Summary of Religion and Feminism

Women and girls had been discriminated against for a long time. Especially the religion that is most practical in the United states; Christianity, shows huge bias toward men . There is a sentence that  quote from the Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many things. Moreover, there is also a belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence and many other crimes...

" The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls, why girls are told when and whom they must marry..."  This is quoted on one of the source. It clearly shows that religion beliefs are one of the main reasons in which women doesn't the same rights and treatments as men. Also, in some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, and some even get punished for competing with men for a job.

Women back in the old days didn't get rights and treatment like men when it comes to religion. During the years of the early Christian church, women would served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. All the leaders, and pope were men. Many women were angry about the unfairness that had happened to women, and that they formed a lot of organization and and gives a message to other people in order to give women the right they deserve.

Most religions come down on the wrong side of many of the policy issues of importance to feminist. One example of this is the abortion rights or the roles of women in the family. Women should have the right to decide future, not religion. Religion forbid women from abortion, even it could risk her life by keeping her baby.  When it comes to faith, everyone has a personal journey and a personal decision, and that women have used religions and faith to argue against the existence of god and the wrongness of religion. "Because it is a natural rights that everyone should be able to decide their personal journey and have personal decision, why should listen to religion if they didn't give women these rights"  Many people therefore questioned the existence of god. One of the writer of an article said: " Myself, I'm a very committed agnostic — so committed to agnosticism that I'm agnostic on the existence of God. I would like to believe in God and/or a religion, or even not believe in God entirely, because I feel like faith in one of those things would be easier than questioning all of them simultaneously."

" Many traditions teach that while both men and women are equal in value, God has ordained specific roles for men and women." By just looking at this, we can have a sense that this quote that is taken from an article about religion and feminism was trying to convince us that it is not that men and women are not equal, but it just that men and women both have specific roles that God had set up for them.

 " Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior....so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything" This is one quote in the Bible .It shows that the man's role is to be the head, and the women's role is to submit to him, and the women's role is to submit to him. The article also said that religion is making the women 's life more difficult. For example , women are not permitted to decide what happen to them. The Catholic Church forbid abortion, even when the mother's life is at risk if she continues with the pregnancy.

"Religion is one life after another, the lie of original sin the lie of eternal life, the lie of hell, the lie of answered prayer, the lie that life can have no meaning without religion, the lie that religion is the source of morality, the lie of creationism, the lie of a spy in the sky who hears your every words and reads your every thought" This is the quote that explain how religion is unreliable and since religion is only beneficial to men, it is time for women to wake up to it.

The Feminist women has been successful in variety of areas. For example , before, a woman did not have the right to decide whether she could have abortion on her or not, even when her life is at risk. Now, women certainly can if there is a good reason for it. However , women were not very successful in the religion area. For example in Christianity now, the head of the church, or the Pope, will never be women. So do Buddhism, the head of the temple were never women. Women feminism in general, certainly is successful ,  they have earned more rights and freedom than before.

Religion lies about women

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/religion-lies-about-women/2011/04/13/AFDS9mXD_blog.html

Purpose : The purpose of this source is to make women everywhere that follows the idea of religion, especially Christianity, to wake up and realize that their belief didn't really worth their worship, since it lies to them about many things and that religion is taking over their freedom and rights.

Value : This article is valuable because it is very logical in explain the unfairness of women in religion perspective. It quotes many direct quotation from the Bible for reliable evidence .

Limitation : Though the article quote directly from the Bible, it doesn't post everything. For example there is one quote about men are made to be the head, and the women role is to submitted to them. This clearly shows that there is unfairness for women. But from the knowledge about the Bible, the sentence after this is that men should love women as much as they love them, which shows that there are equality between men and women. Therefore to conclude, the article can be bias to support their argument by not quoting everything but only the part of the bible that make people think religion is treating women unequally.

