Are gender roles in the Bible being distorted to promote sexism?

[Stevicus]

Just wondering what others' thoughts might be regarding this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-sexism/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f58bd82a26e2

As a single woman and a professional author and editor, Gina Dalfonzo doesn’t fit the stereotype of a conservative Christian woman whose life is built around home and motherhood. But Dalfonzo actually has no problem with the traditional idea that God intended men and women to have different roles. In fact, she cherishes it. She’s always belonged to evangelical churches that are led by men only, a model she feels connects her through time to Jesus.

“Christ was God come to Earth, and for whatever reason he chose to come as a man,” said Dalfonzo, 42, who lives in Springfield, Va.

But in the era of #MeToo, Dalfonzo and a new cohort of conservative evangelicals are increasingly taking issue with how other traditionalists, particularly men, interpret complementarianism — or the belief that men and women have distinct, or complementary, roles at home and in church.

Was, for example, the oft-quoted scripture from Colossians 3:18, “wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord,” intended to include women who are abused by their husbands? Is complementarianism leading to the proper reverence for women as equal human beings, which many believe is God’s intent, or is it being used as a biblical disguise for gender discrimination and belittling and lascivious behavior?

It also mentioned some dissension within the Southern Baptist community as a result of some taped remarks of a notable pastor which recently surfaced:

A rare public debate among conservative Christians has erupted after a revered Southern Baptist leader was accused of making demeaning remarks about women. A tape surfaced in April of Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, preaching from the pulpit that an abused woman should stay with her husband, praying alongside their bed at night and being “submissive in every way that you can.” Another taped sermon included a comment about the body of a teenage girl, and another criticized female seminarians who don’t work hard enough to look good.

Thousands of Southern Baptist women, including some prominent writers and leaders, signed a letter saying the denomination cannot allow “a leader with an unbiblical view of authority, womanhood and sexuality” to remain, and several top Southern Baptist pastors have condemned aspects of Patterson’s words. Southern Baptists are the second-largest Christian group in the United States and a major force in conservative faith.

He's saying that abused women should stay with their husbands and be "submissive in every way that you can." But is that a distortion of what the Bible actually says on the matter?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Just wondering what others' thoughts might be regarding this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-sexism/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f58bd82a26e2



It also mentioned some dissension within the Southern Baptist community as a result of some taped remarks of a notable pastor which recently surfaced:



He's saying that abused women should stay with their husbands and be "submissive in every way that you can." But is that a distortion of what the Bible actually says on the matter?

I don't know if that would be a good template. Women in those days I think were more like property than people with a lower social standard generally.

 

[sealchan]

Just wondering what others' thoughts might be regarding this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-sexism/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f58bd82a26e2



It also mentioned some dissension within the Southern Baptist community as a result of some taped remarks of a notable pastor which recently surfaced:



He's saying that abused women should stay with their husbands and be "submissive in every way that you can." But is that a distortion of what the Bible actually says on the matter?

I know women who have been driven away from the faith because they were not supported in their needs above the needs to maintain an abusive marriage. This understanding gives men too much room to cause suffering without consequence and it twists the very idea of God's love in a way that I am sure Satan would approve.

Whoever leads must also follow. Whoever follows leads...

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

This complementarism sounds like humanist values seeping into Christian theology yet again. In Christianity, the woman is inferior to the man. In secular humanism, she is not. These Christian women have not made the full transition, but they seem to be asserting more equality for themselves than the Bible prescribes or that pastors in the pulpit endorse..

 

[Twilight Hue]

Women are pretty much told to sit down and shut up.

http://biblehub.com/1_timothy/2-11.htm

 

[Rational Agnostic]

Just wondering what others' thoughts might be regarding this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-sexism/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f58bd82a26e2



It also mentioned some dissension within the Southern Baptist community as a result of some taped remarks of a notable pastor which recently surfaced:



He's saying that abused women should stay with their husbands and be "submissive in every way that you can." But is that a distortion of what the Bible actually says on the matter?

This is disgusting. I'd love to see this "pastor" get kicked in the nuts by a woman.

 

[1213]

....He's saying that abused women should stay with their husbands and be "submissive in every way that you can." But is that a distortion of what the Bible actually says on the matter?

I don’t know about that, but if men really want to be Biblical, they should start from themselves and obey these:

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
Eph. 5:25-28

Husbands, love your wives, and don't be bitter against them
Col. 3:19

You husbands, in like manner, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered.
1 Pet. 3:7

And if one doesn’t have a wife, he shouldn’t even be a priest.


The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;
1 Tim. 3:2

 

[Dawnofhope]

Just wondering what others' thoughts might be regarding this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-sexism/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f58bd82a26e2



It also mentioned some dissension within the Southern Baptist community as a result of some taped remarks of a notable pastor which recently surfaced:



He's saying that abused women should stay with their husbands and be "submissive in every way that you can." But is that a distortion of what the Bible actually says on the matter?

It’s only in recent history that the roles of women have rightly expanded to take their place alongside men in every sphere of human endeavour. Few outside very conservative faith communities would see this as being negative. Woman have many more options in life now and will decide on what to tolerate in a relationship. We all need to work daily to reflect the highest values of our faith.

Some social teachings in the bible that were relevant thousands of years ago have clearly outlived their usefulness today. Where I live most within and outside the church recognise this.

 

[Starbuck]

They have always been used to distort SEXUALITY. Not only suppressing understanding of the female essence but also of the masculine essence. Both are important and both are distorted by Abrahamic texts. Again both are not black and white both are gray and mixes of each other. A very simplistic example being on yin/yang.

It’s only in recent history that the roles of women have rightly expanded to take their place alongside men in every sphere of human endeavour. Few outside very conservative faith communities would see this as being negative. Woman have many more options in life now and will decide on what to tolerate in a relationship. We all need to work daily to reflect the highest values of our faith.

Some social teachings in the bible that were relevant thousands of years ago have clearly outlived their usefulness today. Where I live most within and outside the church recognise this.

Actually Pagan cultures hundreds and even thousands of years ago placed more emphasis on the female of the species than those of the Abrahamic religions. Those teachings were never relevant they were used to dumb down the masses for control. Females were often warriors (be it to a smaller degree on average they are weaker. Of course due to having the ability to grow human life), political leaders, and spiritual leaders. So much revered that these cultures actually worshipped Goddesses.

This complementarism sounds like humanist values seeping into Christian theology yet again. In Christianity, the woman is inferior to the man. In secular humanism, she is not. These Christian women have not made the full transition, but they seem to be asserting more equality for themselves than the Bible prescribes or that pastors in the pulpit endorse..

Describing sexuality with the buzzword "equality" is like saying there are two identical manufactured bowls. It's simplistic and sheepish. They are opposite or contrary forces which are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.