I completely agree.

Religion - and all dogmatism - exists solely as a tool for the powerful to subjugate and oppress others. This has been the case for all of recorded human history. Christianity is no exception.

I won’t take a fantastical mythological approach to any ancient document, even if that’s what modern acolytes are doing. I won’t pretend to care about their fan fiction, but I will casually correct factual mistakes and move on. Why? Because it’s therapeutic. I was raised in an abusive evangelical home, and besides that abuse, because my existence was “sinful”, the insistence on reading “The Bible” and learning that it doesn’t actually say any of the things I was told it did was formative. The people who demanded I read it clearly hadn’t themselves, and never dug deeper than the english words — which they insisted were “God-inspired.” Yes, the english ones. Which english ones? All of them. And whatever you wanted to extrapolate from them, which meant all your hate and torture and mental, physical, and emotional abuse were also the literal words of god. Fuck that. Fuck those people.

You are right that nothing can change a cultists mind. They are in a cult of millions and millions. Their own holy book disagrees with all their dogmas, their speech, their actions, their teachings, but pointing it out will never change their minds. I’ll do it, anyway, because I need to. Liars should be exposed, even the liars themselves won’t recant.

This is the original Koine per the NA28 for 1 Timothy.

Βούλομαι οὖν προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ. ὡσαύτως καὶ γυναῖκας ἐν καταστολῇ κοσμίῳ μετὰ αἰδοῦς καὶ σωφροσύνης κοσμεῖν ἑαυτάς, μὴ ἐν πλέγμασιν καὶ χρυσίῳ ἢ μαργαρίταις ἢ ἱματισμῷ πολυτελεῖ, ἀλλ’ ὃ πρέπει γυναιξὶν ἐπαγγελλομέναις θεοσέβειαν, δι’ ἔργων ἀγαθῶν. γυνὴ ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ μανθανέτω ἐν πάσῃ ὑποταγῇ· διδάσκειν δὲ γυναικὶ οὐκ ἐπιτρέπω, οὐδὲ αὐθεντεῖν ἀνδρός, ἀλλ’ εἶναι ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ.

Paul wrote to the various movements about their unique challenges and how they should approach them. The Koine is dripping with meaning that is not easily translated to English.

This is how most English speakers - who have no knowledge or experience with the cultures being written about or the Koine language they were written in - read their rubbish translations. This is also clearly you.

Men need to be praying all the time, and when they pray they need to raise their hands up and do it without fuss. I want the women to cover themselves up, not wearing jewelry or caring for themselves, but serving on others, which is what God wants. Women need to shut up and do what they're told. I will not tolerate a woman being a teacher or having any authority over a man, she must shut the hell up, because God created Adam first. Eve came second.

But language is funny, because it's meant to convey meaning through ideas, not approximations of words with zero thought to origin or target context. Because I can read Koine and history is one of my 'tisms, this is what it actually SAYS.

Whenever the men lift up their hands to address God, I want their hands to be clean, not soiled with resentment or quarrel. In the same way, women need to present themselves reasonably - with dignity and self-discipline. Not with extravagant hairstyles, golden jewelry, expensive pearls, or decadent clothes, but in alignment with the values of a woman who claims to serve God: by setting a good example in how they live and behave. Let them learn, but they must be calm and composed students. I will not give my permission for a woman to seize control of teaching from a man. They must conduct themselves peacefully. Remember the story of Adam and Eve. Adam, who came first, was not deceived, but Eve, who came later, was tricked into doing wrong.

This builds directly on a couple paragraphs earlier, which laments the destabilizing influence of Ephesus' pagan culture on the Christian movement there. Men were bitter and women were powerful and ambitious, and people who had no idea what they were talking about were trying to seize positions of authority in this new Christian sect. They needed to learn, first. The integrity of the teaching had to be maintained.

τὸ δὲ τέλος τῆς παραγγελίας ἐστὶν ἀγάπη ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας καὶ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς καὶ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου, ὧν τινες ἀστοχήσαντες ἐξετράπησαν εἰς ματαιολογίαν, θέλοντες εἶναι νομοδιδάσκαλοι, μὴ νοοῦντες μήτε ἃ λέγουσιν μήτε περὶ τίνων διαβεβαιοῦνται.

What does that say? Well, resist the urge to assume that all self-important blowhards are always men and remember what I said about Ephesus being the seat of the matriarchal Artemis cult.

The purpose of our mission is love - love from a pure heart, a sense of integrity, and genuine commitment. But some of you have lost sight of this mission and wandered off to blow self-important wind, holding ambitions to be esteemed teachers. But despite their projected confidence they have no idea what they are talking about.

Interesting. That sounds familiar, doesn't it?