Showing posts with label muslim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label muslim. Show all posts

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Christianity Never Allowed Polygamy

So I have a passion for religions. I like to investigate their secular history and their actual teachings and the history behind the words in their religious books.
I also am a feminist and so I am interested in how women are treated and their response to their religion.
I have noticed a common theme amongst Muslim feminists that I simply must critique and correct. I continually read amongst Muslin feminists that Christianity somehow is pro-polygamy, that is somehow fine by scripture. This is simply not true. Christianity has never allowed polygamy and from the very first church leaders said polygamy was against the bible. I just think somewhere there should be a website that corrects this misconception. Listen, if you want to argue that your religion is for women's equality, fine go ahead, but don't do it by lying about mine.
For instance,
Mark 10:11 - 12: "He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her. If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.""
This is pretty clear to me - marrying another woman is adultery. Now this is addressing adultery and when it does and does not occur, but by implication if a guy cannot marry a new woman without committing adultery against his first wife, then surely cannot marry a second wife while still married to the first one. (I am not commenting on appropriate grounds of divorce, because I am not 100% sure whether this condemns all divorce or if there are still grounds since we are "hard of heart")
Jesus in Mark also discusses the whole two become one thing. You know, when man and woman married Not 3 become 1 or 4 become 1, but 2 become 1. Pretty implicit in this is the fact that marriage is only between two people.

The earliest Christian leaders also condemned polygamy:
"Chapter II.-Marriage Lawful, But Not Polygamy. We do not indeed forbid the union of man and woman, blest by God as the seminary of the human race, and devised for the replenishment of the earth and the furnishing of the world, and therefore permitted, yet Singly. For Adam was the one husband of Eve, and Eve his one wife, one woman, one rib. (ANF: Tertullian, To His Wife c. 207)

At no time in all of Christian history was the Christian faith ever in favor of polygamy (there may have been crazy sects out there that did as there are crazy sects that do it today, but never in any accepted Christian form and never permitted under the teachings of Christ).

The honest fact is that Christ treated women equally. Any inequality in the Christian church does not stem from the words of Christ, but instead later followers of his, such as Paul. This is why I say that inneracy in terms of the new testament makes no sense. It seems quite obvious to me that the biases of Paul should not suppress the teachings of Christ which is what happens under the inneracy concept.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Religious Public School? Violate the Constitution Much?

So I am a pretty big proponent of the constitution. You know, it protects my rights and all that. Now some people say that the raid on the child abuse cult named FLDS is against the constitution. I say that is crazy. They have tried pretty hard to follow the constitution. What with responding a call, seeking appropriate permission from the courts, delaying charging any of the men until they have solidified the proof, etc.

However, there is something in our country that is completely counter to our constitution and no one is talking about it. I am talking about a Muslim Charter School in Minnesota.
(For article discussing the school go to: http://www.startribune.com/local/17406054.html).

The school is a public school, funded by the government, that is run by an Imam and follows Muslim religious teachings included prayer, not prayer time, but organized prayer led by a muslim religious leader, and a class in islamic teachings, which though apparently not mandatory and at the end of the day is essentially mandatory as no buses come until after the class, teachers must stay for it, and students essentially forced to sit in the room until it is done. They also are being pretty secretive and won't let in people who want to investigate whether it actually is impermissibly teaching religion (from all that I have read, I am going to guess yes).

So I am going to say violation of the constitution. Now, I am all for religious schools. I went to one as a child and will probably send my child to one, but at a public school, where one religion is put forth and forced upon the students, I am pretty much going to say that is against the constitution.

Where are people standing up in outrage at this one?