Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
So, do we agree on the following?
1) Jesus' attitude towards women was refreshingly egalitarian. However he didn't provide an explicit teaching which demanded a fundamental change in the status of women.
2) Paul did propose such a change Galatians 3:28 wherein there was no distinction made between male or female in Christ. However he wasn't fully consistent with this in practice as for example, when he made such a distinction with regard to head covering for women. This suggests he may not have fully understood the implication of the Galatians 3:28 principal. He may have been a bit like Jefferson who stated that all men were created equal and yet own slaves.
3)Nevertheless, both men were operating under the patriarchal paradigm of an age in which God is seen as the divine Father and the divine character of the Mother is suppressed as it was in Old Testament Judaism.
4) As a result Christianity backslid into a treatment of women as subordinate to men as reflected as early as the teaching regarding women in I Timothy.
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I don't.
1. Jesus and Paul had the same teaching. In the kingdom of the heavens there is no male and female.
2. However, in this age there is. To deny that is idiotic. Both Jesus and Paul encouraged abstinence from marriage, but realized for most people that would not be a viable option. Staying unmarried would go a long way to helping women have equal rights. When women are pregnant and are raising two or three kids it can be enough to derail any other career they might have aspired to.
3. Both Jesus and Paul had women in leading roles in the ministry.
4. Paul taught that the single best step that the church could take in the midst of a culture similar to the Taliban, was to "teach women in quietness". In hindsight this has been the single best strategy and no one, certainly not Awareness, has suggested any better strategy to women living in the Middle East 1,900 years ago.
5. Similar to Paul Jesus taught that the wisest path for women would be to take up His cross and follow Him. Again, wisdom that has been proven by hindsight.