TROUBLING CHRISTIAN QUOTES ABOUT WOMEN
Below we post some troubling quotes made by The Church, The Bible and Christian leaders about women.
EDITORIAL NOTE: We want to make very clear that we are certainly not opposed to all Christian people. There are many fine Christian people today. However, certain aspects of Christian theology have had disastrous effects on world history, and this is why they are listed. In particular, the largest campaign of religious persecution and mass murder in world history came from Biblical theology. It became law in 395 and remained in force until the eighteenth century. This is also true of laws requiring the mass murder of all gay people and the repression of women.
See also our reports on: Christian Totalitarianism Troubling Bible Quotes Christianity and Slavery Bible and Sex
WOMEN SHOULD BE FORCED TO SERVE MEN
"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." (I Corinthians 11:3)
"For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." (I Corinthians 11:8-9)
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5:22-24)
"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)
"A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ." —Official statement of Southern Baptist Convention, summer 1998 (15.7 million members)
"The word and works of God is quite clear, that women were made either to be wives or prostitutes." —Martin Luther, Reformer (1483-1546)
"Men have broad and large chests, and small narrow hips, and more understanding than women, who have but small and narrow breasts, and broad hips, to the end they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children." —Martin Luther
"Thus the woman, who had perversely exceeded her proper bounds, is forced back to her own position... she is cast into servitude." —John Calvin, founder of Puritan movement (1509-1564)
"Do not any longer contend for mastery, for power, money, or praise. Be content to be a private, insignificant person" —John Wesley, founder of all modern evangelism and the Methodist movement (1703-1791), letter to his wife, July 15, 1774
WOMEN SHOULD BE FORCED TO KEEP QUIET AND MEEKLY FOLLOW MALE AND CHURCH TEACHING
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (I Corinthians 14:34-35)
"Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (I Timothy 2:11-14)
WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE WISE
"No gown worse becomes a woman than the desire to be wise." Martin Luther
SEXUALITY: WOMEN SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEIR SEXUALITY
AND SHOULD ALLOW ALLOW THEIR SEX LIVES TO BE CONTROLLED BY THE CHURCH
"It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality." (Thessalonians 4:3)
"Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul." (The Catholic Church).
BIBLICAL AUTHORIZATION FOR THE MURDER OF SEXUALLY ACTIVE
YOUNG WOMEN
If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can
be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the
men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in
Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge
the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21)
ALL SEX OUTSIDE OF CHURCH-APPROVED MARRIAGE IS BANNED
"Only in marriage do we find God’s blessing upon the act of sexual love, or what is better termed, marital love." (Catholic News Agency)
WOMEN ARE FORBIDDEN TO ENJOY ORAL OR ANAL SEX
"Examples of unnatural sexual acts include oral sexual acts, anal sexual acts, and manipulative sexual acts
(i.e. masturbation of self or of another). All unnatural sexual acts are intrinsically evil and always gravely immoral "
Questions and Answers on Catholic Marital Sexual Ethics by Ronald L. Conte Jr.)
"Oral and anal intercourse were often punished by more years of penance than for premeditated murder."
(Wikipedia) "Catholic teachings on sexual morality")
WOMEN SHOULD BE FORCED TO SUBMIT TO CHURCH DRESS CODES
"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety" (1 Timothy 2:9)
“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 22:5)
"If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off." (1 Corinthians 11:6)
MANDATE FOR RELIGIOUS MASS MURDER OF ALL GAY PEOPLE
"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death." Leviticus 20:13
"Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity." (Catechism of Catholic Church 2357)
"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even [1]
their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature:
And likewise also [2] the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which
is unseemly,
and receiving in themselves that recompense [penalty] of their error which was meet. [due]" (Rom. 1:26-27)
RAPE OF WOMEN IS SOMETIMES OK
"Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go." (Judges 19:24-25)
"If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silvers, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days." (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
THE INHERENT EVIL AND INFERIORITY OF WOMEN:
"Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die." (Ecclesiastes 25:24)
"For from garments cometh a moth, and from women wickedness. Better is the churlishness of a man than a courteous woman, a woman, I say, which bringeth shame and reproach." (Eccles. 42:13-14)
"Give me any plague, but the plague of the heart: and any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman." (Eccles. 25:13)
"If she go not as thou wouldest have her, cut her off from thy flesh, and give her a bill of divorce, and let her go." (Eccles. 25: 26)
"The whoredom of a woman may be known in her haughty looks and eyelids. If thy daughter be shameless, keep her in straitly, lest she abuse herself through overmuch liberty." (Eccles. 26:9-10)
"A silent and loving woman is a gift of the Lord: and there is nothing so much worth as a mind well instructed. A shamefaced and faithful woman is a double grace, and her continent mind cannot be valued." (Eccles. 26:14-15)
"A shameless woman shall be counted as a dog; but she that is shamefaced will fear the Lord." (Eccles.26:25)
"[For women] the very consciousness of their own nature must evoke feelings of shame." —Saint Clement of Alexandria, Christian theologian (c150-215) Pedagogues II, 33, 2
"Woman is a temple built over a sewer." Tertullian, the "father of Latin Christianity”
"In pain shall you bring forth children, woman, and you shall turn to your husband and he shall rule over you. And do you not know that you are Eve? God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway; you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die... Woman, you are the gate to hell." —Tertullian, the "father of Latin Christianity” (c160-225)
WOMEN AS DEFECTIVE MEN
Woman was merely man's helpmate, a function which pertains to her alone. She is not the image of God but as far as man is concerned, he is by himself the image of God." —Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius (354-430)
"Woman does not possess the image of God in herself but only when taken together with the male who is her head, so that the whole substance is one image. But when she is assigned the role as helpmate, a function that pertains to her alone, then she is not the image of God. But as far as the man is concerned, he is by himself alone the image of God just as fully and completely as when he and the woman are joined together into one." —Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius (354-430)
"Woman is a misbegotten man and has a faulty and defective nature in comparison to his. Therefore she is unsure in herself. What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions. And so, to put it briefly, one must be on one's guard with every woman, as if she were a poisonous snake and the horned devil. ... Thus in evil and perverse doings woman is cleverer, that is, slyer, than man. Her feelings drive woman toward every evil, just as reason impels man toward all good." —Saint Albertus Magnus, Dominican theologian, 13th century
"As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence." —Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, 13th century
RELIGIOUS MANDATE FOR THE MASS MURDER OF WOMEN FOLLOW THE OLD (PRE-CHRISTIAN) RELIGIONS
AND WHO DON'T
COOPERATE WITH CHURCH RULES
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18-20)
This led to endless "witch hunts" leading to the torture and mass murder of hundreds of thousands of women since 395, when the Church assumed total power in the Roman Empire, until the eighteenth century. For more details see our report Christian Totalitarianism for a complete documentary history of what happened.