The Wolves of Midwinter

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Admittedly one section of the Bible angers me even more than the passage about submitting to authority. That's Paul's statement about the roles of women within a Christian household and church. Every time I read these passages, my heart rings in fury. I tend to be an individual passionately against the subjugation of another sometimes inferior human being. Seeing the Bible used as something that limits one's ability to share God's word or to reflect Jesus Christ greatly confounds me. Even more, are the number of gender constructs built as a means of safeguarding the church from homosexuals.

I've had many problems with the number of gender stereotypes prevalent within the church and society. Typically, a male shall possess great physique while a woman's strength's limited by their strong emotions. Hearing this from another man's lips results in a great guffaw from myself. For how could only a woman have strong emotions resonating through their being. When some men, typically those who are artistic need that emotion for fodder for their own writing. The fear of homosexuality has caused many Christians to enforce these gender stereotypes as an affront to the surging of those admitting to having same sex feelings. For me, these stereotypes have caused me to suffer from harassment for most of my life. As response to being abused by men within my church and school, I've seeked women to be my friends. With God's help, he has helped shape me into a man that sees beyond the archaic rift between men and women. I only see people with some anatomical differences who love the lord.

But the main question still remains, why are some churches so apprehensive of women leadership. The reasons are are purely nonsensical and seemed to be devised by some of the most staunch misogynistic Christians. Women are capable of being physically strong just as some men are capable of being physically strong through discipline and training. In the Bible, God has always utilized the self acclaimed weak human beings. Those who possessed a strong heart and not a strong body. Many within our society mistaken exterior strength as being the definer of one's masculinity. But these people are absorbed by societal definitions and see not the great similarities between ourselves and women. God calls each of us to an individual calling and for some women that's leadership. My challenge for men who are confining God by using Paul's letters as fodder for limiting women is to the truth behind their reasoning. That the majority of reasons they have for not allowing women to hold clerical positions is because of the stereotypes that have become ingrained in their being.God someday shall allow us to see the fault we have in limiting anyone's potential for their gender, race, or other societal definitions. We are not following God's word but ascribing to comfortable societal stigmas which keep us safe. The Bible's a book of liberation, not one of constraint to one's abilities.

3 comments:

Gender Stereotypes said...

nice blog good work in this blog,When some men, typically those who are artistic need that emotion for fodder for their own writing. These stereotypes have caused me to suffer from harassment for most of my life. As response to being abused by men within my church and school, I've seeked women to be my friends. With God's help, he has helped shape me into a man that sees beyond the archaic rift between men and women. I only see people with some anatomical differences who love the lord.
Gender Stereotypes

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Steve said...

I think part of the problem is that you assume that a modern viewpoint is superior simply because it is modern: chronological bigotry, in other words. For your thinking is modern and secular, not biblical; no wonder a biblical worldview ticks you off.

(If it will help, my background allows for women preachers and leaders, so I have no reflexive bias against such roles. Also, people tend to assume I'm homosexual, so I understand the problems there as well.)

But I found this sentence particularly arresting:

"I only see people with some anatomical differences who love the lord."

So there are anatomical differences, then. Where did they come from? A biblical worldview will say that God created them, and as he isn't a random sort, he did so purposely. We think it's a new idea that form follows function, but ancient philosophers knew about it long ago.

If God created me anatomically different from my mother, isn't it reasonable to ask why? What design consideration lay back of the decision? (For I cannot take it to be a mere coin toss.)

And this leads to the question, What is behind sex differences? If they were unimportant, God would presumably have made us hermaphrodites, but apparently it matters, and matters so much that the fusion of man and woman, the true line-crossing, reveals the relationship between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:32).

And this resolves the question. To the extent that there are sex-based distinctions (and some that are claimed are not original, to be sure), they involve roles: we are characters in a vitally important cosmic play, and we have to keep in character. God has assigned the roles as he sees fit, and the page is not necessarily inferior to the knight or superior to the milkmaid: their roles matter to the Playwright, and all are equal before him. It's when we infer worth based on roles that we go wrong, for we are then playing God; and that is definitely not our role.