Tag: Feminism

So What About Feminism? (Part Three)

Courtney4 Comments

Warning: Extremely long post. Grab a cup of tea, put on some good music and make yourself comfortable if you dare to read all of this. 

I’ll be honest, I enjoy a good love story. Though I come across fairly ‘tomboyish’ to most who know me, I have a weakness for chick-flicks and Hallmark movies (The secret’s out y’all!). I love books by Karen Kingsbury, pretty much any movie with Reese Witherspoon.

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Furthermore, since marriage and family is likely to be a huge part of the lives of many Christians, I feel that it is very important topic to address within this series.

Admittedly, as a girl who has been single since birth, I’m coming at this from an “outside looking in” perspective. Nonetheless, I do not live in a bubble and I’ve had the opportunity to witness relationship dynamics in both real life and the movies. Plus, like many millennial girls, I have a fair amount of old Taylor Swift songs on my iTunes account. 😉

Joking aside, I have taken the time to research this topic and have read passages in the Bible that relate to marriage. I’ve also searched reputable, outside-sources by people who know God’s word and have studied this topic much longer than I have.

I believe that our best starting place in studying this topic is asking what God intends marriage to look like. Because humans are fallen, we’ve likely witnessed, or even been in, an unhealthy relationship before. Look no further than television to find dysfunctional relationships abroad. Many TV shows portray blatant disrespect, borderline emotional-abuse, and lust as commonplace, something to be expected in dating or marital relationships. This should not be so. God takes this covenant so seriously that He uses the metaphor of marriage to describe Christ’s relationship with the church. Clearly, God has high standards for marriage.

God calls for love and respect on both ends of the relationship. Some people have tried to create a power imbalance between the husband and wife by misusing the word ‘submit’, but I do not believe that hierarchy in marriage is God’s intent. In the Garden of Eden, God gives Adam and Eve equal dominion over the earth, as co-stewards of creation (Genesis 1:28).

Furthermore, in the original Greek language, submit means to ‘voluntary yield in love‘. The word used to refer to husbands and wives is different than the word used for parent-child relationships. The wife is not called to absolute obedience, but rather to love and respect her husband, just as her husband is called to love and respect her. To quote an article from godswordtowomen.org Absolute obedience belongs to God alone (www.godswordtowomen.org/patriarchyriss.htm).

So what does it mean for both partners to love and respect each other? It would seem that the first step is to treat each other kindly. Colossians 3:19 instructs husbands not to be harsh to their wife and Proverbs 21:19 warns against wives being quarralsum with their husband. In short, it seems that the Golden Rule applies to both partners in marriage, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). 

A second thing that I believe is highly important in a marriage is for both partners to encourage one and other. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” I believe that both partners should do their best to encourage each other’s dreams, goals, careers, and callings. God has a unique plan for each person’s life, and it’s important that both the husband and the wife encourage each other to become all that God intended them to be.

It is also import for both spouses to provide emotional support when their partner is going through a difficult time. Oftentimes, people place the emphasis on financial support, but  many gals believe emotional support is just as important. There is much more to marriage than “putting food on the table”. Taking the time to listen and understand your spouse is something that will likely stay in their mind much longer than a number on a paycheck.

Last but far from least, marry someone who shares your faith and values. I cannot stress this point enough. I have seen people marry someone from a drastically different faith background, or no faith at all, and it always causes a truckload of problems. Complications come in with raising children and the couple misses out on the bond of a common faith. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” This is not saying that unbelievers are bad people. All of us were unbelievers at one point (After all, even if we were raised in church, we weren’t born Christian). What it is saying, is that it’s important for our close friends, and especially our spouse, to share our faith and convictions.

. . . .

This post concludes my three-part series on Biblical gender-equality.

I hope you all have enjoyed reading this series as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I have received a lot of positive feedback and have been challenged in a very positive way as I’ve searched the Bible for answers to hard questions. If you pull nothing else away from this series, I want to leave you with one thing to think about; God loves us and wants to use us in the midst of countless of differences. 

We’re all in slightly different pockets of life and come from a variety of backgrounds, but through Christ’s blood on the cross, we are one giant, amazing, beautiful, diverse family.

Called to emulate, follow, and share the love of our Savior, and shine as a light to a broken and dark world. ❤️

 

So What About Feminism? (Part Two)

Courtney8 Comments

Perhaps one of the most volatile discussions surrounding Christian feminism is “Should Christian women be allowed to teach in the church?” There are faithful, goodhearted Christians on both ends who strive to uphold Biblical doctrine.

Most people have good reasons and intent in their beliefs, but a conversation that determines the fate of women who feel called to ministry is bound to get messy. As previously stated, I hold an egalitarian view of scripture, and thus, support the notion of women in ministry. I have done extensive research on this topic and believe that scriptures support women in ministry. In this blog post, I’m going to lay out my case for women teaching in the church, and give passages to support my stance.

