Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

38 Armando R. Favazzashe makes, is wise and kind, and does not eat thebread of idleness.Overall, women in the Old Testament werevalued primarily as mothers. Some of the mostpoignant moments describe the grief of mothersfor their dead children, especially their sons.“A voice was heard in Ramah; lamentation andbitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children,refusing to be comforted for her children,because they are no more” (Jer. 31:15). Afterthe Gibeonites hanged her sons, “Rizpah tooksackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock,from the beginning of the harvest until the laterains poured from heaven on their bodies. Andshe did not allow the birds of the air to rest onthem by day nor the beasts of the field by night”(2 Sam. 21:10).Secondarily, women were valued as wives. Inthe early days, polygamy was the norm. By theeighth century BC, monogamy was standard andwas a metaphor for Jewish acceptance of oneGod. Women could not file for divorce, but menhad little problem. “When a man takes a wifeand marries her, and it happens that she findsno favor in his eyes because he has found someuncleanliness in her,” the husband merely had tohand her a written certificate of divorce (Deut.24:1). Because a woman, even after marriage,owed some allegiance to her family of birth, theproblem of divided loyalty was always present.Also, wives could become contentious, spiderlike,and even bovine. Amos 4:1 refers to them ascows. The presence of concubines – unmarriedwomen who lived with the family at the pleasureof the husband – undoubtedly made life easierin some ways by taking the edge off things. Theultimate state of degradation into which womenmight descend is depicted during a famine inSamaria. One woman says to another, “Give meyour son, that we may eat him today, and we willeat my son tomorrow” (2 Kings 6:29).In contrast to images of women as motherand wife, the O.T. contains a bevy of prostitutesand adulteresses who intrigued the Israelites. Theexpression “to play the harlot” is used throughoutthe O.T. to describe the act of abandoning one’sfaith. “Yet they would not listen to their judges,but they played the harlot with other gods, andbowed down to them” (Judg. 2:17). In a powerfulmetaphor Israel, the bride of God, became aprostitute. “You have polluted the land with yourharlotries and your wickedness. … You have hada harlot’s forehead; you refuse to be ashamed”(Jer. 3:2–3). An elaboration of this theme formsthe drama of the book of the prophet Hosea whowas ordered by God to marry a prostitute andhave children of prostitution “for the land commitsgreat harlotry by forsaking the Lord” (1:2).Hosea obeyed. Just as his wife pursued her lovers,so too did Israel pursue false gods. But Hoseareclaimed his wife and God reclaimed Israel.In the N.T., Jesus stirred up problems in hisdealings with women. He broke one of the TenCommandments when he neither honored noreven acknowledged his mother when she calledout to him, concerned for his safety. Rather, helooked at the crowd around him and said, “Hereare my mother and my brothers! For whoeverdoes the will of God is my brother and my sisterand my mother” (Mark 1:30–31). He even healeda woman with a chronic vaginal flow – the essenceof Jewish uncleanliness – who touched his robe.He elevated the status of women by declaringthat the only legitimate reason for divorce wasadultery. Until then a man was free to divorce hiswife, according to the great Rabbi Hillel, even ifher major fault was that she spoiled the soup. Hisrelationship with Mary Magdalen was distortedby interpreters of the Bible who made her out tobe a penitent prostitute instead of venerating heras the first person to see the resurrected Christ.In the Gospel of Thomas, one of the many gospelsnot selected for inclusion in the Bible, Peterthe disciple said to Jesus, “Let Mary Magdalenleave us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesusreplied, “I myself shall lead her in order to makeher male, so that she may become a living spiritlike you males.”She became the perfect foil for Mary, thevirgin mother of Jesus, the greatest woman inChristendom.(9) The Bible actually says littleabout Mary but the early church fathers madeher out to be the perfect model of womanhoodeven though, when a woman in a crowd called