Q&A Forum - January 2009 (best of Elise)

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I tell Christians who struggle with guilt and fear to write down some of the many scriptures in the Bible that talks about the love, mercy and forgiveness of God. Then read those out loud everyday, say them over and over until they get into your heart and into your soul. What this will do is this will build faith and cause a feeling of love to fill one’s heart, and “perfect love casts out fear”. A person should always run to God like a child would a parent they trust. A person should not hide and cower from God. That is unhealthy and it will stifle spiritual growth.

You are totally correct in that men have perverted religion and have used it to rule over women. A woman will not obey a man on her own because she knows he is not superior to her, yet a woman will submit to a man if she believes that by doing so, she will be pleasing God. Thus the woman is not submitting to a man, but she is submitting to God. The patriarchal system has used women’s spirituality against them by instilling into them that the will of God is for men to rule. This thought process begins when a woman is a little girl and innocent. She looks up to her natural father and she believes that all men will love her like her father. She is told that God is her heavenly father and she should obey men, especially her husband, because that will please her heavenly father. It is not easy for a woman to overcome that kind of religious and societal programming that is passed down from generation to generation.