The Bible and Misogyny: What Would Jesus Do?

by Kimberly Peeler-Ringer
Rhetoric Race and Religion Blogger

The recent venom Rush Limbaugh spewed at student activist Sandra Fluke has proven to be quite the point of departure for social justice platforms geared toward taking on misogyny in all of its forms. This ugly incident in which a male talk show personality called a female student a name associated with the world’s oldest profession (and that not being insulting enough, goes on to encourage her to become an internet porn star as well) clearly shows us that misogyny is still a very secure thread holding the American fabric together. As much as it pains my backside to acknowledge what Rush Limbaugh does as part of the American landscape, his comments speak to a very deep-seated contempt for womanhood that begs the question: What would Jesus do?

It’s a legitimate question. After all, Jesus did refer to a Syro-Phoenician woman as a dog in public, so that makes it okay to treat women as though they are somehow less worthy of respect and civil exchange, right? Jesus did ignore a desperate mother in search of help for her child. Her request was apparently within the scope of circumstances that would make Jesus hesitate to heal. This exchange between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician (or Canaanite) woman is often the go-to text for some who seek to use the Bible in order to justify treating women as second-class citizens. Texts like these are often used to bolster claims that women should not preach, that God only acknowledges and appreciates the ministerial gifts and talents of men, and that it was God’s intent (and not human intent) that women as a species are somehow “less than” based solely on gender. Somehow, having a uterus renders one less capable of church ministry and apparently also renders one incapable of testifying before Congress about contraception without verbal abuse.

This encounter between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman appears in both the Gospels of Mark (7:24-30) and Matthew (15:21-28). This passage can be a troubling narrative even in the 21st century, where references to women as the technical term for female dogs are so commonplace in our daily lives that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t bother to restrict the word from prime time television shows anymore. In fact, the use of the word “bitch” on television has tripled in the last decade. Once upon a time, there was a complete ban on the use of profanity in shows that aired during what was known as the “family hour” of television. Now, not so much.

But back to the matter at hand: was Jesus having a moment of misogyny? In both the Matthew and Mark accounts, Jesus told the Syro-Phoenician woman that “it wasn’t fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” when she asked for his help. Did she catch Jesus on a bad day? Or was Jesus being intentionally provocative to make a point? I think it is a fair interpretation to say the latter is true. The Gospels give us several examples of Jesus being prone to exaggeration to make a point. Jesus asking how it is we can see the toothpick in someone else’s eye while missing the two by four in our own is a good example. Jesus was known to make outrageous claims about how we should treat people, like treating people as we want to be treated and loving people out to get us as we love ourselves.

Here’s how we know Jesus doesn’t hate women:

1. The Occam’s Razor Answer: In the end, Jesus gave her what she asked for. The demon left her daughter…not her son, but her daughter.

2. Jesus had a long history of breaking social taboos, especially those involving women. Tradition holds that rabbis at the time of Jesus would avoid speaking to women publicly. This is certainly implied in other texts, particularly John 4:27, where the disciples marveled that Jesus was speaking to a woman in public. In this Jesus encounter, it is worth noting that this Syro-Phoenician woman is not named, but rather is only identified by her geographic location. This speaks to her ethnicity. Here is Jesus having a theological discussion with a woman who is ethnically different from him in public…a feat that does not seem to happen all that often even in the 21st century.

3. A case can be made that Jesus was making an example of the Syro-Phoenician woman in order to demonstrate her great faith for the often faith-challenged disciples. After all, if Jesus was truly “sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt. 15:24), then why was he traipsing around the district of Tyre and Sidon rather than focusing his efforts in and around Jerusalem? It seems odd that a rabbi so concerned with tending only to the lost sheep of Israel would not have, as described in previous chapters of Matthew and Mark entered yet another pagan territory. In Mt. 8:28-34 and Mk 5:1-20, Jesus healed a Gadarene who had so many issues it took a military title (“Legion”) to name them all.

Even if Jesus wasn’t using this exchange as a teachable moment, the Syro-Phoenician woman succeeded in getting Jesus to at least re-think the target audience of his ministry. This text tells us sometimes, even our guiding principles, our “isms”, need to be re-evaluated, re-examined, and reconsidered…something our thoughts on the treatment of women in America could use

without question.