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... with the following statement: the Old Testament is the story Jews exterminating neighboring tribes, because God told them so. The New Testament is nothing but a religious interpretation of Communist doctrine, which puts emphasis on mens equality and on the fact that eternal bliss is possible only in distant future. This is why; it is especially remarkable that some Bible scholars find in this book a justification for their view of mans role in society. One of such extraordinary people is Reverend John Eldredge, whose book Wild at Heart became the Christian bestseller, which was being translated into 15 languages.
In it, Eldredge suggests that Church often denied men their right to act in natural manner. In Bible author was able to find a proof that it is a perfectly normal for men to be benevolent, to like fighting and to be rude sometimes, because God himself is such a person. Eldredge suggests that God is not some distant moralizer, who simply lays laws upon people. According to author, God is a passionate being, who is capable of love and hate, who can grow jealous and who does not hesitate to exterminate the whole ethnicities, when they stand on his way.
Therefore, the biggest mans virtue is to act as God does. What do you see in the lives of the men that you work with, live by, go to church alongside? Are they full of passionate freedom? Do they fight well? Are their women deeply grateful for how well their men have loved them? Are their children radiant with affirmation?
The idea is almost laughable, if it weren't so tragic (Eldredge, p. 11) says author and we can only agree with him. Yet, Eldredge does not realize that he simply promotes a classical Catholic concept of man as provider and warrior. In its turn, this Catholic vision of man derives out of old heathen tradition. Eldredge speaks from his heart, while trying to give his arguments a Christian sounding, but he does a very poor job of it. This is why his book is being widely criticized by those who he refers to as dwarfs of spirit.
One of them is Cary Gilley, who criticizes Eldredge in his review of his book Wild at Heart - Part 1: Eldredge believes, Aggression is part of the masculine design. [boys] invent games where large numbers of people die, where bloodshed is a prerequisite for having fun (p. 10). As a matter of fact, this desire to slaughter is part of what it means to be made in the image of God who Himself is a warrior (p. 10). I doubt that most of you ever knew about God's desire to slaughter people (Gilley). If Gilley had studied Bible more closely, he would know that God used to take an immense pleasure out of slaughtering people: Happy shall he be, that taketh and dashed thy little ones against the stones (Psalms 137: 9, KJV), Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong (Joel 3: 9 - 10), But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. (Luke 19: 27), And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead (Exodus 12: 29 - 30), Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Per, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves (Numbers 31: 16 - 18). The devout Christians suggest that these quotations cannot be taken out of context, but the context is even more bloodthirsty than these quotes.
It is quite clear that, according to Bible, God condones war as mens most natural occupation. Christianity has originated as tribal religion, and as any tribal religion, it was meant to justify violence. Tribal religions view man as the head of household and the warrior. It is the same situation with heathen understanding of mans social role. However, the heathen concept of marriage is very rational. Womens submissive social role comes as result of men embracing the duty of provider.
This duty implies mans ability to be able to step over the notions of conventional morality, when necessary, in order to save family. Marriage is nothing but a form of social contract. When man fails to live up to his duty for whatever reason, wife gets a legitimate excuse to break the contract. Christianity on the other hand, elevates man to the position of undisputed master.
In is a very common in Western countries for the couple to simply live together, without being officially married. As practice shows, these civil marriages last longer than those that are being blessed by Church. This is because the Christian concept of marriage implies the notion of ownership. Even as recent as few centuries ago, it was being considered as something absolutely normal making wife to wear a chastity belt, while husband was away, so that she could not have intercourse with another man.
This is because, according to the Bible, man is not simply the head of household, but he is also a rightful owner of his wife. Todays progressive theologists try hard to convince people that Bible does not contain a direct encouragement for the men to treat their wives as inferior beings. They say that Inquisition, Crusades and practice of burning witches is something that was not meant to happen in the first place. It reminds the pathetic attempts of Communist apologists to convince people that the ideas of Marx were also essentially good. Christianity and Communism are like some radical medicine, which gets to be banned by the government, after it realizes that this medicine causes people more harm then good. (4) There is no doubt that the social roles of men and women are different. This, of course, does not imply the notion of inferiority on either side.
We can only think of genders within a social context, because human beings are social creatures. It is a truth that the majority of women are less capable of grasping the essence of abstract concepts. The reason for this is strictly biological men can mentally detach themselves from their penises, while for women, their genitals are the essential part of their beings. This is why many women become sexually aroused from simply being touched. Therefore, men are only sexual from time to time, which allows them to engage in other activities and gain excellence in them, while women are always sexual. Their whole lives revolve around sex and this is exactly the reason why, according to social surveys, 70 % of women in USA watch soap operas.
