Should women enter the church during their menstrual periods?

Question

The Levitical codes tell us no.
In addition to not eating certaini meats.
Not wearing a cloth of more than one fiber.
The fundamentalists will say, these rules no longer apply because that was the customs/traditions of the day....
personal hygeine was not up to par, blah, blah, blah.

But, why don't they explain away the verses relating to homosexuality?

Did Biblical people know of homosexual relationships as we have today?

No...homosexuals of the day were temple prostitutes.
It was important to have big families for wealth and protection...so, obviously homosexuality was frowned upon...

So, isn't homosexuality as it appears in the Bible..more for historical reference and tells us something about their age...more than a literal instruction for us today?

How do you decide which codes to follow and which to not?

Should women not come to church during that time of the month?

And don't give me that is the old testament bit...

The Apostle Paul writes in the new testament about the subjective role of women...how they shouldn't speak up in church, etc...again...the reason because it was a different culture...women didn't sit on the same side of the church as their husbands...women were not educated...

Again, though...these verses were written to fit the day and age of the Bible...so is of homosexuality.

Answer 1

As someone already mentioned, they choose what to believe out of convenience... and most of them don't realize that what they are fed is non-Biblical anyway. Ever heard of Paradise Lost or Dante's Inferno? Yeah.

Then they bring up things like what is "unnatural." First of all, define unnatural, don't just throw the word around and think you're making any legitimate points. Everything comes from our physical world, so in that sense, nothing is unnatural. If unnatural is what the animals don't do, then homosexuality can be pointed out in animals as well. If unnatural is not influencing the body with drugs and so on, well, homosexuality doesn't do that, either. Also, humans don't just have sex for reproduction, and some humans have sex but NEVER reproduce. To maintain an argument that says homosexuality is bad because it doesn't produce any children would require that you say heterosexuality is bad if you don't have any children. So, you think we should all have kids? Look at how many children in this world are orphans and are suffering through no fault of their own. No, on the contrary, to be responsible, we should either adopt or not have children at all. The population is big enough and only getting larger. So, what makes homosexuality so bad? It isn't a threat to the species because it remains, more or less, at a constant level. Let's not forget bisexuality, either.

We should always question things, including the Bible and its rules. What good are rules if no reasoning behind them is provided? Just 'do or do not.' It's nonsense. Furthermore, you people are NOT JUSTIFIED in taking away the rights of others in the United States just because YOU think it's immoral. We may be a democracy (really, a republic), but we have a CONSTITUTION. It is not harming you or ANYONE else. Government and church in this nation were meant to be separated for a REASON.

To those who say that the Bible does not deal with homosexuality, well, I have no idea what to say to you. Many of you use this same approach to other things. You interpret as you like so that everything works out all happy and nice. Disgusting.

I'm so tired of all of the hypocrisy. I know from experience, since I used to be a Christian. I only know more about that religion now that I've left it.

Answer 2

It was not just menstrual women who were not allowed into the temple, it was also ALL "gentile" (I.E.: non-Jews), so under the Old Testament, people like you, me and the vast majority of Christians would not be allowed to enter the church building because we were considered un-kosher (unclean).

You conveniently omitted that fact (oops!!).

So why the change? And how do we know which of the laws of Moses, to follow, and which ones not to follow anymore?

The original disciples argued this very question. They seemed to agree that the only laws of the Old Testament that still applied to Gentile Christians under the New Testament were the ones which were purely moral in nature, and not those which only served to set Israel apart as a nation (Acts chapters 10, 11 &15).

This raises the question as to which laws are which, and how can we tell the difference? Most of the various books of the New Testament give lists of which laws still apply, as well as specific examples of which do not.

This causes some people to accuse modern Christians of "picking and choosing", but in reality, it was the first century church that picked and choose which laws were which.

Jesus, Peter and Paul said express that the old "kosher" laws (I.E.: what was "clean" and what was "unclean") did not apply to Christians under the New Testament (Mark chapter 7; Acts chapters 10, 11, & 15; Galatians chapters 2 & 5; 1 Corinthians 6:8-20).

There is a deep symbolic reason for this, as Peter explains in Acts chapter 10 and Paul explains in Galatians 2:11-26.

Most of the laws that you have mentioned deal with keeping "clean" (kosher), such as the woman who was having an issue of blood, so if you take either the words of Jesus, Peter and Paul literally, then these laws no longer applied under the New Testament, because Jesus made all people "clean".

