03 August 2008
A View of women in marriage
I was at my cousin’s wedding yesterday, and I found it very interesting that the preacher they had was quoting a bunch passages from the Bible about a women’s role in a marriage. Well, after the fifth quote about women being submissive to her husband coming from the bible, I started to get rather mad. I believe one of the preacher’s quotes was “The husband should be head of the household , as Jesus was head of the Church.” So, I started do some research within the bible on such passages. And, I found this one from the New Testament in I Timothy 2:11-12, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, and do not permit a women to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” As I said before, this comes from the New Testament and it’s very sad that there are people out there who believe every word of the bible as God’s word and truth. And, if you believe that it is God’s word, then there are some men out there who would justify a women’s subjugation because it’s in the Bible. There are also some women out there who would submit because it is in the Bible. It’s just really sad, that’s all.
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4 comments:
Brad,
Sadly it is not just the Bible; I am pretty sure there is something along the same lines in the Gita and the Quaran. I have actually heard of cases of abuse being justified by the verses in the Bible. This to me crosses the boundary between religion and common sense and respect.
I was waiting for someone to say something about passages in the Bible and I did not want it to be me since I started a slightly heated discussion on Catholism in the discussion board. I remember during a Catholic sermon one time they had a reading along the lines of women obey the man and do whatever he wants blah, blah, blah. Now at the time I was not with my family, who is Catholic, but with a friends who are "Super Catholics". I was probably 17 at the time very much old enough to know that what was being said was completely stupid and completely out dated but I rolled my eyes, leaned over to my friend and whispered something not too appropriate. Well the mother saw me roll my eyes and whisper something (thank goodness she didnt hear me) and grabbed me by the shirt and drug me outside. Talk about embarrassing especially at such an older age but it was something I could not help but roll my eyes at. The fact was she gave a lecture about how it is God's word and therefore infallible and that she as a wife is her husbands servant in all ways. Anyway thats a little story from my end but I thank you for saying something about certain bible passages because I to believe this is slightly ridiculous that women who are true believers in this allow themselves to be subjected to something as outdated as serving man is your only purpose on Earth.
It is terrible that at your cousin's wedding that the preacher quoted a passage about a woman being submissive to her husband. I feel sorry for the women who truly believe that they should submit to a man because the Bible says so. I am not over religious, I'm more in a questioning phase, but I don't think that I could ever be submissive just because the written word says so. I've been reading a book about a girl's experience in the FLDS and they use quotes like that in marriage ceremonies as well.
Most importantly as humans we seek to justify everything we do and will use anything as a means of justification. The human mind can rationalize almost anything. This isn't the fault of the Bible but instead of people lifting verses out of context, as each verse in the Bible is built in context.
For example, the verse "Wives submit to your husbands," Ephesians 5:22. Yes this seams completely ridiculous, if you stop. However, the following verses say "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without sport or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish," Ephesians 5: 25-27 and the next verses even go on to how husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. Basically, these passages outline the intense-passionate love that a husband should have for his wife, so that everything he does goes to making her even more pure and for her benefit. Honestly, which one of us wouldn't want a husband so dedicated to us? The Bible is not calling women to submit to an overbearing husband who can use these passages to beat her.
It is the flawed sinful nature of man that uses these verses for deceit. I would urge everybody to read beyond one verse and actually try to understand the passage before making outlandish claims.
Just for the record, the mentioned verse in Timothy is talking about women's role in worship. Paul (the writer of Timothy) isn't talking about silence, rather a silence out of respect. Also, he is not using submit to indicate lower status but instead for the women to learn from and listen to the authoritative teaching of the leaders of the church.
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