Analysis: The very beginning of the article states that :" Many traditions teach that while both men and women are equal in value, God has ordained specific roles for men and women." By just looking at this, we can have a sense that article was trying to convince us that it is not that men and women are not equal, but it just that men and women both have specific roles that God had set up for them. This article talks about the role of religion of discrimination between men and women. " Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior....so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything" This is one quote in the Bible that the article mentioned. It shows that the man's role is to be the head, and the women's role is to submit to him, and the women's role is to submit to him. The article also said that religion is making the women 's life more difficult. For example , women are not permitted to decide what happen to them. The Catholic Church forbid abortion, even when the mother's life is at risk if she continues with the pregnancy.

"Religion is one life after another, the lie of original sin the lie of eternal life, the lie of hell, the lie of answered prayer, the lie that life can have no meaning without religion, the lie that religion is the source of morality, the lie of creationism, the lie of a spy in the sky who hears your every words and reads your every thought" The article end by this quote which said how religion is unreliable and since religion is only beneficial to men, it is time for women to wake up to it.

Religion and the Women's movement

Origin :

 http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2005/02/Will-Religion-Complete-The-Womens-Movement.aspx?p=1

Purpose :

 This is an interview of a woman named Helen LaKelly Hunt, who had contributed in many women groups for more than thirty years. She is founder and president of "The Sister Fund " , which is a major contributor to women's causes. She earned her PHD at New York's Union theological Seminary, focusing especially on the religious roots of the women's movement and that she troubled the religious views were not welcome in feminist circles. This interview shows us her opinion about religion and women.

Value :

It gives the view of a person that involved in a variety of the feminist movement. She is especially focusing on religious view of the women's movement and that she seemed to be very knowledgeable for this area since she was able to write a whole book about it called "Faith and Feminism : A holy alliance".

Limitation :

Though lots of valuable information are gained from this person, she can always be bias to make people supported her more. The information she provided can always be bias

Analysis

The interview sort of relate her point of view about religion and women, and the book that she wrote about this topic. In her book, she analyzes the relationship between faith and the women's movement; she also gives five religious women who were pioneers in the struggle for women's rights. She thinks that most religion like Christians , Jewish structure their faith in a way that challenges the feminist agenda of women's voice being equal to men's. In addition, when it comes to Christianity, she said that the Pope does some very worthy things, but he obviously missed out the issue of women. Because of that, she think he has a narrow view of what feminism

is and many women have a very narrow view of what religion is 

Losing religion for equal rights...

Origin : http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html

Purpose :

This source is from an important figure 's point of view, Jimmy Carter. It talked about how women and girls had been discriminated against for a very long time, in a twisted interpretation of the word of god. Its purpose was to let the people know about the fact that women was not treated well not just in general, but also religiously.

Value :

This source is valuable because it is from a man perspective , and rather is an important person 's perspective. Because it if from a man interpretation, it is less likely to be exaggerated . Also , since this is the president opinion, it is more likely to be interesting, meaningful and at the same time, accurate

Limitation :

The limitation of this source is that, though it is the president's opinion, it also has to be publicly pleasing . In addition, this point of view is also from a third person point of view, he just sees what happened, but might not directly involve in it.

Analysis:

The author sees the that women and girls had been discriminated against for a long time. The author himself , had been practicing Christian and a deacon ad Bible teacher for many years. In spite of he is a very decent Christian follower, he cannot denied that there is unfairness toward women in Christianity. There is a sentence that is very carefully quote from the Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many things. Moreover, there is also a belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence and many other crimes...

" The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls, why girls are told when and whom they must marry..." said the author. This shows that religion beliefs are one of the main reasons in which women doesn't the same rights and treatments as men. Also, in some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, and some even get punished for competing with men for a job.

Women back in the old days didn't get rights and treatment like men when it comes to religion. During the years of the early Christian church, women would served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. All the leaders, and pope were men. The author disagrees with many unfairness that had happened to women, and gives a message to other people in order to give women the right they deserve.