Will Americans recognize why sexual harassment is so common? Roman citizens discovered why. St. Paul tells us in Galatians 3:28 why women are to be respected.
“There is no difference in eternal inheritance for Jew-Greek, slave or free, male or female”.
Before Christianity was strong, women and babies were not respected. Roman law allowed parents to kill their babies, do forced abortions, and steal from women and slaves. The Christian faith changed that. Abortion and infanticide were prohibited, poor people, women, and slaves were given rights.
Forced marriages were prohibited by the church and were allowed to live freely. Before the Bible was accepted young girls were placed into forced marriages with older men at ages 11, 12 and 13. That was dramatically altered as women in the church were allowed to choose when and with whom to marry.
Divorcing a woman was easy in Jewish and Roman circles. As a result, women and their children were left destitute and hungry. Philandering husbands commonly found someone younger and new. The church started to take women and children's causes seriously and began to prohibit no-cause divorces. They saw Jesus statement about divorce as protecting the family.
Women were expected to be chaste and have no sexual partners in those days but men were expected to be promiscuous. The church changed that double standard so men and women both expected to be sexually pure.
Over time the laws also changed in Rome. Christianity impacted every society. Mothers could choose to rear their children. Women could inherit and control property, have money and choose their husbands. Men were expected to be good husbands and fathers. Younger siblings inherited property. Women and slaves were able to become Deacons, Prophets, Teachers, and Evangelists. Some were martyred for the faith. Junia, a female, was even an Apostle (Romans 16:7).
Elevating the eldest son is the tradition today in most of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Eldest sons are emperors who can control family life. The Chinese have a special name for the eldest son. He has more power and more responsibility, as well as more prestige. In America, we are so accustomed to Christian thinking about equality that these passages do not mean much. However, to an African, Muslim, or Asian, the term is radically liberating, as radical as we can get.
Women are still treated as second-class or worse in some non-Christian countries. A famous Muslim scholar said that one thing Muslims cannot accept in the west is the way we treat women as equals. A Muslim ambassador reported back to his king that men treat women so amazingly the king would not believe it.
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