God & Women’s Mental Health
June 3, 2007
I’ve come to the conclusion once and for all that a male god, especially as presented and defined by fundamentalist Christianity (or any other religion) is not good for women’s mental health. Millions of men swear by the good ole boy in the sky, but I can’t. I think millions of women are just like me, too. I sincerely believe that we concoct our own gods out of our various upbringings. Roopster’s Creation Story pretty much sums up what I believe happened with religion over the centuries. The gods are of our own making. Therefore it makes sense that the myth makers in history, being mostly male, concocted the god of their choosing.
Coming out of fundamentalist religion, which is completely patriarchal, is very hard, emotionally. The threat of hell and punishment is everywhere in the corners of your psyche. The god of fundamentalism is portrayed in the bible and in church and in all the literature as a punishing daddy who wields a rod of chastisement like nobody’s business. Oh the preachers all say god is merciful and loving, but that’s just double-speak. It’s to prevent reasonable people like you and me from running from the church. This god found in the bible and in church is the idol of every fundie parent’s eye and the supreme model for punishing their own children. I find this abhorrent. For every child out there suffering under the rods of their fathers and mothers steeped in fundamentalism, perpetuating the god as father image is tantamount to spiritual and emotional abuse of the worst order. To hold out this god as the ideal husband and father is abusive in itself.
However, fundamentalist men have a vested interest in keeping women under their control. They desire women for breeding, sexual enjoyment, and housekeeping and women are used only for reflecting their little god-sanctioned kingdom: the marital household. There is something destructive in the bible literalist, who demands and demands others become what he wants them to become, unnaturally and without mercy.
I don’t see how the ideas promoted by fundamentalism can EVER be good for women and children. As the most marginalized subset of society, women and children are ripe for exploitation and religion does more harm than good in this respect. As far as my mental health goes, I’ve tried many, many times to “submit” to the god of fundamentalism. When believers try to tell me that there is a difference between the god of the literalists and the god of their imaginations, I say that’s all well and good to say so. Their imaginations must be ten times more powerful than mine because every church I’ve ever been in, every book I’ve ever read on the subject, and every conversation I’ve ever had with believers is predicated on the notion that god is this male. He is this god the father, god the divine “He” that chastises sometimes unto death if we do not behave. I’m not interested in debating the very small distinction between the supposed “true god” and the god preached by millions of bible literalists every day. There is no distinction. It’s a ruse to get you to believe by any means necessary and nothing more.
The god of fundamentalist Christianity cannot bring peace of mind to women without women first denying who they really are at the core. I cannot live in two minds that way. I can’t live worshiping my abuser. I can’t live imagining that I’ve committed sin that a male god finds so offensive he’ll “take me out” of this life to save my soul. I’m going to find my spiritual sustenance elsewhere.
- Mystery Of Iniquity
Entry Filed under: MysteryOfIniquity. Tags: agnostic, Bible, christianity, faith, freethinking, religion, skepticism, spirituality, women.
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1.
jackanapes | June 4, 2007 at 12:06 am
A genuine study of the Bible will find that God is Trinitarian and also beyond gender. God is both Mother and Father as a loving Creator who shows his wonders in nature every day I find a great comfort in the Higher Power who sacrificed so that God can be with is children.
We are all finite humans who put our own resentments and instincts into the mix of what we feel is religion. Do not lean to heavily on your own understanding and seek out ways like this post to find more will be revealed.
To me the greatest promise of heaven is an eternity of finding ever more revelations into the nature of God.
2.
beepbeepitsme | June 4, 2007 at 12:35 am
RE: “A genuine study of the Bible will find that God is Trinitarian and also beyond gender.”
This is why god is the father, jesus is the son and the father AND male and the holy spirit impregnates women.
3.
meghean | June 4, 2007 at 1:51 am
All the dominant religions are written in a masculine voice. Even though in Judaism, the Torah states that God is both genders, it is often referred to as he for “convenience”. Essentially there is no spiritual path for women. It has all been designed with men in mind. If God is both genders, we are missing half of the picture. If God is beyond genders, then we’ve got it all wrong. Either way, I think there’s way more to it then what we have now.
4.
brad | June 4, 2007 at 2:46 am
“A genuine study of the Bible will find that God is Trinitarian and also beyond gender.”
Genuine? Positively re-constructionist maybe, but hardly genuine or critical.
5.
HeIsSailing | June 4, 2007 at 7:18 am
meghean sez:
“Even though in Judaism, the Torah states that God is both genders, it is often referred to as he for “convenience”. ”
Where in the Torah does it say that God is both genders? I disagree. El, or YHVH is most definitely portrayed as a Male Diety.
