TELEVANGELISM: THE GOSPEL OF PROSPERITY

Introduction

What most of us today imagine as a religious institution is usually a modest, peaceful, and spiritual building. It houses a place of worship; a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque, and most likely, has a person who is trained to lead services in his or her particular religion with the ability to counsel the members of these religious institutions or organizations. These clergy are usually given a yearly salary through their congregation’s offerings or through a national denomination group‘s charitable donations, these contributions are also called tithing. This tithing is also used to help congregation members when they have some type of financial problem and to help local charities, to feed and clothe the poor in the community.

Different from basic religious intuitions or organizations televangelists and their mega-churches send out their flamboyant mesmerizing and at times disturbing sermons on to your radio, television, and internet. With studios that look more like Hollywood sets than a place of religious worship; showing a strange mixture of Christianity, spiritual drama, and wealth. These ministries can be heard and seen in your home twenty-four hours a day; seven days a week. These ministers speak of a version of the Christian gospels that is called the “gospel of prosperity” which is also called the “law of reciprocity“. This is the belief that donating money, or tithing to God, creates wealth and a place in heaven for the donor. These televangelists also strongly use the vivid imagery of hell, damnation, and Armageddon, to pull the listener into their messages of tithing and its blessings. Though, not a new concept in Christianity, it takes a very modern tone in these ministries showing the listener all he or she can have if they just follow the “gospel of prosperity“ and what may be their fate if they do not give to God. They use people’s generosity, religious beliefs, fears, uncertainties, and sometimes greed, to raise donations in the name of God and charity. But is this morally and legally right? Can you really buy your way to heaven by tithing? Or is this just another telemarketing scam?

Televangelism: Business, Political, or Religious Organization

Television and radio ministries have been around for decades, pulling listeners in with their strong messages of Christian salvation. Televangelists like Billy Graham and Oral Roberts started the movement of ministering to people in their own homes, through television and radio programming formatted to entertain the listener and to provide another religious outlet that was not just in a church pew on a Sunday morning. These ministers’ message was a strong old Southern Pentecostal style of Christianity, pulling from scriptures that focus heavily on the belief of salvation only through Jesus Christ. They relied heavily on the belief in faith healing through the laying on of hands and spiritual and physical prosperity through giving. They also focused on the belief in the Rapture at the End of Days, which is the belief that Christians will be taken physically up to heaven before the war of Armageddon, which will be fought by Jews and other non-Christians. Armageddon will end by all non-Christians being annihilated because of their lack of belief in Jesus Christ, all Christians will then return to earth, and Jesus Christ’s second coming will be complete. These images were not only to encourage Christians to stay faithful to Jesus Christ, but to bring in more listeners for the televangelists and their ministries.

Television and radio ministries were a new way to proselytize to a mass audience starting out nationwide and gradually growing worldwide, taking their message to a variety of cultures and countries that in some cases had never heard of the Christian religion or its message and scriptures. This was a more efficient way to spread the word than the old traveling missionaries that had to journey around the world to proselytize to the masses. These ministers also found that it could bring in a lot of donations from eager donors. These donors wanted an easy way to spirituality, believing it would help forgive their sins and would create a better existence if they gave to God. They also hoped to create wealth and protection from poverty and all its damaging side effects. Donors also believed that giving to God would save them from physical and spiritual annihilation, guaranteeing them a place in heaven during the Rapture and war of Armageddon in the future. This made it not only a way to minister to the millions but to raise millions of dollars yearly through their listeners’ hopes and fears. The profits from these early media ministries started a whole new media system, based entirely on the concept of saving souls through television, radio, publishing, and much later the internet. These ministries were based on worship, healing, and salvation through tithing.

Today there are Christian religious programs on most cable and local television and radio stations. There are cable stations like The Christian Broadcast Network (TBN) and satellite companies like the Angel Network, that devote themselves entirely to Christian programming and ministries throughout the United States and the world. Many of these televangelists have or are affiliated with what is called today mega-churches, which bring in even more congregation membership and revenue for their ministries.

These ministries also have their own websites, and own or are invested in publishing and film companies who create all forms of Christian entertainment, including books, magazines, television shows, movies, and video games. These are all based entirely on Christian news, lifestyle, scripture, and belief. These media outlets raise billions every year from their listeners’ charitable donations. They promote the belief that if you give to them as a church and charity, and buy their products, that you are giving to God‘s kingdom guaranteeing you earthly wealth and a place in heaven.

