Religion's Cell by Cynthia McClaskey is a masterful exploration of the ways in which organized religion has, through the centuries, systematically denied woman her proper role in the church and the world. Beginning with a firsthand account of her own subjugation within a fundamentalist sect, McClaskey moves forward with detailed and extensively referenced explanations of the God-intended role of woman. Along the way, she provides explanations of how man, in seeking to retain power and authority in both religion and the world, has relegated woman to a subservient position in both areas, in violation of God's intended plan. McClaskey's evidence is compelling and her logic flawless as she argues against the God-as-stern-judge mentality that permeates most modern religious sects and emphasizes the true nature of God as a loving father -a father who wants only the best for both genders of His crowning creation. She points out that Christ surrounded himself with women and that women played major roles in the early years of Christianity, providing copious scriptural support for her position. In Religion's Cell, McClaskey has issued a clarion call for true gender equality, both inside and outside organized religion. This is a book women will want to read and men should be required to read.

Religion's Cell

Doctrines of the Church that lead to Bondage and AbuseBy Cynthia McClaskey

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Cynthia McClaskey
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-5846-3

Contents

Chapter One....................................5Chapter Two....................................8Chapter Three..................................34Chapter Four...................................44Chapter Five...................................53Chapter Six....................................56Chapter Seven..................................60Chapter Eight..................................68Chapter Nine...................................72Chapter Ten....................................82Chapter Eleven.................................101Chapter Twelve.................................112Chapter Thirteen...............................117Chapter Fourteen...............................134Chapter Fifteen................................146Chapter Sixteen................................149Chapter Seventeen..............................153Chapter Eighteen...............................160Chapter Nineteen...............................168Chapter Twenty.................................180Chapter Twenty-One.............................193Chapter Twenty-Two.............................198Chapter Twenty-Three...........................206Chapter Twenty-Four............................212Chapter Twenty-Five............................228Bibliography...................................233

Chapter One

The Absence of Truth Can Set You Free

The title of this chapter might be a little confusing. A person might think, What in the world does that mean? How can that possibly be true? How can absence of truth set you free? The following is an explanation of exactly what this means.

If a person looked back through history, he or she would find many truths that really were not true at all. For instance, there was a time when it was "true" that the world was flat. There was a time when it was "true" that the sun revolved around the earth. There was a time when it was "true" that a man could not walk on the moon. Because of certain truths, the potential of many is hindered.

Mankind has a tendency to act in accordance with what it perceives to be the truth, not in accordance with what the truth is in fact. So what needs to be absent is the truth that is standing in the way of a person's potential to do great things. Bringing to light the error in the perceived truth sheds light on the real truth. However, because perception is fact in the minds of many, revealing the truth can bring a person under the verbal attack of the masses, especially if they are truths that debunk religious dogmas, doctrines and behaviors or expose abuse. It is this author's opinion that most religious people will give their lives for the religious beliefs that they hold, whether the beliefs they are fighting for are founded on truth or not. History is a testament to the fact that religious beliefs can cause people to lay their lives on the line for what they believe is truth. The Martyrs are a striking example of this. Thousands of people gave their lives because they believed what they were doing was right and that the doctrines they believed were true. It is very difficult to get the religious crowd in any sect of society to actually open their minds to the possibility that they might be deceived in their thinking. Perceived truths can stand in the way of a person's religious, emotional and physical freedom. Perceived truth can get in the way of understanding real truth, and this prevents people from seeing what is plainly before them.

People interpret their beliefs in light of what they have been told, rather than in light of the facts. This is how perceived truths are born. The circle of influence surrounding a person causes him or her to see a truth but interpret it in light of someone else's opinion instead of the facts. This was a huge problem for me when passages of scripture or historical information were found that went against what was being preached by the leaders of this sect. In the end, comparing what was being preached with the scriptures and history revealed the truth. In most cases, it was discovered that the church leaders were lying to their congregants time and time again and would often mix opinion with truth. It is not the opinion of this author that every church leader is doing this deliberately. I believe it is due to a lack of understanding and true study of church history in conjunction with scripture. Another revelation was that these same lies, tactics and attitudes existed in other religious denominations, and they also existed in the church system from the beginning.

When the search for truth began, I never imagined that this search would lead to a place of greater understanding, a place of greater patience, and a place of complete and total reliance on God. The search for the truth upon which to rebuild my foundations truly broke me in every possible way. This journey has been trying and emotional for me. It has meant letting go of all the old ways of thinking and adapting to the new knowledge and understanding that God has shown me. It has brought me to a place of unwavering faith that God will let the ideas and concepts mentioned herein be exactly what they need to be for the reader to help them grow. However, standing in the way of finding the truth when this search began was the perceived truth. Therefore, the shackles of bondage to this "religious system" of lies led to a chokehold of fear for me. This fear was an UN-HEALTHY fear of God, the man of God, the world, and the un-saved.

