When my mother passed away a few years ago, I asked that the pastor use Proverbs 31 - the go-to Bible passage for describing strong, admirable women - as the basis of his sermon. This chapter fit my mother perfectly, as she was the greatest mom who ever lived. I mean no offense when I tell you that, compared to my mother, your mom is Casey Anthony. But only by comparison, so please don't be offended - I'm sure your mother is a wonderful mom...just not as wonderful as mine.
The character of Proverbs 31 is often called "the virtuous wife." During his sermon, the pastor noted that most often when the word "virtuous" is used in the Hebrew Old Testament, it is used in a militaristic sense.
The Bible is full of strong women of high character. There was Deborah, the judge of Israel, who was nothing short of a B.A. heroine; Rahab, who risked being caught and killed by her fellow Canaanites to hide the Israelite spies sent to scout her country, and was saved by God for her courage; Naomi, who bitterly persevered after the loss of her sons and husband; Jael, who...well, she drove a tent stake through a guy's head.
In the court of modern feminism, the argument has been made that most of the female role models in the Bible are limited to background roles, and are usually associated with and overshadowed by a husband or other male figure. I can't deny this. Being that the events described in the Bible took place in a time and culture where that was the way of life, it's inevitable that even its baddest of heroines are few in number compared to the male heroes described. This doesn't mean they didn't exist, but in the events recorded, most of the notable figures happen to be men. This was the time and culture through which God was revealing Himself and His plan of salvation. I'm sure if God had chosen to reveal these things in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, women would have had a much more prevalent role. But, He didn't. He revealed these things in a time where women's roles in societies were much different.
But the Bible doesn't tell the story of men and women, or of societal progress or regression - it tells the story of our Savior Jesus Christ.
The question is often asked, by Christian and non-Christian women alike, "how can the Bible support feminism?"
The first caveat of my answer is: do you really want to hear an answer from a man? What do I know about discrimination? What do I know about social inequality? It would be downright pretentious and condescending of me to use longwinded language to try and identify with something about which I know nothing. I've no idea what it's like to be a woman oppressed. You would have a much better perspective from a Christian woman - someone who knows the trial of following Christ while also escaping the appalling man-made (and un-Biblical) chains that tell her she's supposed to stay barefoot and pregnant.
But my gender or place in society not withstanding, my only response to "how can you reconcile the Bible with feminism?" is,
I can't.
I can cite all of the Deborahs and Proverbs 31's and Galatians 3:28's, but the hard fact is, I cannot make the Holy Scripture fit the ideology of modern feminism. The Bible is a terribly inconvenient Book for those who believe it. And I dare not twist or discard what keeps me from being seen as progressive. There are many Christians who laud the Bible, but dismiss the parts they dislike as outdated or mistranslated. This is dangerous. If we label instructions of Scripture outdated, we eventually dismiss God and the risen Christ altogether: today He is seen as an outdated, even dangerous superstition with no place in the twenty-first century. And I'd rather be buried as a neanderthal than sell out my Savior who died for me. One Jesus means more to me than thirty people who would applaud me as a progressive crusader.
But again, the Bible is not the story of feminism or any of our other isms - it is the story of Jesus.
It's offensively easy for me to say all of this - I know no societal oppression. I know religious persecution only in the form of criticism and lies. Especially when I watch an SVU rerun, wherein the first suspect is always some deranged religious zealot, for no other reason than grim comedy relief. But other than that, my Nerf-soft American comfort keeps me free from the tortures, imprisonments, and deaths suffered by Christians in many other parts of the world.
So, as I know almost no human oppression, take everything I've said here with a grain of salt, and have a little mercy on me.
