Including You!

Religious Rhetoric

The holy bible in America is a book that has great moral and ethical values raised inside the pages. These are stories written by other humans for a variety of purposes.

The biblical tome has served as a backbone to societal guidance, but it also has some outdated messages that are creating a mixed ideology on topics like crime, race, sexuality, gender equity, and consequences for being immoral.

While there might be good intentions in instilling ideas like love, hope, faith, and forgiving, it also serves as a  voice to judgment, prejudice, castigation, and rebuke for those who do not heed the biblical warnings.

Pray the gay away is a homophobic concept that is meant to be use Christian dogma like calling homosexuality a sin. It is actually hate that is being spread by spewing the message that being wired differently and expressions outside the Christian dogma is a shameful notion.

Many people grow up holding onto the wholesome parts of religion that sit right with them without ever weighing the option of discarding what does not fit. The shame is so engraved in them by others that doing so may involve being physically rejected by those who you once seen as authorities or role models.

The idea that you will be ridiculed for questioning authority is considered sinful. Often those who confront the bigotry they have been subjected to, the questioner is scorned by their own community, cast into guilting words, whispers of judgement and spurned by fear to rebuke their beliefs or be cut out like cancer.

People don't realize that the message they are using as a guidance map actually leads them to insidious ideas around gender and sexuality. Once they commit to a religious dogma they are expected to engage in the social norms that are practiced by their faith. 

This means following the rules of the establishment. This means, at times, disavowing those who do not fall in line of the faith. Those who are violators of the moral code held by the faith are deemed unworthy of calling themselves apart of that faith unless they put forth better efforts of conforming.

Complementarianism holds that "God has created men and women equal in their essential dignity and human person-hood, but different and complementary in function with male headship in the home and in the Church." Many proponents and also opponents of complementarianism see the Bible as the infallible word of God.

The issue is not so much the words but the interpretation. In the most orthodox practices and conservative circles of Christianity there are pathways that lead to extreme exercise of the faith. This comes at high costs and sometimes casualties.

Information may not be the problem but we still need to regulate it so it is skews away from these toxic messages.

In researching other faiths in America I found there was a similar barrier in the Muslim community. There is a vehemont, knee jerk response to find repulse in those who appear to go against the Hadith or fatwas of that individual Hadith.

In the 1980s the Sunni and Shia had Imams issue fatwas to recognize those who wish to practice Islam when identifying as a trans-individual. This was upheld for a few years but was eventually discarded after the issuing Imams passed.

The conservative members of the faith of Islam spoke of feeling a demand to rise against the feminist voice and challenge the liberal members of the faith. The conservative voice won out and since, trans-identifying individuals have been stuck hanging back in the shadow and on the fringe due to the danger of presenting as themselves to their own faith based community.

The Qu'ran reads:
“men are in charge of women by rights of what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend for maintenance from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in the husband’s absence what Allah would have them guard…” [4:34]

In Arabic the word “qawam” is used, the role of qawam comes with a lot of responsibility. Allah (swt) has told men that they are the maintainers (provide for women from their wealth) and protectors of women.

In Islam, every leader is required to be just. Whether you are a leader of a nation, a company or the head of a household. In the context of the family unit, men have been given a position of trust and they must honour that by remembering that Allah (swt) will question them on how they dealt with their family.

Over and above that, the term qawam is not an unconditional statement of male authority and superiority over all women for all time. Nor does qawam mean that a woman is incapable of providing for herself.

Yet it has become one of the most controversial fights around the Qu'ran when it comes to the gender debate. There have been enumerous reports by Islamic faith women who have stated the oppressive conditions they have had to go to survive, not just serve happily.

Islam emphasizes through the Prophetic tradition that women have a right to be able to receive an education, to work, to buy, sell and own property, to enter into contracts, to initiate marriage, to choose a spouse, to initiate a divorce, to engage in civic life among many other things.

It becomes clear upon reading the Quran that women are seen as equal to men, but the degree to which that is honoured is largely cultural. While some cultures encourage men and women to take on the same roles, others promote a more traditional, less dominant, increased submissive role for the women.

Why are the individuals who are the most rigid about a loving, compassionate and equal gender faith becoming so extreme about gender roles and the subjugation of women by wielding their male faith as a weapon.

That is such fractured thinking and yet, it is a relied upon making excuses for male toxic masculinity to say, "there should be a war of trans women," and that "women have always been subjugated. That's just the way people are interpreting the Qu'ran".

There is no effort made to examine the method of teaching the faith so it sounds less misogynistic. Instead there is a guarded attitude at keeping the gender construct on the imbalanced teeter-totter in favor of masculine empowering stereotyped ideology.

I see narcissistic rage in these conservative extreme believers. I reflect on how women in authority must be a serious issue for these practicing these toxic religious practices.

I see entitlement to women's bodies for those who use their faith to justify gender takeover in a relationship. I see it as power and control. I see it as abuse of a system meant to be balanced.

It is time religious dogma is given a thorough sifting of the ideologies and bylaws as well as having a renewed method of disseminating and discerning information.

I would add here that my prior discussions on Toxic Masculinity and other harmful phobias around gender also have a lot of footholds within the religious community.

A lot of LGBTQIA controversy has split the faith based communities across America. It has centered a lot around faiths attempting to be progressive in being more inclusive. I want to applaud the faith-based communities that are breaking down barriers, listening to voices in their own networks and opening the door to a more united front.

We still have a long way to go. God, I hope we get there someday.