I'm reading The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr (finally), and I'm on Chapter Two and I'm so fucking mad. I'm fully on board with what she's saying. I'm mad at patriarchy. A lot of the arguments are familiar to me (I've been egalitarian for years), but the one that's standing out to me and making me rage at the way the church patriarchy has sanitised and obfuscated things, is learning how dang GENDER TRANSGRESSIVE women in the early church were. "One more piece of evidence that convinces me that the household codes should be read as resistance narratives to Roman patriarchy is how early Christians were perceived by the Roman world: as "gender deviants". . . . Not only did early Christians place women in leadership roles; they meet together on equal footing—men, women, children, and slaves—in the privacy of the home, a traditional female space. Christianity was deviant and immoral because it was perceived as undermining the ideals of Roman masculinity." Early Christianity was QUEER. It was all about breaking down gender norms of Roman society. Like Paul said "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." And I'm so mad that we haven't been taught that.

On Holy Friday (in a few days for us Orthodox Christians) in many parishes, especially those under the Greek archdiocese, young girls dressed in white will serve as myrrh bearers (Μυροφόρες) in the Holy Friday service. During this service, the congregants participate in the funeral procession for Christ. The priest and the myrrh bearers, gathered around the Kouvouklion, a representation of the tomb of Christ, and sprinkle flower petals and rose water on the Epitaphios, a cloth embroidered with an icon of the body of Christ, laid in the tomb.

This is a beautiful bit of pageantry, but it's also an important reminder that the early Church called women to Himself even as He called men. Jesus Christ revealed His resurrection first to the Myrrhbearing women not to His apostles who were still in hiding.

He revealed Himself first to a woman, his mother. He performed His first miracle at the urging of a woman. He revealed His resurrection first to women. Women mattered to Christ and to the early Church. Women still matter to the expressions of Christianity who listen to the example of the early Church

"the Word of God tells the world of man that you are inferior to them"

VERY curious to know WHERE in the Bible it is established the woman is inferior to man, but ok.

Actually, Galatians 3:28 explicitly states that God makes no difference regardless of race, social class and gender (and is pretty much a verse rebuking racism, classism and sexism within the Church).

"Their deities are men"

YHWH is the Father but trascends males/female boundaries as we know them. God being identified as Male (e.g the Father) has literally no impact whatsoever in His relationship with female believers. Women aren't anymore "dominated" by God because He's male, than male believers. Actually, I always found pretty sweet how the Church (so both men and women lumped together) was metaphorically represented as a bride, and Jesus as the groom. That's because, as I said, the relationship each believer (regardless of their gender) has with God transcends how earthly comprehension of sex. Otherwise this would imply that men of the Church have homosexual relationship with the groom Jesus? 🤔

"Their prophets are men"

That's how I know you people have no idea what you're talking about.... The Bible actually have plentiful of female prophetess : Deborah, Huldah, Anne, Mary..... Just because the Bible doesn't have entire book feature their names, doesn't mean they aren't acknowledged as such. You people don't read the Bible, and it shows.

Otherwise you'd know it specifically talks about sons and DAUGHTERS prophecizing in the end times (Acts 2:17). Spiritual gifts -of which prophecy is one of them- can be acquired regardless of sex.

"Their teachers are men"

Christian women can be teacher actually - just to not teach men (1 Timothy 2:12). If anything, Christian education seems to withhold sex segregated education (which I'm personally a proponent of).

"these are men dominated cult, run by men and advocated by men to perpetuate their control"

God dominates the Church - not men. Actually the Bible does a great job that men will eventually always fall short of God holiness, and that believer should only rely to God Himself. You people have such a reductive vision of Christianism that you can't remotely comprehend that many of us live of faith outside of church communities, without a (male) church leader. And it's pretty embarrassing how comfortable to erase female's role in those communities ("run by men") when women's ministry have a whole part in the body of Christ. Just because Christan women aren't called to have a "leading" position, that they are not important or should be dismissed as insignificant. Funny how so called feminists are so prone to endorse the same behavior as misogynists, constantly downplaying women's achievement...

"Stop trying to carve out a space for yourself in a religion designed to subjugate you"

This doesn't make any sense. If the Church was seeking to subjugate women, it wouldn't compell them to remain celibate e.g free of any male dominance (their husband) e.g Paul letters.

