Christianity And Islamic Influences On Sexism - 1790 Words

Steven Egbalic Sociology 381 Professor Cretney 12/06/2014 Christianity and Islamic Influences on Sexism Introduction The language of the written principles in both Christianity and Islam is gender bias, written in the masculine voice. The idea being argued is that sexism is fueled by the continual desire to place one gender as dominate to another. The Bible has clearly referred to gender in the male context, whereas the Quran is not as open regarding the male references in their religious teachings, but more so in their practices. Despite many attempts to modernize the religious practice, teachings, and doctrine of both religions, the masculine dominance is still extremely present. It is a concern that is growing more apparent as†¦show more content†¦The structure of the existing religious institutions focuses on promoting leaders who validate the need to promote the male domination, and stifle those who fail to comply. This practice is common in the Muslin world, extreme religious interpretation being used to oppose them. They enshrined their gentleman s agreement in the real m of the sacred by elevating their religious family laws to state laws. Women and children were the inevitable chips with which the political and religious leaders bargained. (Fisher). Christianity also has its role in sexism based upon the religious context of the written word. â€Å"The Bible is a thoroughly patriarchal text, not at all written in a gender-inclusive language and in order to understand the Bible, women have to read most of it as if they were men† (Durber 1992). God’s gender is unknown yet is still continually referred to in the masculine context. Many have argued the need to remove gender from the context in efforts to remove sexism for the religious structure. However, â€Å"changing the language does not necessarily remove the bias or the sexism that remains embedded in the thought patterns, images and metaphors which, with language, combine to form a given text ... The masculine bias has not been removed; it has simply been rendered more subtle and therefore more dangerous, because more difficult to discern and expose (Marlowe). The structure of the institution would still promote sexism because the masculine