I went to Church..

Disclaimer: This post is not the view of every member of this blog but solely reflects me and my views. It will definitely be offensive and I know this will not stop you from reading but I just want to point that out. I urge you to read objectively and rationally and I welcome all comments negative or not. This is a long post so grab a cookie

I went to church and as you well know this cannot end well.  I tried to pay attention and give the bible a chance and now that I am sane(r), I can now rationally say "The bible sucks". I understand this is a book that means a lot to be billions of people but to me it means nothing. And as thus I am going to give it the same respect as I would to a John Grisham novel.

While the bible does offer a lot of upliftment and encouragement, I can get the same thing from an inspirational novel or one of those self help books. To me, the bible is a sexist pig. Well maybe not the whole bible but the writers of certain parts of the bible to be politically correct. So if I am trying to be correct I should say "Some of the bible sucks". Is that better?

Call me a self righteous feminist but I believe men and women can and should be treated equally. I have uni-sexualised my words and thoughts and behaviors. So when the bible starts with its belief of submission on the part of just women I am immediately defensive. So today the pastor happened to be talking about woman's role in life and as soon as he started reading from that chapter I should have walked out and would have saved myself this whole post but I didn't because well they were serving food after the service (Judge away). So being the open minded individual that I am, I walk up to the pastor later respectfully and ask him if he doesn't think the bible is sexist. He starts off by saying since I am not christian, I cannot understand the bible and all it's complexities, basically he finds ways to bullshit around the whole issue and gives me one or two verses where the bible praises womanhood. I walked away because I could not be bothered to argue when there was good food being served and honestly I was about to start cursing and that would be disrespectful.

I get so tired of this, “You’re not a Christian, so obviously you don’t know anything about the Bible.” I grew up with the Bible. I probably know a lot more about the bible than some of you. I went to Sunday school. I went to church. I went to Wednesday services. I sang in the church choir. I’ve read the Bible.

While, yes, there are some parts of the Bible that do move away, slightly, from the view that women are inferior, there aren’t nearly enough of those passages to overcome the overall view that women are second class citizens in the Christian religion and that the preferred woman is one who is silent, chaste, and submissive.

A big part of the reason why, despite spending 15 years where Christianity was all that I knew, I never could commit to the faith was because of the degrading way the Bible treats women. Over and over and over and over.

Yes, I understand that the Bible is reflective of the culture that produced it, which was misogynistic and believed/treated women as inferior and as property. The issue I have with the excuse that the Bible simply reflects the culture during which it was written is that makes the Bible something that can be dated and more importantly outdated. If they allow for that then how can it really be the true Word? In my mind as soon as someone allows for a less than perfect rating on the Bible - the entirety of it is questionable and their entire religious stance is flawed.

Either own the whole Bible or none of it I say.
(I choose the latter)

However, that only reinforces my belief that the Bible is far more a product of humans than it is of anything divine. And any divinity that honestly advocated for the sort of ideas about women that are so frequently espoused in the Bible is one that doesn’t deserve my worship, praise, and certainly not my obedience.Which is why I cannot bring myself to believe in the same biblical God that Christians do.

I get it. Christians pick and choose what parts of the Bible are important and unimportant. While it’s admirable that you choose to ignore the more sexist and dehumanizing passages of the Bible in favor of the more progressive passages of the Bible, because you believe it’s more in keeping with the spirit of Christ, it doesn’t really change the content of the Bible, which says a lot of things that I find deeply offensive and insulting and damaging.

It doesn’t really change the fact that those who hold anti-women views can find more than enough backup to reinforce their views in the Bible…which is far less a matter of what is or isn’t.

So, yeah. I’m not a Christian. But it doesn’t mean that I can’t read the multiple passages that say, “Women, you are to be submissive to your husbands,” and not be able to figure out that what the Bible is saying is, “Women, you are to submit to your husbands.” It’s nice that you read that and go, “Well, it could mean something else,” or “Well, there’s this other part that is nicer to the ladies.” But to argue that these words somehow confused me because I am not christian or that I shouldn't question God is just unacceptable. 

Seriously?

The Bible begins, in Genesis, with putting all the blame for the pain and suffering of humanity on a woman’s shoulders. And then women are punished for all eternity because one lady got down with a serpent.

“Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die.”

Women are viewed as subjects of their husbands.

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”

Women’s value is seen almost exclusively in their ability to keep their mouths and their legs shut.

“A silent and loving woman is a gift of the Lord: and there is nothing so much worth as a mind well instructed. A shamefaced and faithful woman is a double grace, and her continent mind cannot be valued.” 

“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”

“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”

“Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.”

 So does that mean Female pastors are going to hell? Is Benson Idahosa's wife going to hell for not always covering her head or does her weave count as a hair covering? And then there are verses that prevent women from teaching in church. (I Corinthians 14:33-35, 1 Timothy 2:11-12).” Actually, it’s “Thou shalt not SPEAK in church.” At all. Ever. And this time it's from the new testament too. I mean if Mrs Idahosa wasn't going to hell before, she is now and so are your female pastors and deaconesses. I mean really and then you sit there and tell me how I should respect the bible and believe in it?

Take that shit home, bitch (in the words of co-blogger and future mating partner, Realist) and eat multiple dicks.