Maybe as an "oppressed" Christian woman, I can answer some of his comments.
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Beloit College Round Table 12/10/2007
Mr. Heesen - use your brain, not your bible by Steve Harrison, Editor-in-chief
First let us examine a few of “god’s laws” and then we’ll approach the bible as a source of morality This is a list of IN CONTEXT bible quotes assembled by my brother and me over the past year (some parts underlined for emphasis).
The inferiority of women:
You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her Savior. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives must submit to your husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24 NLT)
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First of all, Mr. Harrison is NOT using Bible quotes in context. Here is the entire passage from Ephesians 5:22-33:
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Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [1] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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As a Christian woman, I see that I am to submit to one man: my husband. Galations 3:28 assures women that all are equal in Christ: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (ESV) Here, Paul is laying out a hierarchy: Christ is the head of the church and the husband is the head of the family. Modern life is also filled with hierarchies: e.g., the CEO is the head of a company, and the principal is the head of a school. How is this hierarchy any different from those hierarchies? Are all corporate employees oppressed?
Furthermore, in case the husband would be tempted to oppress his wife, Paul gives a clear illustration of exactly how a husband is to treat his wife. The husband is to love his wife as himself. Even more, he is to love her as Christ loved the Church. That means that a husband is to love his wife so much that he would lay down his life for her. How is this oppression? Reading this as a Christian woman, I see an assurance that I am valuable enough to expect a husband who will be faithful to me and love me enough to die for me.
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Women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes,, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty (I Timothy, chapter 2 NAB)
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Well, I am not sure how an exhortation to let my deeds rather than my clothes characterize me is oppression. Secondly, for a book that oppresses women, the Bible does a surprisingly bad job at it. Ruth and Esther have whole books dedicated to them. A prostitute named Rahab was courageous enough to save her own family and was listed as an ancestor of Jesus. The first person to spread the news that Jesus is the Messiah was a Samaritan woman. The first person to see the risen Christ was Mary Magdalene. Yes, the Bible does forbid women to preach in church to the full assembly of believers. However, women are encouraged and even commended for teaching their children, other women, and even *gasp* discipling men.
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Punishment for rape victims:
If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to the girl because she did not cry out for help though the was in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. (Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB)
Kill a woman on her wedding night if she does not have proof of virginity:
But if this charge is true (that she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girl’s virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)
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Here Mr. Harrison provides a list of punishments out of context without providing any evidence for how the law was actually administered. For the first instance, this is not a case of rape. This is the case of a young woman willingly committing adultery. Second, any person accused of the previous crimes would have been given a trial by the Sanhedrin. The Institute for Public Affairs of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America is an Orthodox Jewish group seeking to examine issues confronting modern society using the law of God. (That's right-there are still a whole lot of people who seek understanding from those rules that are "monstrous to any rational person.") In a study of the American death penalty by Nathan J. Diament, the Director of the IPA, the administration of the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) by the Sanhedrin was discussed:
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A Sanhedrin that executed [more than] one person in a week is called a "murderous" [court]. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya states: "[More than] one person in 70 years [would be denoted a murderous court]." Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva state: "If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, no defendant would ever have been executed." (IPA: Judaism and the Death Penalty; Of Two Minds but One Heart)
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For the death penalty to be administered at all, exemplary witnesses had to be present:
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Other well known safeguards include requirements for two simultaneous witnesses to the crime who were not only viewing the perpetrator but also saw each other and had time to properly warn the perpetrator of the nature of his crime and punishment prior to his committing the act. (IPA: Judaism and the Death Penalty; Of Two Minds but One Heart)
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Current American law does not insist that two witnesses be present and that they had to have warned the perpetrator that he or she was committing a crime for the death penalty to be administered.
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The sun stops in the sky (otherwise known as the sun moves around the Earth):
The sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. (Joshua 10:13)
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How is this an indication that the sun was moving round the Earth?
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While the bible explicitly says that slavery is acceptable, women are inferior to men, and that rape victims should be stoned to death, I never came across a passage that said “thou shall not abort an embryo” or “evolution is a lie perpetuated by heretics.”
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For a treatment on slavery, see the book of Philemon. I believe I have discussed the other two issues previously. There is clearly a commandment on abortion: Thou shalt not kill.
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Our society evolves over time. Guided by science and a sense of true morality, we have slowly learned that women are equal to men, slavery is deplorable, and that the sun does not revolve around the Earth. Over time ideas that are initially labeled as heretical eventually become common sense. In the next century I am confident that oppressing gays will be as distasteful as segregation, abortion will not be equated to murder (most people will differentiate between a collection of cells and a breathing, thinking human being), and evolution will be regarded in the same way as gravity — as truth. A staunch anchoring to these religious ideas simply slows progress, it cannot stop it.
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Respectfully, I disagree. I pray that life will always be considered sacred. I believe this quote sums up my belief about biblical law:
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Among the Torah's seminal and timeless gifts to the world -- a world that has seen societies that have endorsed everything from ancient child sacrifices to false gods to modern campaigns of ethnic cleansing -- is this teaching of the infinite value of each human life. (IPA: Judaism and the Death Penalty; Of Two Minds but One Heart)
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