Televangelists tell their audiences that the money that is donated is biblical tithing, money that is going directly to God, his kingdom, and people. This money will create wealth for them, the donor is told, and is going to those who are needy around the world. Televangelists use their own interpretation of Christian scripture on giving and charity called the “gospel of prosperity” to convince their followers that poverty is caused by not believing that wealth is good and a natural spiritual state of being a true Christian. The richer you are as a Christian the more you are closer to God and his favor. These ministers use psychological reinforcement to make the listeners feel special or superior to those who are suffering in the world. This makes poverty a curse from God making believers of the “gospel of prosperity” feel that the poor are sinning somehow, and if they are poor, making them believe they must give no matter how. To insure that followers give to their organizations, televangelists create different interpretation of the Old Testament (the Torah) and New Testament (the Christian bible).

The ‘prosperity gospel” keeps reminding listeners that poverty is a curse from God, and donating your last dollar is the only way to save yourself from this curse. There is no other way to atone for your sins, than to send money to, whichever televangelist you are listening too. Televangelists use extreme psychological and business tactics to get listeners to pick up their phones and donate. They sell religion in the same way telemarketers sell you products and services, anything from friendly persuasion to outright spiritual threats, using God and the fear of damnation as their sale’s tools. They play on people’s weaknesses, desires, basic needs, and spiritual fears, particularly, targeting those who have been raised in the Pentecostal faith or other Evangelical denominations. They prey on the elderly and their retirement benefits and real estate holdings, and they also pray on those with fixed incomes. Those who they know are having spiritual doubts in their own religious experiences, whether Christian or not, are also targeted. These ministers feel that those weak in faith may be easily converted to their viewpoints and interpretations of Christianity through fear tactics. Televangelists make themselves the only path to God and salvation, for the millions who listen to their messages. Televangelists pull heavily on the Christian tradition of never questioning a member of the clergy or their view of what is right or wrong, which would be considered rude. Many of these listeners do not understand Christian scripture, and feel it is not their place to understand. They feel that because it is a minister (a man or woman of God), they can trust them and their interpretation of biblical scripture because they have been anointed by God Himself. To question anything these ministers say would be a sin against God himself. These ministries also want to generate an atmosphere of distrust when it comes to the secular world for their followers, making them more emotionally and spiritually depended on them for their spiritual and physical well-being. They rely on people’s gullibility and ignorance of their own religion or political viewpoints, speaking out against any form of intellectualism, whether it is religious or secular. If their listeners start asking too many questions, these ministers fear they will stop listening to them. This would stop the donations coming, which would affect their ministries. Ignorance is bliss for these businesses.

Listeners are told on these ministries’ websites, television, and radio programs how they can send in as little as a dollar, twenty dollars or thousands of dollars. Payments can be made by cash, check, credit card, money order, and direct-deposit. They can be made one-time-only, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, and yearly or whatever is convenient for the donor. Listeners are encouraged to give in various ways. They can give stock from companies that they have invested in. They can give IRA and annuities in portions, sharing their retirement with a televangelist’s ministry of their choice. Donors can give property as gifts, receiving a partial payment from the ministry, and avoiding the capital gains tax. Donors can also give estate gifts, by putting the ministry in their wills, to avoid estate taxes. Listeners are shown products like jewelry, books, DVDs, CDs, and other products with Christian imagery and subject matter, that they can receive for even more charitable giving. They are also encouraged to go buy these products in their local Christian book stores and national Christian websites. Most listeners do no truly know where their hard earned money goes; they just send it in without any questions.

Televangelists like Pat Robertson, Joyce Meyers, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, John Hagee, and others, look more like corporate business leaders and political lobbyists than your basic clergy at your local place of worship. With the use of Christian scriptures and imagery, good business skills and management, and psychological tactics, they gain wealth through the selling of salvation, blessings, and the pardoning of sins. The money they raise from listeners is used to invest in many businesses like cattle, movies, book and magazine publishing, diamond mines, nutritional and vitamin companies, amusement parks, and various other investments. These investments have nothing to do with basic religious ceremony or duties, or charitable outreach and giving. Televangelists live a lavish lifestyle through their listeners’ donations and gifts, with large salaries that allow for multi-million-dollar homes and offices, expensive cars, and private jets (http://www.inplainsite.org/html/tele-evangelist_lifestyles.html.)  These religious organizations are more like corporations, but because of the constitutional rules of the separation between church and state and the tax except status of being a non-profit organization; do not pay taxes. The United States government does not really know how much these religious organizations or televangelists are worth financially, because their businesses and investments are so vast, encompassing the globe.

