Women in religion

Blame Eve.

Before monotheism -- before God the Father created man in his image, then woman from Adam's rib; before his favored kings of Israel married their multiple wives to secure their dynasties; before Christ appointed 12 men as his Apostles -- ancient gods and goddesses mingled as equals, more or less, provoking, protecting or frustrating humankind, and blurring the line between flesh and spirit.

Everything had its gender. The Earth was female. The Sun was male. And every object had its associated gendered god. It was difficult to distinguish between the object and the idea of the object, so most ancient cultures didn't bother to try. Poseidon and the ocean's waves were one.

All deities had their specialized power. Each served its purpose. And men and women paid tribute.

When the Kingdom of Israel emerged, slowly over centuries, polytheism gave way to monolatry (the worship of one favored god without rejecting the existence of other gods) and, later, Hebrew monotheism.

Yahweh clearly preferred to dote on men. When he looked down at his creation and saw that it wasn't very good after all, he assigned the patriarch Noah to the task of saving the world's beasts from deluge and beginning humanity anew, according to Torah. God blessed Noah and his sons.

When God wanted to test Abraham's faith, he ordered the patriarch to slay his firstborn son, Isaac. Meanwhile, Abraham pretended his wife, Sarah, was his sister and offered her up to the pharaoh in exchange for favor and wealth.

When it came time to rescue the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and grant them autonomous nationhood, God called Moses.

Meanwhile, women were designated as second-class citizens, to put it politely. They could not wander about in public without their father or husband. They could not talk or reveal themselves to strangers. They could not testify in court. They could not complain when their men married other women, but they were put to death should they commit adultery, or be suspected of doing so, or fail to prove unequivocally their virginity before marriage. They could not complain (to men) when raped. They were owned as property. They were ruled over by men.

Many point to the Creation story as the first reason why women were the ones to get short shrift. Eve was Adam's "helper," made from Adam's flesh. Her weakness prompted her to pluck the forbidden fruit, thus causing the fall of humankind, the original sin that thereafter separated man from God.

It was her fault.

Today, though, Americans live in a society that abides (or tries to abide) by democratic principles, including the equality of all people regardless of gender, race, age, sexual orientation and income. Everyone has a shot at success, we're told.

Yet many religions continue to lag behind secular society, says artist Fletcher Crossman, who long has contemplated the idea of gender inequality in church, determined to represent that idea in paint. Religions point to Scripture and tradition to justify such inequality, claiming that since God has deemed it so, there's really nothing that can be done about it, he said.

But Crossman, seven other artists and a local pastor disagree.

They are mounting an exhibit at the Circular Congregational Church, 150 Meeting St., called "She Shall Be Called Woman" that explores the feminine in religion. The free show opens to the public at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and runs through Sept. 11. The church will be open most days.

Its centerpiece is Crossman's "Apple Thief," a 15-by-12-foot, four-canvas composite of a crucified woman. The painting certainly challenges traditional conceptions of Eve and Jesus, but it also succeeds in reinforcing at least one traditional theological view: That through Christ's sacrifice, Christians are redeemed from original sin.

There are lots of things God ordained or sanctioned once upon a time that we deem outrageous and unjustifiable today, such as genocide, rape, war, slavery and human sacrifice, Crossman said. That's the reason for the show: to get viewers to question long-held beliefs and consider their origins, to contemplate the ever-changing status quo and to imagine a more inclusive theology.

For the Rev. Bert Keller, pastor of Circular, the show is an affirmation of the values promoted by the congregation.

"It fits broadly into the basic commitments of the church," he said. "That would include equality and empowerment."

Women, Keller pointed out, form the core of religious faith. They are more spiritual than men, are more affiliated with a specific church than men, attend church more often than men, pray more than men and believe in God more absolutely than men, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. They are a significant majority in all Christian traditions, according to Pew data. (In Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, men are the active majority.)

Yet "religious traditions have shamed and abused and discriminated against women in unconscionable ways," Keller said.

The church has reinforced double standards, persecuted women suspected of witchcraft and denied women full participation, he said. Some discrimination continues today. Even liberal congregations often don't value the role of women sufficiently, Keller said.

So when Crossman approached him with the idea for an exhibit that explores these ideas, Keller was delighted, he said.

The other local artists displaying their work are Virginia Derryberry, Julie Jacobson, Sharon Lacey, Max Miller, Lisa Shimko, Carl Turner and Peggy Howe.

Junius Wright is the show's curator. A teacher of European literature at Academic Magnet High School, Wright likes to integrate visual arts in the classroom, using literary analysis to study paintings and other works of visual art, he said.

He will bring his 10th-grade students to see the show so they can consider the art alongside books such as John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and other titles that have female protagonists, he said.

