Obedience is Virtue

Watching church on TV, as if the concept wasn't distorted enough, opens a window into the rituals of some of our country's most blasphemously pious preachers. I was recently lucky enough to catch a few minutes of the middle of a service of one of the many denominations that now claim to be followers of Jesus on TV.

The preacher, with wide stretched arms, speaks the word of god in polemic fashion, paying tribute to the King on High and his son, Jesus. After a rhetorically driven sermon, the preacher (or the ring leader-whatever we call him these days) introduced his two daughters who were going to sing a song of praise to God, the father. His two daughters, dressed in their Sunday’s best, took the stage and sang a song of praise to God, the father, while their proud earthly father looked on with sadistic praise. His two little girls, exalting the transcendent at his command-what more could a father want?

My question is this: were those two young women singing a song to praise God, the father, or their Father, the God.The patriarchal symbolism of Christianity and the art and music that it spurred blurs the line between piety and misogyny. Piety for the female is obedience to two males - God and their father. Later in life a third male authority figure is added in the form of a husband. Loyalty to one's maker, creator, and provider is the most important virtue.

Such suppression of the female is not new to Christianity. It has a long tradition, going back to the four evangelic writers of the gospels and, most notably, Paul who penned roughly half of the New Testament. The two most prominent women in the New Testament are telling examples of this. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the ideal woman-why? She is praised for her chastity-her virginity. She is ideal because she has been raped of her sexual identity. Conversely, Mary Magdalene, is the female villain. What better way to villanize a potential symbol of feminine strength and independence than labeling her a whore?

The question is simple: how do women, in the age of sexual equality, still tacitly ascribe to this patriarchal power tool known as Christianity?