You have said that You’ll once would devote a blog to the position of women ?
So be it.
It is a strange phenomenon that in many religions women are suppressed. Even in a lot of New Age movements conservatism is common, saying a woman should know her place.
Indeed, a woman should know her place: namely being special, and equivalent to a man and having her rights and standing beside the man and in no way deserving any oppression and discrimination.
Concerning countries and people, religions and movements suppressing women and their talents, God says loud and clear, it’s had his day. The right road of mankind is the one on which men and women join equally and beside each other for the benefit of humanity.
There is no other way. God is telling you this. There is no other way.
I will refer to some salient points in the history of mankind. And of course We do not make a scientific exercise out of it.
God isn’t a theologian.
- Is the
woman made out of a rib or made out of the side of the man? The symbolism of
this is essential: the woman is not made out of a rib, this is implying
the man was earlier. And there we get fairytales. The rib is just a part
of the body of the man, so to say inferior.
It is an allegory: in the beginning there was the image of the human and from that image, the man and the woman are made. And of course side by side, so beside each other. Beside each other. Actually co-evolved. So let it be said: simultaneously and equally, the primacy is not for the man. In nature, it happens quite often the male is dominant, but not all the time. Often couples have been around together, working together. The variation in nature does exist among humans as well: there have been matriarchies, and nowadays there are a lot of patriarchies. It is now time for equality. - Judaism: Conservative groups are still acquainted with the dominance of men over women. Liberal movements have grown familiar with female rabbis and these rabbis are doing great. God likes this a lot: a female rabbi leading a group of men. It was about time for some correction and nuance. Orthodox groups, as in Israel, will be past one’s prime, this can’t last much longer.
- Hinduism: in this religion the feminine aspect has always gotten much leeway. Variation, colorfulness, emotion and imagination of Hinduism correspond more with the spiritual world than other religions do realize. Tara of Compassion and Durga the Goddess are Hindu Goddesses/Maria’s. But the practice of Hinduism has long been colored by partly primitive, undeveloped and disadvantaged people. The repression, the contempt for women, the suffering of women are great. But that is mainly a matter of social determination. The religion isn’t really causing this. Karma is misused for a fatalistic attitude to life. The gap between the ideal of religion and the practical reality is large in Hinduism. Better education and access to healthcare will generate female-friendly practice.
- Buddhism: Here is the male-female relation considerable quiet, it has flourished particularly among people with more development and civilization. Female Buddhas came, for example Kuan Yin (She who hears the cries of the world, a Buddhist Mary) and relatively many female pastors. A liberal movement on this field is Zen, a more orthodox variant is the Tibetan Buddhism. Furthermore is the practical reality often recalcitrant. But the philosophy of Buddhist religion in principle doesn’t prevent women's emancipation. More often the traditional society is imprisoning for debt a religion, maybe for long, but not for ever.
- Christianity: the first Christian communities were exceedingly emancipated. Specially because they still remembered the both holy Mary's. The Mary’s persisted at Christ's side, where the brethren, except John, had fled. The Mother Mary and the loving Magdalene. What a hymn, they have earned. These holy women, one always remaining holy, the other becoming holy in lifetime, their courage, their heart, their openness, their strength, their confidence, their leadership, their inspiration, their imitation of Christ. But the later patriarchy has brushed aside the women and has purged their stories, so the New Testament has many gaps. Orthodox Christian tendencies, including Catholic, have created in this manner institutions, where the woman doesn’t exist. But God will find a way to express the female element. To the Catholics it is Mary, the Mother, the eternal image of the Goddess, the feminine aspect of God, the Guardian, the loving One. And to the Protestants it is the Holy Spirit as feminine element, the Pigeon. Or practically through female ministers. A really bad reputation, in terms of the emancipation of women, do have, the orthodox Protestant tendencies: God is asking them: "where is the female aspect in your teachings?" Isn't God not the Father-Mother God?
- Islam: Important to notify is the setting of a misogynistic time and society in which the Quran has written. There are pretty respectful sutra's on women, and the Quran has contributed a lot to the emancipation of women in a misogynistic environment. But the picture nowadays is: too little, too poor emancipation, too much patriarchy and misogyny. The woman as a threat to the morality of the man. That’s not in the bargain. I therefore prefer to look at liberal tendencies. Female Soefie’s are pleasing God a lot. The Enlightenment must have his influence on the Islam. But this will happen the next 25 years.
- New age and spiritual movements: it is amazing to be seen how in this modern time a lot of tendencies among spiritual secularists and new agers come up based upon conservative and misogynistic lyrics. God is liberal, woman friendly and righteous. Eventually, only the emancipated currents will survive. The rest will become extinct like the dinosaurs. That’s how We “upstairs” consider tendencies. They really will be out of date. We encourage the development of spiritual tendencies where women give the key, go for the inspiration, if only as an overtaking maneuver.
- The secularization / the present: it is remarkable that the emancipation of women has progressed most in very secularized societies. God is supporting this. And I refer to previous blogs, where God is making a difference between Form and Content and is stating that Sacred Books are only guidelines, no codes of law. Without Enlightenment, without the Declaration of the Rights of Man, without the United Nations as the guardian of a new morality, without secular institutions without science you would have a misogynistic world. Be aware of the fact that exactly these institutions are designed and encouraged and helped by God. Sometimes even more than religions.
- The
future: misogyny has had its day and will disappear in the future. Your world
will only florish among cosmic, spiritual people, when the equality between
women and men has been established fully on earth. And this time is closer than
you think, even if this will ghappen unwillingly. But that is a topic for another
blog.
My blessings to you all
Nr. 34