Wright, who worked with Crossman on a 2008 installation at the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, is updating the new show's Web site with artist interviews and other content "to extend the experience beyond the show" itself, he said.

Crossman said he scrutinized many crucifixion paintings in preparation for his own. In the studio, he worked with model Abbi Miller and photographer Jack Alterman to create a series of sketches and referential images, settling ultimately on chains, not nails, and a fully clothed figure. He said he wanted to avoid the use of blood, expressions of agony and any visual innuendo that might be interpreted as sexual.

He wanted the figure to be recognizable, modern and expressionless. Her calm gaze hints at accusation, not because of any emotion the figure projects, but because of the preconceptions and attitudes of the viewer, he said.

Influenced by Salvador Dali and Caravaggio, among others, he created a picture that uses space and perspective in ways that are not typical of most crucifixion imagery. Looking at it, the viewer is at once forced to contemplate both the Christian idea of salvation and the role of women in the church, Crossman said.

Louise Doire, a religion instructor at the College of Charleston who teaches a course called Religion and Feminism, said women's exclusion from leadership and ministerial roles is an unfortunate historical fact that has been justified in different ways over the centuries.

In the first of the two Creation stories, Adam and Eve are made by God simultaneously: "male and female he created them." In the second Creation story, Eve is made of Adam to be a helper. She partakes of the fruit from the tree in the midst of the garden because "she saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise" -- all good and benign reasons, Doire said. Yet God is angered nonetheless because his warning went unheeded and so punishes the couple with mortality, pain, labor and shame.

Might this destiny have been meted out no matter what? Is it possible that Adam and Eve were set up? Is it fair to blame Eve for their fall from grace?

"Hebrew Bible scholars have attempted to convince me that there is nothing misogynist about the Creation story," Doire said, "that there are no inherent claims to women's inferiority in the story itself. What happens subsequently is, Eve becomes a prototype of all women. And her inferiority and subjugation are justified by the story through her having been created second, by a different method than Adam and for a particular purpose" -- to serve the man.

Religions historically have justified their doctrines and actions by citing these early Bible verses, Doire said. Women were viewed as child-bearers obligated to remain obedient to their men.

But Jesus adopted a different approach. He forgave women rather than condemning them. He embraced them as friends and disciples. He invited them to join his ministry and travels. He honored them as capable individuals of value. In so doing, he upended the traditional view of women. Some scholars argue that Mary Magdalene was not only a beloved confidant of Jesus, but a co-leader of the Jesus movement, Doire said.

Paul the disciple, too, named women as apostles, deacons, prophets and teachers. In early Christianity, Doire said, "Women had prominent roles in household churches. Many of these were led or funded by women."

Since the earliest Christians believed Jesus' second coming was imminent, there was a sense of urgency and so no real need to establish long-term institutions, Doire said. But when, decades later, Jesus was nowhere to be seen, institutions began to be formed within the Roman Empire.

"The Christianities that were going to survive were the ones that modeled themselves after Greco-Roman hierarchies and organizations," she said.

And those organizations were patriarchal.

College of Charleston religion professor June McDaniel said that, according to St. Augustine, the church's ecclesiastical structure on Earth is meant to reflect the supposed hierarchy of heaven. The pope, bishops and priests mirror the sacred rule of God, the archangels and angels, McDaniel said.

It's based on revelation, she said.

"People follow revelation. If revelation says that there's a male hierarchy (in heaven), then that's what you want to have on Earth. This is the issue known as hermeneutics, or interpretation. How do we understand revelation? Do we take it literally or symbolically?"

In the early church, McDaniel said, during the patristic period (first three centuries), there were four levels of Scriptural interpretation: literal, ethical, allegorical and mystical.

Literalists believed the Bible was a historical document.

A moral view advanced the idea that the Bible contained teaching stories that helped people understand how they should behave.

The allegorical approach held that characters in the Bible represented virtues and vices (the serpent signified temptation; Eve represented corrupted innocence).

The mystical approach held that everything in the Bible represents part of a complex relationship between the human soul and God.

"In the early church, most educated elders (bishops) who were most respected had many interpretations," McDaniel said. "If we look at the Bible as having many levels of meaning, if it is a complex document, then we can understand the role of women in different ways."

In recent decades, religion increasingly has found ways to better accommodate women, said Stephanie Hunt, who chairs the Community Advisory Board of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston.

"It's changing because women and men have recognized the incredible spiritual gifts that women bring to the church and beyond," Hunt said.

Older generations can struggle to reimagine traditional roles and question the rationale for male authority in the church, she said. But art shows such as Circular's can prompt people to consider the contributions of women.

"God's bounty is deep and rich, and women are there, and need to be there," she said.

Reach Adam Parker at 937-5902 or aparker@postand courier.com.