Televangelists and their religious businesses also give heavily to political organizations and politicians that share their political beliefs and causes, going against the federal government’s “501©(3) tax exemption” for religious and charitable groups and organizations. They fight against a woman’s right to a safe abortion, trying to pass laws affecting reproductive health and services, legally stepping in between a woman and her doctor. These ministers push hard against gay and lesbian rights, trying to stop any equality protection policies and hate crime laws that include sexual orientation. They also lobby to stop gay marriage and the ability for gay and lesbians to adopt children. These ministers also want American public schools to teach Creationism as a valid scientific fact over evolution, and to allow for other Christian teachings to be part of the curriculum. They also lobby hard for foreign and Middle Eastern affairs and policies that follow Evangelical styled biblical prophecy, picking candidates that do not support peace treaties because the Rapture and the End of Days cannot happen if there is no conflict in the Middle East. Though, religious organizations are not allowed to lobby and endorsed political candidates and political causes without giving up their tax exemption status. These televangelists find loop holes or ignore it completely, going around any legal or constitutional rules. They feel since they are part of a religious institution, no one will stop them. And for the most part, no one has tried to stop them.

These ministries are also strong proponents on the fight to weaken or eliminate the constitutional rules on the separation of church and state. The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights states:“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” This constitutional protection is for all religions, not just one. But, some of these ministries would like to establish a national religion and church going against the United States Constitution, destroying the basic right of freedom of religion and religious choice. They strongly lobby for this through the policies and politicians they support. These ministries reinforce this by scaring their audiences with the belief that if Christianity is not made the national religion, Christianity will be deemed illegal. Listeners are told that if they do not vote the way that the ministries want them to, they are going against God and his Kingdom. The paranoia this helps produce creates a group of people that do not trust their government or any secular institutions that could help them, and at times can create violent reactions.

Tithing and Charity: History and Facts

So what is true biblical tithing? The Ancient Israel, of the Jewish Torah (also called the Old Testament) viewed tithing and money as two different things entirely. Money from a person’s own talent and work was their own profits, to be used to support themselves and their families. Most things from nature, was believed to be God’s gift to the Israeli people, and was tithed back to help others, especially from farming and herding. The poor were not obligated to tithe, because it added to their hardship, which was not religiously acceptable to the laws of Israel. In fact these tithing were to feed the needing and to give to the temple and its priests and servants. Modern day Judaism still states that you must provide for yourself and your family before you give to God.

Early Christian-Jews kept this tradition on tithing until the Church legally changed the meaning of tithing and made it a mandatory part of the Christian faith in 777 B.C.E. Even after the meaning of tithing was changed, many early Church leaders still followed a life of poverty, believing this was more biblically acceptable. They believed that riches were of the physical world not the spiritual realm and were not important to a spiritual existence.

In medieval Europe, the Catholic Church allowed the wealthy to buy what was called “indulgences”, pardons for sins committed in business and personal interactions These “indulgences” where a type of tithing to the Church by wealthy business families, who believed that being in the business world and doing its dealings created sins that they had to atone for by donating a portion of their wealth. These donations (or tithing) helped create a large amount Christian art and architecture, by building churches, cathedrals, and paintings that were of biblical stories and people. Many of the works from artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarrot, and Raffaello Santi (also called Raphael), were funded through these church followers’ indulgences. This type of tithing did come with its critics; men like Martin Luther (1483-1546), the leader of the Lutheran Reformation felt that the Catholic Church and its leaders were over stepping their holy duties. Making themselves the holy ones and selling forgiveness that they had no right to, and making the Church very wealthy. This was much like what televangelists are doing today for themselves and their businesses.

