Theology and Feminism in Religion: Critical Analysis of Principles and Text Interpretation: Dealing with Woman Ministry, Feminist, Society, Rights and Politics

By Leon Kabasele

I believe that, fighting for money is foolishness but fighting for a woman is warfare. Every human being is a spirit, only physical appearance that makes human being different. Everything that a woman can do, a man can also do, they only think differently. A gender of someone does not make him/her to become useless but it is about the mind. What is inside of someone, also manifests outside. Everyone is capable to change the world according to what she/he is thinking. Judgmental is something that makes our world go backwards and many things will not to be improved. Religion does not have to be strong to take an action, in order to accept female in every organisation in it because religion can confuse many people with their different convictions. I spent many years observing women in different religions. I took many risks in different countries for women right in the religion area. I organised important conferences concerning women in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665587440

Leon Kabasele

Dr. Leon Kabasele has done a lot of research on theology and philosophy, and he has written books on theology and philosophy, including Christian Philosophy: Understanding Racial Oppression, which delves into the issue of human rights in Africa. Those books will help those who study, research, and are interested in philosophy, theology, politics, and religion. He has selected the most important points to debate in his books. He became interested in researching human rights and other legal issues because of his life experience with matters of justice and his belief that, for one to understand theology, one must understand human rights. He has attended many conferences on theology and human rights, and he was selected to give a presentation at a conference in Bethlehem. He regularly attends conferences about Christianity, and he debates politics and theology with people from around the world, including India, Pakistan, and Africa.

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2021 Leon Kabasele. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/16/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-8745-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-8744-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 What Is Feminism?

Chapter 2 What Is Religion?

Chapter 3 Feminism and Religion

Chapter 4 Society

Chapter 5 Feminist Rights and Women’s Rights

Chapter 6 Politics

Bibliography

About the Author

PREFACE

I believe that fighting for money is foolishness, but fighting on behalf of women is warfare. Religion does not have to be strong to take an action. Religions can confuse people with their different convictions. I spent many years observing women in different religions. I took many risks in different countries to help women achieve rights in religious practices. I organised important conferences concerning women in the world. Some religious beliefs contradict the importance of women in the world. They believe that women are very important when it comes to many things in the world. They refer to women by their physical appearances rather than spirits.

This ideology can also be found in many cultures, tribes, organisation, societies, and communities around the world. Many cultures are influenced by their ancestors who pass these beliefs from generation to generation. This can lead to women feeling very discriminated against within their cultures. Their ideas are not considered on the same levels as those of the men in their cultures. However, women have many good ideas which can positively impact their own cultures. I have even heard people claim woman was created after a frog. They believe a frog is more intelligent than a woman.

Many contemporary cultures are confused because women today are very different from those of the past. I’ve seen a wife take on responsibilities traditionally assumed by men, while her husband’s role resembles that of women of the past. This confuses people who believe woman was created after a frog. I do not think a frog can be more important than a human being because a woman has a different shape than a frog, but more important, man and woman were created at approximately the same time (Genesis 1:26–27). Comparing a woman with an animal is not helpful. Many people use similar negative comparisons of women in their religions, cultures, communities, tribes, and entire countries.

If today’s women start to develop in their societies, it is because women do not consider what people think negatively about them. Before I started to write this book, it took me many years to understand why some men do not believe in women’s ideas and why they do not consider women the same as they are. I believe that every time when a woman gets involved in any gang that group will not develop because women feel emotional pain. Many women feel discriminated against when their abilities are rejected. Communities which discriminate against women should not exist in the world because discrimination hinders development of communities as well as women. I believe that everywhere a woman is not respected, the community will not improve because it rejected an important part of itself. As we know, the human body is composed of many parts. So, a leg will never claim to be bigger than a heart because all parts of the human body are very crucial and needed to support each other.

When a man reject the existence of women in the community, it shows lack of knowledge. The world that we are living in now is not the same as before. We have women who are more intelligent than men, but it does not mean that women must reject men in the community and favour women. I find it ridiculous to see how some communities and cultures think negatively of women, failing to remember that had women not been created, men could not be born as males do not have ova. In short, you cannot be born without a woman.

