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A Text of One's Own
Former president Jimmy Carter and other world leaders issued this statement: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable." What's your reaction to these statements? Are 'male interpretations of religious texts' to blame for the 'deprivation of women's equal rights?'
To claim that 'male interpretations of religious texts' are to blame for the 'deprivation of women's equal rights' is to exaggerate the influence of religious texts on modern living. Undoubtedly, the patriarchal dominance in classic sacred texts influenced centuries of female subservience in periods of time where religion was the authoritative voice in society. I hardly think that we can make that same claim today in most of the Western world, although it is certainly true for those under more theocratic governments.
The issue is not if religious texts of old carry weight but whether or not we use religion as a thinly-veiled cover for misogyny, just as it's used today to support violence. In that sense, we abuse religion, leveraging it to support our own biases and prejudices. Having God on your side surely weights any argument, especially for those who are confident enough to believe that God takes sides and that they are always on the right side. It must be a deeply pleasurable feeling to live without ambiguities or be plagued by uncertainties.
Spiritual living is never that simple, nor do I want to minimize the seriousness of the issue. I think women, myself included, have indeed suffered because of textual interpretation. I've had female students in Ivy League institutions doubt their own intelligence because of a few harsh lines about women in the Talmud, 2000 years ago. I have seen women reduced to tears after reading texts that prohibit them from leadership or judicial roles. They are often quicker to dismiss themselves than to dismiss the text.
Most people engaged in the study of sacred texts, however, understand that across the centuries, interpretation changes with new discoveries. The very meaning of words shifts over time. From a Jewish perspective, the word for law is "halakha" from the Hebrew root word "to go." For a sacred text to still have enduring relevance today, it must show its pliability, it must "go" and adapt to developments in the world. Perhaps nothing has hurt religion more than rigidity.
Within the Jewish world of scholarship, I am heartened by women who have become commentators of these sacred texts and filled library shelves with women's voices. Ironically, I just came across a book published this past year of male-only commentary on the Torah. I had a good laugh and asked myself if thousands of years of exclusive male interpretation was not enough. But the appearance of such a volume is a positive statement. It means that men are feeling crowded by the presence of female scholarship in Judaism. And that's not a bad place to be. It's a holy place to be.
By
Erica Brown
|
July 22, 2009; 8:51 AM ET
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Posted by: new-world | July 28, 2009 10:47 PM
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Yes, there's good news out there in the Jewish world. But -- would that Israel were not one of the "more theocratic governments," allowing the rigidity of all faiths present there to impose fundamentalist views of marriage, divorce, conversion, etc. to the detriment of women's lives. Just as in Ottoman days!
And alas, that limited definition of religion actually drives many away from affiliation and spiritual life, while religious rulings spill over into what should be completely secular areas: buses, billboards... The battle is being waged,
but it is a battle.
Posted by: esthermiriam | July 25, 2009 9:25 PM
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There are Men of not only the Jewish or Muslom Community who say out loud or silently, "Thank god did not make me a Woman"
Unlike the Pagans or Wiccan or the Shamas who have no formal written bibles to call their own, This "MISOGYNY" thinking or attitude is very common in most Faith systems that have their own selfish Religious character inscribed, like in stone, but in book-form.
Can we squeeze blood out of a stone? So Can we squeeze the Misnogyny out of MEN?