Basic churches today use tithing for variety of purposes. Most ministers have a set yearly income, which comes from their local church or national denomination. This income is based on the ability of the church or its organizations to pay, some ministers make more than others, but most do not make more than a middle class income. Tithing is also used for the upkeep of the church building and its property, which probably includes some type of outside help and services. Church donation are also used to help the poor and others who need help, like soup kitchens, work resources, drug counseling, psychological help, spiritual support, and various other community programs throughout the church’s area. Churches will also partner up with other places of worship, community centers, and charitable organizations, to help a larger population.

Religious origination are not the only form of charitable non-profit agencies, there are secular charities also. But both must follower regulations and laws that were enacted to protect the charity and the donor. Non-profit businesses most stay politically neutral without supporting a candidate or political cause. Charities can focus on reaching your heart. But ethically and legally cannot use any tactics that can be perceived as threatening. The donor is always in control of what they choose to donate. The donor also has the right to inquire about where their donation is going and to ask about the charity’s financial records, which should be public record. Charity Navigator states in their article “Top 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors”: “Savvy donors know that the financial health of a charity is a strong indicator of the charity’s programmatic performance. They know that the most efficient charities spend at least 75% of their budget on their programs and services and less than 25% on fundraising and administrative fees… Sophisticated donors realize that charities need to pay their top leaders a competitive salary in order to attract and retain the kind of talent needed to run a multi-million dollar organization and produce results. But they also don’t just take the CEO’s compensation at face value; they benchmark it against similar-sized organizations engaged in similar work and located in the same region of the country… Charity Navigator reveals that the average CEO’s compensation of the charities we evaluate is roughly $150,000” (http://www.charitynavigator.org/.)

A donor must realize that some charities may pay more by region and by what the non-profit is supporting. A charity that is based on raising money for higher educational programs, museums or the arts will pay their CEOs more than a charity that is helping the poor. The best way to be a smart donor is to investigate a charity, whether religious or secular, and find out what their reputation is.

Conclusion

Religion and charity is something that can and should go hand and hand. Religious and secular institutions have had a history of helping poverty and need throughout the world, and this has and will continue. On the other hand, televangelists and their organizations do not follow rules and regulations that deem them as a valid religious or charitable non-profit organization. They break basic rules on political activity and it is hard to prove what percentage of their listeners’ donations ever makes it to a real charitable cause. The records are not there to see, which is the only valid way to know if your donation is going to the needy or going into someone’s pocket. But looking at televangelists’ lavish lifestyles of excess should give the donor insight to where at least most of their donations are going too. Televangelists preach about the importance of tithing to God for salvation and the forgiving of sins. They twist Jewish and Christian scripture to support their message of the “Gospel of Prosperity” or the “Law of Reciprocity” to make themselves powerful and rich, lining their own pockets in the process. So can you really buy salvation through tithing? This question can only be answered by God, and He or She, cannot be interviewed.

And Justice for all? Fact or Fiction

The United States believes it has the cornerstone of human rights within its borders. But our past and present shows a different picture, a history full of human rights violations, that go back to the beginning of our history. In our past you can find many Holocausts of hatred and oppression. But we seem to forget somehow, through patriotic and religious zeal, how this country truly began, and how we have treated our own citizens throughout our existence. If you read some books, newspaper articles and editorials today you will find a rewriting of our past, a total fiction, which somehow history has magically changed into a fantasy; a mythical tale, full of lies and colorful trappings. Our educational systems also rewrites history in favor of a Disney styled world, where everything is perfect. But history cannot be changed to fit one’s need to feel superior, neither can false patriotism and religious beliefs change history, and the fact that human ignorance, bigotry, and hatred has been a part of American culture all along.

When the white Europeans came to the New World, they viewed the Native Americans as just savages, animals, needing to be saved by European culture and Christianity. They believed that it was a God-given duty to convert or murder the natives. Ignoring the fact that these were human beings like themselves, who already had rich cultures with many religious beliefs that had existed for thousands of years, they were not savages in any way. This began years of genocidal acts against the Native Americans, by forced conversions, massacres, and concentration camps. In fact Adolf Hitler, the head of the Nazi Party in Germany, fashioned his death camps after what we call Indian reservations. Today much of Native American culture is forgotten, even to its people. Many live in poverty and are treated with little or no respect by their white neighbors. Most white Americans have little knowledge of Native Americans or their culture, and many still view them with total ignorance.

