Without women it is debatable that we would have Christianity today
Modern Protestantists and Roman Catholics owe their existence to priest ridden and church going women
To the mother who teaches her son his first bible lesson, to the wife or sister who forces her husband or brother to accompany her to church
To the emotional spinster the admirer of every popular preacher, to the legions of women who support their church
And yet the predecessors of these churchmen have for fifteen centuries degraded women from every pulpit
The early Church fathers denounced women as noxious animals, necessary evils, and domestic perils
Fierce invectives against the sex form a conspicuous and grotesque portion of the writings of the fathers
Gamble says in the forth century holy men gravely argued the question "ought women to be called human beings?"
But let the Christian fathers speak for themselves.
Tertullian in the following flattering manner, addresses women: "You are the devil's gateway, the unsealer of the forbidden tree, the first deserter from the divine law. You are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed God's image - man
Clement of Alexandria says "It brings shame to reflect of what nature woman is"
Gregory Thaumaturgus says "One man among a thousand may be pure; a woman, never"
Woman is the organ of the devil - St Bernard
Her voice is the hissing of the serpent - St Anthony
Woman is the instrument which the devil uses to get possession of our souls - St Cyprian
Woman is a scorpion - St Bonaventure
The gate of the devil, the road of iniquity - St Jerome
Woman is a daughter of falsehood, a sentinel of hell, the enemy of peace - St John Damascene
Of all wild beasts the most dangerous is woman - St John Chrysostom
Enough!
If you have interest in how abusive Christianity has been to women look to the supremacy and honor the women of ancient Aryavarta had been elevated
Also from the earliest times of which we can catch a glimpse the women of Egypt enjoyed a freedom and independence of which modern nations are only beginning to dream
In the legends of early Rome we have ample evidence both of the high moral estimate of women and of their prominence in Roman life
The inequality and oppression which related to women disappeared from pagan laws
The consequence was that the situation of the Roman female whether married or unmarried became one of great personal and proprietary independence
But Christianity tended from the very first to narrow this remarkable liberty
The jurisconsults of the day contended for better laws for wives, but the Church prevailed in most instances, and established the most oppressive ones
There is not a more cruel chapter in history than that which records the arrest, by Christianity, of the natural growth of European civilisation regarding women
And one can surmise that man left to rule without check or balance has brought us to many of the difficulties we face today
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So few know the true history of Christianity with regard to women, however the ongoing fight about ordaining women Bishops today gives us a glimpse of that behaviour
Ponder this
In nature the female is the source of all life
Without woman human life cannot exist!
Every human male has a mother!
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The truth is usually more interesting than current mythology
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Make it your business to learn the truth about things that are in your life.
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