Women and religion: intersections and contemporary perspectives

Women involving in religious issues have been within the abundant concerns in religious studies. In the context of several literatures speaking about women and religion, it can be inferred that the issues discussed on women and religion may have emerged from the norm that we have come to grow with, in that men are the customary gender that enter religious vocations and vows, and that men dominates religions.

All of the major world religions deprecate women to some degree.

The above statement is an assertion indicated in a web site with the subject of Women and Religion. Some perspectives claim the unacceptability of women being engaged in religious activities, while others support the purpose of women in religion. My perspective on this subject is that men and women are of equal rights. Hence, women deserve to have equal opportunities and rights in religion.

There are several feminist groups that have devoted their time in defending the rights of women. In terms of women in religion, some have conducted their studies on women's role in the past. There are scholars who did this by analyzing the value of women as written in the Bible. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a feminist who created the Women's Bible, had expressed her perspectives on the unfair interpretation and treatment of women in the Bible. From Comments on Genesis, the following is an example of Stanton's comment on the Bible's description of a woman in the first book of the Old Testament, the Genesis.

The first account dignifies woman as an important factor in the creation, equal in power and glory with man. The second makes her a mere afterthought. The world in good running order without her. The only reason for her advent being the solitude of man.

The orthodox interpretation of women in the Bible, such as women being the source of evil and death, and women being the cause why mankind will not receive eternal life in paradise, are biased views that God would certainly not want to deliver to his people. In my opinion, criticizing women as part or member of a religion is an unfair practice. We are all sons and daughters of God, who, in His heart, are equally loved. Each of us has our own morals and values to share. The many female saints that we have in the past and in the present should be enough vindication for women to have equal rights in religion. It is only fitting to recognize women in religion similar to how they have been recognized in some parts of the Bible, such as the role of Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother of Jesus.