Sex and the Abrahamic Faiths
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patriarchy. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are based on the
proposition of women being livestock.
Sex is only for procreation. Nothing has changed that.
It does not matter how many women get into positions of authority in
religious institutions. They are still reinforcing the patriarchal
code. Even approving of and encouraging same sex unions does not
change this.
Sure, rejecting superstition was good. But anti-sex is not.
The bible gives a caricature of paganism, or polytheism. It is
showing it at its worst, in Ramases. But it is not always like this.
It probably was not like this during his reign.
High monotheism is something that started in the Egyptian Mystery
Schools. We are presented with Ahknaton who tried to erradicate
polytheism, rather like we read of happening once Moses and his people
crossed the Red Sea.
But even though the Ahknaton approach did not last, high monotheism
did. It existed as a facet of polytheism. The two need not be in
conflict.
For the Egyptians, monotheism was esoteric widsom. With Judaism it
was a fully public information, explained in the scripture. But this
does not mean it was popular religion. Not at all. The POV of the
biblical authors was a minority point of view.
Polytheism does not have to be like it is portrayed as Moses and Aaron
approach a pig headed Phaeroe.
Likewise it does not have to be like Sennacerib's stupid Captain
taunting Hezekiah's men on the wall.
It certainly does not have to entail child sacrifice, or be like
Jezebel's Baal Priesthood that got humiliated on Mt. Caramel. The
Word Faith Pentecostals are as bad as these folks.
Read Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy. In Oedipus Rex, you see a
superstitious polytheism. It is not that much different from some of
what is called for in the books of Moses actually. Scapegoats and Sin
Offerings.
But in the third play, Antigone, you see the same official religion,
but it works very very differently. There is real light in it. You
see it in the persona and governance of the King of Athens.
Right now, it is sex that gives us the rift between organized
religion, and popular culture. The latter knows that sex is liturgy,
pagan liturgy. They may not be able to explain it, but the feel it.
In popular culture there is an apreciation for libidinous music and
sexuallized female beauty.
The opposition to paganism promoted by the authors of the Hebrew
Bible, and continued in the New Testament, creates this rift. It is
totally unnecessary and counter productive.