From: thughes@ug.cs.dal.ca (Tracy L. Hughes)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Men's/Women's role in marriage
Date: 6 Oct 92 03:34:03 GMT
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

There was posted an article in this newsgroup just a short while ago in which
the author posed a question --> is feminism compatible with christianity.

Since I am acquainted with a number of feminist Christians, I thought I would
post a few of the reasons they say that Christianity and Feminism are indeed
compatible in some form or another...

1.  One must remember that the injunction for a woman to submit to her
    husband is only valid if that woman does have a husband.  This leaves
    leadership roles open to women who are unmarried. (And also, one should
    remember that in ancient Judaism women did take leadership roles over
    men who were not their husbands...at least one of the Judges of ancient
    Israel was a woman, and this position implies some sort of authority
    over men.)  This is also a good case for women becoming ministers or
    priests.

2.  One does not have to take the Bible absolutely literally.  A prevailing
    opinion among a number of Christians is that, although the Bible carries
    all the necessary morals you must develop to be a Christian, those 
    who wrote it down (Paul, Peter, etc.)  wrote within the context of their
    times, and thus were not infallible in what they put down.  One good
    example of this is an error in one of Paul's letters in which he partially
    misquotes Genesis.  (Forgive the indulgent paraphrasing..I am writing this
    ad lib)  Paul says that Genesis states that man was made in the image
    of God, but woman in the image of man.. I'm sure you are all familier with
    the two Genesis accounts...The one with the seven days and the one that
    tells about Adam and Eve.  The first account states explicitely that both
    man AND woman are made in the image of God..the second doesn't state
    that either are made in the image of God...Since the second says nothing
    on the issue it is logical to assume that both man and woman are in the
    image of God (in the first account, remember, man stands for male and
    female..as stated in the verse in question).  Thus since the Bible is
    not infallible in all its little points, they simply assume it is only 
    infallible in its major issues..those that are most essential to 
    our relationship with God.

3.  There is also a different understanding of the story of Adam and Eve,
    because of the way their punishment was stated to them.  It can be
    understood to mean that God is telling them what must now befall them
    since they have chosen to live outside of his law.  Since man is
    physically stronger than woman in a lawless world he will naturally
    dominate his wife.  This is not a commandment to the woman to submit
    to her husband but God telling her that, for choosing to live outside
    of his law, this is what she must now live through.  A good support of
    this is the fact that part of the punishment to all men is that we would
    toil in a world where it would be difficult just to harvest enough food
    to eat...if this punishment was meant as an order then we are trespassing
    the condition of the punishment given to us by the fall by attempting
    to make the production of food no longer difficult, such as we now do
    where food is produced by machines and hydroponics and none of us in 
    the west at least go hungry from drought.  If it is not sin to fix this
    part of our lives, then neither can it be sin for a woman to no longer
    have to submit to her husband because she is no longer in a situation
    where she may be physically forced to do so.

Anyways to sum this all up just remember that what is most essential to 
Christianity is Jesus' injunction to us to love God first and to love each
other as he loves each of us.  From this the rest of the commandments will
follow.  Since none of these commandments states that a woman must submit
to her husband, it follows from this that submission to one's husband is
not an essential doctrine of Christianity and hence Feminism and Christianity
are compatible

T.L.Hughes.