Many Conservative Republicans men and fundamentalist from the Christian Right have a penchant for quoting the Bible as validation for denying women the right of free will and free choice. But the conservative preoccupation with using God and the Bible serves only to motivate the scared and the gullible in order to perpetuate an agenda of suppression,control, and sometimes the abuse of women in order to make women submissive to men.
It is past time that women, who live in a culture where they can legally make personal decisions and personal choices, stop putting up with this insanity. Women should not pay homage or put too much faith in biblical texts that only serve to buttress the misogynistic agenda of men who firmly believe that women are not and should not be equal to men and proliferate this nonsense with the conviction that women should not be in control of their own bodies and self esteem.
One of the biblical text often used by men to perpetuate this nonsense is the Apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy. In 1 Timothy 2: 8-15, it is written...
8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 9 also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire 10 but by good deeds as, befits women who profess religion. 11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. 12 I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.
Following this part of Paul's letter to Timothy verbatim will deprive women and their daughters of any form of glamour and dressing to look good. It will deprive African-American women of the right to wear braided hair. It will deprive all women of the right to wear jewelry--no pearls, gold, diamonds, or any other precious stones.
More important than dressing to look good and dressing to feel good about looking good, it will deny every woman the right to have a voice or passion about learning. To wit: "Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness." Furthermore, according to the directions in 1 Timothy: "(Paul) permits no woman to teach or to have authority over men."
Lastly, Paul reverts to the Garden of Eden Story and once again, Eve, the alleged first women is villified and blamed for the alleged fall of man. Every concept in this passage is designed to propogate the suppression of women and the superiority of men. This passage, according to some interpretation, lead many men to the conviction that women can teach men nothing. Above all, women should be submissive and not have any authority over men--in any capacity. And they justify their attitudes and actions by saying that every word in the Bible is "the word of God."
If you want to believe that, fine. However, if you want to know how Jesus treated women, then better clues will be found in the four gospels-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Christ did not treat women as is suggested in Paul's letter to Timothy. Nor did Jesus Christ suggest that women "will be saved through bearing children".
Jesus Christ never said women should be silent. Jesus had a conversation with the woman at Jacob's Well and never told her to be silent or be submissive to men.
All women have a right to be free and to make personal decisions about their own person. Where women are legally, politically, religiously, socially and physically able to do that, they should exercise that right. Not letting men use the bible to make women submissive to men nor to suppress women and control women is a step in the right direction.
