I believe that women have not fared well in religion through the ages. There are so many religions in the world, and more than half of them actually have laws or rules, or even gods, that may exclude women in many ways.
There could be many reasons for this, but I’ll begin with the Christian religion’s Adam and Eve. In some versions of this religion, Eve is blamed for Adam’s taking of the apple. Therefore women in general already come with a bad reputation.
But going outward to other religions, such as Hinduism and Islam, we notice that there are various laws excluding women from showing their faces, and even being allowed to show themselves in public.
In the later years, around the past few centuries, women can not participate in many things, such as the priesthood, and even the laws against women voting may be connected in some way to religion. Other things were unthinkable for a woman, such as participating in aviation.
But the biggest question we must ask is, ‘Why? Why is there a question as to whether or not women can not participate in such things?’ That this question is being asked today is the exact reason why there is a problem.
Other questions we would ask are why are there laws in the first place that exclude women? Why does a loving, caring God make those laws? Many religions still forbid women priests or pastors.
Another question that is asked is whether Jesus Christ had anything to do with this. Perhaps if he had been a woman, then things would be different.
Ryan Kelley, 12, is being home-schooled in St. Mary's City, Maryland. He wrote this essay after studying the responses of On Faith's panelists to the topic of whether women have fared well or badly in religion.
