Women : Weaker Vessels For God's Purpose

 

Having grown up in a family were we never had a personal car I am very accustomed to public transport, but for some reason I have always shunned buses except when I am travelling to long distances.

 This is because buses are generally slow they take time fill up their capacity and most of them travel on timetables therefore they are usually not the best option when travelling short distances.  

However with the current economic crisis in my country you are made to try out new things all in the name of saving the little money you have. In that same spirit I was made to board a bus over a distance of seventy nine kilometers not because I wanted to but because it was the budget friendly thing to do. A lot of conversations erupted in that bus between passengers and one that caught my attention was about people discussing the role of women in religious circles.

According to one brother in the bus women are not allowed to stand in front of people, women are not allowed to lead churches or start their own churches because women are weaker vessels their place is in the home.

One might want to argue that the Old Testament was patriarchal but there are a number of women who were used by God in way that defied cultural norms and values.In Exodus 15: 20 we find a female prophet Miriam leading a nation in worship. Deborah was another mighty woman in the Old Testament who was a prophet and a judge (Judges 4-5). God spoke directly to these women because He saw their value and worth.

With the coming of Jesus in the New Testament a lot of things changed. We see a number of women actively taking part in Jesus' ministry.  In John Chapter 4 Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at the well. By speaking to her Jesus was breaking societal misconceptions regarding women. Jesus chose this woman to take the Gospel to her village, a FEMALE evangeIist. I do not want to dwell a lot on the Bible because I am not an expert I am still learning but I would like to believe that the Holy book does not support the abuse of women and neither does it view them as a weaker sex and no church that claims that its principles are rooted in the Holy book should do the same.

Religion plays a very important role in the society and this conversation in the bus made me to realise how such a powerful tool can also be misconstrued in the abuse and ill treatment of  women in religious spheres. If we still have  religious doctrines that suppress women's rights then the future of the girl child is not safe. All efforts for the empowerment of women and girls will go in vain if there are still people who view women as weak to such an extent that they cannot take up leadership positions.

Such religious practices fuel violence against women and girls. This is because women are made to believe that they are weaker than men. If women who go to these churches are violated it will not be reported because their religion justifies abuse. My heart bleeds for women who belong to such religious groups because they are being hindered from realising their full potential, from unleashing the power that burns within them. 

If the law of the land supports women empowerment then no religion in the land should be above the law.

We are living in the 21st century archaic religious practices that violate women's rights should not be accepted.

 Religious doctrines and practices should not be manipulated to justify violation of women and girls.

If the works of great women like Deborah, Miriam ,Esther only to mention a few could be documented in the Bible then what stops modern women from participating in religious circles because God does not look at gender but the heart.

Feministry