Female is not just a gender. According to God, it is the entire human being. When we say God is justice, love, I think we should also think of feminism. Women must have rights and justice according to the Christian Bible Genesis, chapter 1. Joel 2:28, says that God is for everyone, he does not separate us from people, and he is for everyone. So, if God is for everyone, why do people refuse God’s love? When people refuse to accept women in their communities or cultures, it shows discrimination. It also means that they are opposing God’s creation because he created everyone in his image. He loves and wants people to live in unity.

INTRODUCTION

This book is an examination of women in religion, such as women’s ministries, and how women participate in every area of religion. It also discusses how men misinterpret the principles of religion to rationalise their actions against women in connection with society, politics, women’s rights, and other areas of human life. We cannot ignore one part of ourselves, in this case one gender, because then the entire body will not be complete, and we need the entire body to be happy and to have the bountiful lives God promises.

Theology and Feminism will help readers who want to understand the rights of women in the community and the world. This world must understand the importance of women because we cannot survive by rejecting women in the society. Moreover, they are very useful, just like every human being in the world. Many communities prefer women to be in the wrong places. We cannot think that way. Women must be everywhere men are located. The presence of women in the society does not negatively affect good men. Rather, their presence helps good ideas to develop, especially in politics. They are many female warriors, queens, police officers, and so on who bring solutions to the nations’ problems. Many women have found solutions when men have not.

In Genesis 1:26–27, we learn that God created everyone equally. As such, women should not be discriminated against. There are many other passages which confirmed that God is for everyone and made everyone equal in this world, and he does not consider who is taller and shorter.

Every woman has the right to impact where she lives in the world, in her community, and within her culture. To fight a woman is warfare because she was created in God’s image. In this book you will discover the power of women in all facets of life. Being female is not about having a weak physical appearance. It is about strength and impacting people’s lives. It is also important for people to recognise females as spiritual beings equal to males, both created in God’s image to satisfy his needs. God’s need is for us all to consider everyone the same spiritually according to his Word because God is always behind his Word.

Feminism does not pertain only to the females in the world. It includes all human beings. We were all created the same. Just as men are not to reject women, feminism does not inherently call for rejecting males as men are also involved according to God’s purpose.

Religion is made by human psychology and philosophy. It gathers everyone who has similar mindsets. God manifests in religion when people acknowledge Him with the sincerity of their hearts. Some religions don’t believe the existence of God. They see no need for God to manifest within them. According to Christian Bible, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness (Titus 1:1). Every Christian should acknowledge God and consider by himself or herself a disciple or apostle of Jesus Christ in order to do what God asks the individual to do. When religion puts God in the centre of its ideology, it means that religion recognises God as the leader, and everything they do must come from the true God. The Christian Bible states that Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute (2 Peter 2:2). They are also religions that do not respect God’s Word. Their religions are based on their psychological and philosophical ideas. They might be correct with their ideas, but if the true God is not part of their visions, nothing good will come from them. When religion considers the true God first, that religion will develop, and many people will be very satisfied with the ideas of that religion.

People need to get involved in something they’ve never experienced. This is the ideology of human being. When people do not receive something new, they can never be fully developed.

Everyone has his or her understating of God. It is good to remember that God is not bad because he created everybody in his image and does not want to destroy anyone without first a warning. Many philosophers and psychologists write about religion and the meaning of religion. Most of them describe religion as group of people who come together with one idea and principle. Within those groups are women. As we know Jesus was also working with women around him. By the cross there were women. Before his death and on the resurrection, women were always present. Those women must be considered because they were also talking to Jesus. He listened to them and fulfilled everything they needed him to do for them. Some people and their religions try to reject the idea of women playing a role in Jesus’s work. But they will never succeed because the history of Jesus is real, and women were with Jesus. I do not think those women experienced what the male disciples were doing. In the dimension of God, he considers everyone who is near him, and those women were near Jesus. God does not think as humans. Human beings should love him with all their hearts and put God’s Word into practice. When they do, and God will consider them as his servant. When someone is enslaved by another, that person is forced to do what the slave owner wants. If a woman becomes a slave of God, she becomes a servant or slave of God.

