These guys make me sick. What is the real message they are sending out? It's hard enough trying to deal with the differences between the sexes without suggesting that one is superior to the other.
QFR: "Never has a woman given Jehovah perfect obedience"
by Inquisitor 27 Replies latest watchtower bible
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V
While the Society plainly degrades women with this QFR, it must be noted they are futilely trying to defend a consistently misogynist book.
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veradico
What I thought was most amusing about that magazine when I first saw it was that whoever put it together chose to put a QFR article about a verse that is clearly misogynistic in magazine whose theme was "Why Jehovah Likes Women" or something. It seemed like a bad move to me. Why point out one of the verses like this in such an article? If anyone has it, I think it might make a good magazine cover to parody. I always wondered about the Society's attempt to insist the Bible books have a consistently enlightened view about women. They are clearly viewed as objects in the Law. Particularly during war, men can take them and use them like property, but if a woman gets taken and happens to be in the catagory of women with whom a man is not supposed to have sex (i.e. his daughter, his daughter-in-law, etc.), she, though I would say she would be innocent, has to be killed because she has somehow been tainted by his sin. They are supposed to feel unclean every time they menstruate. They are killed for not being virgins. They are killed for being betrothed virgins who did not scream when being raped. If they happen to be barren, they are made to feel cursed. They are clearly more valued as tools to bring forth sons than as humans. Female animals are not even worthy of being sacrificed to YHWH. A good son brings honor to his father; a bad son brings shame to his mother. Etc.
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jschwehm
Except for one little item you forgot. They can't become priests. Hmmm wonder why if they have Mary as such a shining example?
Good question. I am of the opinion that since women can give life through child birth that God decided to give men through a special Sacrament the ability to give life in a spiritual sense through the Sacraments.
However even if women cannot be ordained as priests there is no question that the very first women CEO's in the USA were Catholic religious sisters many of whom started hospitals and schools that still exist today. Heck, just look at Mother Angelica who started the largest religious broadcasting network in the world at EWTN which is something the Bishops of the USA tried to do several times and failed. (I just love it by the way.)
After all it was the Catholics that took the lead in the "witch" burnings in prior centuries.
I have read histories that indicate that while Catholics were involved in this that by far the majority of witch burnings occurred in Protestant countries and that in countries where the Inquisition was active witch burnings hardly ever happened. You might find the following links interesting:
http://www.bede.org.uk/inquisition.htm
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/madden200406181026.asp
As usual men (and women) tend to screw things up due to our fallen nature. However, there is no question that Catholic theology and teachings emphasize the dignity of women (and men) even if we all fail to live up to those ideals.
Jeff S.
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veradico
I was in a snack/break room in my university library the other day, talking on my cell. I happened to glance up at the magazine rack. Lo! and Behold! Some good little Jehovah's Witness had put the Watchtower and Awake! mags in with the others. Anyway, I now know what the title of the Wt with the QFR article on "Never has a woman..." is. The title is "Man and Woman: A Dignified Role for Each." I'm surprised the title didn't stay in my memory more accurately. The idea that people's roles should be determined by arbitrary biological factors that have nothing to do with their ability or desire to fill such "roles" is just silly.
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nvrgnbk
I sincerely hope that the GB continues to publish this sort of information. Every irrelevant, out-of-touch, absurd piece of half-baked sermonizing they present will contribute to a steady, albeit slow, exodus from their organization. There is no way that the younger generation of Witnesses will be able to swallow this rhetoric for very much longer.
Nvr
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anewme
I think this goes to prove you shouldnt be writing verses for the Bible when you are having a bad day.
Solomon also wrote stuff like "the dead will perish" "they will not have any portion to time indefinite in anything to be done under the sun....." yet Jonah prayed to die and be remembered and the Jews as a whole including Abraham believed in resurrection.
I think we can imagine that a man with thousands of wives and concubines is gonna have some really down days. And on those days maybe he shouldnt have been writing scripture stuff that people thousands of years later were going incorporate into their beliefs and make women wear napkins for hats because of it!
For all we know maybe Ecclesiastes was his diary!!! But someone got a hold of it and claimed it was scripture!!! -
veradico
I think you mean "Job" not "Jonah." If you look in other modern translations, some suggest that Job did not believe in the resurrection. Job 19:23-27 is one passage often used as a "proof text" for the idea of the resurrection; however, it probably refers to the Redeemer on the divine council (as opposed to the Adversary) finally standing up for him so that before he dies (while in the flesh--but some suggest the opposite idea "without my flesh") he would be able to see God and present his case. Job will be vindicated after his death by the record of how he was dealt with (vss 23-24), but, even before the disease consuming his flesh kills him, he would like to hold court with God. He never questions the power of God, so God's response in the book (Look! I'm big and powerful! Who are you?) never really addresses the question of justice. The other passage is Job 14. The NRSV translates it significantly different from the way the New World Translation does. In the NRSV, Job does not believe in the resurrection. At best, he lets himself hope and imagine for a moment before the thought is crushed.