The God-Given Role of Women in the Minds of Evangelical Christians: How to use religion to silence half the population
Given the recent bans on abortion in a number of US states, including the one signed by the female governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, it might be time to look at the theologically motivated basis for suppressing women and their rights.
Fundamentalist Christians, both men and women, are quite fond of quoting the misogynistic view found in 1 Timothy 2:11–12 as scripturally sanctioned grounds for marginalizing women in their communities:
“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.”
There is a problem with accepting this passage as authoritative from an apostolic perspective, however. The first letter to Timothy (and 2 Timothy, Titus, etc.) were erroneously attributed to the apostle, Paul. Contrast this passage with what Paul actually said in Romans 16:1–3, and you can readily see the contradiction:
“I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus.”
New Testament scholar Professor Bart Ehrman laid out why books like Timothy are not genuine letters written by Paul in Forged: Writing in the Name of God — Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. The forger of 1 Timothy, writing as Paul and contradicting Paul’s own words in Romans, was describing a situation which did not occur in the time of Paul himself: an organized church, with a (male-dominated) hierarchy, which had settled in for the long haul.
Evangelicals might wish to further their case by quoting the actual Paul from 1 Corinthians 14:34–35:
“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 anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”
However, as Professor Ehrman pointed out in Forged:
But just as 1 Timothy is forged, so too has this passage in 1 Corinthians been falsified. These verses in chapter 14 were not written by Paul. . . .
. . . Scholars have adduced many reasons for this view. For one thing, the verses seem to intrude in the passage in which they are found. Immediately before these verses Paul is talking about prophecy in the church; immediately afterwards he is talking about prophecy. But this passage on women interrupts the flow of the argument.
On the sanctity of the life of the unborn, we cannot look to scripture but we can turn to the more recent (1930) papal encyclical, Casti Connubii or “Chaste Wedlock,” which not only chastises modern women for daring to look for fulfillment outside the home, but for forsaking their God-given role as breeding stock.
74. The same false teachers who try to dim the luster of conjugal faith and purity do not scruple to do away with the honorable and trusting obedience which the woman owes to the man. Many of them even go further and assert that such a subjection of one party to the other is unworthy of human dignity, that the rights of husband and wife are equal; wherefore, they boldly proclaim the emancipation of women has been or ought to be effected. This emancipation in their ideas must be threefold, in the ruling of the domestic society, in the administration of family affairs and in the rearing of the children. It must be social, economic, physiological: — physiological, that is to say, the woman is to be freed at her own good pleasure from the burdensome duties properly belonging to a wife as companion and mother (We have already said that this is not an emancipation but a crime); social, inasmuch as the wife being freed from the cares of children and family, should, to the neglect of these, be able to follow her own bent and devote herself to business and even public affairs; finally economic, whereby the woman even without the knowledge and against the wish of her husband may be at liberty to conduct and administer her own affairs, giving her attention chiefly to these rather than to children, husband and family.
58. Holy Mother Church very well understands and clearly appreciates all that is said regarding the health of the mother and the danger to her life…God alone, all bountiful and all merciful as He is, can reward her for the fulfillment of the office allotted to her by nature.
64. However much we may pity the mother whose health and even life is gravely imperiled in the performance of the duty allotted to her by nature, nevertheless what could ever be a sufficient reason for excusing in any way the direct murder of the innocent?
Given that the United States pays lip service to the doctrine of separation of church and state, it seems rather strange that a host of theologically driven politicians are so easily able to infuse their religious beliefs into public policies that dictate the lives of so many who do not share their beliefs. As more states pass stricter abortion laws, the US drifts further from what its founding fathers intended and slides perilously closer to becoming a Christian theocracy.
When a man does not fulfill his proper role within the family and when a woman casts off her vital role as the nurturer of children, the basic unit of society begins to disintegrate.