Christianity believes it is a real religion because all Christians put Jesus Christ in the middle of their convictions. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit’s duty is to consult every Christian’s faith. I believe that if Jesus Christ is in the middle of everyone, including women, they should have the right to serve God in front of everyone. Many people ignore the rights of women in the presence of men, but when I look at the world where women lead men in the society, I wonder, Why does religion try to ignore women? I think it is because of a lack of knowledge and understanding. God created everyone the same; God sees everyone spiritually rather than physically. In Islam, submission is the main principle that every Muslim should respect. Also, Christianity is based on submission to God. The only difference is that the Arabic name for God is Allah. It is written in the Christian Bible that Jesus Christ is the Bride and Christians are Bridegrooms. If a wife must submit to her husband, everybody must submit to God. But before a wife submits to her husband, he must love her because God loved us first.

The Qur’an is Islam’s sacred book. It teaches Muslims how to follow and submit to Allah. Like Christianity, Islam believes there is only one God, so you can submit to no other gods. If this is true, it means women should have right to express their belief in Allah in the presence of men as men and women are one. I said this because it is not found in the Qur’an, but it is true according to my analysis. People cannot keep ignoring women for no good reason.

Buddhism religion is ethical. When we consider ethics, women should be able to express their rights and powers in front of everyone because you cannot reject another’s idea in the community or society. Everybody has right to express their emotions in public. As a reminder, we need to understand that God made everyone equally. In the world there are many things which God created, including all humankind, and it is above all other things God created. When God gave humans power over everything, they started naming everything that God created. This means women have the same power as men (Genesis 1:26).

Hinduism acknowledges that everyone is godly, and there are no exceptions. Hinduism existed before the birth of Christ. If Hinduism believers believe that everyone is godly, why are women’s rights rejected? This means the sacred books of many religions are misinterpreted. It does not mean that Hinduism is the best religion in the world, but more according to the consideration of human beings.

Women cannot be removed from the society when they do not have the power to stand in front of men to express their feelings. The ideology of women is clearly mentioned in many religion principles but rejected by many religions because their principles push away the rights of women. Realistically, a religion does not have a problem against women; the people involved in the cultures are the problem. This includes communities, tribes, and many other sources. Cultures, communities, tribes, and other groups interpret their sacred books in their own ways rather than respecting and interpreting the texts in an appropriate manner.

Feminism and religion must be dealt together in order to prioritise women’s rights in the world because every woman has the right to express her feelings in public. Women cannot fight just fight for their own rights; they must fight for all women in the world, for people to give them the respect of their fights. In religion, there are women who have the right to express themselves about their beliefs, and they cannot be stopped because certain people want them to apply their culture rules. Moreover, society shouldn’t reject the existence of women because they are important in the society. They can do certain things men are unable to do in the society. I saw many cultures form groups who reject women’s rights. But there are also groups of women who can do better than groups of men.

According to some tribes and ancient cultures, a woman is supposed to stay in the kitchen. This ideology is wrong and ridiculous. Those who think in such manner are referring to Judaism and other cultures. In some tribes, they say a man must go to hunt and woman must stay at home. You cannot stop or silence someone who has a message of encouragement for those who need to hear it. Those messages of encouragement can make people feel better and save many in the world. This world needs help from every human being, and many women fought for their countries when men could not fight. But the same men who failed to fight for their countries keep ignoring women and their rights.

Feminists’ rights are very important because they analyse the women’s movement’s fight for free expression. Religion cannot reject feminism’s expression because there are women who contribute in other movements. Those religious women require freedom of speech to express their beliefs regarding societies’ developments. It is also very important that the religious women should not think their rights must be dominated by men’s rights. It is crucial that people are aware of not discriminating against women’s rights in the world.

The consideration of feminism has also developed many visions and ideas of the religions in the world. It does not mean men are more mature than everyone else.

Women can share ideas about religion and impact the world. They can also introduce good news of ideologies in many religions, and men can follow their ideas. When people ignore women’s ideas, it can change the world. To educate a woman means to educate the entire nation because women are the base in the education of the world. Men shouldn’t be so ignorant as to reject women’s ideas. I don’t understand why churches reject women ministries if they are also Christians? Women must be considered in the churches because they have strong convictions. And they can preach in front of men without covering their heads or faces. Many women impact the politics of our world. Furthermore, men who do not know politics believe in female politicians’ ideas. There are also women in armies around the world. They lead groups of men, and men obey their instructions.

