Cheerleaders for Allah, Yahweh and Jesus

Without the blind devotion of women,  the 3 middle eastern desert religions would not exist in the strength and power that they exist in the modern world. It is the women of all 3 of these religions  who make excuses for why they have be treated like animals and shoved to the sidelines while their culture and religion marches on without them.  Without women aspiring to birth Yahweh's male messiah or the next prophet of Islam,  or providing male jihad soldiers for our "holy" wars we might actually be able to achieve a world obsessed with peace and not war, beauty and not destruction, and compassion instead of  hatred.  On any given day it is not the men I blame for the poverty of love and beauty in the world, but the masses of women who blindly follow the male dominated religions which have birthed our male dominated cultures that have silenced women's viewpoints.  As women see it,  only male popes and male messiahs and male prophets can absolve them of the sin of being a woman. The teachings of the male prophets and teachers make them a "lesser" human being  while playing mind games claiming love and devotion.   I think it is about time women at least recognized a "male" agenda in their religion.  We have been blind to it  for centuries, and those who were not blind were burned as heretics or "witches".  It has only been with a struggle over 160 years that american women  have arrived at a place of some equality culturally.  Modern day beauty queens and young blonde barbie doll newscasters forget that they are only able to hope for some apparent and visual equal status on TV because of very plain clothed, but outspoken women that began to take up the cause of women in 1850.  A study of the women's movement in american history class is an hour long lecture at best.  The feminist movement is a  historical 160 year "sidenote" linked with the women of the temperance movement like Carrie Nation and women who were ant-feminists  like Beverly LaHaye and Phyllis Shafly who were used by the male dominated "moral majority".  Young american girls get to be very confused about reproductive rights, birth control, virginity and politics thanks to women like Sarah Palin who aspires to be a cheerleader for the pentagon and corporations and big oil, leaving compassionate healthcare as a right for the wealthy and teen pregnancy as an act of a rite of passage for the uneducated and poor single mother's left to wonder how to raise the children they were forced to birth.   Until the women of the world can plan their families, pick a soulmate and believe that they do not need a male pope or male prophet to absolve them of their "sins" we have our work cut out for us.  Encourage another woman today and begin the discipline of looking at  religion as the self serving man-made organization that it is and provide yourself some emotional distance from the abuse.
 

Gang rape OK with "angels" and Lot

Genesis 19:8
"Behold now, I have two daughters which have no known man; let me I pray bring them out to you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof."

According to this ancient tale about a sheepherder who is living in a city called Sodom, god sends angels to convince Lot to leave the city and travel elsewhere.  Lot is living with his wife and two daughters.  The angels did not protest when Lot offered his daughters to become victims of gang rape.  Lot is revered as a prophet by muslims and jews, but the muslims exclude the part of the story where Lot's daughters get daddy drunk and have sex with him in order to preserve the lineage of the tribe.  In the Old Testament "Thou shalt not Kill" applied only within the tribe and did not apply outside the tribe. In the story we are supposed to believe that God rained fire and brimstone and killed all the inhabitants of the cities and on the plains as his judgement agains their sins.   As Lot's family was  fleeing the city the angels told them to not "look back" (vs 17) and escape to the mountains as God was going to destroy the city. But Lot's  wife looked back and God turned her into a pillar of salt.  Lot's  daughters were terrified and felt like their only hope was to great pregnant by their father in order to preserve the family line.  As the story goes they got their father drunk and he had sex with him.   They got pregnant and they both had son's. 

From a woman's perspective this story details how little Lot thought of his daughter's.  At  a point of conflict with the men of the city the only thing he thought of was to offer his daughter's up to the men of the city for gang rape. As this story has been handed down over thousands of years it points to what little value daughters and women had to these ancient men.  In the story,  Lot is important enough for God to send angel's to deliver him from fire and brimstone and destruction.  He is a prophet.  We are supposed to believe Lot became so drunk that he did not know he was having sex with his own daughter's.  And lastly, the harshness of the  immediate death of Lot's wive for the simple act of looking behind her to see what was going on between God and the city she called home was worthy of instant death.   The women of this story are not protected, are given no mercy, and do not fare well at all.  The women are traumatized, judged and put to death by God.  Lot's wife was not valuable enough to preserve and his daughter's were victims of incest in which they are blamed.

The moral of the story is God's extraordinary measure of sending "angels" to deliver Lot out of an "evil" city.  In ancient times it was imperative that everyone lived in a tribe in order to preserve traditions and beliefs.  The whole moral of the story is that  God has "special" people that he goes to extraordinary measures to take care of and the rest of the world he does not care about.  This is called "exceptionalism".  Being a part of a "preferred" religious group that God approves of gives you an extraordinary measure of God's favor necessary for survival.  Humanity outside the exceptional group is doomed. This ideology is pervasive in modern day christianity, judaism and islam.  Whole groups of people believe their beliefs are exceptional and their group is exceptional and that God views them as special and deserving of favor and deliverance from hell.  This story was no doubt useful for centuries to keep the tribal lineage and tribal lore intact, and has been useful to keep people rigidly in fear of God's judgement and anger against people who disobey in the slightest way. (Lot's wife)  Lot as the patriarch was given a pass.  He was not corrected when he offered his daughters to be raped.  He was not corrected for becoming drunk and impregnating his daughter's.  The women of the story were traumatized and judged.  It is only in the past century that women have won some rights.  Male dominated religions and male dominated cultures have kept women from equality for centuries.  How do you see women as dominated even today by the church and society?  Does the pope care about women's rights? Are male pastors willing to see women as equal?  Why has the equal rights amendment failed to be ratified and obstructed by the "moral majority" and women such as Phyllis Shafly and Beverly LaHaye?  Has Sarah Palin used the feminist movement to her benefit, but denies girls sex education and birth control even within her own family?  The current republican candidate for Senate in Nevada does not believe victims of rape and incest have a right to terminate their pregnancy as the pregnancy is an "act of God's will".  She has obviously not been a victim of rape or incest and forced to carry and deliver and raise a baby from these crimes.  This is fake feminism for it does not value the women's rights.  Fear of God's wrath and fear of certain doom drive our society today.  Michelle Duggar has 19 children because she is afraid not having children is against God's will for her.  She sees herself as useful only as it pertains to bearing children and claims she will not stop even if it means her death.  She is no doubt influenced by Lot's wife and Lot's daughter's who felt they only had value to God by birthing children.  All the above mentioned women work very hard at being "exceptional" and "favored" to the harm to those around them.