Re-Examination: Christianity is a Male Dominant Religion
- ourkfe
- Jan 29, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 4, 2023
The Bible is known for being the oldest book in history, containing religious aspects of Christianity such as God’s opinions on both sexes. For context, God made women and men as an image which states in Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in His own image; in the image God He created him, male and female He created them”. God’s creation of male and female delivers the purpose of male being the head and female being the helper. In Proverbs 2:9, it describes that biblical justice takes equity rather than equality into account.
The Bible is one book of many stories and these stories were predominantly written by men rather than women. This clearly shows the Bible has struggled to share personal opinions according to a women’s perspective during the BC and AD eras. Why is this a problem? The problem is the majority of females who are Christians are far more religious compared to the male Christian population.
This brings in the philosophical concept ‘Egalitarianism’ which is described to be as equal benefits in gender, religion, economic status and political status. Christian egalitarians believe that the Bible practices gender equality between men and women and provides leaderships/roles in churches for both. They also have beliefs such as roles in marriage are equally the same and they should be based according to ability and not gender.
Feminism and egalitarianism have similar aspects they follow but both being uniquely different. Feminism is a socio-political movement for equality of sex, and they’re widely common in our communities which most females advocate for these rights. These female members of the feminist group have negative thoughts on the Bible like for example Elizabeth Stanton, who gathered women that were aware of certain biblical practices. These women protested against their civil and political degradation, and positions in church which were unequally distributed. Another contributor also mentioned about the creation of humans – the first human was a man so at the start God knew that men were superior to women.
However, bringing in the early stages of the Bible – God briefed that if Eve made one sin, the consequence would be the husband ruling against the wife. This curse being wives are designed to adjust to desires that God has created and Husbands taught to rule over the wife according to Christ’s way which was stated in Ephesians 5:23-33. Additionally, God created women to reproduce next generations which evidently proves that God may or may not have pressured women to struggle in life with the pain.
Avril Foulstone, Year 12
Mount Albert Grammar School
Editor Suhh Yeon Kim
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