NIV). God gave both of them separate roles: Adam was to work and take care of the Garden of Eden, and Eve was to assist him. In genesis men and women are held equal, but given separate tasks for a common goal.

Someone pointed out that somewhere along the line he could imagine Adam letting the title as "Manager of the Land" get to his head, making him feel that he is more important and capable than Eve. This attitude has been seen throughout our history. Until less than a century ago, men have undermined women, debilitating them, in order to feel more important and powerful.

Several inequalities in Christianity may be caused by church leaders who take certain bible verses literally, like that of 1 Corinthians 14:34, "Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says" (New Living Translation). During the historic time that Paul wrote this epistle, church meetings were administered completely different to how they are now. For example, women and men were separated during church meetings, so there is no possible way that this bible verse can literally function in today's Christian community, it would only cause discrimination.

Another possible example of inequality in numerous Christian communities is dress codes, which tend to impact women the most, simply because they generally have more of them to follow. Although we could not come to an agreement about the correctness of some of the current dress codes, we recognized that it is not ideal to force these rules upon anybody who does not wish to follow them.

Complications that arise when dress codes are implemented in a church are that having to be limited to what you can wear becomes an inconvenience, but more importantly, the methods used by churches to enforce them can become radical, causing members to leave. When enforcing dress codes it is important not to forget about our focus, and that is our personal relationship with God.

We often see that dressing according to the church's standards is a requirement of active participation. This can be a stumbling block for someone who may be new to the community, because they are immediately excluded from participation. We do not want our hard earned visitors to feel like they don't belong! We agreed that a church should have minor programs in which new-comers can get involved in the community, while having a trained mentor show them the expectations for more active members. It will then become their decision to follow the ways of the church, or not. And no matter what, their decision must always be respected.



 

Turning the Other Cheek

 “If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also” (Luke 6:29 NLT)

For this week’s bible discussion, we aimed to define what it means to turn the other cheek, and understand how Christians should apply this idea into their daily lives.

A dangerous misconception of turning the other cheek is that Christians are to tolerate abuse and expose themselves to receive more of it from others. Yet we discovered that this bible verse is a figure of speech only. You should not tolerate disrespect or abuse. If someone actually does “slap” you, you have all rights to report it to the authorities, especially the police. Turning the other cheek is showing our best side to others that wish us harm, hence why we “offer the other cheek.”

For what major accomplishments can Christians make by showing our good side only to those that love us? That is an easy thing to do. We earn more credit by making the effort to bring down our pride and giving our best to those that aren’t kind to us, and disrespect us. This requires focus in keeping ourselves from reacting out of anger or pride, and demands humbleness and forgiveness.

In Luke 6:27-8 Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (NIV). In order to love our enemies, we must be in the practice of giving our best to those who do not deserve it. A good tip is to try to think of your enemies as yourself and determine the kind of treatment you would like to receive from others, and then act accordingly to that. We demonstrate that we are true sons and daughters of God by being able to do these acts of genuine love.

The Fear of the Lord

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."(Proverbs 9:10 NAS Bible).

The fear of the Lord is a very tricky concept to understand. Fear is defined as "a distressing emotion aroused by impeding danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined" (dictionary.com). Given the definition of fear only, it can be hard to comprehend what is meant when the bible suggests that all Christians should fear the Lord.

Many who participated in this week's discussion admitted to knowing someone who took this concept quite literally. Christians who are literal in fearing God tend to be motivated primarily by the fear of being punished by God and going to hell. Of course we all fear going to hell, but we shouldn't let this fear be the only association we have to God. Often those who do, limit themselves from experiencing God's amazing grace. Christianity is more than doing right or wrong to avoid hell (or not), it is about forgiveness, passion, inspiration, reverence, and love, which motivates us to do good works that are above and beyond what we can imagine possible.

So what does it mean to fear the Lord? We came to the conclusion that there are different kinds of fear: the kind we have towards snakes, darkness, death, etc., and the fear we have towards our God. The concept of fearing God is parallel to how a child might fear his father yet still love him. One of the many hard tasks of fatherhood is discipline because it involves teaching children the consequences of life decisions, and also requires leading by example. A father's discipline can be feared, yet appreciated and revered as it guides his child through adulthood. A father's discipline demonstrates his love, which can be reciprocated by the child once he/she understands this effort.

As we grow to know the Lord better and understand his character, the dynamic of our personal relationship with him becomes one of love overcoming fear. Our fear is no longer necessary because love becomes the main motivator for our obedience and worship.

So fearing the Lord involves more than just fear itself, it involves love, truth, goodness, wisdom, and reverence. Although God is almighty and powerful enough to condemn us to hell, he forgives our sins, and he has demonstrated immense love for us in the cross.