I'm willing to bet that you clicked this post because you saw a blatant contradiction in the title. I don't think that is the case at all though. If you take a look at what the Bible says, I believe you will find a message that mirrors a lot of feminist thinking today.
The most obvious example of this is the way that Women are valued in today's culture. We are bombarded every day by advertisement and and media that tells us that we should value and treat women and girls based on the way they look I know however, that God created us all with equal value. Genesis chapter two says that God created mankind in God's own image and so every man and woman is like in their value, and every woman is just as valuable in her value. The sexual attraction of a woman does not change her value. The results of this can be seen all over today. Women trying hard to change their appearance is the biggest example. Eating disorders like bullemia and Anorexia are prevalent at my own campus. We have signs up in our girl's bathroom that is at our cafeteria telling girls to get help with eating disorders because it is common to find the remains of girls throwing up in the restroom.
The book of Judges also gives us a huge insight into what the Bible says about woman. The book of Judges works like this. It is a series of stories and in each one Israel becomes morally and spiritually more corrupt with each story. A theme throughout all these stories is how women are treated. In each story women are treated worse and worse until the end when you have 300 women who's husbands are murdered and then they are forced into marriages. After the book of Judges you have the book of Ruth which is to contrast Judges. In Ruth we have the story of Ruth and how she became an impoverished widow, but then by following the law of God she was provided for and treated as woman were supposed to be treated in this time. The whole point of this is that how woman are treated is one of the spiritual and moral barometer of a society, only behind how the poor are treated.
Now, I also believe that a man is the leader of his family. Now lets unpack what this means in Biblical terms. Some people would like tho think that this means "Wife go make me a sandwich." Lets take a look at the Biblical form of leadership. In the Bible a leader is a servant. The best example of this is when Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. The Bible spends a surprising amount of time stressing this. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. So it is not "Wife go make me a sandwich," instead it is if my wishes I will go make her a sandwich.
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Judges is a really violent book--at one point a woman is raped to death. Of all of the men described in Judges, it is Deborah who behaves the most morally.
Good explanation! Too often in our society women are viewed from one of three extremes, either they are viewed as sex objects, or they are viewed as servants, who should serve their husband's every whim (such as by pure Mormonism), or, as in the "sitcom culture", they are viewed as superior to men and as the real leaders of the home.
None of these views is correct. Husband and wife are supposed to function as a team, with the husband taking a leadership and covering role, and the wife backing up and supporting her husband.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have." - Barry Goldwater
"... the ostensible means [diversity] of acheiving a desired end had become the end itself." - Clarence Thomas
"Husband and wife are supposed to function as a team"
I agree.
"with the husband taking a leadership and covering role, and the wife backing up and supporting her husband."
I disagree. I think whoever is the most capable should lead where appropriate. Sometimes that would be the husband, sometimes the wife.
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I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
TUFFGONG
Senior Executive Administrator™
Interesting. You are still assigning roles along gender lines though. Feminism is pretty simple. Women should have equal rights and treatment. They should not be assigned roles or labels because of their gender. Just because the Bible can be read to support kindness and good treatment of women doesn't make it feminist. The point of feminism is not for women to be treated well by men. It is for women to be treated as EQUALS.
The Bible still says, "Women are this, Men are this," and marks out certain roles in society and the family for them. A feminist marriage is a team where each person takes the role that they are naturally fit for, regardless of sex. "Husband leads, wife supports," isn't feminist. It might be that that is how things work out, but that expectation of all marriages is distinctly anti-feminist.
Feminism isn't just about women moving above the property of men and making rape a crime and being able to choose a husband. It is about claiming a place in society not given them because of their gender. In this blog women still come off in a support role or as disadvantaged (comparing all women to the poor?). You aren't a feminist, you are just a reasonably nice guy. Women aren't some kind of other class or lower class that needs or wants male protection or leadership. On an individual basis, they are equals. That's the point of feminism, not men being proud because their wife only gets them a sandwich when she wants to.
I am glad you don't expect your wife or women in general to obey your every command, but that hardly puts you among the ranks of great feminists.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
"Feminism is pretty simple. Women should have equal rights and treatment. They should not be assigned roles or labels because of their gender."
Yet another unrealistic ideal. Have you considered the facts?
Feminism does not have to be unrealistic. It is just as valid to label any pro-woman position as 'feminism' as the anti-reality position that you describe. Liberation includes the right to do what comes naturally.
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"Women aren't some kind of other class"
Yes they are, and so are men. I really love H.S.T. and agree with alot of what you say often, but just thinking (or wishing) something does not alter the facts. Reality (and God) is both more loving and suportive than a human can be as well as more cold and cruel.
You're right. Funny, no matter how much I try to find someone who is 100% conservative or 100% liberal, I cannot find any. Perhaps there is no such thing. Your blog was insightful although I didn't really understand much of the biblical terms. The book of Judges sound really...interesting in a way. I wonder if I can find a hard copy of it. Is it in a bible?
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http://www.mylot.com/?ref=truelife
Yep it is in the Bible. Judges happens right after The Israelites finish the journey from Egypt and then conquer their new country. If you wanted to read it you can use bible gateway.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=7&chapter=1&version=47
I'm not going to lie, it will take a little over an hour to read. What did you not understand? Perhaps I can edit this post to make it more easily understood. Many times when I write I'm afraid I'm saying stuff that people can't understand. Especially when I tell funny stories on Instant messenger.
So, while there are these "feminist" ideas in this part of the Bible, there are ideas such as Paul's, about how a man is the "head of teh household" and "wives, be obediant to your husbands" and all that?
Ah, contradiction...
well, just read that last paragraph, and see how that affects how how man is the Kethelos (head) of his household.