The owning of African slaves is another part of our history that is at times forgotten or excused. These human beings that were violently kidnapped from their own part of the world were sold into a nightmare. The greed of slave traders, and the laziness and racism of slave owners fueled the slave trade. When talking about the founding fathers of the United States, we speak of how heroic and wise they were, but never mention that they were slave owners and supported slavery, just like the rest of white culture at the time, especially in the southern states. The Confederate South, also called the Bible Belt, fought the north for the right to keep owning their slaves. They used Christian doctrine to verify the right to own another person. Austin Cline states; “The primary focus of those using Christianity to defend slavery and segregation was the story of Noah, specifically the part where his son Ham is cursed to serve his bothers. This story long functioned as a model for Christians to insist that God meant Africans to be marked as servants of others because they are descended from Ham. Secondary was the story of the Tower of Babel as a model for God’s desire to separated people generally rather than have them united in common cause and purpose.” Web Essay: Christianity in the Confederate South: Southern Nationalism and Christianity (2007).This idea was a total twisting of what is really said in the Tanach (the Hebrew Bible.)

After the Confederate South lost the Civil War to the north, things did not improve for the freed slaves. They were treated as threats to white culture; many feared that they would get equal rights to whites and racially mixing. They were hunted down, tortured, and murdered without one thought of their humanity. Around this time America’s first home grown terrorist group was founded. In 1866 the Klu Klux Klan was formed by Confederate veterans of the Civil War in Pulaski, Tennessee, angered because of the ending of slavery. The far-right Christian Klu Klux Klan started a history of ethnic and racial hatred and violence throughout the American South, causing other hate groups to slowly form across the South and the country. Cline states: “Although the South lost the Civil War, White Supremacy remained an important component of Christian teaching for the next century. White Christian churches taught that slavery was a just institution, as were Jim Crow laws and segregation; that white Christianity remained the last, best hope for western civilization; and that white Christians had a mandate to exercise dominion over the world — and especially the darker races who were little more than children” Web Essay: Christianity in the Confederate South: Southern Nationalism and Christianity (2007). Southerners supported politicians and other legal systems that guaranteed total segregation of the races. They did not want to share any public arena with their black neighbors, strongly enforcing Jim Crow laws. If you were black you had separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, parks, schools, and other public areas. You could not eat in restaurants with your white neighbor, or enter places of business through the same entrance. Jews and other minorities were also targets of the Klu Klux Klan’s violence. The United States government did little to change this, viewing it was a state’s right to choose their laws. Sadly, a lot of those in Washington D.C. agreed with the white supremacists.

Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, lynched in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930.

Martin Luther King Jr. and his freedom fighters and other people like them made great change in the American South and the rest of America. King and many people like him died for these changes. But there is more work to be done. Today, the United States has many hate groups around the country; the KKK, Aryan Nations (the Church of Jesus Christ Christian), the American Nazi Party, National Association for the Advancement of White People, (founded by former KKK leader David Duke), and many others. Their objects of hate are African-Americans, Jews, liberal Christians, gays and lesbians, immigrants, and many other minorities. These hate groups hide behind the American Constitution, false interpretation of religious doctrine, and twisted patriotism. Their members are active in our communities, politics and legal systems. Can we have true justice for all? When we still let these terrorist groups exist within are borders. When they have done the very things that terrorist around the world have. That is a question that can only be answered by “no”. Martin Luther King Jr. said;“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” Martin Luther King JR., Essay: Letters from Birmingham Jail.

Indigenous Judaism, Pauline Christianity and Feminism

Writers Note: This was a college paper I had to do comparing two different ideologies.

Who should control a woman’s body, mind and soul? Is Eve equal to Adam? Throughout history women have been treated like second class citizens; property of men. They have been blamed for being evil seductresses and sorceresses; leading the male sex to ruin, through black magic and feminine wilds. They have been called too intelligent, as well as, too ignorant, and too strong, as well as, too weak; to have basic human rights for themselves. They have been misunderstood, hated, abused, killed and in many ways totally ignored, but still blamed for all the world‘s ills; controlled in one way or the other, body, mind and soul; for thousands of years. These questions have especially been asked since the beginning of the three main Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam which are for the most part patriarchal in nature. The Apostle Paul‘s form of Christianity, also called Pauline Christianity reinforced a patriarchal ideology.

