American Women Rising Up for Religious Equality
Written by author Leora Tanenbaum, this book provides an examination of religious inequities that goes beyond the borders of evangelicalism in 21st century America. Tanenbaum gives us a view of what women negotiate within the men's world of power in Western Islamic circles, American Catholic women, and Jewish women. In other words, she takes a look at the lives of women within the monotheistic spiritual traditions found in the United States. In other words, the women of The Book.
I haven't read the entire book. As I've said, I have competing titles with class work...but I headed straight into chapter four which addresses the plight of Evangelical women, a tribe I am very familiar with as it is the tribe I hail from.
She begins this chapter recounting a visit she had a Bible study where the trained seminarians sought to liberate Bible-loving Christ followers with a new perspective on those troublesome Paulist texts that make God sound like a man-favoring women-must-be-treated-as-less kind of Deity. No, says the seminarians Tanenbaum spoke to.
"People might be surprised that the very instrument that has been used for oppression - interpretation of the Bible - can also be the source of liberation," says Alena Amato Ruggerio, a professor of communication at Southern Oregon University.
She goes on to deftly unpack the worldview of patriarchy that is prevalent in mainstream Christianity with anecdotal examples as well as solid journalism. Such as the woman she interviewed who was a typical Evangelical Christian woman except that she questions the idea of what is known in theology as "male headship." This is Christianese which sugarcoats the notion that Men Lead, women follow as this is God's divine order of things. End of story. The author, who herself is Jewish, accurately portrays the obstacles for women for true equity within the Christian church, such as access to all positions of spiritual leadership as well as equal footing in all relationships, whether in the home or in the ministry. (We are all meant to serve and lead in different spheres., in my opinion.) The woman in this example well expressed the tension she bucked up against not only with others, but also with herself:
"If God is real and God created me, then God created me with this personality in order for me to take a leadership role," she protests. "I'm called to be a leader in certain situations, and if it's my personality to step into that role, then I should do it rather than sit back and submit. I think God created me this way for a reason, and it's not an accident that I'm this way, an dit's not something cultural tha thappened to me to make me this way and that therefore I shouldn't be this way. So I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people, including myself, just don't understand what the bible is saying." (page 94)
Tanenbaum doesn't overly emphasize the Evanglical Christian tradition. That would be me, for this is the tribe I am most familiar with. She takes a hard look at her own tribe of Judaism with the fitting chapter title, God Gave the Torah to Jewish Women, Too. But I was especially struck with the parallel struggles of American Muslim women. Their struggle for equality is nearly identical to Evangelical women. The parsing and bickering over meanings of passages and words written eons ago keeps much of the debate centered on whether or not men and women can pray in the same room side by side. I was pleased Tanenbaum quoted Ingrid Mattson, an Islamic leader in America and the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America. ( I had a chance to hear her speak in Seattle a couple of years ago through an event with Off the Map. )
So even though I haven't exhaustively read this book from cover to cover, I highly recommend it for those scholars and thinkers, writers and activists who are not content to continue to ignore the chasm of inequity defended in the name of Yahweh, Allah and Jesus. The chapter on language, women and worship alone is worth the weight of this book where the author examines the exclusionary tenor of sacred writing when it comes to women. Just this morning I was reviewing some note taking I began last year of looking closely at the gospels and the mention of women. It is most definitely a male-dominated document. There is a lot more to say about that, but I will leave it there and encourage you to get this book and read it...and then act on it in whatever way would make sense for the tradition you find yourself in.
1 comments:
I don't know about these uppity women. First they get tattoos, and then they think they know the Bible as well as men! Sheesh! :)
I'm learning more and more that the liberating effects of the Gospel include women in every way, including theological.
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