a non-inflamitory question for any christians-

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Have you ever had any trouble accepting the inferior status of women that most common understandings of the bible imply?

If so, how did you come to terms with this?


Thanks.

I wanted to ask this after the discussion that came up here-

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... 06#1461206

if you're interested..

I don't view women as inferior.

I appreciate that.

Are you a Christian?

Yes. Presbyterian by denomination. My pastor's a woman.

I appreciate that too.

How do you--and/or your pastor--approach the language in the bible that implies women as inferior?

Well, if you're referring to the epistles of Paul, we have to take those within their historical context- we don't exactly ascribe divinity to the early church fathers.

Anyways, Presbyterians in general are pretty liberal in Biblical interpretation. We don't take it literally, but we accept the idea of divine inspiration.

I'm United Church of Canada, and it takes pretty much the same approach as Orwell's. Our pastor even like to sermonize about where the repeated translations have taken the orginal writings way out of context. Apparently if you read Creation in the orginal Hebrew, half the time god is refered to as feminine

I'm a Catholic, born and raised. The role of women as inferior to men in Scripture, I think, is an homage to the early Hebraic societies which were harshly patriarchal. Obviously, our views have changed since then. While there's no escaping the recorded culture, values and mores of living cultures change. Dramatically. Here in the West, women have definitely come a long way. But in some parts of the world, that Old Testament mentality is as strong as ever.

One can usually judge a society by how they treat their women and children.

Well the bible has been manipulated through the times....
I think we need to moove away from outer robotic religions, and accept universal spirituallity.

Source?

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen03.html
http://www.thenazareneway.com/lords_prayer.htm
There are plenty examples that Jesus teachings have largely been removed or ignored. For one the concept of reincarnation is just one, and the concept of God as an ideal balance of both male and female.

I've always liked Gnostic Christianity . It's like a bastard lovechild of Christianity and Buddism.

How do you know they were actually said by Jesus and not attributed to Jesus? The Hadith attribute quotes to Allah and Muhammad yet there is no way of knowing whether he said these quotes, and many are in fact unauthentic.

Although I am not a Christian I understand why the other Gospels are not accepted: Because they do not carry a similar message. Consider the Jews falling upon a scripture from "their prophet" which said "Israel is not chosen, they have been mislead since Abraham" or "Ishmael would inherent the earth. He is greater than Isaac". These sentences if accepted would destroy their history and religion.

They wouldn't accept it as factual. They wouldn't canonize it, and they most certainly won't follow it. So I don't see why the Gnostic Gospels would be accepted.

I have never thought the New Testament implies any inferior status.

So-- am I correct in my summary that all who have posted have come to terms with this by assuming that it's a matter of mistranslation or differing times, rather than what the bible was actually intended to say?

this was the thing that came up that made me want to start this thread. The reference is 1st Corinthians 11.