An Arkansas pastor named Jeff Crawford has recently caused a controversy by using Christianity to state that women have no rights over their body.
Whilst speaking at a sermon at Crosschurch on the dangers of pornography, which Crawford sees as “an offense against the self,” he spoke about how each person’s body is owned by God, and they therefore have no right to control what happens to it.
Crawford argues that the mind and soul cannot be separated from the body, meaning that under Christianity, it all belongs to God. He goes on to say that the body is a temple and we must all treat it as such by taking into consideration whether all of our actions concerning our body glorify God.
He warns against watching pornography, getting tattoos and “punching holes in your body,” and claims they are all sinful, as they result in damaging a body that does not actually belong to you.
In order to highlight a point about offending the body (or should I say, God’s body) with sexuality, Crawford chose to liken watching pornography to aborting a fetus. He said:
“It’s a woman’s right to choose and she has the right over her own body. No, that’s not true!”
Interestingly enough, Crawford makes no specific references to the male body despite the act of conception definitely requiring one. He only explicitly mentions the female body and the lack of rights each woman has to it, which worryingly resonates with the extremely outdated notion of women as possessions.
The idea that a woman should not terminate a pregnancy because her body belongs to God is incredibly problematic, particularly if a woman did not consent to the sexual act in the first place. It raises many questions regarding the regulation of the female body under Christianity, and if taken seriously, could result in a step back for women’s rights all over the world.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua1G77LJdnA?rel=0]
Featured image by Ed McDonald via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