It wasn't until this journey for the truth began that God not only revealed the lies that I had believed, but he also revealed other lies that I had no idea were lies at all! This world of newfound knowledge led to a desire to share this information with others so that they could also discover some truths and find freedom from the bondage of the religious system.

Chapter Two

Tactics of the Church

One of the biggest stumbling blocks when it came to understanding scripture was the fact that I would always interpret it in light of what was preached from the pulpit. More than fifteen years under the preaching in this cult, mixed with men's opinions, began to affect the thought processes and behaviors of each individual within my family. Attending fellowships and conventions with like-minded individuals who believed all the same dogmas and doctrines, reading books and listening to tapes and CDs of preaching and teaching from like-minded preachers, led to the inability to see the real truth, and the Holy Spirit within me was quenched by all these men's opinions. Is it any wonder that a person can read the scriptures and not see the truth before them because of the constant indoctrination with information of like-minded individuals? Everything heard is given to provoke a person to lean toward their way of thinking instead of thinking for themselves. How can anyone hear the voice of the Spirit of God when they are being told what they should believe?

Where I found myself the last five years in the Independent Fundamental Baptist Cult was a place of bondage, where questioning what was taught was not allowed. Disagreeing with the doctrines being taught wasn't allowed. Voicing any concerns about the behaviors seen wasn't allowed. The preachers, evangelists and teachers in this male-dominated church system had become the final authority on all matters of faith and practice for the believers within their congregations, and they had also become the final authority on God's will for every believer! Sadly, this male-dominated church system treated women as second class individuals simply because they were female. These doctrines, attitudes and behaviors are not new. They have been around for centuries, and it is these doctrines and attitudes that I would like to deal with in this book. The tactics covered are not only found in IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist) churches; they can be found in any religious sect where controlling the congregants has gone way beyond what is ethically and spiritually right. Just as the Church of Rome used these very same tactics to kill, torture and control the masses, so this same abusive religious system is being used today to control the masses within individual churches. As a result, countless numbers of people are fleeing the church due to spiritual, emotional, sexual and physical abuse that is hiding under the guise of Christianity. All the tactics, attitudes, dogmas and doctrines that are causing this abuse in churches of today were also present during the Reformation and earlier. And the results of these doctrines and man-made rules, as history can attest, have cost millions their very lives. Today, however, they are turning the masses away from God.

TACTIC #1: Peer Pressure

Having a passion to serve God and a desire to please him is what opened the door to participating in legalistic principles that the church instructed everyone to follow. Eventually, this led to being sucked entirely into the Independent Fundamental Baptist Cult. The church and the people in the church took advantage of my desire to please God and used that earnest desire to make me conform to their ideas and standards of what they said God wanted and expected from me. The twisting of scripture to suit their ideas of what God wanted was brilliantly done to suit their agendas. It wasn't left up to me and my relationship with God to let God tell me what he wanted and expected from me. The pastors, leaders and indoctrinated congregants all came together in one accord to instill the importance of adherence to their set of religious rules. They were constantly planting the seeds of legalism in my mind. This is called "peer pressure." Unfortunately, this tactic works. I eventually decided that, because of my love for God, all these ridiculous rules were a small price to pay for all that he did for me! As a new Christian, my joy in the Lord was brand new; my zeal to please and serve Him was intense. As a new Christian, it is easy to let the friendly faces and the eloquent preaching influence a person into conforming.

It wasn't long, though, before wearing pants was a thing of the past. This is the first rule that women are coerced into conforming to. If you do not get rid of the pants, you will not be allowed to serve in the ministry. As time passes, gradually more and more rules are added and before people realize it, they find themselves entrenched in the cult and its rules, with no way to escape. The sad part about this is that eventually a person even begins to believe that these rules are God's rules and they struggle under the heavy load of them! This leads to frustrations in Christ, not freedom in Christ.

TACTIC #2: Women Cannot Teach Men

The zeal to teach others about God became overwhelming for me. However, the pastor made it very clear that women were not to usurp authority over a man. To usurp one's authority is "to seize and hold in possession by force or without right; as, to usurp a throne; to usurp the prerogatives of the crown; to usurp power. To usurp the right of a patron is to oust or dispossess him" (Webster). My thoughts were that authority that is given is not usurped. Queen Esther was given authority; Deborah was given authority; Miriam was given authority; Huldah was given authority. All these were given their authority by God and men. Yet our pastor would not allow the women to even teach the teenage boys in Sunday School!

Delving deeper into my studies, I learned that Paul's statement, "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor usurp authority over the man (1 Tim 2:12)", stood alone. There was no other scripture in the entire Bible that backed up that statement. There was no such command from God anywhere to be found to support it, and Paul's own actions contradicted this statement! Aren't people supposed to interpret scripture line upon line, precept upon precept? Why was this one verse being used to form a doctrine of the church that the Bible did not have and God did not follow? Nonetheless, when a person's zeal to serve God is intense, they simply learn how to skirt the rules, right?