Your entire narrative relies on a misconstrued tunnel vision of Christianism that fails the test of reality.

Christian women's existence isn't to "carve out a space" into anything. It's a DIRECT RELATIONSHIP with God.

Christian women could never attend any (male-led) church or Christian community one single time in their life and still be Christian. I'm sure you people can't even grasp the difference between the church (little c - buildings), and the Church (capital C - the body of Christ).

I have no idea why you're so obsessive in overestimating male influence in Christian women. Almost the entirety of biblical teaching are regardless gender (but also age, race, language, culture, time frame...). There's a reason why places where Christian influence is the strongest have the fairest life condition for women - but you conveniently ignore it and paint every abrahamic religion with the same brush. Sorry but Christians are different.

Jesus is the way the Truth and the Life.

Women Do Not Have Authority Over Men

1 Timothy 2:9-15

[9]In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

[10]But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

[11]Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

[12]But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

[13]For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

[14]And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

[15]Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

Because of the sins of Eve being the first to eat the forbidden fruit, women are to be silent, shamefaced, and in submission of men, who God created first.

God wants us to be beautiful in other ways, ladies, so don't try to be as men and take authority where it was not given to you. Yes, we live in times where men don't do their part, but that doesn't exempt women from doing their's. Men have their own instructions, let women heed God's instructions for them as well.

Happy Feast of St. Ursula and companions!!

"What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: “For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

-- Romans 8:35-38

Does the Bible Support Deaconesses?

“Deacons likewise must be dignified…Their wives likewise must be dignified,” (1 Tim 3:8, 11, ESV) Does the Bible restrict the office of deacon to men only? Much of this depends on how you interpret 1 Timothy 3:11. Depending on what translation you read, the answer may differ. The English Standard Version cited above (as well as the KJV) implies that what is discussed in verse 11 is the…

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when hozier said "if im a pagan of the good times, my lover's the sunlight" and when hozier said "no grave can hold my body down, i'll crawl home to her" and when hozier said "i slithered here from eden just to sit outside your door" and when hozier said "heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i" and when hozier said-

Women in the Church: Critical Passages

Women in the Church: Critical Passages

Several people have recently asked some version of the question, what does the Bible say about women in the Church, often in the context of women in leadership roles. In response, I try to provide the following list of passages. While far from an exhaustive list, these are often the key passages that conversations about women in the Church center on. Translation often sways interpretation, of…

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Maybe the problem with Christian fiction is that it's non-denominational. People are just "Christian", with no effort put into showing what practicing that religion looks like for them specifically. No indication that there are other Christians who could have different beliefs. No wrestling with differing ideas and the struggle of how one should live out their Christian faith. And that makes it unrealistic and unrelatable.

Harriet said "Hold on"

Zora said "Kinfolk over skinfolk"

Pauli said "Hope is a song"

Fannie said "sick n' tired of bein sick n' tired"

Rosa said "Nah"

Audre said "Enuf"

Cori said "Fuck fascism"

this sunday, it was dissapointing to see how easy it was for the boys to run around and get their energy out outside, but for the little toddler girls in impractical frilly puffy dresses and impractical shoes, it's an obstacle for their play.

the girls', clothes are made to be seen in as opposed to being made to be worn, unlike the boys which are still nice for easter but they dont have to trip over the edge of a skirt or dress, or have their shoes fall off or pinch their toes when running, they can move and play freely.

it's a problem too cuz when toddlers don't get that energy out, they get irritable and pitch fits, so then the boys look like easy kids, and the girls difficult. let the girls run around!

female subjugation starts from birth. these girls are praised for being beautiful in their dresses, while also learning they cannot play in them. this correlation will not be lost on them especially as they grow up. "If i want positive attention from the important people in my life (like my congregation), this is what i do." the whole "beauty is pain" narrative, while not incorrect, is often viewed as normal and a justified fact of life, like "beauty IS pain and thats just how it is! oh the things us women go through to look pretty haha!". stop teaching girls that their beauty is WORTH pain, because it's not! they should never sacrifice to look attractive.

if half the congression can dress both formal and practical, so can the other half. don't handcuff little girls to femininity at the cost of their happiness and energy and play.

Acts 17:4 — Today's Verse for Thursday, July 27, 2023