Remember when HITTING A WOMAN was just WRONG!

by pistolpete 55 Replies latest social current

• 

  Disillusioned JW

  If a woman (perhaps part of a gang) hits a man repeatedly (such as on the street, I'm not talking about a boxing match), should the man have the right to hit the woman back? Or is it always wrong in every circumstance for a man to hit a woman?

  What about the situation of a married couple in which the wife (the woman) is taller, much heavier, and stronger than her husband (the man) and is physically abusive to her husband? Spousal abuse of men by their female wives happens. It is a reality. Should such men have a right to hit back to defend themselves (though hitting back in that circumstance might be foolish)?

  One a young woman (who was much heavier/fatter than I, and probably taller than I) co-worker kicked me (for no reason that I could determine; she was angry at me but I had no idea why) in the office at the bank in which we worked. I was a ministerial servant (and a regular pioneer) at the time. I neither fought back nor yelled at her. My supervisor (a woman) was surprised at my inaction towards the violence. I didn't fight back because I believed that a man should never hit a woman in (at the time) but should I had kicked her back? I was in a lot of pain for having been kicked in the leg.
  

  Furthermore, if it is always wrong for a man to hit a woman, does that mean it is always wrong for men in times of war to drop bombs onto civilian populations (since the populations include women and children)? Furthermore, Israel and a number of other countries have women soldiers. Does than mean that men soldiers of the competing countries fighting against the countries of the women combatants must not fire weapons at the women soldiers?
  

  It seems to me that many of those who say it is always wrong for a man to hit a woman are inconsistent in their beliefs.
  
• 

  Disillusioned JW

  If women are to receive and maintain equal rights with men then that means they should have equal responsibility for their actions and receive equal punishments as men as well. If a woman has a right to hit a man in self defense, then a man should have a right to hit a woman in self defense - if the woman is to have equal rights with men and not some special unequal rights over men. Feminism is about equal rights for both women and men. Men, not just women, can than be feminists (without having to act feminine). I believe in feminism (since my teen years in the 1970s), though I am a man, because I believe in equal rights. The political party in the USA called the Green Party has feminism as a part of its political platform and for a period of time I was a member of that political third-party.

  The entire time I was a ministerial servant I disapproved of the WT/JW policy of not allowing women to be elders and ministerial servants in the congregation, but I went along with the policy because of writings in the Bible attributed to the Apostle Paul teaching such. But, I also (though secretly) disapproved of the Apostle Paul (and thus also the Bible) teaching such. Many years later, after I stopped attending JW meetings (other than the memorial and the conventions for several years), I found at a thrift store an New Testament translated entirely by a woman scholar (who was a baptist) and published by a Baptist publishing house. [Her translation was the second NT to be entirely translated by a woman and the first to be published by a publishing house instead of being self-published. The first one to be translated by a woman was a very literal Bible translated from the Hebrew and Greek (consisting of both the OT and the NT).] It had footnotes saying that Paul was not against women speaking and teaching in the congregations and being deacons in the congregations, and it gave textual reasons in support of such. It also said that in a verse in the NT the Greek text says that a particular woman was a deacon. I was surprised and pleased to learn such and I accepted such as truth.

  The baptist NT Bible translated by a woman interestingly had the name Jehovah used in one verse in the first printing of that NT Bible. That Bible is called the Centenary Translation of the New Testament, Published to signalize the completion of the first hundred years of work of the American Baptist Publication Society, Translated by Helen Barrett Montgomery A. M., D. H, L., LL. D. It is copyright 1924. In a later edition the title was changed (to say, I think, the Montgomery New Testament).

  I purchased a booklet called The Magna Charta of Woman (originally in 1919 published as The "Magna Charta" of Woman "According to the Scriptures"), by Jessie Penn-Lewis. [Its scripture quotes are from the Revised Version Bible of 1884.] That book also says that according the scriptures that women don't have to be silent in the church nor keep their heads covered in church. It also says they should be allowed to preach and teach in the church and I think I read that Montgomery made a reference to that book.
  
• 

  Disillusioned JW

  Revision of last paragraph of prior post: I purchased a booklet called The Magna Charta of Woman (of an edition from 1975, but originally published in 1919 as The "Magna Charta" of Woman "According to the Scriptures"), by Jessie Penn-Lewis (a woman). [Its scripture quotes are from the Revised Version Bible of 1884.] I am also impressed by that book, and that book says that according the scriptures women don't have to be silent in the church nor keep their heads covered in church. It also says women should be allowed to preach and teach in the church. I think I read a reference to that book (or maybe to a reference to woman named Dr. Bushnell") from Montgomery's NT. Reading this book, the NT by Montgomery, and footnotes in the RSV Bible, during the time I was an independent minded Christian (though still attending the JW memorials and some JW conventions at the time) convinced me that the Bible, when translated properly and interpreted accurately, does not forbid women from being deacons or even elders in Christian congregations.
  

  The last paragraph in the "About the Author" section of The Magna Charta of Woman book says the following.

  "Few women in modern times have left so profound an impression on their generation, and few have so boldly and biblically stated the value of their gender. Jessie Penn-Lewis was the embodiment of Women's Liberation in its best and noblest sense." The first chapter of the The Magna Charta of Woman book is called ' "Ye All Can Prophesy...." '.

  Correction: In my recent post about hitting (the one which is two posts prior to this one), where I said "One a young woman ..." I should have said "One time a young woman ...". Where I said " I didn't fight back because I believed that a man should never hit a woman in (at the time) but should I had kicked her back?" I should have said " I didn't fight back because I believed (at the time) that a man should never hit a woman, but should I had kicked back at her?"
• 

  pistolpete

  One a young woman (who was much heavier/fatter than I, and probably taller than I) co-worker kicked me

  That would never happen to me. When I walk through the grocery stores, everybody, man or woman or feminist see me and get out of my way. And when I'm out at night pumping gas, and get out of my truck, women immediately jump into their car and drive away.
  

  I'm kind of a big fellow. My girl is 5' 10" tall and she is almost a foot smaller than me and almost 200lbs lighter than me.

  I like it this way because no one has ever picked a fight with me. Not even when I was in grade school, or High School. 👺
• 

  FedUpJW

  If women are to receive and maintain equal rights with men then that means they should have equal responsibility for their actions and receive equal punishments as men as well.

  One would think so, but the reality is not so. IMO
  
• 

  Disillusioned JW

  The young woman at work one day made an insensitive comment about men (or a man) whose penis had been cut off them (or him) against their (or his) will and while she was smiling (and maybe also laughing) called those men (or a man) "broken men" (or a "broken man"). [Maybe this was at the time in which the news was reporting that a woman cut off the penis of her husband named John Bobbitt; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_Lorena_Bobbitt .] Something she said gave me the impression that she would like to cut off a man's penis. In response I then angrily told her "how would you like it if someone took a drill and drilled out your ovaries?!" That shut her up on the subject of joking about a 'broken man'. Perhaps that was the day she kicked me in the leg; I don't know.