The hard truth is that the Bible depicts men as heads of Christian households and of church congregations. Not as some ignorant tyrant, but as a loving protector. This is certainly against the grain of modern feminism, but I have no way to reconcile the two. It would be pathetic and condescending of me to try. The Bible does not forbid women from being the heads of Fortune 500 companies, from being Senators and Presidents, from being Generals in the military, from being astronauts, weightlifting champions, or anything else "outside of the home." The Bible does not teach that the wife's duties shall be cooking and cleaning, or that the man is above those things and can't be bothered with them. But, yes, it's true - the instruction I've gathered from Scripture is that Christian men are to be the heads of households and congregations. Maybe I've interpreted wrong - I hope I have, because life would be much easier for me, religiously speaking. But then again, what kind of thing worth following is easy? If only I were interpreting wrong the command not to lust. Life would be peachy.
Perhaps the best I can tell you concerning the matter of equality in the Christian household is the truth that man and wife are one flesh: if the man receives his instruction from Christ and Christ alone, as all believers male and female must, then the woman does not heed her husband, but Christ, as does the husband; they are one flesh obeying the instruction of one King.
The same is true for church congregations: if the pastor receives his instruction from Christ alone, as he must, male and female worshipers do not heed their pastor, but their King. And if their pastor preaches a lie, both male and female believers must use the same spirit of discernment to cast him out (just as the wife has a duty in Christ to rebuke her husband if he does what is against God's word, and vice-versa). "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). In God's eyes, men are not superior, women are not inferior; each of His children are made in His image, and He has shed the same precious atoning blood for both. He's given His children different roles on Earth, but in eternity things will be different.
If you would turn away from Christ's Scripture because it doesn't jibe with feminism, I'm sorry for that. But I can't lie about my God's words. "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:5-6). But Christianity's core is not to be politically correct or to mold to any human's idea of what it "should" be - it is the truth that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of all men and women, and rose from the dead, defeating the power of death and sin, so that those who believe in Him will have eternal life in His presence.
In eternity, all will be perfect. "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes...for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). I'm quite sure that many of those tears He will wipe away will come from the oppression we impose on one another, the oppression that is a by-product of a fallen and imperfect world, fallen by sin, a world that will be made new in eternity. For now, all of Creation groans waiting for Jesus' return - not only with floods and fires, decay and mortality, but as we strive with one another and grieve one another in our fallen nature in our imperfect world. But someday it will all be made new, and it is only made new because of the cross on which our Lord Jesus suffered, for men and women alike.
But concerning the Bible and feminism, that's the best I can tell you. I'm sorry.
On His majesty's service,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess
The character of Proverbs 31 is often called "the virtuous wife." During his sermon, the pastor noted that most often when the word "virtuous" is used in the Hebrew Old Testament, it is used in a militaristic sense.
In the court of modern feminism, the argument has been made that most of the female role models in the Bible are limited to background roles, and are usually associated with and overshadowed by a husband or other male figure. I can't deny this. Being that the events described in the Bible took place in a time and culture where that was the way of life, it's inevitable that even its baddest of heroines are few in number compared to the male heroes described. This doesn't mean they didn't exist, but in the events recorded, most of the notable figures happen to be men. This was the time and culture through which God was revealing Himself and His plan of salvation. I'm sure if God had chosen to reveal these things in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, women would have had a much more prevalent role. But, He didn't. He revealed these things in a time where women's roles in societies were much different.
But the Bible doesn't tell the story of men and women, or of societal progress or regression - it tells the story of our Savior Jesus Christ.
The question is often asked, by Christian and non-Christian women alike, "how can the Bible support feminism?"
The first caveat of my answer is: do you really want to hear an answer from a man? What do I know about discrimination? What do I know about social inequality? It would be downright pretentious and condescending of me to use longwinded language to try and identify with something about which I know nothing. I've no idea what it's like to be a woman oppressed. You would have a much better perspective from a Christian woman - someone who knows the trial of following Christ while also escaping the appalling man-made (and un-Biblical) chains that tell her she's supposed to stay barefoot and pregnant.
But my gender or place in society not withstanding, my only response to "how can you reconcile the Bible with feminism?" is,
I can't.