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  1. The Greek words used are gender inclusive. To quote Charisma magazine “1 Corinthians 14:26 gives a list of things that everyone is expected to participate in. “When you come together, every one of you has…” The Greek word for every one, hekastos, is a word that encompasses both genders. This list includes teaching. Several times in chapter 14, the word “all” is used. Verses 24 and 31 both say that all may prophesy, and we know from Paul’s teaching in chapter 11 that this includes women.”
  1. We need to understand the context of Biblical passages. Most often, knowing why the Bible says something is as important as knowing what is says. For instance, we know that the Bible talks about slavery, but we should by no means believe that it supports the unbiblical practice of owning slaves. In fact, I believe that the Bible set the very framework for abolishing slavery, particularly in the book of Philemon, where Paul urges Philemon to think of his former slave as a brother. Similarly, many understand passages like 1 Timothy 2:12 to be a command to a particular context, rather than one that should be applied universally. An article in Christianity Today says “Because women in Ephesus at this time were uneducated and secluded, Paul was warning that they could be misled by the false teachers trying to lure new Christians away from the church Paul wanted to establish.” Paul’s job, first and foremost, was to protect Biblical doctrine so that all might be saved. If the women in this particular church did not have a stable foundation for their faith, it would have been necessary to forbid them from teaching for the greater good. This does not mean that he was forbidding every women in every context from teaching.
  2. If women were not allowed to teach, it would literally handicap the body of Christ. More and more each day, Bible-believing Christians are becoming a minority in society. It is estimated, according to Washington Times in 2012, that thirty-two-percent of people in the world are Christians. This is literally less than half of the world’s population. Numbers are bound to be lower if we exclude women (Half of the world’s population) from the percentile. There are thousands of people out there who don’t know Christ, and by limiting women from leadership, we’re making it harder for people to hear the Gospel. I do not believe this is what God wants for His children, especially in light of The Great Commission, which instructs every believer to “go and make disciples of every nation.”

To conclude, I believe that God is calling both genders to work in His kingdom. We are all His creation and though there are some obvious differences in men and women, both genders are equally loved by our Lord and Savior. He died for both men and women and I believe that He is calling both genders to spread the news of His glorious resurrection. I believe that equality in leadership is one of many ways that He is using His people to be a light, redeem the world, and spread the awesome love of our Lord, Jesus Christ. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”* Galatians 3:28 

*This verse in context is referring to salvation, but I believe that it can also be applied to ministry and leadership. 

 

So What About Feminism?

Courtney10 Comments

In both mainstream society and the church, feminism is a topic that I’ve found is gaining traction in recent years. Thus, I believe it to be a relevant and important topic to talk about.

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Because it’s an incredibly broad term, I’m going to try to be clear on definitions, as feminism often means drastically different things to different people. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this blog post, I’d like to specify what feminism, the way I’m using the term, is not.

Feminism is not akin to being pro-choice. I’m pro-life, but agree with aspects of the feminism movement that promote equal education and job opportunities. I do not believe feminism and political positions on abortion to be connected, thus, that will not be a focus of this post.
Feminism is not man-hating or bra-burning. This is a horrible misrepresentation of the topic and while some radical feminists may have this attitude, the vast majority do not. Speaking as someone who supports feminism, some of my closest friends are guys and I’m thankful for both the men and women who have made this world a better place. I am also thankful for all of the awesome guys who follow this blog and listen to my random thoughts and ideas.
Now that I’ve cleared that up, I’d like to explore how feminism-the affirmation of both male and female as God’s special and unique creations-can be best practiced in Christian churches and marriages in a way that glorifies God and empowers our sisters in Christ.

The two words that will frequently emerge in conversations surrounding gender roles and the church are egalitarian and complementarian. Egalitarians (Such as myself) believe that the Bible supports mutual love and submission in marriages and equal leadership roles in the church. Complementarians believe that there is sort of a hierarchy-order of things in creation, and typical believe that women in leadership is not Biblical and a women must always be under complete submission of a man.

Since this is an incredibly multifaceted topic, I’m going to break my posts up into three different categories. The first post (this one) is going to focus on what Jesus, the Gospels, and Biblical values teach about feminism. The second part is going to focus on leadership roles in the church. Lastly, i’m going to conclude with a post about what I believe a Christ centered marriage should look like.

When discussing any social issue, Jesus should always be at the center of the conversation, and if you read through the Gospels, Jesus’ attitude towards women was revolutionary for the time era. He ate with both men and women without discrimination, and essentially told Martha to “get out of the kitchen” and learn, something that was unheard of and discouraged during the Biblical days. Not to mention that it’s explicitly recorded in scripture that women were the first to find Jesus’ empty tomb, even though their testimony wasn’t seen as valid by society in court. Furthermore, while Jesus could have easily specified the Great Commision to men, Jesus simply says “Go”, seeming to imply that He wants both his sons and daughters to spread the good news of God’s grace. Rather than limiting women from being missionaries and teachers, He chose to include them in His story of redemption, affirming equal value and love for both genders and encouraging them to work alongside each other as couples, siblings, neighbors, and friends.

Lastly, as countercultural as these two topics have become in modern society, I believe that the Christian virtues of modesty and purity are feminist-affirming in nature. Because humans are born with a fallen nature (both men and women), God specifically instructs guidelines that call both genders to respect each other. He instructs them to see each other through the lens of God, respecting their worth, rather than using each other. When a guy and girl are both seeking God’s will, respect is bound to follow. Both self respect and respect for the other person are essentials to any healthy relationship.

I could easily delve deeper into these topics alone, but I believe that the information presented gives the strongest evidence for Biblical feminism and an egalitarian viewpoint. My prayer for this mini-series is that we can grow in respect and love for each other as a church family, encouraging both our brothers and sisters in Christ live up their full potential. The two greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor, and I pray that this series helps us navigate one way of living this out as the body of Christ.