Why do the major patriarchal religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) frown upon the spiritual leadership of women?
I’m going to come at this from a different angle. I think that only a small minority of Christian women are upset that Orthodox Christianity doesn’t allow women as heads of churches. This idea comes from the modern feminist movement, that began to compare feminine roles to male roles, and then deemed these male roles as “better.” I and Christianity are doing no such thing. The writers of the New Testament, at no time, thought of the male role as “better”. There was just a difference in the roles that men and women were to play in the home as well as the church. The male is to be the leader who is ultimately responsible before God, and the woman is to be the nurturer and supporter, without which, there is no leader. Only in our modern mind does “supporter” and “nurturer” carry a negative connotation. The role was given a much higher place of honor in the ancient world. For example: Adam was lonely in the Garden of Eden. He was just him and the animals. The animals weren’t enough of a co
Feminist? I think that is a part of the new question, however, how do we know that the original script, before it was truncated by the Catholic Church, ever said anything about women in leadership roles? The mother is the ruler of the children. The mother is honored and respected. Much like the Virgin Mary, the role of women in the Bible was kind of subdued. Women were depicted as subordinate, or evil: (Delilah?, Lot’s wife?).
It is important to understand that although the original writing of the original texts which were used to write the Holy Bible were translated by men during a highly man-ruled time in our History. Men wished to keep women subordinate. What better way than to push their personal agenda through words that are professed to have been inspired by God? After all, who did Jesus keep close to him? A woman, Mary Magdelan. She was one of his most revered advisors, confidants, and friends. She was depicted in the Bible as a prostitute who had been saved by Jesus, but there is now research that says she was another profit, another apostle of Jesus, and quite a trusted member of his troop.
The Jewish religion, and Islam are about the same as Christianity. A womanizing man who raped children wrote the Qua’ran, and the Jewish "Bible" is about the same as the "Holy Bible". The Mormon religion takes their word from magic stones that were found to allow only one man to read scriptures which he alone was able to translate into English for the masses. It is always men who write the words on paper for everyone else to follow. How else to keep man in control than to say that woman should follow behind man? That she has no rights other than those that are provided her by her husband or her father. How much can we believe that the greatest power in the universe is so limited in his wishes for women that he wants them to stay submissive. If that were true why would he have given us such great brains? Would it not be easier to keep us as servants if he had not given us intellect?
When we look at when the Bible was written, the people who translated it into what we read today, and where their desires and directions were headed, we all should wonder how much of the Bible is truth, and how much of it is a generation’s agenda being used to control a species?
