I just don’t get it, but in my own experience and in studies, it’s shown that more women than men are practicing christians in the U.S.
Why, why, why? For one thing why be drawn to a religion that tells you to shut the f**k up, and bars you from any authority in the church?
1Timothy 2:12
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
It’s new testament so that old excuse that it’s from the old testament and doesn’t count can’t apply.
Of course you can just ignore any inconvenient thing the bible has to say, like the evangelist Paula White and Kat Kerr. I sincerely wish those two would shut the f**k up. I’m embarrassed for my gender
Christianity is so nasty to women in so many ways it boggles my mind that women willing commit themselves to it.
In Australia it seems there are more woman Anglican priests every year. We have had 3 in succession at my local Anglican place and another at the Uniting Church…These are old census data figures but our local Archbishop is a woman…and our local Bishop. “In 2001, according to Australian census data, there were 2,823 women who identified as ministers of religion, compared to 11,415 men (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006).” It is likely these numbers are closer to 50/50 this year given that men are leaving the churches or not joining the priesthood.
I think the change that happened in the 90’s of last century, galvanised many women in the churches to seek positions of authority. This in turn, had the effect of making woman much more interested in the workings of the churches, whereas before they were the “forgotten third” of any congregation, like the children they had now power or influence and were ignored.
Now they can make their voices heard to a wider audience and can sit at ecumenical councils as equals to men. I do not think that many more women “believe” than men or that they are psychologically predisposed to accept bullshit. It is just that they now have leaders that they can emulate and admire.
From the very beginning Christianity attracted more [free] females than males. It was the marginalised groups of slaves and women who were drawn towards the concept of an afterlife, and one far superior to any worldly existence.
The belief in a better life to come was so attractive that the numbers of people actively seeking martyrdom became a problem for the early church. So much so that the church issued a decree forbidding people from seeking martyrdom .
As for today? Could it possibly be that women still feel marginalised in our society? That belonging to a church provides something(s) they cannot get from ‘normal’ life? I say this with the attitude that human behaviour always has a reason, or at least initially.
Most Christian’s I’ve engaged with, even those who claim the bible is literally the infallible word of god, will rationalise and interpret passages, no matter how egregiously opposed the literal and specific meaning is to what the believer is claiming.
This doesn’t explain the disproportionate number of women who are Christian’s, but ignoring cognitive dissonance seems to be something all theists excel at.
I’d be prepared to bet the reasons are varied nuanced and complex though. No point looking for a silver bullet explanation here IMHO.
Woman have made remarkable strides forward in society in general. Unfortunately the biggest Christian denomination, the Catholic church, as will as many smaller sects, seem bound and determined to keep the values and norms of bronze age goat herders. The Catholic church has lost it’s war against birth control in the U.S. If they kicked out the women who used birth control they’d decimate their membership. Their stand against birth control in impoverished countries, and even condemning condoms in aids ravished areas is criminal. They’re losing ground in their strongholds in South America, and even Irish women seem to have had enough. To so strongly, and unwaveringly advocate against something that the vast majority of both men and women see as beneficial can’t help their popularity. I hope they don’t wise up and reverse themselves because I think the more they’re diminished the better.
Gosh, why didn’t I think of that? When I become emotional and irrational I just have a good cry and then peruse my copy of “The S.C.U.M. Manifesto” and I feel all better .
Really, I hadn’t noticed. The last anglican cleric I noticed was jolly and witty chap on QI.
In “The Vicar Of Dibley”, the parish priest is Geraldine, played by Dawn French her largest. I forget the name of her Bishop. I remember he has a partner called ‘Rocky’
I watched it for the parish meetings and her dim but lovely bestie Alice, who has some church function, verger I think.
Below from Yes Prime Minister, on Modernists among Church of England/anglican clerics. (especially bishops)
Have not doubted that since that wet winter’s Sunday in 1972 when my flat mate set fire to his fart.
I later learned that this was common among young males of a certain age. Seems that on occasion their anuses somehow manage to ‘inhale’, with the outcome being just as one might imagine…
As I said I suspect its facile to look for one answer, more likely there are a range of reasons. For example until very recently women had very little in the way of autonomy, this is still the case in many parts of the world, so perhaps religious belief was a comforting distraction from that, it’s a common enough theme. It might also be inferred that women with little or no autonomy would be heavily manipulated and indoctrinated. If they were not allowed an education such indoctrination would be hard to escape.
Of course this wouldn’t apply to the same degree in post industrialised democracies. Worth remembering here that the US is something of anomaly, as most western democracies have been growing more secular for decades, whereas the US shows no such signs.
Yeah, very much the case in some ‘traditional homes’ such as say Italian, Greek an Japanese.
–and of course in my home. Took me 40 years to work out my mother was in charge. Dad would yell, mum would ‘get upset’. Mum almost always got her way by ‘managing’ dad. [and the rest of us] This process was slow, subtle, and almost always worked.
I once read that Jewish mothers invented guilt. That may well be true. However, catholic mothers and the catholic church made it an art form.
Until the end of her life, we let mum get away with “Please don’t talk about that, it upsets me”. In my family we had a mantra, “don’t upset your father”. By extension to everyone else. To this day I hate conflict and tend not to deal with it very well
Geez I always thought this was some harmless party trick. This needs a big ad campaign to warn of the dangers. T.V., billboards, the works. Your former roommate could be the poster child. It needs a catchy line. Maybe, “Don’t be an ignoramus and burn your anus.”
Apparently it was a common activity with ‘surfie’ blokes during the winter when they couldn’t go surfing. Sitting around the club room drinking beer and being bored. A noticeable number turned up at emergency.
Oh well, an effective if a tad extreme way of removing hair from one’s arse.
You want to know why members of society who are not part of the status quo, are attracted (at a slightly higher rate than the mean) to a religion that promises a magical form of perfect justice?
Ironically - also believing this “perfect justice” will be “just” by a male god, through a male representative, that makes it clear through male writers, that the male is the “head” of female…
My thoughts . Females are encouraged to be “feeling”. Emotions are not discouraged. Religions, by-and-large, are an emotional, feeling, “faith-based” community where women are encouraged to make friends, find support, etc.
So, since religious services can create feelings/emotions and there are lots of other women (dragging their families along) for friends/popularity/socializing - BAM
Sorta like AVON, or Scentsy or Mary Kay (do they even still exist?) and other types of groups that focus to female traits.
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going was her revenge! Make everyone sit there, miserable 
lol
. Females are encouraged to be “feeling”. Emotions are not discouraged. Religions, by-and-large, are an emotional, feeling, “faith-based” community where women are encouraged to make friends, find support, etc.