I included the quotes to show that some of the most prominent leaders in Christianity, people who'd spent much of their lives thinking about the Scriptures, were anti-women.
To be fair, at the time when the quotes were made, the entire world could be described into the broad generalization of being "anti-women." An argument can be made that Eastern Civilization was just as, or more, "anti-women" than the newly developing Christian West.
The Southern Baptist Convention in recent years said that wives should submit to their husbands.
Yes, they are speaking about St. Paul's instructions in Ephesians for a Christian household from Ephesians Chapter 5:
21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
(He is speaking of the spiritual principle of reciprocity in a relationship, not oppression. He goes on to clearly describe it.) 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands
as you do to the Lord. (As you do to the Lord, implies that free will is still involved) 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church....
In this same way,
husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body.
31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (The last verse he he sums it up in the consensual, mutual, spiritual, reciprocal dedication to God and the marriage)Earlier in the epistle he gives this instruction:
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:1-3
Hardly the "just go beat the bitch" slant you are trying to portray it as.
If the Bible is such a great moral guide, why has it been so easy through the centuries to use it to justify the most horrible atrocities and suffering?
Human nature my friend, is why atrocities and suffering occur, not "justification" from the Bible. The Bible has also been used to justify, motivate, and inspire a great amount of good in this world as well.
Finally,
Christians abuse women at a higher rate than non-believers.
Data? or just a platitude?
I have access to an assload of academic databases due to my work, I would be happy to email you the full text of these studies/articles.
D. B. Sugerman and S. L. Frankel, "Patriarchal Ideology and Wife-Assault: A Meta-Analytic Review," Journal of Family Violence 11 (1996)
"Conservative Protestant Ideology and Wife Abuse: Reflections on the Discrepancy between Theory and Data," Journal of Religion and Abuse 2 (2001)
“Patriarchy and Wife Assault: The Ecological Fallacy,’’ in Violence and Victims Vol. 9, No. 2 (1994)
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3817/is_200709/ai_n29491710/pg_4/