Since the pastor would not allow a woman to teach men or boys, nor was permission given to teach the ladies in the church, it wasn't long before going from house to house doing in-home Bible studies became the avenue that I decided to take. My best friend and I (both women) also started a nursing home ministry down the street from the church we attended. However, it wasn't long before the realization hit that the pastor did not approve of these in-home Bible studies or the nursing home ministry. It wasn't that anything was verbally said against them. It just became apparent that the pastor had no intention of promoting them so that others could get involved and help with them! I believe the reason for this was that they were initiated by a woman and run by a woman without the church's help. Since the church/pastor did not initiate these ministries, the pastor really had no power or control over them and what was done in them. If the pastor did not like what was being done, there really was nothing he could do about it.

This type of behavior is typical not only in this religious sect; it is typical of other religious sects, as well. Most pastors want to be in total control of every aspect of a ministry that their people get involved in. They will make absolutely sure that they have a designated individual whom they know conforms to the ideals and attitudes of the church and its leaders to oversee every ministry. They feel compelled to control what is taught, the literature handed out and the events that are put together for the ministry. This keeps independent thinking out of the church; however, it can also lead to abuse and a cult-like mentality.

Due to my husband's job change that entailed a move to another city, the pastor had a man take over my nursing home ministry; then it was immediately promoted from the pulpit to help get others involved. The hurt this inflicted on me was unimaginable because it revealed a truth to me that I was not prepared for—that he would not allow others to help me in my ministry simply because I was female.

The new church we attended turned out to be so much better than both the previous churches we had attended! The new pastor fully supported the nursing home ministries of the church and it wasn't long before my family was ministering in four nursing homes every week! After about two years of ministering in nursing homes, the pastor asked me to take over the ministry in one of the nursing homes. This was because there was no man available to do it. Nonetheless, it forced me to do even greater study to prepare a different sermon outline each week. What was encouraging about this was that the employees of the nursing home would listen in and would often ask for a copy of the sermon outlines. This feedback made me realize that God can use a woman. The topics I covered were actually ministering to the needs of the hearers. It was not uncommon for me to be asked to pray every week with several of the people after my service ended—the women and the men! Often, this new feedback left me in tears on my long drive home as I contemplated on this new-found knowledge. Knowing that God could use me in such a way after being brainwashed to believe he could never use me created turmoil and confusion in my mind.

What is sad about all of this is that preachers within this cult teach that women cannot be used of God unless there is a man standing over them. There was no man standing over me in the nursing home. And the tears shed by the listeners in my services showed me that my messages were reaching their hearts. Unfortunately, many women within this sect are brainwashed into believing they cannot be used by God in this way. I was one of those brainwashed women. Knowing that others seemed to be truly ministered to through my teaching of God's word to them was very unsettling for me. Then my studies led me to this revelation that I was able to apply to a statement that many IFB pastors make about women.

In May 2011, when the 20/20 interview aired about sexual abuse taking place in the Independent Fundamental Baptist churches, a prominent pastor in this sect made a statement in his preaching response that was aired on the Internet. In response to the 20/20 interview, he made the statement, "The Bible was written by a man and.... It will be a cold day in hell before I take my theology from a woman!" Immediately a statement made by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in his book Biblical Literacy came to mind:

Every significant hero in the story of Moses' early life is a woman. It is Moses' mother, not his father, who keeps him hidden and alive during the first months of his life, then prepares the basket in which to float him. It is Moses' sister, not his brother, who negotiates with the princess on his behalf. And it is Pharaoh's daughter, not his son, who takes pity on the infant. (Telushkin, 1997 p. 96)

My belief was that if it wasn't for women whom God called and used, there would be no Bible and no Lawgiver. Let that sink in for a minute. If it wasn't for women used of God, Moses might have died! It also makes one ask, "Who was more responsible for his theological upbringing, Pharaoh or his mother, who was allowed to raise him?" Moses did not have access to his father, so it was his mother's theological teachings that made Moses the man that he was!

Throughout the scriptures, God used women in great ways. Miriam was a prophetess who helped Aaron and Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt (Micah 6:4). Huldah was a prophetess (2 Kings 22:14). Rahab was used to save the Israelite spies (Joshua 2). Esther was instrumental in saving Israel from being wiped out as a nation. According to Rabbi Telushkin, Deborah was "a judge in Israel AND the General of the Israeli Army" and "under Deborah's leadership, the land was tranquil for 40 years" (Telushkin, 1997 p. 169).

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Religion's Cellby Cynthia McClaskey Copyright © 2012 by Cynthia McClaskey. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.