In Pauline Christianity women are viewed as just a part of a man’s body, not owning her own; just a simple rib. This belief comes down from the teachings of the Apostle Paul and misinterpretation, through language translation and biases, and by Church leaders’ interpretations of the creation story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. In the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) Genesis 2:21 and 2:22 states: “So Hashem God cast a deep sleep upon the man and he slept; and He took one of his sides and He filled in flesh in its place. Then Hashem God fashioned the side that He had taken from the man into a women, and He brought her to the man”. In the true translation from Hebrew to English, half of the being Adam is taken to make the being Eve; not just a single rib. This means in the unchanged indigenous Jewish religion, if interpreted correctly in Hebrew not Greek, man and woman are two equal halves of what was once a hermaphroditic being, a being that was both masculine and feminine in body. The equality of the sexes in the original writings of Judaism is also supported by Genesis 1:27, which states: “So God created Man in his image, in the image of God. He created him; male and female He created them”. On a spiritual level God is seen as both masculine and feminine, viewing both sexes as equal and important to the spiritual and physical worlds.

Both Protestant and Catholic forms of Pauline Christianity have long banned the equal rights of women throughout history, using false interpretations of Jewish biblical text and gender biased in the Christian bible, to support their rules and laws. Pope Gregory I (540-604) stated: “Woman is slow in understanding and her unstable and naïve mind renders her by way of natural weakness to the necessity of a strong hand in her husband. Her “use” is twofold; [carnal] sex and motherhood.”Church leaders barred women from equal access to education, jobs, medical treatment, owning property and many other basic rights. Her mind, body and soul belonged to her male relatives or her husband. A woman’s husband could beat her into submission under Christian law, because she was considered just a child mentally, and the daughter of Eve, the deceiver; spiritually. Rabbi Gershon Winkler writes: “Ruling class European men looked at and treated their women basically as they did their African slaves…” A woman was not seen as a complete human being without a husband, she was incomplete. John Wesley (1703-1791) wrote: “Wife: Be content to be insignificant. What loss would it be to God or man had you never been born.” Jewish leaders on the other hand viewed the role of women as being important in Jewish society. Hugh Fogelman states: “Judaism recognizes that women are endowed with a greater degree of “binah“(intuition, understanding, intelligence) than men.” The woman was not just a vessel for future generations, but an important factor in her community, in both physical and spiritual matters. Jewish women were not only wives and mothers, but they also were community leaders and businesswomen. Fogelman writes: “For example, Jewish women had the right to buy, sell, and own property, and make their own contracts.” Women were also viewed as equal to their husbands. Fogelman writes: “Jewish women are held in high esteem in marriage.” A wife must be taken care of and loved with respect by her husband, and any type of martial abuse, physical or mental, is breaking Jewish law (including rape). A woman is viewed as a complete human being, not just a child, not just a mere rib. Fogelman states: “In Torah/Judaism, woman is the completion of man, but, woman needs no completion herself. That is why a woman says the blessing, each morning, “Blessed are You, Hashem, King of the universe, Who has made me according to His will.” Man needs woman for completion, man needs circumcision for elevation, but woman needs nothing except what is within her, which was granted her by God.”

A woman’s choices throughout history were very limited, wife and mother. Motherhood came with many dangers, without proper care many had reproductive health problems that shorten their lives or they died young in childbirth, from multiple pregnancies without limit; most without proper care for both the mother and baby. Birth control and pain control during labor was against Christian doctrine, because of the Christian belief of “original sin“, where the pains and suffering of birth is God’s curse on the female gender. Martin Luther (1483-1546) the German leader of the Protestant Reformation said: “If they {women} become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth, that’s why they are there.” In the Jewish faith there is no concept of “original sin“, men and women are all born inherently good; clean slates at birth. In pregnancy the mother’s life comes first, The Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 69b states that: “the embryo is considered to be mere water until the fortieth day. Afterwards, it is considered subhuman until it is born.” Abortion was never taken lightly in Judaism, because of the potential for life, but when it came to the physical and mental well-being of the mother it was permitted; because a fetus does not receive full personhood until half way out of the birth canal, when it takes its first breath of life on its own. Pain relief in childbirth was also allowed, to ease the mother through nature’s pain, which was not considered some curse from God; children were considered a blessing not a curse. Many Christian women during this time used Jewish doctors and midwives, for reproductive health care. This could be dangerous to the Christian woman, who was breaking Christian laws on procreation, and the Jew, who was viewed as a child of Satan; both were seen as breaking Christian laws and crossing ethnic boundaries.

