Does God Favor Males???
Are “godly” attributes such as wisdom and power linked to men? Is this why the sacred writings of major world religions tend to favor men over women? The sacred text of Islam stipulates that men dominate women:
- Men are in charge of women….Hence good women are obedient….As for those whose rebelliousness you fear, admonish them, banish them from your bed, and scourge the. (quoted in Kaufman, 1976:163).
Christianity supports patriarchy. Although many Christians revere Mary, the mother of Jesus, the New Testament also includes the following passages:
- A man…is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. (1Cor. 11:7-9).
- As in all churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says, if there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1 Cor. 14.33-35)
- Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church…As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. (Eph. 5:22-24)
- Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; She is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. (1 Tm. 2:11-15)
Judaism also supports patriarchy. Male Orthodox Jews say the following as part of their daily prayers:
- Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, that I was not born a gentile. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, that I was not born a slave. Blesses art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, that I was not born a woman.
Major religions exclude woman from the clergy. Is that the reason why Islam and The Roman Catholic Church ban woman from priesthood? I would love to hear everyone thoughts on this controversial issue!
Information gathered from :John J. Macionis: Sociology 11th edition
Most of the certifications offered by testking are included in the prerequisites of 350-018 and 650-393. This is one of the reasons why people always go for testking preparation material whether they are planning for 650-621 or 70-630.
10 comments
Great topic!
I am a Christian woman, married with 2 boys, and this subject has definitely been a concern of mine.
Are “godly” attributes such as wisdom and power linked to men?
Well to put it bluntly, I don’t believe so. All scripture does is show that all wisdom and power comes from God alone.
When you consider that wisdom and power is God’s alone then there is no contraversy.
My God “is no respecter of of persons” (Rom. 2: 11). “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) He only respects that which He sees of Himself and we are all to become more like Him. We are “being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” ( 2 Corinthians 3:18.) We’re all in the same boat.
When it comes down to relationships between the sexes it gets a little tricky. I’ll use marriage as a spring board to explaining…
A man and woman in a Godly marriage, one that is genuinely trying to be obedient to God and keep Him at the center, are an example of Christ and the Church. (The husband obedient to Christ and the women as the Church taking his lead.)
In as much, this is a system of checks and balances. The reference to Eph. 5:22-24 “wives be subject to your husbands.” It also says “husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.” It is not the husband, in his own understanding, defining what love is but it is the standard of love that Jesus set forth that the husband must sumbit himself to as well. So there is no real “power” given to one sex over another, but the submission of personal will to God’s will from both sides.
Now concerning the intimate relationship of a body of believers and male and female roles that Paul was talking about in the early church…
I believe that Church is NOT in a building. The body of Christ are those that believe. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there AM I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20) That could be a married couple, that could be a small group of Bible believing friends, whatever the group..He is there. I don’t view church as a large religious facility where hoards of people go to congregate on one day out of the week, I believe it’s the intimate and genuine relationships true believers form amongst themselves. In as much men and women have their place in such an intimate atmosphere. The women minister directly amongst the women and men amongst men. For women to be silent in mixed company in the church is a representation of how God humbles us to our calling and protects us, both men and women. There is a high risk of romantic relationships birthed from ministering relationships of the opposite sexes. That type of relationship holds it’s place within marriage only.
Jennifer Hill
Current mainstream religion is patriarchal when in reference to judaeism, catholicism, islam, and other various christian branches. This however is where the pendulum happens to be swung at the moment. Not long ago, in terms of history, religion was very matriarchal. In fact despite the opposite sounding teaching of most of the mainstream factions, they still hold on to the old beliefs. After Christ things seemed to slowly take hold of the patriarchal system more and more. Most old school religions favored balance and recognized the importance of both male and female aspects of life. Current christianity, particularly catholicism, despite being patriarchal in outward appearance holds tightly to the bonds with it’s matriarchal beginnings. The concept of a virgin birth arose from various predecessors and in fact Mary was so revered at the beginning of the church that whole sects actually developed to worship her. But before her, people were following the aspects of the triple goddess, and Isis. If one looks at statues of Isis holding baby Horus in her arms they are remarkably similar to those of Mary and Jesus. In fact the stories themselves bare resemblences to each other. Christianity was based on a more even dispersal of roles in the beginning…until certain members of clergy started segregating them more and more from the fold. Many other religions today still hold to a more balanced view of men and women when it comes to religion. Voodoo which holds women in high regard is despite all of it’s “bad” rep, a christian based religion. Many eastern european catholics still hold Mary at nearly the same level of worship as Jesus. Various asian religions like Shinto have both priests and priestesses. Buddhism has both nuns and monks. And even those religions that outwardly appear to keep men at the forefront have a plethora of instances where women are important. I suppose the key is realizing at what point is the religion abiding by it’s basic tenets and at what point are the various changes made by governmentaly influenced clergy or clergy in control of the government involved. Many of the ideals that hold women down in the church were not instated until later on in the development of the religion at a point where a male had something to gain by holding back the other gender…or simply had some kind of grudge. Numerous times through out Catholicism’s history books and ideas were removed or added in order to support the current hierarchy as opposed to believing in the masses ability to sort through all of the various material and make their own judgements. The Naghamadi scrolls exclusion are an example of this.
I can not look at a religious establishment that doesn’t allow me to look at all of the information available to me and make my own decisions seriously. And if information is being withheld from me, then I can not in good logic believe that based on the opinion of man that God favors anyone. In history women have held the same status as man at times. When we write stories of wise old people in the forest to whom people run to in their time of need for advice we still call apon the idea of the crone…the old woman hermit hidden away who has all the answers. So despite all of mainstream religions attempts to stamp women out from the elite circle of those considered wise and powerful, they have failed.
God would probably favor males if God, in fact, was a male. In order to cover the fact that God is female, the males who were responsible for putting together bible found every possible story that dissed females to include in their book.
Whoever made this planet was way too creative to be a male…unless, of course, God is gay.
Well, it’s pretty obvious that for the monotheistic religions at least-patriarchy and religion are very closely tied together. All their scriptures have been handled, edited and written by MEN from various times in ancient history, so there is definitely going to be gender bias.
Genetically for a offspring males and females are equal except for the XY chromisome. Males determine the sex of the offspring. I dont appreciate someone who is muscular bigger without having a brain to control such a function. Men have the muscles women have the brains. Two opposite but equal sides however men feel so inferior they have to put women down time after time. Problem is planet has about 50% women to 50% men yet because some women push for male dominance the rest of us have to suffer. All 3 organized religions treat women like dirt. Now we have fake elite evangelists trying to take over the US government and put women in there places. God may of had other plans but nature rules on who is the biggest and the badest. Nothing is according to Gods will.
MEN ARE ASSHOLES!!
I came upon this because I was looking to see if there were any religions out there that didn’t favor men. This sucks and men ARE assholes!
Genetically for a offspring males and females are equal except for the XY chromisome. Males determine the sex of the offspring. I dont appreciate someone who is muscular bigger without having a brain to control such a function. Men have the muscles women have the brains.
So despite all of mainstream religions attempts to stamp women out from the elite circle of those considered wise and powerful, they have failed.
men aren’t assholes. Some “men” maybe, but so are some women. Just because the bible is stupid and sexist doesn’t mean all men are.
Leave a Comment