But Jesus, Peter, and Paul ALL said that "sexual immorality" was still forbidden under the New Testament.

So the act of men having sex with men, or women having sex with women, among other things (like sex outside of marriage, incest, and adultery) are still expressly forbidden, if you take either Jesus, Peter, or Paul literally.

This question gets asked, and answered all of the time, and apparently no one is listening, because it keeps getting asked. This is basic Christianity! If you don’t know the answer to this, then you know almost nothing about Christianity!

Answer 3

At the risk of giving my age away here I will tell you that when I gave birth to my first son I had to go and be 'Churched' (Blessed by a minister) before I could go into other peoples houses with my child. I was unclean and an unchurched woman took bad luck into peoples houses.! What does that say about the Christian Church's attitude to women? Nothing much has changed. Just me. I'm Pagan and finally have a place in the world.

Answer 4

Well, if your church is The Jewish Temple (which was distroyed twice and is yet to be built again), then I would recommend staying out. However, all other churches or temples are unlike the one that the Livitical Laws reguarding cleanliness for the tent of meeting were written for... so I don't see why not... people get together to "celebrate" and "worship" and "hear the word of God"... this can be done anywhere.

Answer 5

People of that day observed without microscopes and modern med they probably were able to figure out that lack of hygiene, tampons, and blood came with problems. Just like know now that gay men carry the majority of hiv, the people of leviticus may have had a similar aftermath. Since the "sexual revolution" STD s have grown from 2 to 2 dozen in the last 50 years. Yet today people still refuse to recognize the value and wisdom of sexual boundaries,

Answer 6

This probably has little to do with the actual meaning of your question, but when I was about to participate in a sweat lodge with a bunch of men, the organizer asked me in an aside, "are you on your moon?" As I was not, I was allowed to participate in the ceremony. I was told that, if I had entered when menstruating, all sorts of uncontrollable power would have been let loose and it would have been dangerous for everyone. I would have had to have a separate solitary sweat lodge. I wonder if there is some dim remnant in the Levitical laws concerning this pagan feminine power and the awareness of the Moon and tides, etc. and the woman being more of a channel for the power of the Earth at the time of her moon. Interesting that you bring it up with regard to the Christian religion. It is one more sign that Christianity has many pagan or perhaps shamanistic roots and parallels. What would Sir James Frazer or Joseph Campbell have to say about that? Perhaps they have addressed it?

Answer 7

It all depends on how closely you follow the religion. Southern baptists have written rules that it is a sin to dance, but you would find very few baptists these days that follow the written laws of the religion. Even the older generations see no problems with dancing, unless they witnessed the "grinding" efforts of teenagers in this generation.

Homosexuality is a controversial topic when it comes to Christians and the Bible. Most Christians believe that God intends marriage to be a covenant between one man and one woman for life. Christian marriage is a mutual relationship in Christ, a covenant made in the context of the church. According to Scripture, right sexual union takes place only within the marriage relationship. Marriage is meant for sexual intimacy, companionship, and the birth and nurture of children. I personally believe that church has benefited little from the efforts of both extremist conservatives and of extremist liberals in this area in recent years.

Not much is mention in the Bible of homosexuality, whether it is wrong or right. It only talks about what is acceptable.

Each religion has their own sects and beliefs, and you follow with the strictness you prefer. Not following a religion as strict as others does not make you less of a believer. You do whats best for you.

Answer 8

I may be wrong, but I believe that this is banned in Orthodox Judaism and Islam. Unitarianism does not impose these rules as it is a personal matter. People really don't go around mentioning it. That is on menstruation.

As for being gay, same-sex marriages can be performed in the congregation and the stance of the UUA is pro-choice. I agree with them on these issues. I have no issue with reproductive rights and same-sex marriage. I think it is high-time that other religions adopted the same progressive attitudes, but we cannot impose our belief system on others.

Answer 9

Actually, Lev. 15:19-24 states that no contact is allowed with a woman when she is in her period.
But how do you know? If you ask a woman, you'd get slapped on the face (and then you'll have to offer the other cheek for another slap...)
Maybe true Christian women should be required to wear some kind of a little sign on those days, so other true Christians could stay away from them...

Answer 10

What you listed are rules that pertain to the Laws of Moses. Laws we were redeemed of through Christ.

As for the homosexuality, your reference honestly doesnt make any sense. In that same time God spoke to the people and told him a sin against the body, a sexual sin, two men laying together is detestable to the Lord. I think that makes it pretty clear.