Kevin Stilley

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Women Reading The Bible

According to Barna Group’s 2011 annual State of the Church Report, Bible reading for women has declined by 10 percentage points during the last two decades; in 1991 half all American women indicated that they read their Bible during a typical week, today only 40% indicate that they read their Bible weekly. However, men are no less likely to read from the Bible these days than they were 20 years ago (41% in 2001, 40% in 1991).

This prompts the question of why the percentage has declined among women but not among men. I would not hazard a guess as to what factor or factors have led to this phenomena but I feel compelled to at least consider some possibilities. When historians see changes in one community but not in another they typically look at what might be influencing the affected community but not the unaffected community. For instance, when considering the Fall of Rome, a responsible historian will ask what factors were affecting the Western Roman Empire, but not the Eastern Roman Empire [Byzantine Empire] because the Eastern Roman Empire was thriving during the same time frame.

Can you think of change that has occurred during the last two decades that has affected women more than men and might be instrumental in women reading their Bible less than they did two decades ago?

__________

Related:

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Women – select quotes

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God cursed the snake, but it finds sustenance everywhere.  God cursed the woman, but all men pursue her.
~ Talmud, Yoma, 75

Adams owed more to the American woman than to all the American men he ever heard of, and felt not the smallest call to defend his sex who seemed able to take care of themselves; but from the point of view of sex he felt much curiosity to know how far the woman was right, and, in pursuing this inquiry, he caught the trick of affirming that the woman was the superior.  Apart from truth, he owed her at least that compliment.
~ Henry Adams in The Education of Henry Adams, chapter 30

Woman is the chain by which man is attached to the chariot of folly.
~ Bharitihari, in The Sringa Satak

Nothing enchants the soul so much as young women. They alone are the cause of evil and there is no other.
~ Bharitihari, in The Sringa Satak

Suffer women once to arrive at an equality with you, and they will from that moment become your superiors.
~ Marcus Porcius Cato

Thank heaven for little girls, for little girls get bigger every day!… They grow up in the most delightful way!
~ Maurice Chevalier

[Read more…]

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Talmud — Discussion Questions

Everyman’s Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages, by Abraham Cohen

Are men and women equal? (page 159)

Why are women free from the “Thou shalts” of the Torah? (p. 159)

How important is a woman to the formation of her children? (page 160)

–          Is there a passage in the NT that seems to draw upon this tradition?

How important is a woman to the formation of her husband? (page 160)

How does some rabbinic teaching describe women?  (page 160-161)

For what two reasons was it allowed to sell a scroll of the Torah?  (page 162)

A girl ceased to be a minor at the age of 12.  Marriage was recommended for a male at 18.  We marry later than did those in the ancient world, specifically in Jewish families (page 162).  Are we wiser than they?

How many wives does the Talmud allow?  (page 166)

Did the Talmud allow divorce?  (pages 166-167)

–          See also Ezra 9, 10 if needed

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What Is Happiness?

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend at a Thai restaurant. He mentioned that he has family members who have been serving as missionaries in Hungary. It made me think of a poem I had read in Carl Sandburg’s Harvest Poems: 1910-1960. I shared the poem with him and he said he might agree if he could change the accordion for an acoustical guitar. Here it is for your consideration:

Happiness

 

I asked professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river.
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

So I guess happiness is having women, children, beer and an accordion (or an acoustical guitar).

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Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield – Quotes

Philip Dormer StanhopeThere is a Connection between Licentiousness and Liberty, that it is not easy to correct the one, without dangerously wounding the other.

History is only a confused heap of facts.

A light supper, a good night’s sleep, and a fine morning have sometimes made a hero of the same man who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and a rainy morning would have proved a coward.

The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; they will both fall into the ditch.

Every man becomes, to a certain degree, what the people he generally converses with are.

Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded or blended; and vary as much from different situations, as changeable silks do from different lights.

Women are much more like each other than men; they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics.

Women, especially, are to be talked to, as below men, and above children.

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