AngelRho wrote:
...God DOES instruct His people to force others into exile and kill anyone remaining. This, however, is all part of a punishment God intended for those people in the first place. ...we can't escape the Biblical fact that everything that happens, whether good or bad, happens because God allows it to happen.
yeah, that right there pretty much exemplifies why religion does more harm than good. First there's the 'If my god commands it, then it is moral (regardless of how objectively evil it seems to anyone else), and second there's the, 'It's not as bad as it seems, because my god wants it this way,' excuse for evil and suffering.
With specific regard to women in the New Testament, a selection of passages for your enjoyment (seriously, AR, have you even read it?!):
Matthew:
Jesus says that divorce is permissible when the wife is guilty of fornication. But what if the husband is unfaithful? Jesus doesn't seem to care about that. 5:32, 19:9
Abandon your wife and children for Jesus and he'll give you a big reward. 19:29
The kingdom of heaven like ten virgins who went to meet their bridegroom. Five had oil for their lamps and five didn't. When the bridegroom was ready for them, only the five well-oiled virgins got to have sex with him on their wedding night. The bridegroom shunned the other five, saying "Get lost. I don't even know you." The moral to the story is this: watch out, you never know when (or with whom) Jesus will come.25:1-13
(the emphasis of that story is more, 'be prepared for the rapture,' but it demonstrates that the NT writers were perfectly fine with polygamy).
Mark:
Jesus will reward men who abandon their wives and families. 10:29-30
Luke:
"They had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren."
Oh God, another barren woman! It's always the woman's fault in the Bible. 1:7
Even Mary had to be "purified" after giving birth to Jesus. Was she defiled by giving birth to the Son of God? 2:22
Males are holy to God, not females. 2:23
Abandon your wife and family for Jesus and he'll give you a big reward. 18:29-30
John:
Jesus magically perceived that a Samaritan woman had been married and divorced five times previously. (He could spot a divorced woman a mile away.) Since women weren't allowed to get a divorce, it was always the woman's fault and divorced women were considered outcasts. This was a great opportunity for Jesus to explain why the Mosaic marriage laws were unjust and correct them -- if he thought they were wrong, that is, which apparently he didn't. 4:7-18
Jesus tells Mary Magdalene not to touch him because he hasn't yet ascended -- as if the touch of a woman would defile him and somehow prevent him from ascending into heaven. 20:17
Acts:
If you "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," then you and your whole family will be saved; otherwise, God will send you all to hell. 16:31
The jailer was so impressed with the holy jailbreak that he converted on the spot. He and his entire family were baptized that night. It didn't matter to Paul (or God) what the jailer's wife and kids thought about it. They were "his" so he could do whatever the hell he wanted with (or to) them. (This stupid story supports the idea of infant baptism, which has divided Christians for centuries.) 16:33
(apparently a woman's salvation, or lack thereof, depends entirely on her husband... and, of course, unmarried women don't exist).
Romans:
Paul explains that "the natural use" of women is to act as sexual objects for the pleasure of men. 1:27
1 Corinthians:
Paul would prefer that no one marry. But he says "to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife." 7:1-2
Paul says "the head of the woman is the man," meaning that the women are to be subordinate to men. 11:3
If a woman refuses to cover her head in church, then her her head must be shaved. 11:5-6
"A man ... is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man." 11:7
"For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man." 11:8
"Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." 11:9
Women are commanded by Paul to be silent in church and to be obedient to men. He further says that "if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in church." 14:34-35
(Great guy, that Paul).
Ephesians:
Wives must submit to their husbands "in every thing" as though they were Christ. "For the husband is the head of the wife." 5:22-24
Wives must reverence their husband. 5:33
Colossians:
Wives, according to Paul, must submit themselves to their husbands. 3:18
1 Timothy:
"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." 2:11-12
Men are superior to women since Adam was made before, and sinned after, Eve. But even though women are inferior to men, they shouldn't be discouraged because they shall "be saved in childbearing." 2:14-15
You should help a widow only if she: has no children or nephews; is desolate, trusts in God, and prays all the time; is not living in pleasure (a widow living in pleasure is the living dead); is over 60 years old; had only one husband; has raised children; has lodged strangers; has washed the saints' feet; has relieved the afflicted; and has diligently followed every good work. 5:3-10
Never help a young widow (one under 60 years old). When they wax wanton against Christ, they'll get married, and be damned to hell for rejecting their faith. Besides, young widows are idle busybodies, wandering around from house to house saying things they shouldn't say. They should get married and have children (though they'll be damned to hell for it). Heck, some of them have already turned aside after Satan. 5:11-15
Titus:
"Teach the young women to be ... obedient to their own husbands." 2:4-5
1 Peter:
Peter orders all wives to be "in subjection" to their husbands. 3:1
Wives are to use "chaste conversation, coupled with fear." They are not to braid their hair, wear gold, or put on any "apparel." They are to do these things in imitation of the "holy" women of the Old testament who were "in subjection to their won husbands: even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord." 3:2-6
In relation to her husband, the wife is "the weaker vessel." 3:7
2 Peter:
Lot, who in Gen 19:8 offers his two virgin daughters to a crowd of angel rapers and later(19:30-38) impregnates them, was a "righteous man." 2:8
(In Lot's defense, his daughters got him drunk and raped him, because apparently they had been taught that letting one's father's bloodline die out is a worse crime than rape and incest).
1John:
John writes to the men (fathers) only. Women (mothers?) are not important enough to address. 2:13-14
Revelation:
Jezebel (whom God had thrown off a wall, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs (2 Kg 9:33-37) is further reviled by John, saying "that woman Jezebel" taught and seduced God's "servants to commit fornication." 2:20
Jesus will "cast her [Jezebel] into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her." 2:22
Only 144,000 celibate men will be saved. (Those who were not "defiled with women.") 14:1-4
source:
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/women/long.html
That's not even all of it, just the juicier bits
of the New Testament. The Old Testament is even more repulsive. And, lest you cry, 'Out of Context!' I can personally attest that these passages are pretty much described as they are taught in church.
11 Feb 2014, 9:19 pm
