The Most Important Defense of Women’s Rights You Will Read Today
The Republican Party has waged a vicious war against women for many years now, and it hasn’t slowed one bit. Controlled by their Christian Right puppet masters, GOP lawmakers across the country have introduced bill after bill in an effort to end a woman’s right to choose. 2013 has been yet another year in which women have lost rights because Christian fundamentalist men are using their own interpretation of the Bible to excuse their sexism.
This was the exact situation that compelled former President Jimmy Carter to write an editorial in 2009 announcing his departure from the Southern Baptist Convention, a religious group his family had belonged to for generations. In his op-ed, Carter staunchly defended equal rights for women and criticized the SBC for wrongly interpreting the Bible in an effort to subjugate women.
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At a time when women’s rights are being attacked more than ever before, this four-year old editorial is important. It’s a damning indictment of fundamentalist Christians and their sexist views, and a strong defense of equality for women. Carter argues that there is no religious justification for being cruel to women and stands up for the right of women to get an education, receive equal pay, to have the same jobs as men, and to make their own reproductive choices. As women fight harder than ever against those who want to strip them of their rights and dignity, this writing by Jimmy Carter is more important today than it was four years ago. So without further adieu, here is the entirety of Jimmy Carter’s editorial via the Carter Center.
The Words of God Do Not Justify Cruelty to Women
I have been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world.So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when th e convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This was in conflict with my belief – confirmed in the holy scriptures – that we are all equal in the eyes of God.
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.
Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries. The male interpretations of religious texts and the way they interact with, and reinforce, traditional practices justify some of the most pervasive, persistent, flagrant and damaging examples of human rights abuses.
At their most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.
Read the Rest of President Carter’s letter at: The Most Important Defense of Women’s Rights You Will Read Today