This is because soap operas confirm womens subconscious desire to see mens behavior as also being motivated by sexual tension alone. Women look at the world through lenses of sex. Therefore, only women can be described as sexists, in the true sense of this word. Thus, the reason why there are very few women-philosophers or women-politicians (with the exception of Margaret Thatcher and Joan of Ark), is strictly biological. However, it has nothing to do with the fact that women are unclean or original seducers of men, as Bible refers to them. Womens natural calling is to raise children.
As history shows, the ultimate consequence of the process of womens liberation is when they are being hired to construct railways and to lay bricks, as it was the case in Soviet Union. Still, as practice shows, women are quite capable of becoming a prominent lawyers or scientists. This has nothing to do with the fact that they are being liberated in Western societies, but only indicates that they are truly exceptional individuals. As rule, they rarely consider themselves feminists, just as Margaret Thatcher, who was a housewife by profession. Also, one of the reason why more and more women are getting involved in manly pursuits, such as becoming police officers, is because men in Western countries are becoming increasingly feminized.
Many male yuppies, for example, are known to use a nail polish and nobody finds it bizarre, because we are supposed to tolerate mental and spiritual depravity, as part of celebrating diversity. The Christian religion has long ago ceased to exercise any influence on relationship between genders. Today, even homosexuals can get married and have their union blessed by the priest. Christianity has turned into just another dirty business, which sells fake hope to naive people; therefore, we cannot refer to it as spiritual vaccine, which White people were using throughout the history to insure their survival. This is why Islamic terrorists are able to keep Western countries in the state of constant fear. Christianity teaches men to be meek and not to resist evil, while in the time of Crusades; it taught men to actively seek adventures.
As John Eldredge said: A true Christian was supposed to fight a battle, have an adventure, rescue a maiden, and to be just as wild and dangerous and the one whose image we bear (Eldredge, p. 55). Today, women and men are required to play roles that do not suit them. Omar Abu is making a very good point when in his article Family Values in Islam he suggests that the spiritual degradation of Western civilization is a fact: Western culture in general and in America in particular family is in deep trouble. 50 % of the children born in United States now are born outside of the wedlock. This is unprecedented in human civilization. Family violence has increased beyond any imagination. Child abuse, spousal abuse and elder parents abuse is rampant in this society.
There are many people in the Western society who are concerned about this state of affairs. They want to restore the family. But the family system will not come back or flourish by wishful thinking and mere preaching (Abu). (5) The main idea of this paper is that both: Christianity and Islam do not bring us closer to understanding of what moral principles needs to be used, in order to clearly define the social roles of men and women. We cannot take these religious doctrines seriously, because then the progress of our civilization is going to be reversed. On the other hand, the Liberal interpretations of Christianity and Islam results in situation when the difference between genders is becoming less and less noticeable. Therefore, we need to think of religion as symbol, without paying much attention to its theological essence.
For example, it is quite enough for the people to associate Christianity with a cross, while being continuously told that God is good. Only this will insure that peoples natural instincts are not going to be suppressed. Western society is becoming overly intellectualized; however, it still strives to have a faith. Yet, as practice shows the more people read Bible, the less they have faith left. This is why, in my opinion, the theological approach cannot be used, in order to explain the essence of gender dynamics, within society. At the same time, this does not mean that religion needs to be banned altogether.
Quite contrary to that, religion must be incorporated into the science. This process has already begun, because, in order to prove the validity of their religion, Christians resort to science (creationists), but not the other way around. In its turn, science needs to rid itself of political correctness, because it undermines scientific progress. Spiritual and scientific quests must come hand in hand, but under no circumstance may the religion or science be allowed to defy the laws of nature. After all boys will be boys and girls will be girls. Bibliography: Abu, Omar Family Values in Islam. 2003.
Pakistan Link. Com. 7 May. 2007. web Cahill, Lisa. Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Gilley, Gary Wild at Heart - Part 1. 2004. Mission Vision Network. 7 May. 2007. web Eldredge, John. Wild at Heart.
Los Angeles: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001. Kelly, George. The Catholic Family Handbook. New York: Random House, 1959. McKinley, Brian Why Focus on the Family is of the Devil. 2005. A Former Christians Perspective. 7 May. 2007.
web Munir, Lily. The Koran's Spirit of Gender Equality. 22 Jun. 2006. Quantara. Islamic World. 7 May. 2007.
web Russell, Letty. Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985. New King James Version: Scofield Study Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Friedan, Betty.
Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1963. Abstract: This paper discuses role of genders from theological prospective of Christianity and Islam, while revealing the fact that peoples religious perception of objective reality merely reflects their mental psyche, which in its turn, is defined by racial affiliation. Outline: Introduction.
Family values. Role of women. Essence of Christianity. Biology and religion.
Role of men. God as embodiment of masculine virtues. Christianity and Paganism. Christianity and Communism.
The essence of femininity. Decline of contemporary religions. Conclusion...
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Research essay sample on Gender Roles From A Theological View Part 2