CHAPTER 1

What Is Feminism?

Many female scientific researchers should be considered for their work in helping the world because their research is well founded and well analysed. Men who reject women researchers because they are not taken seriously shows a huge error in our societies. Feminist consciousness is based on things which can positively contribute to the community or world. Many women researchers often find themselves constantly rejected by other researchers and scholars. Some men ignore women’s research because they abuse women sexually. Some men view women as powerless; this is one of the reasons women researchers are can be abandoned, including not being able to find funding. Fonow and Cook stated in their research that One of the ways in which reflexivity is employed involves the concept of consciousness raising, a process of self-awareness familiar to those involved with the women’s movement (Mary Margaret Fonow, Judith A. Cook, p. 3). Only a few research organisations consider women’s research; this is one inconsideration of women in the research organisation environment.

Many men are afraid of women researchers because women sometimes reveal bad things that men have done to them. This suffering slows the women’s progress in life because they are annoyed by this abusive behaviour from men. Most women’s behaviour cannot be well identified due to the men’s abuse. They suffer from the inside; this can be one of the key identifications of women, but in general, they are sometimes criticised by other women as well. The abusive attitudes towards women make them feel bad. They try to believe what Christianity and Judaism understand about woman coming from man, but they forget about Genesis 1:26–27.

Everyone in the world requires freedom to live in dignity with everyone else. When women start looking for their rights, it means they do not have the right to live. It cannot be right to restrict one part of a human being, who God created in his own image. People must know that women are strong enough to cope with many circumstances, just as men can cope. When men abuse women, it means they stop them from talking, thereby keeping them away from their emotions. It’s always bad men who do horrible things to women. You cannot stop someone from progressing because it makes them commit errors in life. That is why freedom must be practiced voluntarily. People should stop abusing women because it is not helping women to progress in the world.

Women are also very important for the development of research. They cannot push back because they need help to help those who are in need. As I said before, to educate a woman is to educate an entire nation. So, it should be better for everyone in the world to receive help from women. The idea of bullying women does not help in the scientific research because women are capable of doing better than men, and men can benefit from women scientific researchers. Male scientific researchers are not better than female scientific researchers; what male researchers can do female researchers can also do. Everyone should respect each other in doing good research. We should never ignore the best research of women because they provide important information that can be a great contribution to the world. Besides, as I mentioned previously, had women never existed, how would men be born? Men are born of women, and it is better for women to express their emotions and feelings in public.

A woman’s idea always challenges those who ignore the research of women in their organisations. As we all know, women were with Jesus everywhere he went. This also means that Jesus was doing research with women. His own mother came to tell him that people needed more drinks to drink, and he listened to his mother: When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine’ (John 2:3). Jesus’s disciples were also in charge to tell him when the drink or wine was finished, but they were too busy doing other things. So, a woman, his mother, told Jesus. This shows that a woman was more awake than men.

But why do other people think of considering women, but some men reject and ignore women in the church? Imagine if this type of woman were not with Jesus, how would people at the wedding have more wine to drink? Many people view women as useless human beings, but in this type of situation, they can understand that it was a woman who stood up to tell Jesus about the wine at the wedding. The ignorance of other human being is not something that God recommends us to think of because he created us the same (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12–27; Ephesians 3:6, 4:15–16; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18, 24). Everyone in the church is useful because there is only one true God, who is on top of everyone in the world.

To consider everyone is very wonderful, especially when all can communicate with Jesus in the church without any blockages or limitations. To talk to Jesus and tell people to obey what God is about to do, I believe, required a different type of preaching because many people don’t pay attention to the actions of women. To preach to people doesn’t just only refer to being in the church, synagogue, temple, mosque, and so on. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own (1 Corinthians 6:19). In spiritual understanding, all those places of worship represent the human body because God lives within a human being—and this includes women.

Women have an efficient impact in the world because they can pick up something quickly for the benefit of everyone in society. People should stop abusing women because they