Does the Bible Abuse Women?

One of our supporters sent us a link to Holly's blog today. Here Holly quotes some passages from the work of: Dee L. R. Graham - New York University Press, 1994. The work is incredibly hateful to males, but it's difficult to dismiss because there are seeds of truth in many of the accusations. However, the research is dated and the new things we have learned about men, battering, and verbal abuse have not been explored in this monologue.

YouAreATarget.com does not advocate hating men or "getting" even with the abusive people in our lives. It advocates respecting ourselves and our choices and taking responsibility for those choices. People will only abuse you verbally to the extent that you allow it.

That being said, Dee Graham did bring up the Bible-

Do the Biblical texts of terror {...} function as verbal abuse (to women)?

An interesting article by Sue Bohlin: 5 Lies the Church Tells Women, attempts to answer this

A comprehensive study on domestic violence in the church in the mid 80's revealed that 26 percent of the pastors counseled an abused wife to keep submitting and trust that God would either stop the abuse or give her the strength to endure it. About a fourth of the pastors believed that abuse is the wife's fault because of her lack of submission! And a majority of the pastors said it is better for wives to endure violence against them than to seek a separation that might end in divorce.

It is often Paul who gets quoted to persuade people that the bible states women are inferior and to be submissive to your husband, but this site says that it is taken out of context:

Paul writes that "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:22). This may seem like a universal principle. But he says in the verse immediately preceding, "Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ" (5:21). The same verb is used. One cannot validly make verse 22 into a universal principle without searching out how it relates to the entire passage.

And finally, I am not an atheist but they do have ways of getting us to think. At this site, Holy Bible Quotations, List a lot (200) quotes that abuse women and children!!!!! Check it out. Then, Did you think you know your Bible? I took this Bible Quiz and was shocked!!!! I got a pretty good score but never-the-less, a few of these facts were never even on my radar--I guarantee that you don't know as much as you think you do!