Enticed by Eden spends significant time and resources discussing the negative implications of a "strict" interpretation of Genesis 1-3, along with other passages found in the bible: I'm using "strict" as a word for an interpretation we typically consider more conservative, or literal. Citing instances of how the Bible has been used to suppress women -- as seen in instances where the Bible is used to push women into only the traditional housewife job -- it seems clear that more than a handful of people had perverted these specific passages (or they haven't, and the Bible actually does support ideas that culturally we would describe as sexist).
While one could spend a career discussing whether the Bible actually is sexist or if it is just misinterpreted by some, I found myself more drawn to a different concept: a concept that can be found in Enticed by Eden, but not out right addressed. It's a simple idea: why? Why in a modern, significantly more liberal 21st century world, is this one concept still heavily shown in some Christian circles? There are plenty of "laws" or expectations found in the Bible that have somewhat died out, or that very few (>1%) actually still follow. So why are the passages that promote sexism still so strong? If the answer is simply that there are more passages that promote sexism in the Bible, then why aren't other laws that are mentioned multiple times equally as prevalent? Genesis, similar to any other book, can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. That doesn't answer, however, why this particular interpretation has such a stranglehold on the way (clearly, according to Enticed by Eden) that many view the Book of Genesis.
No comments:
Post a Comment