Revd Ernle P Gordon

THE World Council of Churches has launched a "Decade to Overcome Violence" (2001-2010) DOV, but, that decade has to liberate religion from the theology of patriarchal authoritarianism, which seeks to use scripture to engenderise male dominance and perpetuate female inferiority. The main contributor to the idea of female inferiority is the fall/redemption theological focus which we inherited from Augustine of Hippo, Thomas a Kempis, Bossuet; Cotton Mather, Tanquerry and others mainly from Europe. Fall/redemption theological premise includes the following: Very male-oriented, ascetic, mortification of the body, passion is a curse, God as Father but not seen as mother, child as well as Father, suffering is the wages of sin, emphasises original sin and guilt; very pessimistic; talks about the spirituality of the powerful and not necessarily of the powerless; apolitical, that is, supportive of the status quo and maintains the view that humanity is sinful. This theological orientation is suspicious of the body and violent in its body/soul imagery. "The soul is at war with the body" (Augustine of Hippo).

As you read this listing, it is obvious that women are in trouble with this type of thinking and what is worse we have utilised Genesis chapter 3 to substantiate the anti-woman ideology. "Women theologians are objecting to the use of Genesis to instigate violence and so there is an excellent paper written by Reuven, Kimelman, from Brandeis University USA, which is found on the Internet Women in Judaism -- a multi-disciplinary journal (1998). The title of the paper is, "The Seduction of Eve and feminist readings of the Garden of Eden."

The reading of the Eden episode argues that woman is not only the hero of the story but is representative of humanity. Her status explains why the story features both man and serpent, why the serpent talks to the woman and we have to ask the reason, that of all the epics of origins, Genesis alone gives the creation of woman separate treatment and why does Genesis underscore the commonality between man and woman. The researchers at the University of Brandeis say that this expresses a feature of authoritarian theology, organised by men.

(a) The serpent is regarded as being very shrewd, and the impression is given that the seduction of Eve could occur so rapidly that it raises doubts about the view that to disobey God is the exclusive function of serpents. It also portrays the perception, that since the serpent beguiled Eve first and not Adam, there is a feeling among many Jamaican men, that the woman is responsible for the sins of the male. There is another interpretation that the role of the snake was to direct Eve's thinking and also to extend her character. Eve is viewed as a person who is unable to banish the snake, but she is not far away from divinity. Some men believe that women have extraordinary powers of seduction and so they are evil. The unfortunate reality is that there are many fundamentalist Christians who ascribe to the idea that the serpent in Genesis spoke to a woman.

It is very unfortunate that we did not study Egyptian, Babylonian and Syrian history, when we were attending high school, because we would have learnt how the snake is understood in the various mythologies. In Mesopotamia, the snake was seen as a religious symbol and was associated with the god of Ningizzida. In Egypt there is the veneration of the serpents in one form or another, some being good and others harmful.

Serpents in Lower Egypt were deemed to be goddesses, and in the form of a cobra, the serpent goddess became the symbol of royalty. In Egypt, the most important of all Egyptian demons (or evil gods) was a male Apophis, who was represented by a serpent.

The woman was not the most dangerous serpent, because we should remember that in the 18th dynasty some of the most powerful political leaders in Egypt were women Pharoahs.

Have we forgotten that a Pharoah named a woman as part of the community of the Godhead, long before Genesis was written?

The serpent in Greek mythology was viewed as a sign of healing. Although 13 of the 18 species of Palestinian snakes are harmless, the Biblical writers usually treat the snake as dangerous and wicked. Therefore, the J-E (Yahwist) writer of the Fall in Genesis 3 is using the snake to reflect a certain understanding of salvation history, and we must remember that the Jews are borrowing serpent symbolisms from various sources. This brings us to the second problem, which has to with childbearing and pain

(b) Genesis 3: 16. The J-E scribe attributes the following words to God in relation to Eve.

"I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

It is apparent that the punishment widens the relationship between man and woman, and what once made them one flesh will now produce both physical and emotional problems. The research from Brandies University demonstrated that child-conceiving and childbearing became pregnant with pain (John J Schmitt). "At the greatest fulfilment of womanhood will be the greatest experience of pain. Tragically, it takes the pain of near-death to bring about life. Precisely in the act of establishing social immortality, the fragility -- and therefore non-divinity -- of human continuity is highlighted." (Reuven Kimelman). I am not suggesting that some women who are deeply religious, do not reach a high level of spiritual transcendence (via negativa), when giving birth to a child, but, what worries me, are those women who link the birth pains with sin. Others feel that the birth pains manifest their associatioin with the pins of Jesus on the cross and some quote Romans 8:16, where Paul is explaining creation in terms of a woman's pain. These theological reflections are laudable and can be understood, but women must not continue to accept the reality that they must feel pain while giving birth, because God ordered this in the Bible. Some women are in severe pain, but refuse to take any sedative. This leads me to the third point, that is, the sexual dominance of man.

Male dominance. Let me quote the exact words of the writer of the document. "Alas female desire now makes for male dominance, albeit conditionally, as we shall see. The new connubial situation raises questions about whether conjugality is potentially a stage for aggression. It also raises the issue of whether inequality is an erotic necessity. If so, intimacy of two bodies fitting so perfectly together to exchange life could double as a form of conquest. Once being on top is seen as an expression of dominance, becoming one flesh, according to one reading, can spark memories of origins, with man looking down on earth and woman looking up to man". The question is asked by Kimelman. Does this mean, as psychoanalysis claims, that asexual relations are tinged with subjugation, so marriage is characterised by dominance -- submission pacts? The writer of the document concludes that "domination in sexual interaction is no guarantee for domination in social interaction".

Women who are intellectually focused, and are sure of themselves, object to the use of the Bible to verify sexual domination. It is obvious that the "Decade to overcome violence" will have to investigate not only political or economic violence, but violence which is religious, psychological, intellectual, environmental, gender-related, racial, and violence that is within the church. The 20th century will go down in history as the most violent, so women must make their mark to liberate the political culture from all forms of violence. I will walk the walk with the women. The pastor-theologian must also free theology from the dungeons of theological authoritarianism, which tends to be patriarchal.

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