Some quotes from selected individuals follow. Many of them were Fathers in the Church, influential Christian thinkers, priests, bishops, and philosophers. All of these quotes were found on various websites. I take no responsibility for these quotes (nor do I agree with them!). If you have some misogynic quotes from Church history, and you would like them to be placed on this site, please email them to me. Please give me a reference that can be double-checked when you send a quote; otherwise, I probably won't add it to this list. There have been enough lies circulating, we don't need any more (whether on purpose or on accident :)
And yes, I am still a Christian, and I still believe what the Bible says! As you can see, these are quotes written by MEN who have misconstrued or totally fabricated what the Bible says about women. As you look in the Bible, you can see that women were often empowered! That section should be written soon...as soon as I can fit it into my schedule :)
Tertullian (2nd Century, African Father of the Church) : Women are "the devil's gateway." Whatever, I'm no more of such a "gateway" than any man is.
St. Jerome (4th and 5th Centuries, well known scholar) : "Woman is the root of all evil...It must be bad to [sexually] touch a woman." I don't recall reading this in the Bible...why would God create sex if it was indeed sinful in the marriage bed? Maybe St. Jerome should have read Hebrews 13:4 and the Song of Solomon, for starters.
St. John Chrysostom (4th and 5th Centuries, Bishop of Constantinople) : "It does not profit a man to marry. For what is a woman but an enemy of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a domestic danger, delectable mischief, a fault in nature, painted with beautiful colors?...The whole of her body is nothing less than phlegm, blood, bile, rheum and the fluid of digested food ... If you consider what is stored up behind those lovely eyes, the angle of the nose, the mouth and the cheeks you will agree that the well-proportioned body is only a whitened sepulchre." I could write a book on this silly statement. Instead, I will make several points. 1. Women are not a "necessary evil." Show me that in the Bible. 2. An enemy of friendship? Women usually have closer friends than men do. 3. God doesn't make mistakes, so therefore women can't be a "fault in nature." 4. My body may be made up of blood, bile, etc, but so is a man's...so what makes him so danged superior?
St. Augustine (5th Century, Doctor of the Church and Bishop of Hippo) : "I don't see what sort of help woman was created to provide man with, if one excludes procreation. If woman is not given to man for help in bearing children, for what help could she be? To till the earth together? If help were needed for that, man would have been a better help for man. The same goes for comfort in solitude. How much more pleasure is it for life and conversation when two friends live together than when a man and a woman cohabitate?" According to him, then, all women are good for is procreation...whatever.
Boethius (6th Century Christian Philosopher) : "Woman is a temple built upon a sewer." Sorry, I'm a temple of the Holy Ghost.
St. Thomas Aquinas (13th Century) : "Good order would have been wanting in the human family if some were not governed by others wiser than themselves. So by such a kind of subjection woman is naturally subject to man, because in men the discretion of reason predominates." In other words, men are naturally smarter than women. Yeah, sure. How comes I outranked every male in my graduating class then?
St. Albertus Magnus (13th Century, Doctor of the Church) : "Woman is less qualified [than man] for moral behavior. For the woman contains more liquid than man, and it is a property of liquid to take things up easily and to hold unto them poorly. Liquids are easily moved, hence women are inconstant and curious. When a woman has relations with a man, she would like, as much as possible, to be lying with another man at the same time. Woman knows nothing about fidelity. Believe me, if you give her your trust, you will be disappointed. Trust an experience teacher. For this reason prudent men share their plans and actions least of all with their wives. Woman is a misbegotten man and has a faulty and defective nature in comparison to his. Therefore she is unsure in herself. What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions. And so, to put it briefly, one must be on one's guard with every woman, as if she were a poisonous snake and the horned devil. If I could say what I know about women, the world would be astonished ... Woman is strictly speaking not cleverer but slyer (more cunning) than man. Cleverness sounds like something good, slyness sounds like something evil. Thus in evil and perverse doings woman is cleverer, that is, slyer, than man. Her feelings drive woman toward every evil, just as reason impels man toward all good." Whatever. Women are no more manipulative than men are, and are in fact women are much less likely to cheat in a relationship than a man (at about a ratio of 3:2!). I think St. Albertus had some serious women-hating issues going on in his head.
Inquisitors (also wrote Malleus Maleficarum) : "They [women] are only 'imperfect animals' and 'crooked' whereas man belongs to a privileged sex from whose midst Christ emerged." A privileged sex, eh? Gee, doesn't that just reek of false superiority.
Martin Luther (founder of the Protestant revolution in Europe) : "Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house and bear and bring up children...If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing, she is there to do it." So it doesn't matter if I die from childbearing...what a warm and caring statement!
Harper's Magazine (1853) : "Nothing could be more anti-Biblical than letting women vote." Please show me where it says that in the Bible...thanks! Oh wait, you couldn't find it? Maybe that's because it isn't in there?
Think it is only a historical phenomenon and men have suddenly realized that women can and do have opinions of their own? Think this blatant discrimination has stopped? Think again!
Baptist Preacher (running for governor of Texas in 1989) : Promised to fire all female state employees, if elected (thankfully, he was not), because "Momma needs to get back home where she belongs." Bet he didn't know that it was illegal to discriminate in such a manner...can anyone say LAWSUIT?
Evangelic Preacher (circa 1997) : "If there is an argument between a husband and a wife, it is ALWAYS the woman's fault because she is not accepting his decision and obeying him." This one makes my blood boil. I can't even say anything about it.