During a press conference yesterday, award winning author Chimamanda Adichie spoke on religion and how it relates to feminism.
She spoke on how people often use the Bible wrongly to justify their stance against feminism. According to her, Jesus Christ treated women like his equals and were the once that first saw him when he resurrected.
”When you use the bible to justify what in my opinion is injustice, the problem with this is that, I want to then ask you, let’s talk about the new testament, let’s talk about Jesus Christ, because, in general, Christianity really is about the coming of Christ.
Now, let’s, actually look at the bible. And it’s important also when you, you know, you selectively pick things from the old testament.
If you actually go and read about the history of the bible, you’ll start to understand that the stories are rooted in particular cultures.
Now, look at Jesus and look at… let’s look at how Jesus treated women.
Jesus came from a society that was very patriarchal. The Jewish people at that time did not give any regard to women, like many cultures all over the world.
Jesus came, and suddenly Jesus is treating women as though they’re his equals. Jesus is talking to women. And the old-fashioned Jewish people were scandalized. Because they were like, how can you be giving women this kind of honor. But Jesus is making a point there.
When Jesus rises from the dead, the central message of Christianity is that Christ has risen. That’s the central message. That’s why Easter is really the most important part of Christianity.
When Christ first rises, who gets the message that he has risen?”
The audience responds:
”Women.”
Chimamanda continues:
”That’s a very very important symbol, which people like to overlook because it’s important for us to selectively pick the parts of the bible that justify our own prejudices. And if you really want to talk about the old testament, then I have many things that I want to point out to you that you’re not doing that the old testament says that you should do.”
