\u201cThe Temptation and Fall of Eve,\u201d from William Blake\u2019s illustrations for Milton\u2019s \u201cParadise Lost.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI\u2019m not fond of the way this article treats the Genesis story of, as Milton wrote in Paradise Lost,<\/em> \u201cMans First Disobedience, and the Fruit \/ Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste \/ Brought Death into the World, and all our woe \/ With loss of Eden \u2026\u201d<\/p>\nMilton\u2019s next line \u2014 a reference to Paul\u2019s argument in Romans \u2014 is \u201ctill one greater Man \/ Restore us.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s no hint of that restoration at work in CT\u2019s<\/em> discussion of being \u201cunder the Curse.\u201d Jesus, in this discussion, is \u201cso sorry\u201d for such pain, but what can he do? Nothing<\/em>. As much as he might prefer to have conquered sin and death, this Jesus seems powerless against them.<\/p>\nThat seems like an astonishing implication from a Christian publication, but I suppose for the mostly Reformed-ish readership of CT,<\/em> the idea that God is incapable of redeeming more than just a little slice of humanity doesn\u2019t seem as scandalously weird as it does to me.<\/p>\nBut set all that aside. What bugs me here is the devotional embrace \u2014 almost the fetishization \u2014 of the belief that ladyparts are and deserve to be<\/em> cursed by God. This isn\u2019t unique to this one writer or this one article. It\u2019s something that you can find throughout white evangelical Christianity in America.<\/p>\nThe idea, again, is based on an interpretation of that story in Genesis 3. But that interpretation is not consistently applied. And this inconsistency, it seems to me, suggests that this interpretation is not being honestly<\/em> implied. It seems to be a double-standard \u2014 a duplicitous standard.<\/p>\nBecause the following verses in Genesis 3 say this:<\/p>\n
And to the man\u00a0[God] said,
\n\u201cBecause you have listened to the voice of your wife,
\nand have eaten of the tree
\nabout which I commanded you,
\n\u2018You shall not eat of it,\u2019
\ncursed is the ground because of you;
\nin toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
\nthorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
\nand you shall eat the plants of the field.
\nBy the sweat of your face
\nyou shall eat bread
\nuntil you return to the ground,
\nfor out of it you were taken;
\nyou are dust,
\nand to dust you shall return.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yet the very same people who insist that \u201cin pain\u00a0you shall bring forth children\u201d is a sacred duty and a holy obligation for women never, ever suggest the same thing about the toil and sweat of men.<\/p>\n
A woman who evades the \u201cCurse\u201d of painful childbirth through the false gods of medical technology is viewed with suspicion. She is portrayed as irreverent, somehow, for failing to embrace her punishment. But what of the millions of men \u2014 white-collar executives, investors, the idle rich, and the uncalloused managerial class who eat their bread without ever being subject to sweat and toil? No such suspicion attaches to them.<\/p>\n
Men are congratulated<\/em> for avoiding the pain, toil and sweat of their \u201cCurse.\u201d They are, within the church, celebrated as particularly and deservedly blessed by God.<\/p>\nIs there some principled explanation for this double standard? Is there some unspoken variable that would account for these two opposite interpretations of this one story? Is there something I\u2019m missing here \u2014 something that could explain this as anything other than the simplest explanation for what appears to be happening here?<\/p>\n
Because the simplest explanation is that this is simply crude dishonesty in service of cruel misogyny.<\/p>\n
And unless someone provides some other plausible explanation, that\u2019s what I\u2019ll have to conclude is going on here.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seems to be a double-standard — a duplicitous standard. The very same people who insist that “in pain you shall bring forth children” is a sacred duty and a holy obligation for women never, ever suggest the same thing about the toil and sweat of men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11,44,117],"class_list":["post-20714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-bible","tag-gender","tag-genesis"],"yoast_head":"\n
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