6.
mysteryofiniquity | June 4, 2007 at 8:45 am
Jackanapes,
As usual, women are accused of not “genuinely” studying the scriptures and bringing our own personal biases to the table. Notice that men are usually not accused of this. It’s called scholarship when they do it. It’s a tired argument.
What’s really a crime about this whole one sided feminist debate is how fundamentalist men will ignore the feminist argument and chalk it up to hormones, emotions, being Eve’s offspring, (insert pet qualifier here) rather than seriously address the issue that is brought up. They simply will not contend with the female half of the human race. With these blinders and this obvious bias, there is no reasoning with them.
7.
brad | June 4, 2007 at 2:16 pm
mystery,
A “genuine” investigation of the scriptures will, in every incidence, proclaim a patriarchal male deity - feminists are welcome to reclaim the feminine character of God, but using the Bible is not the place to do it. It is a patriarchal book - written by men for men’s “benefit”. Any attempt to see the Bible as otherwise is a delusional attempt to re-write literary history in the name of fanaticism; fanaticism is not exclusive to fundamentalist Christians.
8.
mysteryofiniquity | June 4, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Brad,
So you’re saying that feminist Christians should just hand the bible over to men and take a “hands off” approach when they take on biblical scholarship? Why should this be? If Christian women aren’t even allowed to find, within the scriptures of their faith community, a God that is approachable to women without sexism, and therefore glossed over by men, then why should men be allowed to do the same? Men have no more right to control them than women do! Have you even read any feminist scholarship such as Reuther’s “Feminism and God-Talk” or Elizabeth Johnson’s “She Who Is” which redeems the scriptures from patriarchal control? Have you read the Women’s Bible Commentary? It can be done and doesn’t have to have a patriarchal conclusion.
Also are you deeming feminist Christians as “fanatics” for attempting to wrest the study of scriptures from an exclusively male grasp? Are you marginalizing feminist scholarship because you declare the outcome before it’s even gotten started? Now I’ve heard everything. Pot meet kettle.
9.
beepbeepitsme | June 4, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I thought this would have been a clue.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are referred to as the three patriarchs of the bible which is where the word “patriarchy” is derived.
Patriarchy is a family or society in which authority is vested in males, through whom descent and inheritance are traced.
The patriarchs trace their heritage back to the “ultimate male patriarch”, gawd, who also made a cursory visit supposedly as jesus christ.
10.
beepbeepitsme | June 4, 2007 at 7:03 pm
You can’t be a feminist and a christian unless you want to rewrite history. Good luck on that one.
11.
agnosticatheist | June 4, 2007 at 10:24 pm
bbim,
I would say you can’t be a modern day Christian without rewriting the Bible …. and that is done everyday.
Christianity today says God is a loving, caring, compassionate FATHER in heaven. The Bible does not support this view. Christianity today says that women can speak in church. The Bible does not support this view. Christianity today says that a man can marry a divorced woman. The Bible doesn’t support this view. Of course, the passages about homosexuality hasn’t been rewritten yet but hopefully they will be soon
aA
12.
mysteryofiniquity | June 5, 2007 at 7:46 am
BBIM,
And what’s wrong with rewriting history and starting anew? Remaking God in our own image if we so choose? Men did it. Why can’t women?
13.
Heather | June 5, 2007 at 11:22 am
I think there’s a difference between re-writing history and re-writing the Bible. For instance, the Reformation radically re-wrote history, but no Protestant would ever say that they re-wrote the Bible.
Same with feminisim. It’s re-writing history, in the manner of which the Bible was interpreted. But I tend to see it as exploring aspects of the Bible that have been overlooked for too long *by* history.
14.
mysteryofiniquity | June 5, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Heather,
True. You can never truly “re-write” history, but you can redeem history and it’s uglier aspects for future generations.
15.
noogatiger | June 5, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Ok lets get one thing straight. God, (if he, or she, or whatever) is even out there somewhere, he or she or it had nothing to do with the Bible. This book is, as stated, a book by men, about men, the women and slaves they owned, and the God they made up to suit their needs. You don’t even need to consider the Bible except as a book of myth, poetry and women hating ways.
After that you can develop your view of God in whatever gender or form that you wish. It it totally up to you. Your guess is as good as anyones. Nobody knows who or where or even if God is there at all.
The Bible is not God’s Word in any shape, form, size, translation, or original copies. Time to move on.
16.
mysteryofiniquity | June 5, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Noogatiger,
Good to see you over here!!
Now, if we moved on. What ELSE would we have to talk about?