How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

There is still a great deal of misogyny in our society, and whenever it is pointed out and confronted, we should add our support. But it can be awkward to talk about Bible verses that—at face value—seem to demean and devalue women. These verses have always been in the Bible. They aren’t new. But people are now calling attention to them and asking if Christians really believe them. Have you ever stopped to think, “Do women really have to be silent in church?” That’s what the Scriptures say, and passages like this are being noticed today. If you are a thinking Christian or someone who is considering Christianity, you don’t have a choice—you must explore these verses. If you are a Christian and reading this, I’d like you to think about the Bible study meeting I mentioned earlier. What would you say to those women? Perhaps you are like me, and you’ve never really thought much about this. But that is no longer an option. In our world today, these verses demand an explanation. As a non-Christian friend of mine put it, the Bible seems to teach that the church is a “boys’ club for adults”—and I can understand why she said this. However, as we will soon learn, if we look at how these verses fit into the larger context of the whole Bible story, it significantly changes how we understand them. Notes