True Feminism: A Decidedly Christian Concept

What are some lies out in the world (sec­u­lar views) today about women that con­tra­dict what God says in His word about how women should be/act? Div­ing a lit­tle deeper…What are some lies that are still out there in our Chris­t­ian cir­cles about women? (Feel free to talk from a sin­gle woman’s point of view or a mar­ried woman’s point of view)

Jesus was the world’s first fem­i­nist. But even in 2008, many peo­ple mis­tak­enly believe that Chris­t­ian women must strive to be mar­ried, stay-at-home moth­ers who are com­pletely depen­dent upon their hus­band for finan­cial sup­port. Worse, they believe that Chris­t­ian women are sub­servient door­mats who con­stantly defer to their husband’s wishes, sup­press­ing their own opin­ions and beliefs in favor of pleas­ing a man. They refuse to accept that Chris­t­ian women can be suc­cess­ful pro­fes­sion­als who thrive in egal­i­tar­ian rela­tion­ships, set­ting an exam­ple of equal­ity and part­ner­ship for their children.

Those same lies are still per­pet­u­ated within Chris­t­ian circles.

Many Chris­t­ian women proudly and vehe­mently declare that they are not fem­i­nists. In fact, they shun any of the remain­ing ves­tiges of the Women’s Move­ment that many of them are too young to remem­ber. What they either don’t real­ize or refuse to acknowl­edge is that they are reap­ing the ben­e­fits of that Move­ment, enjoy­ing the abil­ity to make choices that were not avail­able to their moth­ers, grand­moth­ers, and great-grandmothers only because of the sac­ri­fices made and ben­e­fits secured for them by those very women.

Fem­i­nism is a sim­ple con­cept that has been per­verted over the years. All that true fem­i­nists desire is equal­ity for both gen­ders in all aspects of life. It is an indis­putably Bib­li­cal idea, as evi­denced by the num­ber of times that Jesus is quoted as address­ing mat­ters of social jus­tice and his uncon­ven­tional behavior.

After all, Jesus spoke directly to women and chil­dren, rec­og­niz­ing their inher­ent worth and val­i­dat­ing their impor­tance to the social struc­ture of the time. In those days, women and chil­dren were chat­tel (prop­erty) and his con­duct not only caught the atten­tion of the lead­ers of the day, but even­tu­ally cul­mi­nated in his death. Women dis­honor him when they deny and mis­rep­re­sent his teach­ing on the sub­ject. The Bible directs men to love their wives in the same way that Jesus loves his church, i.e., his fol­low­ers. That is a rad­i­cal direc­tive, demon­strat­ing that women are to be ele­vated to the same level of impor­tance as Christ’s church.

No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pam­pers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cher­ishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mys­tery, and I don’t pre­tend to under­stand it all. What is clear­est to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this pro­vides a good pic­ture of how each hus­band is to treat his wife, lov­ing him­self in lov­ing her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

Eph­esians 5:33

That pas­sage is actu­ally a state­ment about the inher­ent worth of each and every human being, com­mand­ing that all be afforded dig­nity, respect, and equal oppor­tu­ni­ties. No per­son is ever again to be rel­e­gated to the soci­etal role women and chil­dren occu­pied in Jesus’ time. Slav­ery can­not exist.

Yet Chris­t­ian women are some­times their own worst ene­mies because they allow them­selves to become polar­ized, believ­ing that a par­tic­u­lar way of liv­ing is the only “right” way. A woman who feels called to remain out of the work­force in order to raise her chil­dren and focus upon her home makes an hon­or­able choice. But so does a woman who feels a dif­fer­ent call­ing and vol­un­tar­ily decides to bal­ance her home respon­si­bil­i­ties and pro­fes­sional pursuits.

Too often I see Chris­t­ian women judg­ing and crit­i­ciz­ing each other because they chose dif­fer­ent paths when they should instead be empow­er­ing and sup­port­ing each other, under­stand­ing that there are as many dif­fer­ent kinds of Chris­t­ian as there are … well, Chris­t­ian women! We are all one-of-a-kind crea­tures molded in the image of the Divine Cre­ator. Rather than try­ing to impose lim­i­ta­tions upon each other, we should be encour­ag­ing each other to embrace our unique identities.

If we did a bet­ter job of uplift­ing each other, the world would see and under­stand that Chris­tians are not all the same and that fem­i­nism, egal­i­tar­i­an­ism, and over­rid­ing prin­ci­ples of social jus­tice are all decid­edly Chris­t­ian concepts.

Thanks to Unmana for includ­ing this arti­cle in The 60^th Car­ni­val of Fem­i­nists at Unmana’s Words.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Inter­net Café Chat

You might also like:

• You Mean it’s Not All About Me?
• The White Carnation: A Mother’s Day Remembrance
• The Price of Truth
• The New America: A Call to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
• Reflections on Proposition 8: California’s Shame (Part Two)