According to the following tract from Tract Evangelistic Crusade (no longer in business) in Apache Junction, Arizona, it is a sin for women to wear miniskirts, short shorts, or bikinis. Be prepared to read lots of slut-shaming.
According to the following tract from Tract Evangelistic Crusade (no longer in business) in Apache Junction, Arizona, it is a sin for women to wear miniskirts, short shorts, or bikinis. Be prepared to read lots of slut-shaming.
In among all that, the most egregious thing is “forcible rape and sex crime soared upward.” Rape is forcible by its very nature, that’s what the word means!
And there has ALWAYS been sex crime.Hardly a week goes by now without someone on trial for sexually abusing children, and the charges often date back thirty, forty, fifty years.
For whom is this tract written? For current Christians in order to give them permission to “slut-shame”? I can’t imagine a non- Christian reading this and suddenly thinking, oh no, I am a slut and need to get me some Jesus in my life.
Good point. For current Christians, definitely. Some of whom (many of whom) will buy into some and maybe all of its horrendous assumptions and simplistic thinking.
Also, a psychotherapist could have a lot of fun with the author of this tract. (Man or woman? I assumed a man. . .but then thought of the various women I have known, all religious of one stripe or another, who would be nodding vigorously in agreement with the “points” made.)
This kind of sick is written to upset people and to jab them, give them a bit of good ol’ religious hurt. The emotional code hooks into somebody in a sore or weak time and beats them up in such a way that they are drawn to more and more Jesus harm. To really believe you must be born again confirms the virus has taken hold in your heart and you are in for titheing! Though it might have been written many years ago, it reflects the perspective today in Doug Wilson’s cult and Steven Anderson’s as well. It is Biblical Truth being used as God planned from before time etc.
I agree with you. But it’s also a giveaway as to the person’s neuroses. The main thing that identifies this as rather old is the quality of the paper it is printed on; depressingly, you can find these kinds of exhortations, this deeply-ingrained misogyny, on Lori Alexander’s blog. As well as in those cults you mention.
And here I am, getting all worked up just over women’s ankles. Now I’ll NEVER get to heaven! But at least I get the consolation prize of an all-expense-paid trip to Aruba. At least, Satan told me that.
“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.” — Mark Twain
Every now and then, I’m struck by how absolutely silly some of Christian language is. Of course, I never noticed it when I was drinking the kool-aid, but now, having been out a bit, I see it instantly.
“However, did you ever stop to wonder what God thinks of what you wear?”
No? Did you stop and wonder what Zeus thinks? How about what Voldemort thinks? What does Superman think about what you wear? These are all equivalent questions, in my mind.
I know this is the counselor/social worker part of me speaking. But, I always want to reflect in why people respond in a certain way. What influences and shapes their convictions.
There is so much of the teaching of Jesus that speaks against a judgemental spirit, or cleansing the outside of the cup, so to speak, while not focusing on weightier matters of the heart.
What is going on to lead the fundamentalists to place such great emphasis on these external matters such as skirt or hair length, music, attendance at the theatre, etc.
Is it because these things are more easily monitored and controlled rather than internal virtues such as to love mercy, to do justly, or to walk humbly with God? (Surely, this is where our main concerns should lie.)
I hear you. But I’m afraid the counselor/social work approach fails here. Because it places the focus entirely on (in this case) the author of the article. On the person with the troubling attitudes. Though it is sad and disturbing for the author of these tracts himself/herself to have had hang-ups about sexuality and women, the far more disturbing thing is surely what this kind of rhetoric can lead to? It justifies rape. (“What were you wearing? Oh, well in THAT case. . .”).
Sad to say, I feel that HUGE numbers of people who are drawn to religion (various stripes of) are drawn exactly BECAUSE they see rigid rules and control and feel at home with it. Because they feel insecure themselves, they welcome a simplistic vision and a simple (apparently) set of rules to abide by. And they get, simultaneously, to judge and condemn other people, thus getting to feel ever so slightly better about themselves.
In other words, religion is neurotic. Looking back at my childhood and adolescence in the Catholic church, I remember very few adults who were not, basically, neurotic. Neurotic about sexuality, neurotic about power, anxious to be approved of by the priest (simply because he was a priest.) And these people were, perhaps it goes without saying, very judgemental about others who lived differently and who did differently. Love, justice, etc. . .these are big things that have little interest for small-minded and often embittered neurotics. Bruce writes from the viewpoint of someone who spent many years in an Evangelical setting but a lot of what he describes is very familiar to me. Put briefly, a lot of religion is toxic. (However much it tries to wear a benign smile.)
I would agree Rachel in terms of fear- based faiths that tend to be more legalistic, definitely.
It’s basically any faith in which there is a hierarchy. As far as I know, this kind of attitude towards women and sexuality is not found among Quakers or people who identify as Unitarian. Hierarchy, legalism, control, abuse, those things fit together in almost every religion.
Rachel, I think there is another issue which also can come into play here among people who are fundamentalists such as Lori Alexander, for example. God bless her.
There seems to be a huge lack of understanding that certain parts of the NT are culturally bound.
Jesus elevated the status of women in His time, and even Paul wrote great insights such as Gal. 3:28..
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
But, at the same time Paul also wrote addressing issues in local churches that arose in specific situations located in a patriarchal culture.
Fundamentalists assume that all these adjunctions should necessarily apply to Christians today across the board regardless of our individual situation.
I call it “the cookbook approach” to Biblical interpretation. 🙂 But, I think it can lead folks into a pack of trouble, and confusion.
But, then when this is pointed out to religious people conditioned by these very conservative backgrounds, it is simply assumed that the person is either a “lukewarm Christian,” or someone who does not “believe the Bible.” When just the opposite may be the case.
It can be because the person is committed to Christ, and is taking Scripture seriously, that this concern is being pointed out in the first place.
It is as if we are all talking past each other.
It’s the peeling of the onion, Rebecca. I just cannot see through my tears beyond the layer I am working on… but the onion will be peeled.
(((Brian)))