Sexual Violence At Home Essay

When presented the question “What is responsible for the presence of sexual violence within the context of religion?” my initial response did not come easily or clearly. It’s a common misguided belief that sexual violence and religion go hand in hand when thinking about Islam, but when it comes to Christianity and Catholicism more specifically, we don’t associate the two. Although I know about Islam more than the average American I still held that schema that Muslim women are oppressed and abused within Islam due to the context of their religion. Being raised as a Catholic girl and attending private schools my entire life it didn’t occur to me much that the religion I was brought up in supported and still carries a subliminal belief structure …show more content…
Ruether’s main point is that historically Christianity defined women as if worthless and prone to the demonic, which in turn justified fronts against them whenever they challenged a man either at home or in society. She states that patriarchal societies assume the responsibility for violence against women falls solely on the woman herself because she has “asked for it.” She begins her argument stating that Christianity is in fact, the prime supporter and catalyst for the legal subordination of women. Secondly scholastic theology has embedded this idea within the church that women aren’t “effective capacity for humanity and cannot represent God fully”. Since women represent Eve they must suffer the repercussions that Eve brought when she introduced sin into the world thereby initiating evil and killing Christ. Next Reuther mentions justification and how some patriarchal societies went as far as giving the right to a father to kill his female children because they were regarded as less valuable than males. A father could also kill his daughter if they were suspected of being sexually promiscuous or