Sunday, September 26, 2010

Question: Is God a Misogynist?

When reading through the Christian Bible -- both in the Old and New Testaments -- it's not difficult to make the argument that God behaves like a misogynist! At the very outset, the fairer sex is depicted as being made from Adam's rib which means that woman would not be without man.

In the fall from paradise story, it is the woman who first eats the forbidden fruit and then beguiles the male to follow suit. In fact, in much of the Old Testament, women are treated like little more than chattel, no different from cattle or a piece of land!

While I'm certain we will revisit this central issue several times more, for this post I want to look at Leviticus 19:20.
And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
First, we need to define two of the key words of this passage. Bondmaid is a fancy word for slave. To scourge is a nicer way of saying "to flog."

So, if a slave owner claims an exclusive right of sexual relations with one of his female slaves and some other fellow comes along and copulates with her, both are in trouble. The woman gets the sanctioned crap beat out of her, while the man (in the following verses) gets off easy by sacrificing a ram. If a sex-crazed gentleman has a large flock of rams, then he can run around the countryside screwing anything that moves and his ONLY penalty is to hand over a few rams to the priest.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't waste a nanosecond worshiping a deity with such a messed up view of justice.

To see what other questions I've asked about the Christian Bible, go here.

2 comments:

  1. Well, I don't care about that god or whatever he is, because I think he really doesn't exist because if he does he is the most asshole image of impotent MEN he created which are more privileged than a woman who gave birth to them.

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