Biblical Literature: Issues of Gender, Sexuality and Contemporary Ethics Part III

Image: Pinterest Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2007

Within this article l seek to show that when examining Biblical literature for issues of gender and sexuality, what is the most significant for contemporary ethics and praxis is the view of the role of women as mothers, which has particularly restricted contemporary women's reproductive rights.

Previously, in section I, I explored women's traditional status in Catholicism, reflecting on women as virgins and mothers. I will argued that these traditional gendered roles are social constructions that suppress women, referring to Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.

Section II will focused on Natural Moral Law and its prohibition of unnatural contraception, but its promotion of Natural Family Planning concerning Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and the respect of bodily autonomy.

In this section, part III, I will examine women's bodily autonomy and the juxtaposition of women's bodily autonomy with narrowing women's roles. I will then argue how Biblical literature and John Paul II's teachings of the opposition for contraceptive rights and respect for women's bodies can be radically used as pro-choice arguments for abortion with reference to Rosemary Radford Ruether.

III. BODILY AUTONOMY AND SCRIPTURE

With John Paull II stating women can either be virgins or mothers, the role of women has been narrowed down too significantly. As Beauvoir illustrates, women have been subjected by their Otherness, which is a situation that needs to be resolved.

As Biblical literature states, we are all made in the image of God; all individuals, including women, should be shown autonomy of their own body, not only for procreation. Pro-creation itself can be viewed as using women as a means to an end rather than respecting women for their own ends.

Jes Kast, a minister in the United Church of Christ, demonstrates that Biblical literature maintains we should 'have life and have it to the full' in John 10:10. The Greek word used for life abundance is the word zoe, which means not just that you're breathing, but that God's plan for our lives is to have a meaningful life with loving contentment and satisfaction.

Living life with the only purpose of procreation is not a wholly fulfilling life for all women. Motherhood is a moral commitment that is not a natural obligation as nature could never dictate a moral choice as an individual needs to reason what is best for them and their bodies.

This is reflected in the Biblical literature of Jesus healing the bleeding woman. Women's menstruation was traditionally (and sometimes even contemporarily) understood negatively as 'Other' and unclean, rather than normal and natural. This shuns women into being Other to the man as sinful and polluted.

The bleeding women in Luke 8:43-48 daringly touched the cloak of Jesus, which cured her twelve years of blood, pain, alienation and injustice that society provided her with. Schussler Fiorenza viewed the bleeding woman as seeking more than physical healing, but wholeness and holiness which Jesus neither condemned her presence or for touching His garment, demanding neither fear nor shame.

By calling the woman' daughter', Jesus removes her shame and respects her boldness and faith. This demonstrates Jesus did not need to dominate or publicly shame women but was instead interested in the human heart over the restrictive laws and codes of society.

The bleeding woman of Biblical literature symbolises every woman, whether in menstruation, pregnancy, birthing or menopause, who struggle because of their femininity. She challenges the taboo, breaks boundaries and takes the initiative beyond the letter of the law towards freedom with Jesus' approval.

This exemplifies institutions should not subject women to injustice as it is opposite to the teachings in Jesus. Thus, the bleeding woman's story illuminates how Biblical literature can be used as teaching to deny the impurity and Otherness of women.

Biblical literature and John Paul II's teachings of the opposition for contraceptive rights and respect for women's bodies can be used as pro-choice arguments for abortion. Though the Catholic Church has held a global crusade against abortion, Rosemary Radford Ruether, a Catholic feminist philosopher, illustrates the counter-intuitiveness of proclaiming women should have respect for their bodies and denying them abortion rights.

This is a very radical Catholic position. However, it highlights how institutions cannot use Biblical literature to dictate what individuals, especially women, can and cannot do with their own bodies by denying them bodily autonomy and equality.

For example, in 1993, Pope John Paull II appealed to Boasian Muslim women who had been raped during a war to turn their rape into an act of love by accepting the enemy into them and carrying their pregnancies to term.

A statement such as this does not respect women's bodies; rather, it is insensitive to women as it devalued their bodily autonomy by valuing the foetus over her. This is problematic as it juxtaposes that a husband should love their wife's bodies as their own by diminishing their autonomies and using the women's bodies as a means of procreating and filling the earth with children.

This is reflected in Poland, where the PiS party has majorly violated women's sexual and reproductive rights in the controversial near total abortion ban, passed in January of 2021, only allowing abortion in rape, incest, and when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.

Nevertheless, this does not protect the autonomy of women's bodies. Instead, institutions have suppressed women by the institutional condemnation of abortion, and some women are forced to take matters of autonomy into their own hands by undergoing illegal abortions.

The BBC estimates that there are between 10,000 to 150,000 illegal abortions in Poland in contrast to around 1,000 to 2,000 legal terminations. This signifies those abortions will always occur no matter whether they are deemed legal or not, as pregnancy is difficult for a woman both physically and mentally.

Many illegal abortions damage women's bodies further as there as normally no medical supervisors. Hence, a pro-choice institution would more greatly respect women's bodily autonomy through protecting and valuing the women's body through safe abortions and by not deeming women as mothers as their only viable end.

Biblical literature further deems that '…there can be neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus'. This signifies that we are all equal and should all have the same bodily autonomy, rather than be oppressed unequally due to our traditional gender roles.

Biblical literature can be used for pro-life and pro-choice arguments that institutions should not use the Bible to govern what a woman should and should not decide to do with her own body, significantly when it can harm her body- physically or mentally.

In conclusion, when examining Biblical literature of gender and sexuality, what is most significant in contemporary ethics and praxis is how women have been positioned in their traditional roles of motherhood, which has restricted women's bodily autonomy rights, especially that of abortion in Poland.

Ultimately, it is because Biblical literature can be used to support both pro-life and pro-choice arguments, particularly with bodily autonomy and anti-contraception arguments, that institutions should not use it to denounce and oppress women's human rights. Therefore, institutions should not govern what a woman does and does not decide to do with her body.

Though I illustrate abortion can be justified by Biblical teachings through opposition to the contraceptive pill, I do not suggest that all Catholic women do not use contraception. Rather, I argue that the anti-contraception views can be used to argue for a radical pro-choice stance on abortion through Catholic teachings.

For more infromation:

BBC News. “Poland Enforces Controversial Near-Total Abortion Ban.” Jan 28, 2021.

BBC News. “Poland’s Tussle Over Abortion Ban.” Oct 06, 2016.

Elizabeth Harris. “Bloody Ministry: The Bleeding Woman, & Contemporary Women as Vera-Icons.” Practical Theology (2021): pp1-14.

Emma Green. “A Pastor’s Case for the Morality of Abortion.” The Atlantic. May 26, 2019.

Galatians 3:28

Luke 8:43-48

Rosemary Radford Ruether. “Women, Reproductive Rights and the Catholic Church.” Feminist Theology Vol 16 no. 2 (2008):pp184-193.

Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex. Translated by Constantine Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. London: Vintage, 2011.

Solomon 2:23