Is Christianity essentially sexist?
christianity is sexists → daly, debeviour, biblical teachings…
christianity is not sexist → mulliers dignatuim, aquinas (women by their natural law are just fudenmetally weaker) , heremenutics + removing patriarchal features, ruether,
argument → christianity does seem to be built on sexist ideas and perpetulate views that clash with feminist causes. Whilst some suggest that it can change, it seems impossible to now suddenly change the religion - therefore overall christianty is sexist because it does not uplift the role of women and rather places them into certian unchanging roles which have notions of sexism whilst men can fufil any role they want.
PARA 1 → christianity seems essentially sexist towards women because of the teachings in the bible which are inherently sexist
‘wives submit to your husbands’ + ‘at the head of every woman is a man’
‘women should be slient and church’
these bible teachings are what christian faith bases itself off and the bible is a moral code for christians to base their actions off
if there is then sexism in the bible it seems as if there is sexism thus at the heart of christianity since if the foundations of our christian faith is shrouded in patrichal and repressive ideas
HOWEVER → we should not take the bible at face value, we should take a herementuics approach were we understand the judian patrichal standards which the bible was written within
theologian reuther supports this, suggesting that christiantiy can learn to move away from such patrichal stuctures and rather adopt a new code
highlight how ot name for God is genderless showing how the practise of christinaity has created a patrichal standard as opposed to the actual faith and meaning behind christianity
YET - ruether may be too idealistic, the patrichal standards in the bible have been maintained for a long time, meaning there is both a historical and symbolic sexism. cannot just change christianity, those in power who are men are not going to agree to do so.
Hampson supports suggesting that we cannot simply just ignore the sexist undertones within christianity
OVERALL → the bible and langauge used within it is inherently sexist in the way in which it treats women. Whilst it may be because of the contextual societal values at the time, the historical roots of the bible is a deep part of the pratcise of christianty and thus the faith that we have for God. So even if we were to change christianity towards not being as sexist this will not fix the foundational issuses of sexism within christinaity.
PARA 2 → feminist such as simone debeviour argue that christinaity is fudementally sexist as it pushes for male dominance
In The Second Sex, she posits that men use religious ideology to assert divine authority for male dominance, positioning women as the "Other" and encouraging them to accept lower status in exchange for afterlife rewards.
when ulitamtely through her exitenitalist philosophical perspectives men and women are equal it is rather the primary socialsation - which religion takes a signifcant part in - that causes the divsion and creation of gender
therefore christianity in itself is sexist for pepetulating such beliefs and attirbutes widely to the issues that women face within society
HOWEVER → the catholic church mulliers digamtuim argues that christianity is not fundementally sexist nor does it allow for a male domination
the RCC argues that men and women are equal but have different roles that they must fufil in society, for women this surrounds motherhood and virginity which the rcc argues is a fudenmental part of a womens postion
thus, christianity is not sexist because it is not trying to opress women
HOWEVER → debeviour would epseically have an issuse of trying to create determinism for the roles which need to be fufilled rather than creating their own meanings to life. it also still leads to men having a domination - not changing with the time…
OVERALL → christianity can be seen as essentially sexist by trying to force roles on women that they do not want - there is limited changes been made to chrisianity and it rather seeks to perpetulate such values
PARA 3 → christianity can be seen as being built for men and for women to be anti church
Daly argued that God being male gave people the concept that power was a male thing, not female. Daly regards this as a false spirituality because this Christian idea of the maleness of God is merely the invention of a patriarchal mindset trying to justify its having power.
Daly further argued that this association between masculinity and divinity had the function of making male supremacy seem like a fact of the universe which could not be challenged. If it’s just the way things are that God is male, then people will feel unable to challenge male power in society. Whereas in actuality, male supremacy is not a fact of the universe but just the way we happen to organise our society. Belief in a male God is a tool of male power which gives it the appearance of being beyond challenge.
women have been restricted by religion and thus it should be abanonded all toghether for women - why should they be apart of a religion which is fundementally agaisnt them
HOWEVER → is just as sexist as male supremacy and ultimately dangerous and anti-feminist because it is not about equality. Her advocation of separation between men and women is also seen as radical, impractical and too similar to segregationism which has been associated throughout history with bigotry. Arguably segregation is impractical, however, and arguably not worth whatever potential positives it could bring. To many it seems better for men and women to work out their issues together, rather than to separate.
so whilst daly may be right in saying that christianity is essentially sexist her steps forward from this however is not correct - even if christianity needs changing she take a very radical perspective.
OVERALL → daly does highlight the male-centeredness of christianity and the effects it has had on women - yet this does not mean that her solutions to the issuse are effective or should be implored