A woman’s soul was also always being questioned, some church leaders even questioned if she even had a true soul. Some spoke of the female being somewhere between an animal and her male counterpart. Some even spoke of the female sex as filth. Tertullian (160-220) an early Christian philosopher stated: “Woman is a temple built over a sewer, the gateway to the devil. Woman, you are the devil’s doorway. You led astray one whom the devil would not dare attack directly. It was your fault that the Son of God had to die; you should always go in mourning and rags.” Church leaders believed that women were weaker both spiritually and sexually than men, believing that the female gender was more prone to the evil side of spirituality, and that women were naturally sexually attracted to the devil; which controlled them to the point of demonic possession. In the past a women who believed in gender equality was often silenced by fire for being a witch. It was believed that a woman must be listening to the devil, to think of herself as equal to a man. Clement of Alexandria (150-215) stated: “Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman.” Any religion that celebrated womanhood, the feminine side of God or viewed women equal to men; were considered blasphemy against Christianity. This included Judaism, some forms of Christianity, and folk beliefs that focused on the Divine Feminine. Rabbi Winkler writes; “For example, Jews had to tone down the roles of their women in religious life and function to avoid suspicions of witchcraft, a suspicion held of all women — their religious affiliation notwithstanding — who exhibited independence, learning, and mystical prowess”. A woman was always under suspicion of devil worship by Christian authorities, just because she had the misfortune of being born a female.

Today, women are gaining equal rights throughout the world, especially European countries and here in United States, because of women suffrage and modern feminism. Women are beginning to be released from the role that Simone De Beauvoir called: “the Eternal Feminine”, the saintly mother or the perverse man-hating sorceress. Education is open to women in every discipline, they have choices in careers, even those once offered only to men; as well as marriage and motherhood or both. Women have the right in most of the developed world to birth control, and safe medical help throughout pregnancy, and controlling their own bodies and fates but the world could still do better for poor women and women living still in oppressive regions. Women can go into political and leadership roles, and make a difference in the world around them. Today many, Christian denominations like, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and others, view a woman as equal to a man, having female ministers, teachers, and religious leaders. Renewal, Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Humanistic, Kabbalah (mystical Judaism), some Orthodox, and various other forms of Judaism; also view women as equal to men. Women are becoming Rabbis, teachers, and religious leaders in most of Judaism’s denominations, except for Orthodox. The Jewish people are slowly regaining the Divine Feminine, which was once lost. Pagan religions, which celebrate both the God and Goddess, are making a comeback throughout the world. Women as well as men do not have to fear being put to death in a large part of the world, because of believing in equality of the sexes.

But there are still many parts of the world that women are still living under violent patriarchal religious rules. There are those in the Europe and the Untied States whose views mirror the darker side of Christianity‘s past, viewing the female gender as the weak, sinful, and the dark other, to the male sex. That must be controlled and put down to a different level of existence. Many Conservative Christians today who follow Pauline Christianity view feminism as a demonic philosophy, which is anti-Christian; going against ancient biblical sex roles of being wife, mother, helpmate and caretaker. The female sex is valued for the womb inside her, and the future generations that will come from it. They believe that the female is just the weaker piece of the male sex, without a say in anything that might affect her, physically, mentally, and spiritually, believing that only her male counterpart should make the decisions that affect her body, mind and soul. Women are not to hold leadership roles, or careers that place them over men. To step out of this role a woman is considered evil, separating her from the path to the heavens. Feminism is viewed as dangerous to the biblical order of things because it stands for women’s right and for women to control their own lives and bodies Pat Robertson stated: “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” Robertson’s viewpoint is a mirror image of Christian leaders throughout history, on the dangers of equality of the sexes, and the evil female. Feminism is also viewed as cheapening the roles of wife and motherhood. Austin Cline writes: “Many people in modern America complain that motherhood and raising children have been devalued by the feminist movement and the efforts to get women into the workplace. These same people, however, are the religious conservatives who have throughout America’s history been responsible for the actual devaluing of women’s contributions to society. Motherhood and raising children haven’t been devalued because of feminism and women working in the corporate world; instead, they have been devalued precisely because they are seen as “women’s work” and unsuitable for men.”