I can cite all of the Deborahs and Proverbs 31's and Galatians 3:28's, but the hard fact is, I cannot make the Holy Scripture fit the ideology of modern feminism. The Bible is a terribly inconvenient Book for those who believe it. And I dare not twist or discard what keeps me from being seen as progressive. There are many Christians who laud the Bible, but dismiss the parts they dislike as outdated or mistranslated. This is dangerous. If we label instructions of Scripture outdated, we eventually dismiss God and the risen Christ altogether: today He is seen as an outdated, even dangerous superstition with no place in the twenty-first century. And I'd rather be buried as a neanderthal than sell out my Savior who died for me. One Jesus means more to me than thirty people who would applaud me as a progressive crusader.
But again, the Bible is not the story of feminism or any of our other isms - it is the story of Jesus.
It's offensively easy for me to say all of this - I know no societal oppression. I know religious persecution only in the form of criticism and lies. Especially when I watch an SVU rerun, wherein the first suspect is always some deranged religious zealot, for no other reason than grim comedy relief. But other than that, my Nerf-soft American comfort keeps me free from the tortures, imprisonments, and deaths suffered by Christians in many other parts of the world.
So, as I know almost no human oppression, take everything I've said here with a grain of salt, and have a little mercy on me.
The hard truth is that the Bible depicts men as heads of Christian households and of church congregations. Not as some ignorant tyrant, but as a loving protector. This is certainly against the grain of modern feminism, but I have no way to reconcile the two. It would be pathetic and condescending of me to try. The Bible does not forbid women from being the heads of Fortune 500 companies, from being Senators and Presidents, from being Generals in the military, from being astronauts, weightlifting champions, or anything else "outside of the home." The Bible does not teach that the wife's duties shall be cooking and cleaning, or that the man is above those things and can't be bothered with them. But, yes, it's true - the instruction I've gathered from Scripture is that Christian men are to be the heads of households and congregations. Maybe I've interpreted wrong - I hope I have, because life would be much easier for me, religiously speaking. But then again, what kind of thing worth following is easy? If only I were interpreting wrong the command not to lust. Life would be peachy.
Perhaps the best I can tell you concerning the matter of equality in the Christian household is the truth that man and wife are one flesh: if the man receives his instruction from Christ and Christ alone, as all believers male and female must, then the woman does not heed her husband, but Christ, as does the husband; they are one flesh obeying the instruction of one King.
The same is true for church congregations: if the pastor receives his instruction from Christ alone, as he must, male and female worshipers do not heed their pastor, but their King. And if their pastor preaches a lie, both male and female believers must use the same spirit of discernment to cast him out (just as the wife has a duty in Christ to rebuke her husband if he does what is against God's word, and vice-versa). "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). In God's eyes, men are not superior, women are not inferior; each of His children are made in His image, and He has shed the same precious atoning blood for both. He's given His children different roles on Earth, but in eternity things will be different.
If you would turn away from Christ's Scripture because it doesn't jibe with feminism, I'm sorry for that. But I can't lie about my God's words. "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:5-6). But Christianity's core is not to be politically correct or to mold to any human's idea of what it "should" be - it is the truth that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of all men and women, and rose from the dead, defeating the power of death and sin, so that those who believe in Him will have eternal life in His presence.
In eternity, all will be perfect. "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes...for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). I'm quite sure that many of those tears He will wipe away will come from the oppression we impose on one another, the oppression that is a by-product of a fallen and imperfect world, fallen by sin, a world that will be made new in eternity. For now, all of Creation groans waiting for Jesus' return - not only with floods and fires, decay and mortality, but as we strive with one another and grieve one another in our fallen nature in our imperfect world. But someday it will all be made new, and it is only made new because of the cross on which our Lord Jesus suffered, for men and women alike.
But concerning the Bible and feminism, that's the best I can tell you. I'm sorry.
On His majesty's service,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess
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