Thoughts on women...

In this journey through the bible, next on our list is Dinah in Genesis 34. In preparing for this I started to read some commentaries because I knew that there is not complete agreement among the scholars with some believing it to be more of a love story than rape. A perspective I hadn't see before though caught my eye and it was so unexpected and shocking that I think it's a good place to focus today. To say it's a reach is an understatement and you can read it here if you like for the long version (its a section of a longer discussion and a suggested interpretation rather than a categoric statement). Essentially however, it takes a similarity in the language used for when Leah (her mother) "went out" to see Jacob to have see with him to conceive Dinahs brother, and compares it to how Dinah "went out" to visit the women of of the land. They suggest that she went with the intention of sexual immorality. They are suggesting "like mother, like daught...

A short post today. The care of pregnant women is at the core of my role as a midwife. Therefore the fact that pregnancy is a time in a woman's life when she is more likely to be affected by domestic violence is even more heart-breaking. It is both more likely to start and more likely to increase in frequency and severity. It is mind-blowing to me that this is even possible, and I am a person who is well informed and not altogether optimistic about the actions of men toward women. The consequences of violence against pregnant women include growth restricted babies, pre-term birth, haemorrhage and spontaneous abortion (miscarriage and stillbirth). The psychological impact is far reaching to women including a multitude of mental health disorders. The impact of children caught up in domestic violence include physical harm, poor self esteem, higher incidences of adverse childhood events, drug abuse in teenage, eating disorders, depression, self harm and suicide. Womens Aid published a ...

Numerous times in the Bible we see sexual violence used as a weapon of war. Women are taken as spoils of war and it's hands down one of those most uncomfortable things to read in there. One of the passages which deals with this is Deuteronomy 22:10-14. It first reads as legalising the rape of women taken captive in war. Women taken captive were to be brought into the house of the captor, then married after a month.  As abhorrent as it is to us in this era, taken in the context of the time it was revolutionary. Women were possessions (to man, not God), pawns in war, family and estate. In this scripture, men were forced to humanise the women they encountered and treat them as wives, given time to grieve, then married honourably. If they changed their minds, they couldn't be sold as slaves, only divorced as a wife with the onus being on the man as the one who dishonoured her. As with many of these ancient directives, this was a confronting law made to curb the sexual violence that...

One of the cleverest things society has managed to do is silence women on the subject of domestic abuse and violence. It has been orchestrated that women often somehow feel complicit in and shame for the abuse they have suffered. Over and over again we hear stories of the women who feel that they are to blame for their own abuse, by either causing it to happen through their own 'behaviour', or through staying with an abusive partner. Neither of these are true. The only person to blame is the perpetrator. A woman could cheat on her husband and still not deserve to be beaten. She may deserve the end of her marriage but never the end of her life. The fault lies with the abuser and the abuser alone. Women have been demonised for millennia to justify the atrocious acts of husbands over wives. Laws have been passed to keep women subjugated, some changing only as recently as the 1990s when in 1991 marital rape was finally recognised as a crime. Until then sex was considered the 'r...

Today marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women. It triggers 16 days of worldwide activism to raise awareness of the many atrocities and oppressions suffered by women and girls globally. It also aims to provoke action by both individuals and governments. Things can change, we have to believe it, the lives and wellbeing of women and girls relies on it. This cause has been important to me for many years and my faith has only made me more committed and more sure that this is the right thing to be doing. In the Old Testament in the Bible, Micah 6:8 says "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God". This verse states really strongly that justice and mercy can co-exist. We can seek justice but still have mercy for a fallen world. The only way to do that well is to be humble, recognise the part we all play in upholding systems of oppression and how "th...