was christ a feminist?

Question

it hints in here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6957514137139557953
that jesus was perhaps one of the earliest feminists, in an era of great patriarchy.

is this true?

it sounds like christianity might be ok after all... from this perspective... should we be thankful to christianity for that?

have we gone further than what the church has to offer though, since it represented only early steps to help women in the early days?

possibly early christians knew if they took an extreme approach and asked for equality for women straight away, they'd get nowhere. so they compromised, and asked for a few benefits for women.

now though, have we gone further? can we be thankful that the church started this process of gaining equality for women, but also that we've, gladly, gone beyond what the church affords women?

Answer 1

Jesus could not be the 'first' feminist. If the definition of feminism was expanded to include Jesus, it would also include an innumerable amount of religions and movements that pre-dated Jesus, some of which went so far as to go beyond equality and be anti-masculine.

All religion is evolution. Christianity evolved from the religions that came before it (especially Judiasm) and from the circumstances of the time and has continued to evolve since then. I believe that taken as a single entity Christianity has done more to perpetuate a patriarchal society than to support equality (and certainly it has not fostered a matriarchal society). However, the state of our society one way or another, good or bad can hardly be laid at the feet of Christanity as a whole or of the Roman Catholic Church in particular. Patriarchal societies existed for the most part before Christianity, and exist today in many non-Christian countries.

Answer 2

Does it really matter whether or not Jesus was a feminist? The point is he shared his teachings, love and kindness with EVERYONE. He may or may not have been a feminist and I think that 2000 years after his life no one will be able to answer this question. However, he treated everyone equally - something many of us even today still fail to achieve.

Answer 3

No. The Da Vinci Code is admitingly fiction, (as even Dan Brown states). When even the author admits his book is fiction, shouldn't one stop treating it as sound evidence?

Secondly, Christ was not a feminist. Christ is TRUTH. Christ does not have a political agenda. His sole task is to restore the ordinances of God and Father. For this reason, Christ instructed men to give women their due respect and appreciation, as the Father always intended. Christ did not have "feminism" in His mind. He had "Father" in His mind. This is a crucial diference.

This is confirmed in Ephesians and Corinthians, where the Holy Spirit of Christ, through Paul, reminds women that the man is her head. Obviously, this denounces feminism.

Answer 4

Well, Mary Magdalene was one of his earliest supporters, and many Christians feel that he treated her no different than he treated his other disciples. So yeah, he may be the first feminist.

Answer 5

He wasn't a feminist in the modern sense of the term. He was even better! :) Jesus simply treated women as real people, rather than putting them in a "second class" status. He loved people -- men, women, and children included.

He actually talked to women whom society considered to be of ill-repute. He did not demean them, nor did he coddle them. ("Woman at the Well" incident.) He took them all very seriously, and he listened to them and sympathized with them. He healed men and women alike.

Women went to find Jesus at the tomb first, and women were the first ones aware of his resurrection. It was Mary and Martha's comments about Lazarus' death that contributed to Jesus' tears, and perhaps the resurrection of Lazarus itself.

He let women come sit and listen to him teach in private homes. (He commended Mary for doing so, and told Martha that sometimes it was better to sit and listen and talk, than to work in the kitchen and miss an opportunity.)

When Jesus was about to die, he made sure that someone (John) would take care of his mother... who was presumably a widow at that point. (Jesus was the eldest child.)

He empathized with the adulteress, whom the Pharisees wanted to stone (Note: They didn't bring the male adulterer, they just wanted to punish the woman.), and saved her from death and did not demean her even as he told her to go and sin no more.

SO many examples... :)

As far as the church went, and Paul's comments (which I think are unfairly slandered most of the time), his goal was to make sure the church was doing at LEAST as good as the culture was in regards to women... and then to surpass them (!).

So his advice of how a wife should relate to her husband was fairly typical of the secular morality at the time... and then he went WAY past culture in laying down extremely strong guidelines for the husband's obligation to his wife. (The husband's duties were usually not mentioned or "set in stone.")

There's also Paul's comments about women in church, which cause so much controversy I can't say much here...except that some churches spend more time arguing about how to define each other by gender and less time practicing actually loving each other as people... letting our roles develop naturally.

(Paul's comments are at least in part addressing specific problems in the church at that time and cannot be over-generalized as universal guidelines.)

Answer 6

NO he was not a feminist. What is it with ppl? Do they believe anything? Some think he's feminist, some think he's gay, some think he had children and was married! Where do they get these crazy ideas????

Answer 7

The author of the Da Vinci Code thought so, but then again, that book was a work of FICTION, so I doubt it.