Church Body Warns Against Wrong Reading of Biblical Texts on Women

By Eryn Sun, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Wrong reading of controversial biblical texts on women can harm the perception of females, according to one church body.

"If the language of the Bible is not understood in today's terms, some passages can be used to allow excluding women from church leadership," said Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth.

Head of the World Communion of Reformed Churches' program for Gender Justice and Partnership, Sheerattan-Bisnauth pointed to biblical passages, such as 1 Corinthians 14: 33-34 where it says to keep women silent in church, that "can harm women when they are used to justify enforced submission of women to male authority."

In the wake of International Women's Day on Tuesday, WCRC is supporting an appeal from a Christian communication organization for increased attention on the effects of words and images used in the media against women.

"We agree with [the World Association for Christian Communication] that words mold perceptions that can harm women and deny them their rights," said Sheerattan-Bisnauth.

From its Toronto office, the WACC, in partnership with UNESCO's annual Women Make the News campaign, released a statement last Friday, saying: "The concept of women's communication rights includes the right to fair and balanced representation in and through the media.

"Critical media literacy from a gender perspective, the ability to analyze media content with a gender lens, is a tool through which audiences can contribute towards this end."

She expressed support for WACC's campaign to foster media and information literate societies as a way of improving gender perspectives. Sharing in this need to analyze with a gender lens, Sheerattan-Bisnauth applied the perspective to understanding and following biblical teaching.

"It is necessary for church women and men to learn to read the Bible in the context of their economic, social, political, and cultural reality," she expressed.

The Guyanese theologian is also urging churches to encourage openness to women's interpretation of Scripture and ensure that their voices are heard in theological seminaries and in local parishes.

The Gender Justice and Partnership program at WCRC addresses the need for men and women to work in partnership, with the understanding that both were created by God, redeemed by Christ, and gifted by the Spirit without distinction or partiality.

Enabling churches to work for the transformation of gender relationships and partnerships is the main purpose of the program.

Their objectives are to challenge patriarchy, enable churches to name and address gender injustices, strengthen women's participation in the ecumenical movement, promote positive masculinities, and facilitate transformation and renewal of church and society.

Hoping to provide a more inclusive understanding of the Bible, the Gender Justice and Partnership program is sponsoring a project in the Caribbean region to develop new models for Bible study that are to be published later this year in a manual titled "Righting Her-Story: Caribbean Women Encounter the Bible Story."

Toni-Ann Brodber, a representative from UN Women, attended a recent Caribbean workshop in Grenada to test new models for Bible study and revealed the critical contribution of faith-based communities in eradicating violence against women.

Brodber expressed interest in supporting a campaign for action against violence that is connected to the Bible study project.

Marie-Claude Julsaint of the YWCA also said the project would be very useful for exploring a theological approach to issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and HIV and violence against women.

The Bible studies are just one step toward resisting injustices against women and spreading awareness of fallible gender-biased movements, according to the church body.

This year marks the centennial anniversary of International Women's Day, celebrating how far women have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development and creating more opportunities to unite, network, and mobilize women all over the world.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his annual message addressed this year, declared, "Only through women's full and equal participation in all areas of public and private life can we hope to achieve the sustainable, peaceful and just society promised in the United Nations Charter."

WCRC represents 80 million Reformed Christians in 108 countries around the world. It links Presbyterian, Reformed, Congregational, Waldensian, United and Uniting churches.