The Bible is against women's rights

The first thing I shall do is use Merriam Webster to shoe the definition of women's rights:1. legal, political, and social rights for women equal to those of men_____________________________________I would like to begin my argument by stating that the Bible is as balanced between men and women in the confines of marriage as is possible. In the Epistles of Paul and Peter, some very key commands arise regarding proper treatment of one's spouse.Ephesians 5:21-33Firstly, Paul advocates that a woman must submit to the husband as the church submits to Christ. Now, I must preface that this is often a statement used, out of context, to prove that the Bible says that women are inferior to men. This is simply not the case. Paul is merely saying that the husband is the head of the house. The husband must be submitted to as God is submitted to by the church.However, in this passage states even more qualifications. However, these are qualifications for how the man must treat his wife. Paul makes it very clear that a man is to love his wife as Christ loves the church. Now, Jesus was willing to die the most painful of deaths for the forgiveness and reconciliation of the church, along with the potential forgiveness of the entire world. In addition, Jesus never beat his apostles, ran a dictatorship, or treated his apostles with disrespect. In fact, the only people Jesus ever treated violently were those who defaced the temple and were the greatest hypocrites of their day. Now, Christ loves the church with a caring, nourishing love, which Paul echoes in this passage. In addition, Paul continues to say that a man is to treat a women with the same cherishing and nurturing of his own body. But this is meant in a positive connotation. People live to gorge their bodies with many pleasures and most people do not rip their bodies to shreds or intentionally cause serious harm to their bodies. Paul is basically commanding men to treat women the way they would treat their own bodies. This is not only fair, but is also very generous to the wife.Paul also states in this passage that a husband is to work tirelessly to make sure his wife is a morally upright person. This includes nourishing her with the word and helping her become a noble Christian. In other words, a husband is supposed to help his wife become a better person.So, at this point, we see that a woman must submit, but a husband must work around the clock to love, help, and nourish his wife. Oh, and Paul's definition of love is found in 1 Corinthians 13: "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." When Paul speaks of love, THAT is the kind of love he is talking about. Hardly anyone could say that that is unfair to women.1 Corinthians 7:1-16This is a much less quoted section about marriage that was written by Paul. In this section, Paul says that a man and a woman should only have sex with each other, and that both the woman and the man are obligated to fulfil their physical obligations to each other. However, a very important passage of Scripture is present in this passage. Paul actually teaches that a man does not own his body. Yes, you read that correctly. A man's body is owned by his wife. However, a woman's body is owned by her husband. Now, the context of this shows that a woman or a man has no right to withhold sex from the opposite party, since their own bodies are not their own, but rather belong to their spouse. This is a perfectly balanced approach toward sexual relations in marriage. The only caveat is of both parties agree to withhold sex from each other for a specified time to devote themselves to prayer. However, as stated, it must be mutual and only for a specific amount of time.Another balanced command from the Bible comes from this passage of Scripture as well. A woman may never separate from their husband, BUT a husband cannot divorce his wife. This is perfectly fair. The wife is never allowed to leave, and the husband is never allowed to ask for a divorce. Nothing against women's rights here.Colossians 3:18-19In this short passage, Paul is commanding wives to submit to their husbands, but Paul is also commanding husbands NOT to be harsh with them and to love them (again, this is the same love as referenced earlier from 1 Corinthians 13).So, to summarize: a wife must submit to her husband and have sex with him, but a husband must love his wife, nourish his wife, work to make her a morally upright and godly person, and treat her the way he would treat his own body, and have sex with her. Neither sex is allowed to leave. UNLESS in cases of infidelity. A man can divorce his wife if she cheats on him (Matthew 19:9).Proverbs 31In this passage, the Bible tells men how the perfect woman must act. In this passage, we see that a woman makes clothing, buys food, is a businesswoman, and takes good care of the matters at home. However, I would like to point out specifically that a noble woman, according to Proverbs, is a hardworking businesswoman. This means that the Bible is ok with women being in the business world as long as they also take care of home affairs. The justification for this is reasonable because the man is out of the house the majority of the day working very hard to provide money. If both parents neglected the home, who would take care of the children and such? But yeah, a career woman is actually one of the qualifications for a noble woman according to the Bible._____________________________________Many people argue that the bible explicitly forbids women to be in places of leadership. However, this is actually not true. The only place a woman is forbidden to be in a position of leadership is in a church setting.1 Timothy 2-3In this passage, Paul commands women to dress modestly and discreetly and not to wear expensive jewellery in church. In addition, Paul says that a woman is allowed to teach other women, but is not allowed to teach or be in a position of authority over a man in church. In the following chapter, Paul goes over the commands for elders, who are to be men.Titus 2This is another passage that is taken out of context to purport that the Bible is demeaning to women. In this passage, Paul says that a woman is to be a worker at home. However, remember that the reasoning behind this is because the husband is not around due to his being away at a job. So, since the Bible commands men to work, and work is at a totally different location, it makes sense that the woman should ensure the home is upkept. However, we must not forget about Proverbs 31 in the process. A woman is still allowed to have a career AND be a homemaker, so to speak.Now, this passage is also important for another reason. It shows that a woman IS actually allowed to teach. Older women are commanded to teach younger women how to be morally upright and good homemakers, among other things. So women are allowed to teach women, just not men.So, to summarize, in church affairs, a man is to be in all positions of leadership, but older woman are also to teach younger women. A woman must dress modestly._____________________________________In positions of leadership outside of the church, however, there are numerous cases in the Old Testament where women were promoted to places of prominence in Israel.Judges 4-5This is the passage of the Bible that tells the story of Deborah, a woman judge that God raised up to free the Israelites from their captors and be in charge of Israel's government. That's right. God promoted a woman to the head of government in Israel and used a woman to free Israel from their captors. This woman orders Barak (yes, a women told a man what to do, and she was the one receiving these commands from God) and tells him to gather the troops and whom to march against and where. Then Barak executes the orders. In addition, Deborah is also a judge in the sense of a judge in a courtroom. She would hear cases and dispense punishments. So, in this passage alone, we see that God rose a woman to power who was a judge and head commander of armed forces (though she did not lead them into battle herself, she gave instructions from God to a man who led them into battle).There are other examples of women in positions of governmental leadership in the Bible, but Deborah is the best example._____________________________________Summary:Using these passages, I believe it is clear that the Bible supports the idea of many rights for a woman. The right to be in positions of leadership outside of the church, the right for a woman to have sex with her husband, the fact that a man is to treat his wife in the most noble standard of love and nourishment found anywhere in exchange for mere submission (but the Bible makes it clear that a man cannot just order his wife around like a slave and must instead do quite to opposite. In addition, the Bible commands men not to treat women harshly), the right to a career, and the right to any of the protections from the laws and commandments that are not labeled as sex specific.I would say that the Bible is definitely pro women's rights.