Originally posted by: Arnie.d
Wow, a lot of reactions since I made the thread yesterday. Thanks everyone and especially C3PX, your post was very clear.
Fortunately this political party is very small and doesn't have enough votes to be of any significance politically.
On another note, a lot of old churches in the Netherlands used to have 2 entrances. 1 in the south wall for the men and 1 in the north wall for the women (although most if not all have been replaced by 1 entrance in the west wall). As I understand it when the churches were build (in the dark/middle ages) people believed everything dark and evil came from the north and it was the fault of a woman, eve, that the Paradise was lost so the women had to enter the church on the north, dark side of the church. Could this believe also have something to do with this religious political party banning women?
Wow, a lot of reactions since I made the thread yesterday. Thanks everyone and especially C3PX, your post was very clear.
Fortunately this political party is very small and doesn't have enough votes to be of any significance politically.
On another note, a lot of old churches in the Netherlands used to have 2 entrances. 1 in the south wall for the men and 1 in the north wall for the women (although most if not all have been replaced by 1 entrance in the west wall). As I understand it when the churches were build (in the dark/middle ages) people believed everything dark and evil came from the north and it was the fault of a woman, eve, that the Paradise was lost so the women had to enter the church on the north, dark side of the church. Could this believe also have something to do with this religious political party banning women?
I don't now where they got the whole evil from the North thing. Historically women have often been considered inequal to men in many cultures. I would say both the silly political party, and the old Netherland churches are both products of misogynistic backgrounds.
Reminds me of an old movie theater in this small town I lived in for a few months. The theater had a front entrance and a side entrance via an alley. The front entrance led to the concession area, then into the theater. While the alley entrance led directly to the balcony. There was no connection from through the front doors where you could get to the balcony, only through the alley entrance. And from the balcony the only way to reach the concession stand or the restrooms was by leaving and entering through the front. This struck me as extremely odd and made no logical sense to me until it was explained to me that the theater was very old, and during the time it was built it was common to make the balcony the "black" section and have it cut off from the rest. Black people bought there tickets at the box office, then were pointed to the alley entrance. They were never allowed to enter into the front, not to buy concessions or to use the restrooms, if they needed to use the restroom during the movie, they had to use the alley. Horrible. I am not that sensitive of a guy, but I was a little choked up after hearing that and having seen the layout of the theater first hand.
Both of the above cases are sickening prejudices.
In the Jewish temple that existed in Jesus' time, there were several distinct areas where only certain people could go. First there was the large open area called the court of gentiles, everybody was allowed here. All gentiles who converted to Judaism were confined to worshiping here. This is also the area that in Jesus' time was being used as a market place for selling animals and exchanging money, which Jesus gets annoyed about at one point and start knocking their tables over. At a point in the court of gentiles there was a barrier that warned gentiles not to pass. After this point there was the court of women, and women were not allowed to go beyond this point (the Netherland churches you mentioned reminded me of this, though it is not quite the same). Next is the court of Israel, where all Jewish men can go, then the court of the priests, where only priests can go, and the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest can go and only once a year. In this case men and women were completely divided for worship, rather than merely having to use two seperate entrances.
Throughout Paul's letters he continually addresses division of men & women and Jew & gentile saying that in Christ these differences no longer exist. At one point Paul even mentions the barrier wall of the temple that seperated the court of the gentiles and the rest of the temple, saying that in Christ this barrier is destroyed.
Some people maybe thinking, "But Paul is clearly a misogynist himself" well, that is not necessarily true. One major example of Paul's misogyny is in 1 Corinthians when he says women must remain silent in the assembly (Church). So women are ineqal and not allowed to speak while men can? If you look a little deeper and do a fair exegesis of the letter to the Corinthians you will find that in other verses he instructs women to take turns when they feel they have something important to say and to be careful not to interupt each other. So if Paul warns them not to interupt each other, then it wouldn't make much sense to say later in the same letter, don't speak at all. What it actually says is for women to keep silent during the assembly and to ask their husbands any questions they had once they get home. In Corinth only men would recieve any kind of formal education, so it seems more like this verse is addressing women who don't understand something turning to their husbands and asking them to explain it to them in the middle of the service, which would be distracting to those people around them, so it makes sense for Paul to say, hey please don't talk during the assembly, save your questions till after it is over. Unfortunately this verse and a few others have been used as an excuse for Christians to continue treating women as inferiors.